Tips & Tricks

Here are a few bits and pieces of some helpful hints:

• Always rinse out your new paint roller before you use it. That will clean off the shavings and fluff left on from manufacturing and will allow the roller to soak up the water first and not so much paint. Squeeze the water out before use. 
• If your hair is dry use olive oil to condition it: I warm up about 1/4 cup of oil, rub it into my hair, wrap with a warm towel. Leave on until the towel is cool and then wash as usual.
• Use a mixture of warm oil and sugar to soften hands. Warm up a bit of olive oil and sugar (salt will work too), rub into your hands and rinse. 
• My grandchildren are preteens and do not have the latest technology with them at all times and get bored on car rides. I found some FREE printable bingo cards to download and print here. I also have a site where you can make your own bingo cards and they have lots of other free printables too. The thrift store had a great hangman game board that I purchased just for car rides and they LOVE it! It's entertaining and teaching. It's a board, about 8-12" x 11" and at the bottom has a small white board area to write down the word, On the side there's a place with an elastic band to hold the marker, and the letters and body parts are attached with elastic. You flip over the letter as it is guessed and the body part for the hangman. 
• I color my own hair and fortunately the color that I like is not the expensive brand. I'm a redhead/strawberry blond and like to put low lights in my hair pretty often. I use the cheapest brand I can find for that, the kind that mixes in a plastic squeeze bottle. Since I have fine hair and use this color on only a few strands I have lots of it left and throw it away. As far as hair-color goes red fades the fastest....and this sunshine we've been having doesn't help either. I decided to experiment and see if the darker color would be OK if I just stored the plastic bottle of color in the medicine cabinet for a couple of weeks until I wanted to use it again. About 3 weeks later I used it and my hair didn't fall out or turn green or anything else horrendous  so I think my little experiment was a success!

               (my disclaimer) I am not recommending this....just saying it works for me....it's up to

               you if you want to try it. The bottle says to throw any leftovers away.

• Wouldn't you love to put together a family magazine? I would.....I stumbled across a blog Landee See Landee Do and she tells you how. Check it out even if you're not up to it. Every year my daughter makes a photo calender for us............we love it!!! we look for it!!!! I think she knows that if she didn't do it we'd disown her (just kidding Amy).
• If you eat at a restaurant that has free refills and you can't finish all of your soda (or if you drink tons of unsweetened ice tea) ask for a 'to go' cup and take it with you.