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Who's got the pickle?

Last week I promised that I’d be posting a Christmas craft idea, but I realized that today is November 30, which means that the next day is December 1, and that’s the day I want to pick up our Christmas tree. And I am oddly excited about it.

I really can’t explain why the holiday madness has struck me so early. This is unusual. Normally I’m the kind of person who is scrambling to buy presents the week before. This kind of self-imposed stress makes me hate Christmas a little bit; the parking, the slush, the crowds, the malls, the same songs over and over and over. It’s a wonder that all this stuff doesn’t turn me into a Scrooge, permanently.

But this year is different. I’m not sure what’s changed. Maybe it’s because I’m trying very hard to be mindful and not let it slip away from me. Perhaps that’s why I’m keen to get the tree so early. It’s become a big part of the Christmas ritual in our family. We get a real tree every year. (Mess aside, I’ve never understood the appeal of the fake Made-in-China tree…. but feel free to enlighten me in the comments below!) We’ve never gone to a “chop your own” farm either. We prefer to frequent roadside lots with their bundles of frozen evergreens. (Most notably, Ikea’s.) Somehow we’ve managed to snag a perfect tree every time.

Like many families, we have an array of ornaments that would make your head spin. There is no clear theme – colour or otherwise – just a ragtag collection that would mean little to anyone outside our family. I love every single one of them. Each one tells a story.

One of our newest ornaments is a shiny green tin pickle. I’ve read that some people have a special pickle-related Christmas tradition in their homes. The pickle ornament is hung late on Christmas eve; tucked deep within the branches. The person who finds it first on Christmas day gets a special treat. Isn’t that funny? I think I’ve found myself a new tradition.

Does the environment matter when we're cold?

As Summer ended and the snow began to fall, I noticed something strange on our blog. The number of posts discussing the environment, climate-change, and the like gradually declined. It wasn’t intentional, and as an organization we’re still very much invested in the reusing and repurposing of goods for the betterment of our small planet. So why the change? I have a theory that when the snow hits and the wind chills, our mammalian priorities shift. After all, how does one find the time to worry about global warming when one’s eyelids are frozen shut?

Winter means using more energy to heat your apartment, more gas to drive your car, and ultimately more money to stay comfy. Conveniently enough, being conscious of your Winter footprint will often lessen the season’s impact on your bank account. But what takes precedence, your creature comforts or a small contribution to the environmental cause? Below are a few ideas that could help you save a tree and some money. The comments section below is specifically designed to house your thoughts, so let me know what you do to save the snow-covered Earth.

• Take the bus to work/school. Carpooling is a good idea anytime of the year, but in the Winter it has the added benefit of reducing the number of cars on the road (and reducing emissions).
• Buy a blanket instead of a heater. A cozy blanket will keep you warm for the nightly news while saving you loads on your heating bill.
• Buy ‘experienced’ presents and wrap them in newspaper. We wrote a blog a while ago on buying used at Christmas and a few of you seemed to be into the idea. Save a treasure from the landfill and wrap it in paper you already have (we’ll have more on this later in the week).
• Use lamps, not lights. It’s becoming darker outside earlier than ever, but that doesn’t mean that your entire house/apartment needs to be lit up like a Christmas tree. Lamps generally use a lot less electricity than ceiling lights, so try to use more of the former and turn off everything when possible.

Have ideas of your own? Drop them in a comment below!

Go RoughRiders!

The Grey Cup is this Sunday! The Used Crew wants to give a shout out to the Riders before they play off against Montreal. We’re all wearing green and cheering them on, and a few of us will be at the game to represent in person.

If you’re a fan yourself, be sure to take a gander at all of the RoughRiders gear on UsedRegina.com and visit their official website.

Don't be Such a Good Parent

I got some great parenting advice last week.  An acquaintance asked me about how my knee was doing and when my surgery date was.  I told her that I go in for surgery next week and that Christmas will be pretty low key this year because I’ll be off my feet for the weeks leading up to it.  She said “I have one piece of advice.  Be helpless and do nothing.  Don’t be such a good parent.”  She recounted that one year she was laid up at Christmas and didn’t do anything – no decorating, no baking - so her kids did it all.  The moral of the story was if we do things because we assume our kids can’t, they never will.  Sometimes it takes just not doing something to prove to them that they are capable.

So they can do all the Christmas decorating this year.  I (begrudgingly) will have to accept that my thoughtfully colour coordinated reindeer and glittery balls won’t end up in their perfectly designed pre-designated spot.  Only the bottom 4 feet of the tree will be decorated and the garland with mini lights and tulle won’t be perfectly spaced on the stair railings.  I just won’t invite Martha for dinner this year;  she never comes anyway. 

And maybe I’ll get a bell…you know the little brass ones that people used to use to summon ‘the help’.  The kids can take turns being ‘on call for Mama’; they can bring me juice.  And they’ll have to look after themselves a bit more over the next few weeks; I’m even thinking of getting my surgeon to sign the list below.

For the next 3 weeks, Sharene CANNOT:

1. Pull or push anything with a motor. 
2. Do any bending, stretching or twisting.  That gets me out of everything else.
3. Cook (just on principle).  They know where the crackers and peanut butter are.
4. Lift or carry anything heavier than a glass of wine.

They’ll figure it out.  There is no reason why the kids can’t make their own lunches, put away their clothes and feed the pets.  They don’t need me to pour juice and put away their socks.  The only reason I do it is because it gets done the way I want and there’s less risk of mess to clean up if they do something themselves.  Take the gingerbread house for example; I’ll set them loose on the assembly and decorating.  Yes, there will be icing EVERYWHERE and those horrible little coloured sprinkle things in every crevice and corner but they’ll have fun and best of all – I won’t have to do it.  Plus it’ll keep the dog busy for hours afterwards cleaning up those horrible little coloured sprinkle things from every crevice and corner.

Bottom line is that the kids are capable, very capable if you let them.  I might even let them to cook the turkey this year.

5 Canadian Songs of Winter

Canada sometimes gets a bad rap in the international arena for having cold weather and too much snow. But rather than feeling sorry for ourselves or responding with contempt, we embrace our below zero degree temperature (in celsius, of course) and in true Canadian fashion, we write songs about it.

Below is a selection of 5 Canadian music videos, from Vancouver to Montreal, that capture the Winter vibe as we know it. You won’t find any Michael Bublé or Diana Krall here though, this is Winter music at the grassroots level. Enjoy!

JP HOE – Snow Plow (Winnipeg)

Hilary Grist – Branch’s Arms (Vancouver)

Winter Gloves – Factories / Plastic Slides (Montreal)

Said The Whale – This Winter I Retire (Vancouver)

Winter Equinox – Two Eyes (Waterloo)

Gifts for the birds

For the next few weeks I’m going to save you from the shopping mall and post some easy holiday gift ideas you can make at home. First up, gifts for the birds.

These little bird feeders are incredibly quick and easy to make. I usually have all the materials lying around the house already. Even better, I get the kids involved and make it a family affair. They love it.

You will need:

• pine cones or stale bagels
• peanut butter
• bird seed (you can buy seed in manageable quantities from the bulk store)
• string or ribbon

If your pine cones are sticky with sap, line a tray with foil and bake them in a 200F oven for about 20 minutes. (If you happen to get sap on your hands during this process, rub them with a bit of shortening and then wash the whole mess off with dishsoap and you’ll be sap-free in no time.)  

The pine cones will open up a bit more during baking and won’t be as sticky, and as a bonus, your house will smell amazing. After the pine cones cool down a bit they are ready to be decorated with seeds! (If you don’t have any pine cones, stale bagels work well too.)

Using a knife, smear your pine cone or bagel all over with the peanut butter. The PB can be crunchy or smooth (it doesn’t really matter) but I like to cut mine with a bit of bacon fat. It’s good for the birds, and gives me a reason to use the bacon fat I’ve been saving all year long. (Grandma would be proud.) Roll the pine cones or bagels in your seed mixture, thread a string or ribbon through them and you’re done! If you’re using bagels you can also just hang them on the branches. See? Easy.

Decorate your trees, or your neighbour’s trees (!) as a gift. It makes a lovely and festive decoration, especially now that the leaves are gone. Our feathered friends will thank you.

Let It Snow!

The quintessential sign of Winter is here. On Monday, November 22nd it snowed in Victoria, British Columbia (See the UsedEverywhere.com HQ being smothered to your right). Now for those of you who don’t live on the isle, you should know that it takes the perfect storm of temperature and humidity for the clouds to dump a load this close to the ocean. So it’s not a stretch to assume that if it’s snowing in Victoria, it’s snowing everywhere… and by golly it is.

Canadians that live in the interior are prepared for such things, but living in snowy Victoria presents an interesting scenario. Buses shut down and cars don’t work, so what does one do under house arrest? How do you handle the weather and what would you do if you couldn’t go outside?

My Lunch with the Joy Luck Club

My weekly blog is late.  That’s because I threw out what I planned to post and wrote a new one.   I was going to write about buying used or pre-loved gifts and why that’s a good thing, but I decided instead to tell you about something that happened in my life today.

I took my grandpa for lunch, and for anyone who has an elderly relative, knows how much effort goes into simply getting ready and getting there and getting back.  Now I know.  My mom and dad usually take my grandpa out for outings and now I really appreciate how much time, effort and patience that takes.  But that’s not what I want to write about.

I sat at a table with four old friends – 3 of them almost 90.  They grew up together decades ago in Jamaica and then left the Caribbean for other lands only to meet up again late in their lives in Victoria.  I imagined them way back when sitting at the cafeteria table in their school  uniforms, making jokes and whistling at the pretty girls.  Today wasn’t much different except they probably had one good ear and half a dozen good teeth between the three of them.

Once we finally got settled, they starting talking about the old days with such clarity that it could have been last week.  Most of the time my grandpa can’t remember what day it is or how to use the remote, but he remembered people and events of his childhood like he was telling the events of earlier in the day.  

They talked for ages about the people and places from 75 years ago – the Jamaican accents becoming more pronounced as the conversation wore on…throwing in the occasional word that I needed translated.    My Grandpa’s friend then recited a story about a day spent at Lover’s Leap -  a high lookout over the south coast of Jamaica –  and how a group of teenage boys scrabbled down the cliffs to swim but found only a small rough beach at the bottom.  They tried to swim around some rocky headlands but couldn’t as they were getting battered by the waves.  They gave up and climbed partway up the hillside; it was dark by then and the people in the town of Pedro below by now had heard of the group of silly schoolboys stranded on the cliffs above.  He said the fisherman in the village climbed up with torches and led them down to safety.  There they were offered a few glasses of rum and put to bed in the fishing huts for the night – exhausted by the day’s misadventure.  When I got home, I took a look on Google maps and sure enough, Lover’s Leap, the rough beach and the town of Pedro were exactly as described and how I imagined them to be. 

My Grandfather’s friend has very poor eyesight now.  He told me that he golfed for 50 years until his eyes went.  I said something like “that’s too bad” and he responded with “It’s OK.  Not being able to see has opened up a whole new world for me”.  Then he lifted his hands and said “These are my new eyes.  We have to be thankful and positive about what we do have, not depressed about what we don’t”.  Words of wisdom from someone who has seen it all and lived an extraordinary life.

I left that lunch exhausted from the sheer effort of getting my Grandpa there and back, up and down stairs, in and out of the car, in and out of the bathroom, yet felt totally uplifted by the conversation.  These gentlemen have lots of reasons to be morose – failing health, lost wives, lost friends, aches and pains, diminishing independence – but not them.  Together they turned into those handsome young schoolboys all over again…gossiping and laughing, completely caught up in the memories of a different time and place.  I’m sure when they all settled in for their afternoon naps, they dreamt of those happy times too.

On a side note, thanks to the ladies at Purple Garden restaurant for your patience and help.

The “Member’s Lists” are Now “Sellers”

Pop IQ Test! If all Member’s are Quarks, and all Quarks are Sellers, are all Members then Sellers?

You don’t have to answer that, you just have to know that what used to be called Member’s Lists on UsedEverywhere.com sites across Canada are now titled Sellers. It might not seem like a change on the highest magnitude, but what it represents is kind of a big deal. You see, the list isn’t exclusive. It’s an area that anyone can join or browse, and it’s a great way to find some great things.

Here’s how it works: anyone who is planning on selling more than one item can click on the “Sellers” tab and then “Click Here to Create Your Own.” After filling out a short form, you’ll have your own little space that will automatically collect all of your ads that contain the specified email address and password (ex: michaelc.usedeverywhere.com). Try it out for yourself and see what some of the most active Usedaholics are posting!

More Pictures For Everyone!

Christmas is coming early this year for our users! We’re currently piloting a new image uploader that will allow you to include more than four images in your ad on UsedCalgary and UsedPEI. But not just one or two more pictures, my fellow Usedaholics. You can now post up to EIGHT pictures of your toaster, motorbike, or dancing pole.

The change will soon be rolling out to all of our sites, so you’ll be posting and browsing more photos in no time. Check out the finished product in the image below and let us know what you think!