This is another vintage dress that Chris got me for my birthday this year… isn’t it adorable? Unfortunately, this one smelled too! Do all vintage dresses stink? This one smelled more chemical-y than body odor though. Since it is silk (!) I took it to the dry cleaner, but it only helped a little. It was so overwhelming, I decided I would hand wash it as a last resort… I am glad I did! It worked! No more smell!
Here’s how I did it:
- First, I washed the tie in warm/cool water to make sure this wasn’t the worst idea ever. The tie did well, so I decided to do the entire dress.
- Also very important: I then gathered all the materials since time was of the essence with silk. Necessary materials: woolite, baking soda, vinegar, towels, and a hanger.
- Since the smell was more acidic than basic, I thought baking soda would be best. Eventually I used both vinegar and baking soda (but not at the same time, since they cancel each other out). I added a couple inches of warm/cool water in the kitchen sink with some woolite and then added the dress. I handwashed it in the sink, rinsing with vinegar and then water… and then baking soda and then water… until I couldn’t smell the chemical smell any more.
- I laid a towel out on the table, and then laid the dress on top. Then I rolled the dress up in the towl to soak up as much moisture as I could.
- I slipped the dress onto the hanger and hung it from the light fixture under the ceiling fan in my living room - this worked out really well because it dryed quickly. Then I ran it in the dryer for a few minutes.
Voila! Let me know how it works out for you!
Today we had a potluck at the office for Thanksgiving. Everyone brought either an appetizer or a dessert and the company brought in pizza and salads. Our poor newbie, Klay, tried to make his mom’s “hopscotch crunchies” (chow mein noodles, marshmallows, chocolate and butterscotch) in the extended-stay hotel where he’s staying and failed miserably – but only on one batch! His failure looked a bit like cat vomit, but the success was delicious! And after lunch, everyone paid Pictionary – even the CEO! Good times.
I made these potluck tags that we displayed with photo clips that I got at Crate and Barrell Outlet for $.50 each! Each person writes their name on the top line and their dish on the bottom. If you don’t have photo clips, you can use small binder clips (bottom right image).
If you’d like to print your own, you can get them here. Enjoy!
Do you like what I turned this vintage dress into? I do… like, a lot. The only thing I didn’t like was that the dress STUNK, like a lot. So I washed it with Coca-Cola and now it doesn’t smell any more! Unfortunately, I threw it in the dryer and it SHRUNK (like, a lot)! See those belt loops? They were up by my armpits. And those sleeves? Yeah, they were suddenly 3/4 sleeves.
Luckily, I was able to “un-shrink” it! Here’s how I did it:
- First, I soaked the dress in warm/hot water for ten minutes.
- While it was soaking, I gathered a couple towels and laid one out on the table.
- After 10 minutes, I gently squeezed out excess water and laid the sweater on top of the towel.
- I rolled up the sweater in the towel to get out some more water – you have to do this quickly though because you want to do the next step while the sweater is still warm.
- Finally, I gently stretched the sweater back into shape. I even put the sweater on (carefully!) to make sure it would fit after my “un-shrinking”
- Let it dry flat and you’re done!
Let me know how this works out for you!
Check out this vintage dress that Chris got me for my birthday! To be honest, I wasn’t in love with it (I had it turned into a sweater jacket that I LOVE though) – but I was so impressed by Chris’ thoughtfulness. However, on the first day I wore it I noticed something… um… stinky. And it wasn’t me. I needed to get the body odor out of my wool dress ASAP.
Here’s how I did it:
- First, I consulted my mom. Because she knows lots of things about lots of things.
- Then, I had to determine if the odor is basic or acidic. Most clothing odors are basic, but the only way to closely determine what type of odor you have is to give it a good wiff. If it doesn’t smell acidic-y or metalic-y (read this post instead), it’s probably a basic odor.
- To remove basic odors, you have to use an acid like lemon juice, vinegar or Coca-Cola (the regular kind, not diet) – I used Coca-Cola
- I washed a regular load of similar colored clothing and towel, and then dumped half of a 2 liter bottle of Coca-Cola in the rinse cycle. I can’t guarantee that this won’t discolor your clothes, but it didn’t discolor mine.
- Dry as usual (which in the case of this WOOL dress, should have been to hang dry… but I put it in the dryer! Learn how I “un-shrunk” it here)
There you go! Please let me know how this works for you!
I have pretty much been wearing this since I got it… I wear it to walk Joe, I wear it to bed, I’ve even worn it to work:
Can you tell it’s my new favorite shirt? I must immediately return to the little boy’s section at Target and buy a couple more…
I’d like to start out by saying that this tip isn’t for everyone. If you have a hard time keeping the emails in your inbox to a reasonable number, this tip probably isn’t for you. That said, I think many people would love this as much as I do!
If you often send out emails that require an action or information from someone else, and you would like to track those emails without having to “CC” yourself, consider setting up a rule that automatically copies your sent emails to your inbox.
I’ve had this rule set up on my Outlook at work for almost 5 years, and I’m so used to it that if an email that I’ve just sent doesn’t automatically pop up in my inbox it seems strange!
Here’s how you do it:
- In Outlook, go to Tools>Rules and Alerts
- Click “New Rule” then “start from a blank rule”
- Highlight Check messages after sending, then Next.
- Check “with specific words in the body”, then click on “specific words” and put a space (because every email you sent will have a space in it). Click Add, then OK, then Next.
- Check “move a copy to the specified folder” then click on “specified” and choose your inbox folder.
- Skip “exceptions” and select “finish”
Test it out… every email you send should be copied to your inbox now. It might take some getting used to (get familiar with your delete key!), but I find it very handy.
Before Chris and I moved in together, I had a cute little Caboodle that I toted around with my overnight bag on my (almost nightly) sleepovers at Chris’ place. It was perfectly organized with all my make-up, brushes, facial cleansers, toothbrush… I never had to worry about forgetting anything because everything just stayed in my Kaboodle and I never had to look for anything because everything had its place.
Now that we live together, I have a grown-up version of perfectly compartmentalized cosmetics:
I got the Expand-a-Drawer® Cutlery Tray from The Container Store and it works perfectly because it:
- expands to fill the entire drawer
- has trays that are deep enough that my lipsticks don’t spill into my eye make-up
- has lots of compartments, but they’re large enough to fit brushes and tools too
- fits all my make-up and even leaves room for Chris’ stuff (boys don’t need much, do they??)
I recently lined the sections with pretty paper because they had gotten a little dingy with spillage – I love it even more now!
I had such a wonderful weekend. It was one of those weekends that subjects unsuspecting co-workers to a 15 minute breakdown of every wonderful detail when they ask “did you have a nice weekend?”
On Saturday, Chris and I took Joe for a hike up Iron Mountain and then headed up to Julian for dinner. It was all completely spontaneous (we’re lucky we had enough water for the hike!) and all so nice.
On Sunday, we started the day with Crab Hash Potatoes and lounged around… mostly recovering from the the hike the day before!
Crab Hash Potatoes
16 oz frozen hash brown potatoes
3 tbsp vegetable oil
4 strips bacon
1/3 cup onion, chopped
6 oz crab meat
Dash of Old Bay Seasoning
- Cook hash brown potatoes according to package directions
- In a seperate frying pan, cook the bacon. Remove bacon strips (keep the bacon fat!) and crumble.
- Cook the onions in the bacon fat and transfer to the pan with potatoes. Add the bacon too.
- Add Old Bay Seasoning and crab meat and cook until heated through.
- Serve with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce (made in a blender – it comes out perfect every time!)
