Pins that REALLY work!!!!

I have been working hard around here or hardly working....some days it's hard to tell but last week I came upon some really good Pinterest pins that WORKED!  I've tried to stop pinning and start doing so here are the results.........

#1 - I bought 2 Le Creuset pans for about $2.50 each at a church bazaar several years ago.  They were both dark brown inside from something having burned in them.  I thought for $5.00 I could try and get them clean.  Well, I tried everything....SOS pads, steel wool but nothing worked.  They were "clean" but the burn marks were still there..........see?  I still used them because God knows it wasn't coming off......

I saw a gal had pinned that she had NEW ceramic coated cast iron and had made strawberry jam in it and it burned on the bottom and she couldn't get it off.  Hers wasn't nearly as bad as mine but she paid "the big bucks" and I was only out $5.00 plus I still used them they just weren't "pretty" like hers.  She said she put about an inch of water and and a scoop of Oxiclean in her pan and brought it to a boil.  She said she let it boil for a bit making sure it didn't boil away.    

What she didn't mention is that it quickly starts foaming and will go right over the edge if you're not watching it.  It wasn't on the burner very long before this happened and I wanted it to boil longer so I kept scooping the foam out and turned the burner down.  I added more water and more Oxiclean so I probably did 3 "episodes" of the cleaning ritual.

I was getting tired so I quit and thought that was enough and it looked like some stuff had come off as the water was dirty.  I dumped it and put it in the dishwasher but I could tell there were still some spots........

but when I took it out of the dishwasher....lo and behold!

It's not perfect but "it came a long way baby"!  This is for ceramic coated cast iron.  I'm not sure what it would do on anything else and let's face it.........I had nothing to lose!

#2 -  Homemade Glass Cleaner -  I have been making my own for awhile now and here is the recipe I use which works fine for me.  1/4 C of vinegar, 1/4 C of rubbing alcohol, 1 T of cornstarch and 2 C warm water.  You need to shake it up each time you use it but I don't mind.  But then there was a pin I had that talked about a woman who had asked her husband to wash the windows and he went to the automotive store and bought Rain-X which is for car windows to allow the water to sheet off of the windows when you're driving.  Well, he used it on all their windows and she said their windows stayed clean for a long, long time!  Now, I have not tried Rain-X on my car or house windows but I plan on getting one can and trying it.  I know people who use it on their car windows and love it but I have not tried it personally simply because I am guessing it is fairly expensive but I have not priced it at all.  I'm going to try it but I may not be able to afford to do all my windows at once but what a great idea if it works!  Let me know if you try it before I do.

#3 - Homemade Furniture Polish - This was a pin I just tried and I love it!  I wish I would have taken a before but I really didn't think it would be that obvious but it was.....I have one little picture before I got carried away............btw it is 1 C vinegar and 1/2 C olive oil and again you will need to shake it before spraying on your furniture or on a rag each time.  See that dull triangle on the left?  That was where I had not used it yet.

  I went through about 4 or 5 rags and they all looked like this when I was done............

I was amazed at the filth dirt that came off.  The wood really looked so pretty afterwards and it felt clean too.  The pinner did say that you should test it on a spot first although I didn't because none of my furniture is highly varnished and it looked a lot like what she was using it on....old wooden baseboards, doors and trim in her older home.  All my furniture is "old" and none has a highly varnished surface.  I've used sprays in the past and Murphy's Oil Soap and this did a great job and there was no scrubbing.

And last but not least a treat I made for my daughter when she was here as she loves Sonic's Cherry Limeade

This is a really tasty "hack"...you take 1/4 of a lime and slice into 2 pieces.   In the bottom of a glass you put 2 maraschino cherries and one of the lime slices.  Then you add crushed ice (I just used regular), Sprite and 3 T of the maraschino cherry juice and the other lime slice.  TaDa!  She loved it and so do I!  Unfortunately, you will run out of the cherry juice before you run out of the cherries so I bought some grenadine but not sure if that will be the same.  I'll let you know.  The other pins are on my CLEANING board and the last one is on my LIQUID REFRESHMENT board as there are other people to credit with these pins.  Enjoy! 

Happy Trails!