Building a Fun and Safe Contactless Halloween

I've partnered up with my good friends at the Home Depot to create a fun a safe contactless trick-or-treat experience for our neighborhood trick-or-treaters, using simple materials found at the Home Depot.

I started off by decorating our front porch handrail, which will be the base for our contactless candy drop off experience.

I picked up a bag of bones found at the home depot in the Halloween decor section along with a bunch of other fun and spooky decor that I’ll be incorporating into this project. 

(I’ve listed everything I’ve used below)

I used 3M mounting tape to secure a tape measure that was locked and extended out to 6' to the top of our wood handrail. I also added the same mounting tape to the skeleton hands that I add to the top of the handrail, which will be holding the PVC pipe in place.

I purchased a 10-foot long piece of PVC pipe that was 4" in diameter at my local Home Depot. I measured the 4” pipe to be 6 feet in length and cut it down to length using my miter saw.

I then placed the PVC pipe on top of the skeleton hands that had the 3M mounting tape secured to. The nice thing about the 3M mounting tape is extremely strong and made for outdoor use.

I tested the 6-foot long contactless candy shoot with multiple types of candies and they all past with flying colors going down the pipe to the pumpkin candy bowl at the bottom. I picked up this fun motion sensor jack-o-lantern candy bowl at the Home Depot, which has a fun, little surprise. Once the motion sensor is activated from the candy dropping into the bowl, a spider pops out from a secret compartment in the back section of the bowl, startling the trick-or-treaters. 

What would Halloween be without skeletons? I had a lot of fun incorporating skeleton into this spooky design. The Home Depot has a wide selection of different types of Halloween skeletons. I picked up a few of the 5-foot posable skeletons, and dressed them up with different costumes, that I happen to have on hand. One of the skeletons I placed on the front porch by the tape measure and dressed him as a construction worker, I positioned one of the skeleton’s hands to hold the tape measure and positioned the other hand to be waving hello.

I was able to place a small bucket on the ledge of the handrail tucked under the skeletons arm, which I can fill with candy to pass down the shoot to the trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

I used a large black paint pen to mark each foot of the 6-foot pipe and then relocated the tape measure to the top of the pipe for a better visual.

I really had fun creating this fun and safe contactless Halloween for our front porch. It was simple and easy and you can do the same to fit your home with a few simple materials and some creativity.

Here is a list of all the material I used which you can find at your local Home Depot.

• 4" PVC pipe
• Home Depot Bucket
• 3M double sided extreme mounting tape
• Stanley tape measure
• Bag of bones
• Bag of skulls
• 5' posable skeleton
• Jack-o-lantern candy bowl
• Skeleton dog
• Skeleton howling wolf
• Skeleton piranha
• 20" Lighted up Jack-o-lantern 

You can find everything you need for a safe and fun contactless Halloween at the Home Depot.

The New Dremel Versa Detail Brush kit

This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

I've partnered with The Home Depot's Prospective Team and Dremel to review the Dremel Versa's New Detail Brushes. I've been riding my bike a lot lately, which I've also been leaving it outside a lot lately. The grease and dirt build up was getting out of hand and my bike was in desperate need of a detail cleaning. Thankfully the Dremel Versa cuts the elbow grease out of cleaning and speeds the clean process.

Let me start of by saying I love how compact the Dremel Versa is. The waterproof and ergonomic design of the Dremel Versa cleaning tool provides outstanding control and fits comfortably in the palm of your hand. I've used this tool on a countless number of chores around the house, which has cut down the time of cleaning in half. The new durable nylon bristle brushes are great for the hard to reach places that the scour pads cant reach. The new extender is perfect for clean nooks and crannies on plastic and metal making it even easier to hit those hard to reach spots.

I started my bike detailing by taking off the scouring pad, pad holder and splashguard. The pad holder and splashguard easily screws off, for an easy interchangeable brush feature.  

The detail brush set comes with a 4" extender, to make reaching in small crevices easy, and a set of two nylon bristles brushes that are designed for multiple cleaning applications and are long-lasting. The set comes with one Flat bristle brush and conical bristle brush.

The Dremel Versa is water resistant and great for use in dry and wet applications. 

 The Dremel Versa and detail brushes took care of the hard work with a little warm water and soap.

Getting in between the small areas of the bike spokes was easy with the angles detail brush and extender.

 The Extremely durable nylon bristles are perfect for multiple types of surfaces. I put them to the test on the detailing of my bike. I switched between brushes, using the best-fit angle for different areas of the bikes surface.  Switching the brushes out is as easy as unscrewing the tips and screwing on a different brush. The set comes with two shaped bristle brushes Flat and conical.

The flat head bristle brush was great for cleaning flat areas that had heavy dirt and grease. The 4" extender allowed for the tool to reach up under areas my hand wouldn't fit in. 

Cleaning in between the pedals was a breeze with the angled tipped detail brush. The Dremel Versa had so much speed I had to hold the peddle in place to keep my bike from riding away. 

The detailing and cleaning process on my bike was smooth and effortless with the help of the Dremel Versa and the new detail brushes and extender.

Dirt and grease scrubbed away in seconds, and no elbow grease was needed, this high-speed versatile tool took care of all the hard work. 

Even the toughest of grease in the hard to reach places was wiped clean with speed and ease.

You can find the Dremel Versa at your Local Home Depot along with multiple Dremel Versa accessories like the detail brushes and extender, scouring pads, and Kitchen cleaning brush.

 

Front & back yard makeover with Vigoro

I partnered with The Home Depot to give my front and backyard 

a refresh with Vigoro products.  Vigoro is a total care solution brand. 

It is easy to use and will help me create a quality

foundation for my beautiful garden all season.

Our front yard and curb appeal needed a refresh. I started by seeding and fertilizing the lawn using the Vigoro hand spreader to evenly distribute the seed and the fertilizer. I ran the sprinklers after to help set the seed and fertilizer. Then I moved on to the front planter bed, by clearing and preparing the area for edging, new plants and mulch.

I choose plants that were hardy and long lasting for the front planter bed. I picked out three large king palms, 3-spiked yellow flax and 1 bird of a paradise. I evenly spaced the plants giving them enough space to fill in and grow. I can trust that The Home Depot Vigoro line of products will keep my entire garden healthy and lasting. Vigoro live plants are more disease resistant; sun and shade tolerant, and have a broad selection of quality colors.

After I planted the palm trees, I laid down the Vigoro edge boarder and used the anchoring spikes to hold the edging into place. Once the edging was secure, I rolled out the Vigoro weed barrier and used the Vigoro fabric staples to hold the material in place. I used a utility knife to cut an X in the weed barrier fabric and then I dug a hole for the smaller plants to be planted. Once I had the plants in place, I covered the weed barrier with Vigoro Premium black mulch.

The grass section surrounding the planter bed edge was very sparse.

I came back in and hand spread more grass seed and lawn fertilizer, and set it with water.

2 weeks later the area in front of the planter bed had filled in 90%.

I'm amazed at outcome from using the Vigoro lawn seed and fertilizer. 

Vigoro's easy to use products will save you time, are an unbeatable price,

and will help boost your gardening confidence.

The front yard is dramatically more lush and green after a month of watering

and mowing each week. It was as simple as seeding and fertilizing.

List of all materials used on the front yard refresh:

·      Vigoro Lawn seed

·      Vigoro Lawn fertilizer

·      Vigoro hand seeder

·      Vigoro no dig edging

·      Vigoro anchoring spikes

·      Vigoro weed barrier

·      Vigoro Fabric staples

·      Vigoro black mulch

Now on to the Back yard

Rear yard revamp

The back yard will be designated as a pet friendly yard for our two dogs. I prepared the area by digging the ground down an extra 4inches below the stone paver walk way. I used the Vigoro weed barrier and fabric staples along the fence area before placing my larger stones down around the plants.

I tampered down the dirt areas on either side the stone walkway and then covered those spaces with the weed barrier, along with using the fabric staples to hold the fabric in place.  I used the edge barrier to create the shapes for the artificial turf areas and held that in place with the anchoring spikes. 

I filled the inner designated areas with Vigoro decomposed granite and compacted it until it was a half an inch from the top of the edge barrier.

Then I rolled out the artificial turf and used shaped shears to cut the turf to shape along the boarder edge.

I hammer 5" galvanized nails to hold the turf in place and spaced them approximately 6" apart. 

Once the turf was secure I used the pet turf infill a racked the turf to help lift the fibers into a more natural appearance.

Then I set the infill per the instructions by hosing everything down.

·      Vigoro no dig edging

·      Vigoro anchoring spikes

·      Vigoro weed barrier

·      Vigoro Fabric staples

·      Vigoro hand seeder

·      Vigoro decomposed granite

·      Pet artifical turf

·      Artifical turf infill

·      Artificial turf rake

You don't have to settle for a lack luster yard.

The Home Depot has made it easy to purchase Vigoro products online and have them delivered to your house or there is also a buy online, pick up instore option in which you can pick up your orders via curbside pickup.

It’s time to start that landscape or garden of your dreams.