With all the rush to put a good Christmas together in a somewhat belt-tightening economy, I thought--a little late in the month, perhaps, but why break tradition?--I'd share a few money-saving ideas I've come across recently.
1) Buy your Christmas tree from BLM land. Ryan and I did, and you can see how cute our tree is in the previous Christmas post. The permit (in Pocatello, ID) is $5.00 and you can get a simple saw from your local hardware store for about the same price. Make it a family outing. You'll have a great time.
2) Into crafting? You can get a mini glue gun and a package of glue sticks from the Family Dollar, or occasionally the Dollar Tree, for around $3.00. They're cheap, but they work just as well as the more expensive ones you can purchase at name-brand craft stores. Also, check out your local Goodwill or resale shop. They sometimes get donations of new fabric. Some of it can be kind of cheap looking, but I've actually found some very nice fabric there as well. I usually find the fabric in the same section as the drapes and bed sheets. You just have to dig through the whole rack to see what's there.
3) Want to make someone a CD for Christmas? Amazon has a free & special deals music download selection. Some of the artists offered are well known and some aren't. Go expand your musical horizons!
That's all I've come up with so far. Anyone else have anything to add to the list?
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Beginning to look like Christmas
Ryan and I had a busy weekend this past week. We also reached, what I think, is something of a milestone. We have been married for 7 years, and this year we got our very first Christmas tree.
Saturday started with a trek up into the hills with Chad and Angela for some Christmas pictures. In spite of the snow that kept sticking to hair and getting in eyes, we got some great pictures.
Then Ryan and I went over to BLM land to harvest our tree. Finding the BLM office in Pocatello in order to buy a tree permit was an adventure all on it's own. I was by myself and it took me 1 stop to ask directions and 2 phone calls to Ryan to finally locate the place!
Anyway, back to tree hunting! I think the first one we found ended up being the keeper. We knocked the snow off of it to see how it looked, and were pretty happy with what we found, but we had just arrived and wanted to look around a little more. So we moseyed up the trail, searching for anything under 10 feet that looked moderately symmetrical, and always saying, "maybe the next one, maybe the next one." After a short while of this--it was cold and we had to be home by a certain time anyway because of out-of-town visitors--we went back to our first tree and decided that it was the best we'd seen.
Idn't it a pretty tree?
The mighty hunter with his kill.
We had to chop off a few of the base branches, and a bit off the top (the top spindly branch was about a foot too high) and it fit perfectly.
Decorating had to wait though, I had a carrot cake to make and we had my Dad, brother-in-law, and brother-in-law's high school buddy, stopping by to say, "Hi," on their way back from Spokane. That was a whirlwind visit!
Here's the cake.
Saturday started with a trek up into the hills with Chad and Angela for some Christmas pictures. In spite of the snow that kept sticking to hair and getting in eyes, we got some great pictures.
Then Ryan and I went over to BLM land to harvest our tree. Finding the BLM office in Pocatello in order to buy a tree permit was an adventure all on it's own. I was by myself and it took me 1 stop to ask directions and 2 phone calls to Ryan to finally locate the place!
Anyway, back to tree hunting! I think the first one we found ended up being the keeper. We knocked the snow off of it to see how it looked, and were pretty happy with what we found, but we had just arrived and wanted to look around a little more. So we moseyed up the trail, searching for anything under 10 feet that looked moderately symmetrical, and always saying, "maybe the next one, maybe the next one." After a short while of this--it was cold and we had to be home by a certain time anyway because of out-of-town visitors--we went back to our first tree and decided that it was the best we'd seen.
Idn't it a pretty tree?
The mighty hunter with his kill.We had to chop off a few of the base branches, and a bit off the top (the top spindly branch was about a foot too high) and it fit perfectly.
Decorating had to wait though, I had a carrot cake to make and we had my Dad, brother-in-law, and brother-in-law's high school buddy, stopping by to say, "Hi," on their way back from Spokane. That was a whirlwind visit!
Here's the cake.They stayed only long enough to rest a moment, tell us how the drive has been, admire the antlers from Ryan's September bull, and then they left.
The carrot cake is for Ryan's birthday, which was put on hold for his comprehensive exams. There was no way we were celebrating a birthday while he was so busy studying for those tests. So, we had the cake last Saturday, and we still have it now, actually. It's a big cake, and so dense!
The carrot cake is for Ryan's birthday, which was put on hold for his comprehensive exams. There was no way we were celebrating a birthday while he was so busy studying for those tests. So, we had the cake last Saturday, and we still have it now, actually. It's a big cake, and so dense!
Sat. night, or maybe Sun. we decorated the tree. That was so much fun. I thought we might have enough ornaments, but that we might need to go to the Dollar Tree for a few extra. I was surprised to find that we had the perfect amount. The slightly scrawny nature of the tree saved us from having too many branches to decorate. I love Charlie Brown Christmas Trees!
Needless to say, since we'd never had a tree before, we also had never bought Christmas lights before. We didn't get those until Tuesday. This entire acquiring and decorating of the tree business has been kind of a step by step process, but so much fun!
Here's the tree with lights.
Needless to say, since we'd never had a tree before, we also had never bought Christmas lights before. We didn't get those until Tuesday. This entire acquiring and decorating of the tree business has been kind of a step by step process, but so much fun!
Here's the tree with lights.The tree skirt is actually about two yards of unsewn fabric that came from a whole pile of fabrics that Mom gave me. I had completely forgotten that some of that stuff was Christmasy. So when I started digging through my fabric Rubbermaid I was looking for something green; anything that might be appropriately-ish colored. And I found this:
Perfect!
Perfect!Friday, November 27, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving
I hope everyone had a very good Thanksgiving this year. We weren't able to celebrate the day with family this year, but some good friends invited us over, and we all had a wonderful potluck-type dinner, played boardgames and ate way too much.
I was in charge of stuffing, veggies and rolls, and, since I have no "traditional" holiday recipes of my own yet, I used my friends as the guinea pigs for these two recipes that I found at delish.com. Aren't I sweet? Luckily, both went over very well. The stuffing was good (turkey sausage is yummy), but my favorite was the veggies. I'll probably use that one again soon. Ryan needs to eat more veggies anyway. It's for his own good. :)
I was in charge of stuffing, veggies and rolls, and, since I have no "traditional" holiday recipes of my own yet, I used my friends as the guinea pigs for these two recipes that I found at delish.com. Aren't I sweet? Luckily, both went over very well. The stuffing was good (turkey sausage is yummy), but my favorite was the veggies. I'll probably use that one again soon. Ryan needs to eat more veggies anyway. It's for his own good. :)
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