Making your house a home - make your own bunting

Buy your own: https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/TheArtofSALiving/onboarding/listings/244672533

Equipment:

Material Ribbon

Stapler

3 different coloured cardboards (3 different pieces of cardboard give you about 1.5 m of banting)

Scissors/craft knife and ruler

Time to make: 45 minutes

Steps:

1. Cut cardboard triangles (3 per page)

Easiest way I found to do this:

a. Bend your paper in half, but don't fold it completely...just make a small indentation at the top and bottom of the page to mark half way

b. Again bend these halves in half...just make a small indentation at the top and bottom of the page to mark a quarter of the way

c. Use your ruler to connect up these indentations and the craft knife to cut

2. Lay out the ribbon

3. Place the triangles the distance apart that suits you (about 5 cm for me)

4. Staple  them down

Making your house a home - Balloon lights

1. Take a hanger attach pegs (pegs must be hooked far enough over the hanger bar to close at the bottom). 

2. Blow up small water balloons. Try keep each hanger for a separate colour (to avoid worrying about them touching each other). If your water balloons are hard to blow up...then stretch them and blow while stretching (be careful not to close off the opening)

3. Mix wood glue with water (3 to 1 ratio) in a plastic container. Add as much food coloring to make it as dark as you want

Once you are finished with the mix, save the container for next time!

4. Put down newspaper to catch the drops

5. Cut 1m long lengths of strong. Hang them over the arm of the chair to make sure they don't get tangled

6. Dip the string in the mix. Start wrapping it around each balloon. I do around 4 strings per balloon. Try cover as much of the balloon surface area as evenly as possible. 

Repeat with different colours on different hangers

7. Leave the balloons to dry for two days

8. Pop the balloon and the balloon surface should pull away from the string leaving a ball

9. Slide fairy lights into the smaller holes, alternating colours

If you make your glue a bit thicker then the balloons don't pop and you get a semi stainglass window effect :)

Making your house a home - picture frames

Found these cardboard boxes in the dustbin at work! Turned into awesome photo frames. I assume they were from some software? Still need to find an image for the top one. The bottom one is a beautiful sketch we bought from a student selling on the streets of Melaka, Malaysia...showing the buildings in the old town

And then there are always clipboards! These are some awesome postcards I got at a Tim Burton exhibition in Prague

                                         

The left hand one reflects what several years of marriage will do to you...you melt into one big pile of goo :) the right hand one was to cheer Scott up cause he was over in South Korea with a broken foot while I was galavanting in Eastern Europe 

Looking after your body - The amazingness of apple cider vinegar

Taken from: http://www.putihome.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=34683

Check out this extensive list! http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/apple-cider-vinegar-4.html?t=DM

So far I have used it to:

1. Wash my hair…It is the conditioner in the mix

2. Make my tummy more alkaline…though I can only drink half a cap full in the morning with very cold water. Can't say whether it is helping or more…but I am starting to enjoy drinking it!

3. Clean the toilet and shower walls

4. De-flea the cats…not sure how well it worked since Andrea and Carrie bought anti-flea shampoo the same day

5. Remove a tick from Shingo's back…again, not sure of the success because they became impatient and pulled it out…leaving the head in by accident!

6. Reduce the size of the pores on my face…i think it has helped!

7. Awkward, but it has worked wonders correct the flora in my nether regions

8. A late addition…it helps with pet constipation! Gave a teaspoon fill to Mika in a plate of milk. I didn't know if it made any different, but a while later Andrea (her own) suggested that was the reason for her more friendly behavior…and no longer cringing every time you touch her!

9. To deter termites (very important when living in a wooden house)! I put it across their path and the next day they had moved...though sadly were not gone all together!

Looking after your body - Deodorants

The new word on the street is that we need to be careful of deodorants...that aluminium in them has been linked to breast cancer. Though tests seem to be inconclusive, I would rather not take the risk

http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/myths/antiperspirants-fact-sheet

I tried going without deodorant and it worked fine with my low-meat diet in Malaysia, but now that I am back in SA 'the home of beef' I am struggling!

I therefore have tried this recipe and finding it hugely successful!

1 tablespoon corn flour
2 teaspoons baking soda/bicarbonate of soda
A few drops of essential oils like lavender or rosemary

http://www.motherearthliving.com/health-and-wellness/natural-beauty/beauty-recipe/homemade-deodorant-cream-zmoz13jazmel.aspx

I will admit there are some days when I smell, but in order to cut back on those I make sure to wash my clothes regularly and avoid synthetic clothes as they get older.

It is nice to cut back on one more plastic container I would have added to the rubbish heap!

Clothes you love without the costs you hate - What to do with old jeans

And for those old jeans that have holes between the legs, just cut the inside of the jeans and turn it into a skirt! 

Just be careful in the crotch area...don't keep the material in line with the jeans seam...rather bring it on top of the jean material, up to the zip base

Your garden - Recycled tins and paper

Or recycle your old tins and newspapers using modge podge glue

Cacti

1. Start off with some sand at the bottom of the tin, or small stones

2. Then mix in soil from your garden and a bit of compost

3. Make a hole for your cactus

4. Break a small bit of cactus off the one at your parents house that you love

5. Plant it and compact the soil around it

6. Get some light coloured stones to cover the top

7. Give about a teaspoon to tablespoon of water a week and put in a high-light area

Tin decoration

1. Take off the old paper on the tin

2. Cut a strip of newspaper that will fit around the tin...use a ruler or craft knife to make the cuts so the edges are neat

3. Apply a layer of modge podge glue to the tin

- instead of buying the expensive stuff, give put a tub of wood glue in a bowl

- then refill the wood glue container with water till it is 1/3 full

- Mix the water with the glue and you are ready!

4. Apply the newspaper and allow it to dry

5. Apply another layer of glue and allow to dry

6. You can keep going with a few more layers of the glue if you would like to make the covering sturdier and less likely to get damaged if you spill water on it while watering