DIY: Easy Toilet Paper and Hanger Birdfeeder

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I don’t know about you, but I seem to break a lot of children’s hangers.  There always seems to be a hanger lying on the floor under a stuffed animal that breaks when someone steps on it. Or a kiddo who’s too short to reach the bar in the closet yanks an article of clothing down and breaks the hanger in the process.  I wanted to find a way to reuse these hangers.  I had already tried taping them and using them again but the older the tape got the more stickiness came off on the clothing.

While trying to find a clever way to use these little hangers, I started noticing a lot of toilet paper bird feeder how-to’s making their way into my Pinterest feed.

Here are a few examples for you to click through:

 

I thought it would be a great idea to convert one of these hangers into a bird feeder using toilet paper rolls.  I mean who’s family doesn’t run through toilet paper?  As a family of 5, we always have toilet paper rolls around.

This is the DIY I came up with… yeah I’m pretty proud of it.

UpcycledBirdFeeder

Now… make your own:

 

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upcycled birdfeeder materials

  • 2 Toilet Paper Rolls or a Paper Towel Roll cut in half
  • Tape: either Scotch, Masking, or Duct
  • Broken Hanger (you can break one yourself if you really want to)
  • Peanut Butter (We used expired peanut butter.)
  • Bird Seed
  • Plate
  • Butter Knife or Spatula

 

instructions

 1.  Using butter knife or spatula, spread peanut butter on toilet paper roll about 1/8 inch thick.

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2.  Pour seeds onto plate.  Roll peanut butter covered TP roll in seeds.  Press down to stick seeds in peanut butter.

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3.  Repeat steps 1 and 2 with second TP roll.

4.  Slide TP rolls onto broken hanger.

upcycled bird feeder step4

5.  Tape broken part of hanger closed.

upcycled bird feeder step 5

6.  Hang outside for the birds to enjoy.  The Adventure and I hung ours outside on a honeysuckle bush that storms had knocked over this past summer.  It’s still growing… just sideways.

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As you can see, The Adventure and I had a pretty good time making a mess these bird feeders.

Upcycled Bird Feeder action

Remember this Sunday is Mother’s Day!  Get creative and make something for Mom!  I know handmade gifts are still my favorite kind of gifts to receive from my children.

happy mother's day 2013

love DB

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Myself Better is now The Creative Recycler.  Along my journey as a blogger I have discovered a passion for creating something from nothing.  I hate to throw anything out and enjoy the challenge of taking trash and turning it into something beautiful and useful.  I’m looking forward to a new direction on my new blog.  You can look for recycled and upcycled DIY how-to instructions, information on making products last longer, how-to instructions of recipes from scraps and home cleaning products made at home.  I’ll also navigate through Pins on Pinterest (click to follow me) and test them to see if they work.

I look forward to our journey together.

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You can still access Myself Better’s past content on this blog.

love DB

How to refill a Swiffer mop.

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On average, a Swiffer refill container two-pack costs $10. If you like to keep your floors clean, that adds up to a lot of cost, not to mention plastic waste.

If you’ve ever tried to refill your Swiffer solution container, you’ve noticed how hard it is.  The folks at Proctor and Gamble made sure you’d have to buy more as opposed to refill it.  The cap is secured in a way that you would have to break it to get it off.  I’ve tried that, too.

So how do you refill a Swiffer mop?

What you will need to refill your Swiffer:

  • a funnel
  • duct tape
  • drill
  • 5/8 inch drill bit (or one that is the same size as your funnel)

How to refill your Swiffer:

1. Start with an empty Swiffer refill container.  Using a 5/8 inch drill bit, drill a hole in the top of the Swiffer refill container.

2. Rinse any plastic shards out of the hole you just created using water.

3. Prepare the floor cleaning solution you are going to use. I chose to use Shaklee Super Cleaning Concentrate. But there are TONS of great ideas on Pinterest, as well.  While you’re browsing Pinterest, make sure to follow my page if you haven’t yet by clicking here.

4. Insert the funnel into the hole you drilled and fill with your floor cleaning solution.

5. Tear off a square of duct tape large enough to cover the hole, stick over the hole, and get to mopping!

Happy Cleaning!

I’m happy to share this post with Simply Rebekah’s “Your Green Resource” link-up!  GO GREEN!

Are You Ready for the Holidays?

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I know I’m not.  By now, I usually have all the gifts I need and have already started wrapping them.  Not this year!  We don’t even have our tree up, yet!  Ugh!

I feel seriously overextended right now!

  • The Mysterious has been experiencing more and more migraine headaches so we’ve been doing the medication shuffle.
  • The Adventure started preschool this year so we’ve been shuttling her to and from school (a 40 minute round trip) three times per week.
  • We have such a beautiful little Baby Finale but he is a 4 month-old baby and requires TONS of attention.
  • I decided to chair our elementary school’s Reflections program again this year (because I’m a glutton for punishment).
  • I started a new job in October after being home with kiddos for 2 years!  The upside?  I’m a school bus driver and can bring my kiddos with me to work.  The down side?  I’m a substitute and I never know what route I’m driving until the night before or a couple of hours before I’m supposed to get on the bus.  I’m crossing my fingers for my own route. I would love prayers that I get one.
  • I decided that I would participate in National Novel Writing Month in November.  I didn’t achieve the 50,000 word goal set before me but I did get 4 chapters written in one month, which is more than I’ve written in previous months.

Wow.  As I review this list, I have to admit it looks crazy.  But I’m sure I’ll have all my Christmas to-dos done on time.  I always do!  ::crosses fingers::

What do you have to look forward to this month on Myself Better?

You get to join me in getting ready for the holidays.  All month I’ll be posting great DIY Christmas gifts as I make them for friends, family, and colleagues.  Also look forward to two great giveaways.  One for a kiddo and one for an adult.  I’m really excited about these!  Stay tuned because the first giveaway starts this week!

NaNoWriMo and DigiWriMo Link-Up

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This month, I am participating in NaNoWriMo.  The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50k word novel in 30 days during the month of November and the goal of DigiWriMo is to write 50k words of digital content in 30 days during the month of November.  I have had a novel working around in my brain for the better part of 7 years.  I had finished 6 chapters and I submitted my unfinished work for review by a panel of 3 literary agents.  The bad news: It was torn apart.  I had to start over… from scratch.  The good news:  I received some amazing criticism.  So I am participating in NaNoWriMo… “30 days of literary abandon.”  I will update this post each week to let you know what and how I am doing.  This is no small feat so wish me luck.

At the bottom of the page you will find a link up so you can share your progress, as well.  If you do not have a blog to link up, feel free to leave messages with your status and feelings about participating in either NaNoWriMo or DigiWriMo.

Monday November 5, 2012

Getting started was hard.  But now that I have my story started I hope I can keep the momentum going.  I only have 871 words written but I am more confident in my opening pages than in my previous draft.  I am behind by several thousand words but I intend to keep up and make up for lost time.


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Plans for November and December

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The next two months are going to be very exciting for me (and for you).

This month is both National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and Digital Writing Month (DigiWriMo).  The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50k word novel in 30 days during the month of November and the goal of DigiWriMo is to write 50k words of digital content in 30 days during the month of November.  I have been working on a Novel for the better part of 7 years.  I had finished 6 chapters and I submitted my unfinished work for review by a panel of 3 literary agents.  The bad news: It was torn apart.  I had to start over… from scratch.  The good news:  I received some amazing criticism.  And the story line is sound so I’m participating in NaNoWriMo.  “30 days of literary abandon.”  During the month of November I will only be updating the blog to give updates on how my writing process is going and to provide a link up for other writers.  I will also be sharing our Thanksgiving and The Finale’s 4 month-old photos.

December will be exciting in a whole other way.  To prepare for the holiday season I will be featuring 2 gift ideas per week leading up to Christmas.  At least one idea per week will be a DIY.  I will also be holding 2 giveaways at the beginning of the month with a chance to win a wonderful gift from Heart of Haiti and a book by one of my favorite authors.

Thanks so much for sticking with me and prepare for a fun holiday season.

3 Months Old… Time Flies

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Here he is.. the Finale at 3 months old.  I love this picture. We were taking photos for our Christmas letter and daddy held him up on one of the tree branches… big fun!

We weighed him on our scale and he’s weighing in at 15 pounds! At this point he’s all smiles and giggles.  3 months old is one of my favorite ages.  Their personalities begin to explode onto the scene.  The Finale’s personality is happy and relaxed and he loves to “chat” with coos and gasps.  He rolls with the punches.  He balances out our family in a way I never thought possible.

Last week he was in his car seat a bit too long before we all piled in the car.  He started to fuss and both The Mysterious and The Adventure stopped what they were doing and sang Rock a Bye Baby to him.  He immediately stopped crying and was all coos and giggles again. I wish I had a video camera running at the time.

My house was at peace for a brief moment… it was wonderful!

 

 

Photo Finish Friday: Can’t live without spray paint!

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Today’s Photo Finish Friday (PFF), and every PFF this month will be linked up with two great blogs: Simply Rebekah and Money Saving Mom.  The theme?  Frugal Photo Fridays!  I love saving money and I love my Photo Fridays.

Visit Simply Rebekah to join in!

This week’s theme is Home and Decor. 

In my decorating arsenal, there is one tool that I can’t live without… spray paint.

I’m a big Freecycler.  If you’ve never heard of Freecycle, it’s an online community of people who give away unwanted items.  It’s green, it’s thrifty, it’s awesome!  I get a lot of my furniture and decorative items off of Freecycle and from yard sales.  If I find something that will work in my home and it’s the wrong color I get it anyway and then spray paint it.  

Here are some examples.

Since I live in a mobile home, I hang a lot of things on my walls.  I love little shelves like these for displaying knick knacks.  This shelf was at a yard sale for $.50.  It was painted a tacky gold color.  A little black Rustoleum and it’s better than new.

My kiddos love magazines.  They have subscriptions to Zoobooks, Highlights, Lego Magazine, High 5, and Boy’s Life.  Someone was giving away clear plastic file hangers on Freecycle.  I painted them with Rustoleum spray paint in a mahogany brown and they make perfect magazine racks that hang on the wall.

I found this in the basement at my grandparents house collecting dust and painted an ugly aquamarine color.  When grandma decided it was time to let it go, I gladly agreed to take it and spray-painted it white to match the kiddo’s bathroom cabinets.

Sometimes I don’t want to change the color.  I decided to leave this shelf it’s own natural wooden color.  It was a bit of a mess when I got it off Freecycle.  It was a bit moldy and dull looking.  So I scrubbed it down and sprayed it with clear spray paint.

I always keep a stash of spray paint on had that matches my decor.

 

DIY: Banana Bread Mix

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My children and I are picky when it comes to eating bananas.  We like them on the green side of ripe.  My husband is the only person at my house who will eat a truly ripe banana.  Some weeks that leaves a lot of bananas that need to be eaten before they turn completely to mush.

Mushy old bananas are perfect for banana bread.  But I don’t always have time to measure out banana bread from scratch.  So about once per month I make up a few bags of banana bread mix and stick them in the cabinet.  Then I’m always ready to use any super-mushy bananas left on the counter.

What you need to make your mix:

  • 1 3/4 cups sifted flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • Ziploc bag, or a plastic or glass container

  • Put all of your ingredients into the Ziploc bag or plastic/glass container.
  • On the container write:  Mix 3 bananas, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup softened butter in a bowl.  Mix in container of dry ingredients.  Bake in a standard loaf pan at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Make sure you keep it green by reusing your Ziploc bag or container.

Enjoy your banana bread!