I normally do not go to the trouble of place cards at our Thanksgiving meal.  There is usually only 4 of us and we all know each other…lol.  But I did see this idea for a place card that I thought would just be an interesting “pumpkin” craft.

The supplies list is simple: Styrofoam balls, yarns, sticks, craft paint and a glue gun.

Wrap yarn around the ball until covered, then glue the yarn end to the bottom.

Cut a leaf out of paper; add a name and glue to the top. Enjoy!!

I found this wonderful article about DIY Halloween makeover ideas for decorating or a party.  The article has pictures and links to the sites you can find the directions and tips for the projects themselves.  The idea above I fell in love with!  It’s from sadieseasongoods.com and I think it’s a creative way to repurpose old liquor bottles or just unusually shaped bottled into pumpkins!

She started with liquor bottles (her county no longer recycles glass bottles.)

She sprayed them with white primer paints.  (She recommends using acrylics for the pumpkins and they can be difficult to work with unless the glass in primed.)

She used several different shades of paints (in the directions, she says she also used a green that isn’t pictured).

“I had this idea that I could slightly swirl two or three colors in order to get striations of color, like on real gourds. 

Note that I said swirl, not mix, the various paint colors. It’s an important distinction to make here!

First, I squeezed out dollops of paint in various colors so that the edges touched. Then, I used toothpicks to pull the paint into each other, like a spiderweb effect. Finally, I carefully dipped my paint brush into the swirl and brushed it on the glass bottles in long, even strokes.”

In case the jute doesn’t completely cover the stems, she painted those a dark green/brown.

“To finish up my fall pumpkin decor, I wound the jute twine around the dark green neck using my hot glue gunto hold the twine in place.

Next, I scavenged some leaves from a floral stem that had “veiny” leaves, like those found on pumpkin and gourd vines.  I hot glued them in place and continued to wrap the necks with twine.”

The finished jar is AWESOME!

I have to try some of these!!

SOURCE: upcyclethisdiythat.com and sadieseasongoods.com

Since we’re beginning apple season, I wanted to share an article I found on ways to use up apple peels.  This was written by Brittany Davies on the tastingtable.com website:

Apples are delicious, versatile fruits that can be enjoyed fresh or cooked, sweet or savory, on their own or as a tasty addition to anything from oatmeal to salads to baked goods. After making a batch of applesauce, preparing a flaky pie, or peeling apple slices to appease a picky eater, you have probably found yourself with a pile of apple skins on the brink of being tossed in the garbage. In addition to making the most of your produce, reducing food waste by utilizing every part of the apple contributes to positive outcomes for the environment and the food supply. The USDA estimates between 30% to 40% of the food supply goes to waste with 31% of food loss occurring at the retail and consumer levels. Valuable nutrients and resources used to produce, transport, prepare, and store wasted food are all lost in a landfill. To combat this problem, the United Nations suggests consumers get creative to reduce food waste at home while speaking up in their communities and local governments.

Although food waste is a big problem, small actions daily such as finding ways to reuse apple peels are easy opportunities to minimize your impact. Wash your apples before peeling them to eliminate any residual pesticides, then enjoy the peels as a nutritious snack, transformed into baked goods, and even as a natural cleaner. Save money and the planet while making the most of your produce with these ways to use up apple peelings.

Turn them into a crunchy snack

Eating apples provide a variety of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants, (via Harvard School of Public Health). However, much of the fiber and beneficial flavonoids are found in apple skins. Finding ways to incorporate the entire apple into your meals, whether eating it whole or finding innovative ways to consume the peels, is the best way to reap the most benefit from the fruit.

Using an oven, air fryer, or dehydrator, you can transform apple peelings into a crunchy, nutrient-rich snack. Environmentally-minded snack producers like RIND are already doing this with dried fruit products, all with skins intact. Meal kit service HelloFresh also offers suggestions for reinventing fruit peels as chips, candy, seasoning, and tea. To make crunchy apple skin chips in the oven, preheat to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and place the apple peels on a lined baking sheet. Season with a dash of cinnamon or get creative with your favorite blend of spices. Bake the peels for about 30 minutes, tossing halfway through to get them nice and crisp. Enjoy these crunchy snacks on their own, or as a way to add texture to salads, sandwiches, and wraps.

Stay hydrated with fruit infused water

Soak up the benefits of fruit-infused water by adding apple peels to your reusable bottle. In addition to keeping you hydrated, Dr. Danielle Hairston-Green of Prairie View A&M University, explains that infusing water with fruit and herbs offers flavor. The nutrients from the fruit can also support healthy skin and digestive systems.

Enjoy the refreshing flavor of apple skins on their own, or enhance them with other fruits, herbs, and spices. For a fall-inspired flavor, add orange peel, ginger, and cinnamon sticks to your water along with the apple peels, or give your water a bright, refreshing boost with apple peels, cucumber, and lemon. Infused water is a fun, versatile way to get the most out of produce scraps such as apple peels and cores, citrus rinds, mango peels, strawberry tops, herb stems, and even celery leaves. Check the produce for mold, then add scraps to the bottom of a pitcher or water bottle, stir, and let sit for at least an hour or up to overnight in the fridge, giving the fruit and herbs time to release their flavors.

Make tea

Apples are the perfect complement to chilly autumn evenings, especially paired with cinnamon and served hot in a cute mug. Apple peel tea is a quick way to warm up on a cool autumn day. Simmer apple peels and spices such as cinnamon and clove with water for about 10 minutes, add some lemon or orange zest and cook for an additional minute, then strain the peels and spices before serving the cozy drink with lemon slices and a drizzle of honey. You can also use dried apple skins as the base of a spiced tea mix that is ready to brew whenever you want it.

For those in search of a cool and refreshing apple beverage, try transforming leftover apple peels and cores into an herbaceous iced tea. Apples pair naturally well with robust herbs such as sage, rosemary, and thyme to create a unique flavor profile. To make apple peel and herb iced tea, boil herb leaves with one part maple syrup to one part water for herbed simple syrup. Combine your favorite loose-leaf tea, herb stems, apple peels and cores, and cold water in a pitcher. Stir and press down the scraps, making sure they are covered by water. Let the ingredients steep in the refrigerator overnight. Strain the scraps and serve the brewed tea over ice, sweetened with your homemade simple syrup.

Boost a smoothie

Packed with important nutrients, apple peels are a great way to boost your favorite smoothie. If using apples in your smoothie, save prep time by setting aside the peeler and using the whole fruit. If you’re debating whether to peel or not to peel prior to blending, know that apple peels, even when blended, might leave bits and pieces in the mixture. If you don’t enjoy the texture of the blended peels, consider making some homemade dried apple powder as a way to boost the flavor and nutrients in smoothies, oatmeal, and more.

With its many health benefits, it is no surprise that apple peel powder is a sought-after supplement that can be purchased in health stores to increase fiber and other nutrients in your food. According to research in the National Library of Medicine, dried apple peel powder has been associated with increased joint function and range of motion, among other benefits. With leftover apple peelings, you can make your own fiber-rich smoothie booster at home. Use an oven or dehydrator to dry the apple pieces, then pulse the dried peels in a blender until they form a powder. Condition the powder in a low-temperature oven for 15 minutes, then store in an airtight container.

Sweeten a salad

With their subtle sweetness, apples work equally well when paired with sweet or savory dishes and are a great way to liven up an average salad. The best salad ingredients enhance the dish with color, variety, and texture. Adding a hint of sweetness along with a unique mouthfeel, leftover apple peels make a tasty and versatile topping for salads. Try incorporating apple peelings in a hearty spinach salad topped with walnuts, sharp cheddar, and dried cranberries, which also pair well with the apples.

Chopped leftover apple skins could make an interesting change to a classic chicken salad as well, offering a fresh element to balance rich and savory ingredients. Thinly sliced apple peelings can also help stretch out coleslaw while adding a subtle touch of sweetness to the mix. Whether using red or green apple peels, the vibrant skins are a colorful and nutrient-dense addition to the vegetable blend.

Bulk up breakfast and baked goods

Savory or sweet, there are many creative ways to cook with apples. Incorporating leftover apple peels adds texture, flavor, and nutrients to a variety of breakfast options and tasty baked goods. They can be included whole for the most texture as well as chopped or blended into a finer mixture. Apple peel powder can also bring a sweet and nutritious boost to your breakfast and baked goods.

Bulk up your oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, or yogurt with a handful of apple skins or apple peel powder for an extra dose of fiber in your morning meal. For a savory breakfast delight, try including chopped apple peels in your homemade sausage recipe to add a touch of sweetness to the mix. You can also enhance bread, muffins, pies, cinnamon rolls, marshmallow treats, and other desserts with leftover apple peelings. They work especially well in recipes featuring warm spices like cinnamon, cloves, or star anise for a fragrant, fall treat.

Upgrade your baking with homemade apple extract

Level up your baking with even more apple-forward flavor by transforming leftover apple peelings into homemade apple extract. Pure extracts made from scratch are easy to prepare and taste better than synthetic versions. You can make extracts of any flavor using a few simple ingredients that are free of artificial flavors, colors, and heavy corn syrup.

To prepare your homemade extracts, you only need vodka and natural ingredients such as apple peels, citrus rinds, or vanilla beans. A water and vegetable glycerin mixture can be used as an alternative to alcohol, or you can swap the vodka for bourbon for a richer flavor. It only takes a few minutes to combine the ingredients, but the process of extracting the flavor can take five to six weeks. If you have access to the sous vide machine, you can speed up the process and intensify the flavor using this helpful device. Extracts made with vodka or bourbon will keep for a long time thanks to the high alcohol content. The bottles should be stored closed and away from light and heat in a cabinet or cupboard.

Make apple syrup

Leftover apple peelings are made even more delicious with some added sugar. We suggest saving apple peels to make rich, homemade apple syrup by reducing the peels with maple syrup or brown sugar and water. The result will be a little thinner than traditional maple syrup, but not as runny as plain simple syrup, and can be further enriched with cream, honey, or butter. You can even make spiced syrup by mixing in cinnamon and other warm spices or create interesting and complex syrup flavors by incorporating ingredients such as citrus peels, herbs, bourbon, or berries.

Use your homemade apple syrup to sweeten coffee, tea, and cocktails. Drizzle your fruity syrup over yogurt or oatmeal, mix it into homemade granola, or pour some over French toast, waffles, or pancakes for an elevated morning meal. You can even use your homemade syrup to make a sweet compound butter to spread over bread, bagels, and muffins.

Reduce them into jelly

Pectin-rich apple peels are perfect for making a batch of homemade apple jelly. Science Direct explains that pectin is a carbohydrate and natural gelling agent found in fruits, particularly citrus rinds and apple peels. Pectin is used to solidify jams, jellies, or preserves and has been included in juices and other beverages to improve the viscosity and mouthfeel. Plant-based pectin mimics the effects of gelatin, which is derived from animals and has a variety of culinary uses from making a glaze for fruit tarts to firming up gummy candies.

Because apples naturally contain higher amounts of pectin, making apple jelly requires only a few ingredients including apple peels and cores, water, sugar, and lemon juice. The pectin in the peels will thicken the mixture as it boils, creating a delicious jelly that can be stored in the refrigerator to enjoy right away or processed in a water bath canner for long-term storage. You can also use leftover apple peelings to extract pectin for use in other recipes. The best type of apples for making pectin are very firm, green apples because pectin levels decrease as the fruit ripens. Use your homemade apple pectin for a wide range of cooking, baking, and canning projects.

Turn them into apple cider vinegar

There are many myths and claims attached to apple cider vinegar, but regardless of the purported health benefits, the tangy substance has a number of versatile uses in and out of the kitchen. Apple cider vinegar is a fermented product that can be time-consuming to prepare but is well worth the effort for its myriad of uses from making salad dressing to cleaning your home. Although it can be a long, laborious process, all you need to make apple cider vinegar are apple peels and cores, a little bit of sugar, and water.

In addition to whipping up homemade salad dressings, we suggest using your homemade apple cider vinegar as an all-purpose solution for just about everything from killing weeds and deterring flies to washing produce and enhancing your beauty regimen. In the kitchen, you can employ apple cider vinegar to make a quick buttermilk substitute by mixing it with milk or include it in marinades to tenderize meat. The sour liquid can be used in pickle recipes as well as to make salsas, homemade mayonnaise, relishes, and more.

Infuse your booze

No longer a mere garnish, leftover apple peels can infuse your booze with a boost of apple flavor. To make a simple, apple-infused liquor, pack a sterilized jar with apple scraps such as peels and cores and fill the container with liquor and seal it with a lid. Store the container in a cool dark place for several weeks, shaking the jar every few days. Strain the apple remnants and enjoy straight or creative cocktails. Customize your infused liquors with herbs, spices, and other fruits for unique, signature additions to your liquor cabinet.

For a boozy use for apple peelings that takes less patience, try adding them to sangria along with citrus peels for a fragrant addition to the fruity beverage. Creative connoisseurs might try infusing their homemade alcoholic concoctions with leftover peels. We suggest those interested in making their own wine consider adding leftover apple skins to the mix or incorporating them into a cozy recipe for hard cider.

Treat your pets

Many pet parents love to please give furry friends special treats. After talking with your veterinarian about your individual pet’s needs, you might use your kitchen scraps to create tasty homemade treats your pet will love. According to the American Kennel Club, apple peels are good for dogs and can help ease digestive issues and maintain a healthy weight thanks to the extra fiber. However, refrain from feeding dogs apple seeds or cores as they contain small amounts of cyanide and may be a choking hazard. The apple peels can be eaten raw in small amounts or baked into chips or dog-friendly cookies.

Apple peels are a great snack for other types of pets as well, such as chickens, goats, and pigs. Offer leftover apple skins in small pieces for chickens to peck to save the peels from going into the trash. Goats and pigs will likely also enjoy the sweet apple treat.

Remove stains from cookware

Leftover apple skins are versatile kitchen scraps with a range of uses beyond the culinary world with surprising applications throughout the home. Fruit and vegetable peelings have many benefits around the home, including as a natural stain remover. The acid in apple peels can help break down grease stains and restore the shine of aluminum cookware and utensils.

To harness the cleaning power of your apple scraps, boil the pieces of apple skin in water and let them simmer in the stained aluminum pot or pan for about half an hour. Let the cookware cool, then wash it with dish soap, rinse, and dry it as usual. After applying this process, the stains and discoloration should be gone and your cookware will be restored to its original glory. Thanks to the fragrant fruit, you can also enjoy a fresh, lovely apple scent in your kitchen and home.

Freshen up with potpourri

Along with warm spices, the cozy smell of apples is a signature scent of fall. Freshening up your space with leftover apple peels can be as simple as pouring boiling water over a handful of apple scraps in a bowl, allowing the scent to disperse throughout the room. You can also capture the autumnal aroma with a do-it-yourself potpourri featuring leftover apple peels.

Fill your home with fragrance using a stove-top version in which the ingredients are added to water and simmered until the aroma fills the room or break out the dehydrator to create a dried mix that can be utilized throughout the house, even doubling as a cozy decoration. There are a plethora of uses for potpourri at home, in the car, for bags and suitcases, or as gifts. Dried apple skins can be placed in a small cotton sachet and placed in drawers or linen closets for an easy way to freshen up fabrics.

Enrich compost

If you find yourself with too many leftover apple peels to use before they go bad, note that apple skins can be frozen for future use. If wildlife frequents your yard, you might put them out for the squirrels, chipmunks, or birds to enjoy. However, if you do not wish to save your peels, consider returning any remaining bits to the soil by using them to enrich your compost. Make sure the apples have been washed to remove any potentially harmful pesticides or chemicals and take off any non-biodegradable produce stickers from the apple skins.

There are multiple ways to create compost, even if you are living in an apartment or other small space. The USDA explains that composting benefits the earth by feeding the soil without the use of chemical fertilizers, keeping food waste out of landfills, and conserving water by creating healthy soils. Two popular styles of compost include backyard composting and worm composting, also known as vermicompost. Apple peels can be broken down using either method, enriching the soil with the many nutrients found in the scraps while preventing food waste.

SOURCE: tastingtable.com Brittany Davies

Even though I am NOT a beach person, I can appreciate the many crafts items that can be made with things found at the beach.

Sand Bowls

Sand is mixed with adhesive and allowed to drip and dry over a container.  (These can then be stacked as shown in the photo.  The details can be found at designboom.com)

Shell Candles

Driftwood Fish

Clamshell Wreath

More Ideas can be found at bigdiyideas.com.

This article comes from the ruralsprout.com website:

An eggshell is more than just a useful container for the nutritious yolk and egg white inside: it is a prime example of nature’s perfect packaging. Eggshells are beneficial for us too, consisting of 95% calcium carbonate, making them very similar to our own bones and teeth. It comes as no surprise then, that eggshells help to strengthen our bones and protect our tooth enamel. If we only used the shells, rather than throwing them out.

You may not have heard it yet, but just as you can eat the peels of organic bananas or lemons, the entire egg can also be eaten. The shells are an amazing source of calcium, just half an eggshell provides you with your daily recommended calcium intake. It makes practical sense, not only to feed the shells to your egg-laying chickens, but for you to utilize their unusual strengths too. If you raise backyard chickens, you are likely to go through hundreds of eggs a year. Save those shells from entering the landfill and use them in your own home and garden instead.

Clever Uses for Eggshells

Use eggshells to start seedlings indoors

In the pursuit of a plastic-free life and garden, finding a sustainable solution for starting seeds isn’t always easy. In the past, people reused what they had, yogurt containers or the like, but at some point, plastic pots break down and need to be thrown away/recycled. Of course, there are peat pots, newspaper pots, gourd shells and wooden flats as examples to eco-friendly planting options, though eggshells come out as the garden winner. Fill the shell halfway with soil, carefully place your seeds and wait for them to grow. To keep the eggshells in place, place them back in the eggshell carton. When the plants are large enough, you can transplant the entire pot to the garden, where the shell will break down, providing added calcium to the soil around it.

Garden mulch

After a hearty breakfast, or the baking of a delicious cake, crush your eggshells and carry them straight out into the garden! As they slowly decompose, they will not only help to aerate the soil as they improve water flow, the eggshells will also release calcium over time. The finer you crush them, the faster they will break down.

Nourish your tomatoes with a boost of calcium.

While you can place eggshells directly under your tomatoes as you transplant them, sometimes a volunteer tomato plant from last season pops up and you wish to save it. Think of it as a survivor, and give it some extra love and attention. The addition of calcium to your tomato plants will help prevent blossom-end rot (not a disease, but a physiological disorder created by a calcium imbalance). For the same reason, eggshells are extremely beneficial for your squashes, peppers, cabbage and broccoli too!

Feed eggshells to your chickens

If you want healthy eggs from your chickens, just toss the eggshells right back at them! Laying hens need plenty of calcium, and if you find that your chickens are in fact eating their own eggs, it may be because of a vitamin deficiency. Dry out the eggshells at room temperature, and when you have collected enough, go ahead and crush them lightly, then lay out the shells thinly on a baking sheet. Bake the shells until brittle, 275 degrees for ten minutes or so, then crush some more and serve to the chooks in small amounts.

Use crushed eggshells in the garden to deter pests

Ducks will gladly dine on slugs, but you can’t always allow them in your garden. In that case, try roughly crushed eggshells around the base of plants to deter snails and slugs who wish to devour your lovely greens.

Add them to the compost

Again, it is the calcium content that comes into play. In order to increase the quality of your compost, you will want to add all the biodegradable matter that you can, eggshells included. Having a compost pile reduces your trash and helps the garden too.

Wild bird food

Just as you can feed your chickens, you can also give a little support to the wild birds. The same processes apply: bake, then crush the shells into bite-sized pieces, and sprinkle in their feed mix or on the ground for them to find.

Boil eggshells in your coffee

This is wonderful for two reasons.  Firstly, if you are making campfire coffee over high heat, crushed eggshells will help keep the grounds from boiling over. This isn’t a common problem unless you are roughing it, but now you know how to avoid a ruined coffee if the situation ever arises.

Secondly, eggshells added to coffee make for a less acidic cup. When you experience the overwhelming bitterness from a cup of cheap coffee, or from a pot that was brewed too long, eggshells are here to save the day. The powdered, or finely broken up shell, of just one egg is enough to make 4 cups of fantastic coffee. Try it. It is a great way to get some calcium with your brew, if you are sipping dairy-free.

Toss eggshells in your bone broth or stock pot

Whether you are stirring up an enormous pot of bone broth or a hearty vegetable stock, adding eggshells is extremely beneficial. It is not just calcium that you will be receiving, eggshells also contain small amounts of other minerals:

magnesium

fluoride

selenium

zinc

iron

phosphorus

It won’t change the flavor, though you will feel the nutritional boost!

Add them to your apple cider vinegar

Add some dried eggshells to a jar of apple cider vinegar, with the mother, and let nature science do it’s work. The end result will be a tincture that relieves acid reflux, treats minor skin irritations and itchy skin.

Homemade eggshell toothpaste

Once you make the decision to stop using standard minty fluoride toothpaste with a myriad of unpronounceable ingredients, there is no looking back. You’ll then find all sorts of options to keep your teeth happy and clean – from activated charcoal, to clay and zeolite, all the way to baking soda with coconut oil and essential oils. Remember from up above that eggshells are similar to our own teeth? This gives us great reason to make a very fine eggshell powder toothpaste to brush our pearly whites, holding cavities at bay.

Make an eggshell face mask

To nourish and tighten your skin: crush your dried eggshells in a mortar and pestle to make a fine powder. Then whisk an egg white till it is somewhat stiff and add the eggshell powder. Spread it over your face and allow it to dry. Wash the mask off with cold water and enjoy your free facial treatment.

Whiten your laundry

If your whites are not so bright as they used to be and chlorine is a no-go in your natural laundry routine, why not try the method of putting eggshells into a tightly woven bag (or old stocking) with a few slices of lemon?  It doesn’t cost much, if anything, and is definitely worth a try.

Scrub your tough-to-clean pots

In a pinch, you can crush a few eggshells into a dirty pot, along with soap and hot water to get it clean. The shells will break up and remove the dirt as they are wonderfully abrasive. You can use crushed eggshells in hard-to-clean vases as well for a more glistening glass surface.

Eat your eggshells

The best way to eat your eggshells? Powder them finely and add to juices, smoothies, soups and stews. Don’t go overboard though, if you are already getting enough calcium in your diet, you may want to find another use for them. Half an eggshell a day covers your basic calcium needs, more than that is unnecessary.

Why eat eggshells?

Besides the obvious benefits of bio-available calcium coming from free-range eggshells, and the fact that they improve bone density, as well as helping remineralize teeth, eggshells are known to relieve joint pain and inflammation.

That’s a lot of glowing health when you eat the entire egg!

What kind of eggshells to use?

For the sake of eating a healthy, natural diet, you’ll want to make sure that the eggshells you are about to consume come from organic or free-range chickens. Eggs from factory farms are far less nutritious, and may carry hidden pathogens which you will want to avoid.

If you don’t have your own hens, purchase from a local farmer or the farmers market for the healthiest farm fresh eggs possible.  And yes, you can do this with duck eggs or turkey eggs, even quail eggs too.

SOURCE: RURALSPROUT.COM

I found these creative picnic hacks at onecrazyhouse.com:

Turn a chip bag into a bowl!  This hack comes via thisgrandmaisfun.com. You begin by turning down the top of the bag (purely for aesthetics).

Poke the corners in to prevent the bag from falling over.

As you roll the bottom up, the chips will come to the top. When you need to, roll up some more!

Use a six-pack drink container to hold the utensils!

Use a shower cap to keep cold foods cold!

Use a fitted twin sheet to cover your picnic table!

Create a “sticky finger station” for wipes and such to avoid constant running in and out of the house!

This hack I never heard of, but would love to try: Cooler Corn!  From the onecrazyhouse website:

Did you know you can cook corn in a cooler? Yeah, me too. We’ve all heard of corn on the cob but how much do you know about the different ways you can make it? And keep it hot during your picnic? Cooler corn is probably the easiest way ever to cook corn on the cob.

Just boil some water in a pot on the grill and make sure the water is boiling hot. Place some ears of corn in a clean cooler then fill the cooler with water and firmly shut the lid. The corn cooks and doesn’t get cold. It’s basically science but it’s cool!

SOURCE: ONECRAZYHOUSE.COM

From HomeHacks:

Hair conditioner is not just for your hair. There are lots of practical ways to use leftover hair conditioner around your home.

Here are some alternative uses for hair conditioner.

Protect Leather Shoes

Dab a rag in some conditioner and work it into your leather shoes. Apply in small amounts at a time and make sure your boots are fully dry when you smart. This will protect your shoes from snow and salt.

Remove Stickers, Bandages, and Temporary Tattoos

To reduce pain or prevent sticker residue, you can use a dab of conditioner to remove a sticker, adhesive bandage, or temporary tattoo.

Cuticle Cream

Rub some conditioner on your cuticles before you push them back or trim them to keep them soft.

Detangler

Mix some water and conditioner in a spray bottle and use it as a detangler or leave-in conditioner.

Reshape and Soften Bristles

If your makeup brushes have become stiff you can work a small amount of conditioner through them after they are washed to reshape and soften them up.

Fabric Softening Dryer Sheets

Instead of buying dryer sheets you can make reusable ones. Pour equal parts conditioner and water in a spray bottle and shake it up. Wet a washcloth with this solution and let it dry. Once it is dry you can put it in your dryer and use it as a dryer sheet.

Unclog a Drain

Squirt some conditioner into your drain and chase it with some hot or boiling water. This can lubricate the clog and help it to slide down.

Shaving Cream

If you’re all out of shaving cream, you can use conditioner in place of it.

Makeup Remover

Take a washcloth with a dab of conditioner and use it to wipe your makeup off if you need some makeup remover in a pinch.

Polish Stainless Steel

Shine your stainless steel and remove fingerprints and smudges by wiping your surfaces down with a clean rag that has a dab of conditioner of it.

Detergent For Delicate Items

Fill a sink with warm water and squirt a bit of hair conditioner into it. Submerge your delicate item in the solution to hand wash items like wool, pantyhose, and underwear.

Unshrink a Sweater

Fill a sink with warm water and pour a tablespoon of hair conditioner on it. Submerge your shrunken sweater in this solution and let it soak for several hours. Squeeze out the water, then lay it flat, and stretch it out back to its original size. This only works if your sweater hasn’t been exposed to heat.

SOURCE: HOMEHACKS

I found this tutorial (which seems harder than it is—the instructions are just very thorough) on thenavagepatch.com website.

DIY Spilling solar String lights SUPPLIES LIST

Solar powered LED string lights (I used 50-foot long – 150 LED solar lights. You can go for shorter ones with fewer LED lights, or longer ones with more LED lights. It all depends on how much bling you want to bring to your garden.)

An old teapot (if you don’t have an old one and can’t find any at tag sales or thrift stores, they have these cute small ones or slightly bigger ones on Amazon.)

A shepherd’s hook (I used a 48 inch one),

Craft wire,

A large size washer,

Hot glue,

Snips or a wire cutter.

Before getting into the steps, let me tell you up-front: this is a very easy project, but the post is picture heavy! You see, due to my limited English (as it is not may native tongue) I had a hard time explaining the steps, hence I had to take a lot of pictures along the way [*ahem* – who took a lot of pictures along the way?? -Greg] which makes it a long post. But I promise, this is one of the easiest projects ever! 😉

Ok, now that my long post and language disclaimers are out of the way, let me show you how I made my spilling solar fairy lights.

DIY Spilling Solar String Lights Tutorial

Step 1 – Make streamers from the solar fairy lights

I started unwrapping my string lights to have a 40-inch-long section to work with.

Once I had about 40 inches unwrapped, I slightly bent it into two as seen in the picture below.

Then, while holding one end of the string lights steady, I started winding the other end. That was so the 40-inch-long section of string lights would act and behave as a 20-inch-long single streamer of light.

Once I was done with the first section, I unwrapped and measured another approximately 40-inch-long section of string lights by holding it against the first wound string (or the first streamer, as I would say). Then again, I started winding that second section of string lights as shown in the picture below.

And as you may have guessed, I carried on with the same steps until the whole coil of string lights were wound and turned into streamers as shown in the picture below. As you can see, the streamers have 2 different ends: one is free floating, while the opposite ends are connected/bunched.

What to do with excess solar string lights

When I reached the end, I realized that my measuring wasn’t accurate enough, hence I was left with some excess lights -excess as in it was not enough to make another (approx) 20 inch long streamer. If you also have any excess lights, instead of redoing the whole thing all over again, you can do what I did: I made a small circle with that part, and placed it at the bottom of the streamers. That little circle now looks like a small water puddle (or should I say light puddle) and gives the whole thing a greater bling  😉

Step 2 – Gather and secure the streamers

Once I finished making all the light streamers, I started working on putting the whole thing together. With my snips, I cut approximately 20-25 inches of craft wire. Using the wire I just cut, I wrapped the connected/bunched ends of the light streamers as shown in the pictures below.

Step 3 – Insert solar string light streamers into teapot

Next, I pushed the other end of the craft wire through the spout.

Step 4 – Secure streamers

To secure the lights’ position right where I liked at the spout, I wrapped the craft wire around a large washer as shown in the pictures below.

I carried on wrapping until the washer was holding the lights in place.

Step 5 – Glue teapot lid

When I was done with the wire and the washer, I hot glued the lid on the pot, and with that my DIY Spilling Solar Lights were ready.

Step 6 – Place DIY spilling solar fairy lights in garden

As the last step, I took the teapot out in the garden, hung it on a 48 inch shepherd’s hook, arranged the streamers to my liking and placed the solar panel on the mulch (somewhere behind the rock) where it can get charged easily.

SOURCE: THENAVAGEPATCH.COM

I was browsing the howstuffworks website. And found this great article on some DIY garden/ pest control sprays you make yourself.

FROM howstuffworks:

If you’re interested in starting your first garden, you’re probably focused on the sorts of plants, flowers, or fruits and veggies you plan to grow. However, it’s important to also consider the rodents, bugs, weeds, and other pests that can’t wait to indulge on your efforts. Unless you have the funds to pay commercial pest control to visit your humble garden, chances are you’ll need to learn about DIY pest control.

As luck would have it, this article contains all of the advice and suggestions you’ll need to steal back those dollars you put aside for a pest control company. Better yet, these pest control sprays contain organic active ingredients, rather than chemical repellents — solving your pest problem without adding a toxic element to your green space!

Separating Gimmick from Garden-Friendly

Back when I started my first garden, a certain celebrity gardener and his books of gardening concoctions were all the rage. You could tell when it was fundraising time on our local PBS station because they’d have him live in the studio, telling us that all we had to do was use items such as baby shampoo, instant tea and whiskey, and we’d be able to grow our best garden ever.

Those claims seemed pretty far-fetched to me back then, and now that I know a little more, I know that several of those concoctions were bad ideas. Plus, in the recipes that were actually effective, it was usually only one ingredient doing the work while the others were either unnecessary or possibly harmful to plants, insects, and other soil-dwelling organisms.

So please know that my B.S. radar is on high alert when I see anything about homemade gardening sprays. With that in mind, here are 15 homemade, organic solutions that allow you to be your own pest control. I use them, and they work. And not one of them requires you to pour whiskey on your plants.

Pest Control Sprays and Concoctions

Tomato Leaf Spray

Tomato leaf spray is effective for killing aphids and mites. It works because the alkaloids in the tomato leaves (and the leaves of all nightshades, actually) are fatal to many insects. Simply soak 2 cups of chopped tomato leaves in 2 cups of water overnight. Strain the liquid the next day and discard the leaves. Add 2 more cups of water to the mixture and spray it on your plants.

Garlic Oil Spray

Garlic oil spray is a great, safe insect repellent. Simply put three to four cloves of minced garlic into 2 teaspoons of mineral oil. Let the mixture sit overnight, and then strain the garlic out of the oil. Add the oil to 1 pint of water, and add 1 teaspoon of biodegradable dish soap. Store in a bottle or jar, and dilute the mixture when you use it by adding 2 tablespoons of your garlic oil mixture to one pint of water. This mixture works because the compounds in garlic (namely, diallyl disulfide and diallyl trisulfide) are irritating or deadly to certain pests (mostly insects). The oil and soap help the mixture stick to plant leaves. What insects does garlic oil repel? Whiteflies, aphids and most beetles will avoid plants sprayed with garlic oil. A word of caution: Don’t apply this spray on a sunny day, because the oils can cause foliage to burn.

Hot Pepper Spray

Hot pepper spray is a great solution if you have problems with mites. Simply mix 2 tablespoons of hot pepper sauce, a few drops of biodegradable dish soap and 1 quart of water and let it sit overnight. Use a spray bottle to apply the spray to infested plants. Hot pepper spray works because the compound capsaicin, which causes the “heat” in hot peppers, is just as irritating to insects as it is to us (if you’ve ever sliced a hot pepper and gotten any of it in an open cut, you’ll understand). This mixture also helps repel whiteflies, but it may have to be reapplied if you start to see the mites or whiteflies returning.

Soap Spray

Simple soap spray is useful in taking out a wide variety of common household pests, including aphids, scale, mites, and thrips. Just add 1 tablespoon of dishwashing soap to 1 gallon of water and spray the mixture on the pests. Why does this method have guaranteed results? The soap dissolves the outer coating or shell of the insects, eventually killing them.

Beer

Sink a tuna can or pie plate into the ground and add a couple of inches of beer, up to about 1 inch below the top of the container. Beer works because the slugs are attracted to the yeast. It’s really important to sink the container into the soil and keep the beer about an inch lower than the soil. This way, the slugs have to go down after the beer, and they drown. If the beer is near the soil, the slugs can just have a drink and then go and munch some hostas when they’re done with happy hour.

Citrus Rinds as Slug Traps

If you don’t have beer in the house, but you do have oranges, grapefruits or lemons, give this a try. You don’t even need to create a spray — simply place the citrus peels on the ground and collect the slugs they attract.

Newspaper Earwig Traps

Newspaper earwig traps work well for reducing the population of these sometimes-pesky insects. Just roll up a newspaper and secure it with an elastic band. Dunk it in water to get it wet and lay it in the garden between problem plants. Check the trap daily and dunk the newspaper rolls into a bucket of water to remove the bugs.

Cinnamon or Cayenne Pepper

Ground cinnamon or cayenne pepper sprinkled around your plants works by repelling, but not injuring, ants. This approach works just as well for ensuring a bug free home.

Red Pepper Spray

Red pepper spray works well for making your plants less tasty to mammal and bird pests. If bunnies, deer, mice, squirrels and birds are regularly messing with your garden, make the following mixture and spray target plants weekly. Mix 4 tablespoons of Tabasco sauce, 1 quart of water, and 1 teaspoon of dish soap. The capsaicin in the pepper spray will irritate the animal pests, and they’ll look for less spicy fare elsewhere. At the very least, it’s a much safer deterrent than pesticides, which could harm mammals.

Fungal Disease Solutions

Baking Soda Spray

Baking soda spray is a tried-and-true method for preventing powdery mildew. It needs to be applied weekly, but if you have a problem with mildew in your garden, it will be well worth the time. Simply combine 1 tablespoon of baking soda, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon of dish soap and 1 gallon of water and spray it on the foliage of susceptible plants. Baking soda spray works because it disrupts fungal spores, preventing them from germinating. The oil and soap help the mixture stick to plant leaves.

Milk

Mix up a spray that is 40 percent milk and 60 percent water and simply spray it on both sides of the leaves of the affected plants. The milk works just as well as toxic fungicides at preventing powdery mildew. This mixture will need to be reapplied regularly, but it works wonderfully.

Weed Treatments

Vinegar

Vinegar works very well for getting rid of weeds in your lawn and garden. The main issue with vinegar is that it can harm other plants. I recommend using a foam paintbrush to brush the vinegar directly onto the leaves of weeds you’re trying to kill. This prevents the vinegar from getting onto other plants and ensures that the entire leaf surface is coated with the vinegar.

Boiling Water

Boil some water and pour it over weeds in the cracks of your sidewalks or driveways. Most weeds can’t stand up to this treatment, and your problem is solved. Just be careful when pouring!

Vinegar and Salt

I personally prefer pouring boiling water on sidewalk weeds, or pulling them. But if you have some really stubborn weeds, you can try using 1 gallon of white vinegar mixed with 1 cup of salt. Also mix 1 tablespoon of dishwasher soap into the solution, as this solution won’t stick to the surface of the weeds otherwise. Please note that this concoction will kill just about any plant it comes in contact with, so keep it away from your other plants, as well as your lawn.

The Best Homemade Garden Concoction of All

Compost

Seriously, whether you’re an apartment dweller with a fire escape farm or a rural farmer, you need to be making and using the stuff. Compost adds nutrients, improves soil structure, increases moisture retention and increases the number of beneficial microbes in your soil. And that’s all besides preventing organic matter from making its way to the landfill. (Bonus points if you start a lasagna gardening project with your handy-dandy compost!)

I hope these ideas for safe, homemade organic garden concoctions are helpful. By having just a handful of inexpensive items on hand, you can take care of most common gardening dilemmas in your own green way — and without involving any pest control companies!

SOURCE: HOWSTUFFWORKS.COM