Who knew? WD-40

Welcome to Who Knew Wednesday!

I have to admit that I had a blast finding an almost infinite amount of alternative uses for everyday household products. I never knew that there were so many things you could use stuff for. At first I wanted to include them all in this post, however reason prevailed and I finally decided to feature one product every week. Unfortunately, I realized that for some of the products I found other uses for the list would be huge! With that in mind I felt the need to just pick things out that did not seem like they would be common knowledge, and from there I would limit my list to about 15, depending on the product, so that it would not take a million years to read. Now having said that, I may re-visit products from time to time and list some more things that they are good for; I can in fact guarantee that I will be re-visiting my first featured product as there are over 2,000 uses for it listed on the company website! Who knew there were so many uses for WD-40?!

Who knew: WD-40?

~        Softens stiff leather (i.e. shoes, baseball gloves, belts, straps, dog collars)

~        To prevent animals from getting in the garbage, spray around the bottom of your garbage cans.

~        When you’re sewing through heave fabrics like denim spray on your needles to prevent breaking.

~        If you get chewing gum in your hair, use a little to make removal easier and less messy than when you use peanut butter.

~        If you’re going fishing make sure to take some to spray on your hands before handling fishing lures or bait to mask your “human” scent. Then spray some on your lures and bait to help attract more fish!

~        Use to remove stubborn bugs from your car’s paint and bumpers.

~        Spray on a shovel, spike, golf tee, etc. to make it easier to push through the ground.

~        Spray the inside of your rubber galoshes/boots to make putting them on easier.

~        If you’re not one to wear a watch because it pulls on your hair, just spray some on your watch band to prevent the pulling.

~        Use it in art projects to create a different base to paint on, just make sure to let it dry before painting over it. It has a really cool effect.

~        To keep mosquito eggs from hatching spray some lightly over puddles of stagnant water.

~        Coat tires and hoses to prevent dry rot in the rubber.

~        Removes Crayon from almost any surface.

~        Can be used to remove stickers and tape from glass, plastic, piano keys, wood, and many other surfaces.

~        Removes permanent ink from almost anything (i.e., skin, blue jeans, walls, countertops).

I found all of these uses and many, many more on www.wd40.com, and I encourage you to take a look for yourself at all the things this remarkable product can do!

I hope you enjoyed my very first “Who knew?” Wednesday post! Check back next Wednesday to see what product I feature next week.

Until next time, stay cool out there!

~Valerie

Don't forget to follow, share, and tweet!!! In addition to my undying gratitude you will receive an e-mail when I publish a new post.

Thrifty Tuesday: DIY Air Freshener

Calling all Money Savers!

It’s Thrifty Tuesday and have I got a money saving tip for you! After I tell you this little secret you will NEVER have to buy that expensive air freshener again. As you know I have been looking for ways to cut some costs and I happen to stumble upon this little gem here. It seemed easy enough to try so I gave it a shot, and I was amazed to find that when I got up the next morning, the test sprays that I did in the kitchen were still working! My house still smelled great hours later, not minutes, but HOURS!

I must give credit where credit is due; this is the original posting’s picture that I found on Pinterest. She also shows how to make the cool flowers that she has on her bottles. www.bystephanielynn.com

Homemade Air Freshener

What you need:

4 oz. (1/2 cup) Distilled Water

2 oz. (1/4 cup) Witch Hazel

1 tsp. Essential Oil or Fragrance Oil

What you do:

Pour the water and Witch Hazel into a measuring cup. At this point, after I have the correct measurements I transfer the mixture into a condiment squeeze bottle; this makes it easier pouring the completed air freshener into the bottles. Once I have it in the bottle, I add in the oil, I used an old warming/potpourri oil that I had from a while back. All that’s left is to put the cap to the bottle on and give it a really good shake to mix the oil into the water and witch hazel. I picked up a few little plastic spray bottles and after I made sure they were cleaned, I just squeezed the air freshener into the bottle and Voilà! 

It did seem a little cloudy at first but after a while it cleared in the bottle. I tried a few test sprays in my kitchen to make sure that the pump would work on the bottle and I was amazed to still smell it the following morning!

I was amazed at how simple and cheap it would be to replace those ugly, not to mention unhealthy and un-earth friendly aerosol cans. I can easily keep a few of these discreetly around the house, and maybe even in the purse. I just would not advise using this spray on the skin as a body spray unless you were using essential oils, I noticed that the bottle of room fragrance oil I have says that it can cause skin irritations.

I hope you enjoyed my very first Thrifty Tuesday post! Check back next Tuesday to see what else I may find to share with you.

Until next time, stay cool out there!

~Valerie

Don't forget to follow, share, and tweet!!! In addition to my undying gratitude you will receive an e-mail when I publish a new post.

Funday #1 Octo-Dogs

Happy Funday!

I had so much fun planning our activity for today this weekend.  We had a great time making lunch, Rylie made Octo-Dogs! It was an idea I found on Pinterest and I have to admit that I had never even thought of doing something like this and it is so simple, check it out:

Octo-Dogs

I found this while checking out my sister’s pins (and then I traced it to here), and considering how Rylie is way into the Disney show The Octonauts I thought I’d whip some up for lunch, or I should say I helped Rylie whip some up for lunch.

All you need is some thin spaghetti and hot dogs. I used Ronzoni Thin Spaghetti Pasta 16 oz. and Oscar Mayer Classic Beef Franks, but you can use whatever kind that you like.

We pulled out 3 hot dogs and I cut them up into 4 pieces each, then I pulled out four spaghetti noodles for each piece and broke them in half so that each piece of hot dog would have 8 tentacles. Then Rylie took over and put the noodles into each piece counting each noodle as he went to make sure that they all had eight.

This is what they look like when you are done putting the noodles into the ends of the hot dogs.

I loved watching him being so careful to get it just right. He was having so much fun!

Once they were all ready to go, I dropped them in a pot of boiling water and cooked them for 11 minutes per my box of thin spaghetti. I think they turned out pretty cool!

Both of the boys enjoyed eating their Funday lunch, although I was not sure what to serve with them so I just went with the safe bet, Ketchup. J

I hope you enjoy trying this out; I would love to see what else you could do with this idea. If we make them again, and I’m sure we will, I will probably try to make sure I have some actual tomato sauce on hand to use instead of ketchup. Although they were a hit just the way they had them. Enjoy!

There you have it. My first post for Funday! Sadly I am looking at the clock and seeing that it is no longer Monday, so this post is coming a bit late, but you know what they say, better late than never! I realized today that I will have to work out some time management issues that I have to help me be able to post at a reasonable time. The good news is that I began to realize this right about the time we began eating our lunch, so I snuck in another fun craft this afternoon so that I was ready for next week ahead of time. J You will just have to check out next week’s Funday to see what we did.

Tomorrow is Thrifty Tuesday and I have something planned that I think everyone can benefit from, you may never buy Windex again. I will be getting tomorrows post up much earlier for everyone to enjoy without having to wait until Wednesday to read, so check back after you read this to see when it gets posted.

Until next time, stay cool out there!

~Valerie

Don't forget to follow, share, and tweet!!! In addition to my undying gratitude you will receive an e-mail when I publish a new post.

My Blog Schedule!

Greetings!

I am extremely happy to report that I have completed my Blog schedule! I seem to have set some pretty high standards for myself, but then again, what else is new?  So without further ado I give you my schedule:

Monday = Monday? Funday!

Hurray for FUNDAY!! Everyone hates Mondays, but how can you hate them when they are Fundays? Every Monday I will be sharing a fun craft or activity to do with kids, tested out by my very own. I will make sure to include step by step instructions with pictures.

Tuesday = Thrifty Tuesday

“Old School” Household recipes that save you money! Wouldn’t you like to know how to make your own Windex for only .27 cents a bottle? There are many everyday household products that you can make at home and have a positive effect on your bottom line. You can look forward to a new “old” method every Tuesday!

Wednesday = Who Knew Day

Did you know you could use WD-40 as a fish attractant? Or how about using Coconut oil to remove gum from hair instead of gooey peanut butter? Every Wednesday I will share some different uses for household items. I have found some very interesting uses for things.

Thursday = Recipe of the Week

Favorite recipes found and shared throughout the years. Please feel free to share your own here. If you think you have a great recipe you’d like to share, I will try it out and post my results. I will post a new recipe every Thursday.

Friday = Picture Day

Every Friday I will post 4-5 pictures from around the world.

Since I will be keeping with my new schedule here are a few pictures from around the world. Enjoy!

Charles Bridge, Prague

Scott McGarvey

Alatna River Valley, Gates of the Arctic

Michael Christopher Brown

Kayakers, Maui

Ron Dahlquist

Sunset, Mount Everest

Cory Richards

I found all of these images on National Geographic's Photography website where they were featured as Pictures of the Day throughout the last week.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.

I’m already looking forward to gathering the supplies that I will need for next week’s plans. I have a project in mind for Monday? Funday! Now it’s just a matter of making sure I can do it myself first. Check back on Monday to see what we do and how it turns out!

Until next time, stay warm out there!

~Valerie

Take a second to scroll down and feed the fish!

Don't forget to follow, share, and tweet!!! In addition to my undying gratitude you will receive an e-mail when I publish a new post.

A Recent Discovery

Hello there!

I am happy to report that I have finally found out what Pinterest is, and I absolutely love it! I have been blown away at the vast amount of information that you can find there. In fact, I might have a bit of Pinterest overload. With the summer getting closer by the day (the average is 87^◦ already here), I have been searching for things to do with the kids; my love of Pinterest started with that, however I must admit that it has expanded into areas I had never imagined. It has been so interesting seeing what other people have pinned, sometimes it’s like looking at their hopes and dreams. Ironically enough, I used to be baffled that someone could spend hours on the site and now I find myself there late into the night!

In addition to doing some very fun things with the kids this summer, I plan on experimenting with some of the ideas I have found for some very basic house hold products. I have to come clean and admit to having an ulterior motive for this though, basically it boils down to trying to save money. I have always been on the lookout for ideas to save a dime, and some of what I have found has been inspiring in ways I never imagined. Why pay for laundry detergent when you can make it for pennies a load? What about Windex? How does .27₵ a bottle sound? Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Wash, Makeup Remover, and Disinfectant Wipes, are just a few of the many, many “Old School” household recipes that I have found and will hopefully be trying so I can stop wasting our money!

I find myself so inspired by these finds to not only try them, but to make a commitment to share my experiences with you. I will also be sure to share any very useful information that I find on particular products and their various uses. In other words, I have been doing a ton of planning and I hope to have a tentative schedule to my posts worked out in the next few days. There is so much information to sort through and I’m at the point that I need to stop looking for stuff and actually do something. Oh wait…. I did!

I will leave you with my first Pinterest inspired product experiment……......

 

Stephanie Lynn’s Lemon Sugar Hand Scrub {for Mom}:

What you need:

2 ½ Cups Granulated Sugar

1 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 Tbs. Lemon Juice (or you favorite scented essential oil)

What you do:

Just mix it all up! It should give you about 12 oz. of the Sugar Scrub to enjoy at your leisure.

How you use it:

Scoop out a small amount from the jar with a spoon and rub onto your hands, feet, elbows, anywhere! Rinse with hot water. That’s it! If you find that it leaves your skin oilier than you like you can wash with soap after rinsing off the scrub.

This treatment will not only get your hands clean of all kinds of things from paint to motor oil, it will also leave your hands soft and smooth. This is great for any time of year!

 

I had a lot of fun gathering what I needed from my kitchen one night and mixing this scrub up. It almost made me feel like a kid again, acting like a mad scientist! It was so rewarding when I finally got to try it, it was a great feeling knowing that I had actually made it! I hope you enjoy making and using it as much as I did.

Until next time, stay warm out there!

~Valerie

Take a second to scroll down and feed the fish!

Don't forget to follow, share, and tweet!!! In addition to my undying gratitude you will receive an e-mail when I publish a new post.

Bring On The Summer!!!

Greetings!

I know it has been quite a while since my last blog, and I do apologize for that. What I had thought would be a somewhat easy spring term turned into one that was rather challenging. The good news is that I have less than 2 weeks left until Summer break, and since I am not taking any classes I will be free to release my creative muse upon my children and you, my readers.

I have been slowly getting busy with looking for fun summer projects and yummy summer food, and I am very excited to share my finds. I plan on exploring some of our cultures “lost” household recipes including: Homemade Bread, Laundry Detergent, Sugar/Salt Scrub, Soap, Room Freshener Spray, Body Spray, and Lip Gloss to name a few. If you have any suggestions for me to try, please leave a comment and let me know, I will be happy to report how they turned out.

Crafts, crafts, and more crafts! I will be doing many crafts with my children, educational ones (Shoelace Tying Box) and sometimes ones that are just plain fun (Soap Bubble Prints). I will also be doing some Holiday crafts; maybe I will even get a head start on my Christmas gifts. I am always looking for cool and fun craft ideas, so feel free to share yours!

I am looking forward to a great summer, and can’t wait to share our experiences with you!

Until next time, stay warm out there!

~Valerie

Take a second to scroll down and feed the fish!

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and tweet!!! In addition to my undying gratitude you will receive an e-mail when I publish a new post.

Yummy Chicken Recipe

Have you ever made something that is just so good you wish you could make it for everyone? Well, I feel that way every time I make a certain recipe and since I just made it this last weekend I thought I’d share it. I have to warn you though, it’s addicting and my husband’s favorite!

Creamy Tarragon Chicken & Herb Noodles

Shopping List

Ø  1 lb. Chicken Breast (3-4)

Ø  1 Lg. Shallot (chopped fine)

Ø  1 Bunch Tarragon (leaves chopped fine about ¼ cup) separated

Ø  1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

Ø  2/3 Cup Pinot Grigio (White Wine)

Ø  1 Tbs. Lemon Juice

Ø  1 8oz. Package Wide Egg Noodles

Ø  2 Tbs. Butter (or Margarine)

Ø  2 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions

1.     Fill a large pot with water and set to boil on high heat for the noodles.

2.     Heat the 2 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a large skillet over a medium-high heat.

3.     Lightly salt and pepper both sides of the chicken breasts. Once the oil is heated add the chicken to the skillet, cook for 2-3 min. each side. You are just browning the chicken in this step. Remove the browned chicken from the skillet, set aside.

4.     Add the Shallots to the skillet and using the same heat sauté them until they just start to get soft and brown.

5.     Add the 2/3 Cup Pinot Grigio (White Wine) to the skillet and using a spatula scrape the bits of chicken off the bottom of the skillet, boil the mixture for approx. 1-2 min. so that the alcohol cooks off.

6.     Add the 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream and the chopped Tarragon to the skillet (hold back 2 tbs. of chopped Tarragon for finishing and the Noodles) to the skillet, stir and bring to a boil.

7.     Add the 8oz. Package Wide Egg Noodles to the now boiling water in the pot and cook as directed.

8.     Add the uncooked chicken back into the skillet and cover, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer for approx. 8-11 min. or until the internal chicken temp reaches 170 degrees.

9.     Once temp has been reached take the chicken out of the skillet and add in the 1 Tbs. Lemon Juice and 1 of the remaining 2 Tbs. of Tarragon, bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

10. Drain the cooked Noodles, toss with 2 Tbs. Butter (or Margarine) and the last Tbs. of Tarragon.

11.  Plate it by making a nest with the egg noodles on a plate then add the chicken to the top of the noodles, finally cover with a generous serving of the cream sauce. Enjoy!

I sincerely hope that you and your family enjoy this easy quick chicken recipe as much as mine does. Feel free to share your favorite chicken recipes in the comments!

Until next time, stay warm out there!

~The Val~

Take a second to scroll down and feed the fish!

Don't forget to subscribe! In addition to my undying gratitude you will receive an e-mail when I publish a new post.