An inexpensive trick to make your shoes look new again

It happened by chance a few years ago because I had drank a ton of lattes one day, pumped up on caffeine and tried cleaning every surface in sight. I made my shoes look new again, with a product that I can buy in bulk at Daiso (a Japanese dollar store) for under a few bucks.

Or, you can just pick up a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (too expensive for my liking lol), because it’s the exact same thing. A melamine sponge. Buy one, from wherever you can find it the cheapest.

A quick wipe or two across the white parts of the shoe/sole, and it’s spic’n span again and looks pretty much brand new. When I posted these hand-me-down sneakers that a friend gave me for our baby, I had two people ask me what products I used. Then I left a comment on Anna’s YouTube video about cleaning her vans sneakers. So, I thought that was sufficient enough for a blog post to share with the world lol.. so there ya have it. Go buy yourselves a melamine sponge. I found some here on Amazon (not an affiliate link, just an old school linkity link).

(poor quality, yes, because I screenshotted my IG story from last month. Oops).

Other uses: clean your walls, kitchen cabinets, light switches, desks, white leather chairs, computer cords. It gets rid of the fingerprint buildup dirt. It’s fantastic.

Do note that this probably should only be attempted on white soled shoes. Not your dark leather loafers/etc… I haven’t tried cleaning those with a melamine sponge, and I can only imagine it taking the entire finish off it or something. If you do try and it wasn’t an entire disaster, do let me know lol.

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7 months postpartum

I remember being 7 months pregnant and thinking “Huh, 7 months hey? That took a while”. I felt like meeting my baby in 2 LONG months was soooo far away. Well, now he IS 7 months old and I feel like he should be just 3 weeks old at this point. I say this in every.single.post about him (and you’re probably sick of me repeating myself) but the days are not going by as slow as everyone said they would. time is a super fast airplane jet for me. Lol! Zoom!

Bebs is a tall (big?) boy. I know this because everyone keeps telling me this. For me, he’s still my sweet lil’ bubs, and I want to keep him little, for a little longer. I’ve almost gone through his entire wardrobe of clothing sizes because he’s outgrown them so quickly.

Every square inch of him owns me 💚. He’s everything dreams are made of and being his mama is theeee best feeling! My newest hobby: Finding outfits to match my baby. We were twinning (again) on our last day of Mama + Baby group (you self graduate when bebs is 6months+). We formed great friendships within these past few months with Mama’s who have babies the same age as @minikerms. Luckily we plan playdates all the time, so we’ll still continue to see everyone 🙌🏻.

This 6th month was a few more firsts! First set of teeth (lol), first high chair, first taste of puree foods (hasn’t met a food he hasn’t liked, yet!), first taste of peanut butter (well….peanuts mashed into a puree), and now he sits unassisted for a bit.

We ended up getting the Ikea highchair, picked up these Ikea bibs, and Ikea training cup (he doesn’t quite “get it” yet), and Ikea spoon set. Ikea, you sure are budget friendly!

Raffi has been on repeat the last few months here at home. Finally I decided to do a bit of Googlin’ and find other kid-friendly artists to listen to. Here are a few faves:

  • Raffi
  • Elizabeth Mitchell
  • Laurie Berkner

He surprisingly took his 6month needles like a champ. Not even noticing the first of three go into his leg. And as soon as he started wailing after the final needle, I scooped him up quick, and gave him a cuddle and rock and he was settled down!

My fantastic friend Nicole keeps giving us hand-me-downs and I absolutely LOVE it. This month baby got a “command center” as we like to call it (lol), since he’s sort of on the move (scooting around for a toy when he wants), this keeps him contained and also happy since there’s toys attached to it.

And finally, we had a few fun excursions with a baby and mama “dance” (workout) class. It was tough. I naively thought it was going to be a sing-along lightly dancing class. But it was a legitimate workout baby wearing class. I was soaked by the end of it BECAUSE I WORE A LONG SLEEVED SHIRT. Y tho.

Also had a first experience at a music class at the library. It was pretty fun! Going to hopefully sign up bebs for a little mama and me music class some day soon. That’s all we got for now, folks!

Thanks for sticking around all these months/weeks without me blogging as often as I used to. I’ll get into the swing of things again one day.

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6 month postpartum

Waving bye to month 5. Over and out, onto bigger and better things. The next half of his first year.

My beautiful beb, my chill little blonde California baby boy is on Month N° 6. Loves his teddy bear, squeals when he hears me reciting his favourite book (10 little fingers, 10 little toes), loves getting post-bath foot massages, loves kisses and his laugh is the absolute best sound in the world.

He loves to put everything in his mouth: blankets, the clothes he’s wearing, your fingers, his hand, my shoulder, his toys, and even flosses his toothless gums with his toes. I swear he uses his feet as much as his hands. He loves to try and make you laugh with his noises and gestures. He’s already had his first hair cut, and over the course of these past six months his dark brown hair has turned almost completely blonde.

Turning six months must be exhausting for him. For his morning nap he slept for 2h40m (rare!). Yesterday I introduced him to blowing bubbles outside. Not sure if he was into it or not… 😂

My baby has literally grown a significant amount since birth as he’s already wearing bigger clothes than his age (long boy!). His six month wellness check-up is in a few days and it won’t surprise me but, I’m betting he’s grown another few inches (perhaps he’ll be 10″ taller than he was at birth).

My heart bursts for you, my sweet boy. Happy six months my bebs.

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