My Friend Hoover

I know that I've been a bit scarce around the social media parts these days.  However, that's because I've made a new friend and we've been hanging out a lot lately.  His name is Hoover.  Hoover TwinTank Steam Mop to be exact.  Yep, I've been spending my days getting well acquainted with him.

And I have to admit that I'm obsessed, hooked, caught up or whatever you want to call it.  Who could resist a friend who makes your house cleaner and healthier?  I know I can't.  The best part is that the whole family loves him!  That's a win-win right there.

If you don't have a Hoover in your life, I highly suggest you get one.  In fact, the Hoover TwinTank Steam Mop is the perfect if you've never befriended a Hoover before.  In all seriousness folks, this domestic mama has become the queen of steam mopping.  So, what's so great about this guy?  Oh where do I begin?

Well, for starter's it's light weight. Even inside the box it's light weight.  I wasn't sure at first because when the  mail man dropped it off at my front door and I saw the box, I thought I was going to have let the Mr come out and get it.  But I decided to give it a try first before giving in to defeat.  What do you know, I didn't need the Mr's help at all.

I was able to easily lift and slide the box inside to the living room.  It was even lighter once I got it put together.  That brings me to the next thing that I love about my Hoover TwinTank Steam Mop.  I knew there was assembly that was going to be required.  While I'm excellent at following directions and putting things together, I don't like things that are difficult or time consuming to assemble.  Well, putting together my Hoover was as simple as attaching the handle to the tank/mop part.

No lie.  I just had to snap the handle in place I was done in terms of assembling.  And when you're ready to use it all you have to do is press on one of the mop pads, add your water and solution, choose you're cleaning setting and turn that bad boy on.  It heated up and ready to go in less than 60 seconds!  And the twin tanks (one for water, one for cleaning solution) is genius.  This way I have the option of just steaming without using the cleaning solution for everyday sanitizing. 

And then I can give the floors a deep clean by turning on one of the cleaning settings to allow the cleaning solution to release with the steam.  The Hoover TwinTank Steam Mop works on hard surfaces like hardwood and tile.  In addition, you can also use it on carpets too!  You get a neat carpet glider that helps you sanitize your carpet with ease.  No jerking back and forth.  Just smooth sailing.  I have both hardwood and carpet. 

I just slip the steam mop into the glider when I'm ready to steam the carpet and a steaming I go!  Overall, I'm very happy with my new friend!  It's a welcomed change compared to having to lug around a regular mop and bucket of water.  I'm not the least bit sad to see the days of emptying and refilling my mop bucket to clean my hardwood floors.

What do you think about my new friend?  Doesn't he sound wonderful?

Disclaimer: I received a sample of this product to facilitate my review, but my opinions are 100% my own.

What I'm Making Monday: Decorative Spring Tote Bags

So, I'm new to this whole 'What I'm Making Monday' thing, but when I saw the idea on Baby Makin(g) Machine's page, I felt inspired to join.  Not to mention, I've always been a super crafty and creative person.  Plus, I was a Fashion Merchandising major.  I thought this is a good way to network and share a different side of myself with my readers.  By the way, I'm sure that I have some silent blog stalkers out there. I just want to say that I appreciate you all checking out my blog, but feel free to leave comments and follow.

Anyways, this past Christmas I was looking for a way to avoid spending a small fortune on gifts because we have such a large family.  My mom comes from a family of 13 and my dad from a family of 8.  Then you add on their children and the grandchildren and it's well over of 50 people right there.   So, I decided to make gifts instead for all of my aunts.  Well, the lapel pins that I made for them were such a hit, that I was motivated to try my hands at making other projects as well.

At first  I was a little cautious because my skills had gotten kinda rusty. But standing in the Arts & Crafts section of our local Wally World aka WalMart, a pack of canvas totes caught my eye. Immediately, the fashion designer in me started to see all kinds of possibilities.  So, I bought a few, then a few more and now I have my own Etsy shop.  And now that I've booked my first public selling event, I've been busy making tons of them.  People really seem to be taken with my spring totes and they're not that hard to make.

All you need is:

A canvas tote

 

Some decorative fabric

Iron on adhesive

An Iron

Ribbon/Trimmings (optional)

1-You want to iron your decorative fabric to your iron on adhesive.  Make sure your iron is nice and hot.  Otherwise the fabric will not stick.

2-Once the adhesive has cooled down for about 30 seconds, trim out the pieces you would like to use and then arrange them on your bag.

3-Once, you have placed the pieces where you want them remove the wax paper from the other side of the adhesive and iron the pieces permanently into place.

4-You can finish off your bag/tote by adding some ribbon around the opening.  You can either use iron adhesive or hand sew the ribbon on.

Your finished product should look something like mine below:

These little totes will make perfect gifts and you can personalize them any way that you want to.  Check out the my Etsy store on the right to see (and hopefully purchase) some of my other one of a kind totes.