How to Get Rid of the Rubber Smell from Latex Halloween Masks

Husband and I couldn’t wait for the Guardians of the Galaxy movie to come out last summer. Of all of the Guardians, it is no surprise that our favorite is the smart aleck little guy Rocket. (I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience)

It was decided long before the movie came out that Husband and I would be Rocket Raccoon and Groot for Halloween. We only waited until this year because we hoped Marvel would release costume pieces because I didn’t know how to fabricate the character heads.

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Craft Fail, the Book!

Craft FAIL When Handmade Goes Horribly Wrong by Heather Mann

In my crafting and DIY life, I have projects that come together just as I imagined. If I am really lucky, the beauty photograph comes out on the first few tries and I look like a clever, clever girl.
More often than not, in between the coming up with a crazy scheme stage and the perfect beauty shot stage there is an epic fail stage like the time I tried to make homemade shaving cream and it exploded all over my kitchen.

The fuzzy spots in the photo are shaving cream on my camera lens.

Fearful Dog Behavior Training

One of our favorite ways to socialize a rescue dog with behavioral issues is going to pet rescue events. It is a dog appropriate venue with better behaved dogs, rescue people understand if you ask them to approach your dog in a weird way because you are working on an issue.

They also understand if you have to leave early because your dog is tapped out or has an issue. We learn about new ways to help our dog, support great causes, and it is fun!

Hey Charlie, do you need help with those bungee cords? I’m feeling a little distracted. Lisa says I should do something to put that energy in a positive direction when I feel this way.

The Capital Area Humane Society Halloween Pet Parade is something we look forward to all year. We work up to it by going to smaller dog rescue events throughout the summer. This event can be overwhelming to a dog because there are a lot of people and animals in a small space and costumes are involved.

Some of the people and dog Halloween costumes are clever and amazing. Here are a few of our favorites.

The Bathroom Vanity Hunt Begins, Maybe

We are ready to move forward in renovating the water damaged master and guest bathrooms.

And by move forward, I mean trying to decide on a bathroom design plan, pricing options, what to keep, what to refurbish, and what to replace besides what needs to be replaced due to the water damage.

Both bathrooms have this plain jane basic builder's style vanity. The master bath has a double sink and vanity which is the secret to our long and happy marriage.

Wood Laminate Floors: Yay or Nay?

 I never really thought about the carpeting in my house except for vacuuming dog fur tumbleweeds when Lacey's coat changes for the season and spot cleaning coffee spills because I am a klutz.

Th Great Water Damage Room Renovations is forcing me to think about replacing my bedroom floor covering. The question is with what?  And am I stuck with horrible wood laminate flooring if we don't go with carpet?

How to Make a Mini Top Hat

I made a super simple fluffy tutu (read my no sew tutu tutorial here) for a costume. I’m going for a kooky Dresden Dolls, Steampunk, Katy Perry, retro, vaudeville kind of vibe. I need one more thing so I can pull off the look: a little top hat fascinator.

 Tiny top hats make Halloween costumes more fun!

Instead of running to the store to buy top hat making supplies, I bought the materials by treating myself to a cup of take out coffee. That’s right!  I made my ring leader’s hat from a disposable cup.

The steps in this tutorial are very forgiving. You don’t necessarily need to do the steps in the order I have them listed in this tutorial with the exception of assembling the hat pieces.

How to Make a Top Hat Out of a Paper Cup

How to Make a Fluffy No Sew Tutu

I need a costume for a performance. I came up with a costume idea with a kooky Dresden Dolls, Steampunk, Katy Perry, vaudeville kind of vibe. Best of all I my costume includes a tutu!

I have always wanted to dance in a tutu as a kid but unfortunately modern dancers don't do the tutu. Sorry Martha Graham, this gal is making her long denied tutu dreams come true!

How to Cover Popcorn and Textured Ceilings

One of the first things Husband wanted to change when we bought in our condo are the textured ceilings. I told Husband if he wanted to soak the texture with water so it is loose enough to scrape off off with a hand scraper while standing on a ladder in. every. room. of. the. house. the project is all his.

10 years later we still have textured ceilings we don't like.

We learned to deal with the fifth wall in every room we aren't crazy about. We didn't think about changing our ceilings until I flooded the house and damaged the kitchen ceiling. 

9 Things to Do When Your Bathroom Floods

This was supposed to be a post about how I fixed the leaking faucet I found during my grout the bathroom tile project.

Instead it turned into a how to dry out a flooded bathroom and kitchen post.

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How to Remove Grout and Regrout Tile

The grout in the Master bathroom shower is chipping. The other grout patches I did as a quick fix are discoloring. I’ve been putting this job off forever. When Husband went out of town on business, I figured it was time to do remove the bathroom grout and add new grout to the tile. 

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This job isn’t hard. However is probably messier and takes longer than you might originally think. At least it did for me.

Easy DIY Custom Wedding or Anniversary Artwork

Mother and Father in Law celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows. They asked me to decorate the reception after the ceremony.

After I designed the party centerpieces (I’ll show them in a future post,) I turned my attention to the cake table. My plan was to place the flowers from the church alter on either side of the cake and Mom’s bouquet in a vase behind the cake in the center of the table. It still felt sparse and I got this feeling that Mom hoped I’d make something for the reception.

I made a custom You Are My Happily Ever After sign for the cake table. I put it on an easel for the party and gave it to Mom and Dad to hang on the wall at home. You can make this sign as an anniversary, wedding, or just because decoration.

No Sew Halloween Apron

My sister and I are foodies. We often send each other email with the subject line MAKE THIS and a recipe. During one of our conversations the subject turned to food, as it usually does, and how cooking messes can ruin clothes.

There is a solution for that. It’s called an apron.

Halloween is my sister’s favorite holiday. We share the same warped sense of humor. I made her a no sew apron I know she’ll wear for Halloween and quite possibly during the rest of the year to serve as a funny warning to others.

Don’t Make Me Poison Your Dinner Apron

Guardians of the Galaxy Craft Awesome Mix Tape USB Flash Drive

Marvel released a new superhero movie and of course Husband has seen Guardians of the Galaxy multiple times. Me too.

I didn't' know much if anything about Guardians of the Galaxy until Husband dug out an old Guardians comic book for me to read before we saw the movie. The Guardians in the movie are the same bunch of space jerks as they are in the comic books. The only difference is the movie has a much better soundtrack due to Peter Quill's mom making her son a real live 1980's style mix tape. Peter (aka Star Lord) he plays it in his Sony Walkman as he roams the galaxy.

  Yep, that's a TARDIS USB hub on my desk! Many of you asked where I got it. I bought my USB TARDIS hub from Amazon here.

We have a USB port in our car, not a cassette player. The only way we can play Peter's Awesome Mix Vol 1. is if I decorate a thumb storage drive as an  Awesome Mix Volume One cassette tape.

Nine Uses for Nine Naturals Repairing Body Balm

Friends in my community marching band pestered me so much about joining concert band that I finally gave in. I dusted off the flute I haven’t even looked at since high school.

Needless to day, the flute joints were dry. After a long household search I found a jar of petroleum jelly buried in the back of a cupboard I was going to use to grease my flute joints.

That got me thinking. Are there were any eco friendly and non toxic alternative to petroleum jelly?

Google told me that my middle school music teacher was wrong. I should polish the joints on my flute to make them fit smoothly, not grease them with petroleum jelly. Good to know.

I was still curious about nontoxic petroleum jelly alternatives because there are times when I need to use it as a skin barrier.  Nine Naturals offered to send me samples of their no bad stuff added Simply Natural Lip Balm and Repairing Body Balm to try. I like that Nine Natural products are 100% Natural. Sulfate-free, Paraben-free, Phthalate-free, BPA-free, Triclosan-free, DEA-free, and Petrochemical-free. Natural products don’t contain artificial chemicals, dyes or synthetic fragrance either.

I have a very bad history with natural ingredient lip balms chapping my lips because they often contain honey. Not to mention I was confused about the difference between the Repairing Body Balm and their Unscented Moisturizing Pregnancy Body Cream both sounded like heavy duty moisturizers. I mentioned my concerns because I was tipping toward, “no thank you.” Nine Naturals quickly sent me answers to my questions.

• Nine Naturals products can be used by anyone. You don’t have to be pregnant, nursing, or even a woman to use them.
• Simply Natural Lip Balm is vegan. No honey in it to potentially chap my lips! I was intrigued. I use lip balm constantly. Would a vegan lip balm works on my I-don’t-care-if-you-want-safer-products-we-want-parabens lips?
• The Repairing Body Balm is a vegan and non-toxic alternative to petroleum jelly. 

I decided to give Nine Naturals a try.

9 Health and Beauty Uses for Non  Petroleum Jelly Balm

How to Make an Office Chair Duct Tape Foot Rest in Ten Minutes Flat!

My feet don’t reach the floor when I sit in my desk chair to work on the computer.

If I lower my chair so my feet reach the floor, then my computer monitor and the keyboard tray on my desk are too high and give me a slight shrug while I work. You will not believe how much head, neck, and back pain that barely noticeable tic of non alignment can cause.

If I don't get a migraine, the pain makes me feel beaten up all over my body, pain shoots down my extremities, and I feel like I want to vomit.

It took me years to  find the right person to tell me that a poor ergonomic work station not tailored to someone of my petite stature is the cause of my mystery symptoms.

Luckily, since I already use a desk with a lowered keyboard tray,  most of the adjustments I need to do to make sure my arms are wrists are parallel to my keyboard are on my desk chair.   I use a couple of thick books as a monitor stand (,) some painter tape on the bottom of my desk chair to remind me where to reset my chair height, and awareness that if for example, I'm starting to feel a shooting pain in my arm I might be hunching over or set the mouse just a little too far right from its original position which makes me overreach slightly.

That's the shirt story long on why my feet often dangle three and half inches above the floor everyday while I work.

The is part of the fun of being fun sized!

This is not ergonomic for the lower half of my body. Sometimes I get a slight knee ache.

Seven Tools to Remove Shower Tile Grout

The grout in between the tiles in the Master Bathroom is cracking and pitting.  I patched the tile grout when I found an issue, knowing that eventually, I would have to remove all of the shower caulk and tile grout and regrout the shower.

I wasn’t looking forward to removing all of the grout in my bathroom and replacing it. Not because removing grout is hard but because removing bathroom grout is time consuming and messy.   Putting grout in between the tiles is easy and the clean up is well, as difficult as cleaning up usually is after a big project – better if you can get someone else to do it. If you can’t rope someone else into cleaning up your mess for you, a wet/dry vaccum makes the job easier. I mentioned dust flying everywhere, yes?

Two Recommended Power Tools for Removing Tile Grout and Three that Aren’t so Great

Green #Brita BacktoCollege Shopping

This post brought to you by Brita. All opinions are 100% mine.

Mr. 2 of 10 is going to be a college freshman this fall.

A freshman!

In college!

*faints*

Duct Tape Flash Drive

When any of The Ten has a USB flash drive on their back to school shopping lists, they know they can count on Aunt Lisa, The World’s Most Fabulous Aunt ™ for a freebie. I always have spare thumb drives.

I’m extremely lucky that some of the brands I ask for information for you guys The Best Readers in the World (trademark pending) give it to me on a flash drive. After I move the files onto my computer, I have a storage drive to pass on to any kid who needs one for school.

While I won’t accept information from a brand I wouldn’t be proud to be associated with for my readers, some of the printed drives may unintentionally break a school rule. For example, while this USB drive from Zippo had information about a Zippo refillable candle lighter (that I keep forgetting to buy) a teacher may think it is promoting smoking because Zippo also makes cigarette lighters.

Washi Tape USB Flash Drive

I have another decorated USB flash drive project for you. I’m using washi tape to spiff up a flip around flash drive. This is an easy, quick, and cute way to identify your flip around flash drive from everyone else’s flip around flash drive in school or in my case, the car. Husband and I keep our personal playlists on separate drives in the car.

How to Decorate a Flash Drive with Washi Tape

How to Make and Decorate a Decoden USB Flash Drive

Do you decoden?

Decoden is a Japanese craft that uses a thick silicon clay/glue that looks like cake frosting to bling out objects. It is addicting!

Not to mention decoden is a great way to use up the little bits of crafty this and that I found when I built my wrap around fence board shelves, reorganized my craft supply storage, and cleaned out my desk and closet in the computer room.

Decoden started with decorating phone cases. Now it is moving toward using decoden to decorate any object that doesn’t move. I have a USB Flash drive that is sitting still and wears a logo that I want to cover and a few beads left from my grandmother’s craft stash. Let’s do this.

Seashell and Pearl Decoden Decorated USB Flash Drive 

How to Pad and Tape a Color Guard Rifle

The same band I marched with in in the Presidential Inauguration Parade last year has another amazing performance opportunity. I’m stoked to be spinning flag in a real blow and go drum and bugle corps style show since that is absolutely not the type of show my small town marching band did and my drum corps loving heart desired. YES! *fist pump*

Then I found out the color guard is twirling rifle too. I haven’t done that since high school winter color guard.

Gulp!

I bought a color guard rifle which is basically a big hunk of non firing wood in a rifle-esque shape. Before I practice throwing it in the air like I don’t care (as one does when spinning rifle) I need to reinforce the rifle with tape and pad the ends so it won’t break in two if when I drop it during practice.

Recycled Tire Rim Ottoman

In the little fantasy land of my imagination, I would spend endless summer days, lounging in the summer sun with my feet up on fantastic outdoor furniture.

This will probably never happen because whenever I get down time in the summer I use it to build something that is - you guessed it - not fantastic outdoor furniture.  

Instead I'm going to live vicariously through The Charming Farmer and her comfy, ready for a glass of iced tea put your feet up upcycled outdoor ottoman. You will never believe what she used to make it - a tractor tire rim!

Upcycled tractor tire ottoman photo courtesy of The Charming Farmer

A little rustic, a little modern and a whole lot of genius! Learn how The Charming Farmer made her tractor tire rim ottomans here.

What do you think?


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How to Purge and Recycle Old Electronics

I swear our house is shrinking. Once upon a time, had storage space to burn. (Don’t. It wastes a perfectly good space and might catch the rest of your house on fire.)

It didn’t take any great detective work to determine why our house is shrinking. The answer is easy.

We have stuff we don’t think/aren’t sure if there is a place to recycle or responsibly dispose of it. The last time I checked this wasn't the case, or if there was such an animal, it was only accepted those things on that one day during a full moon when cows do backward sneezes kind of thing. Hello hazardous household waste collection, I’m talking to you.

How to Fix a Hole in Shorts without Sewing!

All of my summer shorts are too big after I met my weight loss goal. It is a nice problem to have.

Fortunately, I had a couple of pairs of pants lurking in the back of my closet that make better shorts than pants. It didn’t take much time or effort to cut and hem the pants into shorts (learn how I make pants into shorts here.) It is a trick my mom used when I blew out a knee on a pair of pants or jeans as a kid. Boom. I got a new pair of shorts.

Green. Cheap. And most importantly, I had the perfect pair of shorts that weren’t too short or too long. 

How to Decorate a Cooler with Mod Podge

I wrote our name on the lid in marker on the lid of our cooler when I first bought it. After many adventures, the name faded and needs a redo. 

I want to decorate and personalize our cooler with some personality. Decorative painting is out. The texture on the big cooler will make stenciling and painting it a nightmare.

How to Decorate a School or Gym Locker

My tween niece asked me for some design help. Even though it is the middle of summer, she is already looking ahead and planning on how she will decorate her first school locker. I remember how much planning I put into designing and decorating my school lockers to make sure everything was just. right. So I poked around for locker decorating ideas and came up with LLZ by LockerLookz. (I am including affiliate links for your convenience.)

LLZ is the original brand of high fashion locker decorations developed by two moms who started making decorations for their daughters, and later their friends, with the highest quality products.

How to Decorate a Gym Locker with LLZ by LockerLookz