Check it out, a kitchen island made from Legos. According to Unplggd, the island was made by “Munchausen, a duo formed by Parisian designers Simon Pillard and Philippe Rosetti.”
To make the kitchen island, the designers got a basic kitchen island from Ikea and covered it with 20,000 Lego bricks. It reminds me of the the Lego boardroom table.
Some people might find it a bit too busy, but I think it looks great.
What do you think?
I have to admit, I’m curious about bacon bourbon, that is, bourbon that has been infused with bacon. I’m not sure about infusing meat and alcohol together. On the other hand, bacon and bourbon sound good. I might put the two things together in a recipe, so why not a drink?
Taylor Takes A Taste has a post on What to do with Bacon Bourbon, where he talks about how to infuse bourbon with bacon and then gives a recipe that combines it with cream soda and apple juice. Honestly, that sounds a little sweet to me, but I’d be willing to give it a try. [Liqurious]
If you have seen the movie Black Swan and enjoyed the feather-light scarf Natalie Portman wears throughout the movie, good news. Knitting Daily has put up a free pattern for you to make your own.
They say it is easy to knit and “has a luminescent metallic strand of cool silver.” It looks almost as good as the original. [Craft]
I have a confession to make. I don’t like bar soap. It gets dirty and takes a long time to use up, so I usually get fed up with it and throw it in the trash.
Despite this, people seem to like to give me bar soap, which I feel guilty not using. So I have been buying liquid hand soap at $3 a bottle and putting the bar soap in a box with the intention of somehow finding a use for it.
Then it occurred to me that I might be able to convert the bar soap into liquid hand soap. Why didn’t I think of it before? I did some research and found out that it is easy to do. All it takes is melting the soap with water, adding a little vegetable glycerin, and voilà, you have made liquid hand soap.
So I tried it and was thrilled to find that it works great! From one bar of soap, I made close to 2 liters of hand soap, which will last a long time. The only thing I purchased for this project was a $2 bottle of glycerin at my local drug store:
Glycerin is made from plant oils and is commonly used in soaps, shampoos, moisturizers, etc. Since bar soap already has glycerin in it, I tried this experiment both ways, with and without the added glycerin. I found that the below recipe worked fine without the glycerin, except that the soap tended to clump and didn’t have as smooth a texture. It made enough of a difference that I would recommend adding the glycerin, but you can also try the recipe without it, if you wish.
How To Turn A Bar of Soap Into Liquid Hand Soap
Ingredients:
Equipment:
Directions:
First, grate the soap. Get out your cheese grater, grab the soap, and get grating. I found this to be surprisingly easy, although the soap particles tend to float in the air as you grate. You can wear a mask to avoid breathing it in. When you’re done, the soap flakes look like grated Parmesan:
One bar of soap yielded a little over 1.5 cups of flakes. The recipe only uses one cup of soap flakes, so I put the remaining soap in a jar for later use.
In a large pot, combine 1 cup soap flakes, 10 cups water, and 1 Tbs glycerin. Turn on medium-low heat and stir until the soap dissolves. This happens fast, about a minute or two.
Let the soap cool completely, then pour into the containers using the funnel. That’s all there is to it!
As I mentioned, this recipe makes a lot of soap, about 6 bottles worth. I put the excess in a large bottle and am storing it under the sink. When I run out, I will simply pull out the big bottle and funnel some more into the smaller bottle.
You can also use this soap as body wash. To make it smell nice, add a drop or two of essential oil to the mix.
As I mentioned, the only thing I bought for this experiment was the glycerin. I reused the bottles and the soap was a gift. (Alternately, I could have saved soap slivers and made the hand soap that way.)
In the end, I used about $.40 worth of glycerin to make the equivalent of 6 bottles of hand soap. That’s a savings $17.60, well worth the half hour of my time it took to make the soap.
ETA: The kind of soap you use may be a bit of a wild card, since every soap will have different ingredients in it. I got the best results with a bar of Yardley soap, which did not even need the glycerin to become hand soap. In general, a higher quality soap will probably yield better liquid hand soap.
Dove Sensitive Skin Beauty Bar seems to be more difficult to turn into hand soap, which I would guess has something to do with the “sensitive” formula.
ETA II: I’m happy so many of you are finding this recipe helpful. If you are having trouble, such as thin or watery soap or “snot-like” (?) soap, I encourage you to read through the comments. Lots of people have reported back with their experiences with the recipe. It seems that sometimes letting the soap sit to thicken in the pot or hacking it with a hand blender to loosen it does the trick.
ETA III: For a solution on getting the soap to lather, try a foaming soap dispenser.
Good luck!
I’m sure I would mess this up if I tried to do this, but this vertical layer cake tutorial from I Am Baker is pretty informative. You bake two cakes, cut them into rings with a template, and then layer them, like so:
The end result is sure to impress people. And she makes it look so easy!
Also, check out I Am Baker’s lovely rose cake, which also has vertical layers:
I am just twisted enough to enjoy these rugs made from recycled teddy bears by artist Augustina Woodgate. She uses discarded teddy bears to make these rather attractive looking rugs.
Not bad! [Re-Nest]
This winter, I decided to grow some mustard greens. Mustard is a nitrogen fixer in the soil, and I like the idea of growing winter crops that improves the soil at the same time. I plant fava beens for the same reason.
A couple of mustard plants from my garden.
The problem is that I have never eaten mustard greens before, so I wasn’t sure how to cook them. Luckily, I have eaten collard greens and kale, so I managed to come up with a pretty good dish. I sautéed the mustard greens with garlic, onion, and canned butter beans, and ate them as a side to a roasted chicken breast. They were so tasty, I decided to share the recipe.
If you haven’t had the foresight to plant mustard greens in your winter garden, most grocery stores carry them this time of year. Raw, the greens are spicy (which makes a great addition to a salad, by the way), but when you cook mustard greens, the spiciness mellows completely. With the addition of beans, this is a healthy, delicious side dish to try–especially if you are feeling uninspired by the usual winter vegetables.
To learn more on the benefits of mustard greens, click here.
Mustard Greens with Butter Beans
Serves 2 people
Ingredients:
Directions:
Put the garlic and olive oil in a frying pan. Heat up for one minute so the garlic releases oils into the pan. Add onions and cook, stirring, until they are soft.
In batches, add the mustard greens to the pan until softened. Add sugar and a sprinkling of salt.
Pour the broth into the pan and cook on medium-high heat, stirring often, while liquid dissolves. When the liquid is about half gone, add the butter beans.
Continue cooking until the broth is gone. To finish, add cracked pepper and a touch more salt. Serve as a side to your favorite entrée. Enjoy!
Somewhere I read that phrase, “clutter is procrastination” and something clicked in my brain. For me, this is absolutely true. All week, I have been paying attention to when I allow things to remain out instead of putting them away, and it is almost always with the thought that I will “get to it later.” That’s procrastination in its most basic form.
And as with all procrastination, putting things off means more work in the future, and often in much more unpleasant circumstances. It is easier to work ahead on something than to do it at the last minute. Similarly, it is easier to put things away as you use them than to let them pile up and become a big mess that you have to spend hours cleaning up.
All week, I’ve been changing “Clutter is Procrastination” to myself and I’m finding it’s making me more aware of when clutter starts, and why. That, in turn, is leading to a cleaner house. Magic!
What things motivate you to keep clutter under control?
This is a great idea. It’s a Whale Tissue Holder from the Etsy store Gnome Sweeeet Gnome. The handcrafted wooden whale allows you to pull a tissue out of its blowhole. From the site:
Each whale is completely hand cut, hand sanded, hand painted, and hand constructed which requires several hours of loving attention per whale. These are, in fact, functional and unique works of art. The wood is purchased from a local lumber store who buys directly from sustainable forestry companies in the United States.
Cute! I’m tempted to get one myself…
Here’s a tutorial to make an Infinity Scarf from two old sweaters. This is a great example of recycling, especially since you get something that is trendy at the end. And it doesn’t look hard to do, either. [Recycled Crafts]
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