How To Get Dog Smell Out Of Carpet

As ya'll know we have 2 big dogs and a cat. Deigo is 5 years old and Coal uses the litter box but ole Tucker is only 7 months old. He has had way too many accidents on the carpet. Plus Reeves has spilled many sippy cups. We have a steam cleaner so our carpet doesn't "look" terrible... well as long as you come after I've cleaned them.

But the smell is still there! My biggest fear is someone is going to come in our house and only smell dog! Plus, Reeves is always playing on the floor and the thought of him smelling it is too much for me to handle!

Here's what I do:

FIRST, I vacuumed the floors REALLY good. I vacuumed in the direction I normally do, then I vacuumed in the opposite direction. German Shepherds have 2 coats, so in the spring & summer Deigo is constantly shedding hair! I look forward to the fall and winter when he has his winter coat! Normally I vacuum twice before steam cleaning, otherwise my cleaner would get clogged!!

SECOND, I get my steam cleaner ready. I use Bissell pet stain and you can get it HERE. I clean the carpets. This step will get the stains off the carpet, but not the smell.

THIRD, a week later, after the carpets have dried completely, I repeat the first step. Then I mix a white vinegar mixture. I fill half the tank with white vinegar, I add 1 cup of the Bissell, 3 Tbsp blue Dawn and fill it the rest of the way with water.

FORTH, I clean the carpets again. I usually do this step once a month while I only clean for stains when needed.

Fabric Napkin

I don't know if its a southern thing but I LOVE FABRIC NAPKINS!! When I was growing up thats the only napkin we used at my grandmother's... we still use the same ones!!

My aunt (the laundry Queen) made me some for Christmas a few years ago but they were mostly holiday ones. I wanted some everyday ones, and so did my mom. We decided to buy fabric together and share it!

Off to Hancocks we went... and we got a little crazy! We kept finding fabric we LOVED!! I bought some Ole Miss fabric from a friend for $5! I also had some left over sock monkey fabric from Reeves' nursery. I brought both of those to add to my collection of napkins.

We bought 6 different fabrics (yes, I know there is 7 in the picture below. One is for Reeves's birthday party.. that's another post). We bought 2 yards of each to share. We got between 14-16 napkins from those 2 yards.

Here is what we used. We also used a singer serger like THIS one.... only my grandmother's is about 20 years old!

First we had to decide how to fold it to get the most napkins at the size we wanted. This was the hardest part!

We finally decided to fold equally three times and cut then we repeated. Until we had 6 long strips then we cut the napkins to size. We always had a little extra.

We used a rotary cutter  and a mat.

I tried to use the rotary cutter and I barely cut the top layer. So I knew this couldn't be my job!

So I passed the job on my mom. She cut the fabric with the rotary cutter but had to go over each layer a few times to get it to cut. Finally we decided my grandmother's rotary cutter was dull! 

So my grandmother took over. She cut all 6 layers of fabric in ONE swipe! Clearly she found her job for the project!!

Yay! We finally had a product that looked like a napkin!!!

Now on to the serger! I knew I wanted to sew, but I had never used a serger before.  My grandmother gave me a quick lesson! First she had to change the thread. I zoned out on this boring step. Oops!

Testing the new thread. Below is my mom (in the pink) and grandmother.

Finally I got to sew! 

The first one!!!!!!!

We cut out and sewed napkins for 2 days and still didn't finish!!!

My grandmother and I working away. Like my headband?!

These are the napkins we finished and I brought home. I had to leave 2 fabrics at my grandmother for her to finish serging around the edges. 

They have a special drawer to live in!!!!

We use them every night at dinner!! I LOVE THEM!!!!! 

Jake and the Neverland Pirates Birthday Party

Reeves will be 3 July 3rd! I can not believe my baby will be 3!!!

He LOVES Jake and the Neverland Pirates! It was only fitting to do that as his theme this year. I knew we wanted to have it our house and since it's so hot outside we wanted to let the kids go outside and swim (in a kid pool).

We'll start with the cake. I got my inspiration from a picture I saw on pinterest... but for the life of me I can't find it!! I used 2 boxes of white cake mix, 4 tubs of white icing and red & blue M&Ms.

To put the M&Ms inside: I put down one cake then cut holes into 2 of the cake's centers then put the last cake on top. 

Clearly I'm not a professional cake decorator... but for my sweet 3 year old... I think it turned out okay. It was good... and that's what matters... right?

Since we are talking about cake.. let me show you what I did with food. The party was at 2 so we just had a few snacks...

Pirate ships-
 Its blue jello, whip cream, and orange slices. I made sails to look like Bucky's sails on the show.

Fruity Booty-

  We went to our local farmer's market Saturday morning and got fresh watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew and blueberries. There was none left after the party! It was so good and fresh!

Shark Bait-

   Colorful gold fish. 

Cannon Balls-

  Whoopers, The only people that ate them was Reeves and his friend Braden. They ate them like they were going out of style.

Caribbean Sea Water-

  Blue tropical punch (1 gallon) and sprite (2 litter). 

I made Reeves his own little birthday cake... Which he didn't eat. He was way too busy! haha

I love my kitchen window, but it's horrible when taking pictures in front of it! Boo. Did you notice all the gold and silver on the table? I spray painted rocks, but more on that later.

Now lets talk about the decorations....

Did you know on pinterest you can download free fonts? I found the Jake and the Neverland Pirate font so I used it for a lot of my decorations! 

Here is his Happy Birthday sign!

For the favors I found gold coins (chocolate) and rolos. It looks like a bag gold gold. I also made a fan of Reeves' face. I made one last year for his 2 year birthday... guess I'm starting something.

I put them in a treasure chest I found at walmart!

On the invitations, it said to look for the X that marks the spot.... it was our house!

Last year, I made Reeves his own birthday cake for the door (BTW, Sweet Grass sells them... check us out) I also made 2- 3s for the windows. Just in case someone forgot how old he was turning!

The kiddos dug for treasure in this sand box we made. I spray painted rocks, dog bones, and Easter eggs. I also found diamonds from Joanne's. My mom & Aunt had the necklaces. 

I made a banner of pictures from Reeves' 2nd year of life. I also decided to make Reeves's party its own hashtag! haha. #reevesisthree

I made Reeves a Jake and the Neverland Pirates outfit. I didn't do a tutorial,  Sorry. I used 2 tshirts from Walmart. 

I decided I wanted to do a Photo Booth, they are so fun! My brother had one at his wedding and it was a hit!! I decided to do a mock Polaroid as the frame... I found a bunch of great pirate things. A friend gave her son a pirate themed party a few months ago so she sent a few extra things she had! Here are so examples...

(We forgot to take our picture so we took it that night)

I printed everybody's photos, cut the frame out so it "looks" like a Polaroid. I wrote a thank you note on the back and mailed them. I think that is my favorite project from the whole party. 

Here are some candid pics from the party....

(Guess our singing wasn't very good. haha)

(Blowing the candles out!)

(Reeves kept passing out his gifts to everybody...silly boy)

(Playing with Charlie)

(Silly Ashley)

(Aunt Alex, the toddler whisperer, with Reeves & Braden)

(Me and Becca)

(Reeves, Shelby, Becca & Braden)

(Reeves and Braden)

(My sister-in-laws Raigin and Alex)

(The Walley's... Stephanie, Jacob and Sailor)

(Miss Sailor)

(Playgroup moms... Stephanie, Shelby & Becca)

(Charlie play TBall)

(The party)

(Sailor Bean playing in the sandbox)

(Braden watching the crazies)

(The birthday boy)

I think Reeves had a pretty awesome party. I can't believe my baby is 3!!!!