Uses for Felt

A FELT TIP

There are many uses for Felt.  Felt is made by wetting wool fibers, pressing them together into a non-woven mat. There is no crosswise or lengthwise direction. This is eliminated in the wetting and pressing process.

You can make your own Felt if you wish.  I use ‘store-bought’ felt because I need a larger quantity for household as well as creative uses.

Craft Felt can be purchased in 72” width and assorted colors. Felt in 36” wide is also available. Because it is non-woven, it does not have a selvage edge and can be cut with scissors without fraying.  This is a good thing when cutting out shapes, costumes and Christmas decorations.  

Adhesive backed Felt is handy when the Felt has to stay in position without moving. Lining the bottom of a drawer used to store small tools or sewing notions will keep items in place and prevent them from getting jumbled and mixed up.

Lining the inside of a trinket box that you have created is attractive and does not allow the noisy rattling of the contents.  Contrasting Felt colors add to the design of the creation.  Adhesive backed Felt comes in handy to be used in this way.

Lining the inside of a sewing basket will prevent loose pins from poking through.  Using a contrasting color will make it easier to find loose items in the basket, thimbles, pins, needles, etc.  

Felt is an ideal non woven to use around the Christmas tree.  You can be creative and use any color you wish.  If you like a live tree, cleaning up the fallen needles is less of a task.  Just pick up the felt sheet, empty it outside or brush it off outside. Fold it up and store it until next Christmas.

Make any drawer a jewelry drawer.  Line the bottom of the drawer with Felt.  Place your necklaces, bracelets, beads anything you want to keep in play in the Felt lined drawer.  Each time you open the drawer you will find that your jewelry does not move around. 

Felt can be used to make Felt boards for learning.  Felt figures and alphabet letters on a Felt board can be moved around by the children as they learn. 

Decorate a child’s room with Felt.  Make a valance to go around the perimeter off the room just below the ceiling, this is where the cornice or moulding is located.  If there is mounding, use double sided tape to adhere the felt valance to the mounding all around the room.  You can staple the valance to the moulding instead of the double sided tape if you do not want to use the tape. This will also work on plaster walls and plaster board.

Cut out felt pictures of animals and put each one in a frame and display on the wall or table easel.  This can be a way for the child to learn the animals.  Cut out alphabet letters and do the same.

Save left over felt, there is a good chance it will come in handy in the future.

goodtips, 

Felt Tips

Express Yourself With COOL SHOES

Shoe Fly

 https://www.zazzle.com/comfy_shoes_poster-22886385807952516

 

https://www.zazzle.com/white_strap_slippers_acrylic_print-256078180257137969

Make your shoes look ‘fly,’ ‘cool,’ ‘bling-gy,’ ‘flashy,’ ‘to the utmost,’ ‘and then some’.  Be creative, add accessories to your shoes that say: ‘this 

is me.’  This is the age of expression: express yourself and your creations.

Each of us has artistic tendencies and strong urges to show how we feel, who we are, and what we can do.  We express these things through visual art, music, performance art, and, if in no other way, how we dress and what we drive and ride.

Physical exercise seems to have generated a need for a whole genre of clothing and shoes to make exercise more palatable.  There are shoes for walking, running, jogging, and an athletic type shoe for just plain looking good and being well put together.  Sometimes we like our shoes so much, we forget about fashion, and wear them out.

It seems that the faux gem embellished sneaker is flying out of the stores.  SHOE FLY  has begun.  These sneakers come in tie-up and slip on styles.  The colors are phenomenal.  The sneaker has been reinvented.

The old school sneaker has been redesigned by elevating the sole to a platform sole and adding removal insoles that can be replaced or washed.  

EMBELLISH, EMBELLISH, EMBELLISH! There are all kinds of trinkets that can be clipped on to personalize your shoes.  Bows, ID charms, even mini lights, and gems are among the choices to choose from to make your shoes stand out as your signature shoes.

Shoes come in a variety of colors and materials including neon, fluorescent, shiny patent look, leather, canvas, synthetics, and probably others that have not yet reached the market.

https://www.zazzle.com/fashion_high_heel_acrylic_print-256602761050555943

All in all, there is a way for you to express yourself with the type of shoes you wear.  Now, with shoes that tie up, change the color of the laces.  Contrasting colors can add a lot of punch to the shoe.  Bright orange, or hot pink or bright blue can get you attention that you had not expected, and a compliment to go with it.  

Not only shoe laces are a way to accessorize, but pompoms are fun when they are clipped-on or threaded though the laces.  Fur and faux fur pompoms are clip-ons that add fashion flair to a pair of heels or flats. Be bold, add a pair of pompoms to your sneakers. They come in a variety of colors. Add bows to the back of the heels and strut your stuff.

So, EXPRESS yourself as SHOES FLY out of the stores, BIG TIME.

Add contrasting laces, wear high tops for a change, bright, colorful, bling-gy.  Water proof high top sneakers (athletic shoes) has just been introduced to the market by a top brand. If you like wearing high tops all year round as an all weather shoe, then seek these out.

SHOE FLY, 

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Green Clean

Castile Soap

Cleaning with natural ingredients is preferred by a lot of people.  There are many natural ingredients on this planet that you can use safely to clean with, most people don’t know what they are.  Years ago I discovered the many uses for Castile soap and I have been using it ever since. 

‘Castile’ designates that the soap is vegetable oil based and not animal oil based.  The identification ‘Castile’ comes from the fact that this kind of soap was made originally from vegetable oil ingredients found in Castile, Spain centuries ago. If it is pure Castile soap, then it is a simple ecological soap. The main ingredient is olive oil. My family has used Castile soap for decades.  As a child I remember my mother using Castile bar soap.

Liquid soap has not been around as long as hard bar soap. However, because it is liquid it is easier to use and has more applications.  Pure Castile liquid soap can be used for many things including household cleaning as well as washing the body and washing clothes. This is green clean.

Other vegetable oil based soaps include Marseilles soap, a bar soap made around Marseilles, France.  It is made from sea water, olive oil, soda ash and lye (sodium hydroxide).  This is a greenish hued soap. The white hued soap is made with palm oil.  

Nabulsi is a Castile soap made in Nablus, Palestine on the West Bank.  It is made with virgin olive oil, water, and an alkaline sodium compound of powdered ashes from the barilla plant. It has no scent and is light colored. This soap has been around since before the 14th century. 

Some Castile bar soaps have coconut oil as a vegetable oil based ingredient which help moisturize your skin. I have found that vegetable oil based bar soaps have more lather than animal oil based soaps, especially in hard water.  They are more beneficial and add to the quality of life for everyday living.  More green clean.

These soaps are biodegradable and kind to the earth, you, and the atmosphere. 

From my investigation making your own "green clean" soap can be easy and interesting. You can be creative and add scents and ingredients that will make your soap special for you.  I think I’ll search for a recipe for a beginner like myself.

Have a pleasant day  good tips

Cream of Tartar

From The Pantry

 Cleaning with the leavings or byproduct of wine making: cream of tartar.  In the natural state it is found in various fruits, especially grapes from which wine is made.  The residue from the alcoholic fermentation crystallizes onto the sides of the wine vat. In this raw state the cream of tartar is collected and successively purified into refined cream of tartar.  

Potassium bitartrate, or potassium hydrogen tartrate is not only used in cooking, but it can be used to clean when mixed with an acidic such as white vinegar or lemon juice. 

 Cream of tartar is primarily used for baking. Chemically, it is known as the potassium acid salt of tartaric acid (a carboxylic acid).

It is a good cleaning agent for metals such as brass, aluminum and copper when made into a paste using white vinegar.  This same paste can be used to remove porcelain stains, also. Try cleaning the bottom of your cookware with this paste.  

I like using cream of tartar to clean my stainless steel sink.  It sparkles after a good cleaning and rinsing with clear water. You can clean the bathtub and shower with this mixture.

Cream of tartar has been around for ages and has many uses.  Medicinal uses are quite common.  It is also used in making toothpaste.  Whatever the uses, it should be kept in a dry place and kept tightly sealed.

Uses include:

Yeast 

Baking

Pharmaceutic Industry

Watch and Clock Making

Treatment of metals

Glassware

Pyrotechnics

Manufacturing of Plaster

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STYLE with HANDBAGS and JEWELRY

HANDBAGS what EVERY woman NEEDS or WANTS

The question is which one, how big, how small, what color, what material, and what to wear with it.  The handbag.

Now there are all sorts of handbags for every occasion and some for “a just because” occasion.  Some are so big that they look like a piece of luggage.  They are always fashionable no matter how big or small.

There are even handbags for carrying pets, (little dogs).  There are bags that are masquerading as fashionable lunch bags. (chic).  There is a handbag for everyone and everything.  You just have to find it and decide which one is for you and your style.  Yes, your style.  Everyone has one.  

Style is your individual way of accessorizing and wearing your garments with flair and fancy.  Style is how you put your signature on the manner in which you wear your clothes. To complement your style, add jewelry.

 A favorite pin, necklace or earrings can make all the difference in making an outfit stand out.  Faux gems are the focus today.  They are certainly fun and beautiful.  The sky is the limit.  There are no rules on how or when you should wear your baubles, or with what.

There seems to be a myriad of colors to choose from, as well as several shapes and combination of shapes.  Rings are big, and I mean BIG.  They are popular and the BIGGER they are the more eye catching and fun.  

Genuine stones and faux stones come in beautiful colors of nature.  There seems to be more focus on stones this year.  Matching sets with earrings complement any outfit.  So if you don’t want to spend time looking for matching pieces, look for sets.

Wearing pieces of clothing together that in yesteryear would have been a faux pas is now the thing to do.  What freedom of style.  Love it.

We can and should be as creative as we want and look FABULOUS

while we wear our designer handbags with our grungy jeans, boots or heels, with our faux or genuine gems and of course our huge rings.  Fun, Fun,  Fun.
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Let's Get Organized

Get ORGANIZED

Mind and Body

When you are not organized in mind and body, you cannot function at your fullest.  When the mind is muddled and full of chaos, the body does not respond at all. Because there are no instructions from the mind telling the body how to move and what to do, the body becomes  immobile, listless.

Enter Organization to put everything in its place mentally, to give way to peace and tranquil feelings. Organized, your thoughts and your body will feel less stress, able to do what a body is supposed to do:  move, walk, dance, jump. Anything other than being immobile, because it has not received instruction from the mind (brain) to function.

When you un-clutter your mind, then you can begin to think in a freer relaxed manner.  Sit and take a deep breath.  Think about something you really like or something you really like to do.  Think about your favorite outfit and how you look in it and where you will wear it.  Think about a favorite place that brings back pleasant memories and good times.

Replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts.  Do not give way to worry and anxiety.  They have no place in the mind.  If they find a place in the mind, then they will find a place in the body to cause weakness, pain, possibly illness.

Let’s organize the mind and the body.

Clear the mind. Sit quietly. Take a deep breath, relax.  Think of pleasant things, favorite places and happy experiences. Replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts.  When the mind is at rest, you can think in a calm manner.  This can lead to organized thoughts, which translate to organized motion, movement of the body.  When the mind is calm and less chaotic it instructs the body to act in the same manner.  With mind and body in sync, you can accomplish much in your daily routine. 

 A little exercise won’t hurt either.  This gets the blood flowing through the body up to the brain.  The brain is the computer for the entire human body. (my opinion). 

If the brain breaks down, then the body goes down.

Let’s not tax our brain beyond its limits.  Let the brain rest and refresh itself.  No need for you to solve every problem in the world.  There are others to complete that task.

Be joyful and thankful.  goodtips

Bay Leaves

Bay leaf from the pantry

Uses and Benefits

The Bay Leaf  (Laurel) is an aromatic ingredient used frequently to flavor various culinary dishes.  They are used to flavor soups, meats, stews, vegetable dishes as well as an infuser for tea. 

Bay leaves also have other uses, and, there are several varieties.  In this blog I talk about the Laurel bay leaf, in particular.

The other uses include repelling meal moths, flies, roaches, silverfish, even mice when scattered about in the pantry or anywhere else.  

The bay leaves can be crushed, ground or left whole.  Crushed bay leaves have a stronger fragrance than whole leaves.  When used in cooking, whole leaves are easier to remove from cooked food than crushed bay leaves. Bay leaves should be removed from food after the food in done.  Because the whole leaves are stiff, they can cause harm to the digestive tract if swallowed.  Ground bay leaves can be mixed into a dish when during seasoning.  There's no need to remove them before serving the dish, however, the taste will be stronger.

The use of bay leaves in drawers where sweaters are stored is a benefit in keeping away insects that feed on fiber and fabric.  Put a few bay leaves under the liner paper in the drawer or just place them throughout the drawer if you don’t use liner paper.  

Bay leaves have been used to treat bacterial and fungal infections as well as other medicinal uses.  They are anti-bacterial and anti fungal. 

Place a few bay leaves wherever you have an ant problem.  In a very short time you will see no ants.  The pungent odor of the leaves dissipates after a few days, so replace the old leaves with new ones every week.  After doing this a couple of times, the ants will not return.

Hope this was helpful, goodtips