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Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Where have I been?

Hello to my loyal readers. Have you enjoyed reading the eighties post every day for the past 6 weeks? I know I have. It just doesn't get old. I have been very busy turning this....



into THIS.........

Thanks to Melissa over at The Inspired Room
for hosting a procrastination party. It was just what I needed to jump start this project.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Procrastinator

I am joining the procrastinator party over at the inspired room. We have been given two weeks to get a project done. This mess has been making me ill. My office is non functional in this state.






HEEEEEEEEELLLLLP!!!!!!!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Hope


If you read this post then you'll know that I have been on a quest to improve my homemaking skills. I found this site that I absolutely love. Go here to check it out. Wish me luck!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Tips

I saw this on a strangers blog today and wanted to keep them for myself, so I thought I'd share.

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

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

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.

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mix er 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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...

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!

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!


To easily remove burnt on food from your skillet, simply add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover bottom of pan, and bring to a boil on stove-top-skillet will be much easier to clean now.

Spray your Tupperware with nonstick cooking spray before pouring in tomato-based sauces-no more stains.

When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead-no white mess on the outside of the cake.

If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a peeled potato-it absorbs the excess salt for an instant "fix me up."

Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator -- it will keep for weeks.

Coming Clean


Today I am coming out of the closet, or as I like to call it, coming clean. Here goes: I am not a great homemaker. There, I've said it. This has been a struggle for me my entire married life, of almost 20 years. You would not believe how messy our house was even before we had kids. Don't get me wrong, I know how to clean. I was a janitor at BYU and I can do amazing things with a toothpick. I just have never been able to figure out a system to keep my house together. I can honestly say that I have never once had my entire house clean at the same time. There has always been some hidden "crap" somewhere. I'm not saying that we live in filth, either, I just feel like I am consumed by thoughts of my house almost 24/7. Of course, this all came to me today as I finally cleaned by bathroom after months of neglect. I even scrubbed the shower, and that probably had not been done...well, I can't even remember. Are you thinking less of me? Does anyone else have boxes of stuff they don't know where to put so it just moves from room to room? Am I alone in this? (Can you tell what time of the month it is?) I'd love to hear how you keep up with your house. I know this is a skill that can be learned and mastered. My greatest concern is what attitude I am teaching my girls about being a homemaker. It can't look great to them by the way I act. Thanks for reading my rant. I am off to dust my bedroom.