Hiking the Y

John and I try to hike the Y twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I was a little concerned Monday night, because it was supposed to rain on Tuesday.  It was nice and cloudy when we got up, but it didn't look like it was going to rain anytime soon, so we went.  It was a nice hike!  The weather is cooling down, though, so it's going to be harder to pysch myself up to going!

Wednesday night I told John I wasn't setting my alarm, because I was tired.  I was glad, because I slept an extra hour, and obviously needed it.  (I usually wake up too early.)  I was extra glad when John called me up from work and told me to look outside.  There was a quarter inch of snow on the rooftops and any dirt and the snow was coming down fast!  I was VERY glad I wasn't up walking around in it!

We've been seeing some pretty sites on our early walks, since we get up there about the same time as sunrise.  Last week I took these pictures:

Gorgeous colors, but the picture doesn't do it justice.

The sun is peaking through the canyon.

The sun is just reaching the lake.

The fall colors are now just shades of brown.

Pinterest testing

Another test:  I saw this clever idea and just had to try it.

I didn't happen to have an empty soda bottle, but did have an empty milk jug.  I carefully took that little ring off, and that ended up being very useful, because it needed that to hold down the bag.  Before that it was very loose and the lid didn't want to screw on.

Since this photo, I remembered I had a Snapp Capp, and put that on instead.  It works that same as the milk jug lid.

So, it worked.  Do I like it?  Yes and no.  It is a clever idea, but because the hole is so small, it is actually more difficult to pour out the chocolate chips.  So I think something like a Copco bag cap would be a lot more useful.  But obviously more expensive than free!  For now I'll keep using my chip clips from Ikea.  (I have some from Pampered Chef, too.  Love them both. I have about 3 dozen!)

Pinterest Testing

I saw this pin about re-newing old paintbrushes by soaking them in vinegar.  So I decided to give it a try.

Here's my paint brush before the soaking.

 It's not in terrible shape, but I wondered if the soaking would release the old paint.

 So I boiled up some vinegar.  I would have rather put the paint brush flat, but to cover the whole thing I would have needed to put it in my 9 x 13 pan. I didn't want to use up a huge amount of vinegar, so I stuck it upright in my quart measuring cup.

I let it soak for about 6 hours.  Then I washed it really well in soapy water.  Here's what it looked like after.

I do think it turned out nice, but not as nice as I had hoped.  The oldest paint is still there.  You can't tell from the photo, but the bristles were softer.  What I don't like is that because I didn't want to use up a gallon of vinegar, the bristles are now a little distorted!  I hope they return to normal when we paint again!

But the question is, "Was it worth it?"  No.  I may do this for little paint brushes, when just a small amount of vinegar is used.  But I don't think it affected how the paint brush will work, unless it is adversely affected by the warped bristles!  Plus, my house was stinky for 6 hours! (It was cold, and I didn't want to put the experiment outside.)

Itty Bitty outfits

Here are my finished Itty Bitty Baby outfits!  I made the knitted beach set because it looked the easiest of the patterns in the book!  Thank goodness they are little, because I didn't feel too much pain when I had to take out so much while I was re-learning how to knit!  I'm quite proud of the set!

The reindeer outfit has been something I've wanted to make all year.  I have 3 Itty Bitty babies, and now I have 3 Christmas and winter outfits.  I have an elf, a snowman and now a reindeer.  So cute!

Tidbits

Just a couple of days ago I BEAT my time to turn 10 on the Y trail!  The time was exactly 24 minutes 40 seconds, 40 seconds faster than my old record. Yeah!  My time today was 25:10, so even though it wasn't a record, it was my second best!  It shows I'm getting stronger!

I've made a couple of recipes I found on Pinterest this week: Salsa Chicken, which is going to be served often around here;  Cream of Something Soup Mix, of which I made up some to use in the Salsa Chicken. For that recipe it turned out great.  I still need to try it for a recipe that isn't so spicy and can hide the flavor of the soup. 

I am just a few snaps away from being finished with 2 new outfits for my Itty Bitty Babies.  One is a crocheted Reindeer outfit, and the other is a knitted swim set.  This was my first knitting in over a decade, and it turned out pretty good!

Pictures of my new outfits will be on the next post! (Hopefully!)

Under the sink

Long, long ago I purchased some cute little basket shelves that go under the sink, and the normally stationary part of the cupboard would be made into a tilting drawer.  It gave me just a little more space, and although they had their flaws, I was glad I had them.

A few years ago we remodeled our kitchen, and we had the cupboards made to go all the way up to the counter.  I kept my cute little basket shelves and mounted them inside the cupboard at the top.

The old under sink basket shelve.

The main flaw in these shelves is the height. When it's mounted in a tilting narrow cupboard it would need to be that short so it doesn't hit the cupboard frame.  But now, it's just a pain.  Sponges and sink stoppers fall out when I shut the door.  Only things like scrub brushes will consistently stay in.  But I stayed with them, because I had nothing better.  Until now.

A while back I purchase some little organizing baskets to put my flatware in.  I bought these at the dollar store, so they were a deal.  The height of the new basket is almost twice the usable height of the old basket.

 I wanted to use the same screws that I already had in my cupboard, so I traced the holes from the old basket unto the new, drilled some holes and cut in between them to make the right shape, sanded the rough edges and installed!

The sponges and sink stoppers are not falling out in these!

I also have been wanting to install a short towel rod under the sink, and also one to put on my laundry cabinet.  So I went to the home improvement store to buy a few towel rods, thinking the cheap chrome ones would be a few dollars each.  I was wrong.  The cheap chrome ones are about $8 each, and the shortest they had in stock were 24", which was twice as long as I needed.

So after I looked at every place in the store where they would have towel rods, I went over to the "organization" isle.  They had some very cute paper towel holders- too expensive and too bulky.  They had nothing what I was looking for.  BUT they had stemware holders, $3 each.  Hmmmmm.  That could work!   I bought a few, then went home and searched online.  I found just the things I was looking for online, but they were all more expensive than my $3 stemware holder. 

 Here's the new inside of my under the sink cupboard door!  One for each door will be perfect for my needs.

Finished!

Pinterest

A couple of weeks ago I decided to join Pinterest.  I was very confused at first, but after a few days I began to understand how it worked.  And I 'unfollowed' about 40 people I had started 'following' on the first day.  I had not realized what it was I was really doing on the first day!

Anyway, Pinterest is an online bulletin board that you share with your followers, and you can follow others' Pinterest boards, too.  I have 8 "boards" at this time:  Fun Stuff for Baby; Stuff I've Made; Clever Ideas; Crochet Stuff; Family History; Household Hints, Recipes to Try; Recipes I've Tried.  The types of boards I tend to follow deal with recipes or household hints. 

I've learned a lot of fun things through Pinterest and made several new recipes.  My favorite new recipe is for "goldfish crackers."   http://pinterest.com/pin/527413806331145268/   Oh my, they were so good!  John said I shouldn't make them again until New Year's Eve, because he's afraid of how bad they are for us and how many we'd eat!  But really, they're not too bad for us, except the amount of fat, because it has so much cheese.  We may gain weight if I made them all the time!

My homemade paper tablets.  Aren't they cute?

I've made little tablets with covers made from fruit snacks, crackers and tissue boxes.  I've "polished" my silverware using a non-toxic recipe.  I love my homemade dryer sheets.  Lots and lots of fun ideas!

Now that I have found Pinterest I have to learn how to control myself wanting to look through what everyone else has pinned all the time.  I'm going to have to put a time limit on myself, because it's just too fun and I have other things that need to be done, too! :-)