Not Much Farmin'

I've been busy this summer helping around the neighborhood and working on some other projects. Not much farming or cheesemaking going on right now!

A set of 36 color cubes. Each cube has four solid colored sides (red, yellow, blue, white) and two dual colored sides (red and white, yellow and blue.) I've been wanting one of these since I saw a set here.

This table needed a new leg. I used my Kreg Jig Jr to build it. It's the second project with the new jig and I'm excited to have more projects in mind!

These are some temporary shelf doors that cover some of the open shelves in my daughter's 3rd grade classroom. She needed something to hide the stuff that has to be stored there. These were easy to 'build', the cost was minimal, and although they don't completely cover the shelf, they make a big difference in calming the room down.

I'll be posting a tutorial for the teachers at her school who want to make some of these. The teachers at this school are phenomenal! The administration.... not so much!

Fly Killer

I was at the feed store on Wednesday and picked up a box of Aeroxon Window Fly Killer.

I went back today and bought 3 more boxes!

It's doesn't smell, the flies don't stick to it, and it sticks on the window out of the way.

It has a poison on the sticker that the flies eat and then they DIE!!!

We had a barbeque here on July 24th. When the party was over we had hundreds of flies in the house. By Thursday evening we were finding dead flies everywhere, which is kinda gross when you find them on the counter, but that's better than them buzzing around everywhere.

I was surprised at how well it worked.

There is now a Fly Killer decal in every room in the house that has a window.

I might even put one in the camper!

Cheap-O Diffuser

We don't use many essential oils. I know... everyone is using them to cure everything! And I'm glad they work for so many people on so many ailments!

Hubby has some that he uses to clear his sinuses when he starts to get a cold. They work really well for that.

And I used some citrus the other day to get rid of the "musty basement mixed with 2 dogs and 2 cats" smell in Vet2Be's room.

My friend (who is really into essential oils) told me to use a diffuser that doesn't heat the oil.

I don't have one.

Here's what I came up with that seems to work just fine!

It's a napkin with the essential oils on it clipped to the front of a fan.

Voila! No heat, and it spreads the citrus smell through Vet2Be's dog scented room!

Now his room, and the basement, don't smell like a mixture of stale air and dog. Yay for me!

I might try it on the evaporative cooler next.

It's called a 'swamp cooler' for a reason.

Removing Advertising from Plastic Clips

I should be out in the garden, but my knees and hips hurt so much that I really don't want to push on a shovel!

Instead, I'm blogging because that's much easier on my knee!

Hubby brings home lots of stuff from Trade Shows. He's a chemist and works and consults in a number of different industries.

Most of the stuff goes to Blondie's 3rd Grade Classroom for prizes for the kids. But I snag a few of the brightly colored magnetic clips for the fridge.

But I don't like the advertising on them.

Here's how to get rid of it. (Not saying it will work for you, but I've done this a few times and it's worked for me every time.)

Clip with advertising on it.

First thing I do is scrub off the advertising with an SOS pad. I think any steel wool pad with a bit of soap would work. That leaves scratches behind.

I used an old nail buffer to smooth out the surface.

And all the scratches are smoothed away!

 I took off one side of a nail buffer block because it was easier to hold and the block was old. Once in a while I have to use side 3 and then side 4 to get the plastic smooth.

I've also done this on scratched piano keys and it's worked well there, too!

Have you used this trick on plastic, too? Please let me know what you've used it for. I love hearing your ideas!

Grocery List

This is the grocery list I'm using on my fridge right now. Nothing fancy about it at all, but it jogs my memory for needed items as well as gives me a place to jot down things we run out of.

Sharpening Scissors with Aluminum Foil

I've wanted to try this for a few weeks. Fortunately I have a pair of scissors that are so bad that if it didn't work, the scissors were ready to throw away anyway.

I sharpened my quilting rotary cutter with aluminum foil and it worked surprisingly well! My friend told me that she had heard you could sharpen paper punches with aluminum foil as well.

That's a pretty small cut for those scissors!

A sheet of aluminum foil folded to 6 layers.

Cut aluminum foil before second try at cutting the bag.

Surprise! The scissors work again!

I was surprised! I wasn't sure aluminum foil would sharpen my scissors enough that they would cut much better.

I know, it's probably less expensive to go buy a sharpener.

Sometimes it's nice to be able to use what I have sitting around. Next time I have aluminum foil that is ready for the garbage, I'll use that instead of brand new aluminum foil.

In fact, I'll probably grab a pair of scissors and cut the old stuff up as I throw it into the garbage just to keep my scissors sharp.

Christmas Lights and Zip Ties

I had what I thought was a great idea!

It turns out it is a great idea.... surprise!

We love Christmas lights. We drive around to see Christmas lights. But we really stink at decorating our own house with Christmas lights.

Hubby leaves lights on one of the trees and around the front windows all year because he hates taking them down.

I decided I wanted some lights in another tree this winter and I don't have the time or patience to carefully wrap strings of lights around the branches anymore than he does. And the string of lights I found on sale were snowflake lights, not exactly the kind of wire you can wind around branches anyway.

That's where the zip ties come in! I haven't seen or read anywhere else about stringing Christmas lights using zip ties, but it worked, it worked well, and it was fast!

I used the white zip ties I found in the garage. I had to chain a few together for the larger branches, but it was so easy and fast that I could it with gloves on!

I even used zip ties to hold the extension cord to the tree so it wouldn't dangle down at weird angles across the front of the house. I ran out of white zip ties and used the black ones from the barn, but both colors blend in with the bark on the tree, so the color didn't make a difference.

I'm pretty excited that I can go out today and snip the zip ties with scissors and take the lights down quickly. Yay! Fast and easy!

We bought a bag of 100 zip ties this spring.

One of the best 'equipment investments' we've made in a while!

Vet2Be is positive I'm zip-tie crazed because of all the things I've used them for, inside the house, in the barn yard, and now for Christmas lights! There is a small stash of them in the camper and in the two old cars, too.

Right next to the Gorilla duct tape :)

Broken Follower and How to 'Fix' Chipped Glass

Of course the glass follower I use got a chip in it! (Here's a link to my ugly cheese press and my glass follower).

A few years ago someone showed me a way to smooth out a chip in a piece of glass. I've used this trick so often that I thought I would share it.

I've done this to the edge of bowls, cups, and 1/2 gallon milk jars. I don't do it on canning jars because the lid won't seal after the rim has chipped. But it makes all the other glass things safe to use. No sharp edges, no cut lips or fingers.

You can't really see the chip in the photo, but the pencil is pointing at it if you want to get an idea of where it is.

I use an emery board or fine sand paper to sand the edges of the chip! An emery board works a little better than the sand paper because it is stiffer and it doesn't tend to rip like the sand paper does.

Most of the time you can't see the chip after I've sanded it smooth. Sometimes, like on the rim of a smooth cup, you can see it, but since it is the edges aren't sharp anymore I don't have to worry about anyone getting hurt on it. My favorite 'fix' is on the 1/2 gallon glass milk jars. They aren't cheap and I hate to throw them away unless they are cracked and completely useless.