Cooking Carrot Soup with Power Tools!

I believe power tool projects are cheaper than therapy.

Some of you tell me your fear of chopping off a body part is why you do not try using tools, you have a husband/son/brother/father to do it for you, or the garage is a foreign land because it is dirtier and unheated unlike your kitchen. I can totally relate. I’d rather spend more time in my heated kitchen than my unheated garage during the winter too.

Although I have secretly grabbed and sterilized a power tool from the garage to help me with a cooking project.

True confessions time. When I bake and puree fall pumpkins (read how on my food blog Lazy Budget Chef here) the rind is so hard to cut I usually grab my rotary tool from the garage and use it to cut the pumpkin in half. It was my dirty little secret until now because every cook I know can cut a pumpkin in half with a standard chef’s knife. I had a case of Really Stupid Lazy Budget Chef over it.

How to Install a Toilet

We have a little Water War waging in our otherwise happy family. I bring up switching to a more water efficient toilet and Husband shoots me down on principal. In his mind water efficient toilets don’t work. If we had a toilet that flushed like one of those giant barrels at the water park that tip over and drench everyone with a bazillion gallons of water that might just satisfy him.

Before we go any further let’s do a little toilet water usage history lesson:

10 More Ways to Use Orange Peels

I always look forward to the winter citrus season so I can stuff my face with sweet juicy oranges.  I always end up with many orange peels. I can’t compost orange peels but didn’t want to throw them away. Orange peels have to be good for something.

That’s when I did some research and found out orange peels are very useful. I posted about 10 Easy Ways to Use Orange Peels (you can read the post here) and I started to put those orange peels to good reuse. Since that post I experimented, researched, and found 10 more easy ways to reuse orange peels. 

  Save this idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

If I don’t have enough orange peels for a project, I either store orange peels in a container the freeze or let the orange peels dry on a tray for a few days (no oven or dehydrator needed!) and store them in a jar in my pantry until I have the amount I need.

Retro Mod Craft Room

One of the projects on my DIY list is do something with my craft room/guest room/furniture graveyard room. I want the room to function better as my sewing and craft room and be inviting or at least not horrendous for my guests who sleep there. I have friends coming to visit from Germany and would like to have the room done before they come.

My current design process for this room isn't working. I walk into the craft room, look at the jumble, think about rearranging the current furniture and take measurements. Then I get upset because everything can't move where I think I want it. Finally I run out of the room screaming and stuff my face with chocolate.

Rinse, and repeat several days a week.

My problem is I'm to married to the furniture that is in the room and most of it isn't working. I decided to take a different approach to decide how I want this room to function and look like. I did a virtual shopping spree for the entire room. What would I choose for my craft room if I didn't have to worry about budget or size or hefting furniture up a flight of stairs?

Since I use this room mostly for crafting and sewing, I focused on that function for my mood board. I'll make a guest room mood board later. Then I'll see if there are elements I can marry from the two boards to come up with a workable plan.

Industrial Chalkboard Table

How I envy Lilyfield Life! She found a dining room table in her neighbor’s garbage and snatched it up before the trash truck could take it away to the land fill. She worked some magic with chalkboard and red paint (two of my favorite things) and turned that trashy table into this industrial beauty.

Can you believe someone threw this out?!

I wish Husband would let me do the same to our dining room table. It was his parent's table and has seen better days. He won't let me paint the beat up old thing time warn patina. We compromise with an small army of table cloths.

What do you think? Painted wood tables - yay or any?

Did you enjoy this post? Get more like it by subscribing to the Condo Blues RSS Feed or to Condo Blues by Email.

I Marched in the 2013 Presidential Inauguration Parade

My feet hurt. I was tired. My hands in their it-was-supposed-to-be-colder-than-this fleece gloves were starting to overheat. My frustration grew. I could not always hear the cadence from my band to stay in step due to the drum corps in front of us, the echo from the buildings, and the parade announcers over the loudspeakers. Out all of the parades I have ever marched or will ever march, this parade had to be perfect.

Then I saw it. I sucked in my breath like an excited child seeing for the first time what Santa placed under the tree on Christmas morning.

The Presidential box.

I am marching as an ally in the Lesbian and Gay Band Association (LGBA) marching band. Two hundred and fifteen people strong we are the largest civilian marching band in the 2013 Presidential Inauguration Parade.

Everything I was feeling vanished except patriotism, pride in my band, and the profound responsibility that I am there for something greater than myself.

  

Photo courtesy of MSN