Share the Road....trip

Tomorrow morning around 8am I'll be leaving my home and heading on a 5 hour trip to Winston-Salem NC to the North Carolinians for Home Education annual Convention and Bookfair.  I am excited, and this year, instead of going it alone, I'm taking someone with me.  And it's not even a homeschooler, it's someone who has just been looking for an opportunity to get out of dodge for a few days.  She's not going to the conferences with me at all, she got a copy of the city bus schedule online and she's plotted out routes and times to different places she wants to go around town.  So, I only have to pay half the room and fuel price of last year because I have someone to share it with, she gets out of town on the cheap, and we're both happy - and we're not even doing the same thing.

Sewing

I am new to sewing.  I have had a sewing machine now for about 3 years, but just never got into it.  However, this year is different.  I have already created 2 skirts and 1 hanbag completely lined, padded and has inner pockets and zips shut.  I'm so proud of myself.  I even took a few minutes this after noon to go to the Cotton Gin and scope out the latest Vera Bradley's to see if I can  duplicate something like it for myself -  Hmmmmm, if I can get that one done, I may even post pics!

Sewing can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be.  I would suggest that when you are beginning, get some old fabric from your grandma's closet or a thrift shop so that you're not wasting 10.99 per yard fabric on a skirt that is not done well.  I personally have used some of my husband's pants that he wore only once then they shrunk on him - he could't wear them, so they became fodder for my play.  The skirts were made from new material, but the leftover bits became parts for bags, hair wraps, etc.  A small cosmetics bag can be made from just a few small bits of fabric.  These are good practice pieces!  Old T shirts can have a new life as reuseable shopping bags is torn apart just a bit and resewn.Sewing is also a practice of independance.  I no longer NEED a Vera, I can make my own duplicate to the dimensions and level of organization that work for me!

Re-use Egg Cartons

There are several uses for leftover egg cartons, one I used today, one I use all the time, and there are others:

• Use the indvidual craters for different paint colors
• Jewelry sorting
• sorting other small items like beads

any other good uses?

DIY Sites

I personally love DIY type websites, partly because of the creativity, partly because of what you learn, and partly because DIY is usually much ceaper than non-DIY.  So here are a few of the sites I love to check out when I want to do something.

http://www.instructables.com/
http://www.ehow.com/
http://www.doityourself.com/


Have fun doing it yourself!

Summer savings

I find myself  in the same dilemma every late spring/early summer - what can I do to help my husband's income stretch as far as possible?  So this year is no different.  Many of the things I will try to do are rehashed from years past, and some will be experimental, but here is where I am so far:

• Meal planning with baking scrutiny - what I mean here is that in the summer it is hot, and the AC is on trying to cool it down, so the more I bake, the more heat I'm putting out into the room and the more the AC is having to work to counter it.  That means using more elctricity.  So, I'm working on my meal planning to include multiple meals so that I can have one or two baking days, but still have food for the week without having to heat my house up every day or 2 for baking.  Stove heating only takes a few minutes and doesn't heat up the house nearly as hot or as long, so that I don't mind.  Of course this also means planning my baking days around the coolest days o the week also to help the AC bill - we'll see how that one goes
• Hanging clothes on the clothesline
• Using our fans
• Going outside more
• Drinking lots of cold liquids
• Keeping extra bottles of liquid in the freezer to freeze and help keep the temperature in the freezer steady, and it helps keep the freezer from running so much, the trick is tospread the bottles out a bit.
• Keep unused electronics off when not in use.  You would be suprised how much heat a computer and other electronic devices create when they are not being used.  They also could use a cooling off period anyway to rest the motors.

Plug away and save that cash -