Whoever thought it was a good idea to give coasters a metal lining did not test their product before marketing it. I must be one of the few fools to buy them without realizing how awful these coasters would actually work. I just thought they looked nice. However, if there is any condensation that drips down onto these metal-lined coasters, the coaster will get stuck to the cup, and will rise with the cup when it is picked up. But…
I’ve been learning a lot of new things since I took the leap and quit my job – how to cook fish, how to change the air filter, make curtain rods, refinish wood furniture, spray paint things, make necklaces, etc, etc. So when the smoke detector in our master bedroom started chirping in the middle of the night last night, I looked at it as another opportunity to learn something new! This time the lesson would be in replacing smoke…
Today I assisted in refinishing an old wooden table that my mother in law wanted to modernize for the grandkids’ play room. We used an electric sander to remove the shiny varnish from the entire piece of furniture, and then wiped off the dust thoroughly with a damp rag. Then we used a mini roller and painted the top with gray chalk paint and wiped it to give it a distressed look before it fully dried. For the sides and…
We have a nice view of our patio table in the winter. Just sitting out there not being used… Well, what if it could become a beautiful focal point of the yard as a bird/squirrel hot spot, great for nature-watching while helping the local wildlife get through the cold days? Just add some fallen branches, the bottom of an old planter, and bird seed. Now we wait to be discovered… Thanks for this idea goes to my father in law!…
One of our smaller trees didn’t make it in our backyard this year, so my husband cut it down. Ever attempting to think of DIY/RRR projects, I dragged it into our garage with a plan to make something out of it. I’m still not sure what, but I read that tree trunks need months to dry out so that’s what I’m allowing it to do this winter. In the meantime, I am researching how I’ll debark it and make into…
This is a project that I completed a couple of years ago when we bought a new mattress and I didn’t want to throw away the old one. We needed a couch (and a bed) in the basement, so I did some googling and found instructions on how to make a sofa from a mattress. 8 hours and $10 of supplies later, we had our new l-shaped couch: Since it was made from a queen mattress, it is also comfortable…
Who says wrapping paper and bows are just for presents? These cheap but festive items can really spice up any holiday decorating in your home. We put my husband’s nutcrackers on the mantel, but it needed something to snaz it up. So, I used my daughter’s free poster from the nutcracker, wrapping paper and bows to do the job. I added the bows about the nutcrackers and the wrapping paper pieces to the wall. Festive feel up 100% ?: This…
Due to our health insurance coverage and budgeting, we had to get some very plain eyeglasses for my daughter’s first pair of frames. You can read about that frugal experience and how we saved over $300 on the frames here. But I wanted my kiddo to love her glasses, and they were boring compared to the frames she had really wanted. So I did some brainstorming. How can you add serious personality to plain eyeglasses? And how can you change the…
It is extremely important to clean the gutters on your home at least once a year. Twice a year is even better. You don’t want to skip it. Why? Gutter cleaning is one of those small home maintenance jobs that keeps other bigger and badder things from happening. However, it can be a bit expensive to hire someone to clean the gutters for you. For our smaller home, it would run about $100 per gutter cleaning. So I tried to…
Are you tired of losing your child’s iron-on scout badges? But do you also cringe at the thought of hand sewing badges instead? Never fear! I’ve got some tips for you that will help you hand sew them all on without getting murderous thoughts. My daughter’s troop is very active and she ends up with a LOT of badges. I kid you not- I had over 50 badges to sew on her brownie vest this year alone. And she still…