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Wow! I can't believe it's friday already! This week has flown by for me (obviously, I havn't posted since last friday). It's been an awesome week though ***sigh***but I'll tell you 'bout that later! So are you ready for today's vinylicious design... good, cuz I'm so ready to show you!!
Introducing "powder puff"! These little babies are the newest additon to the nature line @ studio jk vinyl! I love this design because it's sleek but not too retro...it's more realistic looking with all the "powder" floating around. Get this new design at 30% off the regular price for 1 week only! You'll need to go to my etsy shop to purchase & use the code: "vinylicious" when you check-out in the "message to seller" (& I'll send you a re-vised invoice you can pay from)!! Be sure to pick up 2 to get the look above!
I've decided to start giving some organizing tips every now & then. I'm not necessarily going to go in order of the entire organizing process, but I'll bounce around to all elements of getting your life organized!
Today's topic will be labeling. So a few months ago my SIL Aimee, moved into a new house with this awesome corner pantry! Which I'm a little bitter about...I have THE tinyist pantry ever *sigh* someday though! After I got over it, she decided she wanted some help organizing it. She said her husband & kids went grocery shopping one weekend for her. They came home to put it all away...but didn't know where to put it all. So as to not "mess-up" her system, they put away the fridge/freezer things & left the rest for her to do later. Sound familiar? So we got to work & this is how it turned out!
With a little faith, trust & pixie dust, or vinyl labels ;) it was complete! So as an organizing consultant I can't leave without saying: LABEL, LABEL, LABEL!! It is the essential step in the organizing process! Labeling helps ensure your organizing attempts last longer! Who wouldn't want that after all the work you did to get it that way? Not to mention, it ties the whole project together with a unified look. Now her kids (& hubby) know where to put things away after grocery shopping! That's what I love about organizing is that it helps them, help you!
So the labels in Aim's pantry were custom labels, which I can do for you too. However, I do have some pret-ty nifty lables in my shop right now. There are 3 different sets that are also customizable....
The first set is my kitchen labels that come in a set of 6 different labels. You choose what you'd like each one to be!
The second set is my simple storage labels that also come in a set of 6 you choose. These are big labels you can use with big containers, so you can easily see them when trying to locate something!
And finally, the most popular kids labels set of 6 you choose! These were designed specifically for kids 5 & under! Since most of them don't read yet, the pictures give them familiarity so they know where to get things or where to put things away.
So there you have it! Lables to help your organizing attempts last longer!
I've decided to start something new! Every Friday I'm going to post a new design that can be purchased at 30% off the regular price for 1 week! You'll need to go to my etsy shop to purchase & use the code: "vinylicious" when you check-out in the "message to seller" (& I'll send you a re-vised invoice you can pay from)!! How great is that? New product @ a discount!! Nice.
So are you ready for today's design?
Today's design is this stylin' topiary! I've been craving a new topiary for my house lately & decided this is the solution! I think it will be awesome up above my staggered cupboards in my kitchen...kinda like a shadow of a topiary in the background of all the shizzle up there! That'll work right? (Joel will be so proud of me actually 'hooking' our own home up with some vinyl)!
Here's how the topiary turned out in my kitchen! Such a quick way to add a little sumpin' sumpin' to your decor! Love it!!So this morning I'm doing my regular routine of checking my email, deciding what I need to work on today, etc. And I run across this link announcing a 'certain' company that I used to be a demonstrator for (those of you who know me will know EXACTLY who I'm talking about) will soon be carrying an extensive line of wall decals!! RRRHH! That really irks me! Like a multi-MILLION dollar industry isn't enough for them?! I mean how greedy & money hungry can you be!? That they have to step on a completely different industry's little guys & take all of their potential sales!! It's like tupperware all the sudden adding hair bows to thier product line! Ya know, it's not like I'm out to make millions here. But now they're going to make it even harder for me (or any other at-home vinyl girl) to make the small financial goals we have in supporting our families. Which is so ironic! They are crushing women staying at home trying to make a little extra money, which is exactly what they promote: women working at home to make a little extra money! And the money they are taking from us is probably just "chump change" to them that they spend on janitors for thier big building! I guess this just hits a little to close-to-home for me. I now know how the "ma & pa" shops felt about Wal-mart! This totally sucks!!
I got this info as a FW: email the other day & instead of FW:ing it to all of you to just have you delete it- jerks :), I thought I'd post it here! It's kinda lengthy, but it really is good info- we're always lookin' for good tips to make our lives easier, right?! If you have any other little tips you'd like to add...by all means, leave a comment & enlighten us!
Bananas
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.
Cheese
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
Peppers
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.
Greasy ground beef
Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
Eggs
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.
MMMM...
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.
Garlic
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.
Quick trick-or-treat
Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply 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.
Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a non stick 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 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.
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.
-or-
Can't wait to try this in the summer! **
Was at a deck party awhile back, and the bugs were having a ball biting everyone. A man at the party sprayed the lawn and deck floor with Listerine, and the little demons disappeared. The next year I filled a 4-ounce spray bottle and used it around my seat whenever I saw mosquitoes. And voila! That worked as well. It worked at a picnic where we sprayed the area around the food table, the children's swing area, and the standing water nearby. **
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!
Bee Stings
If you don't have a bee sting kit handy after being stung, use that lucky penny! Directly press the penny on the bee sting & in minutes the pain will reside! So don't forget to include a penny in that first aid kit or in your pocket at the park!
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 takes 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. So, I thought I'd share! 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!
Everyone go wash & rinse your dryer filter now - we can't be havin' anyones house on fire!!
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