April 2015 – Flash Know

Painting With Coffee

Coffee in conjunction to India ink can produce lovely art works.

Make strong coffee and when cold, brush the coffee on bond paper, water color paper or Strathmore board and apply several layers to build the shade of brown you desire.
The look will be one of water colors and the beauty of the coffee verses other edible liquids such as juices and wines is that it will leave neither pulp nor residue on your canvas.

When using paper for art work it might be wise to obtain acid free paper or museum board. These will keep the paper white for years to come and while there are different kinds of papers, alkaline paper can last 1000 years.

The bamboo artwork shown was not done on acid free paper so yellowing is occurring, but in this case it works.
Would you not rather tell a friend that your painting was done with gourmet coffee rather than water colors?

Roasting Coffee

Green coffee beans can be roasted to perfection with a pop corn popper. The picture shows a Toastmaster pop corn popper, model TPC2.
Two minutes after insertion, the coffee beans should start popping.
Six minutes from the start the raw beans should be a shiny and greasy brown perfection. The longer the roast, the darker the beans.

Tips:
Roast outdoors. The beans will make lots of smoke and the aroma should be shared with neighbors.
Careful, the beans could burn if left too long.

Hanging Clothes

Drying clothes and storing coat hangers
in a garage can be practical.Hang plastic towel bars from joists or where possible.To hang clothes up high use a tool like the one shown below.
It is a hook screwed perpendicularly to a long pole.
The one shown has its hook anchored between 2 plumbing washers and held by crazy glue.

Rubbing Alcohol

Rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle is a wonderful kitchen companion. It cleans, disinfects and evaporates rapidly.
Counter tops, especially where tiles and grout are present, love it and so do stove tops and microwaves where spills (scrape with a thin “credit” type card) and grease need to be removed.
Rubbing alcohol is also a mighty fine stainless steel sink cleaner and leaves uniformity without smudges.
Spraying rubbing alcohol is also extremely successful in bathrooms. It gets rid of soap scum unlike, in my view, some of the store brands. Spray the rubbing alcohol over the shower tiles and with minimum effort watch the soap scum disappear and the tiles dry on the fly.
It cleans chrome fixtures nicely but has trouble with hard water spots.
A dab of rubbing alcohol can be helpful in removing sap from the car as well as a dab of paint thinner could. Thorough rinsing of water is highly recommended and in my experience it has been totally fine.
Rubbing alcohol is a great ally in combating sticky odorous hands and surfaces and it is also a wonderful neutralizer of mosquito bites.
Last but not least you can spray and disable flying nuisance creatures such as flies, mosquitoes, gnats and moths prior to the coup de grace.

Bamboo Hamper Light

Bamboo hampers that we often use for soiled laundry provide wonderful mood lighting with a light bulb inside. Limit the wattage for fire prevention and of course a fluorescent bulb might be safer, less expensive to burn and offer a different lighting atmosphere. Use Christmas lights for color.

For fire prevention purposes stabilize the light bulb inside the hamper so that it does not touch any of the basket’s surfaces.
For a cord use the ones like for the Christmas tree that have a foot button. Hampers can be dyed with Rit Dye if desired.