Never BUY Microwavable Popcorn Again - DIY Homemade Microwavable Popcorn

DIY Homemade Microwavable Popcorn

 

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.

That's it. I know, right. So SIMPLE!

 

 



Renewing Your UGLY, Dirty Grout

BEFORE

 

AFTER

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.

 

 

 



Easy Cleaning List to Keeping Clean House

Have breakfast, coffee 30 minutes to gather yourself. Gather and Separate all laundry into correct piles Declutter all tables, shelves, and floor in living room Start a load of laundry Unload dishwasher, reload if necessary Clean and shine sink Declutter counters of all clutter and necessary applicances and wipe down. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>	Make all beds Do a quickie clean up of bedrooms Sweep/Vacuum, mop living room, hall area Sweep/mop kitchen Switch laundry Unload dishwasher Dust/wipe blinds, tables, shelves (if needed)         <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Clean bathroom mirrors and sink Spray bathtubs to soak Clean toilets Sweep and mop bathrooms Fold Laundry and put away           >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>	Scrub bathtubs that have been soaking Empty trashcans                   DONE-Relax

When decluttering use a basket to gather all clutter and move to correct stations later and carry trash bag to throw all trash away.

 

 

 

 



Painting Interior Doors Black

 

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.

 

 

 



Keeping Your Frozen Foods From "Freezer" Taste

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.

 

 



Make Your Front Door Like New Again With Just Paint

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.

Changing the Outside of Your House to Rustic

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.

 

 



Removing Popcorn Ceiling

We have taken a challenge of finally remodeling the interior of our house. Last year we did exterior redo, and went from 80's shutters to rustic cedar re-do with cedar posts, shutters, etc. It made a world of difference to the out side of our house. I will make a separate post about that. Anyway, this year we have taken on a few projects inside, and Oh my, does it make a difference.

(the before)

  First project was removing popcorn ceiling. This is not a job for anyone wanting a quick, one day DIY project. This took us about a week to actually complete. We removed popcorn, then had to sand ceiling with a body-shop DA from my husband's job. Then float cracks in sheetrock that we found, where old tapelines had separated. Then painting the ceiling, and trim. I will post some pics and steps of project.

This was the hall, which scraped pretty easily.

To scrape off a popcorn ceiling, you have a few options, and I tried more than one.

You can do like the DIY shows and use a spray bottle, wait a few minutes and scrape in sections.

OR

 You can use the water hose sprayer on mist. Warning!!!! This is messy.

We were also replacing our carpet, so this was an option for us. We pulled up carpet to the concrete, and brought in water hose with sprayer set on mist. We moved around room, spraying, then scraping with a drywall knife. This worked the best. However our sprayer broke, after we finished living room and hall. A garden sprayer is the next best bet. A spray bottle, just took way to much work for me.

 This is an example of our mess. Our ceiling had been painted over. So, it was more difficult to remove. You know those videos,  that show the people spraying with water, then scraping. It all comes off so easily, all the way to the bare sheetrock. Well, apparently those popcorn ceilings had not been painted over. After we scraped, we still had to sand, and that was when my husband brought in the D.A. auto-body sander from work. We took turns. This was the hardest part. Since we wanted a smooth ceiling, not textured, we had to make it nice. Warning!!! If you sand, it is a huge mess! Dust everywhere. I replaced the filter in our A/C, and it took a few days to get all of the dust out of house. It kept settling.

 

Two coats of ceiling paint (primer already mixed in)

 and two coats of a high gloss enamel on trim/moulding, this was the results.

It was definately a hard job, but turned out so beautiful. It brought our ceiling out of the 80's, and it even feels higher. We have not conquered bedrooms and bathrooms yet. But, we did get living room, kitchen, and hall. Those bedrooms and bathrooms will have to be another day...lol.

 

 

TIPS:

 

1. If you are replacing floor, use waterhose with a mister setting. If you can't use waterhose, use a garden sprayer.

2. Be prepared for a big job.

3. Close off rooms with plastic, and turn of vents to the room you are working on to contain dust and mess.

4. Open windows, and place box fan facing outside if sanding is required.

5. Plan more than a weekend for this project. It may be that your popcorn is removed easier, but better safe than sorry. Our house was like a construction site for at least a week.

6. Use a paint with a primer already mixed in. This saved us a lot of extra work.

7. Invite friends and family over to help. This is not a 1 person job.

8. Enjoy :)

 

Tortillas-less Tostada

LOW CARB

For all you "low carbers" out there, here is an alternative to tortillas.

I used Monterrey jack cheese in a nontick skillet on medium heat. This was fairly easy. I put shredded cheese starting in middle of skillet and just formed a circle out of it.

As it starts to melt, just occasionally lift the edges with plastic spatula until you are able to get spatula under to lift onto a plate. There is no need to flip. It will harden as it sits. 

So after you have your "tortilla" you can now add your toppings. I added steak, avocado, and salsa.  This was a good fix for not being able to have bread/tortilla like products. It was very tasty. It is a little rich, so one will probably do. 

Enjoy!

BOXES

 

 

I am determined for 2013 to be the year of home organization. I am overwhelmed with paperwork. I hate filing. I was in office administration for over 5 years, and we did tons of filing. I just can't bring myself to stay on top of it anymore. So, I am looking for an alternative to filing, at least for the stuff that you don't have to keep for years and years. So, I've went to trays, but not your regular trays. I am taking boxes and turning them into my trays for bills, kids paperwork, etc. You can use old boxes, cereal boxes, anything that you can wrap, stack, and hot glue. Of course you could go out and purchase stackable tray/boxes, but this is nearly free. I am using an old shelf in my laundry room to put my "trays" on. You could also put a few in kiddos rooms to organize school work, or just give each kiddo a tray in the main area. I have had it with incoming mail overwhelming me in stacks, so no more!

 

These boxes are a little large, so something around the size of cereal boxes would be perfect. I cut a few of these in half. You can then wrap, stack, and glue in any fashion you like. This may not be everyone's idea of organization for paperwork, and that's fine. But, I am looking for what is going to work for me and right now stacks of mail just isn't doing it!

 

Feel free to print off cute labels for your trays...