And by deskunk, I literally mean how to get the skunk smell out if one of your pets (or god forbid, YOU) have tangoed with one of these smelly critters….its actually pretty simple, you just need 4 ingredients. White vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and water. If your carpet or couch are affected, I recommend a steam-type cleaner, I used a “Little Green Machine,” made by Bissell.

For carpeting (or upholstery, I’m guessing), sprinkle a liberal coating of baking soda on the affected area….don’t be afraid to use too much…we’ll take care of it in a moment or two. Now, if you don’t have a carpet/upholstery cleaner…you’re going to have to let the next step dry for a bit before you can vacuum it up…but spray some of the white vinegar directly onto the baking soda. It’ll fizz a bit, maybe a lot, depending how much of each ingredient you’re using. My entire house reeked before we did this…and I think if not all the smell, we got most of the smell out in about 10 minutes.

If you’re using a carpet cleaner…spare yourself the spraying and just add as much white vinegar to the resivoir as you would use cleaning solution….fill to where its to be filled with warm water….and apply to the carpet. I recommend spraying it on and letting it do its thing with the baking soda for a few seconds before extracting it all.

For the pet who’s been affected….do this as quickly as possible after the encounter. However, I rinsed our dog w/plain water last night and some shampoo, just to make sure her eyes were ok, and left her sleep on the old couch in the garage….so about 7-8 hours had passed before we tried this….

Mix two quarts of hydrogen peroxide with 1/2 a cup baking soda and rub into the pet’s fur. Let sit for just a moment or two…as long as you can with a wiggly critter. Then, rinse them well, and voila! They’ll be clean and should be stink free. If it doesn’t work, its safe to repeat…hopefully you’ll be lucky like we were and not have to repeat a second time.

If you actually need these tricks….I’m so sorry. We discovered very quickly that its not a pleasant experience. Hoping you never need to know this stuff….. Diane

I’ve decided to share this glorious thing with you today and let you know how I do it. I’m sure there are a billion and 3 ways to do it, but here’s my way.

Things you’ll need:

2 Eggs
1/3 cup milk
2 cups flour
paprika
salt & pepper
3/4 cup Louisiana hot pepper sauce
3 Tblsp Butter
1 tsp vinegar
oil
about 3 chicken breasts cut into strips

Please keep in mind my measurements are very approximate….I don’t ever measure on recipes like this.

Pour oil into skillet until it’s about 1/2 deep or so. Set the burner to medium heat and let the oil get hot while you prepare your strips.

Put milk and eggs into a small bowl and mix with fork.

I like to put my flour and seasonings in a pie plate. Dump in a heap of flour and sprinkle in seasonings to taste. I don’t add tons because I have to keep a few strips out for the kids without sauce, and I want theirs to be pretty mild. Mix ‘em up.

Take your breast strips and roll each one in the flour mixture, then in the milk mixture….and back into the flour mixture. Gotta make sure they’ve got a nice coating on them.

By now your oil should be hot enough, so throw in your strips and let them brown on one side. Flip them once and let the other side brown. (See that one dark one?? What the heck? He got a little anxious and had to get brown a little too fast. And it wasn’t because he was the first one in and my oil was too hot. It wasn’t.)

While the chicken is frying, put your pepper sauce, butter and vinegar in a microwavable bowl. Zap it until the butter melts and then mix it up. Just smelling it will give you heartburn. Mmmhmmm.

When your chicken is cooked, drain it on a paper toweled plate. Pull out some for the kiddos and then dump the rest in a big Ziploc bag. Dump in your prepared sauce, too. Zip it up really tightly and shake it until your strips are good and coated.

Dump into a dish (Choose one that makes your food look plentiful, though. I did not.) Eat up and let me know what you think!

You will need:

• Single-prong clips (ebay, beauty supply store…)

• 3/8″ ribbon (grosgrain or velvet stay in hair the best)

• scissors

• glue (I used hot glue, but if you use a craft glue the process is a beat neater and smoother)

• Fray check, clear fingernail polish, or a cigarette lighter to seal the ends of the ribbon

They look something like this…

This is what the clips look like. They’re about 1.75″ long.

Start with a clip and a 7″ length of ribbon.

Seal the ends of your grosgrain ribbon. I use a lighter: just hold the flame near (not touching!) the end for a few seconds.

Start on the inside, bottom of the clip near the joint and glue the ribbon down.

Then put glue on the underside of the bottom ‘jaw’ of the clip and fold your ribbon under, pressing and smoothing it onto the clip.

Turn the clip upside-down and put a spot of glue inside one finger tab (yes, I’m making up terms here…bear with me. lol) Press and hold until dry.

Turn the clip over once more and apply glue/ribbon to the other ‘finger tab’, allowing your ribbon to follow the ‘V’ shape of the hinged area.

With the clip top-side up, apply glue only to the outer side of the finger tab. If you get ahead of yourself and put it on the entire top, you’ll end up with a clip that’s glued shut and that’s just no good at all.

Now, hold back the remaining length of ribbon with your thumb and apply glue as you keep the clip open (again….no gluing the clip shut!).

While you’re still holding the clip open, press down the ribbon to cover the top outer part of the clip.

Flip the clip over and glue remaining ribbon.

Your clip should look like this….and not be glued shut.

If you want to add a little bow, you’ll need a piece of matching or coordinating ribbon about 3.5″-4″ long. Don’t forget to seal the ends.

With the wrong sides together, fold over one end about 3/4″-1″ and glue the tip down.

Add a dot of glue on top of where it’s already glued.

Bring the other end over to create a little bow that’s about an inch long.

Glue bow to top of clip.

While holding the clip open, add a drop of glue directly below the center of the bow. Attach the end of a piece of ribbon that you’ve cut to 1.25″ long.

Wrap ribbon around center of bow and secure underneath with another dot of glue.

Your clip should look something like this!

If you have any questions or input, please let me know! Thanks and have fun!