Let me introduce you to a natural way of sanitizing/disinfecting. Hypochlorous Acid aka HOCL. This is something that our bodies already produce in our white blood cells and helps us fight off infections. This is used in hospitals, restaurants, food manufacturing facilities and I’ve even seen beauty brands are starting to use it in their skincare lines and it has SO many uses! You mix, water, sodium carbonate or kosher salt and you can also add white distilled vinegar and put it through the hypochlorous acid kettle generator and 8-16 minutes later you have a natural disinfectant that is safe around your family and pets.

You can certainly purchase it in its already made form from some companies but it is super easy to make it yourself. All you need is a hypochlorous acid generator and while they are a little pricey it will more than make up for the cost to replace your other cleaners you normally buy and use over time. This is the one I purchased https://amzn.to/401jjhF

I bought it in 2021, when I had Valley Fever and I probably would have paid double for it at the time. I would nebulize with a low PPM and then used it again this past year when I had Pneumonia. It knocks out those lung infections but I am not a doctor, so do your own research on that. But I am still here, it didn’t kill me and neither did Valley Fever or Pneumonia!

It is more powerful than bleach at certain PPM.

It is FDA approved.
https://hocl.com/regulation

Also here’s an link through the NIH:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7315945/

Above 50PPM it will kill viruses, Covid-19, Listeria, MRSA, Salmonella, HIV also fungi and molds when used at 200PPM.

I started making sourdough bread in 2023. I use the 200PPM solution to clean my counters before I shape my dough. It is food safe, I wouldn’t want to be using toxic chemically perfumed cleaners or other disinfectants on my counters as they would go right into my dough. YUCK! Just spray those counters down a couple times and you are good to go!

There are different PPM (parts per million) for different uses/solutions:

Up to 60 PPM – spray on produce, fish, seafood, chicken, eggs

50-100 PPM – use on skin, wound cleaning, great for acne/eczema

Up to 100PPM – dental mouth rinse, nebulize

100-200 PPM – hand sanitizer

200 PPM – food contact surfaces, bathroom counters, tile floors, sinks, sanitizing sponges

Store it in an amber colored either glass or PET bottle to keep it from breaking down. I use glass spray bottles https://amzn.to/3BBuapg and label them as to what they are used for on each bottle.

You also might need to get some testing strips https://amzn.to/3Do4JIp to test your solution to make sure it’s still at the PPM that you want it to be at the start and also during use.

Hi Friends! It has been QUITE a while since I’ve used this blog. Recently one of my BFF’s told me that I really needed to start videoing (is that the right word these days?) myself and all of the stuff I do. I work full time from home and it is a VERY fast paced, multitasking work environment that usually keeps me chained to my desk 8-5. In my downtime and I am cooking, cleaning, making sourdough, crafting, creating, entertaining, letting my dog in and out, breaking up fights between the dog and the cat, feeding my youngest kid and my now adult kid when she’s here visiting.

I’m in the middle of illustrating a cookbook, making sewing projects to go with the cookbook for Christmas presents, making some Christmas ornaments (post to come and my Gen X goth loving friends are going to love this) and making sourdough (I said that already but it’s a long process), hand knitting a chunky Christmas tree skirt for said BFF (post to come) and we are now only 29 days until Christmas. Let the countdown begin.

I started a You Tube channel, currently it’s just me going through the process of making a sourdough loaf of bread. Mostly because I sent my BFF some of my dehydrated starter and she wanted a tutorial from me on how to do this whole sourdough thing. Really wasn’t any other way to send large videos, so You Tube it is. If you so desire here is the link to my channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@recipesonrepeat

Let me tell you this, I HATE watching myself on videos. HATE it! So this is crazy to me that I’m even doing this and then to hear that my BFF was watching them on their GIANT TV I was like, UGGGGHHHH! This is going to take some getting used to so come along for the wild ride!

And this is the reason…well there’s many reasons really but this is the main one…

Meet Rosie aka Rosalina, Rosarito, Rosario, Rosie Roo, Rosie Bulldozie & Biscuit.  These are all the nicknames we’ve come up with so  far for her.  We’ve been busy picking up pee and poo and not getting any sleep at night, you know like when you bring home a new baby?  Only babies you can contain the pee and poo, much easier in my opinion!!!

Our Boxer/Rotweiler and Siamese cat are SO disgusted at this new little creature.  They both just sit and stare at her as if they are both saying WTF??!!!

So other than that I have been working my fingers to the bone on digital DT stuff for the July/August issue of Scrap N’ Art.

BTW if you are a digi scrapper/designer we have an opening for another DT position you can check out the call here.   If you want a chance to work with some amazingly talented people I highly suggest you apply! 

And now…doody calls (Ha Ha get it) LOL  yeah it really does!  So I will leave you with a quick digi LO I did today with my most favorite digi store around right now…We Are Storytellers.

Credits:

Amy Hutchinson & Emily Merritt-Truly Modly Deeply
Emily Powers & Jenna Desai-My Little Boy Wonder
Emily Powers-Art Nation
Jen Caputo- Shapes 4
Font- Pea Carrie

Be sure to check out my Digi Pick-o-the-day over at SNA!

It’s official our daughter turned 6 yesterday! *sniff sniff*  She’s such a little lady and it’s so cute.  We’re having a birthday party for her and her classmates, friends and family this Saturday but my dad isn’t able to make it.  So he treated her to a day at Club Libby Lu and shopping, which is fine with her! 

We had never been to Club Libby Lu before and can I just say that EVERY little girl needs to go here (heck I want to go there)!!!!  That place is like bling, pink, girlie heaven! 

Anyway, Bella opted for the Pop Princess "DO" with the Tiara, good choice as it turns out!  The other little girl in there that got the Rock Star hair do had some crazy hair when she was done!  Bella looked like a little princess.

First they started off by painting her nails, they do this first for a reason!  She painted her nails and then grabbed a bunch of glitter and just sprinkled it all over her hands.   I told the girl (Pixie) that she must go home every night covered in glitter.  Talk about bringing your work home with you…
 

Then while her nails were drying it was time to do her hair (this is the reason for the nails first).  I paid close attention to how she did this for future reference.  She didn’t even use a comb, she used just bobby pins, which was amazing to me!

The hair just needs the finishing touch… some more hair spray, another handful of glitter and a tiara!!!


Then a little makeup and some bling on the cheeks…
VOILA instant Princess!   She never puts her hair up, she looks so much different and so grown up.  Carey said he was having visions of that movie "Father of the Bride!" LOL   

Saturday is the High School Musical party so I’m sure I’ll have plenty of pics of that too, stay tuned! 

It’s so amazing to me that just about a week ago there was snow on the ground when we woke up and 2 days ago Bella was running through the sprinklers in our yard and wearing shorts and a tank top!!! 

Easter was a great day, it was HOT, had to turn on the A/C but it was a great day for an easter egg hunt and the flowers in my mom’s neighbors yard were just incredible!  So we plopped Bella down in the middle of them and took her picture like papparazzi, it was crazy.

 

So this will be my last post before heading off to Colorado for a week.  We start the 15 hour drive friday morning! 

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted.  I was terribly sick for over a week and then had to jump back into the thick of things, not to mention the mountain of laundry waiting for me.  So it’s been a busy month so far but a fun month cuz my best friend Jacki has been off track for school and I’ve been hanging out with her as much as I can before she goes back.   I can’t believe it’s almost April YIKES! 

Speaking of Jacki…did you know she can play the bass guitar?  She’s multi-talented that girl…here’s proof

BTW those really cool flourish frames are by Michelle Coleman at www.littledreamerdesigns.com!

So not much else to report.  I’m currently trying out for a digital scrapbooking DT position over at Scrapnart, which is a NEW very cool ezine.  I’m having a lot of fun already over there.  I even jumped into designing my first ever digital alpha. 

Go check out Scrapnart, if you haven’t already.  The premier issue comes out April 15th and I can’t wait to see it.  Register or sign in and go here http://www.scrapnart.com/scrappad/index.php?topic=1005.0

to grab the alpha, it’s free!

One week from today I should be in Colorado or very close to being there.  We are driving there to deliver a bookcase to my aunt that my great grandfather built. We have been storing/using it for her since she lived in Hawaii…now she lives in Colorado and we can actually drive it to her! LOL  It should be a blast, both of my cousins and all their boys will be there.  Bella is so excited to play with the babies! 

Well that’s all for now.  Hope everyone has a great weekend and Easter! 

Mommy…Well where is it?
Bella…I don’t know
Mommy….did you swallow it?
Bella…I think sooooooooooo  *and then insert bursting into tears here*

The tooth was so loose and Jacki was trying to get her to pull it out the other night but she was having none of that.  So she was eating her cereal and it just fell out.  It didn’t even bleed that’s how ready it was to come out. 

So I finally calmed her down and told her that everything would be ok. She was just really upset because she wanted to keep all of her teeth.  The tooth fairy still brings her money but she leaves her teeth. 

I took her to school and told her teacher that she was upset and her teacher told me that she had a special paper that she could take home and leave for the tooth fairy so she would still know that her tooth fell out.   She came home with this…

I love Ms. Judy, she just makes everything ok again! 

I found this site today…BLIK and I’m pretty sure I need to get some!  You can move them too.  So Cool!

Also wanted to invite anyone and everyone out there in scrapbooking blog land to join the Scrapbook Dimensions Magazine new social network.  Come meet other hybrid scrapbookers, hang out, ask questions, find your friends…it’s free, it’s fun and it’s addicting. 

Doing some scrappy shopping tomorrow with some girlfriends so hopefully I’ll have lots of goodies to use when I come home. 

Happy Birthday to me! I keep thinking today of one of my favorite conversations from my most favorite movie of all time….see if you can guess what movie it’s from…

S:  No, no, no, I drove him away. AND, I’m gonna be forty.

 H: When?

S:  Someday.

H:  In eight years.

S:  But it’s there. It’s just sitting there, like some big dead end. And
it’s not the same for men. Charlie Chaplin had kids when he was 73.
H:  Yeah, but he was too old to pick them up.

Man I love that movie and I think I’m gonna have to watch that one today and maybe even make Carey watch it with me.  LOL  Carey scheduled a Bonsai class today with some famous Bonsai master and is gone all day.   Bella is at my mom’s hanging out and here I sit at home by myself, I get to watch whatever I want on TV (and right now that would be Robin Hood: Men in Tights LOL), maybe scrap…that very rarely happens so it’s nice.   

Last night Carey did take me to a very cool restaurant called Gyu-Kaku over at Victoria Gardens which is a Japanese BBQ where they have little grills in your table and you cook your own food.  I ran across it on a fluke, just looking for somewhere to go.  We decided to get the most expensive platter of meat which consisted of 3 different kinds of Kobe beef, Filet Mignon, Chicken and Shrimp, then we added in Japanese sausage, some butter fish, sauteed mushrooms, vegetables and garlic rice…OMG YUM!  And whatever meat you liked they would bring out more….it was unlimited and there was also an unlimited sushi bar with rolls and other stuff too.  We ate SOOOOO much food and I felt like I was waddling out of there.  There were so many things about this place that were just absolutely fabulous.  They had 80’s music playing and not the cheesy 80’s music…like INXS, Men At Work, The Bangles, Talking Heads…yeah totally cool.  Then as if cooking meat on the grill wasn’t cool enough for dessert they had smores to cook!  Although I was too full of meat to eat smores so we had to forgo that bit of heaven unfortunately….had I known that I wouldn’t have had another serving of filet mignon.   Carey and I tried to eat our $90 worth of Kobe beef and I think we did.

Friday night we had the Burris’ over and cooked some Greek food and Jacki showed up with a Mud Pie birthday cake for me which was just completely awesome and yummy! 

So turning 36 isn’t so bad even though 40 IS just right around the corner…I have so many loving people in my life and have had a great time so far so heres to another wonderful 36+ years! 

So last night Carey and I were downstairs watching all of his Tivo’d shows on TV and we hear Bella upstairs dancing around and making quite a ruckus!  She comes downstairs and tells us that she has something to show us.  Something that she drew on her art easel.  So we go upstairs and this is what we saw…I have labeled it according to what she told us everything was.  She’s got quite the imagination that girl!  Although they have been talking about and reading about teeth at school lately so now she’s brushing and flossing like crazy.

And I will leave you with a photo of the "manland Jam" that occured this weekend in our garage. This corner of our garage is multi-functional.  It’s beer making, drum playing, bass guitar painting, guitar playing, beer drinking territory.  That’s Andy on the Drums, Carey on the Bass and Heditty aka "Japan Man" on the guitar…oh and Jacki was singing some No Doubt for a while too! HeeHee  It was LOUD, it was FUN!  Good thing we have cool neighbors.