Posted by terrepruitt on December 21, 2013
So earlier this week when I was driving home from one of my Nia classes I heard one of the DJs on the radio say that if every family in the United States wrapped one gift this season with stuff from around the house the paper saved would cover 45,000 football fields. I thought that was pretty amazing. I also thought that it would be a great thing to share on my blog. Before I post anything I do some searches on the internet for more information. With some things I have additional sources, but some things are just internet researched and as I have stated time and time again, often times there is conflicting information. This time I found slightly different information OR I heard it incorrectly in the first place. Either way I think it is pretty amazing and I would hope that many families would like to participate in saving a bit of paper. You might know I pretty much try to re-use wrapping paper and tissue paper as much as I can. I don’t necessarily use stuff around the house to wrap, but after reading this fact I might. According to the Stanford University’s Site: “If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.”
So, it is THREE presents. Still do-able, I think. For people who like to use reusable bags instead of paper or plastic when they shop, I think putting their gift in one of those bags is a great idea. I think it is so great (of an idea) that I am sure I have said it before (please note I am not claiming to have come up with that idea, just to have said it before). Since I see more and more people saying they shop online what about just using the box the items come in? I know they are not that attractive but you can make them so.
If you have kids you can set them about drawing on the boxes. That would make for a very unique wrapping. (Ha, I said that before, too!) Or you could use other things from around the house and attach them to the boxes. Maybe magazine pages cut up in Holiday shapes and stuck to the box. Or perhaps stickers or just some glitter and glue? I am sure if you have kids THEY can come up with many ways to decorate those plain brown boxes.
Or what about using Christmas cards. Ooooh! You know how I love to save them and hang them on my wall as decorations (I didn’t do that this year – first time in many years!). But the fronts could be cut off and saved, then glued to that brown boxes next year. (Oh, I have to remember that for this year’s cards!)
I know you can come up with ways to reuse and recycle. And I have posted some ideas before. I was just amazed when I heard the comparison of covering football fields. Here is more info from the site:
“If every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet. . . . . . . The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year in the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one card less, we’d save 50,000 cubic yards of paper.”
So using the front of the cards to make the brown shipping boxes pretty would be great!
And . . . . what else? How can we make our presents pretty and save paper at the same time? Please share your ideas.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: 45000 football fields, Christmas, Christmas cards, green, Nia, Nia Classes, radio DJs, recycle, Stanford University, wrapping paper | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on February 22, 2013
This is the fourth check in for the Goodie Jar, the jar where we put notes of good things that have happened. I started my jar a month into 2013, but I added a couple of notes of things that happened in January so I’m ok with the late start. In my last check in, check in #3 I shared that I am using all different kinds of paper and even folding them a different way. I look around my house to try to find different color paper or paper with something pretty or colorful on it. Well, I was wrapping a gift and I had one of those little pieces of wrapping paper that there is nothing to do with but throw away. It was too small to use as in a bag as I mentioned in my Wrapping Tips post (you can read about that by clicking here). But it was big enough to write a good thing on!
Oh yeah! I can have a goodie jar full of wrapping paper scraps. Ha, that is a fun idea, but I don’t actually wrap that much! But when I do, I usually end up with that one little piece of paper that is not gonna wrap or cushion any thing. Now it will be a pretty addition to my good things pitcher! Yay!
So, I am wishing you a rapidly filling goodie jar. How is it going for you?
Posted in Good Things in the Goodie Jar | Tagged: good things jar, Goodie Jar, recycle, wrapping paper, wrapping paper scraps, wrapping tips | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 17, 2011
I am so impress I have to share AND comment:
I love the list of 25 clever ideas to make life easier. So amazing. Some of the ideas I have seen before, some of them were new to me. The are all pretty awesome. I love the straw and strawberry idea. Kind of funny using a straw to “pit” a strawberry. Saves you from having to buy a tool for it. Someone try the walnut on the wood and tell me if it REALLY works. And for how long? I mean I am thinking that it is just the oil from the walnut that moisturizes the wood so the scratch is concealed. I bet you could use any oil to do that. Regarding the TV, I guess if you HAVE to get crayon marks off a TV or computer screen you would be desperate enough to try WD-40. Otherwise no way. I can’t imagine putting WD-40 on a monitor.
I do know how to get crayon or wax off the carpet. It might even work for other fabric. Use an iron and a paper bag or any type of rough paper. Put the paper bag over the crayon/wax and then run the hot iron over it. The heat from the iron melts the crayon/wax and the paper absorbs it. If it is a lot of crayon/wax it is not a quick fix, but it works. I had a melted candle spill onto carpet once and I was able to get it all up with this method. But it took me a couple of weeks. I didn’t sit there for long, long periods of time. I would probably do a bag at a time. Eventually it all came up.
I love the apple idea. I can’t wait to try that. Seems like that would work. The old, “put lemon (or citrus) on it” doesn’t work for me because it DOES leave a lemon taste. I don’t care for my apples to taste like lemon. Wouldn’t it be fabulous to pull out a pillow case full of the entire sheet set? I like that idea, but my hubby does do the sheets like shown here and he gets them completely flat. I have mentioned before how I can’t tell the difference between the flat sheet and the fitted sheet.
The bowl does kind of help the volume of the iPhone. But you may know I have a little blue speaker, so I don’t need a bowl. Ingenious use of a wet-wipe container–storing plastic bags in it, but I just use a plastic bag to store my plastic bags and it works pretty good too!
I really want to hear from you to know if some of these things really work. Can you really get sand off your skin by using baby powder? Then how do you get the baby powder off? Sand? Or water? Which you could have just used to get the sand off in the first place, right?
I would imagine that putting a velcro strip on the wall could help store a lot of things besides just soft toys in a child’s room. Ok, I LOVE the wrapping paper idea. It is pretty smart to use the ceiling of a closet to store wrapping paper, but my closet ceilings are REALLY high. I actually have a wrapping paper holder that hangs in my closet.
I have heard of using a nylon over a vacuum cleaner hose to find stuff. GREAT idea! I recently heard of cutting Xs in a shirt box to make a cupcake holder. Another GREAT idea. I love the magnetic strip for storing bobby pins, but I honestly didn’t realize that other people used bobby pins any longer. Shoes in a shower cap. Great idea. I use plastic bags. The ones that the newspaper come in. Or ones that might be around certain product you buy.
Plastic cups in a muffin tin held in place by a magnet as a craft caddy . . . . dare I say it? That is pretty crafty! Love the use of bread bag closure things as power cord labels. That is smart. But my bread comes with wire twists. I have seen the ice cream cone cup cake thing before. Have you ever tried that? I have a friend that told me about popcorn in a regular paper bag in the microwave. However I don’t buy paper bags and I have never wanted to put my food in one that I might have gotten from a store purchase. A tension rod to hold spray bottles is a nice idea, but my cupboards aren’t that tall. Are yours? Mine could have hanging bottles AND stuff on the “floor”.
If I made hard boiled eggs, I would so try making them heart shaped. But I don’t. I also don’t have such fancy muffin tins. But I bet it would work with regular muffins tins. Aloe Vera in ice cube trays. Oh my. Will someone remind me of this when I get a sunburn? This is GREAT. Think of how wonderful that would feel. I hear angels singing. Gutters as planters. Nice idea. And it is brilliant to use egg cartons to hold ornaments. Fantastic!
So that is my take on the list. What about you? Have you tried any of these ideas before? Are you going to? I really want to know about the walnut and how long that lasts.
Posted in Helpful Hints, Misc | Tagged: clever ideas, cupcake holder, Daily Buzz, get wax pout of carpet, hard boiled eggs, how to fold a fitted sheet, iphone, keep apple from browning, pit a strawberry, velcro, WD-40, wrapping paper | 10 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 31, 2009
So here it is the end of the year. I have been blogging since March (2009). I have posted 130 times. This is 131. I thought I would end the year with a review of some of my favorites and according to the numbers some of your favorites too. Here they are, not in any order:
Lyrics Gone Wrong . . . I had entertained the idea of doing this once a month, but after the second month I ran out of songs to play with.
Interesting Picture – Marilyn Monroe Albert Einstein . . . I LOVE optical illusions and this one is a doosey.
Hummingbird Tongues . . . they still fascinate me and I am still surprising people with the fact that the birds have tongues and use them more than the beak is a straw. And usually they tongues dart in and out so fast it is a rare treat to catch it out for a picture. Yay!
A Poem Says A Lot . . . Fabulous! We Have Come To Be Danced . . .
Nia Belt System . . . Before you can move onto the next belt they say a year must pass. You do not have to get involved. It is a great workout without being involved with the belts. The belt system only comes into play if you care to get that involved in Nia. Nia’s belts mimic some Martial Arts; white, green, blue, brown, black. I am learning so much with my White Belt, I can see myself waiting at least another year before I move onto the next belt. There is so much to learn and enjoy in each belt, I am not in a hurry.
Say: “I Am Wonderful” . . . I like to say this, I like to hear this song. I like to remind people to go to iTunes each week to download the free song.
A Brief Look At Nia . . . still excited to share Nia with people. It is a great body-mind practice and a workout that can make you sweat yet not really feel like exercise. It is learning to follow the body’s way.
Wrapping Tips . . . WHAT? I was shocked that everyone did not read my blog. On Christmas Day and the day after the bags and bags and bags and bags of wrapping trash that I saw on the curbs just blew my mind. In this day and in these times, I was just utterly flabbergasted that people don’t re-use the wrappings. It amazed and saddened me.
My Favorite Mugs . . . so I found out that not everyone got my little joke. Ya know, back in the day (what day, I don’t know), they used to call faces mugs . . . get it now?
The Seven Cycles Of A Nia Workout . . . The workout has cycles, somewhat like Jazzercise. I like to share this aspect of Nia so people have an idea of what a workout class will be like. We set a focus and an intent, step in, warm up and move all the way through the cycles to the floor, and then we step out.
Well, thank you so much for joining me on my blog. I hope that you continue to read, I hope you enjoy and learn. I learn from your comments so keep them coming. Thank you for a great year. Here is to the NewYear.
But . . .before we jump into the New Year, share with me what your favorite post from my blog was? AND/OR give me ideas on what you would like to see posted in the New Year.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: Albert Einstein, Bay Area Workout, Belt System, Black Belt, blonde sex symbol, Blue Belt, body's way, Body-mind, body-mind practice, Brown Belt, Carlos Rosas, cats dancing, Christmas, Christmas Day, coffee mugs, cool down, cycles, dance, dancing cats, Debbie Rosas, exercise, floorplay, Free download, Free iTunes, free iTunes download, free song, Gary Go, gift bags, green, Green Belt, Healing exercise, Healing workout, health, heaven dance, Humming bird, Hummingbird, hummingbird pictures, Hummingbird tongue, I am wonderful, iTunes, Jazzercise, Jazzercise San Jose, Jewel Mathieson, lefty, Lyrics, March 2009, Marilyn Monroe, martial arts, Martial Arts Belt System, mind body, Mugs, Nia, Nia class, Nia exercise, Nia exercise class, Nia play, Nia Practice, Nia routine, Nia San Jose, Nia teachers, Nia Technique, Nia workout, Non-Impact Aerobics, Painted Glove, Personal Trainer, Poem, San Jose, San Jose exercise, San Jose Nia, San Jose Workout, San Jose Yoga, sanctuary, sex symbol, theory of relativity, tongue, warm-up, We Have Come To Be Danced, White Belt, Working Out, Workout cycles, workout routines, wrapping paper, Yoga | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 17, 2009
As you know I post about things other than health, wellness, exercise, and working out. I do try to post helpful things.
Recently we got a box of wrapping paper down and I opened it up and there was a pile of folded kind of crumpled paper. I pulled it out and set it aside. I figured that I saved it to use to re-use for wrapping. But it was so crumbled I didn’t have the heart to try to deal with it at that moment. So as I was wrapping over the next couple of days it dawned on me what that pile of paper really was for—-packing. A couple of years ago I started saving paper that had been used. If it was pretty or I really liked it I save it.
I use my shredder to shred the wrapping paper. When I use those handy gift bags I use the paper shredded instead of using tissue paper. I also use shredding wrapping paper when I am shipping packages (usually in addition to another recycled packing product). I really like this idea of re-using the paper. Other paper that works is the paper that is too small to use to actually wrap a gift. It all looks really pretty and festive once it is shredded. It works really great when you have two sided paper.
I love wrapping paper, but I think it is a huge waste, so if I can re-use something I love it. I save bows to re-use them. Drives my husband crazy It used to drive my husband crazy, but I save them and re-use them. Please don’t be offended if you ever receive a gift from me with a bow taped on the package. That actually means that I recued that bow from being thrown away then loveing stored it and saved it until it had the perfect recepient.
I also don’t usually write on the gift bag or put the stick name tag directly on it. I usually stick the tag on the shredded paper or stick it to itself over the cord/handle of the bag. That way the recipient can use the bag again.
Sometimes these bags can become family traditions. You can use a gift special back to swap back and forth. For years my family had a bag going back and forth. It was a sea of white cartoon rabbits with one rabbit dressed in red and white. It lasted a long time, but eventually it tore and we moved on, but it was fun while it lasted.
Bags, tissue, bows, and shredding aren’t meant to last forever, but if they get more than one use, that is a great thing.
If you really want to be resourceful and “green” you could always give one of those reusable grocery bags as the gift bag, “wrap” the gift it that!
Do you have any wrapping re-use ideas? What works out for you and your family?
Posted in Helpful Hints | Tagged: exercise, family tradition, gift bags, green, health, recycle, recycling, shredded paper, wellness, workout, wrapping paper | 13 Comments »
Terre Pruitt's Blog 