Thursday, January 31, 2013

Redoing peeling paint

When we moved into our home (Dec 2012) there was one room. The previous owners had put plaster on the walls to provide texture and then they painted it red and black. The problem was they must have painted over wet plaster because the paint underneath was peeling. And it wasn't an easy peel. 
These are the before pictures. It had to go, sorry Sooner fans.


I started the painful process of sanding. It took forever. As much as I love to sand, it just wasn't getting the job done so I changed to a small scraper (the bigger metal scrapers didn't work). Literally, I spent 40 hours painfully scraping all of the plaster and the red, black, and purple (there were more colors underneath!) out of the room. I uncovered graffiti from a small artist and where they had once had a roof leak (on my to-do-list).

Look at all the peelings on the floor! See the purple!?


Then the next part was to use a Kilz primer and prime the entire room thanks to an awesome contest I won from Kilz I was able to transform my room back to 'white'. I was able to eliminate all of the artists 'tags' and start back to a fresh start.


Kilz did a great job of covering up everything else that I left behind! Please visit their Facebook Page!
Like them and buy their product.... it really does hide SO MUCH! Especially black and red paint...

I then taped the room to get it ready for paint with primer. I want to show how I tape corners. I think it must be the OCD in me that allows this kind of behavior to not only happen but to blog about taping corners! LOL...
I start with the top and curl around the edge, making sure it is exactly in position.

I fold in the top part and putting a crease in the tape, sort of like if you were folding a package for a present. 

I then wrap the other side over, which forms a perfect taped corner.

I then taped everything that I wanted to stay white. 

Then I applied the dark color and let dry 24 hours.



The result is a guest room which might appear dark color but after I accent with brown and yellow, will cheer it up a bit.



Pallet Sandbox

This project took about thirty minutes and will last my children hours of fun! Not to mention they will be able to play outside! I am in the process of creating six raised beds in my newly established garden. She was constantly trying to jump in and dig. I knew this would be a problem when my little seeds would be poking their little heads out of the ground. I decided to make a sand box right next to the raised garden beds so that she would have a place where she could dig till her heart is content. 

I took a regular pallet and gutted it. This is the guts. 
I used my milwalkee sawmill reciprocating saw and cut the nails free and the middle brace out. 


What I did was keep the frame of the pallet. I also opted to keep the top and bottom ends to create a 'bench' for the kids. That way if it rains their butts won't end up orange from the Oklahoma red dirt. :) 


Old trusty...My black and decker sander.

 I sanded the boards to make sure that I could run my bare hand along the wood without splinters. Sand first people before you run your hand along the wood! If the kids wear shorts in the summer they will not be hurt by a splinter from the old pallet wood.

I placed the sand box in the spot i wanted to use and then dug out the inside about 6 inches. I used the black tarp and lined the bottom so that the sand box won't fill up with weeds right away. 


I then filled the tarp with sand from our local pond. Free. Cost only sand paper and a little electricity for the sander and sawmill. 

My little model is demonstrating how awesome the little seat is working out. My 11 year old loves the sand box. Which means if you build it, they will come and leave your garden alone! 



Thursday, January 24, 2013

Making perfect garden rows indoors

My organized seed 'catalogue'. :) I separate it out by vegetable, fruit, herb and then put them in the case by different plant. It helps me to keep everything organized and for quick reference. The CD case will not shut completely (fyi) I am looking for a new case that is in a larger folder, I tend to have too many seeds! 

This project is great for kids to help on a rainy day. It doesn't take much time to complete and the result is you just lay them in the bed instead of having to space out and waste valuable 'gardening' time. 

For this I choose to do the sunflower since the seeds are so large, it's easy to see online. I flipped over and saw the spacing requirements are three inches.

I roll out about five sheets of paper towels, then I re-roll them up and cut them into strips.

The website that I saw this on had elmers glue. I didn't like that at all. It's like the kid in class eating glue. I couldn't get that picture out of my head so I went on a gardening forum and asked suggestions. I received this 'idea' from Sonya Reasor. (Thank you) 
She suggested that I use flour and water to make a paste. 
I spaced them approximately three inches apart using a ruler. You can see the water being absorbed by the paper towels.

I let the mixture dry on the paper towel for several hours. You will know it is dry when you do not see the water around each seed. 

I carefully roll up each strip.

I place each strip that I made in a ziploc bag and place the empty seed packet in the pouch to for easy identification.

I also put a second seed packet, on the back, with the information for quick reference. 

When I am ready to plant I just unroll and place in the ground, at the appropriate depth, and I will have straight rows of sunflowers. You can use this for your herb, vegetable, or flower garden. The paper and flour mixture will eventually break down, leaving the seeds behind. I will post pictures as soon as my rows of sunflowers come up! 

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Curly hair for kids

Many people always ask how I get my daughter's hair defined. 

Step 1: Wash your little one's hair with shampoo.
Rinse the shampoo out completely. Repeat if you want, I never re-wash.

Step 2: I then put about a dime size amount (for her hair) in my palm and rub my hands together. I then run it through her hair, not touching her scalp, but mainly on the ends. I do not wash out her conditioner. You can tell if you use too much if your child's hair appears oily. You can tell if it is too little if it is a bit frizzy. (If and only if your daughter or son starts having problems with their scalp like a buildup of 'ick' you might need to apply some baking soda and rub the scalp and then re-shampoo. My mom also said that a vinegar solution of half water/half vinegar put in the area will help loosen the 'icky buildup'. Make sure to wash it out. And it's ok to 'scratch' their scalp with your fingernails while shampooing. You know what feels good, if they squeak, then stop! 

Step 3: Once your child hair has the conditioner in place in her wet hair, completely brush it out and get the hair tangle free. You can scrunch the tangle free hair in your hand if you want to have more curls since the curls tend to straighten when you brush them out.

Step 4: (optional) apply a small amount of gel or styling product. Use only products that say they are natural. -Note: in these pictures I did not use any additional product like gel. I just used conditioner. Scrunch her hair while it is still wet.

Step 5: Air dry...do not blow dry or apply any heating element. 

The final result is curls.

And naughtiness as she flees.

I've been having a huge number of people coming to my blog from Pinterest! Please add my blog as a follower and let me know if you want to see more of anything including some of the hairstyles that I do for my daughter with curls..I haven't thought of posting them until just now! Feedback is appreciated! 

Here are more 'curly pics'. :) 





Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Recycle your Keurig cups

We have a keurig machine and absolutely love it. It makes tea, coffee, hot cocoa and apple cider among other things. I just didn't like the idea of throwing all the little pods away and contributing to the landfill mess. It was time to get crafty so we are going to be showing you how to re-use your pods for seed starting cups.

First you take off the foil liner on top, this will be the only thing that goes in your garbage. 

Take one of the million plastic bags you have lying around the house and double line it and create a 'temporary compost bin' or throw it into your regular compost. Did you know that coffee and tea filters can be composted? Throw the entire contents of the k-cups into the rubbish.

Once you have the contents out, give it a quick rinse and you have your own little seed starter, with a hole for drainage.

This is a picture of a tea filter.

Some of the starbucks cups have these rings, do not throw them away, just rinse and place them in the cup for drainage. 

Another tip, make sure when you place your cups on a tray, they can still drain. sometimes when the cups are placed on a flat surface the hole won't act like a drain. Use a tray that has uneven grooves for drainage.


Monday, January 14, 2013

Lights for starting seeds indoors

Starting seeds indoors means fruit, vegetables, and flowers earlier. It also means you can control your seedlings get off to a great start. I saw kits that extended into the hundreds of dollars. Forget that! I picked up these at walmart. I got three of them. 









I then looked in the same lighting section for a bulb that is specifically used to promote growth and flowering of plants. I have seen you can use a regular bulbs on other sites. 


I just slip my finger or a knife in the side and remove the cover.
I remove the bulb.
I reused the plant bulb package to store the lights. 

    If you use packing tape on the end it will protect the bulb from slipping out and you can just relabel the package.


I drilled a hole beside the hardware hole.

I insert the S hook. You can use S hooks to lengthen or shorten how far away the light is from the seeds.

I replace the bulb.

I hang the lights. I really lucked out because we had a little closet with shelves by the kitchen. I hook all of the lights to a electric strip so I can turn them all on at once just by a flip of a button.