This will be short and sweet – it’s just candy. There are so many ideas on what to do with all the Halloween candy. A little candy is ok, but Halloween can so easily put us over the sugar edge.
There are several ideas out there, send it to the military, sell it to your dentist or buy it from your children yourself.
I had a different idea. Decorate gingerbread houses!
A few years back, to help our children monitor their sugar intake, I started giving them a sandwich bag. Any and all candy that could fit in that bag they could keep. They could eat it all at once or savor it one piece at a time. Either way, I didn’t have to worry about sugar over-exposure.
When we make ginger-bread houses, sometimes we buy a small amount of Christmas candy, but usually we just use the Halloween stuff. These examples are pretty un-glamorous, but it is what it is, this is the reality of our gingerbread houses 😂.
Ok in our defense, we’ve had better ones, but I can’t find the pictures.
You’ll just have to take my word.
What do you do with your kids’ extra candy? Share below.
Somethings in life just make sense, like being able to see the recipe on your tablet or smart phone while your hands are sticky. I didn’t realize I wanted a recipe card/ tablet holder, until I saw the idea from RealityDaydream.com, I began to see the advantages and had the perfect corner cabinet to attach it to. I also had a small shelf I wasn’t using from my newly installed cabinets and thought I would try it out. All you need are the friction lid hinges one for the left and the right, a square piece of wood the size you want for your device or magazine, and a magnet. The magnet is used to hold up the back of the board when you fold it in for storage, otherwise it hangs down. RealityDaydream acknowledged this was a problem and invited others to send their solutions. This was mine and I’ll show you how to install it below.
I attached the hinges to the bottom of my cabinet, right along that 2 inch ledge cabinet builders leave. Once folded into place, you could see the hinge a little bit, but not enough to notice unless you were looking.
I also attached my magnet to the top of the wood slab. The metal plate for the magnet was attached onto a 1″ block of wood which was placed about in the middle of the cabinet. Notice I also placed the magnet flush with my board face, this was so the magnet would hold the wood slab close to the underside of the cabinet. The ridge at the bottom of the wood slab was here because it is the underside of a narrow shelf. I lucked out in having a nice piece already in place. If you are creating a wood surface from scratch you will need to attach a piece of wood at the bottom to hold your wood slab.
The best way to start is to secure the hinges to the cabinet first. Then secure the wood slab for the tablet to the hinges. To determine where to place the hinge, do a dry run and see where you want the square wood to end up when you’ve folded it into place. Notice the wooden block with the metal plate is not attached to the cabinet yet, I used this method then marked with a pencil where to attach the block. Then secure the hinges to your slab of wood.
Make sure it unfolds the way you want, once you are pleased with that then you will fold it in place and see where the top edge of your square wood meets up with the bottom of your cabinet, this is where you want to place your metal plate (mine placed on a block). You may need to adjust the thickness of your wooden block, depending on the depth of the under-edge of your cabinet.
As you go, make sure to always check the length of your screw with the thickness of the wood to make sure it will hold the hardware, but not go through the finished part of your wood. I check my screw with the wood by placing it on the edge, giving room for any hardware to be attached. In this example, I am checking the screw depth for my Pull-Out Kitchen Trash.
Also be sure to pre-drill any wood where you will place a screw. This will prevent your wood from splitting. As you see here, I have attached the metal plate to the wooden block first, then I did a dry run. The next step is to screw it into place.
There you have it, a pull-down recipe/tablet holder that makes it easier to read and mess free. If you have a wider cabinet spot you could also do this for a recipe book. I just folded up my magazine or used my tablet. It was pretty handy. Share your recipe holders and any insights you’ve had on your designs below. Happy building!
At no other time in my life had I been as cold as I was then, living in the northern state of Wisconsin. The wind pushed the damp cold right to my bones and no wind breaker or down coat could keep me warm. On top of finding myself in this extreme cold, we were also living in a 40 year old house with old drafty windows and cold (but beautiful) hardwood floors. The heating bill was much higher than other homes our size and yet we weren’t any warmer.
To say I was motivated to tackle home improvements was an understatement. There were only two things on my mind, I was cold and how could I fix it.
Little did I know that within three years, this first time home re-modeler would not only be warmer, but would have cut the energy use in half – not of what we were using, but in half of what other homes our size were using. We actually cut it by more than half. (I know because our charming little town sent letters regularly telling us where we stacked up). Our water bill was also cut by more than half – but that is a post for another day.
How did we do it, an average couple, fresh out of grad school, with no nest egg of backup money? The truth is even more affordable and possible than you would think. We learned to increase comfort and save money through securing leaks in windows, doors, ceilings, floors and outlets all for $10 or less. There are more expensive options, but these work and you can be warm now and have a lower electric bill. If you want to do the environment a solid you can, by using less energy for equal (or increased) comfort. You don’t always have to invest in $10,000 improvements to be environmentally wise.
The first big issue for us and for more than 25% of American households, was leaky, inefficient windows. The image below is infrared, the red shows where heat is escaping this house. The average home loses up to 30% of its heated and cooled air through the windows. At this point almost every other site will tell you to get new windows. Which would be great if you have a huge amount of money waiting to be spent. The cost varies, a single story home with 10 windows can cost anywhere from $3,000-7,000.
The truth is, we did have a bit of money, but that was for the whole house, not just the windows. It is possible to increase the performance of your old windows now and one day get new ones, but be warm now.
There are three things you can do for windows each costing $5-10. First caulk the outside of your windows, filling in any crevices or cracks that have been developing over the years. This will help keep out cold in the winter and heat in the summer. It will also keep out bugs. Choose a caulk that is labeled for outdoor windows and trim with a silicone base. These are often not paintable, but I just get the clear color and don’t paint it. Dap is a great brand because you can count on it holding up. It can cost $5 more than the cheapest brand, but it is worth it. You will make up the money in energy savings and effort.
After you’ve sealed the outside, seal the inside crevices with this awesome caulking cord. Because it is in thin cords packaged in a wide row, you can fill small spaces or large. This is very useful for old windows that may have large gaps. It never cracks and remains mold-able and seals completely. I always use this in my daughters room because of her asthma. It seals out most allergens from outside and helps her sleep more comfortably.
The third window treatment is your classic shrink wrapped window – on top of doing the other two things. Shrinking plastic to your windows is easy to do and can be done in a way that is almost hard to tell it’s there. Follow directions for shrinking it. I like to try and put it on metal around the window versus painted walls or wood – it can pull paint and varnish off. Windows may be old, but with these three meathods they will not leak.
Your next big energy loss is heat rising through the roof. In fact for many homes, 25% of the heat produced by your boiler escapes through the roof. There are a few things you can do. First, you want to make sure the ceiling joists are covered. Chances are, if you have an old house, the insulation has compacted over time, or didn’t have enough to begin with. Â
A tell tale sign that you are losing heat through the roof is if on a snowy day you can see your roof beams through the snow. Once you begin to notice this you will see how common roof heat loss is.
It took me a while to clue into this. I noticed there was a draft in our kitchen. In fact when I opened the corner cabinet cold air would rush out. This was in a large part due to the fact that the first electrician we hired to install fire alarms moved the insulation around the ceiling joists in the attic and never put it back.
In a way it was a blessing (though I was totally annoyed with him) because I finally got up the nerve to climb into the attic. Not only did I find all he had done, but also found that ALL of our joists were showing. We got a quote to have more insulation blown in and they quoted us $4000! It turns out that the average price is around $1200 and this company offered all kinds of extras we couldn’t afford. It wasn’t that we didn’t want insulation or didn’t see the value – we simply didn’t have the money.
So this is where you save money and stay warm. Wear a dust mask, long sleeves, pants and gloves. This is to protect yourself from fiberglass in the insulation, especially your lungs. I then took a broom, swept a section of insulation into a pile towards me, pulled it apart, fluffed it back up and placed it gently back in place. I was able to re-cover most of the joists completely. For one 10 square foot section I had to buy more insulation, but the cold draft was gone and we were much warmer.
One note, it is very important that the roof has circulation or you will have condensation, which will breed mold and ice jams. Make sure you do not cover attic vents and that no insulation touches the roof. Think of attic insulation as a big blanket keeping warmth in. It’s ok if your attic is cold – you want it cold, but you don’t want the level below it to be cold.
Cold air also travels into your home through poorly insulated outlets. You can tell if an outlet is leaking cold air by licking your finger and placing it near the outlet opening. If you feel cold air moving past your finger you want to insulate the box. If this is a new build or basement,you can use spray foam to insulate behind outlet boxes.
If the home is built and walls are up, place outlet insulators behind all outlet covers and light switches that are found on the inside along exterior walls.
Replace weatherstripping around your exterior doors. The link here is for convenience from amazon – note it is not $10. But if you go to a local hardware store you can find many options.
Floor – insulate floor joists from the basement. Cold air transfers from outside walls, travels along your floor joists and settles in your basement. If you have an unfinished basement this is a very easy, slightly annoying job.
One option is to hire a professional to come in and spray all floor joists with a special insulating foam. It guarantees energy savings. It also cost several thousand dollars. Meaning it would take along time to regain your cost of installing.
Instead I bought 8 cans of spray foam. Sprayed along all crevices where joists meet support boards.Then placed blanket insulation in the space for further cold air protection. I am sure the professionals would have sealed it better, but my version cost about $30 and with all of our affordable energy improvements we cut our usage by more than half. I know it works and it doesn’t have to cost thousands. *while I was researching products I’ve used, I came across a DIY version you can buy for about $800 and possibly get close to professional coverage if you want to check it out.
And that is my quick and easy 5 ways to get warm for less than $10 a project.
I wish you the best in your energy efficient DIYs. I would love to answer any questions you might have on other projects.
Until next time, stay warm, for as little as possible.  😊Â
A few months ago our family room was beginning to feel cramped, messy and boring. Though I had ways for my family to put away blankets and toys, they were not following my well thought out plan. The basket meant for folded blankets was crammed with toys or shoes kids didn’t want to put away and became just another object taking space. Our coffee table, while great for putting up our feet, lacked much use beyond that and stood in the middle of the room horrible and brown, so so brown.
A professor of mine once said, during his lecture on strengthening relationships, that if you have a problem with something your spouse is doing, you may see it as his/her problem, when in reality it is your problem. Your problem, because most likely your spouse doesn’t care or is blissfully unaware that something is an issue for you. This is how I was beginning to feel about our messy family room. It was my problem and if it was my problem I was in a position to fix it.
The professor went on to suggest there was a solution found in the way you chose to look at the problem. For example one husband dropped his dirty socks on the floor every day and no matter how much his wife asked him to put them in the laundry he continued to leave them on the floor. The husband, while truly wanting to please his wife constantly forgot because he was so anxious to get into the shower after his long day and the laundry basket was on the other side of the room. Once the wife understood more of the story she in turn decided change her approach, because in the end she just wanted the socks off the floor and he wanted to take a shower. She decided to move the laundry basket just outside the bathroom and with the ease of laundry access, never had socks on the floor again.
I constantly look back to this story when I am trying to solve a behavior, sometimes it is easier to move the basket than it is to convince someone to change what they value. In my case, my kids valued “cleaning” up the floor as quickly as possible, more than they valued actually putting the toys away. So I changed my approach. I began to search for a chest that could double as a coffee table, but had blanket storage. I placed the collect-all-basket in a hard to reach place and made room for a few puzzles and games inside our TV console. Before you know it, the family room was back and though toys and books and random shoes still made their way into the room, there is no easy place to stash them. Clean up has become much more straight forward.
Here is the journey of my storage chest that started out looking like a little girls fingernail polish station, guessing from the princess cards and bubblegum pink puddles on top…I could be wrong. 🙂 The change was exciting, adding a pop of color to this very brown room was just what was needed, I love propping my feet up and admiring the stencil work. In the end, it was my problem, but with a beautiful solution.
The chest was in rough shape, but it fit the qualifications of internal storage and I loved the wood work on the outside. I thought that with enough washing and sanding I would be able to remove the pink goo.
I was wrong. After dedicated sanding there was still a bit of a residue. I had wanted to have a wood tone on the top and add color to the bottom. I considered painting the whole thing, but I love to see a bit of wood grain. At this point I changed my design and decided I would stencil it, to draw attention away from the pink wood, if still visible after staining. I also roughed up the surface of the bottom portion to prep it for primer.
I like to prime pieces that I am going to paint for two reasons. One it really helps the paint stick to a roughed up lacquered surface and two…
… it helps you see the gaps between the wood joints. At this point, I let the primer dry and then come through with caulk and fill in all the edges and cracks. Caulk is the secret to transforming a piece from looking amateur to professional. That and a good quality paint to give a nice hard finish. Caulk is also not difficult to use correctly once you know a few tricks (I will be posting on that soon).
Apply the paint of your choice. I picked Glidden Satin from Home Depot, the original shade was True Turquoise. When painting furniture I like to get the paint samples. One or two sample sizes are often plenty to complete a piece and then I don’t have large amounts of random colors filling my space. I also feel more at ease with branching out to different colors or picking the shade that is just right for each item. This chest took less than one sample can.
In all honesty, I picked out the color and then worked on a different project. By the time I got back to finishing this I didn’t like the color any more –I know I was a bit shocked myself that I changed my mind so quickly. I added some trim paint ( Glidden, Satin, Raffia Cream) from our basement remodel and mixed until I had a shade I liked.
Here you have the finished piece and I guess I could have kept it this way (except for the pink stain on top that still showed through and the fact that this piece is totally boring! I knew I would be adding some character, but needed to let it dry.
Once the paint was dry, I sanded the edges of the feet and along the wood trim to give a little character. Then I came through with walnut stain and stained the wood so it would stick out a bit. If you ever go too far and don’t like the amount sanded off, simply repaint the section you want unroughed (that’s not a word, but you get the idea).
Stenciling furniture is much easier than stenciling a wall because it is smaller and in this case it was not on a wall with all the blood running from my arms. That was tough, I actually really liked this. It went fast and added great color and texture to my room. It also did a great job tricking the eye so you couldn’t really see the pink stain.
To keep the stencil in place while you work, spray with glue adhesive. I highly recommend Elmer’s glue because they are just better. I made the mistake of using the dollar store brand because I had run out of Elmer’s and I spent a long time scraping the horrible glue from the top of the storage chest. Just spray with Elmer’s spray let it dry a minute or two then lay down on the surface.
I like to use my trusty cheap brushes, they work really well for many jobs, including stenciling. Now the trick to getting a good stencil look and not many big blobs of paint on the other side is to keep very little paint on your brush at a time. Just enough paint to get the color on. Use a tapping motion and avoid strokes of paint as those pull the paint under the stencil.
And now for the moment of truth, how well did this section take? Wait a minute or two for the paint to dry just a bit to avoid a string of wet paint accidentally dripping in the wrong place.
It looks good, I’m happy.
Some sections didn’t fair as well. If you are a perfectionist like I am, a razor blade is an easy way to clean up any edges where the paint came through too thick. When stenciling a wall you can simply touch up with the contrasting wall color, no need to scrape it off.
When finished, I put on an outdoor/indoor lacquer to hold up to the wear and tear of a family all putting their feet up, after all, this is one of it’s jobs now. It has held of beautifully and protects from scratches as well and it holds a ton of blankets.
Until next time. Happy building, reusing, refinishing, recycling. Post below on your awesome home solutions and have a great week. Remember to subscribe for the latest projects at This Homemade Home or follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter – whatever you want. 🙂
About Me
Hi, I’m Natalie. I’m a mother of four, an artist, and a DIYer that loves to reuse, recycle, and refurbish. I like power tools and teaching others how to save money while improving their home.
A few years back, to help our children monitor their sugar intake, I started giving them a sandwich bag. Any and all candy that could fit in that bag they could keep. They could eat it all at once or savor it one piece at a time. Either way, I didn’t have to worry about sugar over-exposure.
There are three things you can do for windows each costing $5-10. First 
The third window treatment is your classic 
So this is where you save money and stay warm. Wear a
Replace 
Instead I bought 8 cans of 
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