Charlie Tamara Piper

As a fan of cleaning and organizing, I always love finding new ways to tackle cleaning projects quickly and effectively. And when baking soda isn’t helping me with cookie and cake recipes, it’s my go-to cleaning product. Here are five of my favorite ways to use baking soda for cleaning projects: Use as a deodorizer or to absorb moisture We all know to leave an open box of baking soda in our refrigerators to keep food odors at bay - but you can deodorize so many other things with baking soda. Sprinkle baking soda on your carpets or upholstered furniture and wait a few minutes before vacuuming it up to absorb moisture and get rid of pesky pet odors. Place baking soda and a few drops of essential oil in a bowl and you’ve got a fragrant odor absorber that’s perfect for leaving in the bathroom - or sprinkle that mixture on top of your garbage to keep the smell of trash at bay in between trash collection days. Finally, freshen up smelly shoes by sprinkling the insides with baking soda. ...

Sundays are the last day of the weekend and a perfect opportunity to position yourself for the work week ahead. I've put together a Sunday routine that helps me to enjoy my last day of relaxing and unwinding while also teeing myself up for the week ahead by simplifying the tasks ahead of me and reducing stress by having planned ahead. Practicing self-care is important and taking one day a week to keep yourself organized but relaxed is a great way to make sure you're entering the busy week in the best frame of mind. Survey your weekly calendar and take note of relevant information I spend about 20 minutes with my calendar for the upcoming week and charting out what needs to get done. From there, I create a tickler list of everything that I anticipate needing to be able to finish my weekly tasks and keep it all within my planner so everything I need can be found in one place. So, for instance, I make sure to put aside my dry cleaning ticket and the money to pay for the servi...

I wrote a post last Christmas about how I was finally able to get the best nails of my life - and they were doing so well until I got a really bad break. This week's post is all about how I managed to save a bad nail break and ultimately regrow my nails in great shape. Growing your nails takes time but with a good routine you can figure out how to bring your nails back to life after damage or breaks. But first, a quick rewind - here were my natural nails after an oil treatment on March 12. They were so long for me and mostly really healthy. I'd done an oil treatment because I'd discovered I had a small chip towards the nail bed on my right ring finger, and I wanted to heal my nails. And then disaster struck! I had a super low break on my right ring finger - who knew you could totally rip up your nail leaning on a diner bench to pick up your purse?!?!? - and I needed to act quickly. I used  Kiss nail glue to hold the break and then (very painfully) removed the re...

I love upcycling and reusing items to fit new needs. I had this really great, sturdy glass candle jar that I wanted to turn into a glitzy makeup brush holder - and I'm so pleased with the results! Here's what you'll need: A glass candle jar Rubbing alcohol Lint-free paper towels Ruler Measuring tape Pencil Sharp crafting scissors Glitter paper Ribbon Spray adhesive Hot glue gun And here are the DIY details: I started by clearing all the wax out of the jar and used rubbing alcohol and lint-free paper towels to clean out any waxy residue and to make sure the glues would properly stick to the jar. I then used a measuring tape from my sewing kit to take measurements to cut the glitter paper and ribbon to the correct size. I added a little extra length to be sure the paper and ribbon wrapped around and could be glued down correctly. Here's the glitter paper that I cut to scale. I used my ruler and shar...

Sometimes when you've got an oddly-shaped gift to give your best bet is to use a gift bag. But my inner crafter wouldn't let me simply use the complimentary shopping bag that the store gave me. I knew I could turn it into something super classy. Thanks to a friend's suggestion, I created this tuxedo-themed gift bag that was a little complicated to figure out until I got the hang of it. I completely failed on taking step-by-step pictures because I really needed to focus! But you can learn from my lessons and recreate it yourself. Here's how I did it: First, I started by visiting my old standby - Google Images - to download a tuxedo jacket pattern. Once I found one that I liked, I used it to trace out the black lapels of the jacket and layered on a white triangle to represent the shirt. From there, I started adding in some extras - I used spray mount adhesive to mount the lapels and shirt onto black card stock to round out the tuxedo jacket. I cut two ...

Last month, I shared my favorite products for curly hair . I definitely feel most like myself with my natural curls but every now and then it's fun to switch it up and go with straight hair. Here are the products and tricks I rely on to turn my curly hair straight - and how I keep it straight for a full week. (A quick note - I know it seems like a lot of products, and you're right! I use small amounts but my hair soaks up product like nothing else, so it's never weighed down). Styling To protect my hair from the heat damage of using a blow dryer and flat iron, I double up on my heat protectant. Moroccanoil Heat Styling Protection is a great spray-in heat protectant that lightly coats my strands - plus, it smells amazing. To add a bit more heat protection and to help style my hair straight during blow drying and flat ironing, I use Bumble and Bumble Straight Blow Dry . This creamy conditioner promotes shine once I've finished straightening my hair and h...

Another special gift wrapping edition! I've got a Star Wars-loving friend with a birthday coming up, so I went with a full Chewbacca theme for the gift wrap job. Here's how I did it: The Gift Bag As usual, I turned to Google Images to find a cartoon version of Chewbacca that I really liked. I spent some time creating a grid of the image which I used to create a layered background for a gift bag. I mounted the Chewie image onto bronze glitter paper. I used some coordinating orange card stock and a stamper to create the perfect birthday wish note! I used a brown ultra fine tip Sharpie to bring out the lettering a bit more. Once the image was complete, I mounted it onto a brown gift bag. I finished the package off with some bronze ribbon that I tied into a bow on the handle. I finished the edges of the ribbon by folding each tail in half and cutting upward on a 45 degree angle to create a triangle cutout. The Card I love coordinating cards t...

I've always had problematic nails. They chip and peel pretty easily which I addressed by keeping them short. For as much as I wanted to grow them out, I just couldn't figure out the best tricks to get length. I wanted to see if I could turn my nails around and, thanks to some research and putting together a great routing, I feel like I finally found products and a routine that really help my nails out.  Nov. 6 - Starting point Here are my nails at the starting point on November 6. My skin gets very dry in the fall and winter and my nails were certainly feeling it the most. I had peeling on my right ring and middle fingernails that I had to address. Here's how I started treating my nails: - I switched my nails to a rounded shape. For as much as I love square or squoval tips, a round nail shape does the best job at preventing snags and peels on nails. It's a great protective shape, particularly as I was trying to grow out damaged nails. ...