Cool Ideas: Beat the Heat!

Just the thought of Arizona in the summertime makes people shudder. Things don't even start cooling down until October (last year it didn't really start cooling down until late October/early November and then it only stayed AC cool during the winter time! Craziness!). I don't think it's as bad but because I have 4 boys, you'd better believe that there'll be football! Our football season comes during those months that are the hottest in AZ! (Not to mention I will be at the field all day long because I have to watch 3 different games back to back!) 

This year, I decided to "Beat the Heat" by preparing my "cooling gear" early. On a trip to Walmart one day, my husband and I bought a garden sprayer (the kind that sprays insecticide and weed killer).  These puppies hold quite a bit of water and, thanks to a wand and nozzle, can spray streams of water or super fine mists that can keep you cool without making you look as if you could be a contestant in a wet t-shirt contest. The sprayer is portable and can be taken just about anywhere! You could also add ice to the tank to make the mist even colder! 

The price was not bad (about $8) and I knew it would pay for itself the very first week of football.

To personalize it, and make sure no one without my last name could accidentally take it home, I had some vinyl of my last name cut in our team's colors and applied to the outside of the tank. You could also use letter stickers or a permanent marker to spell your name out.

I also applied the symbol H2O so that we or other people wouldn't mistake it for poison. It was also so no one would use the "water sprayer" to spray poison.

Lastly, I brushed a layer or two of mod podge over the vinyl to seal out moisture that could cause the lettering to detach.

Now I am ready to Beat the Heat at all those upcoming football games! I hope you will enjoy using your sprayer just as much as I will!

Brandi-Lee

BTW, don't forget to enter to win in our giveaway! You have exactly 3 more days to enter! All's you have to do is comment to enter to win! Good Luck!

Cool Ideas: Pix Stick

Do you have problems hanging your pictures where you want them? Do your wall groupings look like they were hung by a blind man? Do your walls look like this?

(Kay, I'm sounding like an infomercial now! lol!) I had this same problem forever and I hated it! There is nothing more upsetting than trying to hang pictures up on a wall and having them look crooked and ill spaced!!

Here's a really simple solution that I've been using for several years now. I call it my "Pix Stick".

All you need is a paint stick and a screw  or nail (like my artwork?).

 Now I know you're wondering "How the heck is a paint stick and a screw gonna help me hang my pictures?" When you find out, you'll be thinking "Brilliant!".

As you can see, there's a screw "screwed" into one end of the stick.

You'll want as short a screw or nail as you can get and insert it about half way into the stick. Instead of putting the screw in so far down like mine (my stick split at the top cuz someone stepped on it so I had to lower the screw), you might wanna screw it in closer to the edge but not too close cuz the stick might split or break. I'd say screw it in about an inch from the end of the stick.

K, here's the back of a picture frame. Locate the picture "hanger". 

Another common hanger is a sawtooth hanger. (not all hangers look the same but the pix stick will work with all types of hangers)

Place the picture frame hanger over the head of the screw like you're hanging it.

It should look like this.

Pic 1                                                     Pic 2

While firmly holding the handle of the stick, put the picture against the wall. As you can see, you can either hold from the bottom (pic 1) or from the side (pic 2). Yes, I had a hard time holding the stick and taking pictures at the same time so I had my baby help me. See his chubby arms!

The "flatness" of the paint stick is ideal for getting the frame against the wall as close as possible to the way it would really look as if it were hanging on the wall itself.
 

Place your picture (on the stick) against the wall where you would like it to hang until you are satisfied with the placement. Press lightly but firmly against the frame (over the screw) to make a little mark on the wall. If you are hanging more than one picture, while the 2nd picture is on the stick against the wall, pay attention to placement by looking at 2 things. 1, you're going to see if pictures are horizontally level and 2, you're going to see if pictures are equally spaced.

Here I am pressing firmly against the frame at about the area of the screw to make a small mark on the wall.

The mark made by the screw is exactly where you will be putting your nail in the wall to hang your picture.

Your frame should hang nicely in the exact spot you "chose".

Here's a peek at some of the groupings in my home.

my kitchen entryway

My foyer

My livingroom

downstairs hall

my room

The loft

 

Soon, you will have all your plaques, clocks, picture frames and wall decor hanging so perfectly on the wall that they'll look like they got hung by a professional! The pix stick will be a wonderful, handy addition to your arsenal. It is one of the most utilized tool in my own arsenal. I really don't know what I would do without it! (I'd probably have way more holes in my walls than I'd like)

Happy Hanging!

Brandi-Lee

Did You Know?...Got Gas?

Got Gas?

NO, NOT YOU...your house?

DID YOU KNOW  that if you have a gas WATER heater you could be wasting money?

What do I mean?

DID YOU KNOW...that if you turn your water heater off when it is not in use

you could save yourself over 50%.

(ok...it's not really off.  It's on the lowest setting possible.)

This is what I do.

We only turn our water heater on (up) when we need it...

When do we need it?

When we take a shower
(30 min before we jump in)

(P.S. I don't use the dishwasher to wash dishes.  Our dishwasher isn't the greatest.  It leaves the dishes really wet after a wash.  Even after going through 2 dry cycles they are still wet.  We rent and it came with the house.  We hand wash our dishes-it is less wear and tear on dishes, it saves water, and my kids have learned how to wash dishes...it's a great life skill!  We put our hand washed dishes into the dishwasher and run it on the heat dry cycle.  Tada...dry!)

I taught my older kids how to adjust the water heater and to turn it up to where we want it

and down to the lowest setting.

Now I have helpers...so it's easy to turn our gas up and down:)

What kind of a difference can it make?

Here is what happened to us...

Water heater off when we don't use it (hand wash dishes) $30 month

Water heater on all the time (long story) $70 month

I spent over 50% more.

Crazy!

Save money...shut off your gas

(turn your water heater to the lowest setting)

During the summer we leave it on the lowest setting and never turn it up. 

We live in Arizona and during the summer the water comes out of the tap boiling...lol.)

I tried to convince my husband to let me blow out the pilot light so that it wouldn't heat any water at all and then that ways I could have a $0 gas bill during the summer months

(notice I said months=more than one month of $0 gas bill sounds great to me!)

happy gassing!

mileka:)

Cool Ideas: Sand Jars

 If you've seen my other posts, you'd know how much I love glass jars. It seems I can always think up cool ways to utilize them. Here's my latest idea.

Being from Hawaii, I miss the land and especially the beaches. I've always wanted to bring a little bit of home with me so I have that connection. I decided to bring the beach home with me. . . .I decided to bring home sand. Well, I did not only bring home the sand from 1 beach, I brought the sand from 6 different beaches home (go big or go home right? lol!).

Molokai, being an island, is filled with sand! There are hundreds of beaches so it was easy for me to get my hands on some. Sand is sand right? WRONG! The sand is unique to the beach it came from. Take a look at the picture above. These 3 different sands are from beaches next to each other and yet, they have very different characteristics. Sand may differ in grain size (course/fine), content and color of content (what the sand is made up of specific to the region), and shade overall (the darkness or lightness of the sand). Knowing all of this, I got to work on my project.

On my last trip home in March 2011, I brought home sand in water bottles.

I made sure to put their names on them with a permanent marker so I didn't mix any of them up.

I also labeled their caps with the 1st initial of the name of the beach they were from.

Great Tip! Here's a great tip if you are bringing more than 1 bottle of sand home on the plane. If you are on a trip and are bringing back a buttload of other souvenirs, it may be hard for you to bring back more than 1 bottle of sand especially if you have to pay the airlines those expensive baggage fees. Pack your sand (in water bottles, ziplocs or whatever else you can find) and label them. Go to the Post Office and get a small or medium flat rate boxes and ship your sand home. It will not matter how heavy the sand is, as long as it fits in the box (my baggage got very heavy bringing just 10 water bottles of sand home). This will save you time, $ and it will save your back!

Here are the steps I took once I was home.

1. I cleaned up the jar I was going to use by washing it and scraping the label off the outside. You may also spraypaint the cap if there is labeling on it.

2. Some of the sand I brought home was very damp. I got a tray that I had laying around, and I dumped the wet sand into it. (you can also use those cardboard soda boxes to do this part)

3. Then I smoothed the sand out evenly with a ruler (you can use anything to smooth the sand out).

4. I took my sand outside and let it lay out in the sun so it could dry thoroughly.

Here's a view from the back. I just put a piece of wood I had laying around underneath the trays so they could be propped up facing the sun. This helps them dry faster. Warning: if you have lots of cats in the area, make sure to keep an eye on your sand or you'll find a present they left just for you *;)

5. I labeled a sandwich size ziploc bag to store the sand once it dried.

6. Using the lid of the glass jar, I traced a circle on a clear plastic bag and cut it out. These circles are to put between the layers of sand so they won't mix into each other. Because you are tracing the lid of the jar you are going to be using, the circles should be the perfect size for your jar.

The circles should look like this

7. Pour the first layer of sand in the jar and then place a circle on the top of that layer. Make sure it is in the middle of the layer.

8. Pour each layer one after another. Using a tool (a little ruler or something that has a wide end) smooth the sand in each layer out and move it towards the glass (I wish I had a pic of this but I dont. Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it). Make sure the layers are pretty equal in thickness.  

9. Warning! Make sure you keep track of the order of the sand! First off, I put all my bottles and bags in the order I was going to pour the sand.

10. Warning! Make sure that when you put the sand in order, you pay attention to the look of the sand. If you have the sand from 3 different beaches that look almost the same, you will want to space them out evenly. What you want is contrast. A black or darker sand against a whiter sand will look better than 2 white sands together.

11. Warning! This may be the most important thing. When putting the last layer of sand in the jar, make sure the sand goes all the way to the top of the jar so that it pushes against the lid when you seal the jar. This will ensure that the layers will not move and mix up.

 12. I labeled the jars with vinyl that I had cut myself. You do not need to use vinyl. You may label the jars with tape, permanent pens, stickers and paper.

 12. Lastly, I labeled the cover with the place I got the sand from. I got all my sand from my island so I put Moloka'i (the island), Hawai'i (the state). You could also put dates, like the date of your trip for example:

Hawai'i Trip 

March 2011

Now I have jars of sand from my homeland that I can display in my home. I love, love, love my jars!!! I also gave some of my friends a jar as a present, they make great gifts! I also made some sand jars out of baby food jars for my kid's rooms. Because they are smaller, they require less sand and are perfect for  gifts for children.

1. I cleaned and filled the baby food jars exactly the same way I did my large jars. Paint the lids.

2. I printed the names of the beaches on my home computer using a very small font. You can print on regular paper or labels. I suggest using labels so they stick to the jar. Using a ruler, cut the names out so they are in one straight rectangle.

3. Now that you have the labels adhered to the outside of the jar, you need to put a laminate-like coating on the label so it won't smear. I used packing tape to do this.

1. Place a strip of packing tape over the label and trim.

2.Make sure to keep the tape smooth over the label.

3. and 4. Using an exacto knife, kitchen knife or scissors, score or cut the tape along the outside of the label with the blade.

5. Grab the edge of the tape and peel. It should peel off easily along the edges of the label.

Here's the sand jar in baby size. How cute!

Enjoy your little bit of Paradise!

Brandi-Lee

Did You Know?...Toothpaste Dispenser

Is your bathroom a mess?

Tooth paste all over the place?

Yes!

The kid bathroom WAS almost always a mess...

NOW...

it's a little cleaner.

Why?...

because we have a toothpaste dispenser.

Have you ever seen that info-mercial that advertises for a toothpaste dispenser?

You know the one I'm talking about.

That sucker costs $20...

(ok...they'll give you one free)...

 $10 each.

I wanted one.  The kids wanted one.

I didn't want to pay $10-$20 for one.

SO I MADE MY OWN!

Yes, it can be done!

my cost = FREE

(I already had everything I needed)

Supplies:

• toothpaste
• soap dispenser (empty and clean!)
• water (distilled preferred)

  Use an empty and clean hand soap dispenser.

Squeeze in your toothpaste.

Dilute with a little water.  I read somewhere that regular tap water can have a high level of minerals which can make "stuff go bad" quicker than distilled water. 

So...I usually have a gallon of distilled water in my house.  $0.83 at my Walmart.

I wish I could give you an exact amount of water to add. 

I'm thinking that you are wishing the same thing.

Each toothpaste is a different consistency. 

You are going to have to figure it out...sorry!

(I added just enough to get it to be able to get it through the pump. 

It is still solid enough to sit in a little glob on the tooth brush).

It works just as good as the thicker version.

and...

the bathroom counter stays cleaner!!!

The kids love to use it and

I love it when the bathroom is clean (cleaner than it used to be).

It's a win-win!

mileka:)

happy brushing!