It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:
Hi Mavis, You’re my only daily blog visit. LOVE your stuff. Ed Hume sells a booklet each year that calendars gardening by the moon. Do you have any experience with this? Is it worth the extra calendaring effort?
~Lan
I have heard of gardening by the moon–and think it would be an interesting {and probably effective} way to time your gardening. I haven’t ever tried it myself, though. Readers, do any of you have any experience with this one?
I’ve so enjoyed reading your blog. I hope you don’t mind but, I came across this quote today and it stuck with me. It popped in my mind again when I clicked over to your blog. “The things we take for granted, someone else is praying for” -Unknown. It makes my year’s goal of living more simply feel a little easier repeating that in my head.
~Jamie
Jamie, thanks for the awesome reminder. I do have so much. Thinking of a year of no-spending as a sacrifice is just plain disrespectful to those who have so little. I’ll carry this perspective with me daily. Thanks again!
Help! My county is about to stop recycling glass. What should I do? I hate to throw away all that glass!!
~Laura C.
Laura, my best suggestion is to find ways to put it to use yourself. I like to rinse out the cool bottles and use them as vases. I also like to keep jars–they are perfect for storing items I’ve gotten from the bulk bins. You can get super clever and turn that glass into cash. Get yourself a glass cutter and start making artisan drinking glasses. {There are tons of tutorials on YouTube.}
You can always save it up for months at a time and take it to the next county over too, if repurposing isn’t your thing. It really depends on how far you are from other services and how committed you are to not throwing it away, I guess. Readers, anything to add?
Mavis, I don’t know what has happened. When I get your blog – it is one huge paragraph with numbers, etc. If you can help – perhaps, I need to reset something on my computer?
~Mary
I found this on Facebook and HAD to send it your way. It is an article about 30 different families from around the world. They asked the families to buy a week’s worth of groceries and take a family photo with all the food (they listed how much they spent too). It was fascinating and eye-opening too. Love your site!
~Kayla
This totally reminded me of the book “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats” by Peter Menzel and whoa Nellie is it fascinating! Thanks for the reminder, and I hope everyone will take a minute and click over and check it out.
~Mavis
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Hi Mavis,
I used to just make cards for fun and to send to friends and family. Now I also sell them at the tea shop I work at. At first, I thought that I would mostly sell tea-themed cards at a tea shop, but birthday cards are the best sellers (though I still throw in a few tea-related cards just for fun, since I love tea!).
Once I’ve finished stamping (and cleaning all the stamps I’ve used – I’m a bit obsessive about that!), I pick out a color scheme for the cards I’m working on. Since I try to be thrifty about how much money I spend on making my cards, I turn to my scrap pile for accent colors:
This week I designed 36 cards. Now I just have to finish glueing all of them – my least favorite part, since it’s less creative, and a bit time-consuming – though very necessary! After I’ve glued each card, I usually weigh them down between stacks of paper to make sure the glue dries just right. Here’s what a good day’s work looks like in my craft room:
When I’m all finished creating cards for the day (and they’ve finished drying), I pick out the best ones to sell at the tea shop I work at:
The reject cards get put to good use in my personal card stash for whenever I need to send someone a card for their birthday or another special occasion. Making cards saves our household money on buying store-bought cards, and selling them helps me pay for my craft supplies (mostly paper and envelopes at this point – I bought most of my stamps at garage sales!). I love that I’m not spending our household money on my crafting, since it’s paying for itself!