Cleaning & Organizing

Repurpose Candle Containers

I have a serious love for candles, especially Bath & Body Works candles, my ultimate fav is Mahogany Teakwood. But I hate how I feel after I finish burning one because I feel like I am being so wasteful just throwing away the glass. But how am I suppose to get the last layer of wax out of the bottom? It's extremely simple . . .

First I set a small pot of water on the stove to boil, once the bubbles start to roll I turn the fire off.

Pour that hot water in the candle container. This is going to soften up the wax that was leftover. Just let it sit for a minute to work its magic.

Take a butter knife & scrap around the edges, this is going to loosen up the block of wax so it will separate from the glass.

If the wax doesn't just pop up then run your butter knife along the bottom of the glass to help it out. Be careful where the wick is because they are connected to the glass by a piece of metal & tacky glue. They will need a little extra attention to take off, but never the less once you get your butter knife in the right place they will just pop right off.

After you drain your waxy water & dump your wax blocks in the trash you can give it a nice hot wash, with some soap & water. There is always a sticker on the bottom of candles along with one on the front, the one on the bottom can be washed off with a sponge & hot water, & the one on the front can be easily peeled off, 

Ta Da Its all clean . . . Now the options are endless, you can use it for anything. How will you use yours?

I made mine useful. They are sitting in the bathroom holding q-tips & cotton balls.

So instead of throwing them away here's a way to repurpose those candle containers.

Crafts & DIY

Very Simple DIY Canvas Bow Holder

My daughter has a ton of bows & I get tired of putting them in a box & digging through them when she is getting dressed. So I needed a cute way to display them without having to spend any money. I took a cute little canvas she had hanging in her room & decided to make it more useful.

Items Needed:

Canvas

Ribbon

Scissors

Glue Gun

Bows (to hang)

All you need to do is cut a few strips of ribbon (the same length) & spread them out evenly across the canvas. I cut FOUR ribbons so that the bows would have enough room to be spaced out. Flip the canvas over (face down) & glue the strips on. I also folded the end of the ribbons up & glued them, just to make sure no threads would be hanging.

Lastly add bows. . . . Ta Da. . .  Extremely easy right? & costs no money, which is a big plus.

No more digging through boxes of bows and it's a super cute addition to her room décor.

Ingrown Nail Treatment

My Oh So Painful Ingrown Nail

Keeping up with your nails can sometimes be a pain in the butt. My polish doesn't always stay on and my nails get brittle some times. I can deal with those things but what I can't deal with is an ingrown nail. An ingrown nail happens when the nail grows into soft skin causing it to swell, to turn red, and yes...PAIN! I'll admit I'm a crybaby when it comes to annoying pains. So to help with the throbbing pressure it causes here is what I do. 

As you can tell my finger is infected...GROSS, right?

What you'll need:

Epsom Salt

Hydrogen Peroxide

Tea Tree Oil

Neosporin

Band Aid

Ibuprofen

Alcohol

Bowl

A Needle

Q-tip

Towel/Napkin

Step 1: Fill er' up. Your going to need to fill your bowl about half way with warm water. The hotter the better, for mixing in the Epsom salt. Mix in a tablespoon of Epsom salt. (Optional: some times I also add in 2 tablespoons of peroxide)  If it is too hot for you to touch you can always let it sit for a while to cool so it is more easy to handle.

Step 2: A salty soak. After the salt is dissolved soak your finger for about 10-20 minutes. I went ahead and soaked my whole hand (like a mini manicure ha ha). Epsom salt contains magnesium which works wonders for the body. Soaking will help with the elimination of harmful toxins.

Step 3: Let it fizz and foam. Now that your done soaking your finger, go ahead and dry it off, pour a cap full of peroxide on the infected area. My mom used peroxide on all our cuts and scraps as a kid my favorite part was when it fizzed up, cause I knew it was really working to kill all the bacteria.  

Step 4: The secret ingredient. Grab your q-tip and dip it in the tea tree oil. Rub it all over the affected area on your finger. I love tea tree oil it is great for SO MANY things. This will really help with the infected wound and also with the inflammation... I'm not a huge fan of the smell, it can be a tad bit strong, but for all the benefits it offers I found it easy to overlook.

Step 5: Prick the pus. It's very important that you sterilize your needle first, you can do it different ways. Method 1- you can sterilize it with Alcohol, by rubbing the needle with it or soaking it in it. Method 2- you can sterilize it with fire, by holding the needle over an open flam. After you have sterilized the needle, prick the infected area. You want to do this to drain the pus to relieve some of the pressure and make your finger more manageable to find where the ingrown nail is. Squeeze the skin around the finger to push all the pus out or at least as much as you can.

Step 6: Be a detective and find the ingrown nail. You want to push the skin away from you nail bed to see if you can find where you nail is growing down. If you do find it, this would be the time to trim it.

Step 7: Seal it with antibiotic ointment. Take your Neosporin put it on, right between the nail and the skin. This is for prevention of infections and a speedy healing time for the wound.

Step 8: Don't forget to wrap it up. Keeping it protected with a Band Aid will keep out unwanted germs and prevent any further infections.

And as you can tell all we had at the time were La La Loopsy Band Aids. But it's cool I'm not ashamed to wear it...

Repeat the process up to 3 times a day until your finger is healed.

By no means am I a doctor or a professional these are just the methods I use on myself, which I find to be effective and very helpful. Remember that everyone is different and if the pain is unbearable or the infection is very bad please seek medical help.

Goodluck!

Getting Rid of Grime

Getting Rid of Grime

The stove top can get pretty messy with all the cooking that goes on. Even though I'm not a great chef in the kitchen it still seems to get ridiculously dirty. I had to do something to get rid of the grime caked on the burners. I had heard about using Ammonia to take off the grease but I wasn't sure if it would work, given the fact that I have tried many store bought products that didn't come through for me. But I went ahead and gave it a shot.

Ammonia

Gallon size Ziploc bags

Gloves

Scrubbing Sponges

S.O.S pads (optional)

First thing you want to do is put one of the burners into the Ziploc bag. Once you get it in (I almost though that it wasn't going to fit, but you really got push that sucker in) you'll need to pour in about a cup or so of Ammonia (I just eyeballed it) you really just need enough to make a thin layer on the bottom of the bag, don't fill it all the way up or it will leak. I set mine on a cookie sheet just in case it dripped. You want to let it sit for at least 12 hours to really let the Ammonia do it's job. But the longer it sits the better! It should look like this in the bag after sitting..

I let the first ones sit for about 18-20 hours I took them out and cleaned them up. It seemed as if I was scrubbing so hard and I wasn't getting the results I wanted. Can you seen the black grime still in the creases of the burners. NOT THE RESULTS I WAS LOOKING FOR!

So for my next round of burners I left them in for almost 3 days. I know sounds outrageous right, but it was well worth the wait. When I finally took the burner out to clean it off it looked gross!

If you think that was gross. The bag it came out of was DISGUSTING!!

 

But all I had to do was hold it under running water and the grime just fell off. I was so relieved to see the results. I love how they are back to being a gray color instead of black.

See the difference between them?? (1st round on the left, 2nd,sucessful, round on the right)

Just repeat the process till you get the results you want and then enjoy cooking on a nice clean stove top... until it get messy all over again

Have fun cleaning!