Every now and then, a home improvement or decoration attempt will go bad on either a large or small scale. It’s important to recognize that this is going to happen and that it will all blow over… eventually. Even I have made the occasional mistake, and I thought it best to share a couple of my favorites.

Paint is always a dangerous substance to work, with especially if you are painting over carpeting. You are supposed to put a plastic tarp down for any spills, but when you are a hotshot college student who thinks he knows everything, you think “tarp shmarp.”

As I expertly painted the walls, I never spilled a drop. One misstep later and an entire can of white latex paint is all over the floor in a puddle of goo, and I am a very frantic know-it-all. I grab a bucket and start pouring water into the puddle in the hopes of keeping the paint from drying into the carpet.

I don’t know how long I was at it. One bucket and another and another followed by the roar of the wet vac as I tried to suck up the water paint mixture. After what seemed like forever and countless gallons of water, the paint puddle slowly dissipated into simply a wet floor. I saved myself. Needless to say, I have used a tarp every since. Live and learn, I guess.

My second mishap also happened in college. I was working for the physical plant over the summer doing some painting, plastering, etc. in preparation for the upcoming school year. One day, I was in a vacant dorm and had a hand sander that I was using to make a plaster job smooth. I wasn’t the best plasterer, so it was a little raised, and I just needed to sand it flat.

I had my mask on and the sander was going good, creating a hazy plaster cloud in the room. Suddenly, the fire alarm went off. I didn’t think anything about it and left the building. The fire department came, didn’t find any fires and left.

I went back inside and started sanding again. Twenty minutes later, the fire alarm went off again. It took three times for me to figure out that the plaster cloud was setting off the fire alarm. I finished my job much more carefully after that, making sure not to create the massive cloud again.

It’s these kind of experiences that are frantic at the time, but years later, you can recollect with laughter. It may not seem funny at the time, but you can’t always get it done perfectly every time.

Image Source:flickr.com/photos/bankdis/3366877516/lightbox

Related posts:

1. Dear Mr. Fix-It: How to Plaster a Hole in the Wall
2. Large Wall Décor: Paneling Versus Painting
3. Go Green: Paint with the Environment in Mind

Related Posts:

• FAQS
• Spring / Fall Clean Ups
• Power Washing

I love the food on Thanksgiving. The desserts, turkey, stuffing, side dishes and more will make sure my scale is suddenly lost for at least two months. Unfortunately, there are those who try to bring the most putrid gelatinous crap to the dinner table and try to call it a side dish.

Some of these are Thanksgiving staples and others are from way out in left field, but none of them belong on the Thanksgiving dinner table.

1. Tofurky — I have a large amount of admiration for anyone that can give up eating meat for the sake of health or their beliefs. But I can’t do it. I love meat. I love tearing into a turkey smothered in gravy and then passing out on the couch for 15 days. The idea behind tofurky is that Satan needed a dish to corrupt the goodness of Thanksgiving. OK, so that’s not totally true. Vegetarians wanted to have the ability to experience Thanksgiving turkey without actually eating turkey, so they create a tofurky loaf out of blocks of tofu and seasoning. My first issue is anything that needs to be shaped to look like a turkey is just wrong. My second issue is I hate tofu and am generally against its very existence. It’s just creepy.

2. Jell-O fruit salad — I love fruit salad. Get a bunch of different fruits together, peel them and stick them in a bowl. When you add gelatin and a few marshmallows to the mix, you have perverted a healthy staple for the sake of adding a little color. The hostess has spent hours on the turkey and stuffing and many guests have spent a long time on apple pies and cookies. What is the purpose of a Jell-O fruit salad? Are you trying to convert fruit into a dessert by adding a little Jell-O? Fruit is good enough by itself, so don’t go adding sugary ground-up bones. UGH!

3. Canned cranberry sauce — I remember as a child going to my aunt’s and seeing this odd can-shaped red goop sitting on the table, and it remained untouched by human hands for the entire dinner. I have no problem with cranberry sauce; my problem is with the fact this goop comes out of the can and retains can shape. That just doesn’t occur naturally. That’s some Dr. Frankenstein stuff right there. You can slice and dice it, but it’s still a giant can of goo. I understand that with all the other things you are making for Thanksgiving dinner that you don’t want to add cranberry sauce to the homemade mix, but who actually eats this stuff, anyway? For all I know, this stuff could taste like ambrosia, because I have never had the guts to actually bite into it. If anyone has, please let me know if you survived the encounter without needing your stomach pumped.

4. Turducken — First of all, the first four letters spell turd. I know that people are going to come after me pitchforks for putting this on the list, but I am a Thanksgiving traditionalist. I like a turkey. I don’t want a de-boned chicken, shoved into a de-boned duck that is then shoved into a de-boned turkey. This could taste so good that it could make a pregnant women go into labor, but it’s still just plain wrong. If this occurred in nature, it would end up in a circus freak show and would be incredibly uncomfortable for the turkey. I don’t want to eat any substance that’s been shoved inside a turkey. I don’t even want stuffing shoved inside a turkey. Please don’t shove anything into anything else and then try to get me to eat it.

Thanksgiving is all about being thankful, but I can’t bring myself to consider these anything but abominations to the Thanksgiving tradition. Just give me a pile of turkey, gravy and mashed potatoes, with a little bit of stuffing if there is room left on the plate.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/dainec/4136099201/

Related posts:

1. Turducken Recipe: The Forbidden Thanksgiving Meal
2. Turkey Tabletops
3. Low Priced Dinnerware – Traditional Japanese Sauce Dishes

Related Posts:

• Organic Lawn Care
• Cedar Waxwings Near a Cedar Glade
• Lawn Care

If you want your garden to provide a sense of peace and tranquility, adding some simple Japanese style landscaping ideas will make your goal easy to accomplish. Whether you have a small patio garden or a huge landscape, you can incorporate Japanese style elements into your garden.

In general, Japanese style gardens do not contains a huge variety of plants or a rainbow of color. They are not perfectly symmetrical, nor lavish. They are, however, elegant and timeless and bring a welcomed break from the hustle and bustle of daily life in the modern world. They are places for meditation, contemplation, and thought. This style of garden is enclosed or screened from the outside world through the use of plants, fences, or berms.

Scale And Perspective

Look at the space you wish to use for your Japanese style garden. Scale and perspective are the main techniques used to create a sense of size, space and distance in the garden. You can achieve this through illusion, adding a false sense of perspective, by planting gradually smaller trees or plants farther from the focal point of the garden. If you have water features in your garden, choose the largest for the foreground. Water fountains or a water fall can be a very affordable way to add a peaceful sound to your Japanese style garden.

Add Japanese lanterns and pagodas to your garden, but be sure they are in proportion to the plants and other elements surrounding them.

Rocks in a Japanese style garden take on special meaning. They aren’t simply rocks or boulders but can be the backbone of your garden, around which other elements will fall into place. They represent islands, mountains, and holy places. A boulder can be partially buried to add mass, height, and a feeling of stability to the Japanese garden. Small stones can be used as the borders for pathways or to create the bottoms of water features. They can be used as stepping stones to actually create a path or to cross a small stream. If used to define a pathway, allow the path to wander rather than going in a straight line.

Sentinel Stone

Another use of stone in the [Japanese] style garden is the sentinel stone. This standing stone is used to symbolize warriors, deities, heroes and guardians. It is usually found at the entrance to a Japanese garden or at a major focal point where its presence will enhance the garden’s atmosphere. This type of stone can even be used in an otherwise flat Japanese landscape.

Choose a few Japanese style elements to include in your garden landscape to provide a peaceful place to sit and relax. An austere garden can easily be converted into a Japanese style garden with very low cost and a huge payoff in enjoyment

Related Posts:

• Natural lawn care tips: weed and pest removal advice
• Weed control tips
• FAQS