Rain plans and sun plans...................

When my children were little I used to make rain plans and sun plans.  For example, if we planned a picnic for outside on a sunny day we would also plan something fun to do if it happened to rain.  It alleviated any disappointment and since I was a systems programmer I was a big proponent of "backups".  LOL!  I've done this all my life and it has served me well.  Now that Spring has arrived (in fits and starts) I am doing the same thing again.  If it's a nice day I am outside landscaping and gardening.  This is ongoing until next Winter as any homeowner will tell you.  But if the weather prevents me from being outside I have plenty of other projects to keep me off the streets and out of trouble!  Such as............cleaning the grout in my bathrooms! Ha! Ha!  Nothing gets done in one day around here....it is ongoing...remember the bedroom painting....it's still there where I left it but I cleaned my bathroom and was getting ready to wash the floor and just couldn't stand the dirty grout anymore.  Look at this and you'll see why.......... 
BEFORE:

 AFTER:

Since I try very hard not to use any chemicals anymore for cleaning (when you know better you do better, hopefully) I looked on Pinterest as I had seen a couple recipes and pinned them to my "cleaning" board.  One was to use Bartender's Keeper, a cleanser.  I tried it and it worked pretty good with lots of scrubbing and the other recipe was 1/4 cup of bleach to 3/4 cup baking soda.  Again, it worked pretty good with lots of scrubbing.  But there is no way around the fact that it is hard work!  Some people used it on moldy grout around their bathtub wall tiles and evidently it took it off easily and bleach will do that to mold.  But mine was on a floor and just plain old years of ground in dirt.  It is still not done and every day I go in and scrub a bit on my hands and knees and it's a like a paste and you leave it sit on there for about 20 minutes and come back and wipe it up.  I've had to do each area about 3 times before it's really clean looking and of course, some areas are worse than others.  It's hard on the knees so I have a towel I kneel on.

On a more fun note, I got some goodies in the mail!  For me, from me! LOL!
There isn't one project in this book by Nicki Trench that I don't absolutely love!  Her style and projects are right up my alley!  There is something about the style and creativity and color sense of my gal pals across the pond that I just LOVE!  I also have resorted to buying my yarn from Deramores in the U.K. in order to get the same colors.  I must admit their prices are great, free shipping over $50.00 (which usually isn't hard for me! Ha! Ha! ) and same day dispatch.  I have received packages from them faster than I have companies here in the States!   So, yes, Nicki Trench is a U.K. crocheter, teacher and designer and has other books out also.  I think I'm going to crochet the whole book!  In fact I was wondering if anyone else loves her work and would want to join a crochet group to do just that?  We could either do it from my blog or on Ravelry.  Let me know if you're interested.

 I also got this sweet vintage looking kit of personal products related to the sewing mistress of the home.  I heard about it from Alicia Paulson 
on her blog when she carried it in her retail shop.  Imagine my surprise when I found it on Amazon!  I thought it was so precious.  This is the front.......

and here's the back............

 

It's so cute I may just use it as a decoration in my sewing room or not.

I hope you had a wonderful day today and thank you so much for your comments  they mean so much to me. TTYS!