DIY Toddler Hand Rail

My daughter and granddaughter, Squeak, have an apartment in my basement.  Even though they have their own home, Little Miss spends as much time upstairs with me as she does downstairs with her mom. 

Little Miss is 2 and super independent. Too independent. She comes from a long line of stupidly independent women and the gene didn't skip her.  

She's now taking to coming and going as she pleases, absent an adult. On the stairs. She goes up. She goes down.  She gives me a near heart attack every time. 

She is tall enough to reach the hand rail, but, her hand is too small to actually grip it.  She refuses to sit and scoot down the stairs once she figured out she could walk up like a grown ass adult. One foot in front of the other.  Not step up and plant both feet on one stair, then do the same on the next. Nope. She's a one foot after the other.  

And I'm too old for this kind of terror. 

So I decided to get her a toddler hand rail. But they don't really exist - at least as far as I could find. There were thick ropes people hung to their existing rails, and that would probably work fine. But it also made me nervous for no rational reason. 

So I thought about it for a few days, and came to a solution.  I needed a 12 foot hand rail.  I looked on line and didn't find anything I really liked.  So I took Little Miss to the hardware store. I found a 3/4" dowel that she could grip completely with her little tiny hand. I bought two. I bought four hand rail hardware mounts. 

I had Little Miss be my biggest helper and hold the dowel so I could see how high it needed to be. 14" from the bottom was just right.  

A few drill holes, lots of measuring and re-measuring, some stud finding, about two hours, and bam!  Railing in place.  It's not beautiful, but it's functional and hopefully it saves her from any slips or falls  

She was so proud using it going down the stairs and then up again.  I feel so much better knowing she has a good grip. 

It's not beautiful. But it's sturdy, functional, and Little Miss thinks shes a really big girl now.  Mission Accomplished. 

Make you're own vanilla extract

Making your own vanilla extract is not difficult but it does take a minute.  Or 264,960 minutes if you're counting.

Need: 

Patience
About six months

Preferably two 8 ounce jar(s) with a tight lid(s)

12 to 16 vanilla beans/pods*

Vodka*

 

*good vodka. good beans/pods.

 

By good I mean not the cheapest out there. For my extract, I use Tito's or Five Wives (a local Utah brand). 

 

By good beans/pods, I also mean not the cheapest out there. There are Grade A and Grade B beans/pods and my understanding is that the Grade A are longer in size.  Grade B are slightly cheaper (and apparently recommended for making extract).  I have used both Grade A and B and do not have a preference. 

 

I have heard that the Madagascar Organic Vanilla and Tahitian Vanilla beans/pods are good. Both are Grade A. I haven't tried Tahitian.  I suggest trying a couple different kinds of beans/pods.  Maybe you can tell a difference in taste/quality, but honestly, I cannot. Me palate is not refined. I used a Grade B Madagascar Vanilla Bean from Amazon for my current batch and it's as good as any I've tried.  I get my vanilla on Amazon because it's better than what I can find at local grocers, and often slightly cheaper online.  Plus, I don't have to leave my house. #Winning

 

To begin, you want to wipe your vanilla beans with a damp paper towel to clean them. Make a slit down the side of the beans (you don't need to cut in half but it won't hurt them). Basically you're just opening them up to expose the vodka to the vanilla.  If any of the bean guts come out, just scrape them into your jar. The guts are the good stuff.

Add 6 to 8 beans (about 1/2 to 3/4 ounce/15g to 21g) to a clean, dry jar.  Cover the beans with 8 ounces of vodka. You can fold or cut the beans in half if they're too tall to be completely submerged.  Close tightly and give a good shake.  

Put the jar in the back of your cupboard or some other dark place where it will sit until you remember it again. The jar needs to be out of direct sunlight. 

Give your jar a vigorous shake every 6 weeks or so.  I usually shake mine on the first day of the month when I change my calendar (because the jar is in the same cupboard where the calendar hangs).  Set a reminder on your phone or just don't worry about it. But it'll be better vodka if you give it a shake routinely.  

Now the patience part. You need to let your vodka sit for AT LEAST six months before you use it.  The longer it sits, the better it tastes.  Some people say you can use the extract after two months. I believe those people are wrong. 

 

I suggest making two jars at once so you've always got a jar in use, and a jar brewing. During the holidays, we will easily use a whole 8 ounce jar so it's good to always have a spare. Especially when you're waiting months for it to be ready.  

 

Plus, I promise once you make your own vanilla extract and let it age 6 months to a year (the longer, the better), you'll never use store bought again.  It really is that good and your food tastes better for it. And you know exactly what's in it. 

This is a three tier pull down spice rack. It was the first thing I wanted on my list of wants for the new house. Finding one that wasn't a bazillion dollars though, that's another story. And Amazon didn't have any that were not expensive AND in stock at the same time. 

I think I found this on some random website and bought it at 3 in the morning or something because I cannot for the life of me recall where I got it, I only know it showed up one day and I said, oh yea. I forgot about you.  

This was trickier to install than the wine rack. I had to measure, mark, drill, remark and re-drill, remeasure, and again perform body contortions. But finally I got it.  And it's one of the best things I've ever owned with regard to space saving projects.  

ten out of ten recommend.

DIY Re Upholstered Couch and Chair

When I first my new house, I fell in love with the small "formal" living room. I knew this would be the Christmas Tree room in December. That was the only plan I had. The room gets great eastern light and it's become my grow plants, lounge and read while the dogs nap on me, room. My son in law calls it the terrarium room. 

      

Anyway, I knew that I wanted a loungy couch in here. So I found this red gem at a going out of business sale. 

I searched for about a month until I found the material I wanted, a suede-y but easy to clean, soft and welcoming material in a smokey blue/grey. (I really wanted a deep, deep red wine color but I couldn't find material that was under $1,000). 

So, after I found the material, I bought an electric staple gun, some razor wire stuff (flexible metal tack strip), a staple puller, pliers, I watched at least 10 hours of videos on how to reupholster your own furniture, and how to recover buttons and and tuft a couch; then I bought more supplies, thousands of staples, buttons, scissors, twine, and new legs for the couch because the that came on the couch were gross.

It took three weekends to completely disassemble, then reassemble, cover, and finish; and be happy with my efforts. The videos weren't lying when they said THOUSANDS of staples. 

I didn't take photos of the process, though I wish I would have because it would have been helpful for the next project.

It's hard to tell how good she really looks with the shadows and the indentation from my ass, but I'm proud of her. 

I had almost a whole roll of material left so I decided I'd recover my old lady chair. She was a cool ten bucks at the Goodwill.  I got her in 2015 and she is so comfortable.  The dramas gave me endless shit for having an "old lady chair" until the first time they sat there. THE most comfortable chair for reading that I've ever owned. No joke.  

BUT. I don't have room for her in this house.  So I asked Drama #1 if she wanted the chair for her new house.  She did. And I said I'd get right on it. 

Narrator: she did not get right on it.

Instead, I got the seat recovered, and the inside front sections done and then my stapler broke.  By the time I got a new one, it was summer; then I was really busy. And lazy. But mostly really busy.  So the chair sat in the spare bedroom, half done, lonely and sad, waiting for me to finish.  And finally I did. This month.  Literally, two years  after I started. I'm glad it's done and out of my house. Drama #1 is glad it's done. And I'm proud of this one too: 

    

Wine Rack from Amazon

When I bought my house two years ago, I started a list of improvements and I had a relatively small list of wants.  One thing I really wanted was a hanging rack for my wine glasses. I found the Torfican Wine Glass Holder on Amazon* and knew it was exactly what I needed.  

I was able to install the racks with just a screwdriver and some body conditioning. I'm very happy with how the racks turned out. Now I just need to get some cupboard doors with glass in them to complete the look.