I love the idea of using the hair conditioner for shaving legs. I need to try that one. My husband has used dryer sheets in his pockets when he is out camping and it does work to keep the mosquitoes away. Baby oil is great to remove the oil sludge from your skin that you sometimes get down at the beach (and most of us are avoiding many beaches along the Gulf for that very reason!) We found this out last summer when we were down by Corpus Christi and one of my boys had it on his legs. Brunettes - Use soy sauce as a rinse in your hair to enrich the natural color. Comb it through your hair and let it sit for a few minutes, then rinse. I need to add this list of helpful hints link to my favorites so I can pop back and refer to it later. Thanks everyone for posting these great ideas!

I found the tax shelter in this posting when searching for a gift for my brother. He is a tax preparer and has everything. So I just had to share what I did for him. I took one of those woodcraft houses from Walmart- removed the two screws from the base. I cut a 1" block of wood that fit into the bottom of the house. I glued this block onto the base thus allowing the top of the house to be easily lifted off the base. I cut a 1/2" groove in the center of the block with the table saw so I could set a card of thumb tacks into it. This was hidden in the house until the top was lifted off. I wrote a poem for this & read it to him while my daughter did a Vanna White presentation of the house. Everyone got a good laugh out of this and I finally did a complete craft project! It's been a while. Hope you have as much fun with this as we did. Here's the poem: I drew your name for Christmas It's an honor, don't you know To get my brothers name for Christmas Ah! ashopping I will go. But then I started frettin After searching high and low Whatever will I get 'im (Twas wrong to worry so!) I went into an office shop Maybe something for your desk? I talked to the clerk a lot She tried to aid me in my quest. He could use a tax shelter Is what the lady said It seemed a bit off-kelter But there was nothing left instead. So here's your little shelter All painted so very nice The foundation has been mended The roofs' been polished thrice. The flowers are all blooming In the big pot by the door The bumblebees are buzzing And there's no sawdust on the floor. It seems to be the perfect place I do agree she's right It sure beats a plain old case And your tacks! They're finally safe at night!

Thanks for all of the responses. Before I address them, I think I'd like to give some background on why this kitchen means so much to me. I love to cook, so the primary purpose of my kitchen is to be functional. Honestly, the most functional kitchen I've ever had was my small galley kitchen in an apartment in Hoboken, NJ. The secondary purpose is to be beautiful, in my eyes. I have never had anything that approaches a beautiful kitchen. The kitchen I have now was an '80's kitchen in a house built in the '90's so was outdated when I bought it when it was 4 years old. The cabinets are golden oak with arched rasied panels. The wallpaper looked like it belonged in a bathroom, the backsplash was pinkish, glossy tile and the laminate countertop was that fakey "marble" which also verged on pink. See below: I did change out the wallpaper to something bright and cheerful that I hated to take down for the "refresh" we did for eventual sale of the house. But, I did know that it had to go. For the refresh we also installed Giallo Napoleon counters, a lovely stainless finish pullout faucet, a new Ticor sink and DH ripped out the tile and redid the backsplash in tumbled marble with onyx accents. The cabinets are staying unless a real estate agent says otherwise because there are houses selling in our area that still have those cabinets and everything else that was original. So, really, not a bad kitchen, but nothing to make your heart go pitty-pat. What y'all need to know about is "The Kitchen from the Ninth Circle of Hell" hereinafter referred to as the NCH kitchen. This was the kitchen in the my first house which I bought with my EX in NJ. Take the absolute worst kitchen you have ever seen in "before" pictures on GardenWeb and raise that to the Nth power and you might approach the NCH kitchen. Let me 'splain. The house was a Dutch Colonial Revival built in the 1920's and owned by an artist. It had good bones and the original chestnut floors and trim restored, but everything else was bizarre. The foyer and the bathroom had kitchen foil crumbled, smoothed out and then applied to the walls with Elmer's glue. The light fixture in the parlor was an inverted barstool and in the dining room it was an old wooden table with lights laid on top. The EX did replace the latter because you could smell smoldering wood when the lights were on high and he thought it _might_ be a fire hazard. There's more. But, the NCH kitchen - OMG! The floor was a vinyl made to look like red brick with grime so ground into it that I could never get it clean. The countertops were fire engine red laminate. The trim was painted another bright red. The wallpaper was a white background with huge red and black poppies. But, the thing that totally broke my spirit was that the wallpaper was applied to all the cabinets, as well. I don't think NCH kitchen is even adequate. Was there a tenth circle of hell? Now, of course, after clearing safety hazards like wooden tables used as light fixtures, one would think that the next upgrade would be the kitchen, right? No, not with my EX. The plans were drawn, the money was sitting in the bank from a refi for the reno and he never would agree to go ahead with it. Years later, we relocated to TX and once we moved out of the house, he had the kitchen reno along with a bath reno, painting, etc. done so that we could lease out the house. So, I had a beautiful kitchen in NJ which I never even got to see, much less enjoy. Fast forward to 2010 and dearest DH & I (notice the EX is an EX - wonder why?) are planning to build our forever home. I want it to be classic; I want it to be perfect; I want it to be everything that I never had. And ... DH just doesn't like dark countertops like soapstone so a truly CWK is not in the cards. Does it sound like I am repeating a pattern of subjugating my wants and needs to that of a man? Not, really & here's why: Just after Christmas, we put DD on a plane to begin 6 months of missionary work halfway around the world. On the way home, we stopped at a slabyard along the freeway just to distract ourselves. As we walked from slab to slab, DH kept falling in love with each choice wilder than the last. When we got home, I stewed a bit (never a good thing), and burst out with "You're not going to let me have the beautiful kitchen that I want!" and began to boohoo. In the midst of the sobs, I told him about the NCH kitchen. At the end he had tears in his eyes & said, "If I could have fixed it for you then, I would have. And, if I had ever known, I would have redone this kitchen right after we got married so you could have had what you wanted for all these years." That's all I needed; he understood. We're a team and teammates make compromises for each other. Large amounts of black/gray bother him, so no soapstone. The ideal of the CWK isn't worth having him uncomfortable all the time. We both adore granite, so granite it is and we'll have our own version of a "Not So Classic White Kitchen", but it will be ours and not someone's ideal that would never quite fit. Thanks for all of the understanding & support - Jo Ann P.S. I showed DH the pictures of of dotcomgone's wonderful white kitchen & he said, "Wow! I really like that marble." Luckily, I have a lot of hair, because otherwise it might all be gone by the end of this build from constantly pulling it out. LOL!!!!

Are there any slim feet people here? I have to share my new worlds most comfortable sandal from The Flexx shoe company. They have a stretchy section. Love! I'll be able to do lots of miles on vacation. They have a 1 1/2" heel. Here is the link at Nordstrom. It says they fit true to size but if they fit my foot perfectly they must be at least slightly narrow. Not overly though. http://m.shop.nordstrom.com/s/the-flexx-band-together-sandal/3520349?cm_mmc=google--productads--Women%3AShoes%3ASandals_Slides-_-909074&rkg_id=h-77242275352e1500631745f06a4fef51_t-1496187451&adpos=1o1&creative=145503081341&device=m&network=g&gclid=COHMpszkmNQCFVMGhgod5ccBrg