It's so easy, It's ridiculous! Why have I never thought of this before. Why buy store bought microwavable popcorn? Research has shown that the store bought varieties contain harmful ingredients, that can cause illnesses, lung disease, and possibly cancer. But, don't worry because I'm going to show you how simple making your own is, and how CHEAP it is. Best of all, no harmful chemicals needed.
Gather ingredients
brown paper bags, popcorn, melted butter, and salt
Add 1/4 cup of popcorn (you can play with it after a few times to adjust to how much you want)
Pop in microwave just as you would the store bought type.
I put it on 2 1/2 minutes, but I do NOT walk away. I listen to when the kernels slow down to a space of 2 to 5 seconds in between.
You will probably end up with twice as much as this. (this was my first attempt) Add a little melted butter. It will soak your bag a little. Don't worry. I have a solution. Add salt to taste, fold and shake. Now slip that bag inside another if your bag is butter soaked, or pour into a bowl.
I forgot to actually take a before and after so I had to use sections I hadn't done and sections I had already finished.
As some of you know, we have been in the middle of a remodel. We are doing what we can afford, when we can affrord it. Our kitchen tile was ugly. When we laid the tile, I had decided on going with a tan grout. Over the years, it had now turned brown. It just looked like really dirty grout. My husband had the idea of painting the grout, instead of regrouting the whole floor. So, we did a little research and came across a product at our local Home Depot called Polyblend Grout Renew. It was under 12.00 a bottle. We went with a bright white color. I must say, it has made an amazing difference in my floor. It looks like new tile. I am very impressed. It has only been "renewed" for about a month, so I can't testify to durability, but as of right now, it was a miracle to my grout. I love it.
I will post pictures of the before and after of my floor and hopefully the video I took of a short example of how to do one of the lines (the way I did it).
Sorry for the shaky video. I was doing the grout with one hand and holding camera in the other.
Tips
Clean, clean your grout. Use a good grout cleaner or homemade grout cleaner, but make sure it's clean because that is how it bonds to the grout. If grout isn't clean, you won't have a good bonding of the grout renew.
I watched some videos of other people using similar products on Youtube, and their methods just didn't work for me. I had to take a paintbrush, and brush each grout line, then take a paper towel and clean up each side of the line. The video should give you a good idea of what I did.
This is not a quick project. Depending on the size of your floor, it could take all day, to a few days. I sit down on the floor, laid on the floor at times. I would do a row of one direction of lines at a time and then go back to do the other direction until I had the whole floor done, which took me 3 days. I would work on sections while kids were in school. I only worked a few hours a day. If you really were persistant, you could know this out in a day.
Was it a lot of work? Somewhat, but oh so worth it! The results are amazing. I hope this inspires anyway who wants an affordable way to renew their grout. Oh by the way. I did my whole kitchen on one bottle.
Who would have thought that painting your interior doors black could be so awesome?
It doesn't sound like a good idea, and when you tell someone they look at you like your crazy. "You're painting you doors black?" They just give you this confused look.
But, it is such a nice, clean look. Black doors with white trim, and a pretty color wall. I just love it.
Tips
Use a high gloss black paint. It must be high gloss if you want the shiny look.
The first coat will look absolutely awful. It take 3 to 4 coat to get a good, smooth finish. Make sure on last few coats to use long smooth strokes to avoid the look of brush marks. Go the same direction with brush, using light, smooth strokes. By the last coat, it will look very nice.
This is a super easy trick that keeps your frozen foods fresh, and from getting that icky "freezer" taste.
I just pop any frozen foods that aren't indvidually wrapped in ziplock freezer bags so that kids can remove what they want and keep the rest fresh. Easy, simple fix to those items that are in a big box or bag. You know, the ones that once you open they're just exposed to the freezer.
The before and after of my front door with just paint and tape. We installed this door about 5 years ago, and this is the original color we painted it, kind of a brick red. It was now dirty, and not the kind of dirt you can just wipe off. It was wore, and even after cleaning still looked like the before picture(We live in the country with dirt and dust) Looked like we were in need of a new front door. But, with a little tape (to make the black accent on trim around window) and some bright red paint, I was able to revive our door to the beautiful door it once was. I think it almost looks new again. It's amazing what a little paint and a few coats of paint can do.
I used a latex high gloss enamel. I didn't know you could get a high gloss enamel in latex, but you can and it's much easier to use than an oil based enamel. I used a wide brush. You want to use a decent quality brush, just a middle price one (about 10.00). I applied 4 coats, letting each coat dry about 30 minutes in between. Keep your strokes in the same direction, and use even smooth strokes on last few coats. The first coat I used to get in knooks and crannies, and then smooth as much as possible on remaining coats, especially the last few. I had taped off the section of trim around glass so I could do black there. I then removed tape that I had to keep red off of that section, and retaped when door was completely dry, so that black wouldn't get on new red paint, and voila, beautiful red door.
We actually had a friend do the work on this project because he offered to do it, and he is really good with woodworking. But, this is an affordable option for almost anyone, and it made such a huge impact on the look of our home, for a very minimal amount. Basically all we had to buy was some cedar fence planks, cedar posts, a few braces, screws and such, and some paint.
Our home was a typical 80's ranch home, to a cool looking rustic style country home which is so much more fitting to where we live.
He built the posts, changed out shutters to the cedar planks. We painted the underside of house with a sky blue color (this is supposed to stop wasps from making nests, so far so good). We also painted all trim work with black, and added a black glass door, some cool little stars that we found on all of the shutters (cost about 2.00 a piece) and upgraded our porch light because everything looked so good, we wanted to go a little further ;) Here are before and after.
