How to keep baggies in your car WITHOUT them hogging all of your glovebox

Easy-peasy bandana tablecloth

I made this today in under an hour- I went into it knowing we would likely make a mess out of it at the party this weekend, so I wasn't terribly concerned with making my stitches perfectly straight, or having perfectly lined up squares (note to self: if you WANT very neat lines, DO NOT WASH BANDANAS BEFORE YOU SEW THEM!!)  Karen or Ruby can narrate if they feel sparky, but the jist of it is, line your squares up one by one, sew across so you have 3 strips of 3 bandanas, then join those down the long sides. Poof, magic!  Bandanas run about $1 each, and you can do up any color combo you want, so think of avoiding those icky plastic disposables for holidays and birthdays!

$6 DIY pin boards on a desk

 I love my rolltop desk. That being said, it had a serious flaw: ME. I tend to have lots of small projects going at once, and I make notes for later on small bits of paper, and then stick those bits EVERYWHERE. I knew that pin boards would be a good idea for me to use, but didn't want to take up any more of the limited wall space in the office room (which features Chris's Wall O'Me- his awards and diplomas and such from his military career). Also, I'm lazy, and if that pin board was across the room, I'd likely never look at it, or use it. Let's be honest, lazy wins, every. single. time. And then an idea started fermenting in the back of my brain. I've got these shapely little bits just sitting here all plain and stuff...

and they make thin cork tiles....

yes. Let's hook that puppy up. A quick paper template, some slicing with a razor, double sided sticky squares (which came in the pack of 4 tiles), and suddenly, the little pile o junk building up behind my monitor and taking over my desk now has a home. I even have room to tuck the tape gun out of the way now. And then I started tackling the mess on the TOP of the rolltop desk. Organization? Yeah, I guess that's okay.

made@home bodywash from bar soap

I've read several blog posts from the webierse about making your own body wash for WAY less than store-bought. And since I'm A: about out of bodywash, B: sleepless in Wyoming, and C: happen to have two bars of soap hanging around any ways... well, why the heck not?

There are lots and lots of methods, recipes and opinions about this out there, but the general consensus seems to be 1-2 cups of water per bar of soap, and the best results are achieved by grating the soap. The water content depends largely on how much moisturizer your chosen soap has in it.  I have Caress on hand, which isn't quite as lotion-y as Dove or Olay, so I'm gonna aim for 1.5 cups of water per bar.  Hopefully, the repetitive motion of grating two bars of soap will get me sleepy, and I'll be finishing this post tomorrow after work :)
~~~

Well, turns out grating soap is very meditative & good for those that can't sleep. This turned out much easier than I thought it would too. I grated the two bars while watching one of my recorded shows- I might have been able to work faster, but why would you? The whole point was for it to be soothing :).

I have no idea why this picture refuses to turn upright. Technology, eh?

I decided to grate it into a stainless mixing bowl on the off chance that I might screw this up and scorch soap in a stainless pan. Which would very much be bad. Then after work today, I needed to boil water for another thing, so I just added water from that to my bowl of grated soap about a half cup at a time. I had let the pan rest on the turned off burner when I was done with my boiling, so it wasn't quite boil-hot, but it was still quite toasty. This worked exceedingly well. I stopped at 2 cups of water- turns out Caress brand had a bit more lotion/moisturizer to it than I thought. ( The harsher the soap, the more water you will need, and possibly some extra glycerin.)

Stir, stir, stir as you add the hot water, and poof, magic happens- bodywash!

I just refilled my regular bodywash bottle. I had just a tiny glob left in it, so this project came along at just the right time. I also filled my travel bottle, and a Tupperware container- note to self: make one bars' worth at a time!