2011 Ornaments

My 2011 ornaments came about in a rush, because this ornament exchange snuck up on me, then I couldn't find the supplies I wanted for my first idea. I ended up with this. Pretty happy with them!

Ingredients for one dozen (you'll have lots of leftovers!):
3 Sheets White 12x12 Card Stock
Elmer's Paper and Fabric Glue
Skinny Sparkly Yarn
Felt
Tiny buttons

To make:
1. Take card stock and cut into quarters, then cut each quarter into a circle, then cut in half. Twist the six-inch-long semi-circle into a cone shape (sorta half it then pull ends together) and attach (I stapled, which somewhat flattens that side, then bent the staple a bit).

2. Apply glue on the bottom of the cone and start winding yarn around. You can use any kind really, but I got skinny yarn and I think if it was fatter it would have looked sloppy since the trees are so little. I wound all the way up as well as I could, adding glue as I went, then went back down and filled in the gaps. You can add as much glue as you need to, because it dries clear anyhow. You'll get it all over your fingers. Also, before we stapled the cone, we added a little loop with the knot on the inside, so you don't have to worry about attaching it later. It kindof gets in the way, though, so if you can ball it up at the top, it helps keep it out of the way.

3. I cut the stars out of felt and glued them on along with a tiny button. And that's it! My husband's mom and I did a dozen in about three hours, but the first ones probably took a little longer when we were still figuring it out.

No Meat May

"Eating greens is a special treat. It makes long ears, and great bit feet. But it sure is awful stuff to eat." - Thumper

I hadn't originally planned to have a "diet" month, seeing as how I'm less of a dieter and more of a healthy lifestyler, or at the very least a healthy lifestyle attempter. I don't generally believe in fad diets or anything you put your body and metabolism through that you don't plan to or can't continue indefinitely.

One of the easiest - ok, best - ways to control your diet is to begin to make all your own food. I was able to start this during no spend month, because I couldn't eat out. Although the goal of the month was not to improve my diet, it did end up having that result. Making your own food means you control all the inputs, and more than that, you know what the inputs are. This has helped me to be able to cut out meat.

So I covered the how. Now for the why.

Green month started the "why". In learning about green living, I've reinforced something I already knew - meat takes a lot of energy. Cutting out meat can do good things for your carbon footprint. I'm not even cutting out milk and eggs, but animal-derived energy needs many times that energy for its production. This energy largely comes from fossil fuels, which aren't sustainable. Thus, a vegetarian lifestyle comes closer to a sustainable one. Growing lentils or beans, which are other good sources of protein, takes less energy than producing a similar amount of protein in meat. Getting a calf out of a cow, growing the feed for the calf, feeding and housing it, butchering it, and keeping that beef fit for consumption until it gets to the grocery store takes a whole lot more energy than it takes to grow a bag of beans. All this points me toward attempting to cut out meat. For no meat month, we are cutting it out completely, however in the future I expect we will eat it in limited quantities, especially for special occasions or when there aren't many options. For example, this week I got invited to lunch at a BBQ joint... I figured I could eat some beans, as long as they don't have any pork added.

That's my no meat story. I have tried several new recipes this month and have enjoyed them all. I don't feel run down or deficient in any way thus far. Time will tell!

I will have to post some of my favorite new recipes soon!

Green Month

"One single can is of great importance, because 99 is not 100." Valter (wastelandmovie.com)

Because of the fact that Earth Day falls in April, I decided to make it Earth Month, (or Green Month, depending on what mood I'm in). I like trying to see how my actions affect the world around me. I listened to Green Living For Dummies to get some ideas.

By the way, Audible.com has a really great deal on audiobooks if you are interested in them. You pay a low fee monthly for credits which can be used to purchase the books, and you can cancel at any time. There are always great deals on them if you exceed your credits and want more, plus there are often sales that will put them as low as $5, even for a popular title.

Green Living for Dummies was interesting, but not terribly in-depth. What did I expect? It was however, short and sweet, which I appreciated. This month won't be bleeding into the next, because I managed to listen to it in about a week, hooray!