Thursday, March 4, 2021
Easy DIY Dog Leash Organizer and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 569
Thursday, February 25, 2021
DIY Bottle Cap Bees and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 568
Sunday, February 21, 2021
How to Build an Outdoor Dog Ramp
Our dog Lacey lives life at 90 miles an hour. She runs. She jumps. She barks. She barks some more.
So. Much. Barking.
When Lacey practically flipped a switch from her normal bouncing off of satellites self to barely and cautiously walking it meant a quick trip to the vet for x rays.
Lacey has two slipped discs in her back which is common for dachshunds. We left the vet with meds for the pain and inflammation, bed rest for two weeks (good luck with that!) and to eliminate jumping situations as much as possible so her back doesn’t get any worse.
I bought these light weight dog stairs with a washable cover for the living room furniture Lacey is allowed to sit on. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.) They aren’t the prettiest but they were cheap enough to buy a few more to add to what we have so that every chair/sofa in the living room has stairs leading up to it. We think jumping up on a chair that didn't have dog steps is how she hurt herself.
Sitting next to my people is my favorite place to be!
I also scored this exact folding dog ramp on Marketplace for a song because OMG folding dog ramps for cars are spendy! Hopefully we can get Lacey to use the ramp to get in and out of the car. No matter how many times we tell her to wait until we pick her up Lacey will catapult herself into the back seat of the car because waiting is for sissies – apparently.
How to Make a Down and Dirty Small Dog Ramp
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 567
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Quick and Easy St Patrick's Day Shamrock Decor
ne of my favorite things about St Patrick’s Day is it is the one day of the year that even mainstream places will play Irish music. Listening to a good jig or reel always puts in a good mood no matter what.
The only thing I like better than listening to Scottish and Irish music is dancing to it. I performed as a Scottish Country Dancer and even had Scottish Country Dances at my wedding reception.
Scottish Country Dance is social dancing somewhat like American Square Dancing. Competitive Irish and Scottish dance is a completely different thing.
So why not decorate our door for Saint Patrick’s Day with a quick and easy shamrock featuring The Swallowtail Jig? It is one of my favorite jigs because of the lyrical flute part that I’m still trying to nail down because I'm out of practise.
Save this decorating and craft idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!
Quick and Easy DIY St Patrick's Day Shamrock
Thursday, February 11, 2021
How to Put a Removable Pompom on a Knit or Crochet Hat and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 568
Monday, February 8, 2021
Master Bathroom Remodel One Step Forward One Step Back
Thursday, February 4, 2021
Mason Jar and Wine Cork Centerpieces and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 567
Sunday, January 31, 2021
DIY Plastic Free Pot Scrubber
Disposable kitchen pot scrubber sponges are one thing I was happy to kick to the curb after trying washable and reusable Paperless Kitchen sponge scour pads (you can learn about them here.) Finally I had a plastic free dish scrubbie that I could pop in the top rack of the dishwasher to clean on the regular! (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.)
Until the garbage disposable tried to eat one.
RIP pot scrubber.
So much for zero waste :(
Fortunately More than one reusable dish scouring pads came in the package so it wasn’t a total loss. I also used it as the motivation I needed to try an idea I have been mulling around for awhile: crochet a plastic free pot scrubber from jute twine.
Well, that and Cabin Fever.
But you know what? It worked!
How to Crochet a Jute Dish Scrubber Sponge for Absolute Beginners
Thursday, January 28, 2021
DIY Dollar Store Valentine's Day Wreath and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 566
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Master Bathroom Renovation: I Replaced the Subfloor!
Removing and replacing the entire master bathroom subfloor is a job that I haven’t been looking forward to and is the reason why we put the renovation off for so long. Everything hinges on the subflooring is cut perfectly to size and level. Once I removed the old moldy subfloor, I realized that there wasn’t anything to screw the new flooring to around the edges of the room. I can’t leave it this way or the new floor could slope over time and we’d have to start the process all over again. Trust me, once is more than enough!
I nicked a couple of joists when I was cut the floor to remove it with my circular saw by accident. This might create a weak spot where the flooring could squeak, crack, or sag or it might not because the cuts are not too deep.
Thursday, January 21, 2021
The Best Ever Sea Shanty and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 565
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
12 Real World Ways I Went Zero Waste This Week
Some of the things they don’t tell you about trying to reduce your household trash with zero waste living is that it depends a lot on where and how you want to live. Most of the year’s worth of garbage in jar folks have access to big fill your own container stores, year round farm markets, or huge gardens where they can grow almost everything they need. Not all of us are that lucky, would rather not drive all over the place, or crunched the numbers and found some the prices in those shops sky high. *raises hand*
But’s not to say that zero waste is impossible! Instead try the more realistic goal of concentrating on reducing your household waste than making it absolute zero. By focusing on reusing, the Rule of Half, recycling, reducing, and composting (when the bin isn’t frozen shut) my family has reduced our weekly household waste to approximately one grocery store size shopping bag (ish. We reuse any packaging, dog food, etc. bags for garbage which means the size varies) a week. We average a 3/4 full recycling bin every two weeks. We also give ourselves a break if our output is more than that because we have seasons and that can determine what we can do and how we do it.
To give you some realistic ways to reduce your household waste (and possibly save some money doing it) I made a list of the zero waste practices, tips, and tricks I do in a normal week to give you some ideas and jump start your thinking machines to find a zero waste solution that works for you!
Thursday, January 14, 2021
Easy Embroidered Coaster and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 564
Monday, January 11, 2021
How to Remove a Damaged or Moldy Subfloor
On Master Bathroom Demo Day I found black mold on a chunk of the wall and on several areas of the subfloor.
After removing the damaged drywall, the next step in the process is to remove the bathroom subflooring, check for mold or water damage, have it treated if necessary (and crossing my fingers I don’t,) and replace the subflooring.
Thursday, January 7, 2021
Master Bathroom Demo Surprise and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 563
After creating a design plan and ordering supplies in July, everything has been delivered (thank you for the lesson in patience due to pandemic delivery delays Covid) to let me start on my master bathroom remodel!
Through experience I learned that Demo Day is also Surprise Day and my bathroom did not disappoint. I found the source of my regular ear and since infections (with bouts of bronchitis thrown in to keep life interesting) when I removed the bathroom vanity.