Works for Me -- Storing Trikes & Bikes

This is not my idea or my house but I thought I would share how it is done at my parents' house. They have the best driveway for grandchildren to ride bikes and trikes on. It is paved, flat, and long with a basketball area so needless to say lots of bikes and trikes stay there ready for grandchildren to visit.

My dad put two hooks up and then hung a metal bar on some chain and there is a great place to store bikes and trikes. I think I counted 10 hanging there.

Works for me Wednesday - Dishcloth Stew

My grandmother is 91 years old and she spends her days knitting dishclothes. I am younger than that and spend my days using dishclothes. I wash them but after a few weeks even with regular washes they start to smell and that is when I make Dishcloth stew.

I put some water in a pan, add some bleach and the dishclothes and boil them for a few minutes. The dishclothes do get a bit lighter in colour but they smell better after that. To me smell is more important than bright colour.

Some of my stash. Usually when I see my grandmother I give her some more yarn and then in a few days I get some more dishclothes.

Toddler Size Memories

Miss K is 2 almost 3 and she loves to look at my scrapbooks. The problem is the 12 x 12 are just a bit too big for her to flip through plus right now I have lots of pages. It is two books in one.

Last summer when we were in the land of plenty I found a 6 x6 scrapbook for $1 at one of the craft stores. I bought it because it was cute and I can hardly resist paper, stickers, paper, albums expecially when they are a good price. I even bought some of the insert pages. Then it sat on my shelf with all my other fun supplies.
Until I decided to make a book just for Miss K about Miss K. Called "Miss K's A, B, C's". It is still a work in progress.

C is for cousins and D is from Drum

S and T

I am excited about this project and brainstorming different things for each letter that tell bits and pieces of her life so far. It is a simple book but one that she loves and most of the pages are just plain white at this time.

It works for me to have a book just her size.

It's a snap

I love candles. They make our house special good and also help to cover the smells of neighbors cooking dinner or sewer smells. I live where garlic and lots of it is used for dinner. There are lots of smells here. Anyway, I like candles. Votive are my favorite maybe because it is fun to bring a few of them from home they are small and lightweight and I don't have to worry about the glass breaking like a jar candle.

When the candle gets burnt down, then the question is how t get it out of the glass holder. It is easy. Just pop it into the freezer for a hour and then use a table knife and it will snap right out.

Works for Me Wednesday - Storing Vitamins & Medicines

Living overseas means that there are some things that we have to bring from home. One of the big items that we bring is vitamins and over-the-counter medicines. We can get vitamins here but they are very expensive. The over-the-counter medicines are nothing that we know from home and often don't have directions in English. So those two items we bring with us. I usually try to guess maybe I should say estimate how much we will need until our next trip home or someone comes to visit.

One of the challenges that we then have is to make sure that we use the one that will expire next and not the one that still has two years till expiration. Expiration dates seem to be hidden, sometimes on the bottom, sometimes imprinted in the carton, and always in a small font. I got smart this time and got out a colourful Sharpie and on the top of the lid or box I wrote the expiration date. Now when we go to get a new bottle or box we know quickly when it will expire and we can use the next one. It is also easy to check what has expired and needs to be discarded.


For other great ideas check out this week's Works for me Wednesday at Rocks in my Dryer.