Gardener's Sugar Scrub

Well, I'm back in town.
Whew!
Arrived yesterday evening and today I am trying to recover while doing laundry, sorting 2 weeks worth of mail, grocery shopping since the fridge and cupboards were bare, and generally just pick up and put away all our stuff.

So in the meantime, here is a quick post about an easy gift idea or try for yourself idea.

Last Christmas my sister-in-law Ashlee sent me a little jar of this gardener's scrub.
It sat for awhile until a month or so ago when I had been out in the garden and my hands were a mess.  I remembered her little gift and used some to clean up.

Wow!
Got the dirt off easy-peasy and made my hands so soft.

The kids got wind of it and have since used it for dirty summer feet and greasy bike chain hands with equally awesome results.  Once they found the jar it got used up quickly.

While stopping off in Wyoming last week on our way back home Ashlee was nice enough to give me 3 more jars....and the link to the recipe.  I'm so excited.


pic from onegoodthingbyjillee.com

Seriously, make some up and try it.
Your dirty hands and feet will be so happy!

Gardener's Sugar Scrub

Out, out, dang spot!

I'm sure any of you with children have had those moments when you find one of your lovelies (clothes, couch, pillows, table tops) with some sort of marker, pen, paint on it.  Leslie recently had an incident, twice, on her quilts.  In the last week or so I found a LR pillow with what appears to be permanent marker on it.  No one knows who did it, of course, but my bet is on #5, the little poophead.

Over the weekend I finally decided to tackle it and pulled out my trusty resource book, "Talking Dirty Laundry with the Queen of Clean", by Linda Cobb.  Love this book!  Our mom originally told me about it, and it has saved many a dirty incident.  Linda Cobb also has "Talking Dirty with the Queen of Clean".  I own both--some of the best resource information I have.  And the titles make me laugh.
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Page 149, how to get out permanent marker

"Fill a glass with denatured alcohol (use a size appropriate to the stain) and dip the stained area into the alcohol, allowing it to soak.  If it appears that the marker is being removed, continue the process"

"If the stain appears stubborn, try rubbing the marker spot with an old toothbrush, white, nongel toothpaste, and some baking soda.  Give it a really good scrubbing.  Rinse.  If the marker stain is almost gone, soak in a cup of warm water and 2 denture-cleaning tablets for whites, and Brilliant Bleach™ for colorfast clothes.  This will requires some time, but the stain all comes out, so it's worth it."

"If the marker is still there, scrub with Lava™ soap prior to trying the denture-cleaning tablets or bleach."
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So I tried the hairspray method, to see if the spot was actually ball point pen.  But since my pillow has a bit of a nap to it, they would've had to have spent A LOT of time going back over the same lines to get it that dark.  The hairspray sort of took some of the marker out, but I quickly moved onto the white toothpaste.  Squirted on a blob, rubbed it around a bit, rinsed and most of it was gone.  Did it one more time and VOILA!  Out, out dang spot! 

#5 is spared (I don't know from what) and I'm happy.  Life is good.  Thank you, Queen of Clean!

Note:
I didn't know what denatured alcohol was, what to look for or where to find it.  After a quick internet search I found that you should be able to find it in the paint, solvent, thinner section of home improvement stores.  When I told hubby that he responded, "Oh yeah, that is what they use to take the permanent marker off of the castings at work."  Now you tell me Mr. Engineer.