Picture Personalized Coasters

I keep a file on my computer of homemade gift ideas. Awhile back I came across these cuties on Chameleon Girls. 

I've been waiting for the perfect occasion and I found it. I thought they'd be a perfect thank you to my wonderful father and his wife for having us to Cali and graciously providing a family vacation. 

At Lowe's I decided on these gorgeous glass tiles.

I love the inspiration tissue paper but wanted a more personalized look and something to fit their aesthetic.

In the end I had my Pops send me a few of their favorite photos. I converted them to pdf and cropped them down to 4x4in. 

Then the tricky part- you want to print them on tissue paper so they will be very thin and look more a part of the tile. I taped tissue paper to a regular 8 1/2 x 11 sheet and stuck it in the printer that way.

Cut them down to size and then modge podge them onto the tile. You don't want to apply modge podge to the back of the tissue, only to the tile. Wait to out it on the tile until

the tile looks dry and feels tacky.

Lay the tissue paper where you want it, then put a piece of wax paper on top and then rub out any bubbles. (I didn't really have many.)

After 15-20 minutes you can apply the second coat of modge podge.

When everything is thoroughly dry, I waited overnight, you can lacquer the tiles. You don't want to skip this step if you're planning on using the coasters because they aren't waterproof without it.

I used light grey felt on the bottom of mine- but you could use cork if you wanted to.

 I love being able to give a personalized gift-
and it's especially perfect for those people who are able to purchase the things they need/want!

Thanks for swinging by!

- Becca -


Partying here this week and more specifically here and here.

➹ Homemade Cleaning Supplies ▻ Part 1 ➷

I mentioned that Z and I have incorporated a years' supply of cleaning and hygiene products as a part of our food storage. I discussed how to keep track of what you've bought and buying on sale, but now let's talk cleaners.

I thought a lot about how I wanted to store all these cleaning products in our home- how much, where, which ones. In the end I surprised even myself with the answer.  We've decided to store the items that go into cleaners so that we can make our own, store less toxins in the condo, make anything we want as we need it.

Recipes can be found all over the Internet- but here are the basics you'll need to start:

Liquid Castile Soup, Washing Soda, White Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Borax, Baking Soda, Olive Oil

With these items you can clean just about anything- and they're pretty stinkin' cheap too!

Homemade  Laundry Detergent- All Natural

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

1 bar (of grated) Castile Soap 

Just grate a dried out bar of soap and mix in with other ingredients in reusable container .

Use  2-3 tbsp per load depending on its size.

Homemade Surface Spray- All Natural

2 tsp Borax

1/4 tsp Liquid Castile soap

16 oz Spray Bottle

Hot Water 

Furniture Polish 

 1/2 tsp Olive Oil

1/4 cup Vinegar or Lemon Juice

Mix in a glass jar and use rag to polish surfaces.

Floor Cleaner

1 cup Vinegar

2 Gallons Warm Water 
 

Toilet Cleaner 

Baking Soda or Borax

Liquid Castile Soap

 

Dishwasher Detergent

2 cups Borax

2 cups Baking Soda

4 packages Lemon Unsweetened Kool-Aid or 1/2 cup Citric Acid

Window/Glass Cleaner

 5 parts Water to 1 part White Vinegar

Spray Bottle 

 Carpet and Stain Remover

 1 part Borax

10 parts Warm Water 

Spray Bottle

Mix and then spray on stain, wait 5-10 minutes and blot clean.

That's the basics! Isn't this the perfect project to put in cute bottles and make some homemade labels? Do you see it?

source

I do! Let me know if you have any questions,  have recipes to add, or want some more recipes from me.

I'll be back tomorrow from my trip. Gotta get my projects going!! Woot Woot!

UPDATE:

I've added more recipes! Check'em out here!

And Here!

More Helpful Tips {Food}

DID YOU KNOW?

*Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little "stringy things" off of it. That's how the primates do it.

*Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

*Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

*Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. *Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

*Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

*To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

*For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

*Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

*Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert.  Simple chop them up with the food chopper.  Peel, core and slice a few apples.  Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.  Yum!

More helpful hints from my home to yours!

- Becca - 

Track your Year's Supply of Storage (Hygeine/Food)

Along with the traditional year's supply of food storage and the 90 day supply of short term foods we have decided to add a year's supply of hygiene and cleaning products.

We started with and excel spread sheet and made a list of all the items we would NEED for one year.

 We made a list that we kept handy and each week when the sales ads would come out we would look for our usual foods and also the items we needed to stock up on. 

Instead of buying all at once, we saved a ton of moula by buying good deals and keeping the items we HAD and NEEDED ORGANIZED on the computer.

If you're not Excel savvy these cute girls from Food Storage Made Easy have made a downloadable spreadsheet for short and long term food storage needs. You can either modify the long or short term storage sheet to keep track of your hygiene products and cleaning supplies.

 Now that we're on this system we need to make sure we track when something's empty. For us it's easiest to print off copies of the spreadsheets and put one in each bathroom and in the kitchen. This was we can write it down right as we're throwing out the old deodorant or whatever.

 Here' what the cabinet in Z's bathroom looks like. It has mostly his year supply of hygiene products.

 
Then on the cabinet door we have our spreadsheet printed out.  We just write in when we've opened  a new item.

There's probably a fancier way to display it and keep track of it- but the truth is, you have to have a system you'll actually do.

It would be easier if we could remember to input the stuff directly, but it never seemed to work out that way.

Each week when I look over the ads and fliers I input all the lists into the computer and add whatever is needed to the grocery list. A little work each week keeps us stocked up and helps us to buy things when they are on sale.

And who doesn't like saving money?!

- Becca -

Partying here 
and  here !

A "Home" Tour

So maybe this isn't the typical home tour, but on Z and my last trip to Cali we were able to go to Alcatraz.

What?

Alcatraz was a home of sorts to tons of people!

Besides, you wouldn't believe the strange beauty found on the deserted little island.

Warning- this is an image HEAVY post.

If you've made it through to the end- well, bravo!

Isn't there something hauntingly beautiful about these old prison walls?

- Becca -

Could be linked up at any of these great parties.

That's not the Toilet

 I had a special house guest coming into town last weekend, it's my grandma. I was doing a deep clean to get the guest bath ready and realized I was out of tub and tile cleaner. I was left with a few options. I could use Pine Sol (yeah right), Comet or Lysol toilet cleaner.

Just contemplating using comet brought up horrible childhood memories of me trying to work up a lather with that gritty cleaner trying to please an OCD parent (obviously an impossible task). No surprise at all that I squirted the toilet cleaner all over the tub and shower surround with out concern or regard for negative consequences.

The water here in UT is so hard. I am constantly fighting hard water stains. But they have finally met their match! The toilet cleaner cut through everything and didn't require scrubbing just wiping the tub down was enough. It saved me some serious time and the results are great. Who knows if it should be used on all different types of surfaces but it was awesome on my tub!

Hope you're all having a good week!
I know I am!!
- Becca -

Helpful Hints Everyone Should Know

 Z and I are taking a little vacay and will be partying it up missing my blog for a week. I've lined up some posts- tips to help you lovely peeps live easier and happier lives. I'll be back in action with projects next week!

1. Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

2. Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag.  Seal, mash till they are all broken up.  Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg  Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

3. Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes.  You can double it in size.  You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount.  You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

4. Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

5. Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds.  Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

6. Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

7. No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

8. Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

9. Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll o r empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum.  It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

10. Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress.  Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- ta da! -- static is gone.

11. Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water.  Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

12. Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields?  Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car.  When the windows fog, rub with the eraser!  Works better than a cloth!

13. Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two.  Viola! It unseals easily.

14. Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair...

15. Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid, mix well.  You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

16. Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them.  It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

17. INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.)  He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material - I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like.  Well,..the hot water just sat on top of the mesh!  It didn't go through it at all!  He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free -- that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box, well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to catch fire & potentially burn your house down with it!  He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (& to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot soapy water & an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months.  He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!  How about that!?! Learn something new everyday!  I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. 
Note: I went to my dryer & tested my screen by running water on it.  The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water & a nylon brush & I had it done in 30 seconds.  Then when I rinsed it -- the water ran right thru the screen!  There wasn't any puddling at all!  That repairman knew what he was talking about!

I've had this sitting in my email for a few years- I love this awesome tips and thought I'd share the wealth!

- Becca -

Free Key Fix

Do you have keys that look exactly the same but are for different locks?

Well, I do and it drives me crazy! 

Without fail it seems I grab the wrong one first and that can be a pain in the butt when you're carrying 15 grocery bags.

I thought about using tape or something like that to mark them- but then it hit me! Nail Polish!

I grabbed a couple of shades to try it out and the first coat took awhile to dry- like at least a hour. But it bonded well.

You wanna plan to do at least two coats, just like your nails.

Is it driving you crazy, like it's driving me crazy, that the pink was painted too far over on the right side?

I ended up with three coats- and have had "nail polish keys" for a week testing out the durability. No chips or peeling, so I'm calling it a success!

A sad and true story.

I told the hubby the hot pink key was for his key chain, expecting him to know I was kidding and that it was actually the white one. What does it say about me that he unquestioningly put the pink one on his key chain?
Perhaps I can be unreasonable and controlling at times.

Thanks for stopping in!

- Becca -

Linked up here.