DEAR READERS: Here is this week's Sound Off, about items rusting:
"My Sound Off is about things that are supposed to get wet, but when they do, they rust. I've enclosed a photo. (Heloise here: The photo shows a string mop, with a metal ring about a third of the way down. Rust city!) I have rust on my bathroom basin and washing machine. Whoever made these products, didn't they know they would get wet?"
-- Kathleen H.,
Camp Hill, Pa.
DEAR READER: Kathleen, I am as outraged as you. The metal ring around the mop is rusting? Huh? Shame! Call the manufacturer; take the mop back to the store. Don't buy that brand again.
DEAR READERS: Other items to use as a jewelry stand:
• A coffee-mug holder.
• A cupcake stand.
• A large frame with a screen in it.
• A corkboard with decorative thumbtacks.
• A small branch from a dead tree.
I love the last hint. Eco-friendly, unique and simple to do. Give me a can of spray paint, red or black, for my bathroom (blue for the guest bath) and I'm ready to create. Don't like the way the color turned out? Just spray over it with a new one. How simple, cheap and fun.
DEAR READERS: As usual, you came through with wonderful hints for Carolyn from Texas. She had a spoon collection, many from her 30 years of teaching school.
Rita in Idaho wrote: "She can make wind chimes, rings or napkin rings with them. She also can top a kitchen gift as an ornament, or attach them to a wreath."
S. Kangas in Philip, S.D., wrote: "My daughter received several from her grandmother, and she used ornament hooks to put the little spoons on her Christmas tree. She thought of her grandmother every time she looked at the tree."
Stacy in New Hampshire suggested: "Why not use her spoons as handles on her drawers, cabinets and other 'handles' throughout the house? This way she can revisit her travels every time she opens something." Heloise here: Love this! Talk about happy memories every time you see or open a cabinet.
Catharine in Connecticut wrote: "Buy a glass-top table, coffee table or end table, and use a mounting underneath. Place them there with some soft lighting -- what a conversation piece."
Keep sharing your hints, folks.
DEAR HELOISE: Don't throw away that old iron and ironing board. Keep them for crafting. I needed a new iron (the old one worked, but was beat up and dingy). I use the old one as my crafting iron. This way, the new one doesn't get gunked up when I work on my sewing projects. Iron-on patches, fusible webbing, etc., can gunk up an iron pretty quickly.
-- Terry B., via email
Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or email
Heloise@Heloise.com
ActiveStyle on 06/22/2015