1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumbercontains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid,Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.
2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up acucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.
3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumberslice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.
4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in thecucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.
5 Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!!
6.. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!!
7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation.
8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don’t have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.
9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!
10. Stressed out and don’t have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams.
11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don’t have gum or mints? Take aslice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.
12. Looking for a ‘green’ way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take aslice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but is won’t leave streaks and won’t harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean.
13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!!


~from news444.com

Brownies in a Jar

Are you unorganized and last minute gifter like I am? Usually we are a little bit more ahead then this, but not this year. Being crippled this year has made things a little bit harder then usual, and now that DH is home from Halifax (military stuff) things have been a little easier to get done! If you have jars kicking around like we do from spaghetti sauce or canning, you can use them for projects! We use mason jars from sauces as glasses. Having two boys in and out and bouncing about, our dishes take a beating!

This project is easy to make, looks lovely when it's done, and tastes so good. If of course you love chocolate.. The lids took the longest, you can decorate however you like. I used some canvas glued on, and then wrapped wired ribbon after the glue had dried and fabric trimmed. We don't have a printer yet, which we are going to look at today for labels and instructions. I hand wrote them out on some cut out heavy paper from a duotang holder. I'm sure there is nice paper around here somewhere, but once again, no idea with kids around! They have many projects !! Attached to the label I had some "Made for you" charms which I tied on with twine (I make jewelry and other things so have charms from that.)

Ingredients you will need to make the layers. You can also write this on the card that will attach to the jar:

1 1/2 cups of brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (can substitute any nuts you like, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts etc)
1/2 cup chocolate chips, chunks, or even white chocolate if you like

They will need 3 eggs lightly beaten and 1 cup of soft butter.

1. Preheat oven to 320 degrees. Line or lightly grease and flour a 7x11 baking tin. (Can use a 9x9 also)
2. Empty out jar contents into a bowl and mix together thoroughly
3. Mix in 3 lightly beaten eggs and 1cup softened butter
4. Spread onto baking tin and bake for 30-35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Layer the ingredients in the jars. Remember if they are going to bounce around a lot, the thin ingredients may slip through the bigger ones and sink. I put all the brown sugar on the top but it would have looked nice to separate the flour and the brown sugar and make two more layers. I'm too impatient though when there are too many jobs going on. Lots of Christmas baking today!

You can make your labels however you like. On a printer, or handwritten are both nice. We like giving handmade gifts instead of store bought items. It just feels like more this way.

Hope you get some free time to get to some crafts! Merry Christmas everyone!

Garden planter box

Have you ever just seen a pile of wood, and thought "Hey, what can I get out of that?" I do it often! This time I put those thoughts into action! This is what I came up with: 

Total cost: about $10
Total time: 8 hours (because I started out not know what I was going to build exactly;)
Difficulty: Medium
Tools required: drill, jig saw, tape measure, pencil 2 inch screws, 1 1/4 inch screws, poly for liner, paint and brush, wood of choice, hammer, stapler and staples for wood


So, first of all, the pile of wood is an old burn pile in the back yard that has come from house building scraps. A family friend brings them over to the house and it is usually used for the fire pit, but thought I would do something else with it this time. There were a lot of boards that were about the 2 feet length that had been cut from different projects for the house building. The first thing I did was build a basic frame. I had originally built a salad box and that is what I was starting to build when the idea came to me that I could expand this project! 

Luckily for me the pieces were all generally the same size, so it was pretty easy to put this together. I used 1 1/4 inch screws to pop this together. 
Next I built the salad box. I have one of these in my garden specifically for lettuce mixes. It is 3 inches tall, so perfect for baby salad greens! 

Once I had the box together, I had to figure out how to do the sides. It all started to come together by this point, and decided that I really loved the look of vertical sides and horizontal bottom and top. 

I didn't plan it very well,, so it was a little bit tough getting it together at first, simply because I jumped ahead of myself. Should have put the walls together first and then connected them. What ever you are comfortable with will work though! I used a chair for the top pieces to lean on as I was screwing those pieces in. For this section I also used 1 1/4 inch screws. 

As I looked at the box, this is what I thought would be the bottom and then figure out something with the top. It didn't actually end up like that. This is when I decided to use the salad box as the bottom, and ended up flipping the box. Because the pieces are all the same length it slid in quite easily. I did have to find some pieces for support on the inside of the box, and they had to be screwed to the sides so it would sturdy up. 

It has been fit, and snug on the bottom. Now for the top. This is where I had to use the jig saw. I had to measure 45 degree angles on the boards on top so the pieces would fit together and it would have a sharp looking top. I stapled the edges together, and used that metal stuff for securing furniture to the wall (in case of earth quake) I stapled the wire on and hammered it in so it was secure. The top side I just used staples for some extra strength. I wasn't very concerned with using screws on top as it was going to be painted so screwed the top on, two on each corner where the pieces connected for some more extra support. This is where I used the 2 inch screws so they were long enough to get some good grip into the frame boards. 

Now that it was pretty much put together, I cut poly to fit inside so the wood won't rot away too quickly. You could put a pot inside as well if that is easier for you. This wood was used for concrete so I had to scrape a little bit off before painting, but all in all it didn't take very long, and was a pretty easy, fun project! I bought paint for this project, but am also using it on another one, so total cost for the paint was 14.00, but this box used about 1/4 of it. The screws were about 3.00, and the other miscellaneous parts were already kicking around the house like staples and poly.   


Have fun, stay safe and please use safety gear when ever it is needed!