Ant Killer Caution: Ant Pesticides Can Kill Plants Too

With the rainiest summer in history (sorry drought stricken folks) everyone I has had an ant problem this summer.

Apparently this year’s ant colonies are particularly devious and tenacious because even after following all the steps in my post How to get Rid of Ants in a Pet and Kid Safe Natural Way some of those little jerks found a way back into my house, although not as many as before.

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The last straw came when the concrete ants bit me because they though I was standing too close to the pot of chocolate mint they use as a summer party pad on my patio.  We’ve been doing our own thing on the patio for years without bothering each other until now. What’s up with that ants? Why won’t you let us use the grill without annoying ant bites?

Quick Craft: Make a Portable Phone Charger Case

I  love photography. My phone has a good camera and I’m not shy about whipping it out to document the beautiful, fun, or surprising things that cross my path in any given monument. Unfortunately, using the camera so often kills my phone battery. I started carrying a portable phone charger or two in my bag or backpack when Husband and I go on one of our adventures.

My quick phone charger holder makes a great gift. 

You should pin this post for gift giving season!

I quickly realized I need some sort of phone charger holder or case to store the charger and the cord together.  Why are the things you need to grab quickly always in the deepest darkest corners of your bag or purse and take ages of rooting around to find? It’s some sort of purse conspiracy I tell ya.

Why You Should Never Center a Design on a DIY Project

t is amazing how a few brushstrokes of paint can totally transform a piece of old furniture. By merely changing the color, you can make what started as junk in the trash into a whimsical piece people fight over in an artist’s shop. Even more so if you are talented enough to add decorative paint elements to the piece.

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How to Add Weights and Tape to a Color Guard Flag

After getting such a positive response from my How to Pad and Tape a Color Guard Rifle and How to Make Color Guard Swing Flags tutorials I decided to make it a series. The last piece of equipment in my DIY Color Guard series is also my first love since my newbie flag corps days in middle school –  the flag!
 
Do you want to toss a color guard  flag so high it touches the sky?

You can if add weights to each end of the flag pole.

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 While we are at it, let’s add Cheaters (also called Thirds, or Cheater Tape) to the pole too. Adding Cheaters to the flag pole is an excellent cleaning tool to ensure the guard members’ hands are in the same position. Keep reading and I'll give you some of the pros and cons of using Cheaters with your guard.

How to Make Color Guard Swing Flags

This year, one of my band association’s members choreographed an epic swing flag routine to Pompeii (a song I like to begin with) for a group exhibition performance at the Drum Corps International World Championships. DCI asked our community band association to perform to let the corps kids know they don't have to give up music once they age out of drum corps at 21. Bucket List moment!

Our color guard choreographer put an instructional video up on YouTube so the guard members can rehearse on our own in our respective states before we meet for the performance later this year.

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I feel stronger and more graceful than I really am when I spin. It is good exercise too.

This way we won't have much work to clean when we meet two days before the show to rehearse together. Yes, it is as crazy and insane as it sounds to put together a pep band show of  5 routines with only 8 hours of rehearsal but luckily we’re all disciplined adults so it works when the umbrella organization has a country wide group performance made from performers from our member bands.

Rehearsing at home is no big deal except the group with the practice swing flags are using theirs this season and lives in New York. The group with the performance swing flags are using theirs and lives in Florida.

I better get a pair of swing flags for me in Ohio then, huh?

What is a Swing Flag?

How to Appear Confident When You Don't Feel Confident

When I need a boost of confidence or a push out of my comfort zone in an unfamiliar situation music is my secret weapon.  For example, a power ballad running through my head is all I need to change my mindset and body language to become a confident pack leader in a dog training situation.

When I doubted my ability to relearn how to play my high school instrument, my community band mates pushed me to try playing what I can and wouldn't let me give up on myself. Many of them are teachers and it just goes to show teachers never turn Teacher Mode off. Thank you teacher friends!

Spinning double swing flag routine makes me feel like I'm flying.

! I'll teach you how to make swing flags in a later post.

Pistachio Screen Door

They may not be as energy efficient but I can't help but wish my HOA allowed us to add wood screen doors on our houses. I spent many, many summers in houses and summer camp cabins that had wood doors that opened with a "SPRONG!" and closed with a mighty "TWAK!"

Followed by a shout, "DON'T SLAM THE SCREEN DOOR!"

To this day I still think springy screen doors need to be closed with a TWAK!

"SPRONG!" "TWAK!" remind me of happy summers.

And mosquito bites as big as my head.

But I digress.

Sprongy screen doors scream SUMMER!

20 DIY Earphone Cases

I’m more likely to listen to music on my phone if I have earphones with me. Unfortunately most of my earphones sit all by themselves in a drawer. Even the cute painted earphones I made over (read the tutorial here.)

  These earphone case ideas make great gifts too!

My earphone cases are long gone. I need replacements. Yes, replacements.

20 Clever Earphone Holders for Music on the Go

DIY: How to Decorate and Paint Earphones

Back to School season is a great time to buy office supplies.  It is also a tempting a time. Sometimes the logical The Greenest Thing is What You Already Own side of my brain and the computer IT geek I Don’t Care This One is So Much Cooler Than What I Have side of my brain do battle. Well, not  exactly battle but more like I end up buying something cute that’s not on my shopping list just because it is a cuter version of what I already have.

Now in the case of something small like earphones, the purchase won’t break the bank or anything like that but it will clutter up my house. Especially when I found several pairs of very good ear buds while cleaning and organizing my desk. It was a good surprise because I can keep a pair in my gym and dance bag, in my purse, my desk, etc.

 Keep reading for my step by step painted earphone tutorial!

So why am I tempted in the store while staring at a rack of cheapola 5 dollar ear buds that probably sound worse than the good ones I love and use?

I’ll tell you why. The cheapie headphones are in pretty and cute colors. The spendy and great sounding earphones are plain Jane black.

How to Make Cute Earphones

Landscaping Budget Hack: Use a Tool Lending Libarary

It seems strange to start a landscaping project in late July instead of May but Mother Nature isn't giving us much choice. Ohio has the opposite water problem California has - too much rain.

The number of days in a row Columbus has not had any precipitation this year?

Four.

This we're lucky if we get a 24 hour period without rain once every couple of weeks. If the sun decides to visit us after a 15 to 19 day rainy stretch we learned to drop everything to do outside chores just in case it rains later in the day.

 

Pin this for gardening and landscaping season!

7 Back to School Craft Projects

I always think of Back to School season as an unofficial New Year's Day. It is full of new possibilities and new school clothes, shoes, and supplies. My parents bought me new consumable school supplies like pens, pencils, and notebooks but for the big stuff like lunchboxes, binders, and backpacks they had a One and Done policy. I had to take care of it because I wasn't going to get another for the following school year if I trashed it that year.

Looking back, it was a great green lesson about taking care of what you have so it will last. It was also a lesson in creativity. Sometimes I jazzed up last year's school supplies makes them feel bright, shiny, and new for the new school year with a craft project like my washi tape USB Flash drive.

 Them: "Hey, where did you get that cool Flash drive?!" Me: "Oh, I made it."

When you want to be crafty for Back to School season it helps to start early. Especially if you have a student going back to college since most college start before summer officially ends.

DIY Downton Abby Doorbell

Sometimes putting a bit more effort into the design of the day to day functional bits of your home pay off in unexpected ways. For example, doorbells.

Most people, including myself, take that plain Jane button beside the door for granted. As long as it connects to a functional door chime unit inside the house doorbells are something you typically don't think about replacing until it breaks.

That's a shame. Especially if you are lucky to have a period home.

 Is it possible to fall in love with a doorbell? I think I have.

 Photos courtesy of Home to Cottage

Cheap and Easy No Slip Tool Chest Organizer

After I built my recycled pallet and cabinet workbench, I needed to organize and load in my tools.

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The power tools were easy to organize. I already keep my power tools in their cases. I stashed those in the workbench cabinet. Boom. Done.

Tiny Treehouse House Tour

 Tiny houses are all the rage. They are cute, twee, and have a ridiculously small carbon footprint.

What could be better?

How about a tiny house built in a tree that's a little B and B? That was originally built to be a tiny tree house brewery until the owners converted it into a rental cabin?

 I am completely smitten with the gorgeous arched stained glass window!

Photo courtesy of The Mohicans.

DIY Fire and Ice Fire Bowl

The first time I saw fire stone was in a gas burning fireplace on HGTV. When they lit the fireplace it looked like the cheery orange flame danced above a field of clear ice shards.

It was just the thing I wanted to replace the ceramic fake logs in my gas fireplace.

I put the fire stone idea aside when my research told me I'd have to replace the entire gas fireplace insert to a specific insert that works with fire stone. I put the fire and ice desire on the back burner since it wasn't the quick fix I thought it would be.

Until I read Kim's tabletop fire bowl idea on her blog Today’s Creative Life. She made a fire stone fire bowl for her deck in less than 30 minutes.

Just look at that blue! It looks like ice from the Caribbean ocean is on fire.

Which is a pretty good trick since the only ice I ever saw in the Caribbean has been in my drink from the hotel ice maker.

I can totally do this!

So can you. Read Kim's tutorial

DIY Tabletop Fire Bowl

on Today's Creative Life!



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15 Non Alcoholic Cocktails for Summer

After the gray winter days, I dance with joy when the sun shines bright in summer.

Except  this summer. We had 19 straight days of rain in June.

We are following that trend this July. We're lucky if we get one day a week that it isn't raining. When that happens, it is more likely to be overcast rather than sunny.


As a treat, I mix up a pitcher of liquid sunshine - a fancy pants juice drink that's alcohol free. A mocktail! It's the perfect refreshing drink when you want something a little more than water and not as sweet as pop.

 

I'm sharing 15 of my favorite mocktail recipes on my food blog Lazy Budget Chef. Click here to read:

15 Summer Mocktail Recipes That Will Make You the Queen of the Cookout on Lazy Budget Chef!

What is your favorite summer drink?

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How to Repair a Quad Camp Chair

One of Husband’s coworkers has a HUGE Fourth of July parade party and cookout.

Food was made. Watermelon cut and cubed. Coolers were washed and ready. The one thing we didn’t double check were our first generation armless folding quad lawn (camp) chairs. (aff link)

We discovered one of rivets holding the chair legs to the seat broke after we set up the chairs at our parade viewing encampment. Whoops!

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Replacing a broken rivet on a folding quad lawn chair is a super simple fix. It takes barely any time at all. If you have a jar of odd nuts and bolts laying around, it could be a zero dollar repair. What’s not to love about that?

How to Fix a Folding Lawn Chair

12 Favorite Summer Craft Projects

Summer is in full swing. I am loving it! Warm summer days are excellent DIY and craft project weather. Here are a few of my favorite summer craft projects that are not only clever but useful too!

 

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DIY Personalized Insulated Wine Glass Tumblers –  Fun and reusable!

How to get Rid of Ants in a Pet and Kid Safe Natural Way

After nine days of consecutive rain my yard is waterlogged. A bunch of ants decided to seek higher ground and wanted to use my kitchen as a summer vacation spot.

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I wanted to kill the ants but I am leery of using borax, conventional ant bait traps, and sprays because I don’t want to kill my dog along with the ants. Death by shoe is more natural and personally satisfying but it not a good long term solution.

Five Things You Absolutely Must Do to Get Rid of Ants

CREATE: Vintage Jewelry and Burlap Letters

I have a big, fat, crazy love for vintage jewelry. I always surf the jewelry section when I’m in a consignment or thrift store just to drool over what I call Grandma Jewelry- the glitz rhinestone stuff.


When Husband and I played nobles at our local renaissance fictional I finally had a reason to buy some. Renaissance rich people love to wear their jewels but as two real life people acting in a 10 acre field, I didn’t want to spend much on it. Why? The pile of orphan earrings in our costume jewelry box from losing them while performing is the answer to that question.

I hung onto them to either make over into a prop or for crafting. From time to time, I cleaned out my everyday costume jewelry box and added pieces to the Some Day My Project Will Come Pile.