Homemade Christmas-2

I love homemade ornaments.

So, I decided to share a few of mine with you.

I made these ornaments with $.25 wooden shapes from Michaels. I just used left-over twine and buttons to dress them up a little.

My friend, Nancy, makes her loved ones cross-stitched ornaments each year. Here are a few that she just finished. I love them. Maybe one day....I will get one. (hint, hint)A student gave me this adorable Santa starfish ornament. It is one of my favorites!

I think that I will make a few of these with A next year!

I can see angels and snowmen too!

Every year, I make a heart ornament which has developed into quite a collection. A few people have the entire set, and a number of people have a few. I try to make each one a little different. I made the first one in 2001 after 9-11. I was in need of a few "thoughtful" gifts in 2002, and the snowmen ornaments were born.
I haven't started on this year's ornament, but it must have a snow-puppy.

Do you make/buy ornaments each year?

A Girl and Her Puppy

This is one of my newest favorite things!

Skipper.....17 weeks!

Green

A few years ago, I started thinking about how much garbage our family was creating.

We used to put out 2 COMPLETELY full trash cans each week.

A also began to question our lack of concern for recycling.

I took it upon myself to change my family's wasteful habits.

We started slow, but now it is our way of life.

The idea of consuming less was very over-whelming for us at first.

Here are a few things that our family does to reduce the amount of waste that makes it to the curb.

We do not buy bottled water. I purchased these wonderful water bottles from Target last year. We fill them everyday, and they are ALWAYS in our lunch bags. The kiddos have their own smaller version too. Environmentally friendly and thrifty to boot!

Yes...those are cloth napkins. We purchase very little disposable paper products. In fact, this year, I only purchased toilet paper and 8 rolls of paper towels. I use regular plates and cups for parties. I even pack a cloth napkin in A's lunch box.

Of course, we recycle as much as possible. Recycling is difficult where we live. There isn't a good program in place, but after quite a bit of research I found a company that will recycle all plastics (with the exception of #6).

The kids used the recycling to create robots and airplanes this week in case you are wondering!

We only buy energy efficient light bulbs, and we have noticed a difference in our energy costs.
We also compost!

And....we shop second hand!

It is amazing how natural a "green" lifestyle is to us thrifty chicks!

We now only put out 1 trash can, and it is never over half full.
How can you reduce the amount of garage that ends up on the curb?

Update- Dollars to Disney

I haven't updated in a while because we are trying to finish out our yearly family budget in the "black". So. I haven't been paying great attention to the amount of my "savings".

However, I do have to share a blessing. We budgeted $200 for the remainder of our children's Christmas. We planned to spend $150 of that on a Nintendo DS and game. A really wanted Mario Brothers, but that just didn't fit into the $150. Scott started watching Craig's list, and he found a DS in a box with the Mario game for $90. WooHoo! Sounds like Disney money to me!

Savings: $60

Coupons: $15

Script: $1.48

Photo Money: $30

Total saved: $106.48

The Best Job E-V-E-R!

This evening we decided to decorate gingerbread houses.

I just hot glued graham crackers together to form the houses.

We used left-over candy from our candy jar.

After laying all of the candy out on the counter, O proclaimed, "This is the best job ever!"

I wonder if she can make a living decorating gingerbread houses.

She is definitely the girl for the job!Decisions....decisions.....
Daddy enjoyed controlling the icing!
Yep...this is the BEST!

This is by far one of my favorite holiday traditions.
Pretty inexpensive too....