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When my girls were young, they collected little pins from the places we traveled to.  It gave them something to search for on the trips, and it became a memento to remind them of the trips after we returned home. 

Jaclyn started putting her pins on a hat that she got in Venice, and Nicole put them on a long velvet ribbon that she hung in her bedroom.  When they headed off to college back in 2003 and 2007, they left their pin collections behind. 

I just found them and created little displays. As I attached each pin to the frame, it brought back great memories of adventures from their youth. 

So glad they loved receiving them on Christmas morning!  

December 27, 2016

Handmade Gifts

When my girls were young, they collected little pins from the places we traveled to.  It gave them something to search for on the trips, and it became a memento to remind them of the trips after we returned home. 

Jaclyn started putting her pins on a hat that she got in Venice, and Nicole put them on a long velvet ribbon that she hung in her bedroom.  When they headed off to college back in 2003 and 2007, they left their pin collections behind. 

I just found them and created little displays. As I attached each pin to the frame, it brought back great memories of adventures from their youth. 

So glad they loved receiving them on Christmas morning!  

December 24, 2016

All Together for Christmas!

All set for Christmas!  Both Nicole and Jaclyn will be home on Christmas Eve and Day!  It’s been several years since Nicole’s been able to join us for Christmas because of her ER residency schedule.  Last year we Skyped with her but it’s just not the same…

We’ve set up our Christmas village that is filled with ceramic houses that we’ve made over the years. 

This will be the first Christmas that we didn’t build our Eco Xmas Tree; we bought a live tree to plant on our property in honor of our 2 new puppies (it helps us remember Christmases!).  And I made new Christmas stockings to hang from our mantel. 

Having the family together for Christmas is the best gift ever! Oh, the joy of this festive season!

December 23, 2016

Tis the Season…For Rice Krispies Santa!

Just thought I’d share with you my Rice Krispy and marshmallow Santa Claus!  

Hope you’re enjoying this holiday season.  

I love to make festive treats and share them!

December 22, 2016

Bonus Blog: Gift Tags!

Continuing the recycle and reuse philosophy from the last post about satin gift wrap: we make our gift tags out of recycled Christmas cards from the previous year.  Yup!  

I love all of the beautiful, funny, and clever cards we receive every year. After the holidays, we save the colorful Christmas cards (after we cut off the backside).  Then the following year, we hole punch the card, pull a hair tie through the hole, and simply tie the card around the fabric bow.  With a thick marker, we write the receiver’s name on the front of the card.  

Each gift tag is unique and exquisite!  And, we don’t cut down any trees and we don’t spend a penny on gift tags!  It’s a win for us AND the planet!

 

 
December 21, 2016

Smart Wrapping Paper

Did you know that wrapping paper is a 3.2 billion dollar industry? With Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa around the corner millions of pounds of paper will be used to wrap gifts just once and then be piled up in trash cans that line every street around the world. Wasteful! I didn’t realize how much this bothered me until I had a dream about it.  When I woke up, I knew exactly what I needed to do.  This was kind of like my Eco-Xmas tree dream.  So here’s what I did:

I drove over to Fabrics R Us in San Jose to buy 20 yards of red and green satin.  Then I went to the Dollar Tree to buy 100 hair ties and scrunchies.  I added a few curtain rods to my Wrapping Room to hang all of the satin squares that I had cut in various sizes.  And voilà!  I was all set for a paperless Chistmas.

I grabbed a satin square and placed the gift item right in the center of it.  Then, I pulled all of the fabric up around the gift and tied it off – just like a girl’s pony tail.  With the extra fabric, I would pull it through another loop of the hair tie creating a beautiful “bow.”  It took 5 seconds to wrap!  No cutting wrapping paper, folding edges, taping ends, or adding ribbons.  The best part, after gifts were opened, we collected all of the satin sheets and then tossed them over the curtain rod for the next holiday.  We even put all of the hair ties in a Xmas box to be reused again.  

December 21, 2016

Those Who Can’t Make Gingerbread Houses Make Pretzel Log Cabins Instead

My solution to the failed attempts at making a gingerbread house was to make pretzel log cabin instead.  While it is supposed to be edible just like a gingerbread house, I used a glue gun to hold the pretzels and the pounds of candy in place.  This was so much easier than making a gingerbread house!  I wouldn’t advise eating it, though.

After heading out to the Dollar Tree and Lucky’s to buy giant pretzels and every bag of hard candy that I could find, I cleared the table to make a mini-workshop.  First, I made the log cabin the same size as the large pretzel sticks to save time.  Using an Xacto knife, I cut out the 4 sides and 2 roof panels out of cardboard.  Then I hot glued the pretzels on the cardboard and the candy on the roof.  It was surprisingly easy and quick to do.  No winter log cabin is complete without a fireplace so I stacked hard candies to make the chimney. Then I made a pathway out of cinnamon hard candies, and lamp posts out of candy canes and gum drops.  Using extra pretzels, I made a park bench. After everything was in place, I sprinkled coconut flakes over the whole scene.  I finished just in time for it to be Jaclyn’s centerpiece for her Christmas party.

I hope to preserve this with Varathane so next year I can add on to it.  If it doesn’t work, I’ll start over again next year!

December 20, 2016

My Nemesis: Gingerbread Houses

It’s true! Getting the gingerbread baked to the right doneness and the sugar glue to the right consistency seemed impossible for me. 

I even bought wrought iron baking dishes and kits, and they never worked.  The gingerbread would stick to the pans and by the time I got them “unstuck” – I had a pile of crumbs! When Nicole was a teen, she and her friends Bonnie and Katherine attempted to make a gingerbread house but it collapsed.  It was all in fun, but alas – no gingerbread house – that year…

December 16, 2016

Smells Like A Witch Hunt

Ever since the presidential election, I feel like I’m living in a surreal world – like a bad dream that I just can’t shake.  Every day we’re bombarded with shocking news about Trump’s picks for important positions in his cabinet. 

Sometimes I wonder if he’s doing this just to make us feel so overwhelmed that we do nothing, or if he’s doing this just before the holidays because we’re distracted.  But when I heard that Trump actually asked for a list of Department of Energy (DOE) employees who have done anything on climate change (attended meetings, conducted research, worked on projects), that creeped me out!  This smells a bit like the Salem Witch Hunts or the communist red scare of McCarthyismI really didn’t think Trump would proactively fire employees who were pro-climate change in our DOE.  Wow!

But I am glad that the DOE is refusing to release this information.  Well, it’s a temporary fix but it shows that “We the People” are not going to put up with this insanity!  This is a time where we need to get out of our comfort zones and stand up to this incoming-administration’s agenda before they rush us into catastrophic disasters that we will not be able to reverse.

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December 16, 2016

EPA: Fracking is Bad

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finally – and just in time! – confirmed what we’ve known for a long time: “Fracking can and does contaminate drinking water.”  Environmental groups have praised the EPA for acting on the recommendations of its Science Advisory Board and made public statements about the inherent harms and hazards of fracking.    It’s no surprise that the incoming administration, and the American Petroleum Institute, are balking about the EPA’s recent statement.  The more they complain and fight the EPA, the more I know and trust that the EPA is protecting us against water contamination by fracking.    I’m just worried sick about what Scott Pruitt, Trump’s pick for the EPA, plans to DO with the EPA.  He is a climate change denier who will dismantle regulations on industry. What is a climate-change denier doing in the most powerful position in the EPA? Pruitt sued the EPA 12 times over regulations for curbing carbon emissions from power plants, methane from the oil and gas industry, and mercury from coal-powered power plants. Seriously?   When in doubt about a candidate’s intentions, just follow the money.  Pruitt received over $700,000 in contributions from – well, let’s say, they’re not environmentalists!   [Source]
December 15, 2016

Big Win for Students with Learning Disabilities

After taking the heat from the public, the College Board has finally made it easier for students with learning disabilities to get test accommodations on the SAT. 

Starting January 1st, students who already receive test accommodations through an IEP or other plan will most likely receive the same for the SAT, PSAT, and AP tests. 

This is a huge step in the right direction.  English as a Second Language students will also receive accommodations soon.

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