You probably won't find this on Pinterest

I've got a couple of funny problem solving things that probably won't make much of a splash on Pinterest. If you have ever been down that time sink, you'll see gorgeous and perfectly framed photos from all over the net. Most of my friends post craft ideas and food ideas. Most of the time I feel like I'm not creative enough. Lots of, "why didn't I think of that?" moments for me.

But no more.

My Holly is a messy drinker. She's a dog. They're messy no matter what. I bought one of those plastic mats to keep the water she splashes out of her dog bowl to a minimum. Her splashing defeated the plastic mat. If I wanted the thing to be several yards wide, it probably would be okay. But the truth is, I have her dog bowl on the hardwood floor. I'm not pleased with when water lands on it because I'm *supposed* to clean it up right away. I'm just not that fastidious about that. And she's a dog. It's not like she has scheduled times to have a drink of water. We got her one of those gallon sized auto refill type bowls. I thought it would probably be a good thing if I could just raise the lip of the bowl a few inches. Then she'd have to stick her face into the bowl to drink out of it.

Using a cottage cheese container, I cut it in half, cut out the bottom to the desired height, and voila, a splash guard is born. Joy.

(This is the part where people typically post the picture of their completed projects and the steps it took to get there. Unfortunately, I don't have one of those cottage cheese containers to show you the before picture, and who am I kidding if I were to say that I'd post the pictures eventually. Heh, you should know better by now. I am not going to post pictures. If you need to know how to do this, then figure it out yourself.)

Here is my other great idea.

A couple of years ago, one of my kids came home with lice. I know. Gross. I'm actually not too freaked out by it because when it is all over, it wasn't so bad to deal with. I mean, yes, there was the daily washing and drying of the bed sheets and the constant vacuuming, but as far as pestilence goes, lice are not so hard to eradicate. There was the initial poison in the hair and lice combs which was a serious hassle. I thought about shaving her head. Might have been better. So that's the background. The lice combs have been at the bottom of my bathroom drawer for a very long time now.

A few weeks ago, I was struggling with my mascara comb. For anybody who has tried to do this, you know what I'm talking about. You apply your mascara. While it is still wet on your lashes, you're supposed to take your mascara comb, imagine a Barbie sized hair comb with a long handle, and comb through your lashes to ensure they're separated. But if you're a fraction of a second too late, there really will be no way to get the comb tines through your lashes and they'll be clumped up for the rest of the day.

One of my favorite make-up artists on YouTube is GossMakeupArtist. He's awesome. He suggests using your mascara comb to apply the mascara. You put the mascara paste on the comb itself and run that through your lashes which puts a very small amount of mascara on each lash without clumping. It's great. But my Barbie comb wasn't working as I wanted it to. The tines were too short.

Enter the lice combs.

Yes, I used the lice combs to apply my mascara and it works beautifully. The tines are about 2 inches long, all the tips are dulled so I'm not in jeopardy of stabbing my eyes with the metal tines. And the results are perfect.

Who knew there would be a new use for lice combs other than reminding me of a terrible period of time when the whole family had to get their hair ironed daily and the vacuum died from overuse.

So there you have it, two Pinterest worthy how to's without the glossy pictures.... unless I get inspired at some point in the future.

Don't hold your breath.