Condo Blues

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Turn a Picture Frame Into Raised Dog Feeder

I wanted a raised feeder for Blitzkrieg’s food and water bowls in my kitchen because my boy is a sloppy eater. As long as I filled it with food and water on a regular basis, I knew Blitzkrieg wouldn’t care what his new feeder looked like.

However, since I have to look at it, I wanted something that looked good. Most of the feeders I found were functional, but ugly.

That being the case, I decided to make one myself.

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How to Make a Raised Dog Feeder

Materials
Measuring tape or yardstick
Shadow box picture frame large enough to hold your pet’s food and water bowls
A thin piece of wood that fits into the backside of the picture frame (optional)
Paint
Four napkin rings
Hot glue (because what is a craft without a little hot glue action?)

1. Measure your dog from the paw to the shoulder. If a dog uses a raised feeder that's either too high or too low it could hurt their back after long-term use. After measuring your dog from paw to the shoulder, divide the measurement by two. This is how high you should make your dog's raised feeder. For example, my Peke Blitzkrieg is 8 inches from his paws to the top of his shoulder. That means Blitzkrieg's feeder should be 4 inches tall.


2. Paint the wooden interior of the shadow box picture frame or, if your frame has a cardboard backing, paint the thin piece of wood that fits instead your picture frame.


3. Watch the paint dry. Crafting is so exciting!


4. Insert and secure the painted backing or piece of wood into the picture frame after the paint dries.


5. Hot glue a napkin ring each corner of the bottom of the picture frame for the legs. Fortunately, my napkin rings were 4 inches high, the perfect size for a Pekingese.


6. Turn the feeder right side up, fill your pet’s bowls with food and water, and put the bowls in the feeder.


7. Puppy chow time!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

3 DIY Coffee Drink Recipes

Coffee isn’t just good for your plants; it’s now a health food drink!


To celebrate that my java habit is no longer a vice (thank you researchers! I’m adding you to my Christmas card list!), I give you three coffee drink recipes that will help you achieve your heart-healthy RDA of coffee goodness.


Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Nintendo Decorate My Walls!

Oh blik how I love you! Your big fun graphic wall decals go right in line my with my retro-modern-Bauhaus-contemporary-found and funkified-Da Da-Danish decorating style. (Bonus points to you if you recognize that I’m referring to the Bauhaus design movement and not Jello Biafra’s band.) The only problem with blik is trying to pick one design to use. Personally, I’m leaning towards the Keith Haring dogs for our guest room.

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If I had a hard core gamer in da house, I’d go with the old school Nintendo series.

Space Invaders!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Husband’s Homemade Orangina Recipe

We’re not big soda drinkers. It’s not that we dislike cola (especially with a shot of rum) or soda in general; we just don’t buy it much.





 However, on those rare occasions when I’m in the mood for a soda, I prefer to quench my thirst with a frosty Irn Bru which you can't get easily in America since it is a Scottish orange soda.

After running 9 miles a day, Husband likes to quench his deep down body thirst with an Orangina.



This can get pricey at the quantities Husband’s been sucking it down on a weekly basis. So he came up with a recipe for a not-so-pricey homemade Orangina equivalent.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Six Strange Things You Can and Cannot Compost

We have a new kooky little game we play here now that we know that the covert  composter works. We call it Will It Compost?

Six Weird Things That Will Compost




1. Dog fur tumbleweeds from Blitzkrieg’s hairbrush.

2. Dryer lint.


3. Dirt from the Roomba.


4. A 100% white cotton sock.


5. Corn-based plastic coffee lid from a paper take out cup of coffee. Husband and I threw it into the compost bin just to see if it would compost - it did!

6. Wine Corks. Obviously, I'm talking about composting wine corks made from real cork instead of the fake corks that are made from plastic.

Six Weird Things I Will Not Compost

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Easy Tote Bag Revamp or, My Stab at Punch Needle Embroidery (Literally)

I like the mindless Zen of doing needlepoint. However, I’m not a counted cross-stitch kind of gal. Stitching, counting, and stitching never appealed to me. If you’re out and about in the craft world, most of the
not overly trite or Granny nicer needlepoint kits available are counted cross-stitch. When I came across this fun little punch needle embroidery kit, I thought it would make a nice gift for someone who is hard to by for. I hadn’t done punch needle embroidery but it looked easy to pick up (it was), so I thought I’d give it a stab.


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I did. Several times, in fact.

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Inherited Bathroom DĂ©cor That Works

One of the nice things about being the first buyer of our newly built Condo is that I didn’t inherit any wild and wacky or otherwise tacky decoration from the previous owner. ThatNanda of Craftster wasn’t so lucky. She writes:

When we bought our house, it had all the original decor from the late 50's -
awful shag carpeting, chandeliers, orange and brown appliances, the works. We
were able to fix all but one room - the horrible, pink, and black tile bathroom.
Since it's too expensive to redo at the moment, we decided that, rather than
fight it, we'd just go with it. So we painted the upper walls teal, a la retro
50's diner, and I made a pink, frou-frou poodle curtain.

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I think going retro with her bathroom decoration is an excellent example of the Tim Gunn, “Make it work!” edict in action.

Personally, I’d be sorely tempted to keep the retro design as it since I’m going through a retro-modern-Bauhaus-contemporary-found and funkified-Da Da-Danish decorating phase of my own. What do you think?

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