Keep Your Cheese From Developing Mold With This DIY Trick

Save your cheese!

Since I like to bake my own breads and pizzas from scratch, I pick up my dry yeast and a big four or a five-pound block of mozzarella cheese at GFS Marketplace (Gordon’s Food Service), being the cheapest place in my area to buy those two items.  

What I do is cut and freeze pieces of the cheese, only leaving one piece in my refrigerator at a time.  Before I ever tried this tip, I would just take my chances and hope to use the cheese before it would get any mold.

Then I found this wonderful trick to keep any variety of a block cheese fresher longer. Take two tablespoons of salt, add three cups of water and mix it thoroughly before immersing a paper towel in the mix.  

After that paper towel is saturated, you loosely place it over your piece of cheese to cover before returning to your container in the refrigerator.  Believe it or not, this does help prevent mold from growing.  The reason this works so well is that salt once dehydrated can stop microbial mold spores from forming.

I tried this salt and water trick on a hunk of cheddar cheese and got the same great results as well. I hope you also try this and my bread and pizza recipe because you’ll love them.

Perk Up the Feel and Look of Your Feet With My DIY Refreshing Peppermint Salt Scrub

Pamper your feet and they will carry you further. 

You might have noticed that I devote quite a few posts to help improve feet for appearance as well as helping them to feel better. Depending on what ingredients I currently have on hand is usually the recipe that I’ll treat my feet to with at the time. Today, I have another with my Refreshing Peppermint Salt Scrub recipe that you might want to try that not only stimulates circulation, exfoliates roughness and offers a bit of cooling as it works. 

Taking time to pamper your feet will make them more beautiful, but it also perks them up a bit.  

More beneficial DIY homemade skin care recipes to beautify and help the well-being of your feet are at your disposal in my sidebar.

You will love how refreshed and softer your feet will feel.

My Refreshing Peppermint Salt Scrub

1-3/4 cups of sea salt
1/4 cup of jojoba oil
½ cups of sweet almond oil
10 drops of peppermint essential oil

Mix the ingredients together and massage your clean feet.  The action will remove that hard, dry skin and leave it much smoother. Those feet will also be better moisturized.   

How to Clean Curling Irons of Hair Styling Product Residue

This DIY cleaning tip works perfectly to remove all stickiness!

Think of all the products that you use when styling your hair.  Those gels, waxes, mousse, texture creams, hair sprays, etc. can accumulate on your hot styling tools like your curling iron to become a sticky mess over time.  However, there is a way to clean off that product buildup easily that I want to share with you.

What you do is to take a little baking soda and mix with enough water to form a paste.  Get a clean cloth and carefully rub this mixture over the sticky area of your tool.  Rinse your cloth so it is not too wet, then wipe the paste off.  Dry your tool with another cloth and test how it feels.

If you notice any more stickiness, you can treat the tool again with more of the paste.  Repeat the process until you get a smooth feeling surface.

Allow your styling tool to thoroughly dry before attempting to plug it into your electrical outlet.  Honestly, you will be surprised at how wonderfully this little trick works to restore styling tools like a curling iron back to its former glory!

DIY Smoothing Foot Fix Recipe Your Tired, Sore Feet Will Love!

Treat your sore feet with some pampering relief with my homemade skin care recipe for this Smoothing Foot Soak Fix.

We put our feet through the paces with all the walking, standing, running, and not to mention wedging them into shoes, which can be ill-fitting for the sake of fashion.  Why should it surprise us that by the end of a day our feet can hurt? Therefore, give those sore puppies some tender loving care and emerge them into this wonderful home foot treatment.

Allow yourself at least 30 minutes for these soothing and energizing ingredients to do their work. By the time that you finish, your feet will be softer from all the lactic acid and proteins in the milk as well as be thoroughly moisturized and cleansed thanks also to the gentle exfoliating power of the saponins in the oatmeal, released from finely grinding the oats in your food processor or blender to make colloidal oatmeal. In addition, the honey and baking soda also helps kill bacteria while the Epsom salt serves to revitalize since it is a pure mineral compound of magnesium and sulfate.

Smoothing Foot Soak Fix for Tired Feet

½ cup dry powdered milk
1 cup of uncooked oatmeal, finely ground
1 tablespoon of honey
4 tablespoons of olive oil
6-1/2 cups of warm water
1/4 cup Epsom salt
1 tablespoon of baking soda


You will need a basin large enough to accommodate your feet along with the water in which you added all the ingredients and combined before soaking your feet.  

After you are through, rinse off and dry before pampering the feet with lotion.

I hope you try it because it does work some magic on feet to make them feel better in no time.

Review: American Standard Alejandra Faucet Is Inexpensive and Easy Install!

**Disclaimer: This faucet was purchased by me.**

AdAmerican Standard Alejandra Faucet

I bought an inexpensive American Standard Alejandra faucet months ago.  What I wanted was a national brand with a lifetime warranty.  This assures me that if it drips, the company will send the original home owner, me, a new cartridge. 

The bottom part where the water lines connect is brass.  It was so easy it was to install and the faucet looks great.  

I found this faucet in Home Depot after a careful search because it looked the easiest to install and was a good design.  And being around $50 was a big plus.

Trust me, but you can spend a lot on a faucet.  But for my first crack at installing a faucet I wanted something like this. 

Putting in a new faucet isn’t that big a deal at all.  Just read the instructions first.  Make sure you have all the stuff you need before you start your project.  I hate running back to the store for something.  

I was happy to find American Standard made products that are perfect for regular DIY people to install.  Looking over the installation sheet shows you don’t need a bunch of tools. The oddest tool I needed was a basin wrench, which I used to get the old faucet off the vanity.  

American Standard has these very simple to install nuts to attach the faucet to the water lines that you just slip on and tighten with your hands. They are much easier to work with than the metal nuts that came off my old faucet.  

All I bought were fresh flexible water lines.  It’s always a good idea to replace those when you put in the faucet.   American Standard has a speed connect drain pop up, which replaces the normal rod controlling the pop up drain with a wire.  This does work better.  

This faucet itself cost me $49 and I am very happy with its appearance.  If you’re a do-it-yourself person, you should give this one a try.  Your biggest obstacle might be just taking your old faucet off.

 **Disclaimer: This faucet was purchased by me.**

A Great DIY Beauty Recipe to Save Your Hair From Summer Related Problems!

This beauty knows how to think ahead to protect her hair.

Though summer is my favorite time of the year, I hate how the sun can play havoc with hair and turn it dry like straw.  Even worse is how sun fades your hair color while it can make it brittle enough to crunch when rubbed between your fingers.

Pools and that awful chlorine can also rob your beautiful hair of its glory.   If you're not careful, blondes can find themselves sporting that striking new shade of green.  Did you know that justing wetting your hair first with regular water not pool water before you jump in and swim can prevent that new shade?

However, I found a wonderful homemade spray you can make in your kitchen to help in your battle from sun-baked summer hair.  You will need a clean empty spray bottle to fill up with this brew.

My Summer Hair Protector Recipe You'll be Nuts Over!

sunscreen
water
leave-in conditioner

Mix equal parts of all three of those ingredients into your empty clean spray bottle until filled. 

Spray your hair every time you get it wet in the pool or give it a squirt through every so often if you're hatless and lingering in the sun for a long time.  Be sure to comb the squirt of hair protector through with your hand to distribute it evenly. 

This will help keep that hair feeling softer and save it from damage!

Want Some Cheap DIY Fixes With Cornstarch?

Cornstarch can come to your rescue for quite a few issues.

You don't have to look very far but in your own kitchen to find some excellent products to help solve many household and beauty problems.  Cornstarch is one item you may think differently of after you read this post.

For starters, cornstarch makes a wonderful non-abrasive cleaner for tackling grease off of a wall.  Add some on a damp cloth and rub the spot to remove the mark until gone.

If you have floor boards that squeak, you sprinkle some cornstarch between them to stop that annoying sound.

You reach for your rubber gloves and hate the hassle you get from trying to pull them off because they stick.  Instead, you should sprinkle inside those gloves with cornstarch to correct that problem.

One of my favorite uses for cornstarch is for untangling knots in delicate chains on jewelry.  Rub some cornstarch on the knot and magically that stuck chain will come free!  This trick also works on knotted shoelaces and string.

Do you have feet that sweat a lot?  You can save on buying medicated foot powder if you just grab that box of cornstarch.  Shake some cornstarch into your socks each day to absorb excess moisture.  This helpful tip will keep those feet smelling fresher and prevent blisters!

Cornstarch is also a safe and natural dusting powder for your baby.  Using cornstarch will prevent that diaper rash problem without harming delicate baby skin from those unnecessary chemicals of commercial brands!

So be sure to keep more than one box of cornstarch on hand for multiple uses!  Cornstarch can get you out of a lot of sticky situations cheaply--that's why I'm nuts about it!

How to Fight Mildew Naturally

Growing thyme is useful in the fight against mildew!

Mildew is a frustrating problem for practically everyone.  Doesn't it seem like no matter how often you clean or what product you use those ugly mildew spores keep making us constantly work?   However, I found a natural homemade solution you may want to consider trying.

Place some sprigs of fresh thyme inside a plastic spray bottle and cover with white vinegar.  Allow the herb and vinegar to blend inside for two weeks so the herb's essential oil can be activated.

What you'll get is a healthier, green living type cleaner that will cut grease and grime while helping to kill future mold spores.

Another plus to using this cleaner is knowing the stimulating effect of thyme on the nervous system in the way it increases the information flow to your brain and muscles.  As a result, you'll feel an increase in pep from the scent of this herb's essential oil in the cleaner so you'll clean even faster!  Now you can understand why I'm nuts about this easy remedy.

My Solution for Frozen Car Door Locks--Fragrance!

Winter weather can bring more than tricky road conditions.  Frigid weather can also play havoc with the locks on your car door.  So what do you do if suddenly your car door lock freezes and you must be somewhere?

You could always pick up a can of de-icer and treat the lock the night before the temperatures drop drastically to freezing.  However, if you're like me and forgot about picking any up, you could also try heating your car key and then inserting into your lock.  Sometimes, this trick will be enough to get in. 

Then again, you could spray that frozen lock with something you probably carry in your handbag anyway.  Grab your perfume, cologne, toilette water and spray your lock.  For some reason, the chemicals in fragrance can melt through the ice barrier.  Using this little tip can get you on the  road before you finish scraping away that snow or ice from your windshield!