"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived."
-Jean Luc Picard

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Frugal craft time. Whoot!

This post will probably be of very little interest to those who read my blog for recipes and food related humor. I completely understand if you want to go ahead and read the next blog on your list.

A few days ago, a discussion was going on in the comments section of 50sgal's blog about cleaning products. Some of the commenters mentioned that they used items like vinegar and baking soda for cleaning and were pleased the results of such products. Anyhoo, I was thinking that one of the nice things about using a commercial cleansing powder such as Comet, is that it comes in a container with a perforated top. I had heard of the suggestion before of buying a cheese shaker like you find at pizza restaurants and putting your baking soda in that so that you can sprinkle it out like the commercial products. Another thing you could do would be to save an old spice container that has the perforated top and refill it with baking soda. If it smells like the spice that was in it, try putting some vinegar in it, shaking it up so the entire inside is wet, and leaving it overnight. Then the next morning pour out the vinegar and rinse it out. Hopefully that will take care of the smell!

The problem with using one of those ideas is that I wouldn't get to play around with my cordless drill! So I started experimenting this week. First, I took an old peanut butter jar and drilled some 1/16th inch holes in the lid with my trusty drill.



That didn't work very well as you really had to shake it pretty hard to get out the baking soda. I started small as I was afraid the plastic would break on me. I kept going up in size until I got to 1/4 inch. Unfortunately I did have some cracking but, I was able to snap the pieces back together and it's kinda hard to tell where the cracks are. I'll pause here since there's a short video in case anybody wants to grab a snack or pop some popcorn.

Ready?

Lights please!




*snort*I didn't even know our digital camera had sound on the video setting until I made this video. Perhaps if I had read the manual I might know stuff like this! LOL

Edited to add: In the video, I talk about adding some essential oil to the baking soda so it will smell nice. I think I added about 20 drops or so of the citrus blend in the video. Some oils smell stronger than others so use your own good judgment here as to how much to add. Please make sure that your oil of choice is safe for your skin and whatever surfaces you choose to use this on.