Household Quickie: Sticker Residue Removal

If you're anything like me, then you tend to re-use things, most times until they pretty much disintegrate from usage.

I'm also a crafter, and I make glycerin and gelatin products as well, so I'm always on the lookout for bottles, bottles that won't cost me a fortune (I like to pay about $1 per bottle; I found a great deal on bottles at my local dollar store, Mighty Dollar, and cleaned them out. Sadly, they've never re-stocked.).

And so I came upon the idea, after much consideration, of going back to the Mighty Dollar, or even Wal-Mart (because their brand costs right around 88 cents), buy new bottles of hand soap, dump the soap into the big refill bottle in my cabinet, and use *those* bottles for my soap and lotion products.

The down side to this is, the Wal-Mart bottles come with some pretty labels that leave a hideously sticky residue on them.

Sweet, Sweet Sinus Relief

I am an avid sufferer of allergic rhinitis and (self-diagnosed) chronic sinusitis. All that boils down to? I'm congested, deep in my sinuses, pretty much year round. Some times are better than other times, I'll be honest, but there are days, like today, when I wake up dry-mouthed and stuffy because I've been so congested I'm breathing through my mouth and not my nose.

There are a lot of OTC meds I can (and do!) avail myself of, but I have to be careful what I use because I am prone to nosebleeds. Nice, big, heavy, Old Faithful-like gushers, if I'm lucky, that take an age and a half to stop and leave me with headaches afterwards.

So I tend towards suffering through it, or slathering on the Mentholatum or Vicks VapoRub. Although occasionally, I will find myself going homeopathic, and I'd like to share with the rest of you snufflies out there my "miracle cure."

Vinegar. Mixed pickling spice.

DIY Project: Jewelry Box

How many of you have trinket boxes, junk boxes, photo boxes, or any other kind of box piled around the house with no idea what to do with them?

Oh, just me, is it?

Well, I am a box collector. I have quite a few, of many varied shapes and sizes, but the box in question, that precipitated this whole project, is one I've had for eighteen years; it was a senior gift from my high school the year I graduated, and over time, it's served as a pencil box, trinket box, necklace box, bead box, storage box, empty-box-sitting-around-looking-pretty box... you get the idea.

I also collect rings. I rarely wear them; they get in my way when I type, and when I get hot and cranky, my hands swell and the rings get really tight and uncomfortable. But I love collecting them, especially unique ones. Like these ones.

And so, I made this:

You can, too, and for under $10. More likely, it'll be under $5, depending on if you already have felt at home or not.