At Home
Cleaning, tips, gift ideas, and more!
Cottage Room Spray
One of my favourite scents in the world is the smell of the forest at my cottage. It smells utterly divine, and a hint of it in the city always fills me with a longing for sunshine and summertime. The woods are mostly spruce and birch trees, and the fresh water that...
Lemon Cream Cleaning Spray
I think the most magical part about homemade cleaning products is not their low cost, the fact that they are non toxic, or the whole "yay I made something" factor—it's that they have this incredible ability to make me excited to clean my bathroom. For the first couple...
Even Better Tub Scrub (Non-Toxic Comet)
Like most people, I'm not the type who gets excited about cleaning the bathroom. You would have just cause to worry about me if I did. Anyhow, this scrub got me excited about bathroom scrubbing for at least a few minutes, and if that's not a testament to how awesome...
Winter Survival Guide
Go home, winter. No one likes you. You weren't invited to this party. You look fat in those pants and you smell funny. GO AWAY. Ok, well, that didn't work. Crap. Winter's still here, my feet are still cold, and I'm still dreaming about escaping to a beach in...
Sleepy Time Pillow Spray
I love dropping a bit of lavender essential oil on my pillows at night before I go to sleep, but in drop form you end up with small drops of highly concentrated scent, which manages to be both simultaneously overwhelming and underwhelming, depending on where your...
A Great Big, Easy to Move Tiled Carpet
A while back I was tasked with creating a portable "Live Out There Lounge" that could be somewhat easily set up at events to create a branded space for us to do fun things, like serve people coffee, chat about how awesome Live Out There is, and lounge about in comfy...
Homemade Leather Balm
For a vegetarian, I really like leather. In fact, I'd say I like leather a lot even for a meat eater. Especially for shoes. I really love leather shoes. And purses. And wallets. And boots... oh lordy. Especially boots. I have a boot problem (damn you, eBay!). I like...
Deep Cleaning Washable Barefoot Shoes
I recently purchased myself a pair of Merrell Pace Gloves. I love how lightweight and flexible they are, and even though I haven't really been putting much effort into training myself to barefoot run, I still wear them all the time. And it's starting to show... in the...
Stop New Jean Bleed
Whenever I buy a pair of new jeans I'm always treated to a period where my legs appear to be horribly bruised from the dye rubbing off the jeans. Since I rarely buy new jeans I usually forget about the dye thing, and then end up wondering what on earth I did to myself...
DIY Reuseable Cosmetic Cotton Pads
I realized somewhat recently that I am using (and subsequently tossing) a lot of cotton pads. That's a lot of very frivolous waste. So, I got to thinking—if you can make re-useable diapers, cotton pads can't be too far away. I took a trip to my basement to find some...
Super Simple Grout Cleaner
I recently discovered the wonders of hydrogen peroxide when its mixed with . It's amazing. Someday I will write an entire entry detailing the many, many things you can do with this simple mixture. It saved a cream coloured shirt that had been...
Super Simple Shoe Storage
Now that I have a big person job I find myself defying my non-girly convictions and acquiring shoes. Nothing on the Carrie Bradshaw scale to be sure, but I now find myself with more than five pairs of shoes, I'm having a bit of a storage issue. And a finding both...
Cleaning Fabric-Backed Smartphone Cases
A few months ago I ordered a replacement for my trusty iPhone case. Speck #1 had served me well, so I replaced it with Speck #2 and Speck #3. I've always liked the fabric-backed case look, so I got two more, and they are cute. Simultaneously colourful and protective....
Removing Sticky Labels
I'm big on re-using bottles and all varieties of packages. I go through lots of bottles of essential oils, and then I like to re-use them. But the problem is they always come with super sticky labels that leave an incredibly tacky residue. As I've discovered, no...
Quick Hair Elastic Trick
Here's a quick little tip for keeping your hair elastics from turning into a rat's nest in the drawer. I've been doing this for a while and was kind of thrilled to see Goody now sells their elastics with a carabiner for the same purpose. I wonder when they snuck into...
At Home Dry Cleaning
I suppose I should preface this post by saying that no, this trick will not remove that ketchup stain from that silk-cashmere-ascot-thing that you ruined at that barbeque last summer. Sorry. This is more of a dry way of freshening up things that shouldn't be washed...
When It’s Cold and Dry
There are lots of articles out there about how to deal with the cold. And lots about how to deal with a dry climate. Unfortunately, these articles always seem to be mutually exclusive. Most of the ideas to warm you up will dry you out like a prune, and most of the...
Fantastic Bathroom Scrub
I feel fairly safe in stating that cleaning a bathroom is probably no one's favourite job. And I also feel fairly safe in stating that most people prefer a clean bathroom to a filthy one, which creates a rather unfortunate catch-22. It can be somewhat offset by...
A Homemade Warm Beanbag for Chilly Winter Nights
I love sleeping with a warm beanbag in the winter. It keeps my bed warm when the room is freezing, and it's nice to cuddle something that's warm and soft and doesn't complain about being suffocated. But... it's started smelling a bit funny. I guess regularly...
Make Your Own Super Sturdy Re-useable Shopping Bag
Re-useable shopping bags are everywhere these days. Every business wants to sell you one. My local grocery store rewards you with 2¢ for each cloth bag you use. Lululemon sends you home with one every time you buy something there, and they aren't the only store that...
Super Simple Draught Stopper
A few days ago a friend of mine mentioned that he intended to buy a draught stopper (one of those little weighed tubes of fabric that you put at the base of a door to stop air from leaking in or out). I was appalled. Who buys something like that? So I made one for...
Make Yourself a Lovely, Lacey Apron
Well, I suppose the lace part is optional. This is an ultra-simple pattern for an apron I made a few weeks ago. I used some vintage fabric and trim I found in my basement, and pieced together a few pattern pieces to create this adorable little piece of kitchen wear...
Beeswax Furniture Polish
This beeswax furniture polish is really quite miraculous. It's easy to make, incredibly inexpensive, and yields beautiful results. It is guaranteed to make you fall back in love with your antique wooden furniture, wooden salad bowls, and wooden cutting boards. It...
Resolution: Downsize & Organize
I'm not much for resolutions. I rarely keep to them... I think the only one I've ever successfully kept was from about 1999 in which I promised myself I would always have lip balm on my person. Thanks to Calgary's stupidly dry climate, that one had a built in pain...
