If this post seems like something about nothing, well, Seinfeld made a career of that and who am I to discount that??
So I have come up with solutions to a few annoying every day problems...
#1. Cole no longer enjoys just eating when you feed him. In fact he often asks, begs, demands to be fed --until you actually feed him.
Then he saunters over sniffs the bowl decides it's not worth his time to chew and walks away. Or he begs from my plate, I finally give in and hand him a bite of whatever I have, he sniffs it, looks at me like he's lost all respect for me and walks away. (Cole: "I cannot believe she has thumbs, can open the fridge and still eats that stuff")
Anyway...
He has a food stand so his highness-with-long-legs can dine in relative comfort. He hates the non allergy kibble, the one that does not make him sick, and that costs a good portion of Daddy's available salary.
In an effort to make it more palatable, we heat water, add canned food (same allergy food) mush it around and make sure it's warm. If he eats, he likes to lick the "gravy" first. Which means he splatters it across the wall behind the dish.
Once that stuff dries, it's like plaster and harder to get off than tomato stains off a tshirt.
As an aside, Cole wants to eat a bit, wait til that settles, then eat an hour later but he wants it to always be warm. Mommy dearest here, just heats water and adds that each time.
He doesn't need a food stand, he needs a buffet with a chafing dish.
The other day, after we both went at it hammer and tongs to clean the wall, I pulled out my creative thinking cap, and Eureka! I cobbled together a barrier made of a piece of foam core board (sacrificed from the studio) a white plastic garbage bag, and propped it up behind the dish. Now all we have to do is turn it around to the clean side at some point, then toss it when icky and replace. Ah HA!
Wasteful but a lazy solution and we are both pleased.
(Note, we seldom have company, and don't really care how it looks, so avoid us if you care)
#2. The sliding door to the porch is nearly impossible to open. In fact, it's likely the same age of the house built in the '80's. Whatever. It sticks.
Because the power goes out so often, we have candles laying around. One day, I said, Eureka! I will drag this candle over the track! And I did
For the quilters out there, this is a bit like finally giving in and changing the rotary cutter's blade. We will saw away at fabric hoping to get one more cut out of it, I mean it's sharp enough to remove a limb, but not to cut fabric. Or it cuts fabric all but two threads every three inches so that you have to go back and recut them.
So of course the ugly service candle lives near the slider. Where else would it live? Again, don't come over expecting a show house! Come over for a poodle kiss!
#3. The lantern that lives on the coffee table. It ain't pretty but it's functional. As mentioned in #2 our power goes out way too often. Now, we live in a metropolitan area, it's non stop traffic, people, and wires around here. But the power goes out just the same. We do not like being in the dark, so we stopped storing the lantern in the basement, and just gave up the concept of decorating a house, and leave it on the coffee table.
Oh, and the tree like sculpture was a gift one year, it's a jewelry holder but I liked the concept of "tree" and just decided to leave it here as if it was a sculpture. Shrug.
People, I have lots of these creative solutions to the annoyances of life! I bet you do too.
I think just for fun I will start a new series on them. After all, if you can't use your creativity to make life easier, then why not?
I'd love to hear one of your creative solutions, leave a link to your blogpost on it if you like in the comments section. Linking to rascalandrocco
Creatively yours, LeeAnna
8 comments:
I use your candle tip whenever it's impossible to slide a zipper. Works so good.
and A DRAWER THAT IS DIFFICULT to slide LIKES A GOOD WAXING SOMETIMES. Sorry i was not shouting just typing in a cool dark room and to lazy to repeat!
My father used to use candles to wax the bottom of the drawers. And johnsons paste wax on the (very hot) metal slide in the yard.
We also have a battery powered lantern next to the couch, because we lose power at unexpected times. Someone in this house also has a thing for flashlights (ahem ahem), and we have them scattered around the place.
Our similar lantern sits in my kitchen, next to the baker's rack and next to the deck door. It's handy when the power goes off and also for when my husband walks out in the back yard in the dark to turn off the garden hose he forgot. I like your solution for the wall by Cole's dish. Simple and practical. Now if you can solve the chafing dish part of the puzzle let us know.
Cole has the same table manners like my dad... he eats like a berd and then one hour later it starts again... and again... and again... crazy :o) I used the candle trick for our old windows in the garage, it's not perfect, but we can open them without asking the hulk or hercules for help :o)
Candle tip is wonderful! Using it on my sewing room window today (which doesn't like to slide much). Thanks Lee Anna! We live in a metropolitan area too and went through about 15 years off losing lights. Mostly from car accidents hitting poles :( We keep all our things nearby too. Have a great day and enjoy this weather!!! Hugs, Mickie
We seldom have power outages but we are old so we bought plug in lights they just stay plugged into the outlet and if the power goes out they light up.
As to the dog's eating habits ....i believe his owners are very smart he has them well trained
My husband has been trained by his cat to feed her dinner then feed her dinner from his plate and her meat needs to be neither too warm or too cold
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