WFMW—Alcohol Removes Ink on Skin

I don’t know about your family, but my kids from time to time like to tattoo themselves with ballpoint ink. Short of scrubbing them raw with a rough washcloth, I found it nearly impossible to remove it, and it would take days and several baths for it to finally fade away.

One day I happened to observe Firstborn using some hand-sanitizer, and was surprised to see his current skin art disappear like magic. Aha! Hand sanitizer is mostly alcohol! I had heard of using rubbing alcohol to remove ballpoint ink on clothing, but never had much success with it (I use hairspray). I guess that’s why it never occurred to me to use it on skin.

I tested it out on one of the kids, and it worked like a charm. Just soak a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol and wipe the ink right off.

A few days later, coincidentally, I had an encounter with a broken ballpoint pen, and had Craig snap a picture in anticipation of this post.

This, admittedly, was tougher than a simple doodle. I washed off what I could; a lot of blue water went down the drain, but it didn't seem to have much effect on how much ink was left on my skin. Then I sat down in front of the TV with a paper towel soaked in rubbing alcohol. CSI kept me occupied while I worked at the ink. Not bad. You can still see some ink under my fingernails (and it just occurred to me that this may not be very convincing since it’s not the same view of my yikes! old lady hand). But I know that soap and water would not have done this well.

Earth shattering? No. But I hope it helps someone next time little Buford decides to decorate himself, on purpose or not.

Visit We Are THAT Family for more tips!

I Was Featured!

Have you visited The DIY Show Off yet?  Roeshel’s blog is a round-up of creative and amazing  projects and tutorials to inspire you.  I submitted my contact paper house numbers and she’s featuring them today.

Be sure to take a look around.  Great stuff!  I mean, just look at Britt’s chandelier on July 5.  Seriously. I’m humbled.

Thanks, Roeshel!

Lighten Up

I hope you all had a fun Fourth! Our day was rainy, but we still managed to get in some sparklers and fireworks.

Lately I’ve been thinking about my house and the overall look I want it to have. We’ve done some decorating and painting here and there since we moved in a little over a year ago, but there’s a long way to go. And so far, I don’t feel like it’s really coming together satisfactorily. (I can just hear Craig inwardly groaning as he reads this—more work!)

My likes have changed over the years, and recently I’ve become aware of them taking another turn. I used to really be drawn to rich, darker colors but have been moving away from that in the last few years. Even more so lately, I feel like I want my house to be lighter and brighter. I’m not sure if I would go so far as to decorate totally in white, but it does catch my eye.

bhg

I like the lightness and brightness of this one (below), but it’s a little too clutter-y for my taste. All the purposeful clutter would compete with my accidental clutter/mess/junk.

Country Living

A white bedroom looks soothing and relaxing.

gaitainteriors

I want to do more searching for inspiration photos, because at the end of the month, my personal decorators will be here for a week. I try to get their input every time I move, and it has been invaluable. The best thing is, they’re free! Yep, it’s a Sisters Get-together! I’m so excited! Fun times ahead!

Thrift Store Thursday—07/02

Back in March when I started TST, I said this:

It’s always possible as well that it will show me that I’m spending way more than I think on my “bargains” and nickel-and-diming us to death! In which case the series would have to end.

I’m afraid the time has come, for now at least. I want to cut back on my spending, especially this month (planning a big trip to the beach!). One of the ways I can do that is to stay out of thrift stores. I’m sure I’m not going to quit all together, and from time to time I may still show off my finds. But having a weekly post scheduled on the topic has encouraged me to shop more, to make sure I have something to show, so I’m going to take away that temptation.

I want to thank all of you who joined every week. It was a lot of fun to see everybody’s bargains! In fact, if you find something really great, let me know and I may feature it in a post if you want me to.

So, today’s TST is the last hurrah! I do have a few things to show. I got this cool glass display pyramid thingy at United Volunteers for about $2.50. Now I’ve got to figure out what to display in it.

At a consignment shop I got a bunch of Nancy Drew books for .99 each, plus a Ramona, and Charlotte’s Web.

Then there’s this: Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Ta-da! Vintage folding opera glasses!

I thought they were kind of fun for $2.50.

Okay, last chance to link up!

1. Please link directly to your Thrift Store Thursday post, not your home page.

2. Please mention and link back to my Thrift Store Thursday post.

3. Please put my button in your post, and I'd really love it if you'd use the code to do so :)

<center><a href="http://www.homebodyholly.com/search/label/Thrift%20Store%20Thursday/"><img border="0" src="http://tinyurl.com/bs7lsj" /></a></center>

WFMW—Summer Recipes

For today’s WFMW, Kristen at We Are THAT Family has requested favorite summer recipes.

This idea for this recipe came from Southern Living magazine in the summer of 2000. I tweaked a few things, and we’ve been enjoying it every summer since.

photo from flikr

Summer Fruit Salad with Blueberry Vinaigrette

8 c. salad greens (for 4 servings); I like to use spinach

2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

1 c. fresh strawberries, halved

2 nectarines, sliced

Combine ingredients, drizzle with vinaigrette and sprinkle with 1/2 c. chopped pecans.

Vinaigrette: combine 1/4 c. blueberry all-fruit spread, 1/4 c. finely minced onion, 1/3 c. balsamic vinegar, 2/3 c. vegetable oil, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper, 1/8 tsp ground ginger, dash cayenne (makes 1 1/2 c, keeps 2 wks in fridge)

Craig and I love to have this salad with grilled chicken on top. You can substitute other fruits you may have; it’s very good with mango and kiwi, too. If I’m just making it for the two of us, I half the vinaigrette recipe.

Enjoy!

Birthday Girl

Saturday was Pinkerbelle’s 7th birthday. In the past, I have always done home parties. They were nothing fancy. Cupcakes, balloons, goodie bags, and an inflatable pool in the backyard is the norm.

I am not a “party girl”. I want and like to celebrate my kids’ birthdays, but going all-out is exhausting to me. I always thought I was saving money by not doing a party at Build-a-Bear or similar, but increasingly every year I realized that I spend more than I thought and put in way more effort than it appeared on these home parties.

This year, I booked her party at our community recreation center. For $90, we got a party room, cake and beverage, all paper goods, goodie bags, a t-shirt for the birthday girl, and swimming, for up to 10 people (including adults). All we did was show up.

First, we went to the party room. This was about as exciting as it got. (Out of 6 invited guests, 4 attended. Including family and 2 parents, we had exactly 10.)

This was Bree, our party coordinator. This is about as excited as she got.

Here’s P. with one of her gifts. This is about as excited as she got. Does anybody else have this problem with their children? Gosh, I thought I taught you to smile, say “thank you!” and “wow! that looks cool!”.

Okay, so the party room was kind of lame, but they had a lot of fun in the pool. I’m still glad I did it—it was much easier for me, and she was happy with it. Will I do it again? Dunno.

Craig and Skippy went to Boyscout Camp right from the party, so we had our family celebration last night. There, those are genuine smiles. Guess where I got the jewelry box and the giant stuffed pony? (Hint: think Thrift Store Thursday.) She also got a ladybug watch from us, and a couple little things from her brothers, plus $ from grandparents, so even though I spent under $10 on gifts, she did all right.

Here’s the cake. I told you I don’t do fancy. I bought strawberry marshmallows and snipped them to make flowers.

But you know what? I think my daughter will have good memories of her 7th birthday, and that’s what counts.

Simple Chair Makeover, or "Amateur Hour"

This was my desk chair. It sits at the built-in computer desk in the kitchen, and gets lots of use. It was originally purchased as a set with a desk, at Big Lots, some 8 years ago. About 7 years ago, the seat was covered with the red fabric, which was also used elsewhere in the room at the time. As you can see, it was sadly in need of a makeover.

Here it is now, spray painted black, distressed and stained, and new garage sale fabric on the seat. I knew I liked that fabric!

This was my first attempt at refinishing a piece of furniture, and I learned some lessons. The spray-painting was easy. It was the staining over the distressed parts that I had issues with. (This photo shows the distressing a little better.)

First, gloves would be helpful.

Second, sweep the garage floorbecause if there’s a breeze, you will end up with debris stuck to your piece.

Thirdly, you might also want to cover the garage floor.

Number four is the biggest lesson of all. When the directions on the can say to immediately wipe off excess stain, do it! Since my stain contained a topcoat, I thought I would just sort of lightly wipe it all over the whole piece, so it would all have the same sheen.

Three days later, when it was still sticky, I realized I had a problem. Some research online indicated that I might need to strip the whole thing and start all over.

Um, no way. I’m too lazy. Something I read suggested steel wool. All I had was an SOS pad, so I used it, first dry, then wet. After I wiped the soap residue off, no more sticky. Whew!

In the end, I’m very happy with the makeover, and I know what not to do next time!