Solid acrylic stain covers both my front porch and rear deck, and both were badly in need of paint jobs. Staining my porch and deck is the biggest DIY project I’ve attempted so far. I’m far from an expert, but I thought some of my experiences as a rank amateur may help others who have considered taking on such an endeavor to save money by not hiring someone else to do the work.…
Whether you paid someone to stain your porch or deck or saved money by doing it yourself like I did, you’ll probably have some paint drips and splatters that didn’t get wiped off when they were wet. Once paint drips dry on your vinyl siding, they will no longer wipe off easily. Even an electric power washer won’t help.
Following some online research, I decided on a few common products to try for cleaning the drips from when I repainted my deck and porch.…
While laundry detergents have added “oxi” cleaners to some of their products for years, Tide only recently released their own separate oxygen cleaner in direct competition with OxiClean
Procter and Gamble provided me with a sample container of Tide Oxi
This post contains affiliate links; see my disclosure here.
Oxygenated cleaning agents generally contain sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide, along with detergents.…
A CBS News report recently re-broadcast on “60 Minutes” tries to answer the question, “Why are glasses so expensive?” According to the report, one Italian company – Luxottica – monopolizes nearly all of the market for eyewear in the U.S.
In the “60 Minutes” story, Luxottica CEO Andrea Guerra says that “at least half a billion people worldwide are wearing our glasses now.”
The company owns both LensCrafters and Pearle Vision along with the two top premium sunglasses brands in the world – Oakley and Ray Ban.…
When you’re ready to put a ring on it, online jeweler Brilliance.com wants to send you a free 3-D printout of that diamond engagement ring you may wish to buy.
The concept of 3-D printing has garnered extensive media coverage over the past couple of years, mostly due to its potential for extraordinary medical advances such as creating body parts and custom medical devices or for its possible use in terrifying endeavors such as smuggling 3-D printed guns onto airplanes.…
Suave Professionals Natural Infusion product series continues the brand’s long history of creating quality hair care products at low prices.
Each Natural Infusion bottle compares itself favorably to an equivalent Pureology hair formula. Other Suave Professionals products have compared themselves to more pricey drug-store brands such as Aveeno, whereas the Pureology brand, made by L’Oreal, sells mainly through hair salons at premium prices starting at $20 to $30 each.…
If your little ones like to borrow Mom’s hair products, they’d probably love having their own hairspray, gel or mousse.
I’m already a fan of Suave Kids two-in-one shampoo plus conditioner and their detangling spray. Suave, a product of Uniliver, has a long history of producing quality products at low price points, including a variety of both adult and children’s products.…
Roku and other Internet TV streaming devices work best with premium subscription services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, but Roku also has a good selection of free channels, including many that offer viewing of television shows.
Pop Flix offers classic TV shows, including:
- “The Beverly Hillbillies”
- “Life with Elizabeth” starring Betty White
- “Bonanza” starring Lorne Greene
- “Sherlock Holmes”
- “Man with a Camera”
- “The Lucy Show”
- “Dragnet”
- “Adventures of Robin Hood”
Crackle also has a few television shows available, such as:
- “Sanford and Son”
- “Married With Children”
- “The Larry Sanders Show”
Even without an Amazon Prime subscription
If you’ve run out of chili seasoning mix or just prefer to make your own, this homemade chili seasoning mix recipe is right on the money. You can leave out the sugar and flour commonly found in commercial packets to makea low carb and/or gluten free chili seasoning mix.
You can also nix the salt if you’re watching your sodium.
Ingredients:
- 8 tsp chili powder
- 1 to 2 tsp salt, to taste
- 1/8 cup crushed red pepper
- 1/8 cup dried minced onions
- 1/8 cup garlic powder
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- one packet calorie-free sweetener, such as Splenda
- 4 tsp ground cumin
- 4 tsp dried parsley
Instructions:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and store in an airtight container.…
If you use Paste Special, Unformatted Text frequently in Outlook 2007 or above, you may have noticed that there’s no button for this command by itself. Plus, Outlook won’t let you record a macro, and copying macro code from Word 2007 doesn’t work.
You may want to copy and paste unformatted text if, for example, you’re copying and pasting from programs outside of Outlook, such as a Web page or PDF.…