How Fresh Do You Smell?

My Dilema:  Having a fresh smelling home.

One thing I always notice when I am at other peoples house is the smell.  It's interesting to me how a house can have a "smell".  You don't even realize it until you are away for a while and come back into your home... and there it is... the smell.  To me, it seems that my friends houses always have a beautiful scent.

With a dog who sheds like crazy, a newborn and a small space - it's hard to keep a "fresh" smell in the house without constantly burning candles.  I am slowly fading out the candles in my house because of the health hazard they cause - do you know that some candles emit lead into the air when being burned? - scary!

The Solution:  Febreze Flameless Luminaries

These are brilliant.  They look very modern and have scented shades that give off a light fragrance throughout the day.  You can also have it "flicker" which gives the look of a real candle.   You can choose from nine fragrances but I'm loving Vanilla Frost right now.

And what kind of friend would I be without hooking you up with a coupon?  The link below will give you a $5.00 off coupon!  https://www.pgeverydaysolutions.com/pgeds/febreze/brandsampler-login.jsp

What do you do to keep your home smelling fresh?

A New Website and Peanut Butter Cookies

I've heard about these websites that generate recipes based on what you have in your kitchen at that very second.  What a great idea!  I never know what to cook and it always bums me out when I find a good recipe, then realize it will cost $20.00 to make because we have absolutely nothing that is in the recipe.

After a quick google search, I found one that I thought looked good.  RecipeMatcher.com  I was craving dessert so I went in the kitchen and put in the most random ingredients I had.  Peanut Butter, oats, brown sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder (which I was sure was expired but it doesn't until Dec 2010, woohoo!), walnuts, sugar, etc.  I also included some fruit I had (peaches, bananas, apples).  Then I hit the magic button.  Generate recipe.  In seconds, there was 112 pages of recipes I could make using those ingredients.  The cool thing, is that the best matches are first and then they will list out what other ingredients you need to make the recipes that aren't exact matches.  One of the options was peach cobbler!!  But let's be honest here, I'm not that ambitious, especially at 9PM.  I am more of an instant gratification girl.  So, when I saw peanut butter cookies ready in 12 minutes, I went to work.

Impossibly Good Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar - white
1 egg
Sugar - white, Optional (for rolling)

Directions:
1 - Mix together until smooth.
2 - Drop by teaspoon onto cookie sheet two inches apart.  If desired, roll in extra sugar before placing on cookie sheet.
3 - Press with fork and press again in opposite direction.
4 - Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

*I added chocolate chips to mine.  If you want to do this, mix them in with the ingredients in #1.

I found that the ten minutes while I waited for the cookies was just enough time to clean the kitchen, and with only three ingredients, it was so easy!

After this, I put EVERYTHING in my freezer, refrigerator and cabinets into the generator to see what it would come up with.  I will post asap the next thing I make and it will be something for dinner!

My New Favorite Product

I have been trying to slowly change the way I clean my house.  Instead of doing a massive cleaning once a week, I've been trying to clean daily.  That includes laundry, dishwasher, wiping the sink in the bathrooms down each day, etc.  These are small items but it really makes a big difference.  I think that this is part of "nesting" but I'm not sure.  Like yesterday, I was in the shower and when I was done with my wash cloth I wiped off the top ledge of the shower.  We've lived in this house for four years and I have never noticed (or had the urge to clean) that ledge.  I know you are in suspense so I will tell you, it was disgusting!  Small thing completed but it all adds up.

In my effort to change the way I clean, I am updating my cleaning products.  I have been doing research about different products and asking friends for their recommendations on the products they can't live without.  It is a slow process but I'm phasing out the old cleaners and replacing with better, fun ones.  My thought is that if I like the cleaner, I will clean more.  I'm not sure the validity behind that statement but I will keep you posted.  And just an FYI, one of my goals is to vacuum daily and to do this I think it is necessary to have a Dyson, so I'm taking donations for this.

Through my research, I realized that Method has introduced laundry detergent.  I use a few Method products and love how they clean and smell (and the bottles are always cool) so I wanted to give it a try.  I had a coupon for $2.00 off so I bought the 25 load bottle of peony blossom. You can get your coupon here.

The coolest thing about this product is that it comes in a squirt bottle, similar to hand soap.  I love this because the previous bottle of detergent had streaks of liquid coming down the sides of the bottle and it was a mess.  The instructions are on the small bottle made for single hand use.  It is simply, 2 squirts for a small load and 4 for a medium load.  The detergent is standard machine and HE machine compatible.  The best part, it smells perfect.  It doesn't have an overbearing fragrance and is just sweet enough to get hints of throughout the day.

This is the best product I've found in a long time!  If you try it, let me know!