Time to link up your best projects, home improvements, recipes, and creative ideas!
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I found a set of headphones with a microphone I forgot I had in that random box of cords you’re supposed to have when you hit 30. The foam ear covers where deteriorated but the microphone windscreen was fine. What good luck I thought! I don’t have to by a new pair! I used them for my next Zoom meeting.
Of which, the last half an hour was the longest of my life because the bare headphones hurt my ears. OW!
I went into my craft studio, gathered materials, popped on an audiobook (I use Audible. You can Try Audible and Get Two FREE Audiobooks here,) and started to play. In the end I had new cute and comfortable ear covers for my headphones. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)
Let’ do this!
Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:
Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin
Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Jennifer at Busy Being Jennifer - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst
If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!
You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!
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All of the windows on my house are considered energy efficient. However, even the most highly rated doors and windows will still leak air a little bit due to the fact that windows are made to open and close and the builder had to cut a hole in the wall to install it. Not to mention, most usually have thin brush weatherstripping ( brush pile weather strip looks like this ) which in my opinion is utterly useless. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)
Or at least the stuff on my windows and sliding patio door proved to be when the candle flame I carefully ran along them danced a crazy samba indicating there was air leaking through the brush weather stripping instead of stopping the air from escaping which is what weatherstripping is supposed to do.
Tip: If you do not feel comfortable putting an open flame next to your windows and doors due to the potential fire risk, you can check for air leaks by running a stick of incense (you can buy incenses sticks here) or a smoke pen (learn more about air leak detecting smoke pens here) around the area where the door or window and the wall meet. If the flame/smoke moves in the slight breeze it is leaking air.
I also had air leaking around my sliding patio doors, exterior doors, and surprisingly under the doors to the closets on exterior walls. This is something you really want to fix because warm heated indoor air is drawn to cold outside air (and vice versa during the summer months) which means your heating or air conditioning system needs to use more energy and work harder to maintain the indoor temperature you set on your thermostat – which is why your heating or cooling bill is so high.
I have a love hate relationship with foam crafting pumpkins. I love that they are reusable. I hate that most of them look horrifically fake.
Yes, I know I could use real pumpkins. I do for indoor decorating and puree them later for Thanksgiving desserts.
Outside it’s fake pumpkins all the way where real pumpkins are most likely squirrel food and when performing at Fall festivals where real fruit is likely to get smashed.
This sweet little girl was fascinated by the pumpkin clip I made over. I am forever grateful to the photographer that captured this moment!
I have several empty glass beverage bottles in my recycled craft supply stash and think they will make cute indoor Halloween decorations. As what? As Halloween recycled bottle witches!
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I didn’t want to make the stereotypical ugly green faced witch dressed in black. Instead I took my design inspiration from three of my fellow renaissance festival actresses who portray The Fiendish Sisters. They are more of the Shakespearean type witches but instead of predicting the rise and fall of Danish kings, they host whiskey tastings. Which (witch?) is a great gig if you can get it.
In a green living group, there was someone who said that like many folks during the pandemic, they have been furloughed from their job/working reduced hours. They asked for advice in another sustaining able living group was yelled at for accepting plastic wrapped food and conventional household products from a food pantry. Not only was this family feeling bad about a situation out of their control but when asking for advice they were kicked when they were down about accepting a bottle of conventional dish soap. What they really needed was ideas of things they could do while they are struggling.
This my way or the highway mentality to sustainable/zero waste/green/plastic free living really makes my blood boil.
Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:
Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin
Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Jennifer at Busy Being Jennifer - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst
If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!
You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!
And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's linky party!
I plunked a bolt of skeleton print fabric on the store’s cutting table.
Fabric cutting lady: what are you making?
Me: A skirt
Fabric cutting lady: Oh! Are you getting ready for Halloween early?
Me: No. Just making something fun to wear for every day.
Fabric cutting lady: (Gives me a blank stare because she doesn’t know what to do with this information and says nothing. This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten this response from her about one of my weirdo projects.)
That doesn’t matter because I made a cute, twirly dirndl skirt that has pockets!
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And you know what?
You can make one too!
I bought a Halloween themed color your own mini tote bag kit (similar to the color your own tote bag kits here) thinking it might be a cute to hold allergy free Teal Pumpkin project treats during Trick or Treat. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for you convenience.)
I wasn’t too jazzed with the colors or quality of the three markers that came in the kit which is what I expected since it came from a dollar store. No big deal. I planned on coloring it with craft paint and adding a few easy embroidered accents and outlines for fun.
I made a mistake and cut a piece of molding too short when I was working on my guest bathroom. It was the last piece of molding I had to install. It was also the last bit of the molding I bought for the job.
Of course.
My options were to try to ignore the little gap between the molding and the tile or buy a huge piece of molding that only comes in giant size to cut to the proper size with a ton of leftover molding I will not use again.
I tried ignoring the gap. I even pushed the slightly larger than I thought bathmat over the molding and gap.
But.
I.
Still.
Knew.
It.
Was.
There.
I’m very disappointed in your shoddy workmanship Lisa. This never would have happened if you let me supervise. Nice tile job, though.
My hair is growing out and is now long enough to put up into a proper ponytail as long as I use these exact Goody no slip hair elastics because for the first time in my life I haven't had to use a ton of clips, barrettes, bobby pins, and a gallon of hairspray to hold flyaways when I put my hair up. It's a miracle! (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.) I've tried other hair ties that claim to be for sports or no slip and they often slip out of my hair or slip enough that I have fly aways mid day. The same goes for the thin hair ties that look like this that I used as a teen. Bleah. I think they are better put to use around my thread spools and bobbins in sewing room to keep them from unwinding.
So while the no slip Goody hair elastics work fantastic, they are super thick and don't look as cute or subtle. Yeah I could hide the pony hair tie with a ribbon or barrette but it’s been so long that I’ve had hair long enough to use them, I really don’t have any. Besides, I’d like the option of wearing something a little more sleek when I have to be a grown up.
Let's make a hair elastic cover up with buttons!
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Most of the buttons in this tutorial are vintage buttons from my Grandmother’s button box. I also made a button pony tail holder from a large flat button to see if it would work. It did!
You will need:
My latest batch of liquid soap came together beautifully. That gave me the courage to retry making the coco butter soap recipe from this soap making book that I messed up so horribly it came out like Flubber. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.) I learned from my mistakes and had e a perfect batch of coco butter soap cooking in the slow cooker. I also had a wee bit of melted coco butter and coconut oil leftover – too little to use it for soap, too much to throw away. I am just about out of moisturizer and coco butter is one of my favorite types of lotion and body butter. Hey, let’s make some!
Except.
I don’t like how my previous homemade body butters made coconut oil eventually lose their fluffy texture, the oils started to separate, and coconut oil turn grainy in the jar.
So much so that I told myself the next time I make it, it will not include coconut oil as an ingredient and that I’d make a lotion instead of a body butter. (Lotion= moisturizing oils/butters+emulsifier+ distilled water. Body butter= moisturizing oils/butters only.)
Which I remembered after I had measured and combined the melted coconut oil, coco butter, and vitamin E oil in the measuring cup I use for water. D’oh!
All is not lost! First up, using a high speed stick blender or mixer (like a like this KitchenAid Stand Mixer) over a hand mixer will help loads but to really keep the ingredients fluffy and from separating you need to use an emulsifier because well, that’s what emulsifiers were born to do.
After putting it off for too long, I am planning the end of the Bathroom Remodel Trilogy with Master Bathroom: Revenge of the Leak.
This time around I am not even going to even try to consider reusing the bathroom vanity. We learned from Bathroom Remodel 2: Mold Sneak Attack the micro leak around the sink shutoff vales may have caused the vanity to mold like it did on the subfloor.
This isn’t a great loss because when we removed the guest bathroom vanity we found just how cheaply it was made. We realized that all of the cabinets in our condo would eventually need replacing. Then we sang the Condo Blues because part of the reason of we bought a new build is the expectation of quality cabinetry – ha!
On the upside, since we knew ahead of time that everything needs to be replaced in the main bathroom, I was able to do a little scouting while I was sourcing a new vanity for the guest bathroom last year.
When I have to go out and about on a necessary errand to two, I'm required to wear a cloth face mask.
As always, I try to batch my errands to save gas (eco friendlier and all) and most importantly, time.
Which means, I usually take off my mask by the ear loops when I get back into the car. Then I hunt to find where it shifted around while I was driving to my next stop when it is time to put the mask back on again (always using the ear loops as recommended!) I need a better way to keep track of my cloth face mask in between the short times I remove it and need to put it back on again.
I took my inspiration from the floating sunglasses strap similar to this one I use when I’m at a water park or pool to keep my sunglasses from sinking if they are accidentally knocked off my face. In no time at all I a cloth face mask lanyard. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.)
Well, actually I made 3. Two handmade face mask lanyards and one cloth face mask chain because it is such a quick and easy project to do.
Let’s make stuff!
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Two years ago I was given an echeveria plant. Up until that time I had no idea how to keep a succulent, well truthfully most indoor plants, alive. Fortunately it came with watering instructions, an eye dropper pipette thing that looks like this, and a little bamboo pokey stick. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.) The instructions said to poke the stick in the soil. If the stick is damp/wet the succulent doesn’t need watering. If the stick comes out dry, water the echeveria with one graduated pipette full of water. I followed the same instructions (with slightly more water because it is a bigger plant) with the aloe vera plant buddy I bought the echeveria so he wouldn’t get lonely.
And whaddaya know? Both plants not only lived but they grew so much I had to repot them after I found an even easier and lazier way to water but not over water my succulent plants.
I don’t drink a lot of soda but every once and awhile a pop can will cross my path. Once I finish the beverage I have two choices:
1. Recycle the can in the recycling bin.
2. Recycle the can into a cute necklace.
Today I am going with Option 2 because it will make a much more entertaining tutorial than Option 1 and it will give me a chance to answer I often get: How do you smooth the edges of a cut aluminum can?
It’s easy! Let’s get started.
A good long while ago, I fell in love with the 1950’s vintage wrap sundress sewing pattern Simplicity 8085 (you can read about it in detail here.) I bought a super cute cotton cherry print fabric with the intent to make a dress for myself. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convince.)
Two years later I still had a sweet vintage sewing pattern reprint and super cute cotton cherry print fabric in its shopping bag in my sewing room. *sigh*
I need a dress for a wedding reception (hopefully? maybe? We’ll see how group events play out when the time comes) later this summer for a wedding my husband and I attended on Zoom. That’s all the incentive I need to finally sew my 1950’s wrap sundress. I made a few tweaks to the pattern because as my husband observed long ago, I always hack a sewing pattern in one way or another.
Save this fun retro dress to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!
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My husband and I have a couple of glass growlers for those times we want to bring home a local craft beer from a brewpub that doesn’t put it in cans or bottles. We only tend to use them when there is a BBQ or party where a group of friends will be there to help us drink a little under 2 liters of beer (an open growler goes flat more quickly than a 2 liter of pop) over the course of a long afternoon into the evening with a bonfire. In other words, not very often.
No to mention in Ohio to go growlers have to be made of glass, which are hard to keep cold and carry if you are also juggling pot luck food as you walk from your car to the party spot. There are a lot of wood growler caddies out there but I really want something insulated. That way I can also use the growler as a water jug to refill our sports bottles from the car when we are out and about.
When I can’t buy, I DIY! I dove into my fabric stash, grabbed some leftover corsetry fabric, and sewed an insulated growler caddy. If you are looking for a handmade gift idea for men, based on my husband's reaction, this is a good one. He liked the idea so much that he encouraged me to make a second insulated tote bag for the other growler.
Let’s sew!
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I have a love – hate relationship with spray paint. I love that spray paint will cover almost every surface (if you use the right formula) and easily paint hard to paint areas like indentations and intricate moulding. I hate that many of my spray paint projects en up with paint bubbles and drips.
The best way to avoid spray paint bubbles and dripping paint is to hold the can further away from object you are painting and use several light and even coats of spray paint rather than blasting a thick coat of spray paint from close up. Using a spray paint handle (you can find several types of spray paint trigger handles here) will help you paint with even coats of paint and not kill your fingers from pressing the can’s spray nozzle.
Spray paint bubbles are also caused by painting a second coat of paint on an object when the first coat is not completely dry. I know this because 9 times out of 10 I get spray paint bubbles because I thought my last coat of paint was dry after 24 hours and it was not. The joys of living in a humid area!
I want to add a robe hook to my guest bathroom. The logical place to hang it is on the bathroom door.
Unfortunately it, like all of the doors in my condo is a hollow core door. Can you hang towel bars and hooks on a hollow core door?
Yes you can!
The secret to hanging towel bars and hooks on hollow door without them crashing to the ground is all in the type of wall anchor you use – in this case Molly Bolts!
