Posted on 03/23/2008 11:36:40 PM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
http://bohemianrevolution.com/have-yourself-a-frugal-little-christmas/
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Have yourself a frugal little Christmas
by Jen (December 10, 2008)
This year has brought a lot of financial worries. Even those of us who are in good shape are worried about the future, so it looks like we’re looking for ways to spend less on the winter holidays. Here are some inexpensive crafty gift and decor suggestions.
Instructables tells you how to make grocery bag jewelry - that’s jewelry you make by melting old pasting grocery bags with an iron and then manipulating them like a craft medium. This is a great, clever, eco-friendly gift friends and family will appreciate. Be sure to follow all the safety precautions.
Want a really different holiday greeting card this year? Make these balsa wood cards from Instructables. They may not be practical for mailing out, but they’re gorgeous as decorations for your home or the home of someone you’re visiting this year.
If you’re mailing cash in lieu of gifts, you can spend several bucks on a greeting card designed for the purpose, or make your own money-holder greeting card with this tutorial, also from Instructables.
What about snacks? Elsie Marley has adapted a Martha Stewart recipe for meringue snowmen. These are cute, sure to be delicious, and can be made fairly frugally.
Kelly Wilkinson of Make Grow Gather wrote up instructions for five (frugal) homemade gifts for SFGate.
And feel free to recycle Sarah’s ideas for Frugal but Thoughtful Mother’s Day Gifts, many of which can be adapted for other relatives and other holidays.
http://bohemianrevolution.com/things-to-do-with-coffee-filters/
Things to do with coffee filters
by Jen (March 29, 2007)
TipNut posted about lining planters with coffee filters before you put the dirt in (keeps the water from draining out) and it got me thinking about other things I’ve used coffee filters for since I got a coffee maker with a permanent filter. Keep in mind you can get coffee filters dirt cheap at places like Smart N Final or Cosco, or when you look for sales.
* I put them over food when I’m heating stuff in the microwave. For me it comes out to be cheaper than napkins or paper towels, but do your own math - it all depends what’s available in your area.
* Line plastic cosmetic bags with them. Every once in a while, you can remove all the cosmetics, wad up the filter with all the dirt and debris in it, use the flip side of it to wipe out the plastic bag, and throw it away. Keeps your cosmetic bags from getting disgustingly grungy and needing to be replaced. You can also use paper towels or napkins for this, but I find the stiffness of the filters keeps them out of my way more.
* Flatten them and line stuff like candy dishes with them. This can actually look very cute - sort of like a simple doily.
* Put them between plates and cookware - anything you want to stack without scratching.
* They make excellent makeshift snack bowls for popcorn, nuts, etc. Get a tray with a rim and cram as many filters on together as will go, then put the snacks in them - very fun for get-togethers.
* Great for cleaning glass (keep them in the car for the windows).
http://bohemianrevolution.com/stuff-to-do-with-old-pantyhose/
Stuff to do with old pantyhose
by Jen (April 6, 2007)
Yesterday I talked about putting dried, used coffee grounds in old pantyhose to make odor-absorbing sachets. Guess what else old pantyhose are good for?
* Tying plants (like tomato vines) to sticks
* Use as hanging storage for onions. Tie knots between each onion, and you can just snip at the bottom knot to get one out.
* The other day I said you could line plant potters with coffee filters to keep water and soil inside. Pantyhose also work.
* Make catnip toys for cats - just tie some up in the toe of a kneesock.
* Make sachets with baking soda - just put some in, tie two knots, put more in, tie two knots again…. snip between the knots and you’ve got sachets.
* Put plastic grocery bags in them, hang it somewhere, cut a hole in the bottom (if the hole tends to spread, coat the edges with nail polish to stop it) and pull out plastic bags as needed.
* Put soap in the toes and tie the ends shut. Now you have a soap-on-a-rope/scrubbie for when you shower.
http://naughtysecretaryclub.blogspot.com/2008/12/handmade-hellos-book-review-and-how-to.html
Interesting card making info, there are many craft links that I did not check.
Several articles on crafts also.
http://bohemianrevolution.com/beat-odors-with-coffee-grounds-and-old-pantyhose/
Beat odors with coffee grounds and old pantyhose
by Jen (April 5, 2007)
This will freshen things the same way baking soda or charcoal do, because coffee grounds absorb odor like that:
* Dry out some used coffee grounds
* Put them inside old pantyhose - keeps them in but lets the air flow
* Tie it up, and you’ve got a sachet.
The only use I’ve heard of for this is for smelly shoes - stick the sachet down in the shoe for a while to deodorize it. I have a feeling it would work for smelly hampers, too.
http://bohemianrevolution.com/used-coffee-grinds-for-exfoliating-and-more/
Used coffee grinds for exfoliating and more
by Jen (April 16, 2007)
I keep reading that used coffee grounds are good for cellulite - well, as good as any of the other products out there, which charge scandalously for short-term results you can get with used coffee grinds. But it also seems like it would be a good, cheap and safe for sensitive skin exfoliator, so I did some research and got some surprises.
Used coffee grounds exfoliant:
Mix the used grounds in with your usual liquid cleanser. You can just experiment to get the right ration of grounds to liquid for your skin, or you can find a ton of recipes online, some of which add sugar or salt for further detoxification, and olive oil as a base.
Used coffee grounds cellulite treatment:
If you look at the ingredients in overpriced cellulite treatments, the main one is always caffeine. Just mix a small amount of used grounds with your moisturizer - GetBeautyTips recommends just a teaspoon to an entire bottle, and promises the few grounds that stick to your skin will fall off as soon as the lotion dries.
Used coffee grounds to enhance hair color:
Also from Get Beauty Tips:
Hair Color Enhancer - Add 2 tbsp of coffee grounds to your shampoo to enhance the hair color of brunettes and redheads. Also you can brew a really strong cup of coffee (espresso would be fabulous), let cool. Then saturate dry hair with coffee. Cover hair with a plastic shower cap or bag and let sit for 20 minutes. Then rinse with warm water.
http://bohemianrevolution.com/keep-coffee-grounds-fresh/
Keep coffee grounds fresh
by Jen (January 18, 2008)
The freezer isn’t always the right place to keep your coffee grounds. The cannisters of (cheap, pre-ground) coffee I buy recommend keeping it in the freezer, but I’m beginning to understand why the last quarter of the can tastes like cardboard.
Apparently what I need to do is break my cannisters down into amounts I can drink in a few days, and keep one “several days’ supply” at room temperature, and put the rest in the freezer until I’m ready for it.
Yeah, I should probably learn to grind my own beans, but I’m just not that much of an aficionado.
http://aprintaday.blogspot.com/2008/10/weekend-downloads-roses.html
Pretties in print, for you to download...........
Filed under crafts.
FoodSaver v2830 for $61 shipped, list $170<<<
I bought mine 30 or more years ago.
It is messy to use and not as simple as it sounds.
The bags are expensive.
So it is never used, better to use the containers that you are throwing in the trash and I buy the cheapest gallon size plastic bags that they make, “the old twist tie style” and use those in a margarine container.
I laugh at my sister, she wants to throw out my margarine containers and go buy plastic containers at the store...same thing and free to me.
If you want a good investment, make it a pressure cooker, a food dryer and a 4 gallon stainless stock pot for soups that go in the freezer.
My 3 or 4 gallon stainless steel bowls, are priceless now, were bought to make my 12 loaves of bread dough in, and have used them for a bath on camping trips, for dishes and any number of other projects.
If you can’t afford the 4 gallon steel pan, find a 4 gallon blue enamel hot water bath canner, if the enamel is not chipped, it works for a soup pot.
I once made 4 gallons of good soup, by putting my stock pan on the back burner with water and throwing scraps in it all day as I spent a day cooking for the brother and for the freezer, fat, bones, tough part of the vegetables, this and that and almost none of it ‘new’, it was mainly the stuff that would have gone to the animals and trash.
It even surprised me, that I could do it in one day, I have often saved it frozen, for soup later.
And my bread machine, the rest of the stuff I don’t really use, or maybe once a year I use it.
Great idea. I have some heirloom china plates on display in stacks, and that would save them from unnecessary damage.
Why is this so much fun? It’s so exciting, and all I’m doing is buying seeds!<<<
No, it is more than seeds and dirt, you are planting a dream and a promise from God that it will grow and be useful, beautiful and taste good.
I long ago, accepted that I was a dreamer.
Heh, Squaw Valley is just around the corner from my house on the hill <<<
Now I am jealous, I got their catalog for several years, marked and read every word of it.
You can save all that postage and just drive over and pick up your order.
Watch the website, they have sales at the drop of a hat, some are good ones.
This is the off time, so it is the seeds and books, but the plants all show up their sooner or later.
I loved going to the nurseries, lots more fun than a dress store.
Nurseries and book stores, now that is heaven.
Melted Crayon Stained Glass Window<<<
LOL, now there is a craft that I could get hooked on.
Isn’t it odd, that I also took off on crafts this morning, honest, I did not check until now, as if I get into posting here, I don’t get the terror forwards and the posts on the terror thread done.
All I did this morning, was open one newsletter and here I am.
LOL, last night I opened one news letter, and it took me all night, until I couldn’t see any longer to get it done, no not done as I still have the Viet Nam link open on the tool bar.
I am hundreds of news letters behind.
I am hundreds of news letters behind.
My browser gets a lot of tabs too. We can't conquer the web, there are billions of pages and only two of us, LOL! But we can try!
Boy no kidding, I could spend hours at either one. I guess I'm boring... I'd rather go to Hoover Dam than Las Vegas, and I'd rather see the Grand Canyon than Los Angeles. Nature is so much better than man-made. Except when it comes to books, that's a weakness.
My husband is partial to tubs, he especially likes the galvanized ones about shin-high. They are very useful, from bathing dogs, chilling drinks for a party, carrying dirt, storing laundry etc., etc. Me being a city girl, I am always amused and amazed at the stuff he likes to have. One minute he's got a mason jar to drink water, the next he grabs a crystal wine glass for some merlot. He's an interesting fellow with dozens of great stories.
LOL, that is quite a thread, but not much real info on gardening in it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2146715/posts
The liberals have been pushing community and vacant lot gardens for years, also know as “Guerrilla” gardens, I have posted on them.
I like the hidden garden idea, hikers bring seeds and plant vegetables in places that one rarely goes.
And I liked the thought of plowing the White House Lawn and planting a vegetable garden.
Makes me smile to even think about it.
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