Mind Your Bee's Wax

My friend, Tatiana, has been super supportive of my goals to reduce waste, and got me this sweet DIY Beeswax Wrap kit as a holiday gift! Don't know about wax wraps? They are basically wax coated fabric, that can replace cling wrap, and can be reused for months before refreshing.

The kit contains everything I need to make 3 assorted size wraps: fabric in a fun pattern, directions, parchment paper, 3 pieces of wax, a glass jar, and a paintbrush.

First, preheat your oven to 200℉ while you complete the first few steps.

Lay the fabric on a piece of the parchment paper on a cookie sheet. (I ended up using the same piece of parchment for all 3 wraps, and keeping the other sheets for future projects.)

Next, create a double boiler situation by setting the mason jar inside a pan of boiling water. Melt the beeswax in the jar.

Use the melted wax to paint a thin layer over all your fabric. Don't worry if it's perfect or starts to get chunky.

Next, put the cookie sheet with fabric into your pre-heated oven for 1-2 minutes. This helps melt the wax further, so its spreads evenly over the fabric.

Then remove the cookie sheet, and carefully pick the fabric up by the corners, and wave it in the air for about 30 seconds. This will quickly cool the wax until the fabric stiffens.

Finally, test out your new wrap! Simply wrap it around the food you want to package, or bowl you want to cover. The warmth of your hands should soften the wax enough so that the fabric molds into shape. Exhibit A: wrapped orange.

In between uses, you can wash your wrap in cool water with dish soap. You should be able to use the wrap many times before it starts to lose its effectiveness. Then, simply repeat the waxing process.

Not feeling crafty? Get a ready-made wax wrap, like this set of 3 for $18 from Sur La Table.

Have your own fabric but need wax? Get it for about $1.50 per wrap, available online or at craft stores.

Pat yourself on the back for reducing your use of cling wrap and having super cute lunches. :)

Awesome in 2019 and Looking Forward to 2020!

Hi friends ~

Thank you for joining me in 2019. I was a little lighter in posting due to multiple things going on - job changes, job travel, love ones lost... But we still accomplished quite a lot!

You stuck with me through 27 posts, in which we made smarter shopping choices, and made the most of what we did purchase:

Recycling/upcycling programs: 

• We found multiple programs that recycle dead Christmas lights (and some that give you coupons for new lights!).
• We put ourselves on the waiting list for Loop, a milkman-style service for household products, currently being offered on the East Coast, and expanding.
• We discovered Ridwell, who hosted a special event to take Amazon Prime Day packaging, and has programs for other difficult to recycle items.
• We learned about the value of replanting trees (or getting a houseplant!) to soak up our CO2.
• We learned about a cool company that both upcycles and creates jobs, making animal sculptures out of used flip flops.

In the Community:

• We learned there were tons of ways to do more during Earth Month and throughout the year with Earth Day Bingo and a list of community events throughout the Northwest. 
• The Seattle Recycled Arts Festival provided both entertainment and introduced me to multiple upcycling artists.
• Airports helped us avoid buying water bottles (and spending $3) by providing refill stations, and apps are helping us find bottle-free water around town. 

Clothing:

• We explored options besides donating to thrift stores, and gave ourselves more reasons to shop at thrift stores!
• We found several great shops in West Seattle and saved $52 on some brand name shoes.
• I got brave with the floral denim trend, and saved $75 by thrifting.
• We built thrift shopping into our regular habits, and saved $486 in a single month.
• Online thrifting let me quickly shop for something specific while saving $100. 
• I saved $160 on summer sandals by letting friends and family know I'm open to hand-me-downs. 
• We had a rockin' Halloween costume, and saved $140 by buying used pieces, and made $25 back by selling some components online.

Other Thrifting and Swaps: 

• I saved $37 buying a vintage cake-taker to treat a friend for her birthday. 
• Online used book sales helped us save $5 and shop with convenience. 
• Our pets got more love and we saved $32 by switching our style of lint roller.
• We got $12 more value out of our Thanksgiving turkey by using our slow cooker.

DIY: 

• We gave new life to half-used makeup, by testing out some online tutorials. 
• We improved our every day floor care with homemade "Swiffer" solution and pads.
• We propagated our own succulents, saving $32 on 8 successful baby plants!
• Snack containers were the perfect base for DIY decoupaged planters.
• We converted our favorite concert tee into a conversation-starting tote bag. 
• Homemade simple syrup saved us $7 flavoring our beverages. 
• A quick mending job on a shower curtain saved us $10. 
• Recycled cardboard was transformed into cute holiday decorations. 

Overall, we saved $1176, and had a fun time shopping and crafting throughout it all! Here's looking forward to an even better 2020.

Cardboard Creations

Whether you are crafty or want a fun activity with your kids, there are tons of cute crafts using toilet paper cardboard cores. All you need to do for inspiration is Google "TP roll crafts". Just a couple examples:
12 Crafts from Country Living
195 Pins from Pinterest

Not to mention there are dozens of tutorials on YouTube, and even folks selling the tubes on Etsy and Amazon!

The good news is, you have this free craft supply in your home already. You can also use paper towels cores or wrapping paper tubes.

I decided on creating some festive winter snowflakes and poinsettias. For each, you'll need 1-2 TP rolls or 1 paper towel roll. You will cut a TP roll into 6-8 strips or just over 5/8".

On the left of this picture I show the roll cut into 8 strips; at the top is the 8 strips glued together and clamped at one end; on the bottom right is what the glued strips look like when un-clamped.

Once un-clamped, glue the first and last strips together to form all strips into a circle shape. You just need a little glue on each strip to connect them. Too much, and the "petals" won't fan out. 

Now that you have a circle of petals, you can both paint the cardboard (I used red for poinsettias and white or light blue for snowflakes) and start to embellish your design with additional strips. See the strip folded in half to create a leaf for my poinsettia or add layers to my snowflake. Feel free to experiment - after all, all snowflakes are unique! Glue and use paper clips to hold in place while the glue dries.

Once you are happy with the shape, line the edges with glitter glue, or dip in glitter!

What do you do with you new lovely creations? Decorate your tree or mantle:

Or embellish a gift bag:

Or use instead of a bow on a package: 

In the spring, mix it up with different colors to create different types of flowers.

Your supplies cost is cheap or almost free. The cardboard is free, and paint and glitter can be acquired from:

• a neighbor via Buy Nothing or Freecycle
• your local thrift store. Most have some art supplies in their housewares section. 
• art supply-specific reuse stores like Seattle ReCreative

Slow Cooker for Savings

What a *feast* we had for Thanksgiving! After cooking and eating almost a dozen dishes, I wasn't up for much more work. This is when you put your slow cooker to work.

No matter how well you carve that turkey, there is much more left than you realize. Simply put the carcass (bones, skin, and all) in your crock pot, set on low, and forget overnight.

I say "simply", but this does take some effort, especially if you have a too small crock pot like mine. You need to bring some muscle, some skill or a friend to squish that carcass into the crock pot. Fortunately, my mom has this move we like to call "Hulk, smash!" where she crushes that turkey with her bare hands, and now you can fit the whole leftovers of a 16lb turkey into a round crock pot.

Now, just add a little water or chicken broth, turn on the heat (I do low for 8 hours), and leave it while you sleep. If your crock pot's like mine, and goes into warming mode after the cook time is complete, it will be too hot for you to process right away. Turn it off while you eat some leftover pie for breakfast, so it can cool down a bit.

Look at all these glorious turkey bits!

You'll need to spend some time sifting through the pot to remove the skin and bones, and there may be some tiny little bone fragments. But a little bit of patience pays off! That skin and bones makes an amazing rich, gravy-like broth; I was left with a whole quart. I started with a carcass from a 16lb turkey, that was fairly well carved, and still ended up with 2 1/2 pounds of meat falling off the bone. Some pieces will be sizable and good for sandwiches; some will be smaller and good pot pies, soups, or turkey enchiladas. At the end of this process, I had less than half a small compost bag of waste.

Making the most of your turkey? About ~$12 value.
Watching your mom "hulk smash" a turkey? Priceless.

The Best Things in Life Are Free

Walking through the Detroit airport, it looks like they are newly installing water bottle refill stations. Way to go, Detroit!

Now, after dumping your liquids before security, you don't need to choose between trying to fill your bottle from a drinking fountain or paying $3+ for a plastic bottle of water. You can also be proud knowing you are part of the solution by not contributing to the 483B (like *billions*) water bottles used in 2019.

(Detroit is also using the stations to call attention to the importance of fresh tap water, and the partnership between Delta and the airport to support youth who are leading a water-testing initiative in Flint. Learn more here.)

Now, if you've been living under a rock like me, you missed that both Sea-Tac airport and Portland airport also have refill stations, and have since late 2012!

While this is particularly convenient when you are limited liquids and hostage to high airport prices, you can also benefit from refill stations in everyday life. Check out these resources to find water near you when you're out and about: 

Tap app Android iOS
In their own words, "Tap’s Refill Station network is partly made up of partnerships with coffee shops and fast-casual restaurants, while also showing you best public places to refill your water bottle around the world."

RefillMyBottle app Android iOS
In their words, "RefillMyBottle is an online map that identifies all the places - be it a cafe, resort, museum or shop - where refillers could walk in and fill up their bottle with clean drinkable water for free or a minimum fee."

Stay hydrated, friends!

Mend Around Mildew

I have a fabric shower curtain liner that I love, because you can easily throw it in the wash. Inevitably, however, mildew and pink minerals stain the curtain, especially at the bottom hem.

My gut reaction is "Ew! Throw it away!" But if you have a sewing machine, you can quickly hem the shower curtain even faster than going to the store for a new one.

First, cut off that moldy hem (yuck!). The thick plastic strip inside that weights the bottom of the curtain is also stained, so I'm not trying to save that.

Next, fold the cut bottom of the curtain up about 1/2" (the width of the foot on your sewing machine) and sew the length of curtain. Fold again, and sew again, to hide the raw edge where you cut. This is the easiest hem, with just a long, straight line to sew.

Since we threw away the weighted strip from the bottom, we can optionally add weight by sewing buttons periodically across our new hem. I have tons of these collected from the "spares" that are sometimes included with sweaters.

My new hem only raised the bottom of the liner about 2", so it still falls below the edge of the tub by several inches. I could repeat this process a few more times before shortening the liner too much, giving me years more life out of it.

About 10 minutes of work saved me $10 on a new shower curtain liner. I like that hourly rate!

Cash for Costumes

As you've seen by now from previous years' posts, I love a good Halloween costume, and I enjoy trying something new each year. The average pre-packaged costume costs about $60, is poorly constructed, uncomfortably polyester, and comes in difficult sizes like S/M. From swapping (that time I was a chicken) to thrifting (Eleven) to DIY (Ursula), you can enjoy some really creative looks that are more tailored to you and more original.

This year, my friend Anna inspired me to be a rock lobster, of the B-52s song. Due to the "unique" needs of the costume, I was able to purchase some items used while some were new.

I was pretty happy with the end result:

Ideally, I would purchase used, wear it, and then re-donate it or sell it, meaning the item gets maximum usage from people before and after me. I write frequently about how buying used saves me money up front, but I haven't talked about how much you can recoup from selling items.

Just a few days after Halloween, I've already sold 2 pieces of my costume, made back $25, and I'm not done yet! I highly recommend giving this a try, especially for those pieces you don't envision re-purposing for other costumes. I sold these on Facebook marketplace. Other online choices include Poshmark, thredUP, and Swap.com, and of course, there are local brick and mortar shops. Each varies in model: some you can sell your items directly to the store, while others will pay you when the item sells, while others you do the work of selling and they simply give you a place to list. The amount to be made is directly proportional to the effort you put in; that is, the more work the store does, the higher their commission.

Here are some of the key pieces of my costume:

1. Fierce rocker boots. Retails for $36 new, purchased for $22 used, resold for $15. Total cost $7/savings $29.

 

2. Shredded pleather leggings. Cost $20 new, resold for $10. Total cost $10/savings $10. 

3. Calvin Klein silver leather jacket. This one is a keeper! Retail cost $160, bought used for $34, savings $126.

Total savings: $165. $140 from purchasing used, and $25 recouped from resale.

While I love selling for costumes, which are typically more "disposable" than other types of clothing, don't limit yourself. Selling is a great option for any items that still have life in them.