February 16th 2015 - Tree stump removal

February 16th 2015 - Tree stump removal

I am in the process of trying to sort out the last part of my garden where I want the decking to go.  But this is going to be a big task as I need to dig out soil.  And in part of where I want it there are some old pine tree stumps that need removing.

I found this artical on Pinterest about how to remove tree stumps with the use of Epsom Salts.  I'm not sure if it actually works or if its a hoax.  But we bought a bag of Epsom Salts last week to try it, if it doesn't work we have only wasted £2.99.

Hubby drilled holes in the tree stumps as deep as his drill bit would allow, I filled them with Epsom Salt and then a tiny bit of water and left them.  It says that you may need to re-apply salt after a few days and again each week as it can take upto 2months for the stumps to rot as the salt absorbs the water from the tree.

Fingers crossed it does work as I really need the stumps gone.  They were cut as low to ground as we could do without damaging the saw.

January 30th 2015 - how to remove bits from a perfume bottle

January 30th 2015 - how to remove bits from a perfume bottle

Following onfrom the halloween book yesterday I am also in the process of making some new potion bottles for myself and a friend who wants some.  I won some lovely crystal shaped bottles on ebay last week that I thought would be great to add to the shelf of potions.

They arrived today and although listed as small are bit bigger than I thouht they were but thats not a problem.  The problem however was they were spray bottles not open top ones and the bit the spray fits into is fixed to the glass bottle not screw on like the newer style bottles are.

So I set about finding a new pin for today on how to remove the spray bit from old perfume bottles.  Well as you can see I found one.  Unfortunately the tutorial and actually doing it dont fully work together.  I was unable to get the scissors under the outer part like it says and we still couldn't remove the middle easily, so I attacked it with my dremmel craft tool and a drill bit.  This was fine except the spay tube and everything else ended up inside the bottle.  Here's where I handed to the hubby and said fix!  Luckily hubby managed to get the bits off we needed off and the plastic stopper out of the  neck of the bottle and pull the insides out.

The bottles are now ready to be washed and have new contents in, but in order for the bottles to be air tight and not leak I  have got to go to wilkinsons and buy some small corks to glue in as stoppers.  I think that I am going to have to cut the corks down too fit as the hole is about 0.5-1cm across.