It's In The Bag

A few days ago, I was making some treats to take as "Thank You" gifts and "good luck" gifts as some leadership in our local congregation changed over.

I made some popcorn treats and needed gift / treat bags to put the treats in. I used to put on a huge boutique each November and rent out spaces. I would make items all year and used to buy the cellophane treat bags bulk in the boxes of 100 regularly for use in the boutique. 

I haven't done the boutique in many years as it was so much work all year and I wasn't making enough to justify the work as being a single mom took so much of my time. 

I also use the bags as treat bags for class parties, youth camps, girls camps, drill and cheer gift bags, and each Christmas I would fill the bags with dried apples, and the homemade popcorn treats which are both shown in the post linked here.  

Since we had Covid this year, I didn't give out my normal treats. Since I am no longer working with the boy scouts, and no longer have girls at home, my need for these bags has declined. 

I pulled out my bag collection which I have in a plastic drawer and realized it was a mess. I had so many different bags tossed in. It has been years since I organized it. Last time was when I was making treat bags for Drill team competitions when Princess Five was till in high school! Here is a post where I share about making those gift bags which we made for most every competition! 

I did want to share how I purchase the bags. I usually shop the "after holiday" sales to get the bags for the next school year. Being "room mom" for most of my girls classes, I would make treat bags for each holiday. They are usually between $.25 to $.75 for a package of 10 - 25 bags. 

The dollar stores usually have bags for each holiday so you can get enough for a few dollars. The other place I get bags sometimes for cheap is thrift or second hand stores. So many times I get bags of new bags for $.50 to $1. Recently I got three boxes of 100 for $1 which breaks down to a penny each bag. 

I used to buy those boxes of 100 for $10 for the smallest bags to $15 for the larger bags and I am sure they are even more expensive now. 

I spent some time today to sort and organize the bags and get rid of somethings I won't use. It is a weird space to be in as sometimes I think I should get rid of all of them, and other times I think I may use them for service in church groups or for my grandchildren. It is organized now by holiday and I decided to keep some for now. 

Have a blessed day!

Compare Paper Towels By Weight Volume - Huge Price Difference

When buying paper towels at my local grocery store, I bought a store brand and national brand larger bag of paper towel. The reason was that I ended up buying both larger bags even though everything seemed the same, was that one felt heavier than the other. 

At the checkout, the store brand cost $2 more per bag for the same size bag than the Sparkle Brand. 

When I arrived home, I weighed both packages and sparkle brand was over 1/2 pound more in weight than the Walmart Great Value brand! It was amazing to me.

So, for $2 less, you get more than 1/2 a pound more! I think I may start weighing my paper towel and toilet paper to find out which brand offers the most paper for the price just to know. 

Have a blessed day!

Comparing Toilet Bowl Cleaners - What Worked the Best

I used to love "The Works" toilet bowl cleaner. A few years back, I did a toilet bowl cleaner comparison and found that the best cleaner was "The Works."

For the past few years, the "works" hasn't been working. I have purchased and tried a few different cleaners and haven't been really excited about any of them. 

I decided to purchase one of each major brand of toilet bowl cleaners to find a new favorite. I let my toilet bowl get super dirty and today tried all the different cleaners to find a new one that I like. 

I tried six different cleaners in the toilet and made a video of how they worked. It was frustrating that I didn't find one that would take the hard water deposits off so in the end, I still need to use the pumice stone cleaner to get the tough stains off. 

Check out the video to see how each worked when I squirted them on. In the end, I felt that the Lime-A-Way worked the fastest but really wasn't excited about any of the cleaners. 

You can see and decide for yourselves which worked best. Have a Blessed Day! 

Installing a Detachable Sprayer in the Guest Bathroom

I have been using the basement shower more often due to the cracks in the base of my shower until the repair men come.

I had a water filter on the shower head which made the shower head quite low. I am rather tall and I had to bend my head back quite far to get it under the nozzle and it wasn't all that comfortable. I have a very tall son-in-law and thought it must be hard for him to wash his head when he visited.

I also know that at their house, they have a sprayer nozzle on their shower at home to wash and rinse the kids hair etc. I had been thinking about that the past few weeks as they are coming for a full week over Thanksgiving. 

I was at a second hand store last week and found a brand new detachable shower head that is six feet long. It is a snap 'n spray by Rinse Ace. I was so excited about that as it was marked $3 which I am sure is a great deal on the product. I just looked it up online and it is $30 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond here. My Heavenly Father is so good to provide the things I want and need just when I need them! 

I made a video of how it goes on and how quickly it is removed from the shower tip. It does have a good powerful sprayer on it and is a fast on and off. There were some things I wasn't thrilled with as you can either have the sprayer on or the shower. If you want to shift from one to the other, you need to turn off the shower and remove the sprayer. It is a quick change, but I wish they had an option to bypass the sprayer at the top. 

The other issue I have, is that it just hangs down and there is no where to tuck it if you want to leave it on or when you put it on, if it is facing out, you could get wet or flood your bathroom if the shut off isn't all the way off. I think it would be much better if they had a little hanging hook near the top so you could place it up there facing front as to not have a surprise spray possible. 

In all, I think my daughter and her family will be happy with the sprayer and removing the filter to give more height in the shower.  

Have a Blessed Day! 

Comparing Wasp and Hornet Killer Sprays, Distance and Price Comparison - Part 2

Yesterday I shared about how my trailer got lots of hornets nests inside the vents, under the hitch, and in some of the vented compartments. I used several types of wasp spray and wanted to replace the ones I used so I would always have a can handy if needed quickly.

I had to go to home depot to get a sprinkler part so I put the hornet spray on my list and headed to the store. I took some pictures of the different sprays and show the cost difference in the sprays. 

As far as distance goes, the Raid brand and similar shaped store brand cans said they shoot up to 20 feet. My experience was that they shoot up to maybe ten feet but the spray didn't drop them quickly and they would fly around with the foam on them before dying. 

The Raid was also more than twice as expensive than the Spectracide brand which shoots up 27 feet. It is $6 for one can and Spectracide is two cans for less than one Raid can. I show in the video how I shoot 22 feet with accuracy. The reason it isn't shooting well at the beginning of the video is I think there was a clog in the nozzle. It took a minute of spraying it before the spray shot that distance. The bottle I had I the garage I used on the first nest, shot from a long distance. I think it was just a fluke that the new one didn't shoot so far. If you don't want to watch the entire video, jump to the end and watch it shoot long and accurate. The top on the new one didn't leak on my hand either. I am fairly sure in the post yesterday, I mentioned that it had been dropped.

I learned something interesting about hornets. As I was squishing one with a stick, it thrusted its abdomen up and down several times. There are some insects that emit a furmone when they are dying by thrusting their abdomen up and down calling others in to help. One such insect is the crazy ant. when it is dying, it thrusts its abdomen up and emits a chemical that tells others to come. They then come and build upon the dead ants making a dead ant bridge to the next stable wire. They feed on electrical wires. They are also called the raspberry ant or the honeydew ant.

When I was squishing the hornet, it thrust its thorax up and down and it made me think of the crazy ant I researched after finding one in the house. I then used my scissors I keep in the garage to cut up some screen to put into the vents as you can see in the second picture. I used the scissors to poke the wire into the vent. I used it to scrap out the larvae and guts out of the pipe. 

The next morning when I was out demonstrating the spray. I had the scissors in my hand and a hornet went to the vent pipe, then to the fridge vent and then to the scissor tips I held in my hand! There had to be some way it smelled the other hornets on the scissors. 

I also noticed that when there was a breeze, it would go down wind a bit and work its way to the pipe. Over and over new wasps would come to the pipe. I couldn't figure out where they were coming from thinking they had somehow escaped from the hive the day before, but then I realized that the furmones were bringing in any hornet within a radius. It was interesting to see that. 

So, you can see that the Spectracide at two cans for $5 is a good deal and that it really does shoot the furthest of all the can sprays. For the price and the distance, I don't think I will ever be using the other brands again. For the ease, distance, and cost, it is well worth it to me to purchase the Spectracide. 

Glass Blowing - Stained Glass - Pulling Glass Classes - Part 2 My Candy Dish

I shared last blog post about my sweet Princess One giving me a wonderful gift of Glass Blowing. 

I wasn't really thinking when I went in or when I called that the first two options weren't actually "glass blowing" but it was wonderful just the same. 

I would at some point like to try the glass blowing session but it does take longer and cost more money. 

There is an age limit for glass blowing classes at this studio, gladly, I am over the limit! ;-) I think it takes a bit more skill and time to create something using the glass blowing techniques.

Even thought my experience was short and doesn't take much "skill" I LOVED it and think my weird shaped candy dish is adorable and unique so I LOVE IT! It also represents that someone took the time to think about something I enjoy and wanted to give me an experience to do something I enjoy or make something I enjoy. I think it was a SUPER thoughtful gift on her part. 

Any project you make takes 24 hours to "cure" and bring the temperature of the glass down slowly so the item doesn't crack in cooling quickly. I had decided to spend a few days in the area since the drive is long and I can see family while there so it wasn't a problem for me to drive to pick it up the next day. 

I made a video about the place and the experience and shared some of the other items you can make and the other classes they offer as I really think it would be a fun family activity for each person to get to make their own glass item. It helps allow the creative juices to flow as they get to pick out the colors and the item they want to make and then see the final product and use it. 

I think for the value, it is well worth it. Dinner and a movie is about the same price as this opportunity and this will give them something to keep and cherish as well as a fun memory. Maybe it would be a good incentive "prize" for the child to earn and get "one on one" time with a parent as well. I can't imagine any child wouldn't enjoy this experience. 

I highly recommend this experience and think that you would be able to find places in any state that offer this even if you do have to drive over a state line or a few hours, make a day or weekend out of the experience as I did. It was well worth it! 

I thought this platter they had at the studio was cool as it looks like a jellyfish. Enjoy! Have a Blessed Day! 

Seagate Nasal Spray For Sinus Infection - Mold - Flu - Cold Cure

I shared a few years back about a product I really love. It saved me when I got black mold in my sinus.

I realized that I never made a video telling the information and story about how I found the product and used it to cure my horrible mold sinus situation. I decided to make a video about this to share the information as many people only look to youtube for information and don't take the time to read blog posts. It is always good for a refresher as well. 

Here is a link for the blog post I wrote a few years back about Seagate Nasal Spray. Feel free to ask any questions you may have. 

Have a Blessed Day! 

Tea Tree Oil For Baby Teething, Pulling Teeth, Braces Pain, Wisdom Teeth, and BURNS

I have posted about Tea Tree Oil in many different posts in the past, but realized the other day that I haven't posted a video about it online. I figured while I was making some other health videos for my favorite health products, I would make one for Tea Tree Oil. 

I have used Melaleuca products for 30 years. I first started using it when Princess one was teething and it was SO amazing for that. I have used it for all my girls when they had teeth pulled or we pulled out loose teeth. Here is a post where I share about that.

I have used it on all of my girls wisdom teeth and wish I had known about it when I had mine out! None of them got dry socket or had any problems healing from their impacted teeth. Here is a link to Princess Five getting her teeth out.

Here is a link to where we used it on burns. I have used this for 30 years on burns since Princess one burned her hand as a baby on a vaporizer. 

I talk in the video I made of a product made by the company "Melaleuca" which is my favorite product from that company. It is called "Tub and Tile" cleaner and I have also used this for 30 years and it cleans off all the soap scum, mineral deposits and is the best window cleaner for mineral spots from sprinklers etc. Here is a link to that post.

Here is a post about essential oils in general. If you haven't ever used any essential oils, this post will explain that, and if you have to pick two, I would say get "Tea Tree Oil" and "Thieves" oil from Young Living Oil. These two oils are the two oils I have used most over the years and actually carry in my purse at all times, and have used them SO many times out of my purse for emergency situations. 

Here is a link to where I show information on my "pages" rather than just my blog posts where I talk about all natural medicine and what I use each item for as needed. I sent this information with all my girls on their missions around the world so they would have something to treat whatever came up while away. 

This oil has blessed my family is so many ways and it is seriously one of the top 100 things I am grateful for and don't leave home without! Have a Blessed and pain free Day! 

Grapefruit Seed Extract = GSE - Natural Antibiotic Life Saver

In the past ten years of blogging, I have posted about most of the medicinal stuff I use in our house. I like to post about how I do things so my kids will have a place to go and reference things when they have their kids.

I have posted about GSE, Grapefruit Extract Oil. Here is a link to a post where I share about using it in dried out mascara to moisten it and also kill off any bacteria in the mascara as sometimes that can be a problem in mascara. My mother had eye infections for years as her mascara would get infected and then she would reinfect herself over and over. 


Here is a link to the page where I discuss it and how I use it, but I guess I don't have a regular blog post on the subject. 


I finally made a video talking about GSE only. I know I have many blog posts where I share about GSE and how I use it in different situations but it is good to have a page where I can share about it and what we use it for regularly in the house. 

If you have allergies to antibiotics, this product is a life saver literally. I gave it to my mother when she had sepsis and at other times and it really did save her life. Most of my extended family have used this product as long as I have as well. It is such a blessing in our life! Our family has suffered from chronic yeast infections so anything we can do to avoid making those worse is a blessing. 

I want to share that I haven't found any good results using the pill form of this product and forgot to share that on the video. I also don't like their nasal spray as it stings somewhat with some peppermint oil or something. I prefer another brand of nasal spray that actually has GSE in it called "Seagate" nasal spray which I made a video about, so keep an eye out for that post coming soon. 

It seems like every company has one or two really good products and others I am not so excited about, but I have used both the regular and the concentrated form of GSE for many years and love both products. 

Have a Blessed and healthy day! 

Reviewing Fiskars Scissors Sharpener - Some Good, Some Bad

I helped a friend last week make a t-shirt quilt for her friend. I have been making these quilts for many years and I am happy to help others learn how to make them from my mistakes and experience. 

While making the quilt, I have several different pairs of scissors in my sewing area and just grab the nearest pair for what we were doing. She commented on a few pair of my scissors and brought me the most thoughtful gift the next morning when we were going to be finishing the quilt. 

She bought me a "scissors sharper" make by Fiskars. I had never seen or heard of something like that before so I thought I would do a review on it as I am guessing many of you have never heard of it before either. I was happy to share her gift with all of you so you could also see how it worked.


I gathered my various scissors from around the house. I mostly use them in the kitchen and sewing areas. Those are the two main places I need them so I learned that my two best scissors were both in the kitchen and the others were not the best and thus why she thought I needed the sharpener. 

Not that the others were horrible, just older and in need of sharpening. I found it funny that all but one pair of my scissors are sewing scissors and supposed to be used on fabric only! It made me laugh some as they are expensive scissors but well worth the cost as they work so well. I have had some of them for 20 years or more and I think I remember sharpening something many years ago at some point but considering how much I have used them over the years making all those quilts I have made and all the kids reports, art creations etc, I think they have done well. 

I made a video so you could see the test to know how they cut before and after so you could see I was using the same scissors and then see how they worked after the sharpening, I think it worked for the most part. The Singer brand scissors were thicker than the holes for the sharpener so I couldn't use them on those scissors. 

It says it has a lifetime warranty on the unit case but unless you kept the packaging, I don't know that you would remember that in a few years. Also, the unit is LARGE to store. 

I think it did make it easier to sharpen over a sharpening stone or a sharpener on a can opener type but I don't know that I would suggest spending the money on it unless you are a quilter and would be using it a ton. I feel like it is something I would use once a year or less and to store such a large item for that short amount of time use makes me think I would rather use another method. 

It did work and if you use Fiskars scissors, it may be worth it for you. Not all scissors fit in it so, unless you are sure your pair would fit, I don't know that I would spend the money on it. 

I notice online just now that they have a "Smaller" version for sale now so maybe they already had someone share that the one I got was large to store. Also, in looking at their scissors online, a new pair of scissors is under $20 so the prices have come down over the years and rather than buying a sharpener, you could just invest in a new pair of scissors as some are the exact or similar price than the sharpener. 

Over all it did work but feel like maybe not worth the storage and cost. So, take it for what it is and have a Blessed and Sharp Day! 

Prime 3D Puzzle Review - So Different Than the National Geographic Shark 3D Puzzle

I am trying to catch up on some stuff and clean off my desk. 

I have about 20 SD cards with videos and pictures from the past few years. My back up drive got full and living in a small town, I couldn't get another large back up drive for a few months. Then, even when I finally purchased it, I didn't want to start using the new one without going back to the other cards and filling in where I left off. on the old back up drive.  

Eventually, I had to clean off all my currently used SD cards to go on vacation, so I started the new back up drive at that point this past summer. But, anything around that time and before, for about a year, is still on SD cards and I decided to clean them off as I am trying to create a new website for the parasites. I can't seem to find the pictures I need to support the symptoms of the parasites on the first few summer used SD cards, so this is going to take much more time that I thought. 

So, I am having to start looking at all those old SD cards that I kept purchasing in town when one will fill up, I would go buy another until I could purchase a huge back up drive. I am paying the price of not keeping up on things now by having to go back and organize the pictures and transfer them to the back up drive. 

I still have those two drives separate, but I eventually want to have one for all pictures and family video. I currently have several with movies, some with iTunes and music, others with family history audio files, another with mostly pictures but a huge blog file, and now a new larger one that I want to combine it all and keep one for movies, one for music and transfer all my music to digital as I don't listen to so much of it as it is on CD's still. 

I  hope to be able to catch up on all this stuff and, once I can get the website for the parasites done, hopefully things will be a little less stressful answering questions online for hours each night due to it all being in different spots. It would be nice to be able to just point them to one website where they can see the videos, pictures, symptoms, how I got diagnosed, and stuff we have tried to cure it. 

Anyway, I once again got off topic. This 3D puzzle, I found at a second hand store and since the first one was such a disaster, I was afraid to do it but decided to take it camping and see if many hands could make it more fun. First off, the picture was much more colorful and easy to see the differences in pieces due to many subjects, where the shark puzzle was one object the same color as the background. 

Even though this puzzle was cut in the same way, with only one puzzle piece type, it wasn't as hard to do because of the color differences in the puzzle. If it were of one thing or a dark background, there would be the same issue we had with the shark 3D puzzle and the puzzle we did recently of Mary with baby Jesus. If you click on the links and look at those puzzles, you will see that a puzzle with all the same shaped pieces and all the same colored pieces is NOT fun to do. 

I would recommend this 3D puzzle and every age enjoyed doing it. I had children, teens, young adults and people my age working on this for about four hours to get it done and it was a 500 piece puzzle. 

I am actually going to take it camping again with us next year, as it was so fun for everyone to do. You can see that at times, it was a frenzy to get to put in a piece. I think I will take a few different puzzles next year so more people can visit and enjoy doing them side by side so there isn't a congestion to get a piece in. 

Such a different experience when the picture is colorful! Check out the video on the Shark puzzle and look at the funny comments below it, as many people had the same experience that we had. So, try the Prime 3D puzzle or just pick a 3D puzzle with lots of colors in them so that you can enjoy your 3D puzzle experience. 

Have a puzzling and Blessed Day!

Purchased TWO Identical Puzzles But They WERE NOT The Same - Different Cuts

During the holidays, my girls and I enjoy doing puzzles on the down time when most of the family has left and there are just one or two girls home. 


Here is a post about us doing some last year. 
Here is a post about us doing some the year before. 

When I was searching for those posts to link, I realized that our family does puzzles during the same time each year. We have our church general conferences biannually in April and October and we usually put out a puzzle for those events. 

We also have lots of puzzle posts in July for some reason. Maybe it is just a down time usually mid summer when there weren't many camps. Anyway, I got off subject. 

Over the past year or two, I purchased the same puzzle twice. I didn't realize it until going through some of the games and puzzles recently to clean out. I have a favorite artist, and her art has been made into puzzles. I have a few of her puzzles, and I guess I purchased two of this, birth of Christ in a manger puzzles. Here is a link to Liz Lemon Swindle's post a few years back on my blog.

I figured we could get rid of one of the puzzles and wanted to make sure we kept the one that had all the pieces and was in the best shape. 

We did puzzle one in an afternoon and even though it had lots of dark area, the pieces were different enough that we could get it done. Puzzle two was pulled out and Princess Four started doing it and commented to me while I was cooking in the kitchen that all the pieces were the same. 

I couldn't understand what she meant. Of course the pieces would be the same, it was the same puzzle. She said, "No, all the pieces are the exact same cut, there are no odd shaped pieces. It is not the same puzzle." 

I went over and looked and sure enough, the pieces are all the same. She did most of Mary and Jesus in the center and then she left town. I did most of the straw portion, but it took hours to get a few pieces done because I had to pull pieces out that she put together that in the end, didn't go together. That was on the outside edge. I then had to pull apart some I did in the middle that didn't go together, but looked as if it did. 

It was the same nightmare we had with the shark 3D puzzle from National Geographic I blogged about recently. She sat down after returning to town tonight and put in one piece after many minutes and I told her I didn't have time to finish it as she is headed back to school and I have much to do so we decided to scrap the puzzle and I asked if we labeled them "easy" and "hard" should I keep both and she said she wouldn't ever want to do the hard puzzle with all the same pieces as she wants to see it progress and not think about it much. 

I agree as that was how I felt about the shark puzzle and I had already spent many hours on the puzzle and didn't see much done so we chose to not finish the puzzle and to get rid of it. 

No sooner had we finished cleaning up the puzzle when I got a notification of someone posting on my shark puzzle on youtube. I laughed out loud for quite some time at the comments. Here they are combined for your enjoyment. "You have exactly the same done as I have hahahahahahahhaha. Hahahahaha dammit I was hoping you would show me the way but you’re just as lost as I am .. i have this damn shark ..im even going to the second floor to look at it from a distance to even get a different view Hahahahahahaha  well good luck."

Here is a link to that shark puzzle video. I have had many comments on that shark puzzle, so I know I am not the only person feeling frustrated about the stupid design in pattern of all the pieces fitting in every spot.

I just couldn't get over that the same company made both of the exact same picture and puzzle and size and piece count and there was NO indication on the box that one was multiple shapes and the other all the same shape. 

If I had just purchased that second "Young Messiah" puzzle and realized the pieces are all the same, I would never purchase the other puzzles by that artist made by the same puzzle company thinking they were all that crazy stupid pattern having all the same pieces. I think they should put some indication of the difficulty level on the boxes to warn you. 

No small child or young child could help on the more difficult puzzle as all the pieces fit into every other piece. It would be horrible to have to try and figure which was right with a child thinking they were getting somewhere putting all the pieces together. 

So, buyer beware when it comes to puzzles. Maybe check out reviews. I had someone thank me on the review I did on the shark puzzle on youtube as they were ready to purchase it for a Christmas present and then watched my review so perhaps, check out reviews on puzzles you are going to purchase unless you really like wasting time on puzzles. If so, I have given you two that will drive you crazy! ;-)

Have a Blessed and Puzzling Day!