Redneck Mousetrap.

I hate mice.  I hate finding mouse droppings,  I hate how they chew and destroy things they get into, and I hate just knowing they are in the house... OK so I think you've got the picture.   If you feel like I do and don't like traps because lets face it.. they're yucky to empty, this is the post is for you.
This trap setup will be ready for whenever those sneaky little rodents find their way into your home. And the best part is that it can catch more than one in a night.

In our neck of the woods it has felt like fall for a week or more already.  I've had this mouse trap set up for a few weeks now, and the other night I caught three of those nasty little rodents.  That's right.. three mice, one trap.   At my house the best spot seems to be under the kitchen sink.  No matter how hard we try to fill all the little spaces where they might be getting in with steel wool,  they just seem to find another way.
I think this set up.  would work great  in a garage too.

To make your own  drill two small holes across from each other  near the top rim of a plastic bucket.
Use a piece of wire to suspend a soda can over the bucket.  I just used wire coat hanger. Spread peanut butter over the outside of the can.  You will need a board or something they can use as a ramp to climb to the top of the bucket.  Put about 6 inches of water in the bottom of the bucket.

From the rim they jump to the can and when it spins they fall into the bucket.  The next morning you just need to dump the bucket and add more water.  Check once in a while to make sure your trap doesn't need more bait peanut butter, and the water level is ok, but other than that this trap only needs tending when something is in it.  And the best part is that it's always set even if you have already caught something.

 A few years ago my wonderful KC kitty would have taken care of this problem as she used to be a wonderful mouser, but she's getting up there in years and doesn't get around as well as she used to.  She is at the point in her life where she just needs to be pampered by her adoring housemates.

Tip:  For many cottage owners the mouse problem is a serious one.  It's not nice arriving on opening weekend to find your vacation home has been taken over by rodents.  I think this trap could be used all winter if you replaced the water in the bucket with anti-freeze.

My Apple Picker Buddy

Have you ever tried to pick from fruit trees and the best pieces of fruit were just out of reach, and of course you have no ladder.  Well I don't know where I first saw this idea but I thought it would be a great gadget to keep in your vehicle for when you run into a stray apple tree.    The original version was just a 2 lite soda bottle with a handle.     I call it my "Apple Picking Buddy".

I washed out a soda bottle and marked a circle on the side. I cut it out with a pair of scissors.  It's really quite easy as these bottles have very thin sides.

Just below one of the bumps on the bottom of the bottle I cut in a little curve.

Then I found an old butterfly catcher of the kids and attached it to to top of the bottle with a few 1/2" screws.  I had to wrap the handle with a bit of tape to make it fit better.

Now when I go to pick some apples I can just hook the bottle over an apple and pull. The apple falls into the bottle and doesn't drop all the way to the ground.  Result: less bruising.  I outlined the hole with a marker to make it easier to see.

The hole in my bottle is big enough you could use this for picking apples, oranges, pears, peaches.  It just depends what part of the country you are in and what's available.

I was going to cut off the net but after talking to my son yesterday ( he lives on Vancouver Island where there is an abundance of fruit trees) and hearing they have been picking tons of cherries lately, I thought  of leaving on the net and bending the wire a little to accommodate any smaller fruit that will just fall into the net.

These little butterfly nets with bamboo handles are available in  a lot of dollar stores.
The apples should be ready in our area soon, and I need a ton to make apple cider vinegar.  This is going in the trunk of my car right away so I don't get caught without it. Nest time I see an apple tree that needs harvesting my Apple Picker Buddy and I will be prepared.

Motel Headboard Re-Purposed

The brown board you can see in front of the old doors in this pic was a curbside find from a pile at a motel undergoing some renovations.  It has a french cleat on the back because it was originally a headboard.  That's right , those plain motel headboards are attached to the wall with a french cleat and are surprisingly heavy.  I grabbed three doors from the same pile.  It was quite a score.

I gave the headboard a thorough cleaning with some hot water and TSP and a couple of coats of this green chalky paint I had at the time and used it as a headboard for a while.  It was only a temporary fix though until the room changed.  

To re-purpose the headboard I removed the cleat from the back and painted the center with a DIY chalk board paint.  It's just some black craft paint that I mix with a teaspoon of plaster of paris . 

I painted the frame in this barely there gray called "Lovely in Linen" from BeautiTone.  You can see it has these subtle undertones of sage green.

I cut a section of the french cleat to fit the shorter end so I could hang this chalkboard vertically, and it is the perfect fit for the space between  two doors.

Tip:  If you haven't used a french cleat before, it's the perfect solution for hanging really large and extremely heavy pieces like this chalk board  or large mirrors. All you need is one 4" wide board cut slightly shorter than the piece you want to hang.

Make a diagonal cut lengthwise so you have two pieces that are the same. Attach one to the back of you piece and the other to the wall.  Make sure you attach the side of the cleat the is narrowest to the wall and the same to your piece.  When you go to hang your piece the one side will hook over the other side and snug into place.

Now I have a long chalkboard that fits nicely between these two doors on one wall of my kitchen.

To turn this piece into a message center here's what I did.

I attached a little screw right at the top to hang a calendar.  I flipped ahead a month because this month has a lot of notes on it already.

I cut the bottom of a little plastic bottle and painted it to match the frame.  I attached it with   screws and filled it with some pens, markers and chalk.

A cup hook to hold scissors.

A few little screws added to hang clip boards and even one to keep the ruler handy.

Then a quick trip to the thrift store for a few little baskets. I don't know what these were originally used for . They are vinyl covered wire.  I gave both a coat of matching paint.  The smallest one holds incoming mail.

The larger one  holds  note books and receipts pads.

So here is my message center all finished.

This is perfect for me.  It has a chalk board to take down quick phone messages until they can be taken care of.  And  paper mess  mail that gets dumped on my island can now be put into the baskets until it's dealt with.  

My receipt books for daycare are always right at hand.  I can grab a pen, or marker when I need it, instead of the regular "hang on while I grab something to write with" scenario that usually happens when the phone rings.  Even scissors to clip coupons are handy.

And here's the very best part of this project. The headboard was a curbside find. The paint was left over from other jobs.  The baskets came from the thrift store for $1.  Everything else I had on hand.

There isn't a lot you can make for a buck, and I'm super happy how this one turned out.

Furniture polish

 I have been using this  soft wax formula for a few years now on all my wood furniture and I think it is really amazing.  It shines and protects like nothing else I've used and it is so very simple.  I found the original recipe here  and tweaked it a tiny bit.

In a glass bowl that has a lid combine 3 parts  oil,  (I use an inexpensive olive oil, but any oil will do)   and 1 part grated beeswax.
Warm in 30 second intervals in the microwave just until the wax is melted.

Let it cool for a few minutes and add about 5 drops of lemon essential oil.

Stir a few times while it is cooling and store it in a glass jar at room temperature. I just toss in the cloth so I can reuse it.

See how dull my table is in this before picture.  Just put a bit of the mix on a soft rag, apply to furniture and polish. Don't be afraid to really work it in. This protects the  wood   and has a nice lemony smell.

I deliberately did half of the table top so you could see the difference.

Here is the table top, completely done, with its beautiful soft sheen.  
You only need to use this wax about once a month to keep the wood hydrated and it withstands lots of wiping with a damp cloth.  I do mine a little more often just because I like how it looks and it's so easy.
The bonus to using this wax instead of a store bought version....I never have to worry about the kids putting stuff on the table and in their mouths.  Or just licking the table (we are talking about kids after all).  And it is completely safe if they happen to get into it.

I  never have to buy furniture polish again.

Hand Saniitizer

Wow... It's already August and cold and flu season is just around the corner.  We do our best to stay healthy.  We get the flu shot, we wash our hands every chance we get and we use hand sanitizer when we can't, but when we're out of the house sometimes hand sanitizer is our only choice.

Here's a DIY option that has some real kick in the germ fighting arena.  It actually takes longer to write about it than to make it.

Recipe:
1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol
1/4 cup of witch hazel
1/8 cup of aloe gel.  (I used mine straight from the plant)
1 teaspoon of vegetable glycerin
1/2 teaspoon of vitamin E oil (optional)
40 drops of essential oils
(I used these)
10 drops of Lemon EO
10 drops of Clove EO
10 drops of Eucalyptus EO
10 drops of Cinnamon EO
I've added the links so you can see why I used these particular essential oils but you could use a combination of any you like that have good anti-septic and anti-bacterial qualities. I always recommend you do your own research.  The links are to a site I use for all kinds of essential oil and herb information.

I add all the ingredients to a small spray bottle and keep it in my purse for the duration of flu season.  This means pretty much all of the fall and winter.

I use the same recipe for a room   spray during this time as well. I just add a cup of distilled water and 10 drops of Tea Tree EO   to the mix.
This spray used like a room freshener (think Fabreeze)  helps during those times when it feels like everyone in the house has some kind of bug.  But don't wait until that happens.  Start using it as soon as the weather changes and you have to close up your house for the season.

Lets all do our best to stay healthy this year but if the worst happens and you do come down with something,  remember,  please stay home and rest until you feel better and don't share with your friends and co-workers.

3D Cardboard Stars

If your like me and you love those metal stars for decorating but find them way to pricey, then here is an alternative that is really easy to make and costs almost nothing.

What you'll need is a star template, some cardboard, and some metallic craft paints.  Of course you'll need some scissors and some primer too but I just used what I had. I printed my smaller star on the computer but to make a larger one I added an inch to each point and valley, then connected the dots.

For my cardboard I used the side of a box of frozen chicken nuggets for the two smaller stars and a side of a beer box for the larger one. You'll want the sturdy cardboard these boxes are made of.   My stars are about 8 and 30 inches.
Open up your cardboard box and lay it flat so you can trace your star template on the back side.  The front of most of these boxes is waxed and hard to draw on.
Cut out your stars and then using something with a firm edge score each star from the V to the point ...repeating for all five points.

Fold on your scored lines so you have valley's between the points.  This will make sense once you start folding and see what happens.  When your done folding you will have the 3D star shape you want.
Now paint a couple of coats of your primer on the front of the cardboard.  Paint on what was the waxed or printed side of your box. I used a thick version of my DIY chalky paint adding a little more Plaster of Paris than I usually do.

For the metallic look I used two different colours, a bronz gold and a champagne.  I used a stencil brush and loaded it with both colours at the same time and pounced it onto the stars.

I painted the little ones with a white primer but thought it would be better to use a dark green for the base. This way when I dabbed on the metallic paints it had a bit of patina. For the smaller ones I added tiny bits of green trying to get the right look.

I love how the paint looks like hammered metal.

Once all the paint is dry the stars are really sturdy.  I just added a bit of twine on the backs with my glue gun so I could hang them.

I think they look really good and am pleased to say that I fooled a few people who actually thought they were metal until I told them otherwise.

One piece... Three Projects. -part three - Paint Caddy

A while back I traded up for a vintage style wash stand. If you read that post you will remember that it was really wobbly and missing a few pieces to fix it entirely.
The bottom part of the wash stand was done over and used (once again) as a wash stand. See that post here.

The second part of that project was the Tween Vanity I created by using the mirror from the wash stand on a early 1900's oak desk.  See that post here.

From the beginning I said  I could get at least three projects from the wash stand.  Well I still have a bunch of little spindles left over from the mirror.  This is what I did with one little piece.

I attached four soup cans to the bottom of the spindle with little  screws, and spray painted it. I threw some pencils and things in it to see how well balanced I had it..  but it was a bit wobbly so I wrapped the cans in jute twine to keep everything together and stable.  Of course I wrapped the handle too, just because I wanted too.

Now I have this cute little caddy that holds all my painting tools.  Lovin' how I can grab them and go  to where ever my current project is happening.

This little caddy could be used for picnic cutlery, for makeup brushes, or for art supplies. What would you use it for?


And there are still spindles left.  I'm sure I will think of another use for them.

Wax Paper Transfers

I've been wanting to try using wax paper to transfer an image to a project for some time now.  There are many tutorials out there for this method so I read three or four different ones and the consensus is that it is a really simple method and requires no expensive tools other than your computer and printer.

Some of the instructions said to attach your wax paper to a normal sheet of printer paper and others said it wasn't necessary.  I tried it both ways and they both worked but it is much simpler to just cut your wax paper to the right size and use it on its own. I stood right at the printer in case it jammed but it went through just fine.  Remember to print using a mirror image if you have text or everything will be backwards when you transfer it and also to print on the side of your paper that has the waxy surface. This is what you are going to rub onto your surface.

The first one I tried was this grocery sign because it was an easy project, and if it didn't turn out, all I had to do was paint over it.  This is a fairly rough piece of wood and it still transferred really well.
At first I thought it was a little on the light side but the print darkened considerably when I added the wax finish.

Since the "grocery" sign worked so well I decided I wanted to try it again to make sure I had it right.  I love serving trays and wanted to make one with a farmhouse vibe.  I chose a nice long board and painted it this pretty "Queen Anne's Lace" colour I've been using for my basic white. And printed a Milk and Cream Co. onto my waxed paper.

I had two door handles in my stash.  I taped off the white enamel on the handles but painted the ugly 70's gold over with black spray paint. These handles attached from the back and I wanted to screw them in directly so I used a metal bit and pre-drilled some holes.  If you do this be sure to paint your screws too.

I painted the grain sack stripe down the side of the board allowing me to place my image off center.

I taped my wax paper image and using a plastic measuring spoon  rubbed the image onto my board.

I sanded a bit over the stripes and  it's ready for some finishing touches.  I used a  coat of finishing wax to protect the surface and added the handles.  Then I turn it over and added little felt dots to the corners.  This protects any surface you sit your tray on and also prevents it from sliding around on your counter etc.

Anyone for iced tea?

Now that I know how easy this transfer method is I will definitely being using it for more projects.  There are so many free graphics to use and you could also use it to transfer script as well.  Way easier than trying to free hand everything.