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Egg-Alternative Easter Crafts (Or Not)

My entire goal for the past three weeks was to find an awesome cliché-free Easter DIY to showcase. After five (five!) failed attempts I’m pained to concede the egg reigns supreme. The main problem is if your project doesn’t include eggs, chicks, bunnies, or tulips, it just doesn’t say “Easter.” All my ideas just turned into nice decorations, which would work for nearly every time of year. However, I persevered. And created a centrepiece out of items you probably already have in your home. The end result is nice, but there’s something insatiably unsatisfying about having an egg best you. Although I’ve staged a centrepiece the beauty of this project is it has any number of applications.

Here’s what you need.

• Latex/Rubber gloves
• Balloons
• A variety of stash yarn
• Mod Podge or other white glue
• Scissors
• Drying device (I used empty egg cartons)

Here’s what you do.

1. Blow up your balloons to however large you want them to be. Mine were barely inflated so the shapes would be fairly small
2. Do a dry run with your yarn. Wrap it around the balloons to decide how much you need ahead of time and cut to size
3. Mix your glue. For my project I used half a cup of Mod Podge to half a cup of water. I did this so the shapes would be a bit pliable but if you want more or less stiffness adjust your glue-to-water ratio as necessary
4. With your gloves on (this is the messy part) submerge yarn in glue mixture and let it absorb some glue
5. When fully drenched begin wrapping yarn around balloon to desired thickness. Remember the thicker the yarn around the balloon the longer it takes to dry!
6. When finished wrapping, place balloon into drying device. It must stay here for at least 24 hours
7. Repeat for as many balloons as you have
8. Once dry, pop balloons (remove popped balloon from shape)
9. Stage as desired

 
Since I did half and half glue-to-water once I popped the balloons the yarn relaxed a bit and created these egg-like shapes as I hoped they would. If you are hoping to create more sturdy shapes then don’t water down the glue and do an extra coat or two. All I did for the centrepiece was take a serving platter, cut up some strips of construction paper, and rip up some extra tissue paper, which I distributed amongst the eggs. Now I just have to wait for guests to come over and I’ll hide some little candies in the eggs for a fun surprise.

What's The Difference Between God and Bono?

What’s the difference between God and Bono? God doesn’t think he is Bono.

And that my friends is the only joke I know.

Anyway.

My friend Megan recently opened a natural makeup store, The Green Kiss. I interviewed Megan a while back about all the nasty stuff you find in regular cosmetics and how best to avoid harsh chemicals when it comes to buying beauty products. I’ll be honest, until that point I had been pretty naive about ‘green’ products and have, on more than one occasion, been duped by the words ‘mineral makeup’ and ‘all natural makeup’ only to have someone explain that even these products can have hidden chemicals and that the ingredients I can’t pronounce are not in fact Latin for roses, daisies and daffodils but are more cancer promoting nasties. Harsh but true.

I have pledged to make even more of an effort to go all natural when it comes to products in my bathroom cabinet. I have yet to go down the baking soda shampoo and vinegar conditioner route, though I am tempted, but what I have done is make an all natural dry shampoo that will help me go back to an every other day hair wash schedule (my hair was recently wrecked by a shampoo claiming to be all natural). It was my friend, acupuncture practitioner and all round holistic health guru Julia Dascalescu who gave me the link to this dry shampoo for dark hair and let me tell you it is super easy to make and works like a dream. PLUS, I smell like chocolate.

As a heads up, you want to wash your hair every three days if you can, according to stylist Vanessa Hamilton of Victoria’s Lab Salons. She says; ‘ It’s easier to start with every two and work your way up. Products like dry shampoo help!’ So check out this easy peasy dry shampoo recipe for dark hair!

All you need is: 1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons cornstarch and voila! No seriously VOILA! That’s it you’re done! The original recipe recommended a few drops of an essential oil but I didn’t bother as I was in to smelling like cocoa!

I put my mixture into a salt shaker and have been using it all week. It works like a dream and smells so good! Give it a try if you are an everyday hair washer, your hair will thank you for it. All you need to do is sprinkle, rub, leave for two minutes and brush out. (I stop at rub as I like the tousled look.)

And for your purses, here is a link to the David Suzuki PDF that lists the ingredients to stay away from when you are shopping for beauty products, it’s called The Dirty Dozen. And if you have any DIY natural beauty secrets you want to share or a have a joke to make us chuckle, let me know, I’d love to hear them!

 

 

 

 

DIY Deco Chairs, or How to Spice Up a Snow Day with a Staple Gun

When I was a kid, I loved snow days.

Every school day, all winter long, I’d wake up and peer hopefully out the window, looking for that white blanket of respite from the regular. I liked school, but I liked snow days more.

Even when I taught school, I liked snow days.

But as a parent, they aren’t quite the same game.

I work at home. I have three jobs, one of which is actually me being a student myself. All of them involve writing deadlines and juggling multiple balls. My work never closes, more or less. So, meetings aside, I get to be home if the kids need to be.

But the writing and the parenting? They are dances in opposite directions. And days when everything’s on my plate at once often leave me feeling like nothing’s getting done well.

But not this week.

This week, we had a late-in-season snow day. Yep. No, this is not an April Fool’s Joke.

The kids had only been back from March Break a day, and I had a paper due, and the house was already a bit overrun with to-dos. The little people ran through the toys and the joy and glee of playing in the snow rather more quickly than their mother had in mind usual. By mid-afternoon, we’d drawn seven sea monsters and I’d written half an ethics review and the three-year-old was climbing up my leg and it became clear that none of us were going to make it through the rest of the day without either chemicals or Divine Intervention.

Then I found salvation in – of all things – a DIY project.

Seriously, people. You want to salvage a snow day and still feel the sweet swell of accomplishment at the end of it all? Buy yourself a staple gun.

Three months ago, just before we moved, I found an online seller with a set of four vintage chairs to unload. They charmed me. They’re old, and quirky, and have this fabulous Deco pattern painted on their scalloped backs.

Awesome chair, right?

But they came with cushions upholstered in a fuzzy beige velour. A worn, tired, 1983 sort of fuzzy beige velour. The kind that makes everything in the room feel fuzzy and worn and beige and 1983, and I don’t mean in a fun way.

So Tuesday, armed with staple gun and glue and drill and pliers and some crayons just to keep things interesting for the younger set, we took the seats off those chairs and recovered them.

Step 1: Use drill to remove seats from chairs. Do not actually let three year old use drill. Distract her by asking if she can draw the design on the chairs instead. Be shocked when she indeed can.

Step 2: Go hunting for the gorgeous fabric you ordered from Tonic Living last week. Find it being pressed into service as a ghost costume by the almost-six year old. Boo. With flowers.

Step 3: Turn over existing cushion on top of fabric and notice that previous upholstery efforts were just as much a hack job as yours is likely to be. Feel better. Fold fabric to size and cut.

Step 4: Carefully stretch and fold fabric around existing cushion, as it may look like 1983 but it’s actually kinda cushy. For corners, aim for a tight series of small folds all moving in a single direction. Tack down with staples. Notice staples do not go into hardwood especially smoothly. Swear. Catch yourself. Try to avoid stapling nose of curious elder child.

Step 5: Repeat for all four chairs, enlisting offspring to help you hold fabric taut whilst cutting and to place pretty new cushions back on chairs. Have domestic partner actually tighten and glue joints on chairs, where necessary. Drill cushions in. Admire.

There you go, people. In the end, you get four handsome chairs and children who got to feel like part of the process, more or less. It’s a snow day miracle! Just avoid stapling all skin surfaces and you’ll be fine!

Have fun. And hang tight…snow season has to be gone soon, right.?

 

Now without the Allen Keys: a Kit Home from IKEA?

And I wasn’t the only slave to my nesting instinct.  The people I know
who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the
bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue.
~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 5

There’s something about the IKEA aesthetic: it’s like a Rorschach test for North American concepts of identity.

Some think it’s lean and clean and funky. Some think it’s cheapo mass-produced crap. Some – from the comfort of their La-Z-Boy – will tell you it tries too hard, and it’s weird.

Most of us east of Montreal will just tell you we can’t get no IKEA way out here and then weep quietly. (Dear IKEA, please expand your online ordering options. Thank you).

Basically, you want to know whether somebody is your kind of people? It’s not musical tastes or reading preferences or shared activities that’ll give you the best possible read on whether somebody’s worldview aligns with yours: it’s their IKEA stance.

And now, you’ll be able to tell some folks’ IKEA stance from half-way down the block. Because those who like the look? Can now buy themselves an entire Ikea-style kit home.

IKEA homes have been available in Europe for awhile, and last week, the American company Ideabox released the first Ikea-designed kit homes in the US. The one-bedroom “Aktiv” model costs $86,500 and is delivered by flatbed.

Unlike the bookshelves, IKEA homes come mercifully pre-assembled. No Allen Keys required.

You choose your own cabinets, countertops, and flooring, all of which come pre-installed, and the home is partially furnished as well. The Aktiv is energy-efficient, with a sleek Euro-design feel.

The Aktiv, outside view:

Photo courtesy of Ideabox

The Aktiv, inside view:

Photo courtesy of Ideabox

The Aktiv isn’t sold directly through IKEA, but through Ideabox, which offers a number of options on the kit home front. Focused on efficiency and style, and for the most part on the “big living, small footprint” philosophy that Ideabox espouses, these homes are part of a new movement in pre-fab housing that takes a 180-degree turn from trailers and pre-fabs of yore.

Still. They aren’t actually a whole new thing on the North American market.
***

In truth, kit homes have a long genealogy in this part of the world.

From 1908 through 1940, you could order yourself up a home through the Sears Roebuck catalogue. Marketed as “Sears Modern Homes,” the kits were shipped by rail, and came complete with pre-cut lumber, nails, and fixtures: the early models were apparently fitted with gaslights, and plumbing kits could be ordered for extra.

The first Sears catalogue of kit homes offered 22 different styles, ranging in price from $650-$2500. FOR THE WHOLE KIT, not just the plans. I swoon. (According to the Wikipedia entry on Sears Modern Homes, $2500 in 1908 terms clocked in at just under $60,000 in 2008 terms…so still reasonable as compared to the mad housing market we’ve grown accustomed to over the last decade or so.)

Image courtesy of architecture.about.com

These first-generation kit homes needed assembly, and required more than just an Allen Key. They were often put up in “bee” fashion, or good old barn-raising style, by community members working together. Many were also assembled by contractors. But their ethic? Was largely DIY: Sears Roebuck advertised that “a man of average abilities could assemble a Sears Kit Home in about 90 days.”

Given that the floor plans of some, like the Sheridan bungalow, for sale from 1925-29, are remarkably similar in style to the house we just bought – and at just $2,095, considerably cheaper! – I say bring back the kit home in all its forms!

What the Sears Modern Homes offered, a century ago, was the dream of home ownership made significantly less expensive via mass production, but with quality materials. The Sears kits had hardwood maple floors, cypress exteriors. There are many still standing today, like this charming Virginia specimen.

Photo courtesy of Wikihow

All in all, it seems like an idea whose time has come around again. Modular homes are slowly gaining traction, as is the tiny house movement. For those of us who may require more space, even Ideabox offers a three-bedroom family option. I’d love to see Sears get back in the game, if they could stick with the Arts & Crafts design motifs of their yesteryear offerings.

Or maybe move to shipping container homes?

There could be something for every taste, and a wider variety of budgets than traditional housing allows.

But I think the Ideabox-IKEA partnership may be an important step.

Because what made the Sears Modern Homes work so well – an estimated 100,000 or more sold in the 22 years they were marketed in the US – was that they capitalized on the ubiquity of the Sears catalogue. Everybody already had a catalogue: by offering houses in the catalogue, Sears began to make people believe they could have a house, too.

Not everybody’s heard of shipping container houses, but everybody’s got an opinion on IKEA, good or bad.

So I say good start, Ideabox & IKEA. I just hope we can actually make these puppies ubiquitous. Like, can we get these here in Canada soon, please?  And preferably east of Montreal?

Give those tomatoes and cucumbers a fighting chance! Keep veggies and fruit fresher, longer.

This weekend I opened up my fridge and found a crime scene:  the fruits and veggies I bought a few days ago had been murdered, rotten before their time and after intense investigation (not really) I figured out that the criminal is me!  And the worst part of this is that I commit this crime every single week. That’s right; I am a serial veggie and fruit killer!

After each weekly trip to the grocery store, I randomly toss my tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, pears etc. into the fridge without any thought as to how long they will last just lying there on a shelf. And about a week later, I am forced to chuck these once young, nutritious and fresh grocery items into the trash.

And of course this isn’t the only crime I’m committing…I’m also guilty of throwing money away too…which is a cardinal sin in this house! With every toss of that soggy uneaten cucumber and deflated tomato into the garbage, I am literally throwing away my hard-earned cash!

So this week I decided I would come clean with my crimes and repent my sins by figuring out ways to keep my fruits and veggies fresher longer, thereby stopping the madness of also throwing money in the garbage.  I’ve always known that there are ways to do this but just never took the time to actually research and find out how.  I hope these tips I found will help you cleanse you of your sins as well as fatten your wallet!

1. Put your veggies in the crisper, not on the fridge shelf:  Turns out that your fridge has various temperatures which are meant to keep certain foods in certain spots.  For instance, the coldest part of your fridge is the top and middle shelves while the crispers are the warmest part, with a more humid environment in order to keep your veggies with the highest water content fresher.

Here’s what you should keep in your crispers:  artichokes, asparagus (after trimming the ends and placing upright in shallow cool water, then covering with plastic), beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chiles, cucumbers, eggplant, fresh herbs, green beans, leafy greens, leeks, lettuce (after washing and drying, rolling loosely in a clean kitchen towel inside an unzipped zip-lock bag), mushrooms, peppers, radishes, scallions, summer squash, turnips, zucchini. DO NOT PUT: potatoes, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, yams or squash in the fridge…store them in a dark and cool place like the pantry or basement.

(Funny story: years ago I actually did this and stored a large bag of potatoes on the bottom shelf of a cupboard in my old apartment.  Unfortunately I completely forgot about them until about a year later when I was moving!  The potatoes had actually turned into liquid and this liquid was so toxic and somehow acidic, that it had eaten a hole in my bottom wooden shelf!  So my other tip is: DO NOT FORGET that you’ve put your potatoes and onions in the cupboard. Maybe put a sticky note on the pantry door to remind you.)

2. Keep tomatoes on the counter:  Who knew? Not me, this is where I’ve been going wrong all along.  Tomatoes stay fresher longer out of the fridge, stored on the counter and funny enough, you are supposed to place them upside down (I searched and searched and couldn’t find the scientific reason behind this so if someone has the answer, I’d love to know.)  Also, they will taste better as tomatoes lose their flavour and can go mushy in the fridge.

3. Do not store fruit and vegetables together in the fridge:  Most fruits can be stored in the fridge with the exception of apples, banana, melons and pineapples (keep them on the counter), but make sure to put fruit in one crisper and veggies in another crisper.  Otherwise, the ethylene produced by vegetables will make fruit rot faster.  Also, store fruit in perforated plastic bags to allow air flow, or place it in a bowl and cover it with perforated plastic wrap. You should also leave fruit that comes in packaging in the original packaging like strawberries and blueberries as it’s been designed to keep the fruiter fresher longer.

 

4. Only buy what you will use in a week: This is the most important rule of thumb in order to save money and stop throwing away rotten produce. Just because cucumbers are on sale for fifty cents each doesn’t mean you should buy six of them if you know you won’t eat that much cucumber in a week.

Actually if you are able to, it’s suggested that you only purchase enough produce for 3 days and then return to the supermarket to buy more for the rest of the week. This way you always eating the freshest produce and won’t be forced to chuck out rotten veggies found at the bottom of the crisper. This is where I wish we lived in Europe where there is a farmer’s market every few blocks and people actually go grocery shopping for their meals every day. I guess the North American alternative is growing veggies in your backyard which is something I would love to do but unfortunately our dog likes veggies, so basically I would just be creating a backyard market for her!

I now promise I will no longer ignorantly chuck my produce into the fridge and will work towards giving my fruits and veggies a home in my family’s bellies rather than in the garbage bin! The crime spree ends now!  Hope these tips help and please let me know if you have any other produce tips to help keep me on the straight and narrow!

Coupon Tip of the Week:  Just wanted to remind everyone that you can price match anything at Walmart, including produce.  Before you go out for your weekly produce shopping, search through the flyers to find the best prices on fruits and veggies and then have them price matched at Walmart. For instance, I found pineapples on special at Real Canadian Super Store for $1.98 so I just brought in the flyer to Walmart where I do my weekly shopping and they gave me the same price for their pineapples which were being sold for $3.98!  It may not seem like much but it all adds up in the end with helping you stay on budget.

Just my type

Sure, technology is great. I’m not a total techno-nut, but I admit it has its advantages. The on-demand, right-here, right-now environment we inhabit certainly is convenient, but sometimes it’s no replacement for good, old-fashioned craftsmanship. I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when I attended Letterpress Love – a letterpress seminar put on by Articulate Ink and hosted by The Graphic Designers of Canada Saskatchewan South chapter at Regina’s Creative City Centre.

According to Wikipedia, letterpress printing is defined as, “relief printing of text and image using a press with a “type-high bed” printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image.” Basically, you’re pressing the image or letter into the paper, with ink. The result is so much nicer than the often flat, sterile things we can all make on our inkjet printers.

At this event we made our own Valentine cards, using two different letterpresses. The process was fascinating and the resulting pieces even more so – the Valentines had texture, character and a tactile characteristic you just don’t get with store-bought or computer-made Valentines. It’s funny that even with everyone using the same type sets, the differences you could get with finished products just by using more or less ink, stacking paper or positioning the paper differently was striking. The cards had a warmth and personality that reflected the person making it – a nice touch for something as personal as a Valentine.

The event itself was just a great opportunity to look back at the importance of craft with a bunch of great people. It’s made me want to look at other things I easily produce and how I can apply old methods to create something special that stands out among all the new “everything” out there.

Thanks to The Graphic Designers of Canada Saskatchewan South chapter, Regina Creative City Centre and Articulate Ink for an awesome evening. I look forward to more. Not in Regina? Take a look in your own community for events like this – trust me, you’ll love it.

If you want to see more about the event or the process, watch the video below:

Green Dreams, or How to Fulfill your Life's Ambition While Saving Money and The Planet

Green homes. Environmentally-conscious living. LEED-certified abodes. Hobbit holes.

I value these things. I like to read up on these things. I aspire to these things, or at least some of them. (The hobbit hole?  That’s more Dave. I’m not sure I’m green enough to want to live, erm, underground. Even if the dwellings are kinda adorable.)

Hobbit hole: Photo courtesy of the fabulous Simon Dale blog

Then we went and bought an eighty-year-old house.

Even better, we went and bought an eighty-year-old house literally three days after the federal government’s sustainability rebate credit thingy closed.

Boo. Hiss.

There is little so green – especially from an energy perspective – as an eighty-year-old-house in a climate given to long winters. Especially in February.

Luckily, the house itself gave us clear notice of its miserable state of inefficiency with days of our arrival: the kitchen ceiling began to weep.

Yeh, I know that’s usually bad. Like, “scene from Poltergeist” bad. If the walls had started weeping blood, be assured, we’d have totally hightailed it outta here.

Instead we ended up reading up on ice dams.

Turns out, these climates given to long winters are going through more freeze and thaw cycles in recent years. Turns out, shingles and roofs aren’t made to handle that kind of melt, and ice backs up under shingles and starts leaking through into, oh, say, kitchens. Turns out our attic crawl space was so badly insulated it was about fifteen degrees Celsius up there, on a February night. Turns out that in a story-and-a-half house, that means all the snow melts off the top, slips halfway down the house until it hits the uninsulated spaces off the sides of the bedrooms, where the slopy ceilings come down to meet what are known as the kneewalls.

Knee Wall: Diagram courtesy of Natural Resources Canada. Our handy dandy government at work.

Then it freezes, and all hells breaks loose at the edges of the roof.

Goody.

Now I know why we burned oil like a Hummer in the first few drafty days we were here.

When I received the news that in order to rectify the dripping pot light over our sink – which was not, contrary to my hopes, helping with the dishes – we’d have to bust a hole into our newly painted bedroom wall, I did what any sane person would do.

I began to weep harder than the ceiling.

Dave, however, was less daunted.

Turns out, in addition to dreaming of living in a hobbit hole, Dave has – like, forEVER – aspired to having something like a grownup’s secret hideaway: a space in the house where he can, effectively, disappear. Like a man cave, perhaps, but without a door. A space, so to speak, not on the maps.

And so it transpired that yesterday I came upon this spectacle in the upstairs of my house, right under the little hole that leads to the attic.

That’s Dave, in his fetching insulation outfit. We may save it for Hallowe’en and he can go as a giant condom. Up on the ladder, just out of view, is his dad. Or rather, his dad’s legs.

They blew a boatload of insulation into the floor of our attic to stop the hot air going up and out and heating the outside.

They then cut a hole out of our (freshly painted) bedroom wall so as to access the crawl space behind. It was kind of unspeakable in there, by my standards, but they dried things out and added to the insulation and cleaned and tidied it up real nice, and Dave even varnished the floor.

Then they plugged up the hole with a rather elegant hand-made built-in which totally fits the Arts & Crafts style of the house. Like so.

Take that, ice dams!

(Okay, well, we’ll still have ice until spring, but it’s old ice, we think: no more damming should occur with the new insulation in both the attic and behind the knee wall. And we can pull the cabinet out any time and check and dry things out so as to avoid any further melt leaking around the newly-repainted kitchen ceiling (thanks, Dave’s mom!)

And we’ll save money and energy in the interim. Even in an eighty-year-old house.)

AND behind that cabinet, in fulfillment of his lifelong dream, Dave can, uh, disappear at will.

Don’t tell anybody. It’ll ruin his fun.

 

Help! Food has Taken Over My Freezer! Freezer De-Cluttering Tips

Thanks to that cute little ground hog named Phil, we’re supposed to be getting an early spring this year. So, I’ve decided to take this opportunity to start my spring cleaning early and the first items on my list?  The dreaded freezers!!!

I absolutely love having a deep freeze and a top freezer in my fridge as it allows me to stock up on many food items which saves us lots of money throughout the year. The problem is that I have absolutely no idea what is actually in my deep freeze right now as it is literally overflowing with food stacked from floor to lid! It’s like playing Jenga every time I need to pull something out…”you take a frozen chicken from the bottom and you put it on top, you take a roast from the middle and you put it on top.” Not to mention, the three dozen frozen bananas I have stored in there for when I decide to bake those 100 banana muffins I’ve been saying I’d make for the last year.

I’ve also been wanting to make weekly meal plans but it’s hard to do when you have no idea what is actually available to you in the freezer. ”Hmmmm, so we’ll have steak on Monday if there is steak in the freezer, and ham on Tuesday if I manage to find the time to spend 30 minutes digging to the bottom of the freezer to find it.” Doesn’t work. Clearly something had to be done.

So, this weekend I learned about what kind of “freezer person” I am by facing and defeating my mortal enemies (the freezers) with a few simple ideas to help maximize and organize them both.

1. Make an itemized list of everything in your deep freeze.  When I open up my deep freeze, I can see that I have some ribs, a few pizza crusts, and a bag of beans but what the heck is three feet below these things?

I don’t have the time to lug out 100 pounds of frozen food every time I need to see what I need to add to my grocery list. And I can’t tell you how many times I have gone out to buy a ham or chicken at full price only to discover the following week that I had two of them buried at the bottom of my freezer!  So I pulled out everything made a list of what was in my freezer. That way, if I am making my weekly meal plan or grocery list, I simply look at the list taped to the deep freeze and I know exactly what I have . If I use something in the freezer, I simply white it out and if I buy something, I just add it to the list. I’m still waiting for someone to invent a see-through deep freeze… Hmm, maybe I should just go on Dragon’s Den with this great concept minus a prototype, blue print or sales… Think they’ll invest?  Tee-hee.

2. Turn those bread end pieces into breadcrumbs. Okay, so I know that most people never eat the end pieces of bread and my mother taught me years ago that the best way to use these end pieces is to throw them in the freezer and then use them to make bread crumbs later.  The problem with this is that over time, those end pieces are forgotten and accumulate, ending up taking up precious room in your freezer. So I came up with a solution:  Make the bread crumbs with the end pieces BEFORE you throw them in the freezer.  That way they are ready to use when you need them and they take up a fraction of the space.  As I had found about 12 bags of end pieces this weekend, I pulled out the food processor and made one big bag of bread crumbs that I then put back in the freezer, saving me tons of room and hassle.

3. Don’t overstock your freezer. Only store food items in your top freezer that you plan on using in the next three months.  Turns out those fridge freezers do not keep food frozen as long as deep freezers do. In fact, they only keep food for about three months compared to a deep freeze that can keep food for close to a year. So make sure to store the freezer food you use on a regular basis in the top fridge freezer and keep the larger and less used items in the deep freeze.  For instance, I kept the frozen turkey and big box of chicken in the deep freeze and moved my steaks, sausage and salmon portions as well as frozen vegetables into the top fridge freezer because we create meals out of these on a regular basis. Note:  if you really want to maximize your deep freeze capacity, DO NOT buy two large turkeys just because they are on sale!  I did this last Thanksgiving thinking I would make them in the next couple of months and guess what…they are still in my freezer!  I’ve since realized that there are several opportunities to get cheap turkeys through the year…Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter…so there is no need to stock up on them unless you really plan on using them soon!

4. Don’t freeze food items unless you’re really going to use them!  I don’t know how many times I’ve made dinner and had plenty of leftovers and so, instead of just planning to eat them over the next couple of days, I have packaged them up and thrown them in the freezer thinking to myself, “Great.  I will simply pull these out later and use them for another dinner. How smart am I?” Answer: Not very smart!

There are some smart people out there who have the memory and diligence to make food, freeze it and then pull it out later for dinner … I am not one of these people!  I thought I was until I went through my freezers, only to discover Tupperware containers filled with lasagne, chilli and spaghetti that I think I made about 2 years ago!  So,be honest with yourself and, if you are like me, don’t freeze your leftovers as they will only end up wastefully thrown in the garbage. (Sorry Mr. Landfill…I promise to eat my leftovers from now on!)

Deep freezers and fridge freezer are wonderful creations but only if you know how to use them properly based on what kind of person you are. For those of you like me who really haven’t been using them properly, I hope some of these tips will help you de-clutter and make better use of your freezers.  If you have any other freezer tips, I would love to hear them.

 

Coupon Tip of the Week:  Following the theme of freezers, it can be very economical to stock up on meat items when they’re on sale but make sure to only buy what you will use in the next 2-3 months. Otherwise, you run the risk of buying too much and having that meat get freezer burned and going bad before you get a chance to use it.  Remember, there are always sales going on each month so you don’t have to worry that you didn’t buy enough chicken breasts just when they were on for such a good price because they will be on sale again next month!

A bit about needs and wants. And a DIY container for your cotton swabs.

Every year for the past five or six years our family has participated in an annual Shopping Embargo. The goal of the Embargo to be more mindful of our purchases and drastically reduce impulse buys. And it works.

Our rule is this: From Boxing Day until the end of February, we restrict our purchases to the bare necessities; groceries/consumables, gas, basic hygiene (shampoo, soap, but not cosmetics), medicine and essential clothing.

That means… no spontaneous purchases of lip gloss (my personal weakness), video games (my husband’s) and a wealth of other non-essential items that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

You can read more about our Shopping Embargo here.

The hardest part about it is probably determining the difference between needs and wants. Everyone has different priorities, and frankly, it’s easy to persuade yourself that a want is really a need. It became an annual debate with my blog readers. One year I felt that I needed a housecoat. I didn’t actually own a housecoat. So was this a want or a need? You can argue the finer points until the cows come home.

One of the items we tussled about was decorative containers for the bathroom, you know, the things that hold cotton balls and cotton swabs. Are these a want or a need? I’d argue that it’s a “want” because you can technically keep the extra Q-tips its original box under the sink. The whole issue of having decorative bathroom containers seems like such a first world problem, doesn’t it? Well, you can avoid all that by making your own.

• Take two matching jars (these are relish jars), soak off the labels and wash them out thoroughly.
•  Find some pretty paper and trace the lids. Cut the paper out and glue onto the lids.

That’s it! You have your own customized containers for bathroom supplies! And you didn’t need to break the bank (or your Shopping Embargo).

Rustic Appeal

It’s deep winter and I’m craving all things cozy: warm drinks spiced with cinnamon or nutmeg, fuzzy mittens and knit scarves, and glowing candles in the cool dark evenings. And my design aesthetic shifts too. Summer’s bright whites and breezy linens won’t be a reality for a long time, and instead I want to surround myself in rich velvet or heavy wool. It’s like I want to retreat to a rustic cabin in the woods. Can you picture it?  Rough hewn beams, worn hardwood floors, knicked up old wooden furniture …

Weathered wood is definitely in style right now. I think there may be two reasons for this. One, we don’t want our homes to look so straight-out-of-the-box brand new; we want them to have character, patina, and a collected look. And second, more and more people are considering the environment in their design and re-using wood fits right in with the “Three R’s” mindset.

Here are some examples of reused wood in some beautiful interiors:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the material is really versatile – used on ceilings, floors, or walls; used for tabletops, staircases, headboards, or doors.  It’s used by high-end designers and every day handy DIY’ers. It fits in a pretty cottage, a funky vintage bungalow, a grand country house, or a clean modern condo.

So why not search your back yard, or UsedEverywhere, for wooden boards from old barns, sheds, floors, doors, palettes, boxes, fences… and add some old charm to your home?  I found this listing on UsedRegina offering old barn wood!

 

And if you do a project like this (or have already done one) please share it with us here at UsedEverywhere!