Floppy Mop Halloween Scarecrow
Many Halloween scarecrows are made by using raffia, straw
brooms and similar items. They're cute but everyone has seen them before! Make something new this year and watch the compliments roll in! If you have an old-fashioned mop with strands instead of a sponge you should get two mop head refills the next time you shop for one. Use one for mopping and the second one for making a cute, floppy scarecrow that can sit anywhere.
Purchase a 16 oz, floppy mop head refill to make the scarecrow. You'll also need a 5" Styrofoam ball. Poke a hole in the bottom of the ball, add a little hot glue, then reposition the stick back inside the ball. Push the stick in about an inch and a half. Wrap a piece of white or beige fabric over the ball. Smooth it out and glue it down the stick a few inches. If you can't get all the creases out of the fabric make tiny pleats in the back "neck" area.
Lay the
mop head out so the strands go to the right and to the left. The seam of the mop should be vertical.
Apply hot glue to the craft stick and set it flat on the seam of the mop. The end of the mop seam should be right below the ball. To help secure it tie a couple of the mop strands together - one from each side of the seam.
Section the mop strands into four groups to make two arms and two legs. Make the leg sections slightly larger around than the arms. Braid each section, stopping a couple of inches from the end, then tying it off with a piece of raffia or twine. Do this to both arms and both legs. Trim away any long strands from the arms and the legs; keep these to make hair.
Draw a face on the scarecrow or make one with buttons, felt, pipe cleaners or other craft supplies. Cut pieces of yarn and glue them to the head so that they hang down in bangs. Dress the finished scarecrow in doll clothes or infant clothing. Or, make simplistic clothing for him from scrap cloth. Create a tiny bandana and tie it around the neck area. Glue a straw hat onto the top of the Styrofoam ball making sure you cover the wrinkles - if there are any - in the back with the brim. Also, the hat should cover the ends of the mop strands, leaving just a few bangs showing. These scarecrows are floppy and look cute on mantles, tables, counters and other areas of the home.
I hate mopping. If I were a sailor, my decks would remain permanently un-swabbed. One day, I saw the Euro-Pro Shark Steam Mop being demonstrated on TV and I fell in lust. The infomercial for the Euro Pro Shark Steam Mop promised me that my mop hating days were over. As far as I could tell, the Shark Steam Mop was the cleaning product of my dreams.
The As Seen On TV people promised me the Euro Pro Shark Steam Mop would free me from the hassle of waiting for the water from the tap to get hot. With the Euro Pro Shark Steam Mop, my back would be saved from the strain of wringing out mops and hauling heavy, sloppy buckets of water. And when I saw that the Euro Pro Shark Steam Mop uses eco-friendly micro-fiber pads, freeing me and my family from the use of harsh chemicals, I was eager to get my credit card ready and call now.
I was all set to order a Shark Steam Mop of my very own, but something held me back. How could I be sure the Shark Steam Mop was worth the money? And the Euro Pro Shark Steam Mop does not come in black.
The reviewer acquires a Shark Steam Mop and hurries home to test it out.
When I saw the Pink Ribbon edition of the Euro Pro Shark Steam Mop at my local Target, I had to buy it. It may not be not black, but a portion of the proceeds from the pink Shark Steam
Mops go toBreast Cancer Research. All that, and it was on sale. I couldn't wait to get my new Shark Steam Mop home and put it through its paces.
The Euro Pro Shark Steam Mop took all of three minutes to put together, and a good portion of that was freeing it from its packaging. The instructions for assembly are clear, and you might not even need them.
The Euro Pro Shark Steam Mop weighs a paltry three pounds. It is also fairly compact. I store my Shark Steam Mop on a hook in the utility room.
The instructions say that you can use regular tap water in the Shark Steam Mop, but the water in our area is diamond hard so I filled the water reservoir with 8 ounces of distilled water. The handy pitcher supplied with the Shark Steam Mop got all of the water into the hole with no spillage, which is a truly remarkable feat for a klutz like me.
How to use the Shark Steam Mop.
The Shark Steam Mop comes with two microfiber cleaning pads with hook and loop attachments. The mop pads attach to the Shark Steam Mop easily, and stay put until you pull them off. This makes a nice change from other velcro type cleaning pads I have used.
Once you have attached the mop pads and filled the reservoir with water, plug in the Euro Pro Shark Steam Mop. There is no on/off switch. Thirty seconds after plugging in the Shark Steam Mop, the water is heated and ready to go. That is not a typo; as advertised, it really does only take 30 seconds to warm up. Pump the handle ten or fifteen times to get the mop pad damp, and off you go.
The handle is set up in such a way that as you push the Shark Steam Mop away from you, it releases steam. Pull it back toward you, and the microfiber pad soaks up the water. It is an efficient and easy way to clean, and the floor is left clean and barely damp. If the
microfiber mop head becomes hard to push, pump it a few times until it glides smoothly again. I have used my Euro Pro Shark Steam Mop successfully on both hardwood and laminate flooring with no water damage to either.
The Shark Steam Mop comes with a 20 foot cord. The eight ounce water reservoir produces enough steam to clean at least 300 square feet of floor, using my highly scientific method of "count the tiles and guess the rest." The Shark Steam Mop does a good job cleaning irregular surfaces such as ceramic tile, but if you are looking for something to restore your grout to pristine purity, you need to look somewhere else. Which is OK-- hand held steamers are made for that sort of thing.
Usage Tips for the Euro Pro Shark Steam Mop.
The first time I used the Shark Steam Mop, I was amazed (and somewhat appalled) by how dirty the microfiber pad got, and I had to use both pads to clean my kitchen and dining area. It also left the tilefloors of my kitchen somewhat streaky. I wasn't willing to give up on the Shark Steam Mop, though, so I washed the microfiber pads and mopped again the next day.
The second time, it only took one microfiber pad to do both the kitchen and dining area, and the Shark Steam Mop left no streaks at all. My theory is that it was cleaning up not just the standard kitchen dirt, but the remains of the cleaning products I had been using on my floors before I purchased the Euro-Pro Shark Steam Mop.
You definitely want to sweep or use a
dust mop before using the Shark Steam Mop to clean your floors. Even so, the Shark Steam Mop may leave a few little piles of pet hair and crumbs that your vacuum or whatever missed. This is not a problem, and any such items will wipe right up with a damp cloth once the floor has dried.
The Shark Steam Mop is packaged with two reusable microfiber pads. It would be nice if it came with more. The pads are white, which means that it's easy to see the shocking amount of dirt and grime the Shark Steam Mop is removing from the floors. On the other hand, it doesn't take long before the pads develop permanent stains, and because the Shark's mopping pads are made of microfiber, bleach is a no-no. I've taken to spraying the microfiber pads with Spray-n-Wash and leaving them sit until I do a load of microfiber cloths, and it works pretty well. In all honesty, I don't care what the microfiber pads end up looking like as long as they still work.
If you do happen to care, you can purchase two additional
microfiber pads for your Shark Steam Mop from Walmart for around $20.
The head of the Shark Steam
Mop does not swivel, which can make it somewhat difficult to maneuver at times. Over all, however, I do not find this to be a big problem because the Shark Steam Mop is so light weight.
