PERSONALIZED Notepads!

So remember these guys?  I wrote something about how you could dress it up or down however you like.  At the time, I couldn't really think of how a person might make it more interesting, short of using fancy scrapbook paper or something, but that takes a bit of the awesomeness out of the project, since you'd essentially be using new paper, rather than recycling or using up otherwise unusable paper.  

HOWEVER, I was trying to make some mother's day cards for our various moms around here, when I had a major brainwave.  

I printed out a few pics on my temperamental second-hand printer, and they were all pretty sub-par quality prints.  I wanted 3 copies of each, so when I printed them out, there were 3 pics down the left side of each page with about 6 inches of white space to the right.  Since so many of the pics were not really worthy of being put in a special mother's day card, I didn't know what to do with them all.  I think I had 5 pages in all.  

O ho!

All I did was cut the pages up between each picture, piled them all together, and sewed.  Voila!  A nice little writing pad for grandma with a cheeky boy on each page...  I wish I had come up with this before I sent the cards to the faraway grannies!  (I also wish that my printer was not so temperamental, or I would whip up a couple more and send them out!!)

Week 18: Wheat Bag Rejuvenation

In my opinion, the best reason (and for a while it was the only reason) to have a microwave is to heat up a lovely wheat bag.  It's the beginning of May and I still use one (or two, or three) every night.  I love having a toasty warm bag of wheaty goodness at my toes as I drift off to slumber.  For a few years we didn't have a microwave, and I lamented the loss of my wheat bag every night.  Heating pad, hot water bottle... nothing else quite comes close.

With all that use, my wheat bags inevitably break down after a while.  I generally ask my MIL for a new one every Christmas, but even though I have 2 lovely new bags, I feel bad for the 2 sitting in my closet weeping little wheat tears.  Instead of chucking this guy out, or letting him languish, I decided to give him a little sprucing up!

This one's totally simple.  Take the wheat out of the ripped bag, make a new bag, and fill it with the old wheat.  I used the bottom of a vintage pillowcase I got at the thrift store, since I was feeling lazy and didn't want to sew too much!  

So here are the steps:

1) Cut fabric to your desired size.  I went slightly longer and skinnier for the new version.

2) Inside out, sew sides, leaving about a 4" opening to turn inside out.  I just left one whole short side.

3) Be sure to use small stitches and go over it twice just for security's sake.  You don't want wheat escaping all over the place when you use this bad boy.  I also serged to be safe.

4) Turn right side out and transplant wheat.

5) *optional step* Sew evenly spaced compartments so the wheat doesn't pool on one side of your bag.  (I only do this with long skinny ones, not squarish ones.)  It's best to do this as you fill it so you avoid sewing over wheat kernels.

6) Sew up the open side.  Twice.

[Where I give you advice like I know what I'm talking about]

Seven small things that are easy to do and easy on your wallet.

1) (for those who menstruate) Use a menstrual cup.  No garbage, no plastic waste, no chemically treated cotton inside of you, nothing to remember to buy/have around each month except one discreet little cup!  This of course doesn't work for everyone, but for some people it can be a FANTASTIC solution.  It's a one time cost, but lasts for something like 10 years. 

2) Make your own salad dressing.  Some kind of oil, some kind of vinegar, some kind of sweetening, mustard.  Anything on top of that is icing on the cake!  Or spice in the dressing, as it were...

3)  Use vinegar for cleaning and disinfecting.

4) Water it down! 

5) If you eat meat, use less.  I'm not talking full on vegetarianism here (though that's cool if you want to), just cut it back a bit.  Say, halve the amount of meat you add into a recipe and double the veg.  Or take days off from meat.

6) Stop eating junk food.  Or cut it down.  Junk food is expensive and wasteful and never tastes as good as you want it to and makes you feel a bit icky afterward (or should I say, ME).  Of course, nothing beats a good burger, but at least find a GOOD burger.  Something that will be worth it to you.

7) Switch paper for cloth.  Bags, kleenex, towels, wipes, heck, some people even do it with toilet paper!  (A non-threatening way to do this is to just use cloth for #1...)

What other kinds of things do you do to save around the house?