Christmas Decoration Hand-Me-Downs: Fixing Up An Old Wreath

Of the decorations I have in our little blue house, I would say maybe two items I truly purchased. My pencil Christmas tree about five years ago on sale for $50.00 and my nativity set for $10.00. The rest has been bought for me as gifts or handed down to me. I love the free items but at the same time it can be a challenge to have a cohesive style.

With this being the first year I have truly had the energy at Christmas time, I am putting some of that energy into make a "style" and trying to make a few of my own decorations. More on the homemade (if I am lucky) in the next couple weeks.

I LOVE wreaths. Really I do. I want one of those all red berry ones to hang on my front door but it never ever fails that the price of any wreath is just more than I can stand to pay. Aren't they just gorgeous though?!?

I was given a lovely wreath a couple Christmas's ago by my mother. It had belonged to her mother and needed a new home. I gladly accepted because I love the idea of keeping stuff in the family, not letting things get thrown out, and I knew I was too cheap to buy my own. It worked great for a couple years and each year I just tossed it back up into the attic without much regard of how tired it looked. 

Not bad really. Pretty. Good bones but lacking a fresh factor. I love the flowers and the gold (which is a minor accent in my house after black) but it definitely needed something. It was raining cats and dogs here this afternoon (again!) and the baby is under the weather so Gary spent sometime with Wade and I got some long overdue craft time in. The finished product turned out pretty well and it sure looks fresh and new. I think my mother and my grandmother would be very pleased. 

I didn't buy anything for the make over. I simply cracked open my shoe box of acrylic paints and paint brushes and I had some left over Christmas gold and red glitter paint from some Christmas gift project long ago. The extra pine cones came from the pines behind my house near the chicken coop that I picked up earlier in the fall. Now I can move on to making wreaths for the front and back door and decorations for my fairly un-decorated kitchen. It felt amazing though to finally get to something fun on my to do list. How is your Christmas decorating coming? Care to share any old, re-purposed, salvaged Christmas items or ideas you have?

Also, I want to remind you to join us on our Two Blue Houses Facebook page. We share other pictures and bits of information there that doesn't make it to the blog AND we would love to see your Christmas handmade pictures on our wall! 

Happy decorating! 

Method A Solution

I like the Method brand and use it but TBH is not associated with the company
that manufacturers the Method brand. 

While I do make cleaning products at home there are a few I purchase. A shower scrub to help cut grim in my shower and sinks, a floor soap (that has lasted 3 years), and hand & dish soap. Readily available at most stores I shop at is the Method brand. Best of all I find it affordable among the "green" products. Now I am not going to tell you it is the cleanest (greenest) product on the market because I haven't bothered to look into it that information. I am selfishly avoiding not wanting to feel bad if it really isn't the greenest choice. It is what I can afford and I feel better then buying Dawn (sorry Dawn).

Now I have all the more reason to like that I occasionally purchase the Method products. One of my favorite news feeds is Treehugger.com. When Wade lets me sit and read a news article on the computer I usually find something interesting or informative from Treehugger. Today was no different. I learned How Method Turns Plastic Pollution in the Ocean Into Bottles. Sweet!

You probably know how there are these ridiculously large floating plastic fields in the middle of our oceans. Well before I wrote this I didn't realize that there were FIVE large ones. I only really knew of one (The Great Pacific Garbage Patch). Regardless it is a really big problem and the question is... what to do about them? And what in the world can this little blue house do about them? We try not to buy plastic. All plastic 2 litters and gallon milk jugs and juice bottles are kept in the green house and animal buildings for watering and planting seeds. I wash all zip lock freezer bags and reuse several times. I keep my glass bottles and reuse as much as possible. We recycle (OK not in the house because of space for bins issue) but out of the house whenever possible! How much more can we do?

Well it turns out that from now on by buying Method products I am doing more. For every Method product I buy I now take 15 grams of plastic out of the ocean. Baby steps you say? Yup. But what a neat, innovative, and creative solution. Please read about how Method and their partners developed a whole new method of recycling the brittle and decaying plastic bottles floating out into the ocean and are using them to make a new high quality plastic bottle. A bottle claimed to be 100 percent post-consumer HDPE with 25% being from those floating trash fields. Neat! Can you tell I am a sucker for doing things better and doing things right? Like we should have been doing all along. Mankind I think God is smiling at your industriousness for this moment. Bravo. Let's keep doing more.

Two for the Price of One

Jelly jars or drinking glasses?

I was struck by an idea for new drinking glasses. Up until now we have been using wide mouth pint canning jars that we bought for our wedding reception. They are great for coffee, water, milk, whatever and they fit our "farm house" style. But the funniest thing happens to my drinking glasses... they wander off. Out of the two dozen jars taken out of the garage and put on my kitchen shelves I currently count four actually in the kitchen. The rest? Lost to oblivion. I honestly don't know where the other twenty jars have gone. They aren't in the house. They really aren't in the garage and they aren't in the car. They just disappear. 

Well the thought of wasting any more perfectly good canning jars on anything but canning is something I can't stand to think of at the beginning of this gardening season. In fact, all I can think of  now is how to get more canning jars (if you have any ideas let me know). The frustration of having someone over and NOT having a drinking glass to offer is mounting. I am desperate and that makes me creative. OK. That is a bit extreme...

Gary did some grocery shopping for me not to long ago and picked up this new jelly. I am not sure what it was that made him buy this brand. It was on the bottom shelf (basically the floor) of the grocery store we frequent but it tasted pretty good. A bit thin for my taste but sweet and flavorful. Anyway, we finished the first jar and liked it enough to buy more. This week I was at the store and noticed they were selling this jelly brand 2 for $3.00 and our store tends to run similar specials fairly often so it struck me. I would keep buying this brand of jelly and replace my drinking glasses! We always save jars. Something about a glass jar just makes me freak out to even think about throwing it out. They are lovely. Sturdy. Have lids. And I always think... I can use this for something. TaDa! 

Meet (my slow to accumulate) new drinking glasses.

Do you see the bottles in the window?
Those are part of my future revamped pantry.
There is a Before & After not far away...

Ghetto or genius? You tell me.
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We are joining up again with Farm Friend Friday over at Verde Farm. Verde Farm has also joined up with Dandelion House for Farm Girl Friday. It is just one big party!

Welcome new comers. Won't you stay awhile and please come again? Thank you!

Barter: Trade instead of Pay

Lets be honest. Money is tight. It's not just you but your neighbor and your boss and even his boss. But we still want and need things. Stuff to get projects done or prepare for the future. Things to help us get where we are going and to become who we are to be. Some of the things we want we really can't go without. I say we bring back bartering. After all, we each have something to offer to get that something we want.

source

Trading is far from a new idea. From pre-currency societies to the elementary school cafeteria, we have relied on it to use what we have to get what we want. And its not only juice boxes for twinkies, but paper clips for houses! Its a super way to save cash, get to know neighbors and go green!

Bartering is saving money. By definition, it requires no money whatsoever. You are not spending needlessly to acquire items that are single use or project specific. The parties involved are the ones determining an equal exchange, eliminating the middle man (and tax). And the best part is you can exchange something you already have for something you want or need for no cash. Always think about what you don't need before you get something new!

Bartering is local. Neighbors exchanging with neighbors builds community.

Bartering is green. Recycling at its most basic. Its giving a second life to items or personal expertise.

What more motivation do you need to get rid of that pile in your basement and trade it for something you can really use! Truth is bartering is well on its way for a comeback. There are plenty of sites that facilitate swapping. Have you been to...?

BarterQuest is site where you can both list and search for bartered items. Did you know you can exchange cookies for a laptop?

Listing 10 books is all that is required to get you in at paperback swap. As your books are requested you pay to mail them out and earn credits. Then use your credits to request other listed books for free! This site is a personal favorite of mine!

Is your daughter finally over her Hannah Montana phase? Your teen not playing that video game as much as you had hoped? At swap.com you can trade books, movies, music and video games. They recently began hosting swapaholics events where women gather to trade high end clothing and accessories in giant pop-up boutiques. Swap.com also encourages you to get involved and host your own local swaps. Sweet!

craigslist

And if you have been living under a rock, you have not yet discovered the wonder of craigslist. Not the prettiest site but it gets the job done. I purchased my sons bike and sold my extra bamboo flooring. Love the free stuff and check it often!

Really the possibilities are endless. Trade webdesign for childcare, cooking for car maintenance, patio furniture for photography, lawn care for power tools...