friday fixations

{cubicle refugee} I love this tumblr! Its images are all organized by colour and I'm a sucker for anything arranged like a rainbow. Swoon!

{pomegranates} In case you missed it, I found this video on the correct way to open a pomegranate and my life is forever changed. If you do some quick research on how to pick a ripe one (heavy, bright red colour, large, blemish free, firm not too soft) you'll also have no troubles finding a delicious fruit. And did you know that you can dry them for decoration as well? I've had one in my pantry for about a month now. It's lookin' pretty good!

{brown and pink gift wrapping} I've been wrapping gifts in kraft paper and using pink tissue paper as a highlight for my Christmas gifts this year. I love the look of the bright, almost neon pink against brown. Actually, I love any neon colour against brown right now. I think I might make this my standard wrapping for everything. I can easily change the tissue paper colour and kraft paper is available year round (and it's fairly cheap. I've been wrapping gifts and using mine for templates for almost three years now and I'm just finally feeling like I might run out -- but then again, I hoard all the little scraps to use for smaller items should the need arise at some point in time).

{gift bag diy} I love love love this tutorial! It's easy and only takes minutes of your time, I swear! I had a tiny gift I needed a bag for and, despite having two boxes full of premade gift bags, I didn't have a single one that was small enough yet (ironically) large enough to fit my gift. Literally 5 minutes later, I had the perfect sized bag that also fits in with all of my other wrapped presents. Genius! The only thing I did differently was in regards to the handles. I used a hole punch and some ribbon to string through and tie tight. This is a gift I'm hanging on a door -- to thank the people who helped me up off the sidewalk after I slipped -- so I wanted it to have a big loop to go over their door handle. I think I'll be ditching all of my other gift bags at the Value Village after Christmas. They're always too dumb and phony looking (and never the right size) for me to use anyway .

{baking soda and water} Do you have a ghetto toaster oven? You know, where the door is so grunged up and disgusting looking you can barely see what's inside anymore? Maybe this applies to your oven door? At any rate, I found this tip for cleaning an oven window on Pinterest and since my oven's new and the door isn't all that bad, I thought I'd give it a try on my toaster oven (which was totally ghetto). I am really kicking myself for not taking before pictures. Dumb! After two applications, I swear to all that's holy that the glass looks practically brand new again! Now, it's not as easy as they'd have you believe. Put it on! Wait! Cleaned like magic! If we're talking about at least two years of grime (in my case), you'll have to use some elbow grease (my arms are angry for not moving the toaster oven off its shelf and onto a more hip-height surface) and possibly more than one application. The major trick that I discovered is that you have to use the little cakes of baking soda (that accumulate when you're wiping it off) as scrubbers on the tough spots. They'll do (some of) the work for you.