Day 31- Clean my coffee maker

i drink a lot of coffee.  I mean, I drink A LOT of coffee.  I have this dirty, old coffee maker that was a hand-me-down.  It’s probably older than I am.  It’s white and covered in coffee stains.  I clean it every so often with vinegar. I usually fill the coffeepot with water and add a dash of white vinegar.  Then, I run it through the coffee maker.   I saw this pin that used a similar water and vinegar solution, but there was a lot more vinegar used.  I decided to try it and see if it made a difference.

I filled the coffeepot with one part vinegar (about 2 cups) and two parts water (about 4 cups).  Then, I poured it into the water reservoir and turned it on.  I let it sit in the coffeepot for 15 minutes. 

Then, I turned off the maker and rinsed out the coffeepot.  I ran regular water through the maker twice to get the smell out of it.  After that, I wiped down the outside and the filter. 

My coffee pot seems like it may be a little cleaner.  The filter is noticeably less brown which is nice.  I hope it makes better coffee now. 

Day 30- My Car gets clean

 

My car is a mess as you can see in the pictures.  It’s so dirty.  That’s probably because I haven’t cleaned it ever.  It has the same dirt that was in it when I bought it plus two years of my dirt.  I do wash the outside of it, but never the inside.  Yesterday I was browsing through Pinterest and saw this pin about how to detail your car.  I made myself promise that I would do this today.

This morning, I got all my cleaning supplies together and marched out to my car.

 Step 1:   get rid the garbage.  That was easy enough.  I filled a plastic grocery bag full of garbage. 

Step 2:  deep-clean carpet and upholstery.  It says to use a carpet cleaning machine to clean it, but I just used some carpet cleaner spray and a scrub brush.  Then, I drove my car to the car wash and vacuumed out my car.  I had about a hundred little black pebbles on the floor of my driver's side.  I have no idea where they came from.

Step 3: clean leather/ vinyl seats.  My car has cloth seats, so I got to skip this step!

Step 4: clean nooks and crannies.  This was boring and tedious. I took a rag and wrapped it around a screwdriver.  Then, I sprayed cleaner on it and ran it through the nooks and crannies.  I never knew my car had so many little places. 

Step 5: brush out the air vents.  I sprayed a little furniture polish on a paint brush and cleaned out the air vents.  My air vents were so dusty.  I was always wondering if it was good for my allergies to have my car’s air conditioning on since it just blew dust everywhere.  Well, I don’t have to worry about that anymore.

Step 6: Wash the windows.  It was easy.  One tip the pin gave was to roll down the window slightly and clean the top edge.  I would have never thought of that and, boy, were my window edges dirty.

Step 7: Scrape off stickers.  My brother had offered to do this with a putty knife a few weeks ago, so this step was already done.  I guess brothers are good for something.

Step 8: Kill bad odors.  I didn’t buy an Odor Gun to get rid of smells like they suggest.  Instead, I just sprayed some Febreeze. 

This is my clean car:

Day 29- Waves with a Straightener



I was having a typical bad hair day. I saw this pin and gave it a try.  My hair has a little bit of wave naturally.  I divided my hair into two parts and braid each part and put a hair tie in it.

I twisted one of the braids tightly and twisted my straightener down the braid in the same direction.  I repeated the steps on the other braid.  When my hair cooled, I hand my fingers through the braids and…

My hair looked better before I tried this.   Oh, well.  I just straightened my hair normally and went about my day.



before

after

Day 28-Armpit Stain Remover

I have this white t-shirt that has dingy, yellow armpits.  I never wear it out of the house because I don’t want to be seen with yellow armpits.  I tried this pin which says that it gets out armpit stains.

The recipe for the “only spot remover you’ll ever need” is one part Dawn dishwashing liquid and two parts hydrogen peroxide.  I rubbed the mixture into the armpits for a few minutes and let it sit for an hour. 

After I washed it out, my stains were a little better.  The shirt is still too disgusting to be worn outside, but after a couple more treatments it might be wearable. 

The pin shows a perfectly clean white shirt, but mine did not get perfectly clean.  I think that my hydrogen peroxide might be old.  I don’t think that it can be kept forever.  Maybe that was my problem.  It still worked a little.    

before

after- a little better

Day 27- Clean Car Headlights

My headlights are dirty.  Even when I wash my car, they are still discolored.  They have been like that since I bought the car.  I tried scrubbing them, using Windex, and doing everything I could think of to clean them.  I was skeptical when I saw a pin saying that toothpaste will clean dim headlights.

I took my toothpaste and a white washcloth outside.  I put a little toothpaste (about the same amount I put on my toothbrush) onto the cloth and started rubbing my headlight.  Once it was covered with toothpaste, I wiped it off with a wet washcloth.

 Bam! It was clean.  I could see my light bulb in the headlight.  It was amazing.  The only thing I would recommend is to rinse it off with water afterwards.  It was sticky even after I cleaned it off with the wet washcloth.  As soon as I drove my car, the headlights picked up dirt and bugs and I had to clean it again.  The second time, I rinsed the headlights off and the affect lasted a lot longer.

before

after

Day 26- World's Fastest Workout

I have been doing this workout from a pin every once in a while.  It is a short, fast workout that gets your heart pumping.  In fact, it is called the “world’s fastest workout.”  It is definitely a good warm up. 

The workout claims that it burns as many calories as a 40-60 minute run.  I really don’t think that is true.  Maybe if you repeated the workout for 40-60 minutes, but a 4 minute workout certainly doesn’t burn that many calories.

I think that this is a nice, quick way to workout.  I do it when I’m too lazy to do a real workout or when something good is on TV.  I like to do it during the commercial breaks.  I just do it every commercial break throughout an entire hour long program.  I think that is like four or five times usually.  Then, I don’t feel so bad about missing a workout.  I usually work up a nice sweat while doing this.  I definitely recommend this, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that it burns as many calories as it says it does.  

Day 25-Lemon and Honey Blemish Elixir

At least once a week, I use a lemon and sugar facial mask.  It helps exfoliate and is supposed to reduce the appearance of acne scars.  I saw a pin that had a similar idea and decided to give it a try.

This is a blemish elixir.  It is made from 1/4 tsp of manuka honey and slightly less that 1/4 tsp. of lemon juice.  I couldn't find manuka honey in any store near me, so I just used regular, raw, organic honey.  I don't know if it made a difference or not.

When you go to the blog that it was pinned from, it doesn't say how long to leave it on in the body of the post, but the author said in the comments that she leaves it on for 20 minutes.  So, that's what I did. 

When I washed it off, I noticed that my skin looked less red.  It wasn't as soft as when I use my lemon and sugar face mask, but it still looked good.  I may work this into my beauty routine every once in a while, but I'll still use my old mask.

Day 24- Oven Door Cleaner

 

I think that baking soda is one of the best cleaners.  This pin is about how to clean oven doors.  My oven door is gross.  Brown, sticky spots are all over it.  Nothing cleans it.

All you have to use is ¼ cup baking soda and enough water to make a watery paste.  Then, you smear it all over the door, especially the glass, and let it sit for 15-30 minutes. 

Well, I waited thirty minutes and wiped it off with the abrasive side of a sponge.  It looked good, but it was still wet, so I waited to take a picture. 

Two hours later, I went back and saw that white reside was still all over the oven door.  I wiped it off again.  This time, I looked closer and noticed that it didn’t look as clean as I thought I had gotten it. 

So my oven door still has brown, sticky spots on it.  Granted, it has less spots than before, but it was no miracle cleaner like the pin said it would be. 

I know that my pictures aren’t that great.  It’s hard to see the brown spots because the carpet underneath the door is brown.  Oh, well. You will just had to take my word that it was gross and now it is slightly less gross.

 

 

before

during

after

day 23- No cut glass



I tried this pin today about no cut cut glass.  I was pretty nervous about doing this.  I was always told that nail polish remover was extremely flammable, so lighting yarn soaked in it seemed to go against everything my mother taught me about playing with fire.

I took an old wine bottle and wrapped a piece of yarn around it 5 times.  I tied the yarn and removed it.  Then, I soaked the yarn in nail polish remover and put it back on the bottle.

My supplies before.

I tried to light the yarn on fire, but it took a long time for it to ignite.  I was pretty surprised that it didn’t just light easily.  I mean, it says “extremely flammable” right on the bottle.  When I finally got it to light, I turned the bottle slowly for 20 seconds just like the pin said.



Then, I put it in a sink full of cold water and waited for it to separate.  And I waited and waited.  Nothing happened.  My bottle was still whole.

So, I tried it again and again and again.  I tried letting the flame burn for up to a minute and plunge it into ice water and still nothing happened.  The bottle didn’t even crack.  It looks exactly the same as before.  After all that work, I still have a whole wine bottle, but now it smells like nail polish remover.

My whole bottle after 4 attempts to "cut" it:

 







Day 22- Face Powder

I came across this pin which tells you how to make finishing powder.  I hate spending so much money on makeup.  A little thing of powder can cost $20, so I was excited to try this.

All it is corn starch and talc.  I left the talc out because I didn’t have any and on the website people said it was bad for you anyways. So my powder is just corn starch.  I put a tablespoon into an old powder container, so it still has the sifter.

It was a little light for my skin.  In the comments on the website, people had said to add cinnamon or cocoa powder for a little tint.  I added some cocoa powder until it got to the shade I wanted it.  Cinnamon seems like it could cause some irritation, so cocoa powder seems like a safer alternative.

Anyways, my makeup feels so light.  I can’t believe that I have any one.  The cocoa powder makes a much more natural color than my old powder.  It doesn’tlook makeup-y at all.  It looks natural.  I’m really impressed.  Plus, it smells like chocolate. 

Day 21- Painted Jar

Today, I decided to paint the inside of a jar.  I needed a place to put my makeup brushes.  I am tired of them just sitting on my dress or my new makeup tray.  I have been eyeing this pin for a while.  All the painted jars look so cute on Pinterest.  I was worried that I would mess it up.

I started with a plain jar that I got for a dollar at the dollar store. I pour some paint inside it and pushed it around with a paintbrush.  I used the same color as I did on my makeup tray, so they looked like they matched. 

 

After one coat, it looked good up close, but, in the light, I could see the unevenness in the paint.

I gave it another coat after the first one dried and it looked so much better.  Now my jar holds my makeup brushes and sits on my makeup tray. 

Day 20-Stuffed Peppers

I try andeat vegetables a lot, so I am always looking for new recipes to try.  Otherwise, eating salads everyday getsboring.  I saw this recipe on Pinterestand decided to try it.  I have to saythat it was pretty good.  It took about ahalf hour of prep time.  I didn’t usegreen chiles.  Just a personal preference.  I also used a Boca burger that I crumbled upinstead of tempeh because I didn’t have any.

When I was amazedthat this recipe made exactly the about of filling I needed.  There was no leftover filling!  That’s almost impossible to do. I must have pepper stuffing skills because I made it work.

Anyways, thepeppers were delicious.  I am definitely goingto be making these again.

VegetarianStuffed Peppers

Serves 4

Ingredients:

 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

 4 cloves garlic, minced
 1/2 onion, finely chopped
 1 (8-ounce) package tempeh, crumbled
 Unrefined sea salt, to taste
 1 teaspoon paprika
 2 pinches cayenne pepper
 1 teaspoon cumin
 1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
 11/2 cups good-quality, all-natural preparedmarinara sauce
 1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles
 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
 1 (14.5-ounce) can black beans, rinsed anddrained
 4 red bell peppers, tops removed and seeded
 1/2 cup shredded, low-fat organic cheddarcheese

 Instructions:

 1.  Heatthe oil in a large nonstick skillet to medium-high; add garlic and onion, andsautée until onion is just tender, about 3-4 minutes. Add the tempeh and sautéefor 3-4 minutes. Season onion and tempeh with salt to taste. Mix in thepaprika, cayenne pepper, cumin, and corn kernels.

 2. In a small bowl, whisk together themarinara sauce and green chiles. Pour the marinara–green chile mixture into theskillet with the tempeh; mix well to combine. Stir in the cilantro and blackbeans.

 3. Stuff the peppers with the tempeh mixture.Arrange the peppers in a 5- or 6-quart slow cooker. Cover and cook the pepperson high for 2 hours or on low for 4 hours.

4. Removethe lid and top the peppers with the shredded cheese, replace the cover, andcook on high for 15-20 additional minutes. Allow peppers to cool 10-15 minutesbefore serving. Serve warm.

Day 19- Makeup Tray

I have wanted to do this pin since the first time I went onPinterest.

 My makeup is spreadout all over my dresser.  It looks messyand cluttered.  I am hoping that a traywill help contain the mess and maybe make it look a little more put together. 

All I had to do was paint a picture frame.  I wish I had one as cute as the pin lyingaround my house, bit sadly, I don’t.  Ipainted a super ugly one that was not being used at the moment.

Then, I found some fabric and put it in like a picture.  Ta da!

It was as simple as that.  At now, my makeup doesn’t look like such adisaster area.  Thank goodness.

Day 18- Teacher Survival Kit

I like this pin of a teacher survival kit.  This is a cute teacher gift which would be a great first day of school present.  They are simple, fast, and useful.  The teacher survival kit is filled with things that would be useful during the school year all in a pencil case.

Here are the contents from the pin:

Large Pencil Case (as container)

Excedrin Tension Headache
Scott Mini Lint Roller
Purell Hand Sanitizer
BreathSavers
Vitamin C Drops
Luna Lemon Zest Meal Bar
C.O. Bigelow Lemon Lip Balm
Nail File
True Blue Spa Look Ma, New Hands Lotion
Wisp Disposable Toothbrushes
Tide To Go Pen
2 Lipton Energize To Go Iced Tea Mix packets
2 Propel Cherry-Lime Vitamin Enhanced Drink Mix packets

Since I made one for myself, I added Band-Aids, nail clippers, and dental floss picks because I always use those things. I didn't includethe mix packets, but that is just my personal peference.  Any teacher would love to have a survival kit like this.

Day 17- Play-dough

I have made play-dough before and, I’ll be honest, it hasn’t worked out so well.  I was told that the recipe I had used was super easy and fool-proof.  It wasn’t.  It crumbled and fell apart and left my hands and counter top green.  This pin leads to a website that claims it has the best recipe for play-dough.  So I put it to the test.

This is the recipe:
1 C Flour
1 C Water
1/4 C Salt
1 TBSP Vegetable Oil
2 tsp Cream of Tarter
Food Coloring
Sparkles

Sauce Pan and Wooden Spoon

I didn’t use sparkles.  Maybe that was my problem because my play-dough was not good.  My dough was oily.  I followed the directions perfectly.  Other people on the website didn’t seem to have the same problem as I did.  Maybe it’s just me.  I am not meant to make play-dough.  I should just stick to buying it in a store. 

Day 16- ABC Order

Putting words in alphabetical order is a pretty basic skill that I see students struggle with all the time.  I have seen junior high students not know how to put words in alphabetical order.  I was inspired by this pin to add this activity to my sub kit.

It’s simple.  My only problem is that those cups take up a lot of room and I don’t want to lug them around day after day, so I just put the words on paper.  I cut them out, glued them to cardstock, and laminated them. 

Now, when a student is done with work early, I can hand them those words to put in order.  I also added a popsicle stick with the activity on it to my bored jar.

Day 15- Painted Cork

I have these ugly, boring cork squares on my bedroom wall.  I saw this pin and thought that it would be a nice way to spruce the cork squares up a bit.  So, I grabbed some painter’s tape, a paint brush, and some purple paint and got to work.

The original pin

It was easy to do, but time consuming.  It took me 50 minutes just to tape it up.  I was pretty picky about how I taped it.  I wanted it to look right.  The paint was absorbed into the cork very quickly.  I used a lot of paint.  I mean a lot of paint.  I had a new bottle of craft paint and I was worried about not having enough.  On the bright side, the cork also made it dry very quickly. 

 My completed project:

This turned out better than I ever imagined that it would.  In my previous posts, it is evident that most of my attempts at re-doing pins are not nearly as good as the originals.  This project is fool-proof, but it does take up a lot more time than I would have expected.  At least it ended up looking super cute.

Day 14- The I'm Bored Jar

As a substitute teacher, I constantly have to come up with activities for students who finish work early.  Sometimes the teachers do not leave enough work to fill the entire day and I come up with activities for the entire class to do.  I like this pin.  It’s full of ideas that keep kids busy. 

I had to tweak some of the ideas in the pin to make it classroom friendly, but it will be nice to tell a bored student to pick a stick and do the task on it.  It’s simple and doesn’t require a lot of explaining.  I didn't make a cute jar to hold them.  A rubber band will have to do because I can't carry a glass jar with me from place to place every day.  Oh, well. When I get my own classroom I can make a cute jar to hold them. I think I will make one for myself, so I will never be bored again. 

Day 13-Book Binding

Today I made a book.  Well, I bound a book.  I am always writing in spiral notebooks, so this is my chance to write in something cute.  This pin goes into great detail about how to make a book.

Here is mine.

It was surprisingly easy to make.  My tip is to really tighten the string that holds them together.  I thought that I had pulled it tight enough, but it wasn’t and I had to redo it.  Otherwise, the website that the pin is from is really helpful.

Day 12- pencil vase

In honor of school starting next week, I have decided to do a week of back to school pins.  I am a substitute teacher, but am looking for a full-time teaching position.  I get very excited for the start of school and am always looking for new classroom decorations for when I get my own classroom.  I think that this pin is super cute.

It was super easy to make.  Just take a can or anything that is circular and hot-glue pencils around it.  Mine used about 34 pencils, but it depends on the size.  I wrapped a ribbon around it just to keep the pencils in place and add a little cuteness to it.  I love it. 

I’m going to use it as a pencil holder, not a vase.  I added a little piece of foam in the bottle, so my pens and pencils stand up a little higher in the can.  I don’t want to constantly have to stick my hand way down in there to get a pen.  But it would make a cute vase, too.  Oh, the possibilities.

Day 11- IPhone Holder

I hate when I am charging my IPhone and there is no other place to put it.  I am constantly stepping on it.  I don’t know why I walk so close to the outlet.  I can’t help it.  Anyways, I saw this pin a while ago and have been meaning to make it ever since. 

I started out with an empty lotion bottle.  Ignore my messy dresser in the picture.

Then, I cut out my design.  The pin said to use kitchen scissors or a box cutter.  I tried both and neither worked.  My bottle had to have been made out of the strongest plastic in the world.  I thought I would never cut through it all.  I ended up using a kitchen knife to saw through most of it.  Then, I used scissors to cut it out better.  I used sandpaper to file down the rough edges.

The original pin had used Modge Podge and fabric to decorate it. But after spending 45 minutes trying to cut it, I was ready to be done with this project.  So, I wrapped it in electrical tape that happened to be sitting next to me and was done. 

It's not as cute as the pin, but when I am less frustrated with it, I will probably try to cover it in fabric, too.  I'll update if and when it gets done. 

It was not as easy as it looks.  Maybe if you have a thinner plastic bottle, but I thought mine was thin enough.  At least, my IPhone isn’t on the floor anymore when I’m charging it.

Day 10-Blackhead Scrub

Bye-Bye Blackheads Scrub

I have noticed that I have gotten a lot of blackheads recently.  Since I’m too cheap to go buy those pore strips, I found a blackhead scrub on Pinterest.  The best part is that it is made from things you have at home.  I always like to use beauty products that I know are safe to eat (weird, I know, but it makes it seem better for you have smearing chemicals on your face), so I like this recipe.

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tbsp baking soda

2 tbsp water

Add together and mix.

Massage mixture onto wet skin.  Allow to sit for a few minutes.  Rinse with warm water, and pat face dry.

The scrub was worked good.  The recipe called for a little too much water, in my opinion.  I like my scrubs a little less soupy.  It weirdly burned for a moment when I put it on my chin.  It was probably from a pimple that had broken open. 

My skin feels tighter and smoother.  It is less red than usual.  I don’t see any blackheads on my chin; however, I don’t see much of a change on my nose or forehead.  It worked, but not better than a pore strip.

Day 9-French Fishtail Braid

I have blogged about my hair issues before.  I always try to do new things with my uncontrollable hair. Braids always seem to be a good, safe better with my hair.  This pin has a couple simple steps to making a cute French braid with a fishtail bun.

This is how mine turned out.

It’s not quite as good as the original, but it’s do-able.  My fishtail bun looks more like a messy bun.  I think i just didn't wrap it in a bun as carefully as she did.  Plus, I'm having a really bad hair day today.

 I don’t think that my hair is as long or as thick as the woman in the original pin.  Oh, well.  It’s super quick to do, if you know how to braid.  If you don’t, it may take you a few tries to get it right.

Day 8- bookmark

I read a lot of books and I always lose my page.  So I made this cute bookmark from this pin.

All I did was cut the corner off of an envelope (about two inches wide) and glue some decorative paper to it.  Then, I cut a scalloped edge.  Three simple steps. 

Now, I have a super cute bookmark and I will never lose my page again.  Off to the library.