CRAAACK fiberglass shower repair

My Problem:   40-year-old fiberglass shower suddenly developed a floor crack.  What to do?  There was no local reliable repairman who could fix this.  (There used to be one, but he retired and his replacement was doing shoddy work.)  The only alternative was to hire a “bath remodeler” 54 miles away.  The cheapest estimate was going to be 4K but could possibly run $9- 19K easily.  We decided to watch YouTube videos and attempt it ourselves.  You can do it also!  Just take your time and watch multiple videos.  Watch more than one time and pay attention to details and time involved.  Relax, watch them over and over, don’t jump into the repair until you feel confident enough.  It helps if you are well-versed in-home repairs, have some tools, or worked in Maintenance somewhere in your life.  Your goal will be to do it RIGHT the first time.   Supplies needed:  roof seam repair tape also used to fix fiberglass boats (comes in white), sandpaper, caulk, certain size drill bit, epoxy, battery powered drill.

save on that electric bill

Using an inexpensive clothes drying rack can save you a lot on electric bills. It works better if you have a large house, but these fold up and be easily stored.  I’ve had 2 for about 20 years, they last forever.  If you have your central unit heating on in the winter or even a fan in the summer, position these close to the air flow.  They are also great for delicate hand washables that you don’t want to place in the dryer.

Healing in Helen Georgia

Purchased this ebook on Amazon this spring. Want to say I finished it today, it was super good! I was crying by page 16, something I normally don’t do! The story is about a young woman named Dana, I won’t say anymore because it would give the story away. But she has many shattering events take place in the book. The author is Andrea Renee Smith in case you want to check out her other books.

The St. Louis (eyebrow) Arch

Getting your brows waxed occasionally is way easier than tweezing. The beautician will ask do you want a low-medium-high arch? I say ‘medium’. Beware “high” you may look like Joan Crawford! This style is pretty outdated. Also, outdated styles are called paisley or tadpole brows. These have a chunky area at the inside and sort of taper out. The wax is applied and then removed with a cloth in an outside-to-inside yank. It’s sort of like band-aid removal. Over time the hair root will gradually be destroyed and you won’t have to get it done as often. Beware home wax kits, my beautician told me she had a friend who tried this at home with bad results–the wax hardened and she couldn’t remove it. She had to go into the shop after hours and get it removed with a product the beautician had on hand.

Gardener savings- small plants

for lower prices on pepper plants (bell, jalapeno, banana) go to your local farmer co-op & buy the ones that are in the plastic flats and the plant is in small squares of black dirt. Don’t go to other places and buy ones in white plastic cups.

kickstarting an old hobby I had in the Eighties

for years I always said “when I retire I’ll have lots of time to make hand crafted presents.”

That time came in 2007. I decided I would take up my abandoned Eighties hobby, counted cross-stitching. I have to say some things have changed since then! I still had all the supplies—pattern books, embroidery thread, needles, and scissors. Some of my material had developed severe stains and fold marks, so it had to be tossed. I went on a quest to buy new 14 count material.

Years ago (when the hobby was booming) we had three or four hobby shops in town that sold everything you wanted, including lessons. They were gone, and all that was left was the big box store. They had very little to choose from and the nearest big city hobby shops were 54 miles away. Thank heavens for Amazon and Ebay! Ebay has thousands of pattern books and some sellers even will email you patterns in a PDF file upon payment. Besides these two giants, you can search Etsy and Pinterest for ideas and free or low-cost patterns. These places even have stitchers who will create custom-made designs for you. Isn’t the Internet wonderful! I visited my local library, and they had a surprisingly large collection of pattern books and a handy copier close by where you could copy a pattern and thread color chart for a quarter.

Back in the day I used frame shops to custom mat my creations. Nowadays I haunt local thrift shops for donated frames. You wouldn’t believe the beautiful frames I’ve purchased for fifty cents to two dollars.
When I was younger, I made the patterns exactly as they were written. Now, I find that with my skills, I “fit” the patterns to the frames beforehand and stitch extra borders to compensate for the expensive matting I used to pay for. My gifts have gotten a lot of compliments and sometimes friends even think I have purchased them at a gift shop!

Making homemade things is a great way to save money and impress your friends!

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