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!
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Living Simply Christmas Archive
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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
——————————————————————————-
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
——————————————————————————-
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
——————————————————————————-
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
——————————————————————————-
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
——————————————————————————-
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
——————————————————————————-
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
——————————————————————————-
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
——————————————————————————-
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
——————————————————————————-
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
——————————————————————————-
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.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)The Unlikely Power of Baking Soda
A review of 500 Uses for Baking Soda, and how my baking soda experiments turned out!
I got my hands on a copy of a most unusual title while browsing my favorite used bookstore. The title was arresting enough, reading, in large print, BAKING SODA. Hmmm. It was lengthly subtitled, Over 500 fabulous, fun and frugal uses you’ve probably never thought of.
It sounded like a challenge. And if you are anything like me, you’d happily spend hours reading the thing, highlighter in hand to memorize new uses for an old household staple. How could I pass this up?
Vicki Lansky’s one-woman tribute to sodium bicarbonate boggles the mind. In her own mother’s words, “Who would believe she could have come up with all these uses?”
Everyone knows you can cook with baking soda: it makes bread rise. It’s a natural antacid. Dentists say you can brush your teeth with it. And it’s quite common for to see an open box in the fridge for food odor absorption.
But did you know that fridge box is only good for 3 months? After that, its freshening properties are used up. Get another box. What to do with the used-up, old box? Well, Lansky’s got ideas for that, such as sprinkling the powder around the soil of tomato plants to lower their acidity and discourage pests. I haven’t tried this one, yet.
So, okay, I’m game. I tried a few of these ‘uses’ and hard a darned good time doing it. My fiance thinks I’m nuts for getting so excited over baking soda, but likes that the product is undeniably cheap.
Playing with powder
Here are the ideas from the book that I tried, and how it all went.
- Laundry Booster – On the book’s recommendation, I added a ½ cup to my washer load, along with my detergent. Not only did my colors and whites come out brighter, but even my workout clothes smelled nice when I took them out. Lanksy notes this boosting effect only works with liquid laundry detergents, however. I suspect the deodorizing effect works with either kind.
- Garbage Disposal Maintenance – When I noticed a stink arising from the disposal afer a weekend away, I immediately poured a ½ cup down the drain, followed by vinegar. It bubbled and frothed and took the nasty scent away. I didn’t even need to run water after it.
- Garbage Can Odors – This one’s easy – sprinkle over wet, nasty garbage to remove the odor. My take is that you need too much soda to really get the odor out. It’s better to just take out the garbage. But I did find that sprinkling a little soda in the garbage can bottom, between changing the bags, was helpful.
- Carpet Cleaner – Sprinkle over the carpet and let sit overnight. Use a cheese shaker or flour sifter to spread it evenly - otherwise it either clumps, or all comes out at once. Vacuum in the morning. This old technique still works great. As the proud owner of two dogs, I can verify how well baking soda works to dissolve canine odor.
- Tarnished Silver – I tried two baking soda techniques for cleaning silver and was pleasantly surprised with both.
In the past, I used harsh-smelling chemical products, the kind that’s impregnated in a wad of wool, to scrub, scrub, scrub my silver. The process was always messy and stinky. On really old, dirty, heirloom silver, it didn’t even work at all, besides stripping away my silver plate to reveal the copper beneath.
Blech. These methods are MUCH better:
1. Baking soda and water, mixed into a paste, cleans the tarnish right away. Spread the goop all over your silver item, let it sit for ten minutes, then rub with your fingers (or an old toothbrush) until dirty baking soda paste falls away. Rinse, buff – and if necessary – repeat. This method cleaning and safely bids the grime begone from my stemware and plates.
2. The other method is great for utensils. Fill a plastic bucket, or your sink with hot water. Add a square of aluminum foil. Sprinkle your silver with baking soda, drop into hot water, and let sit 15 minutes. Take out the silver and buff with a soft cloth. My silver turned clean and shiny with very little effort!
UPDATE: Reader’s Suggestions
“Hi there….I use baking soda on my skin or my daughters when we get bit by mosquitos or bees. Just make a little paste with water and the b. soda and it doesn’t itch and heals quickly, no pain! Also, it SUCKS the “poison” out when I get poison ivy……..i use it instead of calamine lotion.(i get this p. ivy at least 2 times every 10 years and rely on it!)” - Rhonda, 11/03The book
Baking Soda, Over 500 fabulous, fun and frugal uses you’ve probably never thought of, by Vicki Lansky, 1995, The Book Peddlers, ISB 0916773426
Reuse Dryer Lint
I keep a small bin in my laundry room for storing the dryer lint. Since we do a lot of laundry, we get a lot of that grayish, pinkish fluffy stuff. Did you know you can reuse that lint?
As part of the greater effort to close the loop in my own home (ie, keep trash to a minimum, reuse my household wastes as resources), I have been feeding my lint into the compost bin - my Earth Machine (see previous article on this site). After all, the bin instructions said I could do this. And I feel better keeping one more thing in the cycle of life, so to speak. My lint will become part of a tree.
Then I read an article about fire starting, where Colleen O’Brien writes of how dryer lint makes a fabulous sparker in adverse conditions. She says to stuff a film canister with all the lint you can squeeze in (several dryer loads can be stuffed in if you try); then fill a second canister with vaseline-smeared cotton balls. She writes that lighting the lint, even in the worst wet conditions, will bring enough heat to start the cotton balls…which will flare long enough for your kindling to catch. I’ve tried this in the miserable soggyness of Northern Minnesota, and can vouch for its effectiveness.
A reader wrote in to add this:
I got a slightly easier version of using lint to start fires. We
used dryer lint to start fires in Boy Scouts. Just stuff an empty
egg carton with lint then pour in candle wax. You can break off
each section as you need it.
Maybe you can even use this technique in the home, as in your fireplace or woodburning stove, for a quick and easy start to your roaring indoor fire. Or put some lint in your homemade candles, to keep them burning brightly.
I got thinking about other uses for lowly dryer lint. It’s not a savory item. I wouldn’t really want to stuff a pillow with it, even though it’s clean (obviously, it’s been through a washer before that dryer). It’s not a particulary nice thing for packaging…who would like to open a box from eBay and get a lot of lint protecting their fragile items?
As a mulch, it might be suitable. If you have a small veggie garden, even a container one on the balcony, you could probably lay the lint around your plants to keep moisture in and prevent weed growth. I would only try this in the drier areas, since I have visions of mold growing in lint mulch, for those who live in humid states.
It might be a good addition to worm bins - vermiculture. I have not tried it yet. Let me know if you do.
Lately I’ve been putting the lint wads in my guinea pig nesting box. They do seem to like it - it’s warm, clean and cuddly, and looks JUST LIKE the nesting box material that you can purchase at places like PetSmart.
A few sites online report that lint makes great clay, paper and paper mache. Lint crafting even has its own website here, with recipes - great recycle crafts. The basic materials seem to be lint, water and wheat, for the papermache; and lint, water and glue for the clay and homemade paper.
One website recommends placing lint on tree branches, so birds can use it for nests. This actually sounds like a nice idea.
Getting into the odd territory: here’s a website with pictures of someone’s lint dryer “Pets” - Lint Dryer Pets. I guess fashioning shapes out of your lint is better than staring at the walls when bored.
This artist has even taken lint art into the studio - The National Lint Project. Coming to a laundromat near YOU.
Um, okay. I’m already out of ideas. I’ll add more if I think of anything. But it’s still a good exercize in creativity. What humble home wastes can YOU reuse?
More Things to Check out
- Funny Lint Site - My Lint Collection. Good for a giggle.
- Online Lint Weirdness - Lint, the Musical
- Finally, here’s a book that hasn’t been released yet, but I am excited to see what ideas it might have for closing the loop in the home, whether it mentions lint or not:
Household Waste (Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Rethink)
Christmas Recycling - Make Earth Friendly Gift Wrap
Every year I have the same dilemma - what to wrap my Christmas presents in that is both environmentally-friendly AND attractive?
I hate seeing those piles of torn wrapping paper heaped under the tree after present-opening time. These papers were barely used and are now ready for the trash, and the landfill. One option is recycling them - but many of these speciality papers are hard to categorize, with metallic dyes added. Are they actually recyclable? And would you want them in your compost bin if they are toxic? What to do?
Here are some options I’ve tried and their mixed results:
- Buy wrapping paper made specifically from recycled content. You can feel better buying it, and can probably recycle or compost it when you are done. Buying wrapping papers from charity groups involved in saving rainforests will salve your conscience and is a nice gesture.
- Pick up inexpensive rolls of leftover wrapping paper from Goodwill or the Salvation Army. When I stopped by Goodwill today, I saw bins full of 1/2 and 1/4 rolls for less than a dollar each.
- Save used wrapping paper this Christmas and reuse it all next year. I did this through-out my twenties. Now I don’t really care to store used paper all year, but it worked fine for me at the time. The downside: your gifts don’t look very pristine all wrapped up, sitting under the tree, with the professionally-wrapped stuff from everyone else. My parents understood my recycling convictions, but still, my gifts looked ‘cheaper’ than the others. If you can get your whole family to save and reuse together, this option should work for you. Make sure everyone opens their gifts carefully - no frantic ripping allowed!
- Make your own gift wrap from butcher paper, reused brown paper bags, newspaper and the funny pages. These can look GREAT! Try some raffia twine bows with the butcher paper and brown bags, for a pleasant, simple, rustic look. Or get the family together to create your own designs drawn on the butcher paper - use crayons, markers or mixed media. Make a stencil from a potato for the brown paper bags. You don’t need bows, and these hand-made offerings are like another gift all by themselves. Best of all, the paper, bags, and newsprint can all be recycled or composted.
- Buy a bundle of pretty gift bags from your local dollar store, and reuse them each year. Tie the handles together with some ribbon so gift-getters have something to “unwrap”. These bags come in all designs and look very nice under the tree. They are also a boon for wrapping odd-shaped gifts.
Here is another option for reusable gift bags: Read my Reusable Bag Product Review.
- Along the same lines, you can pick up a bunch of used but pretty baskets from your local Goodwill or thrift store. Put the gifts in the baskets and presto! Nothing to chuck. Everyone can use a basket or two in their lives.
- Make lovely, reusable gift sacks from cloth material you have lying around. Fold material in half and sew up one bottom and the other side. Leave the top open, insert gift, and tie shut with a ribbon. These sacks can be as simple or extravagant as your talents/interest allows.
- Give gift certificates this year. Place the certificates in a nice envelope, clip with hole puncher, add a bit of ribbon and dangle from the tree. The nice thing about this: there’s virtually no wrapping to deal with (recycle or reuse that envelope), and the recipient gets a gift they will actually enjoy, since they get to pick it out.
- You can also make your own paper, using recycled materials of course! These two wonderful books will get you started:
These are the full titles for the books I recommended above:
- Creative Handmade Paper: How to Make Paper from Recycled and Natural Materials
- Scented Herb Papers: How to Use Natural Scents and Colours in Hand-Made Recycled and Plant Papers
Have fun and a Merry Simple Christmas!
UPDATE - A reader adds this:
Hi Jill. I just read your article on recyling gift wrap and I agree with almost all you said. But you said that using wrapping paper that has been used before looks tacky. I disagree. I use it all the time and I have a little trick that makes it look almost like new paper. Just take and place your paper on the ironing board and sprinkle with water or a water and starch mixture. Iron the paper to dry the moisture out and your paper looks almost new. Unless it has really heavy creases in it works great.
Awesome! I love hearing tips like this. Thanks for sending!
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)A Recycled Christmas - Reused Gifts Are Better
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?
Simplify Your Year
This month-by-month listing of what upkeep activities to focus on throughout the year will keep you from feeling overwhelmed by the massive amount of upkeep our daily lives can require! Feel free to adjust this schedule to reflect your own life’s needs and situations:
A year’s worth of simplifying in one easy chart:
January - Examine life goals, make one big resolution for the year, or three medium-sized ones
February - Taxes and paper file purging
March - Licenses: Are addresses current? Has anything expired or been lost? Driver’s license, vehicle registration, insurance premiums, voter registration, homeowner’s insurance; renew passport if needed
April - Pet Month: vaccinations, checkups, heartworm preventative restarted, a good grooming, throw out old toys and clothes, prep for flea season, start checking for ticks, consider upgrading to a better food formula
May - Plant Month: Top dressing and repotting houseplants, start tomatoes inside, pruning houseplants and garden, compost weary plants, lay out mulch, turn compost in bin if it’s been awhile
June - Spring Cleaning: clear out closets, garage, old videos and electronics, eliminate junk in junk drawes, wash windows, plan garage sales, donate old books, clothes and magazines, wash front door, wash windowsills, clean out window and shower tracks, drain filters in washing machine and dish washer, vaccuum back and under fridge, clean out fridge
July, August - Home and Garden Months. Or take a vacation from planning - you deserve it!
September - Personal and Family Health Month: booster shots (tetanus, flu?), teeth cleaning and dental exam, health checkup, dermatologist checkup, body fat testing, eye exam, update eyeglass prescription if needed
October - Car Health Month: Tune up and oil change, rotate/balance/align tires, check belts and hoses, mileage checkup, get detailed, winterize
November - Update Documents: wills, trusts, household inventory updated
December - Life Goals: review the year. How well did you do? Are your inner needs also getting met? Winter is a great time to look within
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Foraging for Blackberries
Summertime is berry time in much of the northern world. The blackberries, at least here in the state of Washington, are plump by July and ready for eating all summer long. You can plan an entire afternoon collecting berries, eating some for a picnic, and taking the rest home for some elegant, healthy treats.
Blackberry Picking
The best way to pick blackberries: head to any park, hiking trail or cycling greenbelt flanked with the twisty, thorny bushes, and start picking. Blackberry bushes make thick, impenetrable thickets in boggy lowlands and low grassy areas close to bodies of water. The purple berries are the ones to pick and they should come right off the vine with the slightest tug.
If you are foraging for berries to take home, make sure you are ready with a sturdy container to hold them. I like a wide-mouthed Nalgene bottle for simple afternoon pickings, or a sturdy, large basket for serious collecting. Using a baggie is less satisfying to the soul, and can also result in squished berries and a sticky, leaky bag.
If you are using a bugspray while picking, make sure you have none on your hands. You don’t want toxins to get on your food, and into your body.
Other blackberry picking gear includes thick cotton pants (denim or Carharts work well) for wading into thorn territory, closed-toed shoes for the same reason, and possibly a set of garden gloves. I prefer to use my hands, so as not to bruise the berries, and to improve my hand-eye coordination - a pricked finger learns quickly what not to pluck!
Take only the blackest, most plump blackberries, from the branch. Leave the red and pink berries to continue to develop (for the next people happening by, and for the birds and other creatures that depend on berries for survival). If you only select the berries that are ready to fall anyway, you will not be denuding the branches! Be sure to ask landowner’s permission if you are berry-picking on private land.
Blackberry Uses
Once you have your blackberries at home, give them a good, gentle rinsing under cold water. Use a large collander, and spread berries out on paper towels to dry. I actually have a large, clean mesh screen that I use for my berry rinsing and drying. I found this screen for 69 cents at Goodwill, but you can easily make one of your own, of of window screen mesh, stapled to four strips of wood.
Set aside berries for immediate use. Freeze or dehydrate the rest. Or make your own jam preserves with the bounty.
You can use fresh or frozen berries over ice cream, in smoothies, in Blackberry Margeritas (Use berry vodka and a rim of sugar crystals), in pies, cobblers and tarts, and, of course, in the raw for a snack.
Dehydrated berries are great in trail mixes, tossed into fresh green salads with a vinegar-type dressing, or rehydrated for more traditional uses. You can use dehydrated blackberries in potpourri and for other crafting ideas.
Pickled blackberries are another gourmet option to consider experimenting with. Or make your own blackberry wine and blackberry vinegars!
Mouthwatering Berry Recipes
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