Acrylic paint remover

Our tenant damaged our rental property and left a lot of garbage in the house and acrylic paint in the restroom and laundry area. It left a very ill feeling in my stomach to ever rent again. And don’t ever be nice to them if you ever decided to sue them for anything. They turn around and do you a big favor.

As we decided to sell the rental property and move on with our lives, we have to fix it up to working conditions and clean it up. One of the hardest things is to remove acrylic pain from tiles. It’s hot pink in color. They sure do not look good on bathroom tiles and on washer and dryer.

I did some research online on how to remove pain from anything. I had no idea what kind of paint they were but figure they are acrylic for T-shirt printing paints. And suggestions were made to use the following mixture to remove acrylic paints.

2 part ammonia
2 part white vinegar
1 part salt

Mix the ingredients well and then spray on the paint and leave it overnight. Since the property is 2 hours away, I did not want to wait overnight or stay over at a hotel for this. I let the mixture stay on the paint for about an hour or so and then I start scouring. At first it was the smaller spots that came off easily. After scouring with hot water on a heavy duty scotch brite scouring pad with my thumb and finger, I tried the paint scrapper and it worked really well. The paint came off easily.

I am very please with the result. It took me about 2 hours and $3 to clean this mess. The property looks much better and it’s ready for the market. I am not sure if the market is ready for this.

Christmas tree and the meaning of holidays?

We bought a small table top Christmas tree just to have it for our first child last year. As of today, we still haven't gotten a chance to get it out of the box and put it up. I question the purpose of it. Do I have to be a Christian to celebrate Christmas? I am not even a Christain.

What is the meaning of holidays? I realized my husband has been doing a lot of get together around the holidays. They do a lot more than my family. It's actually nice to do some catch up at the end of the year to see how everyone is doing. Our family only get together on special occasions like wedding, big birthday party, funeral. Holidays aren't a big thing for them. And they don't ususally all get together with extend families.

It is nice to have get togethers with extended families once in a while. I guess in my parent's side of the family, they are too focus on making a living. They don't want to give the extra time they have off during the holidays to extended families. They rather rest and spend it with them immediate families. There is nothing wrong with that. It's just makes the extended families a little more distance.

One of the few things I regret not having to learn earlier

Not learning to cook is one of the few things that I am regretting not started earlier in my teens. Have I mentioned this earlier in my blog? I believe I have mentioned this earlier.

As the holidays come closer and family get together on my husband side have always have home made food to bring to pot luck dinner get together. I am the one who, for the past few years not have any home made food to bring along. We do take out from some bakery or of some sort. I sure feel guilty about it. I need to step up a little more on the coming year and get some home made food ready.

sewing projects - continue (2 reusable sandwich wraps and a fleece hat)

sewing projects continue - chair covers, cover for basket and dust covers

So much to do, so little time.

more sewing projects - aprons and bookends

This was my first sewing project. I made an apron for myself by coping the pattern from an old apron using the fabric from the sheet set. It turned out not bad. I later, used another old sheet to make an apron for my toddler.











Bookends I made out of random left over fabrics from my parents. I got the patterns from a book that I took out from the library. I already returned the book to the library so I do not know the title of the book. It's something "25 projects..." The bookends are filled with rice. There were stencils of a happy face and a face with touge sticking out. I didn't do the stencils because I don't have the tools to make them and I don't want to invest too much on it. Thus they are plain. They do look cute with ears. Good enough for me.

I also made some window draft dodgers and a door draft dodger as well. They are not filled because I do not have enough rice. I will fill them up before we need them in the winter.

Here are 2 of my sewing projects

A sling to carry stainless steel water bottles with sports cap. I think this is a 25 or 27 oz bottle. This is actually my second project. My first project was an apron. I'll post that later.
















I purchased a yard of polyester fabric and cut into smaller than normal size napkins. I have some 9" x 9" and some 8"x8" and maybe some 10"x9" because I cut them by scissor and not by rotary cutter. It's more manageable to hand wash with smaller napkins.



The orange napkin is the orange napkins which I purchased in Century 21 Department store a while back and they were too big (20"x20") so I cut into quarters and make 4 napkins out of one large one. It's a lot more manageable to hand wash. They are about 8"x8" to 9"x9". They do not look like you buy them in stores but they do the job at home.

More project pictures to come later.

Sewing Projects

It’s been a while since I last updated my blog. I’ve been busy working on sewing projects which I found myself passionate about. It’s been hot and humid and sometimes have some nice weather in between, we did have some family outings. With a toddler, time is a very limited resource.

As I said, I found myself passionate about sewing. Well, it’s not just any sewing project. There have been things that needed to be fix around the house for a while. I did not have a sewing machine at home at the time so everything have to taken over to my parents place to be fixed because they have an industrial sewing machine at home. With a toddler, I don’t have the time to go there. Plus, their place is not child proof. It makes these projects forever not able to do.

Hence, we invested on a basic home sewing machine. With my lack of knowledge on different fabrics, I’ve been reading clothing labels and feel the different fabrics before buying any for my projects. I spend a few hours one day in Joann’s fabric store just to look through the different fabrics.

I’ll share some of my finish projects later.

Long Beach Island, NJ over the weekend

One of the few exciting things happened to me over the weekend. My husband and I left our daughter with my mother and we went to a private beach, Long Beach, NJ upon invitation from family as a family reunion location this year.

It’s been a while since we were on vacation. Last time we were on vacation was in September 2009. It’s almost been a year but it seems a lot longer when you are home with a toddler.

There are actually two Long Beach in the east coast, one of them in Long Island, NY and the other one in NJ. The one in NJ is private. I’m not sure about the Long Island one where a recent 12 year old who drown happened in Long Beach, Long Island, NY during a class trip. A heart-felt sympathy goes out to the victim’s family and friends.

Long Beach, NJ is about 2 hours away from NYC - 100 miles from Brooklyn. I don’t know if there are public parking around but there might. Our family reunion was in a private house which one of the distance family members has for the weekend. I’m not sure if it’s rented or it’s from someone related. All those houses have three floors. The floor has nothing because it’s close to the water, it’s intended it might get flooded. The second floor has bedrooms and bathroom(s). And then the third floor has a living room, office space, a bathroom, a kitchen and a patio with BBQ grills. It’s overlooking the ocean. It’s absolutely beautiful when the sun sets.
This house equip with an elevator. My husband was curious and we got on it for a ride. We couldn’t find the switch for the light inside the elevator so we were riding in the dark from the ground floor to the third floor. He got it kick out of this. And when we finally got up there, he looked for the switch and he found the hidden switch.

I overheard one of the family members that he’ll be coming back to this beach because he got invited by someone else (in a different beach house of course) and he said the houses right next to the beach costs about $12,000.00 for a week. When I got home, I told my mother about how much those beach houses next to the water costs for a one weekly rental, she opened her mouth in surprised. When I heard it, I was in shock how much it costs too. I know it costs a lot but $12,000.00 is A LOT.

We had a great time there. I love the part when a driver stopped for us and had his/her hands out to have other cars behind him/her to stopped for us when we cross to street to go to the beach. It’s courtesy that you do not see in NYC. From the many books that I’ve read about the rich, it’s very common for the rich to be courtesy (not all). And I believe that’s one of the many reasons they are where they are.

When I was younger, I used to love going to the beach and get burn. As I get older, I do mind getting burn. I don’t mind getting a little tan but sitting under the sun and getting skin cancer. I don’t like that anymore. Do I still dream of one day owning a house by the beach? I don't think so. I might prefer something/somewhere else.

Tracking Expenses Manually (inspired by frugaldad’s blog)

A while back, I attempted to write down all expenses on a daily basis for 1 week. I believe I did spoke to my husband about it and he agreed to do that. It was an eye opened for both of us. I believe I’ve used excel to track that.

After reading frugaldad’s blog, I attempt to do it one more time. However, this time, we’ll log our expenses manually and we’ll do it for 1 month (my husband agree to do it for a month). I am excited that he agrees to do it. It’s not easy convincing one’s spouse and I’m sure some of you know what I am talking about.

My first response was trying to get 13 columns columnar paper from Staples or ebay because it’s a lot neater to track anything that way. I would keep double entry on the ledger. After reading some of the comments in frugaldad’s blog, I decided to just use spiral notebook which I have many on hand which I purchased them last year or the year before (before school year started). It was very cheap to get those spiral notebooks. It might be 10-20 cents each for 70 pages. I will have a 4 columns on each pager, they will be 1) date 2) description 3) expense category 1 4) expense category 2. I have about 8-9 categories of expenses and will take 3 pages both back and front. At the end of the month, I will tally up at the end of the page. And I will do this for all the months (if my husband decided to do this all the way through the year till 6/30/2011). We’ll sit down and look at the numbers each month and discuss it.

I’m excited! And I can’t wait to start officially on July 1st.

Planting herbs

Last year, I started some herb plants at home. I spent some amount of money on a light, pots and soil. It didn’t work out that well because it brought bugs. I’m not sure if it was the soil or the air. We tried different soil and try other methods of killing the bugs but it was not successful and I finally had to give up on them.

I did planted basil and parsley outdoors during the summer months and it worked great. The basil was very easy to plant either indoors or outdoors but outdoors definitely beat indoors. I had so much basil that I froze them with olive oil and kept in cubes in the freezer. I still have a lot in the freezer that I haven’t gotten a chance to use. I think it’s time to throw them out.

This year I am planting the basil again but I am not planting too many of them. I only have 2 basil plants and they are working well consider I only use basil every once in a while.

I wish the parsley plants are doing much better but they are not. Parsley doesn’t grow as fast as basil and I love fresh parsley in my salads and juice.

Emergency kit for auto and/or home in case of natural disaster, terror attack, hurricane, fire and etc…

I’ve been busy preparing for an emergency kit for auto and home. I’ve checked out some websites (one of them is the American Red Cross) on what is needed in first aid kit and in emergency kits. Since having a toddler at home makes me unable to go out as free as one pleases, I have order most of the stuff online. I got them through ebay.com, amazon, dealextreme.com and etoncorp.com. It’s been fun shopping and waiting for products to arrive in the mail. It feels like someone is sending me a gift everyday. I wait for the mailman to drop it off and see what is in the package. It certainly feels like gifts from the mailman except they are paid for from my bank account.

My emergency is still in the process of completion. I ordered some items from oversea and they are taking at least 2 weeks to get here.

It certainly feels good to have a kit ready in case of emergency. I hope I don’t ever have to use it.

International Students vs us – two different worlds

One day I was lying in bed with my toddler and I remember those good old days in college. I remember I used to work part-time and went to school full-time. I had no time for dating. Then there were students who always have so much time for fun and didn’t have to work.

Those were students that came from family that give them everything. They didn’t have to work part-time like I did. They always seem to have so much fun. They shop and dressed nice. They date and always have a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Oh those good old days!

They were international students whom have parents own hotels or businesses overseas and wrote them checks to pay for their rent, school, food and clothing. And on spring break or summer vacation, they always have plans to go somewhere.

Boy, what a different world we lived in.

So my friend and I was talking one day over the phone about one of her co-worker or ex-co-worker who didn’t have to worry about how much rent they are paying because her parents bought a place for her. My friend and I just working to make ends meet.

What a different world we live in.

After realizing we are living in two different worlds, we both sighed and move on with life!

Balancing Life Update

Back on 2/5/2010, I posted on my blog about balancing life and with 10 different categories which I took note of from the body and soul magazine. I haven’t really practice it until I notice tax date is due and a quarter of the year is gone and my life is not balance.

Everyday I wake up and seems to run around doing everyday chore feeding baby, entertain baby, cooking, cleaning, food shopping, pediatrician, paying bills, more feeding, cooking, food shopping etc…

So I decided to check off the month (rather weekly) of April for the 10 categories that is listed on balancing life. So far, I have done 8 out of the 10 categories and leaving community, dreams and goals not done anything at all. And this makes it clear that I am not living my life by my values.

There are a few very important items on my to-do list (in spreadsheet as I mentioned on my 8/30/2009) that have been lingering for the longest time. I have been ignoring them because I have been putting a lot of time into my everyday chores. Since checking off the categories on balancing life, I started taking action on those items. I do my everyday chores but I make sure I get started on those important to-do items. I finished one of them yesterday in one day. I started another one today but I got stuck. I am intent to finish this within the next 2 weeks.

This seems to work for me. Do my everyday chores; get started on a very important to-do item each day. And if I can’t finish it, I make sure I finish it within a time frame before going to the next one. I make sure I don’t start too many projects/to-do items. Otherwise, time and energy is wasted and nothing gets done.

Tax Date

Have your done your personal income tax yet? It’s due today. Your tax return must be postmarked by midnight today.

Have you heard of the term “tax freedom date”? If not, it was April 9 this year. You should check it out online and educate yourself.

Clutter and Depression

Recently I’ve been feeling depressed. I notice part of it is because of the clutter from incoming mails. I found myself doing too much with the incoming mails – especially the bills…I pay them, sort them, scan them, file them and then shred them and only keep the last three months in filing cabinet. All in all it’s a lot of steps. When I was ready to shred them, I have to take time to go to the filing cabinet to pull them out for shredding.

My husband and I finally come to an agreement to just keep important documents such as tax returns, insurance documents (life, auto, disability) and only keep the most recent bills that come in in one folder. So when bills arrive, I would pay them, scan them and then shred the previous month and only keep the current bill (in case we need the information when our computer is down or power is out). All of this saves me a lot of time looking into the filing cabinet and only keep the last 3 months of bills.

It’s been a little over a month and it is working very well.

Recipes

I have been collecting recipes from TV shows, magazines, books and newspaper. The recipe binder is getting dense. However, I have not been able to try any of the recipes that I have collected. Here I am struggling with the role of being a mother, wife, and a homemaker. I can’t cook one thing well from all of the recipes that I have collected.

One day, I remember the quote “a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”. So I decided to just try 1 or 2 recipes and make sure I know them well and cook them without looking at the recipe (able to recite the ingredients). Almost every cook has a favorite dish or a specialty…and so I should have one to call it my own as well. This mentality began my cooking journey.

One of my husband’s favorite food is pizza and one of mine is noodle soup. So, it was no-brainer to start with those two recipes. I have not collected them from tv shows, magazines, books or newspaper so I went to youtube.com and found them.

I got to learn to make dough from scratch and make with wheat flour and put our favorite toppings. I even made pizza sauce from scratch which is something I normally buy in the supermarket for my pasta.

In my chicken noodle soup, the flavor was wonderful but I added vegetables to make it even tastier the second time around.

Overall, I tried the two recipes twice so far and my second time was better than my first. There is still room for improvements. And we are having these two dishes every weekend. I make sure I have the ingredients at home for these two dishes before the weekend comes. My husband loves the virtue that I am creating.

When I perfect these two recipes to my liking, I will add on 1 or 2 more recipes to my brain. In the mean time, I have two other dishes that I have been making for my husband for lunch (to take to work) and our dinner.

Playing the roles of a mother, wife and a homemaker

My parents used to work late till 7pm. They got home around 8pm and then they would start cooking for dinner for all (5) of us. We always have late dinners and after we eat, we stay up a little while and off to bed.

I don’t know how my mother used to do it. She worked 6 (sometimes 7) days a week and when she got home she still had to prepare food for us. I got spoiled that’s why I never learned to cook on my own.

Now that I have my own family, I am not working but I am not able to do half of what she used to do.

Right now, I stay home full time with my 1 year old toddler, I can’t seem to manage to take care of a toddler and cook some decent food for us (and maybe lunch for my husband to take to work).

An update on our usage of cloth napkins

It’s probably been a few weeks since we turn to use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. It has been working wonderfully. In the beginning, I washed them every meal but later I notice that sometimes we hardly use the napkin so we reuse for another meal before washing. It sounds gross but it’s not. Remember cloth napkins are generally 20x20 inches and they are fold up when we use them. If I wipe my month on just one of the many folds and it’s not dirty or greasy, it’s pointless to wash it.

I haven’t asked if my husband likes it better but he notice we are not using much of the paper napkin that we have. It is a wonderful change for the better.

Low budget napkins - going green

I’ve been reading 2 magazines and how they say to go green as much as you can in your own home.

We have decided to buy 100% cotton table napkins for us (when we have guests come over, we’ll use paper napkins/tissues).

Normally, we buy a whole pack of short size 3000 1-ply Kimberly-Clark dispenser napkins from Costco that costs $12.69. I have no idea of how long that lasts us (probably 2 packs per year) but we do use a lot of napkins.

We purchased 6 cotton table napkins (they cost $1.99 each at Century 21 department store – after checking all other napkins online and in this department store, this one seem to be thin (easy to dry), reasonably price and I prefer cotton over polyester) so that my husband and I can test them out and we intend to wash them after each meal. They are thin cotton napkins and they take about 2 hours to dry. It works pretty well so far. We will try for a week or two and if they are working well, we will get a few more napkins just in case we get too busy and unable to wash them right after dinner (after all dishes are done).

The Bachelor Show

I’ve been watch the bachelor show since the season where that guy didn’t pick anyone at the end. That was probably 2 years ago or so?

Whether the people go on the show for fame, for love or for both, they are exposing themselves to the world…hoping one way or the other can find some kind of fame or love.

This season, the bad experience these women experienced reminds me of those good old dating days. Only afterwards, one will learn if someone smells like someone they used to date, RUN!!! Don’t waste anytime and energy. Most of the time, when you are in the situation, you don’t see it and you hope that things will change if you give it a little more time. And then more time was given and nothing changed. Then you realized “oh my godsh, what am I doing? I need to snap out of it and get on with my life even though this is going to hurt really bad.”

Balancing Life

I come across an article (from the Martha Stewart's body+soul magazine Feb 2010) on balancing one’s life by writing down the categories and then check them on a weekly basis so that at the end of the year you wouldn’t wonder what have happened to you…that you didn’t spend anytime building your relationship with your friends or extended families etc…

Here are the categories one reader listed.

Exercise & nutrition:
Spouse & child(ren):
extended family:
friends:
community:
career:
dreams & goals:
home organization:
Learning:
exploring:

I also particularly like what a few other readers write:

A. instead of crashing in on Friday night, do all chores like laundry, food shopping and organizing so that you have the entire 2 days of the weekend to do what you please to do. I might do this once in a while and not every weekend.

B. take a day in the middle of the week off or take a long weekend once in a while to spend time with family or to catch up with other things in your life. I particularly like to take Wednesdays off so that I get a break in the middle of the week.

C. Learn to say no to plans that other people have.