love my simple home

2017 March Calendar Free Printable

February 27, 2017,

Hi friends, I hope you are enjoying the free monthly printable calendars here at Love My Simple Home. I started making them in January and will continue throughout the year creating one a month. Each calendar features an original photograph taken by me. Make sure to come back at the end of each month to get yours! Here is the 2017 March calendar free printable.

There is a lot going on in March with St. Patrick's day, daylight savings time, and the first day of spring! Click on the link to download and print your free calendar.

please note: All printables and downloads designed by Love My Simple Home are for PERSONAL USE ONLY. Please do not alter the file or claim it as your own. This file is not intended for resale, nor are the printed versions of this file.

Click here for the 2017 March Calendar

Natural Cleaning Recipes

February 16, 2017, in DIY, Recipes

Why spend a fortune on cleaning products that are made with toxic chemicals when you can make your own natural cleaner using a few simple ingredients. Combined in various ways, common household items like lemons and white vinegar work just as well as the most expensive cleaning products on the market.

Today I want to share with you two natural cleaning recipes that I use in my own home. Plus a free natural cleaning recipe printable and printable labels for your bottles. I hope you will try these natural cleaners and end up loving them as much as I do!

NATURAL CLEANING INGREDIENTS:

White Vinegar

Fresh Lemon Juice or Bottled

Lavender essential oil or you can use lemon or orange essential oil

Olive oil or grapeseed oil

natural-cleaning-recipes-lovemysimplehome.com

My most used cleaner is an all-purpose cleaner, great for all kinds of hard surfaces. I use it to clean my kitchen countertop, kitchen, and bathroom sinks, and the glass shelves in my refrigerator. This natural cleaner is also good for cleaning windows and spot cleaning floors.

ALL PURPOSE CLEANER RECIPE

One part white vinegar to one part lemon juice ( I use 1/2 cup vinegar to 1/2 cup lemon juice)

5-10 drops of essential oil

Mix and store in a clean spray bottle

Start by squeezing the lemons. You can squeeze a bunch and store the juice for when you make another batch of cleaner. Or you can purchase bottled lemon juice, this way you will always have it on hand. Just make sure it is pure lemon juice. Amazon has a really good selection.

Pour the squeezed lemon juice in a measuring cup using a colander to strain the pulp.

Pour a 1/2 a cup of the lemon juice and 1/2 a cup of white vinegar into a clean spray bottle.

Add about 5-10 drops of the lavender oil

Shake the spray bottle to mix the ingredients.

Now grab a sponge and make your home sparkle.

FURNITURE POLISH RECIPE

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon of olive oil or grapeseed oil ( I used olive oil)

3-5 drops essential oil ( I used lavender)
Mix and store in a clean spray bottle

Click here to download your free natural cleaning recipe

You can print it letter size and save in a binder for referencing or print it 5 x 7 inches to put in a frame and place it on your kitchen counter. Either way, I hope you love these cleaning recipes as much as I do! Oh, don't forget to download the labels below to place on your bottles.

Click here to download free cleaning labels

Furniture Flip-Farmhouse Ladder

February 09, 2017, in repurpose/upcycle

I have this thing for farmhouse ladders! Every time I see a farmhouse ladder on Pinterest or in a magazine I know I have to have one!

furniture-flip-farmhouse-ladder-lovemysimplehome

See how a broken-down TV tray gets a simple makeover in this furniture flip.

Have you heard the saying a cat has nine lives? Well, this wooden TV tray has three! I found two TV trays on the side of the road and gave them a new life with paint and stencils. You can read that post here Stenciled Number Trays.

One of the TV trays broke and stayed in my workroom for a really long time! One day I decided to flip it into a farmhouse serving tray. Here is the post on that Farmhouse Serving Tray-DIY

Now For The Final Flip:

After the TV tray was flipped into a farmhouse serving tray I was left with the bottom part that looked very much like a ladder to me. I became very excited because I knew I could flip this piece into one of those farmhouse ladders that I love so much!

I removed the two attached legs on the side of the TV tray. As you can see from the picture below I was left with an extra-long dowel. This was an easy fix. I removed the dowel by slipping it through the two holes and used a hand saw to cut the dowel to size. Then I covered the two holes with wood putty.

Now it looks like a farmhouse ladder

Next, I painted the ladder with white chalk paint. I used homemade chalk paint.

It is the easiest chalk paint recipe I know of.

1 cup latex paint

1/4 cup baking soda

mix well

apply one-two coats

You can also find the recipe by clicking on this link Simple Chalk Paint Recipe.

Now, this once unloved piece is a treasured focal point in my room!

Dreamy White Bench

February 02, 2017, in DIY

Hi friends, I'm so glad you stopped by! Today I will show you how to tweak a bench by replacing the fabric. I purchased this dreamy white bench a while back before I started blogging. It wasn't so dreamy when I purchased it. It was brown and the upholstery was dark and dirty. Sorry, there are no before pictures of it in its dreary state.

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Below is a picture of the first big change to this bench. I painted it white and covered it with a yellow and red floral print. I thought it would look pretty in front of the window in my daughter's bedroom. Once I placed it there I realized it needed a tweak.