It's not easy being green. Wait! Yes it is. RePurposing containers.

In my effort to decrease our garbage and recycling load, I decided to turn to my trusty pal, Pinterest (seriously, what did we do before this little gem?!) and put a few more things into the "Pinterest: Accomplished" board. 

Started with the parmesan cheese shaker container that I finally emptied. I don't use a lot of it, (mostly because I prefer the grated or wedge of parmesan or romano cheese to the powdered stuff) but it was here when I moved in, and I'm not one usually to let things go to waste. There were several different ideas for this style of container: yarn/twine dispenser, baking soda or borax shaker and what I ended up doing - Dusting flour

I LOVE baking. Especially pies and roll-out sugar cookies. This little contraption is going to greatly aid in the elimination of what our buddy Alton Brown has coined "club hand". You know, when your hand is a little greasy or moist from working with your pie crust dough, cookie dough, bread dough ("Any kind of dough." Movie: Zoolander) and you stick your hand in the flour only for it to become coated and caked well enough to consider how it might look fried to a crispy, golden brown. With my new little flour buddy, all I will need to do is shake, shake, shake, señora. 

While cleaning out my spice cupboard, I realized I had two containers of "Italian Seasoning" and since one of said containers was nearly empty, I decided the tiny bit left in the plastic bottle could be combined into the nice glass shaker in the twirly spice rack on the counter. I could've just thrown the plastic into the recycle bin, but I took pause. One of the suggestions for the ginormous Costco-sized parmesan shaker was powdered sugar. I don't use THAT much of the stuff (despite having a lifetime-supply due to our blended pantry) so the smaller shaker would do just fine for shaking the lovely "snow" onto waffles, pancakes, muffins, cookies, etc. A wash and dry later, we have a new shaker for the confectioner in all of us. 

Heck of a lot better than spending $1 on one at the dollar store. Now I can spend that G.Washington on something I really need.... like more ribbon from the discount ribbon bin. Because who DOESN'T need more ribbon? 

Frugal Christmas - Part 1

With the expenses of my father's death that we encurred in early December, our Christmas gift budget became pretty lean, especially since we had just finished paying off the bulk of our debt. I know everyone would've completely understood only getting Christmas cards from us this year, but after how amazing and generous everyone was with our wedding either in travel and time off, donations to our Honeyfund, gifts or all of the above, I couldn't do NOTHING.

Enter Pinterest. Honestly, the best newish thing on the interwebs. I blame my dear friend Molly for my addiction and time wasted as well as all of the stinkin awesome stuff I've made or been inspired to make. I saw a few homemade natural beauty and bath products and figured it was a sign from the Baby Jesus that I was to have a home-crafted Christmas. I decided I'd make some natural hand and body soap, bath salts and a sugar scrub and "wrap" them all in reusable tote bags made from pillowcases. Let me tell you, I had so much fun making all of this stuff that I just had to share it. Plus, these things are super simple to make and would be great for any occasion - in fact, with some of the extras, I gave some away as hostess gifts for the different Christmas parties we went to.

Let's start with containers and wrapping. I hit a local thrift store during a big sale weekend, armed with a 25% off coupon, a great friend and her 2-year-old daughter (who put on ALL of the necklaces hanging on the accessory wall - I may or may not have encouraged it and helped her with a few that she couldn't pull over her head). I'm all about the glass containers. They're reusable, BPA-free and they just look cool. I found a ton of jars (with lids even), lots of different sizes and shapes for $0.29 or $0.49 each. Also came home from that trip with an arm-full of gently-used pillowcases in lots of fun prints and colors. I spent less than $20 on that stuff. That great friend also hooked me up with a case of PERFECT glass bottles with tops to put the soap in. You'll see them in the part 2 and understand why I did a happy dance when she gave them to me.

A few days later, I was at my local supercenter and happened upon a whole shelf of clearance oils. It was like there was a beam of light from Heaven shining down on the four bottles of safflower oil. OK, so it was probably a strange glare from the neon lighting, but still, four bottles of cold-pressed organic safflower oil - on clearance for just a couple of dollars a bottle. I snatched that up like it was the last cupcake at a birthday party. I also picked up a couple of bags of light brown sugar, knowing I had some essential oils at home. The concoction wasn't a science by any means, just threw some brown sugar into the short, squat half-pint jars, covered it with the safflower oil and added a few drops of Lavendar, Sage and Chamomile oils. Hopped on my trusty laptop and designed sme quick labels and, Voila!

Here's a picture of the teeny jar I made for myself. I keep it by my kitchen sink and wash my hands with it after I do dishes and my hands are all dry and icky. It leaves them soft, exfoliated and smelling all pretty!