Easy, Eco-Friendly Way to Clean Your Coffee Pot

I make coffee every morning. Every. Single. Morning. I don't think I could live without it, actually.
The problem is that I rarely have time to clean my coffee pot. I make my coffee, rinse out the pot, and rush off to class. I get home, change, eat, and go to work. That's my life in a nutshell. So, I obviously don't get much time in between to clean.

Here is an easy way to descale that scary coffee pot! Not only is it EASY, but it's eco-friendly -- no chemicals, no cleaners.


Here is what you need:

• Ice cubes
• Table salt
• A couple of slices of lemon

I would suggest doing this during the daytime....if you're one of those people that cleans the house when the kids are asleep, you shouldn't do this; it's quite noisy.
First, I put the ice into my coffee pot:

I only use 4-5 cubes, just so that the bottom of the coffee pot is covered.

Then, I put the lemon in:

To do this, just sqeeze the lemon slices into the coffee pot.

Last, I pour the salt in:

I REALLY recommend doing it in that order. At least you need to put the salt in last, because if you put the ice in, then the salt, the ice cubes stick and don't go anywhere when you're cleaning it.
To get the coffee pot clean, basically just shake and swirl the coffee pot so that the ice moves all around. The acidity of the lemons helps to lift that yucky scale, and the salt acts as an abrasive, as do the ice cubes. When you are finished, just dump all of the ice, lemons, and salt out, and wash your coffee pot out with warm soap and water.
If your coffee pot is really scaled up, you can repeat the whole process while adding more lemon slices and more salt. This will help to lift the scale.

Happy Cleaning!

Wedding Idea #1: The Candy Table!

My mom and I literally put together my ENTIRE wedding ourselves, minus the flowers and wedding cake! We bought wedding magazine after wedding magazine and researched endlessly to put together the perfect day for my husband and I. Let me tell you, my mom missed her calling for wedding planning and interior design! 

We didn't want our guests waiting forever for us at the reception while we stopped and took photos, so my mom came up with an awesome idea -- set up a candy table.  We bought Hershey's Kisses in silver and red (my wedding colors were red and dark orange), lolly pops, candy canes, mints, gum balls, and a TON more candy, including personalized M&M's with our names and wedding date. It was a huge hit. We went to Michael's and found apothecary jars to put the candy in, and we also put a few Kisses on the table with our tags (shown later in this blog). Here are some pictures of the candy table:

Copyright August Light Photography

Copyright August Light Photography

Copyright August Light Photography

How we made the tags:

We did a label template in Microsoft Word, picked the font type, color, etc. and printed it onto glossy photo paper. Then, we glued the glossy paper onto some scrapbook cardstock (which I think we found at Michael's also), then punched a hole through it, tied a ribbon through the hole, and glued a flat-backed pearl onto the hole so you couldn't see it. (We found the ribbon and the pearls at Michael's as well.)

This was an easy and fun way to keep guests entertained while the wedding party took photos. It's great for any occasion: birthday, anniversary, or even just a small get together!