Condo Blues

Friday, September 19, 2014

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.




Monday, September 15, 2014

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

Sunday, September 7, 2014

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.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

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

Thursday, August 28, 2014

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.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

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