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Showing posts from January, 2015

Trial Tuesday: DIY Drain Cleaner

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If you have never had a clogged drain in your life, what is your secret? Because I should have bought stock in Drano years ago with all of the drains that I have clogged in my life! Currently, my bathroom sink keeps getting clogged when we wash our hands or brush our teeth. I want to say that my hair is the culprit because that is what it usually is. I am actually shocked that I am not balding by now, with all of the hair that I shed. I came across a DIY drain cleaner on, you guessed it, Pinterest and I wanted to try it out. The pin and instructions originally come from a website called  Tidy Mom . Check out her site after reading this post for great DIYs, crafts, recipes, and more. TRIAL What You Will Need: 3/4 Cup Baking Soda 1/2 Cup White Distilled Vinegar  A small plate or drain plug to close the drain hole Directions: 1. Remove the drain cover so that you can see down the pipe. Since the sink that I am doing the trial on is a bathroom sink, there is a drain

Makeup Monday: Keeping Your Hair Healthy

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Healthy hair is something that most women take for granted. We color, blow dry, curl, hot iron, and even style our hair without ever thinking of the damage that we are doing to it. About two years ago I came to the realization that I needed to take better care of my hair because it was dry and dull, so I began researching how I could do that. While I still color my hair and use heating tools often, the tips that I am about to give you have really improved my hair over time. If you are struggling with dry or lifeless hair, keep reading! Don't Wash Your Hair Everyday. Shampoos contain chemicals that strip your hair causing it to become dull, dry, and/or brassy in color. I started using Garnier's Sulfate-Free shampoo about a year ago and I would highly recommend it to anyone that gets brassy hair from washing! Avoid causing this damage by covering your hair with a shower cap. Or, just get it wet but don't wash it. You can also use a little conditioner if you want to re

Thrifty Thursday: DIY- Valentine's Day Wine Bottle

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Valentine's Day is less than a month away and for the first time, I am putting up Valentine's decor in my house. Since I really don't own any Valentine's Day decor, I decided to go to my second favorite website, Pinterest (my blog is my first), to get some ideas. Of course I found a ton of ideas but my time is limited so I am going to be doing a little DIY Valentine's Day Decor series. I am currently making decor pieces for my mantle so I decided to make a decorative Valentine's Day wine bottle. What You Will Need: An Empty Wine Bottle, cleaned and labels removed Acrylic Paint (Your Choice of Colors) Ribbon or Twine Embellishments for your bottle (optional) Directions: 1. Pour your paint into the jar. You can use a solid color or mix colors like I did. 2. Tip the bottle upside down to spread the paint. The paint will move slowly so don't worry about the liquid rushing out of the bottle. Here is how my bottle turned out after the

How To Do Wednesday: Prepare Weekly Meals

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image from jeweljewels.ca As a working, full-time parent, I know how hard it can be to balance your time between work and home and get the things done that you need to do. To lessen my load of chores, I tend to prepare meals on Sundays for the week. While I am obviously not the originator of weekly meal preparation, I have learned a few tips on doing this method efficiently and of course, I want to share them with you! Prepare Your Menu Of course, the first step to planning meals is choosing what food you want to eat for the week! You can make it fancy and write it out somewhere for the family to see if you are feeling ambitious. Or, write a note to yourself but stick to your menu. Grocery Shop Often I hate going grocery shopping more than anyone but luckily, more and more retailers are selling food. Although, you are going to pay more in some instances like for produce at Target, it's convenient and available. I tend to buy food items once a week. Prioritize Your Li

Trial Tuesday: Baked Breakfast

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Did you know that you can bake just about all of your breakfast foods? Well according to the internet you can, so I wanted to test these methods out. Since I didn't want to waste a ton of food if these recipes ended up failing, I scaled back the ingredients but the full recipes with links are below. Bacon I have done this 100 times before and I know that it works! While this is really not a trial, I wanted to include it in this post. Since I have modified this method and use varied cooking temperatures when baking, no recipe will be inserted. Directions 1. Cover a cookie sheet with 2 pieces of aluminum foil. 2. Place strips of bacon on the sheet. If your bacon overlaps, the pieces will cook/ get stuck together so avoid putting too many strips on one pan. 3. Select baking temperature according to the time that you want your bacon to cook. I have inserted a chart below. Baking Temperature Options and Times: Baked Bacon Temperature (F) Cook Ti

Makeup Monday: How to Apply Eyeliner

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Last week for Makeup Monday, I posted on the  Best and Worst  Liquid liners and got a great response to the post. I even had a few readers ask me to do a tutorial on lining your eyes. The problem that I had with doing an original tutorial is that not everyone has the same eye, so the tutorial would not be beneficial to everyone reading it. With that being said, I am bringing you another Pinterest favorites post with eyeliner in mind. I went on Pinterest and found some great posts to help you find your eyeliner style. The pictures below are not links but I am inserting where they can be found below the photos. I will also link my Pinterest Makeup board below. batalashbeauty.com   mymakeupideas.com fabfashionfix.com thebeautydepartment.com stylecraze.com musicalhouses.blogspot.com To see more tips on applying eyeliner or other beauty products, visit my Makeup  board on Pinterest. As a little added bonus, I am also including a YouTube

Thrifty Thursday: Dollar Tree Valentine's Decor 2015

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I was at the Dollar Tree today to pick up a few things and I decided while I was there to whip out my camera and share some of the great products that Dollar Tree is selling now. Valentine's Day is exactly one month away and now is the time to buy your decor and gift packaging at Dollar Tree; it's going to go quick! Gift Bags, Boxes, and Containers Cookie Tins Valentine's Card Boxes Hard Cardboard Heart Boxes ADORABLE gift bags! Valentine's Day Cups Fill with candy for a cute DIY (teacher gift?) Cute decor item Valentine's Partyware Plastic heart tray 60-piece heart table scatter Valentine's Day for Kids 32 Valentine's in each. Disney, Marvel, and WWE Great class Valentine idea Give to your own child as a keepsake <3 Valentine's Day Candy Check out all of this candy! Other Cute Random Finds Glassware Valentine's Ribbon BONUS St. Pat