10 Things NOT to Donate

I spent the day helping set up for a garage sale to benefit my church's mission projects. For the most part, the items donated by church members were great. They were clean, in working order, and from this decade (mostly). However, there was another stack. This stack came from one county over where a school had attempted a similar sale only to have it rained out. They generously offered to let us have everything. It is while going through these things that I realized even though you should not look a gift horse in the mouth, if said horse has colic and a really bad limp, I think it is fair to question the motives of the giver.

With that I give you 10 things that you really should never donate

10. Home decor from a different century. I promise that no one is sitting around wishing they could find blue and mauve country kitchen valances. 

9. The free flip flops they give you when you have a pedicure

8. Well loved stuffed animals. As cute as they may have been new, at some point they become gross and creepy and need to go away

7. Clothes with holes. If you would throw it out, so would we

6. Clothes with stains, unintended paint splotches, and especially something that looks like your grandmother might have been buried in it. Please refer back to the second part of number 7.

5. Anything with duct tape holding it together. I kid you not, there was a hedge trimmer duct taped to a painter's poll. Your red neck inventions, no matter how genius, do not need to be donated.

4. A poorly framed picture of a dead cat (RIP Fluffers 1985-2005 you had a good run)

3. Anything and everything that might be considered a ladies unmentionable. 

2. Used men's underwear. This goes along with the last one, but I felt it needed it's own line to reinforce that nothing that has touched your bare behind needs to go to charity. EVER.     

*Drumroll*

The number 1 thing you should never ever under any circumstances put into a bag you are donating to charity is....

 A USED BAND-AID!

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go shower and possible get my shots updated. 

PS: If you live in my town, come see the sale tomorrow. We threw out all the scary things and ended up with a lot of cool things. 8 to 3 Friday and Saturday at 1220 Laurelwood Trail, 30041

All of it goes to help our mission churches.

You're a Wizard JD

It's not everyday that your young man turns eleven. That day came last month. Thanks to pinterest and a stash of parchment paper, I planned to make JD a Hogwarts acceptance letter for his birthday. It turned out pretty sweet. I applied the same basic style to make party invitations. For favors I made these easy snitches from this tutorial on Epbot.

Next, I wanted to make wands. I stumbled onto these bamboo chopsticks and decided that with a little bit of clay and paint could turn them into wands. The ones I found were much like these on Amazon.

This turned out to be so easy and awesome that I had to share a DIY post.

Cut off a chunk of clay and roll it into a ball warming it up with your hands to make it easier to shape into a handle.

Instead of wraping it around the chopstick, push the ball down on top shaping it downward. This will prevent fussing with smoothing a seam.

Now have fun with it. I twisted some, added subtle lines, a bold swirl, I even pressed tulle into one to form a snake like pattern. Use your imagination and any random thing you think might look good. You can redo it as many times as you want until you bake it.

I had a set of metal letter stamps, and used them to put JD's name on his to make it extra special. I couldn't resist making one  for myself as well.

Per the clay instructions, I baked them for a half hour at 275. When they cooled, I used a chocolatey brown to paint the whole thing. It took two coats to cover. At that stage they looked much like tootise rolls (or poop, depending on who you asked).

After the brown dried, I applied a layer of black paint, and then used a papertowel to wipe most of it off before the paint dried. The black paint settles into all those texture marks you made before and really brings out the details to make them look more like carved wood.

I used a short flower vase with marbles in the bottom as an easy place to let them dry. Plus, it looked cool. 

For an extra magical touch I used a little of this copper paste stuff that I had on hand. I used a paper towel to buff on just a tad, and only on the handle, to give it an slight shimmer.

The last step is to use a clear satin sealer to help the layers of paint all stay intact. 

The only hard part about all this was waiting on coats to dry. 

If you are feeling adventurous, Epbot has an expanded version of this, only her wands light up.

Extra tips:

Thin irregular lines that are not deep give the handle a more realistic wood look. 

Before you put it in the oven, grip the handle for a second. Careful not to do it too tight or you'll leave finger prints. You want it just enough to make it fit in your hand. Slight dimples where your thumb or forefinger might rest. It gives it an added feeling of it fitting to you.