Wrist coolers

On June 13, 2021June 8, 2021 By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

I can no longer take things touching my neck. It started when my kids were little and I stopped wearing necklaces because being choked out by my baby was not on my to-do list. I tried wearing necklaces again when they were past the grabby stage, but could only tolerate light pieces or short sessions with heavier adornment. Then crew necks started bothering me. Sheesh.

In the heat of the Texas summer, many turn to cooling devices worn around the neck. I’ve tried, really, and after 5 minutes I simply can’t take it. I’d rather be hot than have the pressure on my carotid (or maybe it is the jugular, but nothing can brush the back of my neck either, so there we go.) So I took a “cooling” neck gaiter, cut it down, and resewed bits to fit my wrists. Wetting them down certainly produces a cooling effect, and having them arranged in wrinkles rather than folded increases the evaporation. We’ll see how they do for me this summer. If they do work, I need to make some in nicer colors!

Parchment paper

On June 6, 2021June 2, 2021 By CarynIn Life Hack

I love baking with parchment paper. I use it for cookies, bread, biscuits, chicken nuggets, and meat loaf, to name a few. Lifting a whole meat loaf out of the pan cleanly is probably the most satisfying! I cut a piece larger than my pan and press it in (I tried fancy folding, but it is just as effective to press it into the corners; the wrinkles don’t make much difference).

Meat loaf lifted cleanly from the pan using parchment paper

Insulating cake strips

On June 3, 2021May 30, 2021 By CarynIn Life Hack, Tools

My youngest suggested making chocolate cake to celebrate the end of the school year… that is definitely worth cake. I pulled up a new recipe for gluten-free chocolate cake and in the tips they recommended “insulating cake strips”. I had to look it up. Apparently someone discovered that if you insulate the sides of the cake pan, you get a flatter top, rather than a dome. That is all well and good, and fancier than I usually do for cakes (my cakes look very homemade), but can I make them myself? Like right now? Yes, yes I can. Here are some great instructions on how to make these using aluminum foil and paper towels. Well, then, I will give them a try.

They strips did seem to help reduce the cake dome. My cakes were still uneven. Not sure if my oven tray is out of level (it’s not, just checked) or if it is the curse of the chocolate cake (the last few I made were mostly inedible). Even with aligning the thick side with a thin side the finished cake was leaning. It look some camera angle magic to make it look sort of even. It tasted just fine! Hurray for edible!

Finished cake (more uneven than pictured, camera angles are magic)

Skinny shirt

On May 20, 2021May 19, 2021 By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

I know skinny t-shirts are a thing, but there are times when they are too skinny! My eldest has a favorite print shirt that fits this category, and drives her crazy when it rides up. We did look for a larger size, but it has been a few years since she received it as a gift. To fix it, I found a thin knit fabric that matched the weight of the shirt (and coordinated with the print), then picked out the side seams all the way up, including the sleeve seam. Using a different, well-fitted shirt as a guide, I cut 3” strips of the new fabric and sewed them in using the jersey stitch on my sewing machine.

Skinny shirt given some wiggle room by adding side panels (shown on a dress maker’s form)

Filter adjustment

On April 28, 2021April 22, 2021 By CarynIn Life Hack

Oops. I bought the wrong size filter for our house air filters. I’m going to chalk it up to distraction in the store because I had the correct dimensions on my list. I did not want to go back to the store. Luckily, they were oversized and I could cut them down.