• Knitting and Crochet,  Tutorials and Tips

    How To: Dealing with Stiff Circs

    Every knitter who uses circs knows the struggle of wrestling with the cords of cheap circs. You take them out of the package, expecting the cord to unwind only to end up with this: Ugh. Seriously the worst. And it’s not like they’ll gradually soften and straighten as you knit – no matter how much you pull, that spiral stays. Except, I figured out how to make it go away. (Or rather, my father suggested it to my mom who then tried it, found out it works, and then told me… but anyway…) All it takes is a little bit of hot water and about 5 minutes total. All you…

  • Fashion,  Tutorials and Tips

    DIY Adjustable Wire Charm Bracelets

    One of the (non-career related) benefits of teaching college students – adjunct though I may be – is that it helps keep me on top of fashion trends. Some I’ve by far already aged out of (apparently midriff shirts are a thing again?). But others I’m totally still young enough for, and the wire charm bracelets I’ve been seeing everywhere are right up my alley. Bonus, they are TOTALLY DIYable. Which is great for me, since most of the actual brand name bracelets are hella expensive (for my budget anyway) at about $30 a bangle. That said, the actual bangles (I do own one – Jim bought me one for…

  • Baking and Cooking,  Tutorials and Tips

    Lucky Charm Treats – Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

    St. Paddy’s Day is one of my very favorite holidays. Or rather, let me rephrase that: My hometown St. Paddy’s Day Parade is one of my very favorite holidays, topped only by Christmas. I originate from the Scranton, PA area and let’s just say this – “Parade Day” (as we call it – it’s so important we don’t even need to specify. Everyone just knows) is a big freaking deal. That said, our sacred day was actually Saturday annnnnddddd I was a bad girl and didn’t bring my camera with me. Boooooooo bad blogger. So to make up for the lack of personal photos, here’s a tutorial for Lucky Charm…

  • Sewing,  Tutorials and Tips

    DIY Plastic Bag Keeper

    We had a major plastic bag problem in our kitchen. Since we moved in this summer, we’ve been saving plastic shopping bags to use as garbage bags in our small cans – throwing so much plastic away without even attempting to recycle made us feel uncomfortable. BUT, after several months of this, we had accumulated more plastic bags than we could ever hope to keep up with in terms of our trash creation, and because we don’t have a ton of hidden storage, they were cluttering up our kitchen big time. So, I whipped up a quick solution with my DIY Plastic Bag Keeper. What you’ll need: Sewing Machine Scrap…