Tuesdays Outside the Box in April!
What can you do with a wooden spoon?
Quick. Think about it. You can stir things, right? Like soup. Or pudding. Or pudding soup.
But if you took a little more time, you crafty people could think of a million things to do with a wooden spoon. Maybe whack a sarcastic spouse playfully on the derriere? Attach it to the wall with a screw and use it as a towel holder? Hang a bunch from the ceiling as a rustic chandelier? Or just chop it into pieces and use it as kindling.
You’ve already come up with eight better ideas than I have, I’m sure of it.
My mother, a former gifted teacher, used to play this game with her kids all the time. She’d give them an object of some sort and then 10 minutes to list all the crazy, unique, or possibly useful things they could do with it. It helped them become problem solvers; it encouraged them to think outside the box.
It also may or may not have resulted in detention for inappropriate use of cafeteria applesauce.
With all this in mind, I’d like to share with you a little something we’re going to do on Tuesdays in April. I’m calling it: Tuesdays Outside the Box.
Wonderfully Simple Homemade Wood Polish Recipe
I hunted and searched through my brain for a funny and/or inspiring wood story to accompany this post. Perhaps something about trees and how they symbolize the seasons we all go through as human beings? Maybe something about the Virgin-Mary-shaped stain I left in our old wood coffee table from fingernail polish remover?
Maybe no. Nothing was good enough or funny enough, because instead, my mushy brain decided to get the theme song from the Woody Woodpecker Show stuck on repeat. (ha ha hahaha!)
The good news is, this wood polish recipe will do the exact opposite to your wooden goodies that Woody Woodpecker would. The bad news is, now you have that song stuck in your head, too. Sorry. Stupid head songs are the price I demand for my stunning expertise.
So I’ll just shut up now and show you the fancy picture (how do you like the new “frame” program I worked with today?) of exactly what we’re about to make:
The Holy Grail of Crunchy: Making Your Own Yogurt
A few months ago a friend of mine was chatting with someone else and mentioned me as her “crunchiest” friend. Intrigued, her companion asked, “What do you mean? Like, she only buys organic and recycles everything?” “No,” my friend said, and leaned in for the kill. “Crunchy, like, she makes her own yogurt.”
For whatever reason, making your own yogurt has been put on this hemp-woven pedestal as the ultimate – but unachievable – in living a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. Too many people I talk to say it’s something they’d never do because it’s too (and pick one here): hard; expensive; time-consuming; boring.
Well, you might have me with the “boring” because most of making yogurt is as exciting as watching low-VOC paint dry. But hear me now and believe me later: making your own yogurt is cheap. Cheaper than store-bought. WAY cheaper than store bought, with the added benefit of you having 100% control over the ingredients. The processing time is long, but the actual prep time is quite reasonable.
Your Mini-Guide to Removing Stuff From Other Stuff
It all started yesterday when I was haphazardly tearing things from my wall.
Eventually, I reached the picture tiles – which had held up nicely for seven months using only sticky squares – and tried to pull one down. There was no budging. No wiggling. Nothing. Over the many days, the sticky glue squares had become one with my funky textured wall.
The thought of buying a sledgehammer entered the picture, but then I remembered a little thing called a “refundable deposit.” So I got more creative.
Solving the problem was a cinch, and my brain kept saying, “Gosh, I wish there was someone I could tell how EASY this is.” And then my other, smarter brain said, “Leslie, you have a blog, remember? Maybe you should, you know, USE IT.”
But then I figured that not everyone put picture tiles on their walls with sticky squares (or have sticky things on their walls at all), so I started thinking about how to remove stuff from other stuff, so we can all be happy with our various removal issues.
So here you go. Three ways to remove stuff from other stuff. Plus bonus stuff removing at the end.
The Great Baking Soda Anti-Hoax
I like to imagine it went something like this:
Five women were sitting around a table eating sprouted whole grain scones, talking about the latest in health scandals. Martha turned to Jody and with a sly smile whispered into Jody’s perfect curly-q ear, “Did you know baking powder has aluminum in it? I bet Janice used baking powder in her scones! We’re all going to get Alzheimer’s now. Thanks a lot, Janice.”
Jody squinted her eyes and gave it a bit of thought, and turned to the manicured Steffi and whispered, “Did you hear? Baking powder has aluminum in it!”
Steffi, not quite sure what to make of this information, leaned over and whispered to Maggie, “What’s the deal with baking soda containing aluminum? I thought that was BAD!” And Maggie, ever the first to know of shameful health trends, stands up, flips over the table and says, “YOUR BAKING SODA HAS ALUMINUM IN IT, JANICE! WE WILL NOT BE LUNCHING HERE TODAY.”
Then all the ladies, except for poor, confused Janice, march out the door and into their nearest Whole Foods to find aluminum-free baking soda.
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Crunchy Shopping!
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