Sep 17, 2011 | A better way, Ideas, Repurposed, Salvaged |
Yes, that’s a piece of art hanging on the wall outside, on my patio. I was painting this canvas in my garage, but the 100+ temperatures warped the wood frame. I still love the painting, and although I never finished it to my final idea, it’s now looking...
Aug 31, 2011 | A better way, Downsizing, Ideas |
I recently looked into downsizing my house. This idea came into my head for many reasons, which we can visit another time. I decided to do a little research and see if this was feasible. First, there’s a few things you should know about where I live. Frisco,...
May 21, 2011 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
I guess if you’re changing something in your life, doing a 180° turn is completely changing to the opposite of whatever you were doing. So, in the case of the no retail shopping challenge, I think I did a 360° turn. Yes, I made a full circle. When I started...
May 18, 2011 | Flashback, Ideas, No retail shopping
I’ve been reflecting a lot lately over the past year and how my life has been impacted by the no retail shopping challenge. It has taken me in directions I’d never expected and changed my thinking in so many ways. I’m not sure what I was expecting...
May 6, 2011 | Cultural chaos, Ideas, No retail shopping
Twenty days left in the challenge. I’m going to answer this question again, as I hear it 3 or 4 times a day now. “When it’s over, are you going to go shopping?” The answer is no. Honestly, the only thing I was going to buy is a 7.5 amp fuse...
Apr 29, 2011 | Downsizing, Ideas, No retail shopping
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. I’ve never actually tried to type that up to check it, but it seems accurate. What if we take that one step further… a picture is worth 1,000 things? So what do I mean by this? If you own a camera, you can snap a...
Mar 26, 2011 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Save $
Maybe I’m a mean mom, but I make my kids try new foods. I don’t make them eat it if they don’t like it and I don’t go out of my way to get things that will gross them out. Both of them like pistachio nuts so I thought I would make some...
Feb 7, 2011 | Downsizing, Ideas, No retail shopping, Save $ |
I’ve been doing a lot of downsizing lately. Right before snowmageddon, I decided to clean out the kitchen, not just utensils and cabinet crap, but food. I don’t like being wasteful, and although we waste a lot less than the average American family, I...
Jan 21, 2011 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
I seem to be self-motivated by imposing challenges on myself, ones to better my artistic ability, to make positive changes or to just do something I feel is worthwhile. Sometimes we get so bogged down with life that we don’t make time for the really important...
Jan 8, 2011 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
It’s actually day 227, so I have some catching up to do. Post holiday busyness? Maybe. :) I like this logo I found earlier today. Big thinking. Transform. Inspire. Challenge. I have so many ideas in my head! I need to be better about recording them. I...
Dec 27, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Read the fine print, Recycle, Repurposed, Save $ |
I have an idea. I know, no surprise… I stumbled upon this little video called The Story of Stuff. It’s a little over 20 minutes long, but I watched the whole thing. Before I get into the details here, take a look if you haven’t seen it. If you...
Dec 22, 2010 | Dumpster diving, Ideas, No retail shopping, Repurposed, Salvaged, Save $ |
As usual, I had to look up some information on this. The white elephant gift exchange is defined on Wikipedia like this: A white elephant gift exchange is a popular holiday party game found primarily in North America. It has many variations in both the name and the...
Dec 19, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Recycle, Salvaged
I got an awesome little gift a few days ago, unexpected and very much related to trash society. The gift? An origami box with a photo album inside, all made with junk mail and paper stuff from the recycling bin. Check it out… Notice the thought behind this,...
Dec 16, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Thrift store |
I’ve been asked a lot, “…what are you getting your kids for Christmas if you can’t shop?” Here’s the answer you’ve all been waiting for. I can shop, it just has to be pre-owned things, so here’s the plan. Half Price...
Dec 4, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping
I ran out of dishwasher soap a couple of weeks ago and had to wash my dishes by hand. In the process, I realized that I wash all my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. I’m sure this bizarre habit comes from my childhood of eating off gritty dishes...
Dec 2, 2010 | Flashback, Ideas |
These are some fun, funny, odd and disturbing holiday tweets from last year, published in my book Excessable Christmas. The book is still available for sale on Blurb. Book details: ISBN: yeah, not so much. Self published and I’m not famous… yet. Price: blurb.com...
Dec 1, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
I was at my friend’s house finishing up a painting project when I noticed she had cleaned out the garage. Upon opening the garage door, I also noticed a truck full of junk. Now this is an invitation for me at anyone’s house. First, let me say that if I...
Nov 17, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Recycle
My video is finally done and available! Click here to watch it. :) This stop motion video project was created for a contest that AT&T is doing through zooppa.com. Here’s the concept, as posted on AT&T’s site. The AT&T Simplify Your Life video contest is...
Nov 13, 2010 | Dumpster diving, Ideas, No retail shopping, Recycle, Salvaged, Thrift store |
Okay, so it’s not an olympic sport… yet. I do however, find this black friday business very interesting. The idea for this blog post started with an article I found in a local magazine, called Black Friday: Survival Tips. Please understand, if you...
Nov 11, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
One of my favoriet scriptures is James 4:17. 17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. I have so many ideas in my head, many of which are goodwill ideas. I know I should be doing a lot of them, so prioritization is hugely important. I...
Nov 5, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Read the fine print |
Last night at dinner, I was having a conversation about not being wasteful, mostly with food, but really anything else. In efforts to not be wasteful, the conversation quickly lead to the subject of expiration dates. Expiration dates are helpful in many ways, but...
Oct 17, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Recycle, Save $
I had an interesting conversation with a guy I met recently in our church group. Curt lived in Hawaii for a long time, after living in Amarillo, Texas. We were discussing the “green issues”, possibly prompted from my lack of paper plates and plastic...
Oct 14, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Read the fine print |
I would have loved to be in the brainstorming meeting when the Skechers people thought this was a good idea… Exactly copying Toms Shoes, marketing program and compassion program? Why? The compassion part is understandable if they are wanting to make a...
Oct 12, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping |
These small pieces of art are made on painted MDF panels that were about to be thrown in the trash. The words are cut out of magazines, the leftover magazine skeletons went to the recycling bin. Most of the paint is leftovers from other art projects. Most of the...
Oct 11, 2010 | Ideas, No retail shopping, Save $ |
My friend Becca, out in California, had a great blog post last week. cookieandclaire.blogspot.com She said my blog had inspired her and she’s planning to do Christmas a little differently this year… all handmade gifts. Well she has inspired me back! Last...
