10 uses Tuesday: Dental Floss

Break open the medicine cabinets because today's 10 uses Tuesday is focusing on floss!  I love the creativity that takes place when you force yourself to think about things differently!  My husband is wonderful at this.  He isn't a particularly creative person, he is just incredibly cheap, which causes him to come up with great ideas like this use for dental floss:

Yes, that's dental floss (unused, he's not quite that cheap) holding Tucker's helmet on his head.  That piece of floss has actually held up much better than the original cheap piece of plastic that it came with.  

What about you?  Any fancy floss solutions?

On the mend

Thank you to all the friendly readers who wished me well last week.  I am indeed improving rapidly and am almost at 100%.

During my down time I shocked my husband, my mom, and my 6th grade Home Economics teacher and picked up a needle and thread for the first time since that dastardly class.  

The thing is, sewing is good for the earth and good for the pocketbook.  Mending what you have will save money and precious resources over disposing of the tattered and buying new.  So the hole in my slipper is now covered (with a reused stained sweater!), the tear in my duvet cover is now sewn up tight, and the lining of my coat has been reattached to it's shell where it had ripped away.  I feel accomplished.

Of course, you will have to check back in a couple weeks to see if any of these repairs is actually holding up.  I know that said Home Ec. teacher is not placing any bets on me.  But I truly do want to get good at this.  Ok, maybe good is asking a little much.  Proficient?  

I have goals of hand quilting blankets and, gasp, actually learning how to run a sewing machine, but I have no idea where to even begin.  I know my slipper is a first step.  I am happy about that...but what next?  

Do you do your own mending?  Sewing?  Quilting?  Etc...Where did you learn?  What are your tips for those wanting to get started? 

Soap duds

I don't know whether it's the desire to rid every evil germ from my home or the spirit of spring cleaning in the air, but I took time this weekend to do another exciting task, refill soap containers.

The focus here is on refilling containers rather than buying new containers each time. There are more and more earth-lovin' suds available today. Method and Mrs. Meyers are two I use right now because they are both somewhat widely available. But I know I need to find something better. They have their downfalls like they both contain fragrance and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). Method provides refill bags which use 83% less plastic than the tradition plastic soap container.

Soy is the New Black has a great post about soap this week and a link to Method's defense of SLS usage.

What soap do you use? Who has found the best Mama E lovin' kind? Do you use refills? Is there an even better way?