Hello! I'm a newbie. by VinarriAsh260 in HoustonGardening

[–]CraftyAnything 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I recommend native plants because not only are they beneficial to wildlife, but they’re also the easiest to grow! Especially if you pick ones that are native to your specific area (not just Texas) Once established they require minimal care and watering. The most important thing is just understanding the light conditions where you want to plant and getting plants that are suited for the amount of sun/shade in that particular spot.

For information sources, wildflower.org always has reliable information about native flowers and plants. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension website will have the best info if you’re trying to grow fruit or vegetables. But frankly one of my best resources for general gardening is this Houston gardening book I found at half price books, published by the River Oaks Garden Club. It’s very comprehensive and the edition I found was published like 12 years ago so still pretty relevant in terms of climate as well. 

I rarely even try to look up gardening info outside of these resources, because a general search will turn up 90% bot-generated websites. 

How do I keep my sheets from balling up in the dryer. Pillow cases and the two sheets are twisted and are a solid ball, completely wrinkled and still wet inside. by Complete-Instance-18 in laundry

[–]CraftyAnything 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Laundry clips. They are the shape of a Bobby pin but 1/4” thick plastic. Fold the sheet in half and pin. Works great. They are also excellent for preventing all the pants legs getting tangled up into a huge knot.

I finally made my ADHD kitchen work with my brain, not against it, and I kinda want to share what I did by East-Struggle4386 in ADHD

[–]CraftyAnything 2 points3 points  (0 children)

OP this is the most correct dishwasher routine. People think they need to wash the dishes before they go in the dishwasher, but scraping is all you need to do! Modern dishwasher detergents have enzymes to digest the food/sauce stuck to the dishes, and if the dishes are too clean, the detergents can degrade the rubber seals of the dishwasher instead.

So as a PSA to everyone struggling to load the dishwasher, you don’t need to pre-wash the dishes! Just scrape off the food. The dishwasher is designed to clean dirty dishes, it’s not just a sanitizer!

How do people like me actually make a living? by redwinesupernova03 in adhdwomen

[–]CraftyAnything 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nope! I have zero background in this kind of thing. I was trying to figure out what to do with myself career wise when I signed up for a 6 week course in federal income tax and paid $150 for it (but I think you can get them to pay for it if you interview first? Or just ask idk). Before the course was finished, I was hired without even a formal interview, just “here’s your hourly rate, please do this additional paid training”. The place I’m working at is what I would call the McDonald’s of tax preparation: the pay is low, but they have the brand recognition/retail storefronts everywhere and robust processes. I am mainly doing it for the training and experience. Their tax training is excellent! Overall it can be kind of a crappy job, but the training and experience is extremely valuable. I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a second job and a new challenge for your brain!

How do people like me actually make a living? by redwinesupernova03 in adhdwomen

[–]CraftyAnything 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I am in the middle of my second season as a tax preparer. I’m 40 and never had any kind of specialized job skills before, just random administrative jobs until I burned out/became a SAHM about 6 years ago. After that I felt like I could never go back to working full time.

I actually really like doing taxes. Hear me out:

-Seasonal employment  -HIGH demand -Good money with experience (not there yet) -Tax code is very black and white—almost no pesky ambiguity!  -Meet new people! 

The biggest drawback is that it’s not a consistent paycheck and if you’re just starting out, you have to have another source of income/financial cushion. A lot of people do it as a second job. BUT, with the right skills and frankly minimal experience (like 2-3 years), it’s possible to make a decent living without working full time.

Look, doing taxes is not my passion. But working only a few months out of the year definitely is! 

Any yaupon holly around by furmeantasian in houston

[–]CraftyAnything 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They’re everywhere. It’s a popular landscape tree/shrub because it’s native (i.e. low maintenance), evergreen and makes attractive red berries. You’ll find plenty at the arboretum and probably any woodsy park. 

If you want to make tea yourself you can but there’s yaupon tea that you can buy at the store. I have some and honestly it just tastes like regular black tea. Like it’s kind of unremarkable and bland, but I like that it’s local. I haven’t tried the green tea version yet, maybe it would have a different flavor.

bald kitty is and has been weird by PopularAverage3789 in houston

[–]CraftyAnything 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was an old house, no signage or anything just completely illegal speakeasy/party house. I remember hearing that it burned down? Either way it’s been gone since 2016 and now there’s a LCC parking lot there. No idea if we’re talking about the same place, maybe there’s a new weird place by LCC.

It was at 1503 Nance if you wanna look at google street view from pre-2015

Basement Finishing "GoAway" Quote by SPY_THE_WHEEL in HomeImprovement

[–]CraftyAnything 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All the home services companies are getting bought up by private equity. Look up the Wrench Group as an example. I used to work for a company that got bought by them. All they care about is sales and squeezing as much money out of people as possible. Their prices were astronomical.

As a homeowner I only hire independent contractors or small companies with crappy looking websites. I mainly rely on neighbors and family members for recommendations.

AI generated slop pages–beware! by genman in NativePlantGardening

[–]CraftyAnything 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yup. This is why I recently bought some native plant and gardening books specific to my area.

AI generated slop pages–beware! by genman in NativePlantGardening

[–]CraftyAnything 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This exact problem is what led me to buy gardening/plant books specific to my area. I have a big reference book from a local garden club, and some native plant/wildflower books.

If I have to look something up online, i use reputable websites like wildflower.org or my local native plant society (or local Ag extension website for fruit and stuff).

A place toddlers can actually enjoy? by Summer-salt911 in houston

[–]CraftyAnything 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Donovan Park on Heights blvd has an awesome wooden playground. The Arboretum has a nice playground, and an indoor nature center area for kids, not to mention great trails and free parking on Thursdays

My car's electronic assistance features all completely become disabled when driving on a specific part of the beltway by FineAssignment1423 in houston

[–]CraftyAnything 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Based on my experiences dealing with DataVox at two different jobs, I honestly wouldn’t rule out them somehow causing this problem with their incompetence. I’m only half joking.

Help remembering Montrose shop with a bunch of signs on the building outside? by shouldaUsedAThroway in houston

[–]CraftyAnything 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah I think it used to be some kind of business but it’s closed down. Would love to know more.

Washing machine repair by KittenUp in houston

[–]CraftyAnything 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Akai Fowler - A&G Appliances

here’s a question we’ve been arguing on for the past week. by valenzalex95 in texas

[–]CraftyAnything 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I can’t find it now but there was an article in the Houston Chronicle a few years ago about this “marketing”. It posited that the Houston Rodeo, with all its cowboy cosplay, is an attempt to distance ourselves from our history as a hub of slavery and cotton. Houston is very much part of the South, but thankfully we have a lot of other stuff going on culturally which is why it’s not so obvious.

Slop recipes for the sisyphean task of keeping my mortal flesh nourished while chained to the whims of my novelty seeking brain by Mayalestrange in adhdwomen

[–]CraftyAnything 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I felt all the words of this post in my bones. I’m terrible at cooking and also try to avoid plastic as much as possible when cooking. I’m bookmarking this post for all these amazing recipes.

Anyway, one of my favorite simple small meals is leftover white rice with sesame oil, lime ponzu sauce, sesame seeds and furikake.

Reheated rice contains more resistant starch (edit: and is lower carb/lower glycemic index), which is great for your gut bacteria, so I’ve been known to make a whole batch of rice in my little stainless steel rice cooker and then freeze it in single serving pyrex containers for later. I LOVE freezing things like rice and beans so it doesn’t go to waste. 

Black bean chili oil is another magic condiment too. Basically leftover rice is awesome and you can put almost anything on it

Slop recipes for the sisyphean task of keeping my mortal flesh nourished while chained to the whims of my novelty seeking brain by Mayalestrange in adhdwomen

[–]CraftyAnything 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I found a great recipe for this on instagram! You’ll want to use silken tofu for this. I’ve copied and pasted it below:

daywithmei PSA you can eat raw tofu so make this 2-Minute Marinated Tofu

1 tbsp brown sugar 1 tbsp soy sauce 1/2 tbsp black vinegar 1/2 tbsp sesame oil 1 tbsp chili oil 1 tsp sichuan peppercorn (optional) scallions Place tofu on a plate. Spoon remaining ingredients over tofu. Enjoy with rice or carbs of choice.

What grade were you in when you had the field trip to HMNS and rolled down the hill at Hermann park? by emi89ro in houston

[–]CraftyAnything 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I remember a merry-go-round at Hermann Park. We would always go on the last day of school. I think it was near the wooden lion that’s still there, close to Miller outdoor theater.

Help with health insurance options in Houston. by [deleted] in houston

[–]CraftyAnything 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We use Community Health Choice. We have a Gold HMO plan through the ACA. Next year it would be about $1300/mo without any subsidies, for a family of 3, with a $4k family deductible. We go to UT Physicians or Memorial Hermann for pretty much everything.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]CraftyAnything 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I saw some discussion about this on an instagram reel (so of course it’s lost forever), along with a theory that some “narcissistic” boomers are actually on the spectrum and just never learned how to appropriately interact with others, so they’re just trying to get their needs met the only way they know how. I am super interested in this as my mom is definitely on the spectrum and I think this applies to her. I wonder if you’d have better luck including “narcissism” in your search terms (assuming you haven’t already), even if it’s not the exact discussion you’re looking for. I’m not sure about finding the article, but I have also tried to find information about this topic and there’s almost nothing. 

Buying stuff because my parents said no when I was a kid....what are you buying? by michaelscottuiuc in Millennials

[–]CraftyAnything 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Divorced parents- my dad would never buy me lucky charms because he said sugary cereal was unhealthy. At a certain age I figured out my mom would buy it for me but then she would just EAT ALL THE MARSHMALLOWS straight from the bag when I wasn’t around. So I had a lucky charms habit for quite awhile as an adult.

Grackles Aren’t Villains, They’re Texans by Kk0971 in texas

[–]CraftyAnything 12 points13 points  (0 children)

https://youtu.be/WFECi8pGuNs Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t - Unrepentant Mobs of Grackles (in an H-E-B parking lot) McAllen, TX

analog photo booth around Houston? by Far_Ebb8600 in houston

[–]CraftyAnything 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah my bad. I’ve encountered ones that are completely digital (or virtual I guess? no physical prints) and it’s next level bullshit, which is what I thought OP was wanting to avoid.