Words of Wisdom- Thanks Martha!

In the US, Martha Stewart is the Queen of All Things Domestic.  She is Delia, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and Alan Titchmarsh all rolled into one (I know…gender issues with those three but there you go).  Martha Stewart invented entertaining, home decor, baking and herbacious borders.  Well, I think she did anyway.  If you want to be the perfect homemaker, baker, washer-woman, gardener, cook and decorator you only need to turn to Martha.  She did have a bit of legal difficulties a few years back (oh, something like insider trading and a stay in the “Big House”) but hey, no one’s perfect…although Martha seems to be.

I think most American women have a love-hate relationship with Martha.  She teaches you some amazing skills BUT she can also make you feel woefully inadequate.  Check out this eco-friendly craft where you can take old corks and make a trivet from them.  This could prove difficult in today’s age of screw-top wine bottles.  And you’d actually have to drink about 50 bottles of wine to amass the 50 “uniformly sized corks” which might scream “Drinking Problem” but hey-ho…you’ll have a nice cork trivet in the end even if you can’t stand up to make any food to place on it.

photo courtesy of www.marthastewart.com

Now, I have to say, I learned 3 EXTREMELY valuable tips from Martha Stewart throughout the years and I would like to share them with you all and encourage you to do the same.  The tips can be ones passed down from family and friends or items gleaned from television shows or out of magazines but they must be Words of Wisdom which you use on a regular basis and share with your friends and family.  These Words of Wisdom, quite simply, are things that you could not live without.  I now share my 3 Words of Wisdom with you- Thanks Martha!

• Cutting an Onion- this has nothing to do with not crying or anything valuable like that but this tip allows you to DICE an onion quickly and easily.  First, peel the onion.  Second, cut off either end of the onion so you have a flat surface on which to rest the onion & slice the onion.  Third, slice 3/4 of the way through the onion on the flat side and then again the other way- you’re making a check pattern on the flat side of the onion.  Fourth, turn the onion on its side and slice through the onion which will leave you with perfectly diced onion!
• Arranging Flowers in a Vase- I am no expert in flower arranging but I have learned a valuable tip from Martha when placing flowers into a vase.  In order to preserve your flowers and NOT have them rot and fester within the vase you need to remove the excess greenery on the stems.  Any leaves or other greenery that would be sitting in the water in a vase need to be stripped off the stems.  They are what cause the rotting in the water.  If you keep the greenery out of the water, your flowers will last longer and you won’t get that rank smell emanating from the vase after a few days.
• Clean Paint Cans Every Time- In the US in particular, paint cans have a lip around the inside rim where the lid rests in and secures the can when closed.  If you are pouring paint from the can into a tray or bucket, you end up with excess paint gathering in the inside lip which make getting a proper seal difficult and, lets face it, leaves you with a mucky can!  If you take a hammer and nail and GENTLY punch holes in the inside lip of the rim you will create a sieve of sorts which will allow any excess paint to drain right back down into the can.  You then maintain a clean can and ensure that you get the most paint out of your can.  Brilliant!

These tips were all learned in my life in the US.  Notice they are not child/family centered!  So, I hereby challenge you to come up with your own Words of Wisdom.  I am going to “tag” several bloggers to come up with their own Words of Wisdom.  Pieces of advice that you feel MUST be passed on because of how they’ve helped you in your life.  Ideally, 3 would be great.  If you can come up with more, then you’re even more special than I thought.  Then please pass on the tag to as many bloggers as you’d like.  I’m going to start the ball rolling with 6 bloggers who I know have a special place in their heart for Martha Stewart and probably have loads of amazing tips:

• Liz at Violet Posy
• Rachael at Marathon Mummy (if her London Marathon legs are allowing her to move)
• Heather at Young and Younger
• Sandy at Baby Baby
• Becky at English Mum
• Liz at Living with Kids (although she doesn’t worship Martha Stewart, she’s full of great advice)

I’m also adding a Linky Tools widget here to allow you to link back to your own Words of Wisdom post.  I hope to learn a lot of valuable tips from you all!  If you’d like to leave great tips in the comment section, I’ll create a Words of Wisdom Carnival to feature your tips & posts on your own sites.   Now…over to you…think, think, think…

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