Cleaning tip--white heat marks & Next year I'm using a tarp...

Good Morning!  Is everyone ready for the big day?  Are you beginning to feel the "I've got so much to do and it's only a week away" feeling in your stomach yet?  Well if you have company coming for the holiday, and your worried about how things look, then this next cleaning tip may come in handy.

White Heat Marks and Water Rings on Wood Furniture: If the wood has a good finish (don't try on bare wood), mix equal parts of baking soda and regular white, non-gel toothpaste. Lightly dampen corner of a clean, soft white cloth with water and dip into the paste. With circular motion gently buff the marks for a few minutes. Wipe area clean, and buff to a shine. Follow with furniture polish. (If rings remain after buffing five minutes or so, they may have penetrated the wood; you might have to refinish the piece). If that doesn't work, dip a cloth in vegetable oil, then in cigarette ashes, then rub it over the mark. Another method is to rub real mayonnaise onto the stain, allow to sit overnight, then wipe with a dry towel.

Well, I haven't started in on the heavy duty cleaning yet.  Just another thing, among the many, that I yet have to do.  However, last night Daddy, Rylie and I did do some cookie decorating.  It was hilarious!  I've decided that next year I'm just throwing a plastic tarp down.  We talked about this with Rylie the day before when I made the cookie dough up ahead of time.  So by the time last night arrived Rylie was ready to go.

I got the dough out and rolled it out and we let Rylie pick out the cookie cutters and showed her how to press the pattern.  She'd then take the excess bit and try to press them back onto the rolled out dough.  I showed her how to put them into a pile so we could re-ball them and roll them out again.  She then proceeded to pick up a bit of the flour off the counter and throw it at Daddy.  She thought it was hilarious.  We just laughed and had a great time with her.

We, finally, got the cookies all cut out and baked and were ready to go.  I decided to make lots and lots of icing since we usually run out of one, or another, color.  I put out spoons and butter knifes to ice the cookies.  Rylie was having so much fun.  Daddy and I decided this sure was a good way to help our wee one improve upon those fine motor skills.

Rylie then showed us that there was a much easier way to ice the cookies.  She dunked the whole cookie into the bowl of icing.  LOL  Then we heard "Oops, sooorry".  We looked and she had thoroughly...and I mean thoroughly, coated one of her cookies with colored sugar.  It looks like someone is going to get a real sugar buzz when they eat our Christmas cookies.

Usually, messiness makes me uptight and antsy.  However, I was having too much fun watching Rylie have so much fun to worry about the mess.  And believe me it was a real mess.  When I went to clean up I just grabbed a spatula and began scraping down the counter.  There was probably almost enough icing to cover a small cake.  LOL

Here are a couple pictures of our princess having her fun.  The border of the picture is a repeating tile of a picture of a tray of the cookies.

See those eyes in the bottom picture?  I think someone had a bit of a sugar buzz going on.  LOL

Then Daddy and Rylie went into the living room and started dancing to the Christmas music we had playing.

Rylie loves to dance and she especially loves to be dipped.  LOL  She is just too cute, and so was daddy last night.  You can't really see it in this picture...but her little jeans were hardened by the icing all over them.  Maybe next year I'll cover her with a tarp too, or a plastic poncho.  LOL

Have a great day & hugs to all my friends!

Tags: white heat marks, cleaning tip

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