Smelly Washer

We've been having a few problems lately with our washing machine. Unfortunately we inherited it when we bought the house, so we didn't pick it out. After the washer showed us some interesting dance moves, burped out some suds and flashed some error codes, it was time to get it fixed. Turns out we needed a new rotor position switch. Just expensive enough to be annoying but not so expensive to warrant a new washer. Great.

So while the repairman was installing this very expensive yet very small piece of plastic, I asked him a few questions about all the things I hate about our washer.

1. Why does my washer leave a flaky brown residue on my clothes? Turns out this is from overuse of fabric softener. But I don't use liquid fabric softener, I said. Apparently the previous owners did, and when the washer sat idle for a few months after they moved out and before we moved in, it had a chance to congeal into the lovely sludgy residue that gets all over everything. Turns out a lot of these types of detergents can leave buildup over time. Residue builds up between the drums and can get into the washer and onto your clothes - especially if you don't clean the filter. Also, the drain tube in the back was pushed down too far, which means air could get trapped in the tube and prevent the tub from draining completely.

2. Wait, what do you mean I have a filter I'm supposed to clean? Yep, my washer has a panel in the lower left corner of the machine. You know, the panel with no labeling and no visible access point. Pry it open with a flat screwdriver and inside is a filter that kind of resembles a brita filter. Pull it out and run it under the faucet to clean it off every couple weeks. Again, lots and lots of gunk poured out. Gross. The repairman said this simple step can greatly extend the life of the washer. TIP: Put a towel down when you open the panel because a bunch of water will pour out.

3. Why does my washer smell so bad? Again, the residue. I have an LG front loader and you have to leave the door open or it STINKS. The door is surrounded by what the repairman called a hood - I think it's more of a gasket. Well the gasket gets all mildewy and sludgy over time because some water can sit in some of the crevices. Nasty.

4. What's the best way to clean the smelly washer? In the past I've bought all kinds of things to try to curb the stench - Washer Magic, Tide Washer Cleaner and just plain old bleach. They've had various levels of success, with the bleach being the most effective against the smell by far. And the cheapest. However, nothing has been able to get rid of the residue. According to the repairman, the bleach will kill the mildew but it won't remove the residue. Vinegar is an acid, and so it will dissolve the gunk.

We set the washer to high temp, high soil, with prewash and then filled the detergent and prewash dispenser drawer with vinegar and turned the machine on. After the washer had filled, we opened the door (it's an HE washer so "full" is still only a couple inches a water) and poured in about 1/2 gallon of vinegar into the drum and into the crevices in the gasket. He recommended doing this vinegar wash about once every couple weeks or so, depending on how bad the buildup is. I'm thinking of doing alternating vinegar and bleach cycles each week until the residue goes away. I am hopeful this will work - and thankful that vinegar is cheap!

5. Why does the spin cycle make the whole house shake? Whoever designed our house thought they were being so smart putting the laundry room upstairs next to the master bedroom. And it certainly is convenient. But the room is small and it echos and the washer doesn't stand as solid on a wood floor as it would on a concrete floor. Anything beyond a medium spin will cause the whole house to shake. The repairman suggested opening the window. Not sure that's the greatest advice, but who knows. He also suggesting putting some of those foam floor puzzle pieces under the washer to absorb some of the vibration.

6. What kind of washer would you recommend buying? He suggested a basic toploader with mechanical and non-electronic buttons and knobs. They're cheaper to buy and cheaper to fix and there isn't enough of a difference to warrant a more expensive machine. Good to know.

A bug-tastic birthday bash

Last weekend we went to Minnesota to celebrate my nieces' birthdays. They were having a nature-themed party, so I wanted to make them a special cake. They requested frogs and ladybugs and drew me a picture of what they wanted the cake to look like.

 My nieces were great helpers and they added a lot of great touches to the cake. They were especially great at cutting out all the circles for the ladybug's spots and the frog faces and making the grass border on the bottoms of the tiers.

As an added unexpected surprise, we added a different food coloring gel to each layer to create a rainbow cake on the inside. 

Overall, I think the finished cake turned out great!

More pickles!

When I was a kid, one wall in the garage was dedicated to my mom's canning jars. She would can all kinds of things - peaches, tomatoes, cherries, applesauce, etc. and we would get to eat the fruit year round. Since I have all this extra produce from my garden, I thought I'd try canning some pickles.

I ordered this handy-dandy canning discovery kit from Amazon.com. (By the way - Amazon Prime is the greatest thing ever. I never have to leave the house!)

The kit includes a canning rack, three jars with bands and lids and an instruction booklet - for about 10 bucks. The booklet outlines three easy steps - boil water, fill jars, put jars in boiling water.  And voila, instant pickles!

Ok, so it's a little more complicated than that - you have to make sure your pot is deep enough to fully submerge the jars. (Thanks to Mary for lending me her pot.) And you need to make sure that you have the right amount of space in the top of your jars before you put them in the water. And you have to boil the jars for the right amount of time. But this is not rocket science.

For the brine, I used the Ball dill pickle mix recipe from the side of the mix container. Super easy. Pour the brine over the sliced cucumbers, add lids and bands and boil for about 15 minutes. I also threw in a little dill from the garden for kicks.

The mix says the pickles will be best in 4-6 weeks, so I'm looking forward to cracking them open. I have a bunch of tomatoes in the garden now, so I'm thinking of canning some salsa, bruschetta or tomato sauce next.

Sew Easy?

When I was little, my mom used to make adorable dresses for me all the time. I wanted to see if I could make something for Eliana, so I started with a pattern that had EASY written all over the front.

I picked this cute little jumper from McCall's (#M6193) and found a fun multicolored polka dot fabric.

The whole process was only 8 steps long. How hard could that be? Well, kinda hard. I'm not going to be winning Project Runway any time soon. But this is certainly doable.


Step 1: Use the pattern pieces to cut out the fabric. Since I think I may want to use this pattern again, I had to figure out a way to cut out the fabric without cutting the pattern size lines. So I used a yellow sharpie to trace the pattern onto the fabric and then cut on the markings. Since the part you cut ends up inside a seam, you won't see it at the end.

Step 2: Stitch up the sides of the main jumper body.

Step 3: Iron the interfacing. I had no idea what interfacing was. It's really just a stiffener that you iron on to the back of a fabric to give it more stability. Iron the bumpy side of the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric.

Step 4: Stitch the interfaced pieces to the main garment. Stitch with right sides together and then flip it around. This part was a little challenging because I'm only good at sewing straight. Rounded edges are still a bit tough.

Step 5: Topstitch the neck and arm holes. This took me way too long. Probably because I thought it would be fun to use a contrasting thread color. I used pink instead of brown so I had to redo it a bunch of times to get it to look right. Again with the rounded edges.

Step 6: Hem the bottom.

Step 7: Add the buttons and button holes. My sewing machine instruction book had a couple good tips here - by taping the buttons in place and taping a pin to the machine foot to create a shank, it helped make the button process easy. I dropped the feed teeth and used the zigzag setting to get the machine to stitch the buttons in the right spot.

 

Step 8: Add button holes. I used the button hole maker steps on my sewing machine. Again, I had to do this several times to get it right. I am getting quite handy with the seam ripper, however.

There were a couple of extras steps involving adding patch pockets to the front, but I decided to leave them out. I started to make the pockets but got frustrated when I couldn't make them perfectly round.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. There were a few things that were difficult to understand, so I'll probably stick with the "easy" patterns for a while.

The pattern also included an adorable little jacket - we'll see if I can pull it off.

Tis the Season

It's that time of glorious time of year that I look forward to all winter long - blackberry season! A few years ago, Ben's wonderful Grandpa Milt passed away. He was an outstanding person and we all miss him very much. One thing we shared was our love of blackberries. Fresh blackberries are difficult to come by in the Midwest, and Grandpa Milt had a berry bush in his backyard.

After he passed, I wanted to make sure that we could still enjoy those summer berries. So, we transplanted the bush into my backyard. It took a couple years of TLC to get it to produce, but we are now enjoying the fruits of our labor. The berry bush is overflowing with ripe, juicy blackberries.

No holiday in the Walter family is complete without a blackberry pie, and it is a tradition I intend to continue. I didn't have quite enough ripe berries yet for a whole pie, so I used this cobbler recipe from Williams-Sonoma and added in some nectarines and a dash of nutmeg as well. I made one for me, and one for Ben's grandma.

I have to say that every recipe I have ever tried from Williams-Sonoma has been a smashing success. I have about seven of their cookbooks and the food is always delicious and the recipes are easy to follow. It looks like I'm going to have a large amount of berries this year, and they have a few other blackberry recipes that I may try this year. YUM!

The 40 day clutter challenge

I'm embarking on a new challenge. I found the idea on pinterest, and it is brilliant. You write out a list of 40 areas in your home that are full of clutter and need a little organization help. They can be as simple as your underwear drawer or as extraordinarily cluttered as the garage. Each day you tackle a new area and in 40 days you have an organized house.

Today is day three and I'm loving it! I couldn't believe the amount of junk we hauled out after just doing our sock drawers and the master bathroom cabinets. Sometimes it's hard to get rid of stuff - even stuff you didn't know you had - but it's safe to say that sunless tanner wasn't going to give anyone a sun-kissed glow anymore.

I'm working my way through the master closet right now, and *sniffle, sniffle*, 10 pairs of shoes are about to find a new home. I haven't worn any of them in at least a year, and so out the door they go!

I hope we can keep this up for the next 37 days. It feels so good to purge. As you can see from the list, big projects await!

Picklicious

Until a couple years ago, it never occurred to me that you could make pickles at home. I think I just assumed they were another wonder brought about by the industrial revolution. Brilliant, I know.

Then, Ben's uncle Mike brought some fantastic dill pickles to a family gathering. Oh. my. goodness. So yummy. So, I figured if Mike could do it, I could too!

Last year, I decided to grow some cucumbers and dill and give it a go. Well, the cucumbers were a colossal failure. Not a single cuke emerged. I have this horrible habit of planting seeds way too close to each other so the plants strangle each other and nothing survives. How fascinating.

This year, I expanded the garden and spaced things much better. For the most part at least. The mesclun is a thick mess. But that's beside the point. My cucumbers are growing like crazy!

I also grew some tall beautiful dill. Sometimes I think I plant dill and basil just so I can walk to the garden and smell their wonderful fragrances. 

The pickle recipe is really quite simple. You make a hot syrup by boiling vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seed and celery seed.

It will look something like this.

Pour the syrup over sliced cucumbers.

I sliced the cucumbers using this handy dandy slicer thingy that I found in the kitchen drawer. I have no idea where it came from but it makes the pickles look fancy shmancy.

Throw in a sliced onion or two and a few dill heads.

Put a lid on it and stick it in the fridge for 3 days to let the pickle magic happen. After three days, open up and enjoy! So easy to make and quite tasty.