Internet myth or Reality: Homemade microfiber cleaner

A few years ago, we received a nice dark-chocolate color microfiber couch. We just had our son and we were in need of a new couch. Microfiber seems to be a great choice, since it's suppose to stay stain-free. I also bought 3 microfiber foot-cubes to match our living room. Well, with 3 pets and a young child, we stained the couch and the cubes more than once. I tried to wash off the stains, but many of them stayed. Especially on my lime green cube. Not that long ago, I found on pinterest a homemade recipe for cleaning microfiber furniture. Very simple and cheap to make and easy to use, almost look too good to be true.

What you need:

-Rubbing alcohol

-dish sponge and/or brush

- spray bottle

I found everything I needed at our local dollar store.  You spray the rubbing alcohol on the stain, and make sure you soak the stain. After you just wash it with the sponge and let it dry. The great thing about the alcohol is that it dry faster than water, so you don't end up with a water stain. I was little bit skeptical at first, but it did work on most of the stains. It's is now the only way I will clean my couch. But be aware it did not clean ALL of the stains, but it did better than anything I've tried before. The smell of the alcohol is a little bit overwhelming, but well worth it. I give this DIY Microfiber cleaner a 8/10.

DIY: christmas aromatic ornaments

Most memories are connected to a special smell. Odor can bring back old memories you though you had forgotten. For me and I'm sure for many other, the Holidays come with a lots of memories and smells. The food, the trees, the cold crisp air, firewood's burning... This year, we have a gorgeous Christmas tree, it is so much fuller than the past years. We ended needing a few more ornaments. I decided to make salt dough ornaments with my kids and create my own family memories this year. I added to my regular salt dough recipe, some cinnamon and ground cloves. The cinnamon will add a darker color and mixed with the cloves, they add a great olfactory sense to your decorations. It was amazing how good the house smelled while they were cooking and how they still smell good while hanging on the tree. 

You will need:

-3/4 cup of salt

-1 cup of flour

-1/4 cup of water

-2 tbs corn starch

-3 tbs of ground cinnamon

-1/2 tbs of ground gloves

Mix all of the ingredient together in bowl. Mix until it form a dough. Roll Dough to about 1/4 - 3/8 inches thick and cut out shapes. If they are too thin, they will be very fragile to handle and if they are too thick, it will take a lot more time for them to bake or dry. You can leave them out for few days to dry out, or you can bake them (I did) at 300° F for about 2 hours.
After they cooled off, we painted our with acrylic paint.

They are a great project with kids, they can help with every steps (except for the oven) and create their own ornaments. I know mine, from when i was a kid, are still somewhere at my parents house with their Christmas decorations and memories. 

DIY-hand-print reindeer christmas card

Since most of our relatives live far from us, every year I go spend some time at the post office mailing our holiday wishes to all of them. This year I decided to make with my son our own cards. I feel it's more meaningful and fun than the generic Christmas card and since I wasn't going to send any presents this year, we can still show that we care about everyone, even far away. 

This craft was very easy and quick. All you need is

-Brown acrylic paint

-1 paint brush

-construction paper (green, red and beige or white)

-white glue

-goggle eyes

-holiday stickers (optional)

-felt (optional)

I applied the paint on my sons hands and print his hands on the paper in a few different ways. After I just used a little bit of imagination and some goggle eyes, felt and stickers and we had some very fun cards for the family.

I just love the holidays. 

Inside Scavenger Hunt

With the cold and rainy weather, my little one can't play outside as much as he wants, so it's time to get creative inside. My boy loves discovering his surrounding, so I made him an inside scavenger hunt list with pictures, since he can't read yet. I gave him the list and a basket and  told him he has 10 minutes (I put the kitchen timer on) to find as many items on the list as he can. Of course, the game is bilingual  the objects are in English and French. He absolutely loved it. After, he decided to do his own scavenger hunt. Here is the printable template I used for our list. Hope your little one enjoyed it as much as mine. Stay warm and have fun this fall :)

Inside scavenger Hunt

Movember:The history of the month long moustache.

Movember is a long-month event during the month of November. It involves growing a moustache during the entire month to raise awareness and funds for men's prostate cancer and others men's health issues. Men's have to register at monvember.com and start clean shaved on the first of the month. For the rest of the month the "Mo Bros" grow, trim and wax their moustaches for the pleasure or not of all the women. 

Movember was created in 2004 for Australia and New Zealand and in 2007  it expanded in Ireland, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, the United Kingdom, Israel, South Africa, Taiwan and the United States. Since then it raised over $125 millions in funds for men's health issues. 

To find more info or to register visit movember.com

5 easy Halloween crafts for kids

With Halloween right at the corner, it's time to decorate the house and/or the classroom. Here are 5 easy and school friendly crafts for your little ones. My 3 1/2 year old and I did them all on a Sunday afternoon,, it was too windy to be outside and we already watched way too much television. I decided to take out our craft supplies and decorate the house. My son loved making them and they were not too messy to clean up at the end.

 Paper Pumpkin ornament

• orange paper strips,1/2 inch wide (min. of 10)
• hole punch
• green pipe cleaner

Using the hole punch, pierce a small hole through both ends of each strip. Gently thread the pipe cleaner through one hole in each strip of paper. Once all strips have been threaded onto the pipe cleaner, begin with one END of the bottom-most strip of paper and thread it onto the top of the pipe cleaner and hold it in place. Working in a counter-clockwise direction, and always taking the bottom-most strip of paper, continue threading additional strips onto the wire and hold them in place. Work your way through all of the strip of paper. At the end, twist the top into a leaf with the pipe cleaner to hold in place the paper strips. This one was too hard for my son to do, but it's perfect for my students from grade 1 to 6.

Paper Pumpkin centerpiece

• construction paper (min. 2 different colors)
• scissor
• glue
• green pipe cleaner

Cut at least for 4 identical circles with construction paper. Fold each circle in half. Apply glue on one of its folded faces. Glue a second folded pumpkin shape on top of the first one, keeping both 1/2 circle shapes aligned at the edges. Then glue the first and last 1/2 circle shapes together. Attach the green pipe cleaner to the top and twist it to form a couple leave. This one was also a little too hard for my 3 year old, but I will be perfect for my students.

Gummed paper pumpkin (easy for young children)

• 2 sheets of construction paper (black)
• orange paper cut in small pieces and a few green pieces
• scissor

Cut a pumpkin shape on 1 sheet with the black paper. Glue the small orange pieces on the pumpkin shape and some green pieces for the stem. With the other black sheet, cut 3 triangles and a mouth for the pumpkin face. Glue them on top of the gummed orange paper. 

No mess stickers on window (easy for young children)

• All purpose clear wrap
• Halloween stickers

Cut a piece of an all purpose clear wrap and stick it to the window. Let your child put stickers on it. After Halloween, just remove the clear wrap from the window.

Very easy and fun witch hat (easy for young children)

• Black construction paper
• Glitter glue
• Halloween stickers
• Stapler 

Let your kids decorate their paper with stickers and glitter glue. When they are done, staple the paper to form a cone.

Happy Halloween everyone!

I'm baking, fall is here! Banana & Pear Bread

With the pears season at it's peak right now, I received so many pears from friends and neighbors that I started to not know what to do with them. Some of them started to go bad, so I decided to give a twist to my traditional banana bread. It turn out great. The bread was very tasty and  moist. The pears bring a natural sweet taste.  It was also a hit with my 3 year old.

Preparation: 20 minutes       Baking time: 55 minutes         Oven: 350°F        Makes: 1 Loaf

-1 cup all-purpose flour

-1 cup of oatmeal

-11/2 teaspoons of baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

-1/4 teaspoon of salt

-1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

-1/2 tablespoon of ground flax seed (optional)

-2 eggs

-3 medium bananas, mashed

-2 pears, without the skin and chopped finely

-1/2 cup of sugar

-1/2 cup of applesauce

-1/2 cup of cooking oil or melted butter

-1/4 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

-1/4 cup of raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°f. Grease the bottom of a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan and set aside.

In a large bowl combine flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and flax seed. Make a well in the center of your flour mixture and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine the eggs, bananas, pears, sugar,melted butter, walnuts and raisins. Add the mixture at once to the flour mixture. Stir until moistened. Spoon batter into your loaf pan. 

Bake for about 55 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center come out clean. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on a rack.