Love my winter boots but they've started to leak. Damp socks are the worst! Abe's winter boots are in a sad state, with the front sole flapping in the breeze. Do we throw these boots out, sending them to live in a landfill? Admit defeat and spend money for new ones? Or do we fix them? Yahoo, PROJECT! Level of Difficulty: 1/5 Cost/materials: Shoe Goo $9 Wool/Felt Insoles $10 Old paint brush (small) Clamp (I used a kitchen bag clamp thing) Time: 15 minutes plus 24 hours waiting Seemingly known to the world, but newly knownst to me: Shoe Goo. You can get this goopy stuff everywhere. For Abe's boots, the sole had come apart so much it needed to be clamped. For the rest, I applied the goo using the brush to the space where the sole meets leather. Wait 24 hours. Anywhere there is goo, it is a bit shiny. After wearing the boots outside a bit, the shine gets dulled with dirt which is just as well. Also I love the wool insoles, makes the boots extra warm. I tested my boots on Thursday with a 6km round trip walk for meetings - dry socks, warm feet! Success! Lessons Learned 1. Easy cheap fix. This was a no brainer. Saved hundreds in the cost of new boots. 2. I think the paintbrush helped with sealing the edges. I am not sure how you would apply the goo otherwise. Don't use a good brush as there is no gooing back........<symbol crash> 3. I am messy. The more I track my projects, the more evidence I have that I am messy. No worries, I won't let that get in my way of more projects!
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My project this morning was homemade walnut crackers.
I googled and started with this recipe and made a few changes Walnut Crackers 3/4 c crushed walnuts (I did this step with the mortal&pestal 1/2 cup oat flour (if you don't have any, you can put oatmeal into blender until powdery) 1/2 cup white flour 1 t baking powder 1/2 t salt Mix dry ingredients. Then mix in the wet ingredients: 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup olive oil I found the dough to be pretty soft, so added a few more teaspoons of flour. I separated the dough into two balls. Took one ball, and rolled in out between two sheets of parchment paper. Cut a few circles and stripes and transfer to a baking sheet. Cooked at 425 for around 20 minutes. Keep an eye. The texture is pretty sandy, a bit delicate but very tasty. Would be nice with a soft cheese. Level of difficulty: 1/5 Cost: I don't really know as i had all the ingredients. Let's say $5 Lessons Learned: 1.Main lesson is that the dough can only be as thin as the largest piece of walnut. In other words, crush the walnuts into pretty small pieces. Otherwise you can't roll the dough thin enough. 2.The original recipe said 1/4 t of salt but i thought it needs more hence the 1/2 t above. 3.You could add some dry thyme, fennel for extra flavour! Our cat Chickpea gets very chilly during the frigid winter months of Ottawa. We keep our house quite cool at night and weekdays when we are at work; I wanted to make a warm place for Chickpea. She loves dark corners so really wanted to have the bed covered. Time for a project! I looked around for covered pet beds but was shocked how pricy they are. Abe also wasn't/still isn't convinced this is a necessity so I decided to build one on the cheap. Chickpea now spends hours everyday in her heated bed box so thought I'd share the project! Level of difficulty : 1/5 (Super Easy!) Costs: Pet Bed Warmer - I bought mine off amazon for under $20 - link Old small blanket (free) Box from LCBO (free) Leftover wall paper (you could use wrapping paper as well) Time: 15 minutes Do I need to type instructions? Anyway, cover box with paper. Put blanket in box. Place bed warmer under blanket. Walk away, pretend you don't care if the cat tries it out or not. Do not exclaim "She loves it!" the first time the cat enters the bed. Keep your cool. Lessons Learned 1. Do not buy a fancy covered pet bed for $80 when you can build your own :) 2. Placing the bed box near a heater vent helps increase the cozy factor 3. Heated pads are worth it, keeps it nice and warm when the room is cool. 4. It took a while for Chickpea to 'discover' the bed. I tried to push her in to notice how awesome it was, but that backfired. Be patient and eventually they will go in when they feel like it. :) 5. I rushed the wallpaper covering, not my most exact work and it looks a bit messy. I probably should have take the extra two minutes to do a nicer job. Oh well. I may paint it to match the walls. I saw some beautiful tin ceilings and walls on a trip to Prince Edward County and wanted to get that look in my home. There is a wall in my dining room begging for a PROJECT! Yippee!
I've never installed wallpaper alone, used to help my mom when I was younger: almost a pro I figure! I bought paintable 'tin' patterned wallpaper off of amazon, similar products at home depot etc. I used most of two rolls for one wall. I did a lot of reading beforehand, watched youtube videos (this was a good one). Before wetting the paper: The prep and pre-cutting of the wallpaper took a while, lots of measuring. I started with the first piece on a line centred in the middle of the wall and drawn with a level. I cut each piece from the dry roll on the floor first, matching the pattern and numbered them on the back with pencil so I'd remember the order. Though the wallpaper was pre-pasted, there was lots of advice to also put on a thin layer of paste (in retrospect, I would not do this again, there was lots of excess paste). Installation: I moistened the cut pieces in groups of two: I'd take them to the bathtub, where I set up the wallpaper tray - moisten, and then fold paste side in ("booking"). I watched this video a few times before starting. Starting with the centre piece that was level worked out well and made it obvious to me our old house has wonky walls. I let the installed paper dry overnight and painted it the following day - I used a roller but had to go back with a brush to get paint on all the pattern. Level of difficulty: 3/5 Cost: $50-75 (2 rolls, wallpaper starter kit). I already had leftover paint and painting equipment. Time: 8-10 hours. I started Saturday morning and finished up later afternoon with paper installation. Painting was quick and occurred the following day. I think I'll be faster next time. Lesson Learned 1. The prep is a bit overwhelming but worth it. Once you start, you have to keep on going with the paper installation and get them in place while you can still manipulate them. Marking the centreline with a level worked well. 2. The paper was pretty stretchy once wet which was good and bad. I could push it around to match the patterns but wasn't 100% perfect. 3. A sharp blade makes a difference with all the trimming of the paper at the top and bottom. This paper was hard to trim cleanly, probably because of the stretchy-plastic nature of it. 4. Don't overly moisten the paper. 5. I think I would paint it with semi-gloss paint next time. I just used some we had left over but I think the bit of extra shine would make the pattern really stand out. Onto the next project! Our house was updated in the 1980's, with a heavy-handed use of oversized pot-lights, gray counters and 'brass' finishes. I love our two-sided fireplace, which is the divide between the living room and dining room but have never loved the shiny finish of the doors. New doors are hundreds of dollars but one can of high heat black spray paint- $10! A friend had mentioned the project to me so figured I'd give it a try. I googled how to take off the doors - there are little screws holding the doors in place. Remove the screws from top and bottom and the doors slide off- no big deal! Once off, you need to spend a few minutes to protect the glass with painters tape and newspaper. Two light coats of the matt black high heat spray paint, let them dry and back up they go! I think it looks better than it did before. Not the same as new doors but not bad results for the effort involved. Project Difficulty: 2/5 Lessons Learned 1.Spray paint is very forgiving. It seemed to smooth itself out as it dried. Awesome! 2.Tape the corners of the glass with small pieces first, then use large strips along the side to save time. 3. Doors are much easier to take down than put back up. Get a helper to hold the door and pieces in place as you refasten the screw. |
Author: Leah BartlettLover of projects, big and small! I try to not be intimidated by lack of experience/skill/know-how. Archives
September 2018
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