HOW TO: Share Your Peach Milkshake

You buy a milkshake. Everyone wants a sip, but no one is exactly sure how to make it fair. Let's be honest, you want to be the dominate sipper without others' recognizing it. You've been there before. Well, fret no more! I'm going to share with you a cute and crafty way to secretly dominate the sipping and fancy up your milkshake sharing experiences.

1. Count how many people want a sip of your milkshake.

2. Take the number you counted to and memorize it.

3. Go to the straw dispenser and get that same number of straws.

I had counted to 3, I picked up 3

4. Open the straw wrapping.

Like this.

5. Remember the number you counted to... think of a shape that has the same number of vertices. 

(2- line segment, 3-equilateral triangle, 4-square, 5-regular pentagon, 6-regular hexagon, 7-regular hexagon, etc. )

6. Place the straws in your milkshake in that shape.

equilateral triangle

7. Sip...and secretly dominate. 

How to get and use a banana slicer.

How to get and use a banana slicer.
Maybe you have seen this banana slicer before in the grocery store. Today, I am going to tell you how to get and use one of these.

STEP 1: Go on a Disney cruise. Why is this important? What does it have to do with a banana slicer? That will become significant in a minute.

STEP 2: Meet a really cool guy named Joe. Joe will be crucial in your banana slicing journey. (PS-this step is CRUCIAL. If you go on a Disney cruise and do not meet a cool guy named Joe, you MUST return to step 1.)
STEP 3: Invite Joe to come and stay with your family for a fun-filled vacation.
STEP 4: Have Joe buy you a banana slicer. (This may or may not be a tricky step. Some people find that their friend Joe will just give them a banana slicer on his own. Others have found that their friend Joe has needed a little hint here and there to give them a banana slicer.)
STEP 5: Slice your banana with your new banana slicer.

DIY: Remodel your Living Room (on a budget!)

DIY: Remodel your Living Room (on a budget!)

BEFORE

This is how our living room looked before we moved in. I liked the natural sea tones of the chairs and the cherry brick reminiscent of the Washington blossoms.  We wanted to keep the organically gothic golden elegance of the room, but throw in our own modern touches. After a few minutes of work, we turned it into this...

AFTER

Being the giver that I am, I'll go ahead and tell you some of our best secrets in Q&A form.

FAQ:

1. Q: What if you don't quite have the funding for a sectional? 

     A: three thister writes: no problem! Just grab the 2 couches you do have and slide them together. As you can see, I was pretty lucky to have a floral couch and black couch with colors that seem to pull together naturally, like a cloudy spring day.

2. Q: What if you really want a different fire place with built in book shelves and a mantle to boot?

    A: Three thister writes: Just imagine you have it with all the frills. Then the red brick will grow on you. Using your imagination on a daily basis costs you absolutely nothing!

3. Q: What do I do if I have a scantily clad golden statue woman in my living room?

    A: three thister writes: How I was hoping you would ask! I was so proud of how we integrated our statue so naturally into our new room! This calls for a couple more pictures: 

   BEFORE

AFTER

Total transformation! Keep this between us, but I'm actually working on a cute little outfit for our sweet little Broom-Hilda!

Believe it or not, my husband and I did this remodel all for the price of.... 68 cents!

Here's the break down: 

2 prong plug in with a 3 prong opening.....68 cents. 

Stay tuned for our upcoming kitchen and bathroom remodel (on a budget!)!

don't have a paint stirrer to stir my paint with

I tried to compose the title of this post so that you would land on it with a Google search if you were having this particular problem. Just one of the many courtesies you'll find here at Three Thisters.

A number of months ago, I was painting a few pieces of furniture in my garage. I realized after popping the can of paint open (worthy of a blog post in itself) that I had neglected to purchase a paint stick when I bought my paint.

This was a problem because the instructions told me to stir the paint before using and then periodically after that.

Well I don't know about you, but just as I'm sitting down to start a project is the moment I least want to have to run to the store again. I decided I was going to come up with a solution, and after digging around my house a bit, this is what I was able to come up with.

I'll be happy to share with you some directions on how to slap one of these together.

1. Gather materials.

I forgot to put scissors. I hung a lot of posters one summer and got real good at just ripping that duct tape with my fingers or my teeth. But if you need scissors for that part, use them.

 
2. Determine how tall your paint stirrer needs to be. I kinda held the knives stacked on top of each other next to the paint can to see how tall it needed to be, and I determined two knife lengths would be good.

3. Figure in reinforcement. That paint is thicker than it seems. If you were to just tape two knives together, your stirrer would probably be too flimsy. If you look real close at the picture, you'll notice a third knife taped to the back of the first two. I was glad I did this.

4. Tape the whole thing together. Don't be intimated about the tape job. Just stick the tape where it will be the most useful in holding your knives together.

We're hosting a linky party with this post, if you were able to successfully construct a paint stirrer, share it with us! Include a picture of your paint stirrer.

15 Reason Why Hailey Needs a Pinterest Account

#1. She just moved into an awesome old new house. (For real, it's pretty sweet!) And there are millions of things on Pinterest like this:

#2. Her husband has one.
Yes, her husband has a Pinterest account, and she doesn't.















#3. It sometimes gives you a "blast from the past"

#4. It's important to be able to say: "I saw this really cool thing on Pinterest..."

#5. She likes to cook.



#6. The Church has a Pinterest account.

#7. She is a teacher.


#8. It is the year 2014, Pinterest started in like 2010! That is 4 YEARS of pins she has MISSED!!

#9. One time she posted something on our family Facebook page so she would be able to remember it. Isn't that what Pinterest boards are for?

#10. Some pins make you laugh:


#11. It helps you remember some of your favorite movie lines:



#12. Sometimes it helps you realize you aren't the only one who hears lyrics incorrectly:

#13. It gives you an outlet for your current obsessions (i.e., my Frozen and Harry Potter boards)

#14. It makes you think of things you never would have thought of on your own:


#15. Sometimes it "pins" situations in life perfectly:


#16. You feel really cool when someone pins your pin. Like you helped them discover a rare treasure. Sometimes you feel like say, "You're welcome."

#17. It has awesome sister quotes:


PS, Hailey, I couldn't handle it anymore. You now have a pinterest account. Your username is your email address, and your password is ******** (your birthday i.e. 0121 for January 21 and the last 4 digits of your phone #). Love you!!

Zebra Tray

I was feeling very crafty one day, my hands were just itching to make something. Since crafting is kind of expensive, I decided to use some resources I already had. I had some black spray paint leftover from a different project and done a few months ago and a pretty little tray that I keep on our automan to hold remotes, the Ensign magazine, etc. I purchased the little tray at Ross a few months ago. It has been serving it's purpose faithfully, helping us to keep track of our remotes and hold empty cereal bowls and cups until they are put in the dishwasher. I have really liked the tray except for one thing, it was all black except for the bottom which was zebra striped. Now, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against zebras (in fact, I like them very much) but I didn't feel the need to have something zebra striped in my family room. So, I figured, spray paint it black! Heck yes!
Heck no.
I spray painted it outside and left it out to dry. When I thought it was dry I brought it back inside. I placed it in it's regular place and set the remotes and magazine on it. It looked GREAT. The only problem was when I went to take a remote and the magazine off of it. Some of the black paint may have peeled off onto the remote and half of the back cover of the magazine may or may not have stayed on the tray.
I thought it might just need a little extra time to dry, so I gave it PLENTY of time. The problem is, it is still extremely sticky and things don't hesitate to stick to it.

See the flower-type thing in the back? That's where the spray paint was used originally.

See that white mark? The big one. That's a piece of the back cover of the magazine.

It is currently in our back room until I figure out something to do with it. (I'm thinking maybe some modge podge will help?) So, now instead of our ex-zebra tray holding our remotes and magazine on the automan, it is the checkerboard my husband made in his 9th grade shop class.

The 9th grade project