Starbucks Offers Free Coffee Grounds for your Compost
Sometimes I write a post where there’s overlap and I am not entirely sure which blog it belongs in. So I wrote about the great deal gardeners and composters can get at Starbucks on my local town blog Camp Verde Life.
This is a real win-win for those who are green and frugal - Used Coffee Grounds Free at Starbucks. You can pretty much just keep going back and getting as much grounds for your soil amendment purposes as you need. And this keeps potentially thousands of pounds of grounds daily out of the landfills. They go through a lot of coffee.
And if that wasn’t enough caffeinated good news - all Starbucks now offer free WIFI. 
Book Review - The Scented Christmas
Ooh, I was practically smelling the nutmeg already when I got my hands on this book. I love spiced winter beers and hot buttered rum, pumpkin pies and cinnamon sticks, potpourri and new pine branch wreaths. What these all have in common are their evocative scents, traditionally associated with the Christmas season.
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Adding scents to Christmas crafting seems a natural idea. This book is a marvelous fount of aromatic wisdom for decking the halls or holiday hosting. I appreciated the plethora of gift ideas that will smell good through the gift-wrapped box.
The ideas in The Scented Christmas offer the chance to express deeply buried holiday fantasies: making rosemary Yule logs, decking the halls, dipping bayberry candles and making rich, spicy Christmas pudding.
There are hundreds of crafty ideas - scented place names, cards and garlands. Spice ribbons, scented pine cones and citrus pomanders. Advent potpourri. Scented teddy bears and angel dolls.
Then there are the classier projects - scented finger bowls (use herb infusions or scented oils in warm water, topped with a sprig of herbs in a small pretty bowl at each place setting); Christmas incense (with scents of frankincense, sandalwood, rosemary, clove and lavender); potpourri of the Three Kings (you guessed it - gold, frankincense and myrrh); spiced bath oils, skin-softening body vinegars, spicy colognes and rose petal toilet waters. Scented talcum powder gifts! I feel like a kid in a candy store.
Most of these projects would be super to work on with children. Since the olfactory areas of the brain are intimately tied in with memory, you will be actively tracing your children’s future holiday scent paths home to you.
Here is the link to this book, from Amazon:
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Book Review - Peaceful Gardens
This gorgeous book offers insight and creative project ideas for people wanting to set aside an area of the outdoors for relaxation and peace. The subtitle, “transform your outside space into a haven of calm and tranquility,” has an undeniable appeal in this hurly-burly modern age.
Simplicity is the keyword here. Stephanie Donaldson’s introduction starts the reader on the right foot, advising that it’s better to take away garden clutter and fussy design to promote restfulness to the eye. Restricting the color palette is a good beginning, she advises.
The book offers historic techniques for designing soothing, emotionally satisying yardscapes: from the deceptively simple Japanese-style courtyard, to carefree plantings of prairie grasses and wildflowers.
The serene world painted by Peaceful Gardens is well-populated with elements lending an air of mystery, including arches, benches, winding pathways, outdoor artwork and beckoning, half-overgrown doorways.
Chapters on choosing soothing colors, delightful textures, fragrant appeal and unusual plays of light and shade make for a rich, multi-sensory reading experience. The sidebar lists of plants to select for these options are handy. Also helpful is the coda chapter on adding water elements, and selecting plants that rustle in the wind - the better to add the sense of soothing sound to your visual and olfactory haven.
For centuries, people flocked to sanctuaries for respite from their cares. Monasteries, tea gardens and even resort hotels understand the power of restful plantings to promote spiritual well-being. Now you can take these lessons home for your own personal retreat.
This would make a great book for the office (read a page when you want a break), or a wonderful gift for busy friends. It reminds us we need a place to restore our sanity and let cares fall away. As they say, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Peaceful Gardens - transform your outside space into a haven of calm and tranquility, by Stephanie Donaldson, 2003, Ryland, Peters and Small.
Book Review - The Scented Garden
This unusual workbook is a pleasure to browse, sure to get gardenphiles excited about planning pleasing aromas for their flower beds. Gorgeous photos by Jonathan Buckley entice the reader to plan out projects both alluring and diverse: projects include Herb Path, Scented Wall, Carpet of Thyme, Catmint Walk, Sweet Pea Obelisk and Chamomile Seat. Are you drooling, yet?
Good, clear information instructs the gardener to avoid clashes of scent to make each walk around the garden an “olfactory safari”. Bird also advises spreading out the seasonal flowerings so you’ll have scents to enjoy each month of the growing season. A plant directory in the back of the book tells you what plants smell the best and provides tips on how to grow them.
Using the fold-out instruction pages, I laid out my own Honeysuckle Porch. It was easier than I thought. By the end of the season I expect my sweet clingy vine to cover my entire patio with leaves, flowers and scent.
Some good tips from the book:
- Place an outdoor seat near your garden displays so you can actually SMELL the fruits of your labor.
- Keep mint well-pruned so it doesn’t run rampmant (unless you like that)
- fragrant flowers tend to have subdued hues, so mix in colorful annuals with your rosemary and lavender.
- It’s possible to make a night-scented border, using white flowers pollinated by moths. Plants in the Nicotania genus are a good start for a dusky garden.
- While “knot gardens” are among the earliest forms of decorative planting, they are also among the most long-lived features in any planned garden. Keep them well-trimmed while they mature.
- You don’t have room for a garden at all? Even containers and window boxes can host scent-sory delights. Stick with narcissus, pelargoniums, hyacinths and primulas, in their scented varieties. Culinary herbs work too.
The Scented Garden: A Step-by-Step Project Workbook, by Richard Bird, 2000, Ryland Peters and Small, ISBN: 1841724335
Christmas Recycling - Re-used Ornaments and Decorations for the Holidays
Christmas is a holiday that everyone seems to go nuts over, and every year the fervor starts earlier. I’ve had my gifts ready to go before Halloween this year, but that’s because I buy used and start shopping in August.
But when do you decorate the tree? While I’ve been known to wait til Christmas Eve, when it’s my turn to host the family get-together, I start getting excited about ‘decking the halls’ around Thanksgiving. Any why not? Spread the cheer!
Here are a few ideas to help you decorate on a budget this year, with an earth-friendly consciousness (as opposed to “Crazy Christmas Consumer Mentality”):
- Pull out last year’s ornaments and hall-decking paraphernalia. Throw out what has been broken, or lights that are hopelessly tangled. Start fresh and plan your needs in advance.
- Think about a theme this year - maybe just Angels on the tree, or blue-colored lights and baubles. One year my mother did an all-blue tree and it was spectacular. The all-red theme was just as nice, a year later!
- Here’s the environmental part: don’t buy anything new for the tree or mantle or centerpiece this year. Eschew the Ol’ Christmas Shoppe and the craft stores. Take a trip to your local Savers, Goodwill, Salvation Army or other thrift stores, and look at the displays they are setting up for your holiday needs. These reused goods sellers save up their holiday stuff all year and there are some really lovely offerings to pick thru - all for a song.
- These same places also sell donated craft supplies all year. If you need candles; yarn; glues; fabrics; vases or bowls for centerpieces; wreathe templates; paint tubes or whatnot, chances are you can close the loop by using something already in the consumer system, rather than contributing to the massed-produced culture that abounds this season.
- Maybe you like to make things with the kids every year - those popcorn garlands and cookie-cutter ornaments, et all. Consider finding items from your local woods or park as well. My forests abound with pinecones, which make dandy garlands and centerpiece beddings. I can harvest pine boughts for my door wreath and glue pine cones on as accents. If you live in grasslands, think about lovely, fragrant boughs of harvested long grasses as bedding on your mantle. Or collect interesting, leafless branches from your own trees and stand them in a vase on your coffee table. You can stand the branches as-is, for an elegant look, or decorate them with ornaments for a festive air. Be creative!
A Recycled Christmas - making enviromentally friendly gift wrap
Every year I have this same dilemma - what to wrap my Christmas presents in that is both environmentally-friendly AND attractive? Here are some simple ideas for your holidays this year!A Recyled Christmas - Your Earth Friendly Christmas Tree
The tree itself: live or fake? The source of many family arguments. Here is MY opinion, for what it´s worth, on trees, from most-to-least earth-friendly tree options, plus some ideas on how to create your own new tradition for decking the halls!A Recycled Christmas - Reused Goods as Gifts
There are plenty of reasons to buy used for Christmas presents, and only one reason not to: you probably think it looks bad. Here’s why you should buy used gifts and encourage the same from others.Book Review - Decorating with Candles
Lit candles, singly or in groups, offer an ambience that electrical lighting simply cannot simulate. Candles are perfect for home decorating - whether all year long, or through the Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years “winter season”!
Christmas Recycling - holiday decorations from fabric scraps
You’ve just finished a holiday project. How about reusuing, or using up those ends of balls of thread/yarn, or scrap fabric and ribbon?
BellaOnline Tatting site editor Gillian Buchanan says, “I always find that it really goes against the grain to throw away those oddments of yarn or thread and fabric. There often isn’t enough to do anything much with them; yet pure wool and cotton is so expensive now that it’s a shame to waste it. I have things like Knox’s Linen skeins from around 1910 which I can’t use, because the original owner cut the folded end to use them for embroidery. It’s such a shame because the quality is incredible.”
I agree, and am always seeking unique and USEFUL ways to make the best use of all the resources in my home. I hate to throw anything away if there is a possible use for it. Smart businesses do this too! Think of the donut holes sold by bakeries…what else ya gonna do with the little wads of dough?
Here’s an Inter-Bella Brainstorming to get your green Christmas juices flowing!
- Buchanan recommends some ideas for using up those scraps of thread you can´t bear to throw away in her Tatting article, Using up Oddments of Thread.
- Old, ratty Christmas balls can get a new life by tying or glueing old ribbon pieces and fabric scraps around them. This would be a good kiddie project, for evenings around the fireplace. You can glue sequins on them, old buttons, or pieces of old, brkoen costum jewelry. Take a look at what you have lying around. Glue a loop at the top for tree-hanging, or place those “new” balls in a silver tray, glass bowl, or rustic basket lined with pine boughs.
- Bits of ribbon (or little pieces of leftover wrapping paper, fabric materials, last year’s christmas cards, whatever can be glued together in strips)can be made into festive holiday garlands, just like the construction paper chains you made as a kid. But this way, you are recycling! You can use all-ribbon for a delicate look, or mix and match materials for a festive, eclectic mood-setter!
- How to Make a Quilted Doll Blanket - BellaOnline Doll Making site editor Susan Kramer has a wonderful idea for using those old fabric scraps - make a doll quilt! That would make an adorable gift - or you could use the blanket on a tabletop to accent your coffee table centerpiece. You could make a quilted runner for a mantle, your sofa console, or for the dining table. I could also see making a small quilt into a lovely Christmas Tree Skirt, given the right shape. I’d ask Susan for more of the sewing details…
- Kramer also has an easy christmas tree ornament idea using ends of yarn skeins - Making Boy Yarn Dolls and Girl Yarn Dolls!
- And a wonderful gift for the craft-minded: I put together a huge basket of leftover ribbons, button, fabric scraps, tubes of glue, tubes of fabric paint, and bits of crafty whatnot, for my mother-in-law, who is just nuts about making things. I’m sure it will be her favorite Christmas present, and one she can play with all year!
The Living Simply Holiday Articles
Book Review - Decorating With CandlesChristmas Recycling - holiday decorations from fabric scraps
Recycle Christmas Cards
Recycle those Christmas and holiday cards you received in the mail or on your gifts with a little winter-themed creativity. You can use the white sides to make winter snowflakes for the windows, and postcards or coasters out of the decorated sides. Think about making a nice annual Christmas collage board too!
To make snowflakes, take the card and rip down the fold, so you have two smaller, one-sided cards. Fold one of the cards in half and dig out your scissors. Cut little chunks from your folded card to make ’snowflake’ designs. Unfold and hang in your windows with tape. Snowflakes don’t have to be white, by the way. You can have fun coloring them in with crayons or markers!
This is a nice winter indoor activity with kids and encourages them to think in new ways about reusing.
The pictures on the holiday cards can be turned into postcards and mailed back to the people who sent you gifts, as thoughtful thank you notes. Postcard stamps will save you money on postage for those thank-yous.
You can also make an annual collage or mosiac for all the cards you receive in a given year. Get some Modge-Podge (a decoupage glue), or just use any glue or tape if you wish. Cut out holiday themes and scenes from your cards, and maybe a bit of the gift wrap you used this year. Make a scene or montage that you find appealing. Tape or glue them all down on a sheet of cardboard (maybe reused from a box that a big gift came in).
Apply a thin coat of Modge-podge if you wish, for a finished look. Make sure you make a note on the back of which year you are commemorating, and do this each year. You can set up these special holiday art pieces each year, against your mantle or on a windowsill.
You could also make holiday coasters by applying the scenes from cards, cut into squares, and glued to square pieces of cardboard. Apply a thick coat of the Modge-Podge and you have charming, waterproof coasters worth breaking out each year.
One last idea: get some spray adhesive from a craft store. Cut out cute animals, pretty trees or jolly Santas from your used cards, and place spray adhesive on the back side. Stick these cut-outs anywhere! They can become adorable decorations on the bathroom walls, on the kitchen cabinets, on wine bottles, or marching along a child’s bedroom wall. The best part is this adhesive comes right off without leaving a residue on your furniture or paint.
So remember to place the cards you received this year in your box of ornaments for next year, ready for you to crazy with card creativity!
Related Articles
Living Simply Christmas Archive
Have An Environmentally-Friendly Christmas
How to have an eco-friendly and budget-wise Christmas by decreasing the waste - and increasing your creativity!
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Martha has the best holiday ideas for crafty folks: Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)
Reuse Soap Slivers and Hotel Soaps
My husband says this email (see below) has been floating around for at least ten years. Besides being darned funny, it got me thinking. What ARE good uses for those tiny little hotel soaps? My simple living perspective doesn’t like the idea of just throwing them away. So I came up with a small list, and I hope you can add to it:
Use the little soaps to write on glass. If your car is for sale, or if you have a shop window, you can write on the glass for an easily removed message. Or write a love note to your sweetheart on the bathroom mirror some morning.
Shave the soaps down and melt in a mold, in your microwave, to create a bath-sized bar. Add soap fragrances (such as lavender)and a bit of oatmeal for mild sloughing qualities. Use yourself or give away as gifts for the holidays.
Shave down and add glycerin. Melt in the microwave and keep in a jar for a homemade liquid hand soap.
Place in snack-sized ziplocks to have as soaps for camping, traveling and other needs. Place a bag in each duffel bag, cosmetic valise and suitcase for later use.
Sell bundles of little soaps at garage sales for a quarter. Or send on to Goodwill for them to sell.
Repackage in nice little fabrics and ribbons that match your guest bathroom, and put out when you have overnight visitors. Tell them they can use them or take them home. It’s a lovely little gesture.
Place opened soap in an old sock, and hang it in the shower. it makes a wonderful body scrubby that lathers effortlessly. Keep adding used soap slivers at will.
Shave down and use in powdered form for handwashing delicate clothes, or experiment with adding to your washing machine on the gentle cycle.
Place scented soaps in your sock drawer, underwear drawer or lingerie drawer, to add a mild, fresh scent to these items.
Got other ideas? Email them to Livingsimply@bellaonline.com!Now, relax and read this very funny email forward…..
WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THOSE “FREE” SOAPS WHEN TRAVELLING
Attached is some correspondence which ACTUALLY occurred between a London hotel’s staff and one of its guests. The London hotel involved submitted this to the Sunday Times. No name was mentioned.
Dear Maid,
Please do not leave any more of those little bars of soap in my bathroom since I have brought my own bath-sized Dial. Please remove the six unopened little bars from the shelf under the medicine chest and another three in the shower soap dish. They are in my way.
Thank you,
S. Berman
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Dear Room 635,
I am not your regular maid. She will be back tomorrow, Thursday, from her day off. I took the 3 hotel soaps out of the shower soap dish as you requested. The 6 bars on your shelf I took out of your way and put on top of your Kleenex dispenser in case you should change your mind. This leaves only the 3 bars I left today which my instructions from the management is to leave 3 soaps daily.
I hope this is satisfactory.
Kathy, Relief Maid
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Dear Maid — I hope you are my regular maid. Apparently Kathy did not tell you about my note to her concerning the little bars of soap. When I got back to my room this evening I found you had added 3 little Camays to the shelf under my medicine cabinet. I am going to be here in the hotel for two weeks and have brought my own bath-size Dial so I won’t need those 6 little Camays which are on the shelf. They are in my way when shaving, brushing teeth, etc.
Please remove them.
S. Berman
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Dear Mr. Berman,
My day off was last Wed. so the relief maid left 3 hotel soaps which we are instructed by the management. I took the 6 soaps which were in your way on the shelf and put them in the soap dish where your Dial was. I put the Dial in the medicine cabinet for your convenience. I didn’t remove the 3 complimentary soaps which are always placed inside the medicine cabinet for all new check-ins and which you did not object to when you checked in last Monday. Please let me know if I can of further assistance.
Your regular maid,
Dotty
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Dear Mr. Berman,
The assistant manager, Mr. Kensedder, informed me this A.M. that you called him last evening and said you were unhappy with your maid service. I have assigned a new girl to your room. I hope you will accept my apologies for any past inconvenience. If you have any future complaints please contact me so I can give it my personal attention. Call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM.
Thank you.
Elaine Carmen
Housekeeper
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Dear Miss Carmen,
It is impossible to contact you by phone since I leave the hotel for business at 745 AM and don’t get back before 530 or 6PM. That’s the reason I called Mr. Kensedder last night. You were already off duty. I only asked Mr. Kensedder if he could do anything about those little bars of soap. The new maid you assigned me must have thought I was a new check-in today, since she left another 3 bars of hotel soap in my medicine cabinet along with her regular delivery of 3 bars on the bath-room shelf. In just 5 days here I have accumulated 24 little bars of soap.
Why are you doing this to me?
S. Berman
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Dear Mr. Berman,
Your maid, Kathy, has been instructed to stop delivering soap to your room and remove the extra soaps. If I can be of further assistance, please call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM.
Thank you,
Elaine Carmen,
Housekeeper
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Dear Mr. Kensedder,
My bath-size Dial is missing. Every bar of soap was taken from my room including my own bath-size Dial. I came in late last night and had to call the bellhop to bring me 4 little Cashmere Bouquets.
S. Berman
——————————————————————————-
Dear Mr. Berman,
I have informed our housekeeper, Elaine Carmen, of your soap problem. I cannot understand why there was no soap in your room since our maids are instructed to leave 3 bars of soap each time they service a room. The situation will be rectified immediately. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.
Martin L. Kensedder
Assistant Manager
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Dear Mrs. Carmen,
Who the hell left 54 little bars of Camay in my room? I came in last night and found 54 little bars of soap. I don’t want 54 little bars of Camay. I want my one damn bar of bath-size Dial. Do you realize I have 54 bars of soap in here. All I want is my bath size Dial. Please give me back my bath-size Dial.
S. Berman
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Dear Mr. Berman,
You complained of too much soap in your room so I had them removed. Then you complained to Mr. Kensedder that all your soap was missing so I personally returned them. The 24 Camays which had been taken and the 3 Camays you are supposed to receive daily (sic). I don’t know anything about the 4 Cashmere Bouquets. Obviously your maid, Kathy, did not know I had returned your soaps so she also brought 24 Camays plus the 3 daily Camays. I don’t know where you got the idea this hotel issues bath-size Dial. I was able to locate some bath-size Ivory which I left in your room.
Elaine Carmen
Housekeeper
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Dear Mrs. Carmen,
Just a short note to bring you up-to-date on my latest soap inventory. As of today I possess:
On shelf under medicine cabinet - 18 Camay in 4 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
On Kleenex dispenser - 11 Camay in 2 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 3.
On bedroom dresser - 1 stack of 3 Cashmere Bouquet, 1 stack of 4 hotel-size Ivory, and 8 Camay in 2 stacks of 4.
Inside medicine cabinet - 14 Camay in 3 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
In shower soap dish - 6 Camay, very moist.
On northeast corner of tub - 1 Cashmere Bouquet, slightly used.
On northwest corner of tub - 6 Camays in 2 stacks of 3.
Please ask Kathy when she services my room to make sure the stacks are neatly piled and dusted. Also, please advise her that stacks of more than 4 have a tendency to tip. May I suggest that my bedroom window sill is not in use and will make an excellent spot for future soap deliveries. One more item, I have purchased another bar of bath-sized Dial which I am keeping in the hotel vault in order to avoid further misunderstandings.
S. Berman
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Christmas in July - how to shop the sales and get done early
For busy people who are driven crazy each holiday season, it is a good idea to get some of the holiday “work” completed in the longer, hotter, slower summer months. It might even make you forget the heat!
It’s funny how Christmas has entered our collective cultural consciousness so early in the year, these days. While a cynical part of me cringes to hear the Christmas in July commercials, it’s certainly true you can find some very good deals, and get your Christmas chores done super early.
Christmas chores to think about getting out of the way in the summertime:
- Making your gift lists
- Shopping the sales, especially those “Christmas in July” ones…be on the lookout for the true screaming deals to be had; not just the loss leaders
- Tackling the Christmas sections of Goodwill and thrift shops for wrapping paper, good scissors, tape, lights, candles, decorations, ornaments and even gifts. It’s all there, and you won’t be competing too much with the other shoppers for the best stuff, this early in the year
- Some thrift shops even put out tables of their Christmas stuff on sale for super-cheap prices in the summer, just to help move their huge holiday inventories along. Remember, they will be gearing up for all the holidays soon, starting with Halloween
- Keep your eyes open for the best used items, even at garage sales, for excellent, budget-minded gifts. The idea is not as radical as it sounds.Even CNN.com covered my take on the used gifts theme
- Think ahead about your holiday parties. You can find great deals at thrift shop and budget stores like Ross and the Dollar Tree for party supplies, sets of matching stemmed wine glasses, elegant cloth napkins and napkin rings, pretty holiday thrift bags, inexpensive party favors, festive cookies cutters, baking sheets and cooling racks…even find a nice party dress that you can set aside for later
- Plan your recipes. You can look through your books and files for food themes you wish to try this year, and set aside cookie recipes and dessert ideas while dreaming of that white Christmas on a long, hot afternoon…
- Make a Christmas shelf or set aside a part of a closet for your Christmas aquisitions. Top shelves are good for hiding gifts you don’t want youngsters stumbling upon. Get some large baskets from Pier 1, Cost Plus or Ross, and toss your Christmas supplies, all pre-organized, into your new Holiday Strategic Planning Area
With luck and forethought you can actually have a relaxing yule this year. Everyone else will be running around with the screaming meemees by November - and you can take time to be with your family this upcoming season. Isn’t THAT what Christmas is supposed to be about?
Open Air Living Book Review
This exciting book looks at your yard, patio, balcony or vacation beachfront as a room inside your home. Ideas for decorating and using your outdoor “room” abound - whether it’s for making a reading nook or an outdoor bathing retreat.
This goes beyond the usual “spread a nice picnic in a field” ideas, or even “have a campout in your own backyard.” Those sophomoric ideas are banished in the face of exhortations to hang Chinese lanterns from tree branches when serving sashimi from enamel plates for your own midday Asian Tea Ceremony, moving your computer and desk out to the patio for an al fresco work environment, and turning your old outbuildings into open-fronted art studios and meditation retreats.
Props are liberally suggested to make a sense of enclosure in each locale - often by setting up flowing fabrics like sarongs and saris, bright sheets and even textured cotton shower curtains. Other pictures depict ingenious uses for those ubiquitous bamboo screens for a sense of privacy, shade, or ambience.
The appendix provides concise instructions to make your own colorful beach tents, decorative chair covers and table skirts, floral tablecloths, rustic stools and garden benches.
While not every idea seems exceptionally practical (depending on your climate), I can vouch for the pleasures of setting up an outdoor shower and fireplace. There’s nothing quite like a morning shower under blue skies, or an evening with the family, by firelight, under the stars. This book will put you in the mood to plan your own version of backyard heaven.
Jill Florio, August 2003
Open Air Living - creative ideas for stylish outdoor living, by Enrica Stabile, 2001, Ryland, Peters and Small.
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