ThriftThis article is dedicated to crafts! With the economy the way that it is (do I dare say “Recession”?) , we have had to get creative when the need arises for a present, or decorations within our homes. These are all ideas that either myself or my best friends have used in the past or recently. I was so impressed by these ideas that I wanted to share! If some of the needed materials are not common household items you can buy them inexpensively ( I would no steer you wrong).

Have a blank wall to decorate? How about post cards? You can frame them, or like one of my best friends did in her bedroom,stagger them all over the wall ( she had a lot of them). You can just tape them up or use push pins, whatever you prefer or are allowed to use. How about other collections? Do you have a large collection of anything you could hang? This could be any kind of picture. Some examples could be scenery, fairies, angels, sports. Take a look in your closet or basement. What about baskets or a beautiful, old quilt or blanket? Anything is fair game.

This is a great gift for just about anyone. You will a length of fishing line, maybe 10 inches or so, and a handful of beads. You can use any kind of bead you prefer, but make sure you have at least 2 that have small openings. Tie the beads you chose with the small openings about 2 inches in from each end, one on each end, so that they do not move. Add enough beads to fill each end of the fishing line and tie the line in a knot or around the ending beads. Now you have a creative and beautiful bookmark! My best friend has one, and it is very pretty. If you know someone who uses large book often ( like cookbooks) you could make them a few to mark their favorite recipe/pages.

A good universal gift idea is the “basket”. I use this often. You can use a basket you have on hand or that you got at the thrift store OR you could use a gift bag. In my area I can by them for $1.00. You can fill these with homemade baked goods (cookies, chocolate covered pretzels), small soaps ( I frequently get these as part of gifts and cannot use them myself so I save them), homemade body oils/lotions, homemade or inexpensive candles, a book. For men you could fill them with appropriate items that your man would like. I have done male fragranced cologns and facial products and other small, inexpensive gift ideas they liked. Check out your local dollar store for these.

I hope some of you try these ideas. Let me know what you think and please comment or email your ideas! I would love to post them!

Thanks to All!

The Domestic Goddess

Everything we do impacts the environment. All the foods we eat, the products we use, the items we buy and put into our home affects our planet. It is up to us to make the wisest choices for our families to help clean up and preserve our environment and our planet. We only have one Earth. Let us all do what we can to keep it livable.

I watched the Ellen DeGeneres show last Wednesday. On her show she had a woman on that works with ocean creatures. She helps educate people about extinction of sea creatures (by the way- hundreds of species of fish are extinct now..never to return!)  Specifically, she spoke about how baby Albatross (birds) are dying because of the TONS of plastic in our oceans. PLASTIC! What happens is this: Either consumers (us) or manufacturers throw the plastic away instead of recycling it. At some point is gets broken down into little tiny pieces and then DUMPED in oceans. The Mommy Albatross goes out to get food to feed her babies, thinks the little pieces of plastic are food, eats it then takes it home to baby to eat. The babies stomachs get full of plastic and can’t eat, then they die. How sad! It proves my point, everything is related, from me going to the store and buying a soda then throwing the empty plastic bottle away….and a bird species becoming extinct.

My son is 15 years old. He just completed his freshman year of high school. He joined a group called “The Parker Green Squad”. This group is helping to educate the students about the dangers to our planet and the environment, recycling, etc. They are trying to raise money to put recycling bins through out the school. I couldn’t be more proud! He joined all on his own, and when he told me he said he felt that he was doing something important. Of course, I cried because I was so proud of my baby…almost grown up! It amazes me how a young man can do whatever he can to help save our planet and US, yet a grown person is to lazy and selfish to simply recycle a plastic bottle!

For several years now, I have kept a  ”junk cupboard”. In it I put odds and ends for future use. I should probably rename this cupboard,but it works. I have toilet paper/paper towel tubes, a baggie of soap slivers, bread bags, empty coffee cans, empty cereal boxes, empty/clean milk jugs. Whatever I might possibly find a use for later. Maybe for a craft project, maybe I have a need around the house. Whatever comes up, I go to the “junk cupboard” first to see if I something that will work instead of buying a new something. My bathroom garbage can is an old, re-used, large coffee can. It works perfect. I currently do not have a filing cabinet, soon but not yet. In the meantime I have a couple of clean, re-used cereal boxes; the tops cut off on a diagonal line; to store and keep my important papers seperate. It works well, actually. The wall above my computer is decorated with my son’s art work and his kindergarten graduation certificate ( it has his picture on it…very adorable). As I looked around my home the other day, I realized 99% of my possessions are used. Very little was bought new. I feel good about that because I know I am doing my part to keep items out of the landfill, taking up space and ruining our environment, killing species of animals that, once gone, will never come back.

By the way, I am now boycotting fish. I love to eat fish and will miss it, but I feel a higher calling and it is a sacrifice I am willing to make. I will never be able to eat a piece of cod, or orange roughy, again and not think of the dying baby albatross!

So, we all need to pay attention to the big picture! We need to realize that EVERYTHING we do affects the entire world around us, even the fish in the oceans, the birds and wildlife in the rain forests. We can ALL do something, however small a something, to make a difference!

“The quality of our life should not depend on the quantity of our possessions”

Thanks to All!

The Domestic Goddess

I have had some requests to do a post on all natural beauty products. So I did some research to supplement the information that I already had. I do not know how to make homemade eye shadow and lipstick. These recipes and suggestions are all natural altenatives to other beauty products. Most recipes contain ingredients that you already have in the kitchen, making these recipes very inexpensive and affordable.  I hope some of you try at least one of these recipes and comment back and let me know how they worked for you. Include any improvements that you made to the product.

• wrinkle remover: Honey ( yes just plain old honey). Dab onto desired areas, around eyes and mouth for example. Leave on for approximatley 10 minutes, then rinse with warm/hot water. ( I have used this for about 2 years now, and nobody believes that I am 33- everyone thinks i am in my mid to late 20’s. Could just be a coincidence though!)
• Natural Exfoliator: combine 2 tablespoons corn meal, 1/2 cup honey, and 1-2 tablespoons hot water to make a paste. You can mix in aloe gel or olive oil for softening benefits. Rub on with washcloth, rinse with water.
• Homemade Lotion: 1/2 ounce Cocoa Butter (melted), 1 ounce olive oil, 1 ounce orange juice, 2 drops essential oil (orange if possible-smells great and combines well with cocoa butter). Mix all ingredients together. You can put in an reused lotion or squeeze bottle container. I put mine in a redused blue noxema tub with screw on lid. I suggest keeping this in the refridgerator because it will be cool when you put it on and it feels wonderful, especially in the summer time.
• Homemade body oil: 2 parts olive oil, 1 part lemon juice. Mix ingredients and store in airtight container. Does not need refridgeration. Shake well before each use. I use this every night before bed and my skin has never been so soft! I reused an empty lotion container for my body oil.
• lip gloss: this is incredibly easy! This idea is also a great way to use up that last little bit of lipsick that is stuck down in the bottom of the lipstick tube. Scrape out the remaining lipstick and put in a small, microwave safe container. Depending on how much lipstick you use ( you can also use multiple colors to create your own shade), Put in about a tablespoon  of vaseline ( the good old fashion petroleum jelly stuff that all of us have in our medicine cabinet somewhere). Microwave until melted. Watch carefully and microwave about 10 seconds at a time. I would suggest reusing an old Carmex container- the one with the screw on yellow lid. Reuse any container that will easily go into your purse and not leak.

I have found these suggestions are easy to create in my kitchen, very inexpensive to make and work just as well, usually better, than anything I can buy in a store. An added benefit is that I have Eczema, skin allergies and EXTREMELY sensitive skin. I can use all these products and not worry about an allergic reaction. The ingredrients are all natural, therefore not harming my body or our earth. I hope you enjoy these recipes. Leave your comment and let me know how you like them!

The Domestic Goddess

Hello All!

As I look at everyone around me, very few people are “doing well” in this terrible economy. Many people are out of work and looking everywhere for a job to support themselves and their families. Unemployment claims have gone up, people going to our local food bank have increased in numbers, more people are shopping at thrift stores and other discount stores. Many people however, have not re-evaluated their lifestyles, several are still living the lifestyles they have become accustomed to, without thought to their shrinking bank accounts and wallets and their needs in the future. So, I wanted to address this issue.

Desperate times sometimes need desperate measures. People cannot go along spending money as they did before their job losses, or whatever it is that has changed their financial lives. For example, my boyfriend recently lost his job and I currently only work part time. Both of us have been applying at places that are both hiring and not in the hopes that he gets a job and/or I get a better one. Just to pay the rent and other bills we have had to cut expenses down to the bare minimum. I do mean bare minimum. My back porch, which was my “Zen Spot”, where I went to read my books, do homework or just relax, is now strung with clothes lines. I wash my clothes at the laundromat or in the sink myself then hang them up to dry. We have not eaten out in 3 months, we do not buy anything but the necessities of life. We both are smokers and are working on quitting. In the meantime, we now roll our own cigarettes, as a result we smoke less and hope to quit very soon. I am a Diet Coke junkie, however, it is not a necessity so I have been drinking “sun tea”, iced tea brewed in the sun in the jug. This is a very cheap beverage. I cannot have much sugar so I drink  it unsweetened but you can sweeten it with sugar if you like. I make real lemonade from lemon juice (one cup lemon juice, one cup sugar in a 2 qt pitcher) It is very tasty. I bake our “treats”, cookies, cake, brownies, pies, from scratch here at home. I love to bake and am good at it, my family likes my homemade items much better than any store bought treat.

I only drive to the store, work, or to put in applications at businesses, and to take my son to and from school. I combine trips to save gas. I do not leave my car running, this wastes gas. My son’s birthday is in July, we had a huge party planned that cost a lot of money. We have changed plans and are now having it in a beautiful local park ( no rental fee). My family will all be making some of the food to help defray some of my costs. 

We have to keep internet services, as my boyfriend is going to school online and I have my website to run. However, if we could get away with it, I would happily have it shut off. We still have cable, but I did contact our cable company and am having our services reduced to save money. We turn the lights off and unplug appliances when not in use. My mother struck an agreement with the 0wner of her apartment complex, she now cleans and shows the apartments for rent and gets a significant amount of money off of her rent.

There are all kinds of measures one can take when financially strapped. Think outside the box. Do you have more than one vehicle, do you need both? Maybe you could sell one? Write letters instead of making long distance phone calls. Buy inexpensive foods instead of pricier versions.

I hope this gets people thinking about things they can do to decrease their spending. Thanks to all for reading, and check out my “Recommendations” page for inexpensivly priced books you can buy on all kinds of ways to save money!

The Domestic Goddess

- check out the mark downs section of your grocery store. These are often filled with great deals that will save you serious dough on your food budget. Some items are over stocks or are close to expiring. Make sure if food items are about to expire they can be frozen or used immediately.

- Look at the store’s flyer for their current deals and sales. Try to incorporate the good deals into your shopping list and menu. Make sure to buy only items that you will use. It isn’t a good deal if it does not get used

- If you clip coupons make sure they are for goods you will purchase anyway. Do not be afraid to try a different product if you find a really good coupon or sale price. Most of the time change is a good thing.

- Try store brands. Most store brands taste just as good as the name brand and in some cases, better. If you are unsure if you will like a product, just buy one and try it. If you don’t like you do not have to buy it again.

- Avoid processed, packaged and otherwise low nutrition foods. While items like Hamburger Helper can be bought relatively cheaply, they have very little nutritional value, are over packaged, over processed and basically a drain on your budget. Do an internet search for do it yourself meals and make them from scratch at home. You will save big on your food budget this way. You can control the ingredients used, if you use natural, organic or “regular” ingredients. This also allows you to taylor the meal to your families likes and dislikes.  Throwing some pasta, a binder like cream of mushroom soup, meat and veggies in a pot and cooking it takes about 15 minutes with 5 to 10  minutes of preparation time depending on how organized your kitchen is. This also allows you to get creative and try new ingedients, use up leftovers and make extra for another day. Homemade food almost always, I have found in my household,  has leftovers.

- Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store. This is usually where they have the least processed and packaged foods located. The more “whole” a food is, the better that food is for you and your family. A potato in its natural form has much more nutrition than a box of mashed potato flakes. Just check out the label on the box for proof.

- Prepare as much of the food you and your family eats from scratch as possible.  Not everyone has time to bake batches of homemade bread or whip up a 5 course meal. Do what you can. Make a big pot of homemade soup and freeze the leftovers for another busy day. Casseroles are an easy way to use up leftovers and use ingedients you have on hand. I have weekends off and spend a chunk of time baking and cooking meals from scratch and freezing them to eat during the week  when I am to busy with school, work, and running my son around to have alot of time to spend in the kitchen. When that chunk of time is depends on what else I have going on that weekend. I enjoy cooking so it doesn’t take me long and I have fun getting creative. Even if you only make and store a few things, that is better than hitting the drive through or buying convenience foods at the store.