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.

In Their Names, Let's Drink To True Love, For a Toad and a Scorpion Fell

I have to issue several warnings about this post:

First of all, it's about a movie that some of you have probably never heard of. It's called The Devil's Carnival, and it was created/produced/directed/paid for/bled-sweated-and-cried-over by a couple of guys named Darren Lynn Bousman and Terrance Zdunich. They collaborated on another fantastic movie you've never heard of called Repo! The Genetic Opera.

For the long and short of it, The Devil's Carnival is exactly that; three sinners go to Hell, and each one is subjected to a performance in Hell's carnival that echoes the sins of their lives. The neat twist to all of this? Terrance and Darren used Aesop's Fables to illustrate the sins. They used three fables; The Dog and Her Reflection; The Scorpion and the Frog; and lastly, Jupiter and His Due. Today's words are about The Scorpion and the Frog.

Second of all, this will contain a few spoilers about the movie, or at least, a part of it. So if you're one of those folks who doesn't want to be spoiled about a movie (that is now out on DVD, by the way, and available through Amazon, Hot Topic, Netflix, Hulu, and The Devil's Carnival website) then you might want to find yourself another post to read.

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.

Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

If you're anything like me, you're always on the lookout for something that you can just toss in the crock-pot, let it simmer for a few hours, and then come back to it and have a nice, delicious meal ready.

Well, I can't promise that, but I can promise you a meat sauce that you can use for spaghetti, beefaroni, or pretty much anything else you want to use it with. It can also serve as the base for chili (with or without beans).

It's a pretty low-maintenance recipe that you can spice up with any additives that you want. Mostly I just add cheese near the end, shredded cheddar or Mozzarella if I've got it on hand, because we're a cheese-eating family here.

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Stop Making Kristen Stewart A Martyr

Before we begin, I would like to offer a disclaimer:
I am a thirty-five, soon to be thirty-six, year old woman who despises the Twilight series and everything that it stands for. However, I have no personal anathema or particular hatred towards Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, or anyone else involved in the whole shebang. In fact, I rather like some of the actors and actresses.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let me start this off by giving you the two links that started my tirade.

IndieWire: The Public Shaming of Kristen Stewart
Trampire: Why The Public Slut-Shaming Matters For Young Women from RKEC on Tumblr.

Go ahead and read, I'll wait here.

Spicy Beef Roast

Like pretty much every single other person on the planet, I'm always looking for things. A new purse, the exact right pair of jeans that fit perfectly and make me look flawless while being extraordinarily affordable, a nifty pair of shoes that don't hurt my feet and yet offer decent support, the best deal on Fancy Feast cat food for two picky cats who don't know how good they've got it.

Mostly, though? I look for recipes. Because cooking is not my favorite thing to do. I don't MIND it, oddly enough, I just get tired of DOING it every night, and I'm occasionally always looking for something new to try that's easy, that tastes delicious, and that doesn't break my budget.

While in recent months, both Pinterest and Six Sisters' Stuff has filled that void, I came across a recipe of my own that I discovered a few years back. It's from a booklet of recipes at Crock-Pot.com and is amazingly good.

Image borrowed from Blossy's Cook Book

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Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Dip

I found this on Tumblr and it had been reblogged so many times, I could not find the actual original attribution. I traced it as far back as I could, to the blog of the person (Jessica) who first posted it, but not the exact post.

That being said? It looks so sinfully delicious I can't wait to try it, and I thought it'd be worth sharing.