Don’t you just love it when you have a problem, maybe you’ve even procrastinated addressing this problem, and then you find a very simple solution? I sure do! And I had one of these exact scenerios the other day. As I’ve talked about before, most of the furniture in our nursery is from craigslist. I just love finding great little pieces that other people no longer want. And the dresser in the boys’ room is no exception. I got this little beauty for $50 on craigslist last summer:

I love it! But as can sometime occur with older pieces, it had a bit of a hiccup a few weeks ago. One of the doors that opens up came off it’s hinges. Basically the screw holding the hinge on was loose, because the hole in the wood had become too big. I wasn’t really sure what to do about it. I was nervous about putting in a bigger screw, as I was afraid it might split the wood, so I headed over to Home Depot to see if someone could help me! And sure enough, I got just the answer I was looking for!

I put a drop of wood glue in the hole and put three or four toothpicks in the hole, snapping them so they were flush with the top of the hole. Once the glue dried, I simply screwed in the screw, and voila! The screws now had something to grip onto. Pretty neat, eh? And as we already had toothpicks and wood glue on hand, this fix was FREE! Yeah!

You guys may remember my sad little iphone tale…I haven’t thought about my old phone much since I bit the bullet and got the iPhone 4 (and haven’t looked back!). But…what to do about this:

Well, it’s been sitting on my desk for awhile. I know you’re not supposed to throw them away, so I was doing so research the other day about where to take it, and I found this awesome site. They send you a prepaid envelope, you send in your phone and you’re not only rid of your old (and in my case broken phone), but they mail you a check for it! I got $20 for my phone , even though it was completely broken (I’d have gotten $40 if I hadn’t tried to play Doctor Frankenstein)! So if you have an old iphone stashed somewhere, it’s definitely worth checking out!

I told you a few days ago about how smart the previous owner of our house was–she saved and labeled all the paint she used in the house. However, because she didn’t store it well (she just left it in the gallon buckets and labeled it), it was all pretty unusable when I went to touch up nail holes when we moved in.

So I came up with my own way of storing paint that has thus far proven to be a pretty good system, if I do say so myself.

I have a bunch of these twist and lock containers by Ziploc. They’re cheap, the lids twist on so they get a nice good seal, and they’re the perfect size!

Pour any leftover paint you have into the container, and cover with a piece of plastic wrap, yup, the kind from your kitchen. Make sure that the plastic wrap is all the way pressed down onto the paint–this is key. It’s the paint interacting with air that makes it get icky.

Twist on the lid (right over the plastic wrap) and then tear off any plastic wrap from the outside if you want to go for that neat and tidy look (which, of course, I do ).

On the outside, in permanent marker, I write:

• The room where I used the paint
• The brand
• The color
• The finish
• All the information from the little printed out label they put on the top of the paint can after they mix it. That way, if I ever have to go buy more, I can give them the color numbers (in case they no longer carry the color “Shooting Star”).

And that, my friends, is that.

I was washing the dishes after dinner this evening and, like I do every time I have to wash the dishes, I thought to myself “I LOVE these pots and pans.” And I realized, I’ve never shared with you my little plug for pots (which is actually pretty surprising, because I tell EVERYONE who walks into my kitchen about the amazing deal we got on our set).

Anyway, the Hubby and I both enjoy cooking, and so a few years ago we decided it was time to invest in some nice pots and pans. We were pretty happy with the few pieces of Calphalon we already owned, so decided to go in that direction. Knowing there are several “levels” of Calphalon, we started to do some research to find out which Calphalon line was the best, ready to drop $1000 or so on nice pots and pans that would last us many years.

Needless to say, we were VERY surprised when we read on Consumer Reports that the best brand was Costco’s Kirkland Signature brand, which is quite similar to the Calphalon brand and actually holds up better in the long run. The kicker? It’s a fraction of the price of the Calphalon line!

For a “discounted price” at  Williams-Sonoma, you can buy this 15-piece set for $949 (suggested retail price is $1675).

OR you could get this 15-piece set from Costco for $159!

We were floored. But Consumer Reports gave it the thumbs up, so we headed over to Costco and picked up the set. That was over two years ago, and I couldn’t be happier. The Costco pans look like they did the day we brought them home (while the Calphalon pieces we own have already started to wear a bit), and they are so easy to clean, which I LOVE.

So, what are you waiting for?!? Go buy some up right now–you won’t regret it!