Keeping Fresh Flowers Fresh

With spring right around the corner, you might be thinking of all the fresh flowers you can add around your house or apartment. I’ve been trying to keep fresh flowers in my house at all times, because there is just something about flowers that make me happier. But when they wither away only a few days later, that’s such a bummer, which is why I try to help those freshly cut flowers last as long as possible.

Step 1: Start with a clean jar or vase. Add room temperature water about 1/3 of the way up.

Step 2: Drop a penny into the jar.

Step 3: Add Sprite to your jar, filling another 1/3 of the way up. Your jar should now be 2/3 full of liquid now.

Step 4: Cut your flowers to the desired length diagonally, and add to your jar.

Why a penny?

Copper is known to act as an antimicrobial agent, so adding a penny to your jar can keep bacteria from attacking your precious flowers.

 Why Sprite?

Sprite, or any other lemon-lime soda is a great way to keep freshly cut flowers looking great longer, because the citrus keeps bacteria from growing, and the sugar acts as a food for the stems.

When I use this method to keep my flowers fresh, they stay upright and happy looking 3 days longer.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend! Don’t forget to spring forward!

Lynda

Clean Off Your Desk Day

Happy Monday!  And also, Happy National Clean Off Your Desk Day!  I’m usually not all about the silly names, celebrations, and recognitions given to random days of the year, but I took this one seriously.  January 12th is known (or not-so-known) as Clean Off Your Desk Day, and since I didn’t work today, that’s exactly what I decided to do, and it was much needed!  

 

 

 

Hopefully this inspires you to clean off your desks too, so you can fully prepare yourself for an awesome 2015.  Now I just need some fresh flowers to complete my newly cleaned desk!

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

DIY Jewelry Catchall

I don’t know why, but I hate typing with bracelets on. I also hate typing with my watch on, too. Maybe it’s because I have a MacBook Pro and every time I’m typing away, my metal bracelets and watch make that scratching noise against the surface of my laptop…and it’s slightly agitating. I also think it’s because they feel like they are getting in the way. Regardless of the reason, I always end up taking off my jewelry at my desk. A few days ago, I finally decided to make a catchall for these baubles, just for the sole purpose of holding them at my desk while I’m typing away. And what’s even better is that this catchall also doubles as a coaster for my drinks when my jewelry isn’t using it to take a nap.

Materials:

Oven Bake Clay (I used Studio by Sculpey in the color Stardust)

X-Acto Knife

Paint Brush

Rolling Pin

Liquid Leaf in Renaissance Gold

Surface to mold your clay around (I used a large candle jar from Bath & Body Works)

Surface to roll your clay on (I used my Martha Stewart cutting mat)

Rubber stamps (optional)

Oven Safe Bowl

Cookie Sheet

Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear Acrylic Coating

 Instrutions:

1. Make sure your hands and work surface are clean and dry. The last thing you want to do is get dirt or some sort of contaminants in your clay mixture.
2. Preheat your oven according to the directions on the package of your clay (mine said 275 Fahrenheit).
3. Roll out your clay evenly ¼ cm thick. Make sure the entire surface of the clay is larger than the surface you want to mold your clay around.
4. Mold your clay around the surface and make sure there are no air bubbles or cracks in the clay. If you want to carve or stamp your initials or anything to the bottom of the catchall, do this now.
5. Gently remove your design from the surface you molded it around and place it right side up. Fix or alter any areas you need to at this time. If you wish to carve or stamp anything on the inside surface, do this now. I stamped some stars on mine.
6. Flip your design over the bottom of an oven safe bowl and lightly adjust any clay areas, to make sure the design stays in shape. Place bowl on cookie sheet and place in oven. Bake for the time it states on package of clay (mine said 30 minutes).
7. Once you remove the cookie sheet from the oven, immediately take your catchall off the bowl, and flip right side up. Use an oven mitt so you don’t burn yourself! Allow to cool.
8. Once your catchall is cooled down, you can begin painting your liquid gold leafing to it. Before you begin painting, be sure to shake the liquid leaf vigorously so the gold paints on evenly.
9. Once the liquid leaf is dried, you can begin using your jewelry catchall!
10. In order to take your jewelry catchall up a notch, spray a coat of Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear coating on to seal the gold leaf in and give the catchall a shiny finish.

This DIY project takes approximately 1 hour from start to finish, and you can make multiples at the same time if you wanted to create these for holiday gifts! Try experimenting with multiple colors of clay, stamping words into the interior, making different shapes and sizes, or adding a ring stand to the middle!

Thanks for DIY-ing with me!  If you want to see more DIY posts like this from me, let me know by liking this post below!

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

DIY: Glass Etching

When Fall arrives, it brings out the creatives.  I think so, at least.  Everyone loves decorating for fall and the holidays that follow, even those who don’t have a creative bone in their body.  This quick and easy project is a great way to decorate for fall, or even make simple gifts for friends and family.

Supplies:

Glass you want to etch (I’m using a candle)

Image you want to etch

Etching Cream (I use Armour Etch.  You can find it at Michael’s or A.C. Moore)

Duck Tape

Parchment Paper

X-Acto Knife

Cutting surface

Pencil

Paintbrush

Paper Towel

Directions:

1. Trace the image you want to put on your glass onto the parchment paper.

2. Cut the proper sized piece of duck tape and place on the opposite side of your parchment paper, so your pencil side is facing up.  If you’re trying to create letters, place the duck tape on the opposite side of the parchment, so the letters will read correctly.  You will still be able to see your drawing, it will just be a bit harder to see.

3. Using your X-Acto knife, slowly cut out your image on your cutting mat.  It’s ok if you butcher the image at all, as the most important part is the outline of the duck tape (the negative space).

4.  Once you’ve fully removed the image from the rest of the duck tape/parchment paper, peel off the duck tape and place it on  your glass surface, where you want the image to be.  Press firmly to make sure there are no air bubbles near the edges of the image.

5.  Using your paintbrush, dab on a decent amount of etching cream inside your cut outs, being sure no excess runs off the edges of the duck tape.  You want the cream to be globbed on, rather than in a thin layer, so don’t worry if it looks messy.  Make sure you have a slightly thick layer everywhere that the cream touches glass.

 

6.  Let your glass and etching cream sit untouched for 5-10 minutes.

7.  Once it has be 5-10 minutes, carefully wipe off as much excess etching cream with a paper towel, being careful to not get any on any other parts of glass.

8. With the duck tape still on your glass, run the surface under water and, with your fingers, remove any remnants of etching cream.

9.  Once the etching cream is almost all removed, you can peel off your duck tape.  Wipe down your glass with a dry cloth or paper towel, and you’re all finished!

And here’s the final product!

 

 

Hope you enjoyed!  Have a great fall day,

Bows and arrows,

Lynda

Easy Homemade Hand Soap

As someone who constantly thinks about what I’m putting IN my body from food and how it affects my health, I admittedly do not spend nearly as much time thinking about the things I put ON my body. I’m sure most of you have heard at least a little bit about the potentially harmful chemicals and ingredients that can be found in many beauty and body products. The ones I hear about most frequently are parabens and Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (often found in shampoos). I have done a little bit of research on some of these ingredients, but I definitely have just barely scratched the surface of alll the information that’s out there. The bottom line for me is that the closer something is to containing real, natural, and organic ingredients, the better it probably is for my body. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that if it’s made in a laboratory, then it’s bad for me, but I do think that in most cases natural is better. That’s my philosophy with food also and it just makes sense to me. Here is a little infographic that sums up some of the toxic ingredients found in beauty/body products.

That leads me to the homemade soap thing…

I was thinking about ways I could start to transition some of my beauty and body products over to better alternatives. Natural beauty and body products are EXPENSIVE, but you can save a bunch of money by making some things yourself. Hand soap seemed like an easy enough thing to make myself. I searched and came across this blog post, which described the easiest process ever for making your own hand soap. I really wasn’t expecting it to turn out very well. I figured I wouldn’t like it enough to make it again, but I was so wrong.

All you need is a grater, a bar of soap of your choice, and a container to put it in. I got this cute mason jar with a pump in it from Marshals. I love it!

Grate the bar of soap! Put 1 gallon of water in a big pot on the stove and heat just until steaming (not boiling).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the water is steaming, remove from heat and mix in the soap. Let it sit for 15 minutes.

After you let it sit for a while, take out your Hello Kitty mixer (or I guess a regular mixer will work also) and mix it all up really well. Put a lid on it and let it sit overnight. In the morning give it another good mix and you’re DONE! 

For more detailed instructions please check out the blog I linked above.

The consistency may vary, but mine turned out gel-like, which is what I was hoping for. I was really worried that it was going to be very watery, but it wasn’t at all. In case this slipped by you, I made a GALLON of hand soap, for the cost of a bar of soap. The bar soap I bought cost me around $4.69. In the past, I was buying a 32 ounce container of Softsoap brand hand soap that ranges in price from $2.50-$3.00. If I bought a gallons worth of the Softsoap it would cost me around $10! More natural ingredients AND cheaper! I like it!

I filled up this this container and the rest of the ones I had around the house and put what was left in an old Softsoap container. I will definitely be making this again when I run out of this batch…which will probably be a long time from now. Give this a try! Even if you don’t care about the scary chemicals, I think everyone can get on board with saving a few dollars here and there. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

 

DIY Necklace Organizer

I’ve had this in my closet for quite some time now, and I’ve finally realized I should probably tell you all about it!

Most stores like Target or Wal-mart sell jewelry organizers in some fashion or another and there are usually many to choose from depending on what type of jewelry you’re trying to organize.  They’ve seemed to do a great job selling items that organize rings and earrings, but when it comes to necklaces, this is where [I think] they fall short.  Most necklace organizers are meant to sit on your dresser or vanity, and have some sort of open/close contraption, or are shaped like a cute little tree, etc.…which would be great if all of my necklaces were 16 inches in length or shorter! (Refer to diagram below)

Image from Fab Fatale Blog

However, many of my necklaces are quite lengthy because I love layering them, and that presented a problem when trying to store them…obviously the organizers that were being sold weren’t big enough, and I clearly couldn’t lay them flat inside some type of jewelry box, or else they’d be a tangled mess, so I came up with this!

 Here are the exact materials I used (if you wish to replicate):

19 in. Essick Hook Rail/Rack with 4 Decorative Hooks in Satin Nickel found at Home Depot (mounting materials included in box): $19.97

• It’s important to pick one with a bar that is offset from the wall so you can actually hang things on it!

Glacier Bay Double Roller Shower Hook in Brushed Nickel (12 pk.) found at Home Depot: $11.68

• It’s important to get the shower curtain hooks that aren’t loops, and I particularly liked these because they have double hooks, which means twice the necklaces!

You’ll also need a Philips head screwdriver and a spare space on the wall where you’re willing to hang this on!

Total cost of project: $31.65 before tax

Time it took to install and organize: 20 minutes

Total amount of necklaces mine is currently holding:  27 (And I still have a double hook to spare!)

It seems like a lot to spend, but it is surprisingly only about 5 to 10 dollars more than an actual necklace holder/organizer from the store that only holds 10 to 12 short necklaces.  This one holds soooo much more than those, and definitely keeps your necklaces from getting tangled.  I decided to place mine in my closet, just because that’s where all my clothes are and it helps me put outfits together for it to all be in one place, but you could definitely have this mounted to a wall in your room, and place your necklaces on display!

P.S.  I use the big sturdy hooks that are attached to the actual wall mount for those really heavy necklaces, or the ones that keep their shape!

Do you have any ways of organizing your jewelry?  Let us know!

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda