Beauty: Whiter teeth in minutes!

I have found the BEST mouthwash ever so I had to share!

I am seriously obsessed with whitening my teeth. I use strips all the time, toothpastes, mouthwashes, and the list could go on....

For years I have been using the Crest Whitestrips and I love those, still use them often. I will also buy the Target brand white strips and feel those work very well too, especially for the price. Even though I've bought "whitening" toothpastes and mouthwashes as well, I can't give them any credit for whitening my teeth....that is until I found an awesome mouthwash about a month ago!

I ran across a cool little bottle of mouthwash at Target that was by Rembrandt called Deeply White + Peroxide Whitening Mouthwash. Well that for one caught my eye because I knew I hadn't ran across a mouthwash that had hydrogen peroxide in it, so I immediately thought "wow, that probably has some good whitening power!". I'm all about trying anything new that I think will whiten my teeth, so I broke out my phone and looked up some reviews on it. All the reviewers were saying how much they loved this mouthwash, it was the only one of its kind, they noticed results immediately...so on. I got excited, so I snatched it up.

Rembrandt claims that this is the first whitening mouthwash that restores and strengthens tooth enamel while also visibly whitening teeth. The mouthwash starts working on contact due to it's rapid-release liquid peroxide formula.

When I tried this mouthwash for the first time, I was seriously shocked. My teeth were a couple shades whiter just after one use. From using it a month now, I will say that the whitening effects of this mouthwash aren't as long lasting as the whitestrips alone IF you don't use it on a daily basis. If you use this in the morning and at night consistently, your teeth WILL be whiter and the whitening will last...you just have to be consistent with it. My bottle cost about $5 and even after a month I still have a lot left. I will have to agree with Rembrandt and a lot of other fans that this mouthwash is truly one of a kind. I have tried SO many and this is the only one that I have actually seen results from, GREAT results at that. I still use my strips and I believe the two together give me amazing results. So, if you want white teeth fast I would go pick you up a bottle of this and a box of whitening strips and you will be good to go!

If you sign up for Rembrandt's special offers here, you will automatically receive manufacturers coupons that you can print and use towards a purchase of this mouthwash.

**I paid for this product and all opinions are my own.**

Design on a dime: Reupholstering an old ottoman

....and turning an ordinary ottoman into a STORAGE ottoman for less than $20!

Thanks to my cousin Kim and her blog TheDisserKnows, I got a great idea to reupholster my old ottoman that I was debating on throwing out!

I looked around at different ottomans to buy but just couldn't seem to find one that 'fit' me (I wanted one just like my old one). Ottomans are one of my favorite things! In my opinion, they are way cooler than your traditional coffee table. They come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors and some of them even have storage! If you can find a ottoman tray or any kind of tray for that matter that fits your ottoman, you can sit it on top for decor or as a multipurpose hard surface just as you would have with a coffee table. The reason my ottoman is so dear to me is because it is so comfortable and squishy, not to mention it is the perfect size for my living room. I don't like the look of reclining furniture, but I love that I can kick back and use my soft cushioned ottoman as a footrest (much more comfortable than any recliner!). The tray comes in handy for that as well because everything you have on top will be in it so that when you need to use your ottoman for other purposes the tray is easily relocated. My poor ottoman had been through the ringer, there were so many stains on it that no matter how much I cleaned and scrubbed they would not come out. I bought a stretchy cover for it but that didn't look right, so I was just done with this ottoman! One other quality my ottoman was lacking was that it was not a storage ottoman, which is what I really wanted. When I decided I was going to reupholster it, I also decided I was gonna turn my favorite little ottoman into my ultimate favorite ottoman by making it have storage...I was so excited!


This ottoman re-do cost me less than $20!!!!

Materials needed:
-Scissors
-Flathead screwdriver
-Fabric (I used a little less than 2 1/2 yards)
-Staple gun
-Glue gun (optional)
-Thin piece of board cut to the size of ottoman for base of lid (only needed if your turning ottoman into storage ottoman or if your ottoman top needs support for weight)
-Thin piece of board cut to your dimensions for the base of the inside bottom of ottoman (only needed if your turning ottoman into storage ottoman)
-Piano hinge (only needed for storage ottoman)

So here is what I did:

This is what it looked like before, also with the ugly slipcover I bought. I know...gross.

First, I flipped the ottoman over and unscrewed the legs off. I lost patience with using a flathead screwdriver to remove the old staples so I just used scissors to cut all the old fabric off, haha. The fabric on this ottoman was all one piece even though its sewed to look like the top is separate. Once all the old fabric was off, the top cushion was separate from the base. I stretched fabric around cushion evenly and glued the fabric on the under side of the cushion. I recommend putting a thin piece of wood or MDF cut to the size of the ottoman on the underside that you can stretch the fabric over and then staple. This is the only way you can add hinges for the lid to open and close if doing storage and if you use your ottoman as a seat, you will definitely need to do this because with out it, there is no support unless your ottoman already has built in support. For a more detailed look at how to do this, click here. I then cut the corners of the fabric down a little and then folded and tucked one side, pulling down and gluing underneath. I did not do the wood for the lid base yet, but I am going back and doing it...just didn't have the material at the time. Also, my ottoman has a support bar going across as you will see below, but that is being removed after I put the base on the bottom of lid.

For the base, I measured and cut 4 strips of material a little bigger than the width and height of each side. I stretched the material over each side and stapled. When I got to the corners, I did as I did before and cut down the extra material a bit and then folded and tucked under, pulling and stapling material under the base.

I then attached a thin piece of board to the underside of the cushion that I screwed the hinge onto. I recommend doing it this way instead, the way I did it was kind of thrown together because I went back and did it after I had already finished my ottoman. I then stapled a board in the inside bottom of the ottoman that I had cut to the size I needed. Again, click here to see how another person did the inside of theirs for an alternative way.

Here is the finished look...

Well, there you have it! If you have any questions, leave a comment!

**Other blog that I referenced to:  

Running With Scissors (Jessica @ Running With Scissors) / CC BY-NC 3.0

All about me: Let me introduce myself....

 

Hi!

I decided to use my first blog post to introduce myself!

In case you didn't already know, my name is Emily and I am from Richmond, Virginia. I am a single mom and full time college student at Liberty University pursuing a double major in accounting and finance! My son Peyton is about to be five and he is my entire world! I've always been interested in interior design; due to where the economy stands I decided to go to school and get a degree in a field that I know will always be beneficial to me. Once I graduate and get my masters, I plan to go to school again (on the side that is, I plan to be working on my career in accounting!) and pursue interior design somewhere down the road...it's what I enjoy doing!

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a strong willed person. If I put my mind to something, rest assured I WILL do it! I also am a very opinionated person and I will tell you exactly what is on my mind or what I think. Sometimes this gets me in trouble, it is very hard for someone to persuade me to think any differently than what I already think. I am a Christian and I love staying up to date with politics, these are two things that I feel very strongly about and could talk about for hours; however, these are things that I will be leaving OUT of my blog to avoid offending anyone or sparking debates! :)

Speaking of my blog.....I decided to create this blog because I am the type of person that uses the internet for everything! When I am at the store, I almost always am debating on what item to get so I break out my handy little smartphone and bring up Google or Amazon to see what others are saying about a specific item. I can not tell you how much time and money this has saved me! If it has bad reviews then nope...putting that back, if it has tons of raves then I'm good to go! I have so many things that I love that were either great deals or something I just think needs to be shared, so my blog will be that outlet for me! If you have ever heard the saying "ballin' on a budget"...well that's me (at least most of the time, haha). I do splurge every now and again, but what girl doesn't?! ;)

Okay, well I think I've covered the most important things...hope you enjoy my blog!