A Brush With Destiny

As you may have noticed from my previous posts, I'm a big fan of the quick fix.  If something is simple and works in a jiffy I know that i'll get good use out of it.  Recently I have been trying to apply this mindset to my cleaning products as well by slowing but surely going green.  The first recipe I used was this one by Dr. Oz.  It is beyond simple and incorporates one product I will never stop using, my Palmolive Free + Clear.  The smell is heavenly, like fresh cut granny smith apples, and there are no added chemicals so it fits right in with the rest of my new green cleaners!

But I digress, as much as I am loving my new cleaners, sometimes less is more.  I had been noticing a build-up on my tables and floors from the pledge that I had been dusting with, it seemed like whenever anyone even touched my coffee table their finger prints would leave a matte impression.  Not really sure what to do I looked around at what other products I could use to dust that wouldn't leave a film.  That's when I stumbled upon this little gem at my local 99 cent store, a microfiber dusting mitt that was identical to the more expensive brands at target AND picked up every little bit of dust I tried it on in the store.  Yes...I am that girl.  As thrilled as I was with my new purchase, I didn't want it to get tossed into my cleaning supplies and lost in the shuffle so I decided to break out the ribbon and thread.

Don't you love the little pears! I found it in the clearance bin at Michaels and all I could think was, "If Jonathan Adler made ribbon, THIS is what it would look like!"and for $1 I couldn't pass it up.

Now typically I have to prepare myself mentally for sewing projects.  Because I am such a novice I have to abide by the mantra, "measure five times, cut once, tell yourself it's okay and that's why you bought the extra fabric" you get the picture.  But all this little guy needed was a quick stitch.  So I wrapped the ribbon in a U-shape along the back of the elasticized arm band portion and pinned in place.

I wanted to add the ribbon to the back end of the mitt so that I wouldn't snag my finger or ring in it when I put it on.  Also, for those of you who are similarly disinclined toward sewing, using the ribbed ribbon in combination with the lines in the elastic allowed me to get a nice and (relatively) clean stitch line even though it was done by hand.  I used white thread for this project so that the stitches would show up in the photos but you preferably want to use the same color thread as your mitt so it blends from the back.

Like I said...relatively straight :)  Now all that was left to do was hang it in its new home under the sink!

It turned out exactly how I was hoping! I love the yellow pop against the teal, plus it blends right in with my row of decorated adhesive hooks (also from the dollar store!) that you can see how I made here. Let me know what you think and if you have any quick fixes of your own up your sleeve you'd like to share!