My Family's Rewarding New Evening Ritual (+ Can You Do Me a Big Favour?)

 Images courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that sometimes the simplest changes we choose to make can be some of the most rewarding. Many moons ago when I still outweighed my boys by a considerable amount, there used to be that natural evening rhythm of snuggling up with a lapful of freshly washed, footsy-sleepered boys and reading them a story or three before tucking them into bed.

As the boys went and got bigger, and we all got involved in more evening activities, that ritual fell by the wayside. As I feel the clock ticking ever louder towards the day when one or both of the boys will no longer be living with us full-time, I realized I really missed how we used to all gather together at the end of the day. 

I wracked my brain trying to figure out a way we could all reconnect at the end of the day in a way that felt easy, fun and not forced - something we would ALL look forward to. Then one day I thoght about how much we all enjoy playing games together around the campfire on our family camping trips, and how seldom we seem to play games when we're NOT camping.

Thus, our new routine of spending 30-45 minutes playing games together was born! We decided we'd commit to doing this Monday through Thursday, as on Friday and Saturday evenings the boys tend to spend time with their friends and Joe & I with ours (or each other) and Joe plays hockey on Sunday nights throughout much of the year.

We have a standing "appointment" at 9:30 p.m. for each of these four evenings, and each night a different person gets to pick the game. We also agreed that ALL screens would go off for the night prior to our commencing game time, which has been good for all four of us (and given that late-night screen time is supposed to disrupt your sleep, we're probably all sleeping better because of it).

It's ended up being so relaxing and fun, and great "bonding" time with some good (and usually very entertaining) conversation. We all look forward to this time together, and it just feels like the perfect way to wind down the day.

So, what are we playing? I'll admit we're a little short on good 4 player board games right now.  Our favourites are tile rummy, Uno, President and Whoonu, with the boys often requesting trivia games (we have a Harry Potter trivia game and Star Wars Trivial Pursuit). We do have a Scrabble set, but no one else in the the house wants to play with me because I'm pretty much going to win :) I'm going to keep my eyes open this yard sale season to see if I can find some other good games, and we really need to learn more card games, too!

I can't believe how much this simple idea has enriched our family life - and it didn't cost us a thing except the willingness to make this time commitment to one another.

Do you have a favourite family ritual you do with your older kids? Or do you have a good 4-player game to recommend?

While you're here, can I ask you a favour? I know many of my blog readers have been some of my book's biggest supporters, and I am so grateful for all of you that have purchased the book and helped spread the word about it. If you do have a copy of the book (or even if you've read a friend's or a library copy) would you consider reviewing it for me on Amazon? I'm doing a Book Review Campaign right now with the goal of adding 15 new reviews to the several wonderful ones that are already there. You don't need to have purchased the book on Amazon in order to review it there!

You can find more details on why this is so important to me, and how to do an effective review, by clicking HERE (this will open up a PDF file). Thanks to all of you who are willing to take this on (it should only take about 15-20 minutes of your time). 
 

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Small Yet Satisfying #2: Making Dandelion Salve

A whole lot of Dandelion Salve!

I set myself a little goal this weekend: I've decided to take a cyber-free day once a week all summer - most likely on Sundays. When I've taken completely unplugged days before I've found I can be really productive or really relaxed (whichever I had in mind for the day) as I don't have the constant mental pull towards checking my email/Facebook/the internet in general.

While my main purpose in doing this is to feel like I'm getting more downtime to read, ride my bike, chill out on my front porch and spend time with my family, I also thought it would be a good time to focus on getting a few more "Small Yet Satisfying" projects completed as it's amazing how much more time I seem to have in a day when the computer stays off!

My project for this past Sunday was to make myself some Dandelion Salve. I've been meaning to get around to this for ages! I saw this recipe on the Nerdy Farmwife blog when she posted it back in April and was immediately intrigued. I'm always a fan of a recipe that uses a main ingredient I can get for free! I picked a ton of dandelions when they were at their peak earlier this season, and dried them out thoroughly. I even got them infusing in some olive oil and heat-infused them for a couple of hours. They've been sitting in a jar on my kitchen windowsill ever since and it was more than high time for me to get around to actually making the salve.

I've made salves a couple of times before, and found that a ratio of 1 cup olive oil to 1-2 ounces of grated beeswax will make a salve with the consistency I like (in general, it's better to use a bit more beeswax during the summer or if you live in a hot climate, so that the salve doesn't get too soft in the warmer temps).

So, this is roughly how I made the salve:

Infusing stage:

• Fill a pint jar about 2/3 of the way full of dried dandelion flowers

• Pour olive oil over top until it covered the dandelions with a tiny bit to spare on top

• Heat the jar in a saucepan of simmering water for a couple of hours

• Remove the jar from the heat, let it cool and then let it sit on my kitchen windowsill for ages (a week or two should be more than enough if you want to get this accomplished on a quicker schedule)

 On salve making day:

• Strain the oil through a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth into a glass measuring cup (2 cup size or larger)

• Once all the oil has drained through, wrap the cheesecloth tightly around the dandelions and squeeze firmly to get out any remaining oil - you'll be surprised how much extra you get!

• Pour the oil into a small saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until warm

• Toss in 1-2 ounces of beeswax per cup of oil and stir occasionally until beeswax is totally melted

• Quickly pour salve into prepared containers (it will start to set very soon after being removed from the heat) 

I used a variety of containers to hold the finished salve:-repurposed Burt's Bee lip balm tins
-a purchased stainless steel tin from Mountain Rose Herbs (largest tin pictured - that's an affiliate link!)
-another repurposed stainless steel tin from previously purchased salve (medium tin pictured)
-a couple of 125 mL Mason jars

Reusing tins is, of course, very frugal and environmentally friendly; however I will be the first to admit that cleaning them up is a big pain in the rear end! If your tins have previously held lip balm or salve, it can be a sticky gooey mess of epic proportions (especially if you have an old tin of salve that got pushed to the back of the cupboard for the better part of a decade to fester - not that I'd know anything about that ::grin::)

To clean up my tins:

• I use a spoon to scoop out any old contents that are no longer useable (i.e. festering salve noted above). I then take a small piece of paper towel and rub out as much remaining salve or balm as possible. 

• At this point I dump all the tins into a boiling pot of water for about 5 minutes, then pour out the water (which will have some oily stuff floating around in it that came off the tins).  

• I refill the pan with hot soapy water and scrub off any remaining sticky stuff, then rinse well and reboil again for another 5 minutes. After the second boil I drain the tins then dry them thoroughly with a paper towel (there will usually be a little bit more salve/balm residue that comes off). 

It is a bit of a production and the cleaning usually takes longer than the actual salve making, but I have a bunch of nice clean tins to reuse in the end!

I now have a whole lot of dandelion salve as you can see from the photo above! The smaller tins will all be gifts and the large tin and two Mason jars will be our household supply. I am pretty sure we will not run out before the dandelions reappear next spring :)

This salve is supposed to be excellent as a gardener's balm and on any really dry chapped skin in general. It is also said to be effective as a sore muscle rub and for arthritic joints although I can't personally attest to its effectiveness for those uses. I've been rubbing it into my hands and cuticles every night before bed and it's defnitely helping my "gardener's hands"!

Anyone else out there making salves? Do you have a favourite combination of flowers or herbs to infuse in them? 

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Small, Yet Satisfying

Sometimes I get so caught up in figuring out how I'm going to find the money/time/resources to make big projects happen (like our current room reshuffling plan, with which we have made very little progress thus far) that I forget there are a lot of little things I can do to spruce up our home without investing much time or money.

I have a box in the basement that's been gradually filling up with empty glass jars that I want to repurpose - if I could just get the danged labels/glue off of them! I've tried various schemes for getting them cleaned up over the years; some things worked well on a few jars but not on others (probably due to the different types of adhesives used). I think I've finally found the solution that will work on them all: rubbing alcohol. The key is to really saturate the labels with it, and then let them stand for a bit. This seems to work to dissolve the glue and with just a little bit of elbow grease (for particularly stubborn spots a sprinkle of baking soda seems to help) I can get the jars looking sparkly clean without a hint of their former sticky coating.

I was so happy to discover this that I got a few done at once:

Not shown in the photo (because I'd already repurposed it!) is the bottle from my Filsinger's Apple Cider Vinegar - can you guess what I used it for?

Although I'm sure you could repurpose it in a wide variety of ways, I knew exactly what I was going to do with mine: Make it into a hand soap dispenser. The screw top pump from my plastic hand soap container fit this bottle perfectly, so once the bottle was all cleaned up it took about two minutes to effect this little transformation.

The corner of my kitchen sink went from this:

To this:

Like I said, it *is* a small thing, yet also very satisfying. It makes the area by my sink feel just that little bit cleaner, brighter and more stylish. The glass bottle nicely complements the little glass dish holding a bar of my hard lotion. And it didn't cost me a cent! (For the curious, I think the little glass apple dish was meant to be a butter pat holder like these ones that were very popular in Victorian times. I bought two of them ages ago at some yard sale or other and I thought this was the perfect use for them!)

I have resolved to get much better at doing these little projects - after all, knocking off several of them not only leads to a sense of accomplishment, but the net effect contributes to a much more "pulled together" feeling home, without having to dedicate hours of time to any given project.

Have you done any "small yet satisfying" projects around your home lately?

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Starting an Egg Buying Group

Photo by Simon Howden/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Longtime readers of this blog (and those who've read my book) will know that two of the strategies I recommend for keeping your food costs down are buying in bulk and always keeping an eye out for new food sources.

As the local food movement continues to gain steam, there are an ever-increasing number of options for sourcing your food in many cities and towns across North America. This is exciting news, and it means that even if you've lived somewhere for a long time (as I have), there may be food purchasing possibilities of which you're not aware.

A couple of months ago I wrote about how excited I was to find a source of affordable, local free-range eggs. While these were wonderful eggs at a fantastic price, for a variety of reasons this source hasn't proved to be a viable option for regularly purchasing eggs.

About a week ago, a member of my ONFC buying club asked if anyone knew a good source for local free range eggs. I decided to take a quick peek on Kijiji to see what I could find and as it happened, a listing I had not seen before had just been posted less than half an hour before I checked!

This source seemed nearly perfect: free range chickens fed organic feed, a steady supply of eggs, and a fantastic price when eggs were purchased in bulk - only $2.50 a dozen when you buy more than 6 dozen! Eggs of similar quality sell for $6-7 a dozen around here when bought at grocery stores or even direct from some of the larger farms. The only problem was that this farm was a 35-40 minute drive from my house, making it impractical for purchasing eggs a couple of times a month.

I decided to ask members of my buying club, plus a few of my other local foodie friends if anyone would be interested in setting up a small egg buying group and within a couple days it was clear that this could be a viable possibility. After inquiring with the egg farmer, I was assured she could meet our needs for a large bulk pickup and she seemed thrilled to make a regular bulk purchase arrangement with our group.

My husband and I drove out to the farm this past weekend to pick up our first batch of eggs and it's looking like this will be a wonderful long-term arrangement for both the egg producer and our little group of egg buyers. While we're still getting ourselves organized, it looks like we will have somewhere between 8-12 families in our group, ordering in the neighbourhood of 16-20+ dozen eggs from this small-scale producer every 2 weeks. Forming a group makes it practical to buy from this source; because we will take turns picking up eggs at the farm, each family will only be responsible for making the drive out there 2-3 times per *year*! The eggs will be dropped off at a central location (right now it's my house) for everyone to come fetch. Since we all live in the same area of the city, it makes it very convenient and accessible for everyone.

This is just one example of how forming a buying group can make purchases both feasible and worthwhile that otherwise might be neither. In this case, the distance to the producer made it impractical for regular, individual twice-a-month purchases (if it was a more shelf-stable product, like grains, or something you could pack in the freezer, like meat, facilitating larger and less frequent purchases, the distance might not be an issue). We are also getting a better price per dozen by purchasing in bulk. In this case, the price was still great even without the discount ($3.00 per dozen). In some cases, buying large quantities at once can cut your costs by 50% or more.

While this setup is certainly not as simple as walking around the corner to the store to buy eggs, it should work out to be a fairly smooth and consistent way for us to purchase great eggs for a fantastic price while supporting a small-scale local producer. Investing a little time and creativity into finding a solution that worked will be well worth the effort as we enjoy these high-quality eggs on a regular basis!

Have you found any creative solutions to accessing more fresh, local foods on a small budget in your area?

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Our Frugal Christmas Gift Plan for 2012

  Photo: Dream Designs/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Our Christmas plans for this year look a lot different than last year's did. Our gift budget is MUCH smaller this year and basically we are aiming for another Hundred Dollar Holiday, more or less (well, hopefully not much more!)

(If you're on my gift list, please stop reading NOW as there are major gift spoilers ahead!)

Hubby and I have agreed that we are going to be very modest with gifts for each other this year. In fact, there are not really going to be any surprises for either of us as we have made specific requests of what we would like. I don't really mind this at all as I know I'll receive things I want and/or need and that no money or effort's been wasted on something I will eventually consign to the "donate" bin.

I've asked Joe to get two things fixed for me this year: my sports watch, which needs both a new battery and band, and the Lagostina Dutch oven I bought at a yard sale for $4 on the Victoria Day weekend. Although the Dutch oven appeared to be in very good condition when I gave it a quick inspection pre-purchase, as it turns out a tiny part of the bottom is coming away from the main part of the pot. It looks like it should be fixable with a small solder, and Joe knows someone who should be able to do this repair. I'm also getting one new item, the Celestial Tea Strainer from Mountain Rose Herbs (more about them later in this post). I'm experimenting more and more with loose blends of herbs for teas, so this is both a functional and beautiful addition to my tea making supplies.

Joe has requested new flannel pajama pants and boxers, both of which he definitely needs! We may also end up doing a quick thrift store shopping trip and picking out a small item each that we both want, depending on how much gets spent on other gifts.

Christmas gifts on a budget for teenage boys can be pretty tricky, I have to admit! I have come up with what I believe to be a decent plan, though: NEW BIKES! Both boys really need new bikes and have been riding bikes that were a bit too small for them for the last year or so. They are now both adult size (both taller than me!) and need adult-sized bikes. We are hoping to put together two suitable bikes for under $50. Thankfully Joe has a lot of experience rebuilding bikes so hopefully we can make this happen. We already have the bike for my older son, a good quality Peugeot that Joe trash-picked a couple years back (it's appallingly easy to trash-pick decent bikes when you live close to a university). It's been patiently awaiting some TLC and repair. Thankfully it doesn't need too many parts replaced - just a few broken spokes and some elbow (and bike) grease! My younger son really wants a road bike rather than a mountain bike, so we're hoping to track something down at Recycle Cycles or New Hope Bikes. Kijiji is another possibility; however I'd rather purchase from one of the bike organizations as it will help support cycling promotion in our city. We definitely need to get a move on this to get things done before Christmas!

For my 15 year old, a passionate climber, we're also going to purchase this Knots & Ropes for Climbers book from Mountain Equipment Co-op. For my 13 year old, (my artistic kid) I'm planning on buying some decent quality markers from the Canadian-owned chain Curry's Art Store (and the local store is conveniently located within walking distance of home, too!)

Of course there will be stockings, too - I'll discuss what we're filling those with next week, so stay tuned :)

As far as friends and family go, I am keeping it simple this year and everyone is basically getting a combination of books, homemade salve and a food basket.

The books are from two sources: my gift cupboard stash (yard-saled for under a dollar apiece) and an unexpected but gratefully received recent windfall of free books passed on to me by a friend - about 4 dozen books! I divided these into 3 categories: books someone in our house would like to read, books in brand-new giftable condition, and books that we didn't need and were too worn out for gifting. The final category got passed on to a new home through Freecycle, and quite miraculously, there is something to suit nearly everyone on my list in the "giftable" book pile (thank goodness my friends and family are all avid readers!)

The homemade salve I am making is a variation of this Simple Lavender Salve from A Delightful Home - I am going to double the recipe and use half lavender, half calendula to provide a truly skin-soothing salve for our harsh Canadian winters!

Food baskets are something everyone on our Christmas list has come to expect from us; we've been doing them for years and I think if we ever stopped there would be some very disappointed people in our gift-giving circle :)

This year we'll be doing the "standard" items we always include like pickles and Cran-Raspberry Jam (I have some Ontario-grown cranberries stashed in the freezer for this recipe), herb vinegar, homemade candies (Cracker Toffee, Chocolate Barks and Candied Peanuts), Granola and Chocolate-Peanut Granola,  I'm also going to be trying my hand at something new: creating my own herbal tea blends using herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs. I'm anxiously awaiting my first order from them right now and hoping it arrives early this week! I usually include some type of quick bread in my gift baskets too, but I haven't made up my mind what I'm making this year (although I guess I better do that soon, huh?)

Want more ideas for creating a great holiday on a small budget? Find all of my Christmas on a Dime posts here, and check out my Homemade Christmas board on Pinterest - I'm always adding new ideas to it!

What are your plans for frugal gift-giving this year?

(P.S. If there's someone on your gift list with a tight grocery budget, please consider giving them a copy of my book. It's successfully helped lots of people reduce their food bill by 40-60% while still eating well (no extreme couponing required!). You could even make a gift basket with some of the staple items necessary for the recipes. YOU can help make a family's life a little easier this Christmas with this thoughtful gift).

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A RE-USE IT PROJECT: Citrus Vinegar

I know y'all love re-use it projects; in fact my Hockey Stick Muskoka Chair post is the most-viewed one on this blog almost every week! (And no, I don't normally talk like a Southerner, but hey, I've just finished a novel set in the South so it must have rubbed off on me ::grin::)

As fun as re-use projects can be, they can often take a fair amount of time to complete. No so with this one! It's practically effortless, which is my kind of project. Not only that, it's a way to squeeze a second use out of something you'd normally toss in the compost bin: your citrus peels (pun fully intended!)

Here's everything you need:
White vinegar
Leftover lemon, lime and/or orange peels
A quart/litre sized Mason jar with lid

I keep a perpetual jar of this stuff going in my pantry. Simply fill the jar about 3/4 full with vinegar, then add citrus peels as they happen to become leftovers in your kitchen (stop adding more once the jar is full!) Let this steep for a week or two after the final addition of peels. You'll end up with something that looks alarmingly like you might find it on Hannibal Lechter's mantle:

Once it's done "brewing", carefully pour the liquid into a clean Mason jar or spray bottle (a funnel makes this job a lot easier). And voila! Homemade citrus vinegar, a cheap and natural disinfectant/deodorizer.
 

How to use it:

This is a great disinfectant spray for many types of surfaces: kitchen counters, that nasty area around the toilet, etc. If you have cutting boards that you've used to cut up meat, rinse them, then spray some of this on them afterwards and let it sit a few minutes before you wash.

If you normally add vinegar to your dishwasher in the "rinse agent" dispenser, you could use this instead to give it a citrus-fresh boost.

I also use this to spray down my yoga mat after hot yoga classes (I hang it out on the clothesline and spray it down, then let it drip dry).

Do you have a favourite use for leftover citrus peels?

For more re-use it projects and ideas, click HERE to see all my posts on this topic.

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My Favourite New Gardening Trick of 2012

I love having a vegetable garden, and I'm so grateful we've managed to carve out the space for one in our tiny urban backyard. Although I've been growing some of my own food for about 15 years now, I'll admit I don't have the greenest of thumbs - so I'm always thrilled to discover a food-producing plant that will thrive under my care.

This year I finally got around to trying out a little trick I'd heard about ages ago: regrowing grocery store purchased green onions in my garden. As you can see from the above photo, it worked like a charm! My little army of onions all grew robustly, and yielded us many times over the original purchase of green onions. Even better, I had constant access to freshly cut green onions whenever I wanted them. They are one of those foods that doesn't store all that well in the fridge, and even using this trick to make them last longer doesn't compare to cutting them fresh off the plant whenever you want some!

How to do it:
When you're using your store-purchased green onions, use only the green part. Save the bottom white part with the roots intact. Now all you need to do is plant this green onion "stub" in your garden - bury it just deep enough down that the roots are fully covered and the rest of the onion stub stands up firmly in place. 

Remember to water regularly, and soon you should notice the green part of the onion starting to regrow itself. Pretty cool, huh?

When you want to harvest some green onions, simply snip off the green parts, leaving the lower white portion intact (like you did before you planted them). They will continue to regrow themselves indefinitely (mine are still going strong after several shearings).

For those of you who don't have a garden, I'm pretty sure this would work if you planted them in a pot and stuck them in a nice sunny window.

Have you successfully regrown any type of grocery store produce? If so, I'd love to hear the details, so please share in the comments.

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THE FRUGAL FIXER-UPPER: Creating Maximum Curb Appeal on a Minimal Budget

I remember the day my hubby Joe came home and told me one of the houses down the street was going to be going up for sale and that we should think about buying it. He tried to explain which house it was, and despite the fact that I walked by this house at least once a day during the six years we lived at our old house down the block, I kept asking him, "WHICH house?" because it hadn't managed to register on my radar. To say that our present home lacked curb appeal when we bought it would be something of an understatement. If you were being charitable, you would call it "nondescript". If you weren't, you might choose a word closer to "eyesore". Every time I pull out the photo we snapped the day the "sold" sign went up on our house when we bought it, I wonder what the heck we were thinking:

I'm happy to report that nine years later things have improved substantially, and this is what the place looks like now:

Welcoming and vibrant!

I'm even more pleased to report that most of the improvements we made cost much more in elbow grease than they did in dollars. 

Some of the first things we did after moving in were ripping off the nasty indoor-outdoor carpeting from the front steps, removing the ugly screen door and painting the front door white, painting the mailbox, window frames and door frame, ripping out and rebuilding the porch rails, and removing the aluminum trim from around the top of the porch (we painted the wood underneath and added a decorative molding).

The porch rails were definitely the most costly portion of this entire makeover (it's been several years since we replaced them, so I can't recall the exact cost, but somewhere in the neighbourhood of $300). Almost everything else we've done has been extremely inexpensive.

On the "most blood-sweat-and tears" front, ripping out the cedars and stump from the front garden probably wins top honours. For several years, we planted annuals in this space, then I got tired of spending so much time and money on the garden every year, and got myself a free perennial garden two years ago. I can't believe how well-established it looks just two seasons later! I get a lot of comments from visitors and passers-by on how attractive it is, so I guess my amateur landscaping job turned out pretty well :)

We've gradually added lots of "finishing touches" to the porch over the years, and I think we've managed to pull together a comfortable, casual and coordinated look. 

Joe build these Muskoka chairs from a Norm Abrams pattern (I think it's in his New Yankee Workshop book), spending only a fraction of what it would have cost to buy ready-made wooden Muskokas (we spent about $30 bucks a chair to build them and they retail for somewhere in the neighbourhood of $200 if you want good quality ones). He also designed and built the matching footstools from scrap bits and pieces of lumber.

This little side table was also cobbled together from wood scraps. The coleus in the terracotta pot is on its second season as I successfully overwintered it in a south-facing window. The insect candle holders were a yard sale find (I think I paid $1 each for them).

Yet another of  Joe's woodworking projects assembled from random small pieces of wood is this picket fence planter, which this year is bearing a wonderful abundance of coleus:

We wanted a bit more seating for the porch, and created this bench seat from a few scavenged wooden pallets topped with a cotton rug I picked up at a yard sale for five bucks. I spent a LOT of time sitting out here reading and people-watching in the summer months! Someday I hope to get some bigger, comfier pillows knit up to add to this space.

Joe and I both love stained glass and we were thrilled to pick up this stained glass light shade at a neighbour's garage sale for $2 a few years ago. Joe used the guts from our old exterior light to wire this up and it's been a functional and beautiful addition to the ambiance of the front porch.

We also have a stained glass window hanging front and centre from the top of the porch. It's from one of the old windows in our former church and although I can't remember the exact amount we paid for it, it was definitely much less than you'd pay for antique stained glass at an antique store or show.

In case you've forgotten where this all started, here's a final look at

BEFORE:

and AFTER:

Can you believe it's the same house? Definitive proof that a total transformation doesn't have to decimate your budget.

What have you done to spruce up your house's curb appeal on a shoestring budget?

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A Thrifty Gifting Extravaganza

These past few weeks have been full of gift-giving occasions (Father's Day plus a plethora of birthdays) at a time when our budget has been more stretched than it has in a long time. Thank goodness for my gift cupboard and my culinary prowess! I managed to assemble some pretty decent gifts with a minimum outlay of cash and they all seemed to be quite well received.

#1: Father's Day

My dad is not much into cooking himself and really appreciates homemade goodies. I made a batch of these Chocolate Ginger Biscotti:

I have no idea where the recipe came from - I ripped it out of some magazine or other years ago. Half the batch got wrapped up for my hubby and half went to my dad, along with some of our canned goodies (strawberry jam and sweet mixed pickles).

 Here's what my dad's gift looked like all ready to go:
 

 The basket was a yard sale find (I might have paid a dollar for it, I can't remember!), all the rest of the wrapping materials were from my stash of recycled/reused wrapping supplies, and I used my basic pantry supplies to make the biscotti.

#2: Birthday gift for a three-year-old boy

This was a present for one of my closest friend's kids. I had a lot of fun putting this one together, as I have vivid memories of my boys at this age. I know they both went through a dinosaur-loving phase around the ages of 2-4 or so, and in fact I'd been keeping an eye out for dinosaur-related items over the past couple of years as I knew eventually I would be putting together a dinosaur-themed gift for a small boy :)

 What's inside:

 A couple of hardcover dinosaur books, a dinosaur dot-to-dot book, a multi-sided dinosaur cube puzzle set, and a few random dinosaur stationery type items (dinosaur shaped pad of paper, erasers, stencils). All of these items were gradually collected at various yard sales, and I estimate I spent less than $3.00 total on all of the above items (which, if I had bought retail, I'm guessing would have cost somewhere in the area of $30 or more). Once again, all the wrapping supplies came from my stash. 

#3: 40th Birthday gift for a close friend

I don't have a photo of this one, because I was a bit (okay, a lot) disorganized about getting it put together and ended up doing most of it just before we were racing out the door to get to her birthday party! This is the same friend whose little boy received gift #2 above, and we've known each other since we were ten and eleven year old kids (she's a year younger than me).

I made a batch of raisin-oatmeal scones and paired that with a jar of my homemade strawberry jam for the first part of her gift. The second part of her gift was a gift certificate for a day of "mind-body pampering", something she really doesn't take enough time for in her busy schedule. It's to include a hot yoga class at my studio, a home-cooked meal, plus some other surprises (we probably won't schedule this until the fall, as both of us are pretty busy all summer!). My yoga studio offers a deal to new students where you get 10 days of unlimited yoga for $10, so this gift isn't going to cost me much out-of-pocket either, and hopefully it will be a very restorative day for my friend who has a tendency to forget that taking some time for yourself once in a while is a good idea.

#4: Birthday gift for my 4-year-old niece

This was for my youngest niece, one of my brother's three girls. We have always done pretty modest gifts for each other's kids, as they all seem to have plenty of "stuff" already.

Inside:

This was the only gift of the four where I had to run out and buy something new to fill it out a bit. The story book and the paint with water book were both yard sale finds, and the "funny faces" book in the middle I ended up buying new. It was surprisingly reasonably priced at $3.99, so I still managed to put this one together for about $5 or so. (If I hadn't already given her an assortment of homemade fruit-scented playdoughs last year, I would have made those to add to this gift instead of buying the new book - they are always a big hit!)

While I do enjoy the challenge of putting together a good gift on a small budget, I'm going to be happy to take a bit of a break from gift assembly for a while, and hopefully I'll be able to restock my gift cupboard a bit during the rest of the yard sale season! 

Are you a "thrifty gifter"? What are some of your favourite frugal gift-giving strategies?

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A RE-USE IT PROJECT: How to Make a Wooden Pallet Planter Box

Here in Southern Ontario, the Victoria Day Weekend has traditionally been the time to get out in the garden and plant, plant, plant as it's the official time when the danger of frost has passed. This year I think we only had one or two nights after the beginning of April where we got frost, it's been such a mild spring, but I still did the bulk of my planting over the holiday weekend.

While I'm gardening away, hubby usually occupies himself by breaking out the power tools and building something. Last year, it was this Hockey Stick Muskoka Chair. This year, I was pestering him for more planter boxes in my never-ending quest to squeeze more vegetable plants into the sunny spaces in our tiny urban yard.

We have several of these planter boxes already (the first ones were built during our $75 Deck Makeover) and they're all made from wooden pallets (a.k.a. "skids" around these parts). Wooden pallets are a fabulous source of free wood for small building projects, and if you keep your eye out you're sure to figure out where to find some in your area. There are a couple of places close to us where skids are routinely dumped and left free-for-the-taking, so it's not hard to get a hold of a few whenever we need them.

So, if you happen to need some more planters for your garden, you can either pay a king's ransom for them at the garden centre, or you can make some for nearly free with a couple of wooden pallets and a few other basic woodworking supplies.

Here's how:

You'll need:
A selection of wooden pallets
Crowbar
Hammer
Tape measure
Square
Nails (galvanized) - 4-5 dozen 1 1/2" and eight 2 1/2  - 3"
Circular saw
Table saw (not essential but handy!)

(If you don't have a circular saw, ask around - someone you know will probably lend you one!)

Step 1: Selecting pallets

My hubby recommends looking for pallets with boards that are relatively smooth on *both* sides, and 1 x 5" or 1 x 6" in width. It's also ideal if you can find ones that have real 2 x 4"s used in their construction (you'll need some of them for this project).

Since pallets can be constructed from a wide variety of board sizes, if you pick up a few you increase the chances that you'll have enough boards of matching size to build this project. If you have a table saw, it gives you the option of ripping some of the widest boards down to a smaller size if need be.

Step 2: Breaking down the pallets

Before you can start building, you'll want to break down the pallets so you know how many of each type of board you have to work with.

Start by cutting off the ends just inside where the 2 x 4s are attached. My hubby says he does NOT recommend simply trying to pry off the 2 x 4s as he's ended up cracking a lot of boards that way (resulting in a large pile of unusable wood).

 Next, you'll want to pry the 2 x 4s off the remaining end bits (it's okay if those end bits split, you won't need them for this project).

Once you've got everything apart, you'll be left with an assortment of boards like this:

 

If you're lucky, you'll end up with 12 boards that are the same width and thickness to construct the sides. In our case, we didn't (largely because hubby didn't have enough time to break down all the skids we had at our disposal, so we fudged this planter a bit with what we had; this is the kind of thing that happens when you have tomato seedlings desperately awaiting a new home).

Step 3: Building the planter:

 First, you're going to need to cut some of your 2 x 4s (these will hold the sides together). Measure the width of your three boards for the first side (in our case, it was 14 1/4"). You'll need a second set of three matching boards with the same width for the second side.

Next, measure the thickness of two of those boards stacked together (here it was 1 1/2").

To calculate the length of your first four 2 x 4s, subtract the second measurement from the first (i.e. 14 1/4 - 1 1/2 = 12 3/4")

Cut the 2 x 4s to length and nail them in place to hold the side boards together. The top ones should sit flush with the top of the planter, and the bottom ones you can place where ever you'd like the floor of the planter to be (we don't put ours all the way at the bottom for two reasons: the boards aren't against the ground so they won't rot as quickly, and we have a smaller space to fill with soil). Hopefully you should have two sides that look something like the ones above when you're done.

Now you'll need to cut a second set of four 2 x 4s. These ones need to be shorter than the first set; measure the width of two 2 x 4s and subtract that from the length of the first set to figure out how much shorter to make them. Unfortunately hubby got away from me on the building process while I was on a gardening break, so you're going to have to use your imagination a little more for this next bit - cross your fingers (not while you're using the circular saw, though, okay?) and I'll do my best to talk you through it :)

Basically, you're going to construct two more sides the same as the first set, but the 2 x 4s won't run all the way to the edge on this set, you'll need to centre them in the middle. This is so you can nail the shorter set flush in against the first two sides you built, so they nest together. Make sure the bottom 2 x 4s are at the same height as they were in the first set. It should look something like this:

Although probably yours will have less mismatched boards and more accurately measured 2 x4s; it's also not likely to have a floor yet, unless you've gone and gotten ahead of me :)

Once you've gotten your basic box assembled, flip it over so the bottom side is up. Cut some more of your 1 x5 or 1 x 6 boards the right length to nail in place on top of the 2 x 4s - this creates the floor. It's okay if these boards have a few minor gaps or cracks, as that will allow for water drainage.

Now turn it back over so the right side's up again. The last thing you need to do is create the top cap for the planter, which makes it look fancier and hides a multitude of sins that may have occurred during the construction process. Our cap will have an overhang of 3/4". This is what you want to end up with when it's done:

To construct the cap, measure the sides of your box (you may have one longer side and one shorter side). Add 1 1/2" to both measurements (so you have 3/4" extra at each side of the box). Cut two 2 x 4s for the shorter sides, with the ends at a slightly more than 45 degree angle. Set the boards in place on the top of the box, but don't nail them in yet. Lay a second set of 2 x4s on top of the longer two sides. Take a pencil and mark a line across the uncut boards where the already-cut boards line up with the uncut board to get the appropriate angle to cut the second set of boards. Cut the second two 2 x 4s where they're marked and nail all four boards into place. (If your box happens to be a perfect square, you can simply cut all four 2 x 4s at a 45 degree angle and not bother with the angle-measuring step).

You're all finished! Now you just need to prime and paint it (paint only the outside of the planter if you're using it to grow veggies). This is one we made last year that is home to a tomato plant:

 Well, I don't know about you, but I'm tired out after all that building - time for a cup of fresh mint tea from the garden!

Do you use wooden pallets for building projects? What have you made with them?

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How to Get What You Want Without Money

The bounty from my produce cooperative's final swap of the season 

Money can be a really handy tool for procuring the things you need and want - but it's by no means the only way to do so! You might be surprised at just how many things can be achieved without using money, if you are willing to be resourceful. Whether your budget's particularly tight, or you just enjoy the sport of acquiring goods and services without having to exchange any money for them, here are some ways to go about it: 

1. Put the word out

Let your friends and family know what you're looking for - it may be something they have lying around that they can't wait to get rid of! Put a "wanted" request out to your local Freecycle group. I've given many things away through my local group, so I have no qualms about asking for something when I need it. You can also put a "wanted" ad on Craigslist and Kijiji. While you're there, check out the "Free" sections on these sites - you may find a listing for the exact item you need. We've received a lot of wonderful items through these avenues - including a washing machine (that ended up lasting us 5 years), some good quality dress shirts my husband is still wearing several years later, and a perfectly good television we've been using for the past couple of years.

2. Become a scavenger

It's surprising what you can find lying around at the side of the road or by a dumpster in a parking lot. While I'm not quite brave enough to venture into full-on dumpster diving, I'm quite happy to drag something home I found in a neighbour's trash pile. Almost every bike my kids have owned came from the side of the road (as well as the mountain bike that is my primary mode of transportation). Most of these bikes needed some type of overhaul to make them functional, and since my hubby's a pro at that sort of thing, he's happy to take on the challenge of bringing them back to life (although often, they only needed pretty simple repairs to make them functional again). We've also found a perfectly good TV stand (to hold our free TV), free hostas for the garden, and a wide variety of other odds and ends we've put to good use. My husband also knows a couple of good spots to find piles of discarded wooden pallets, which are an excellent source of free wood for small building projects (such as the planter boxes on our deck).

3. Swap, swap, swap!

You never know what you might have that someone else might want - whether it's no-longer-needed possessions gathering dust in your basement, or special skills and talents that others can benefit from. It's easy to do informal swapping with friends and neighbours. Sometimes you might swap related items (i.e. trading childcare services with each other, or swapping different types of garden plants), or maybe you could swap a haircut for some lawn and garden cleanup. If you really love to barter, you can take swapping to the next level and join a more formal bartering group. There are a growing number of these types of organizations available, as interest in bartering is growing around the world. LETS (Local Exchange and Trading Systems) are going strong in many areas and allow members to trade a wide variety of skills and services with one another; you can search for a local group here. A dedicated bartering site which is growing in popularity here in Canada is SwapSity, which I am planning to get more involved with this year. You can also search for trades and swaps on more traditional classified sites like Craigslist and Kijiji. A couple of years ago, I posted an offer to swap plants on Kijiji and ended up receiving enough perennials to landscape my entire front garden for free! Swap groups can also also have a specific focus; produce cooperatives (where local veggie gardeners swap their surplus garden produce) are gaining in popularity and the group I started last year got off to a good start. Some of these groups have evolved to become general food-swapping groups with a wide variety of edible offerings, such as the Boston Food Swap.

4. Be creative.

I've long thought that creativity and resourcefulness can be much more powerful tools than money. Sometimes, it may take a combination of several strategies to figure out how to get what you want with little or no money. Combining scavenging or swapping of materials with skills such as carpentry, wiring, or sewing may be necessary to create your vision. Need a new rug? With some old sweaters or T-shirts from Freecycle, you can easily make one. A few pieces of beaten up, trash-picked furniture might be disassembled and rebuilt to create the exact piece you're looking for. Busted up hockey sticks and an old futon frame can be transformed into a conversation-starting Muskoka chair. Take a close look at your junk before you discard it - it may have a second (or third) life you hadn't considered!

Have you ever gotten something great without using money? If so, please share the details with us!

The Frugal Fixer-Upper: Front Entranceway Makeover, Part 3

Yes, this is the post you've all been waiting for - the one where I finally show you the "after" pictures of our front entranceway reno!

After nearly a month of taping, plastering, sanding and painting, I was so anxious to share the final results with you - and then the lighting conditions conspired to make it extremely difficult to get good photos. First it was too overcast to get good pics, then it was too bright and sunny. This is a maddening area of the house to photograph, as not only is the light never quite right, but the angles and narrow hallway make it difficult to do justice to the overall effect. So, I did the best I could, and you can get a good idea of the transformation, but  I don't think the photos do it justice - so you'll just have to stop by for a cup of coffee or tea and check it out in real life :)

If you haven't yet seen the "before" photos, you really need to check them out here and here to get a full appreciation of just how far we've come.

Here we go...

This:

 is now this:

And this:

is now this:

This hideous mess:

 is now this nice clean wall:

This area is awaiting the final step in this makeover process: a built in set of "lockers" and shelves for the four of us to store our coats, shoes, boots, hats, mitts, umbrellas, etc. The storage unit actually got built yesterday by my husband and our carpenter friend (it took the two of them an entire day to build it!) but I'm not going to show it to you until it's all painted up nice and filled with our stuff :)

Here is the best shot I could get of directly inside the front door:

And one of the top of the stairs (which you can see if you're standing just inside the front door):

(the table was a yard sale find that I painted white; the plant and framed poster have been with me since university days, and the cafe curtain on the window was another yard sale find from long ago)

I'm particularly pleased with the little details, as I'm the one who put most of them together.

 

Part of my plan for redoing this area was to make sure that there was a place for everything that's *supposed* to be by the front door, but to make it difficult to plonk stuff down that's not supposed to be there. The storage table we had here previously (shown in the before photos) was crammed full of junk inside and often had a large pile of miscellaneous books, papers and clothing articles piled on top of it. I had this table tucked away that we had used in our previous house but had not found a place for here. It was a garage sale find quite a few years back (I'm sure I didn't pay more than $5 for it) and was an unappealing scuffed-up dark brown. I gave it a good priming and painted it with 2 coats of high gloss enamel paint. Despite my cursing and swearing that I would never paint anything with that many spindles again, I'm pleased with how it came out.   

The basket on the top is for depositing housekeys when you come through the door so you don't misplace them. The middle shelf is for library materials that need to be returned (it seems that most days someone in our house makes our way over to the neighbourhood branch!). The basket on the bottom shelf is for things like the elastic straps we use to tie up our pantlegs when we're biking, sunglasses, and that sort of thing. Both baskets were yard sale finds, of course!

I love that this gives just enough space for the necessities, but no spare surface to put stuff down that shouldn't be there. I also like how the more delicate table allows you to see more of the sidelight paneling and the funky old air register return - the kind of cool details that make dealing with the challenges of an older home worth it.

 

 On the wall above and to the side of the table are a mirror which was a yard sale find from last season (it had also been an unappealing dark brown and I decided to paint it with high gloss black enamel) and an antique cheese box (yep, also a yard sale find) which will be perfect for holding outgoing mail, bottles of sunscreen in the summer, and other small random items we like to keep by the front door. The little basket inside the box is holding lip balm, pens and pencils and that sort of thing.

We decided to spray paint the two switchplates in the newly-painted areas (one in the front hallway, and one up on the second floor). I forgot to take "before" shots, but both had unappealing brassy finishes before we painted them. I think this one may have been original to the house, and I just love the detailed texture of it. My hubby replaced all three of the switches, which were either ivory or black and did NOT match our new look!

All told, we spent less than $25 on all of these finishing touches and I think they really add a lot of personality to the space.

I am *so* not in a number-crunching mood right now, so I'm not going to do a total cost breakdown right now (I promise I'll do it when I post the final pics with the storage unit!). I do know we spent over $200 on paint, which was the major expense for this stage of the reno. Oh, and in case you're wondering about the paint colour, it's Weston Flax by Benjamin Moore. I like the way it looks better in real life than in the photos though! 

Overall, I'm really thrilled with what we managed to achieve in this area of the house, although it sure took a lot more work than we bargained for!

With any luck I should have the final pictures of our storage locker by the end of next week, along with the final cost breakdown for this front hall transformation.