HowToDoThings.com Elite Author Articles

How To Make Dish Soap

Carrie122 — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:21:00 -0600

If you have allergies or your skin gets dried out from using purchased dish soap, making your own dish soap is simple and effective. There are a few different ways make dish soap, but all of them are quick and easy.

To store your homemade dish soap, recycle dish soap squeeze bottles or purchase empty plastic bottle with a squeeze top for ease of use.

Dish soap can be made using liquid castile soap, soap flakes or soap scraps.

Liquid Castile Soap

How To Choose a Calligraphy Pen

Carrie122 — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:04:00 -0600

Calligraphy pens come in a huge array of sizes, shapes, weights and prices. It can be difficult to know just which pen is right for you, especially if you're a beginner to calligraphy and fountain pens in general. Here are a few tips to help guide you to a pen that will feel comfortable and work well in your hand.

The best way to choose a calligraphy pen is to test drive a few different brands and sizes. Find a reputable dealer and try them out. Art supply shops usually have a good variety of calligraphy pens, and will allow you to try before you buy. There are some specialized pen shops out there, but they can be tough to find especially if you don't live in a major city.

How To Grow and Prune Roses

Carrie122 — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 08:12:00 -0500

Growing roses isn't as difficult as you may think. With careful consideration to variables like location and type of rose bush you plant, you'll have great success and big, colorful, scented blooms.

There are literally thousands of varieties of roses, and each one will have specific care guidelines that you should heed, including climate and growing conditions. These guidelines can be found on the care tag that accompanies your purchased rose bush, but you can also ask a professional at the nursery or your local horticultural society for tips. Even though each type of rose needs special care, there are some general rules of thumb to follow that are true for all varieties.

How To Buy Flower Seeds

Carrie122 — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 10:51:00 -0500

While you can purchase almost any type of flower or plant already started at a nursery or garden center, there's something very satisfying about creating your own garden from seed. Once you've decided to go this route, you've got a myriad of choices of where to buy your seeds.

General Flower Seed Purchasing Tips

Age of Seeds - When at all possible, buy new, fresh flower seeds. While some varieties will keep for quite a long time, others are perishable. Last year's stock, while less expensive, is also less reliable.
Number of Seeds - Plan your garden by mapping out sections, and take measurements of each one. When buying flower seeds, note the planting guides on the back of the packets. These will tell you how far apart to plant the seeds, so you'll know how many you'll need for your space.

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How To Grow Blueberries

Carrie122 — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 09:41:00 -0500

Blueberries are delicious and contain many healthful vitamins and antioxidants, making them a tasty and beneficial addition to any home garden. They can be tricky to grow, however, depending on the traits of the soil where you live. If your soil isn't suitable, blueberries also make terrific container plants.

General Blueberry Growing Tips
For the best chance at success with blueberries, buy your plants already started from a nursery or garden center. Since they don't begin to fruit for at least three years, this will also save time and provide you with a blueberry crop much sooner.

Blueberry bushes are extremely fussy about the soil they're planted in. To find out if you have suitable soil, take a sample to your local nursery and have them test it for pH and acidity levels. If your soil isn't quite up to snuff, there are a couple of ways to remedy this situation.

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How To Choose and Plant Peach Trees

Carrie122 — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 08:36:00 -0500

It's hard to resist juicy peaches, and they're even more irresistible when they're picked fresh from the tree. Peaches make a great addition to jams and preserves, smoothies or blended cocktails, baked goods, and can even be grilled or added to meat-based dishes.

Peach trees add character to any landscape, and they're a hardy variety of fruit tree that can be grown successfully in many climates. Choosing the perfect tree and planting it on your property takes just a little bit of research, so here's what you need to know.

Choosing a Peach Tree

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How To Make Balloon Garlands

Carrie122 — Fri, 26 May 2006 10:03:00 -0500

A balloon garland is a decorative rope of tightly clustered balloons. Colors can be random, or a pattern can be achieved by arranging the balloon clusters in a specific order. Balloon garlands can be strung just about anywhere to add a festive touch to a party or celebration, or to create an eye-catching display at a commercial booth.

Before you begin to assemble a balloon garland, there are a few things to consider.

Size - The size of the finished garland will depend on the size of the balloons you use. The important thing here is to make sure that all of the balloons are inflated to the same size. To make this easier, cut a round template out of thick cardboard, and pass each inflated balloon through it to fit before tying them off.

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How To Learn Silk Screening

Carrie122 — Fri, 26 May 2006 07:08:00 -0500

Silk screening is a printing technique popularly used to create images, logos, or phrases on T-shirts, hats, posters, and other media. It is much less involved and painstaking than hand-painting, but more creative and original than mass-produced printing.

Although there are various techniques used to create silk screen images, the basic process involves creating a screen from a porous fabric such as nylon, which is stretched out and held in a wooden frame. The image is transferred to the screen, and areas are then blocked off where no paint will be able to permeate the fabric. Paint is transferred to the object being printed by pressing a rubber blade along the screen, forcing the paint to seep through the screen and onto the object. Colors can be added to the image by either painting over the original print, or by using different stencils.

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How To Identify and Treat Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Carrie122 — Thu, 25 May 2006 17:44:00 -0500

Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease is one of the most common gastrointestinal diseases in cats. The term actually refers to a group of disorders that cause inflammation of the stomach lining or intestinal tracts, which causes changes in the normal bodily functions these organs perform.

Symptoms

Symptoms of Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease often mimic those of other diseases or illnesses, therefore it is important to take your cat to see the veterinarian if any of these symptoms occur. They include:

Chronic vomiting or diarrhea

Loss of appetite

Weight loss

Refusal to use the litter box

Stomach gurgles or rumbling

Flatulence

Darkened stools

Abdominal pain

These symptoms can last over the course of several weeks, or can come and go intermittently.

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How To Grow Vegetables in Containers

Carrie122 — Thu, 25 May 2006 09:42:00 -0500

If you don't have the space or desire to grow vegetables in your yard, container gardening is a great way to take advantage of fresh vegetables without an actual garden. While more attention will need to be paid to watering your plants, you won't have to concern yourself with poor soil or soil-based pests.

Container vegetable plants can be placed in a sunny window, outside on a patio or balcony, on your outdoor steps, or anywhere that will allow them to soak up some sunshine. For best results, choose vegetables that don't take up too much root space, such as radishes or beets, or those that bear their vegetables over an extended period of time like tomatoes or peppers (this is because they tend to take up less "ground" space, as they grow up rather than out).

Choosing a Container

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