Each year we have the same two problems: 
1) My daughter outgrows almost all of her pants in the length. 
2)  It’s hard to find shorts that are long enough.
What is the deal with short shorts anyway????
This year, I decided to take some of her old jeans and try to make shorts out of them.

I cut the jeans right above the spot where she had wore out the knees.  I was just going to roll them up,but decided they might unravel so I had my mom put a stitch in the bottom.

Ta-da. Now we have cute shorts that are long enough and they …read more

Just in time for Earth Day, we will be featuring some products and tips geared toward making your home a bit more environmentally friendly. 

All the current information about plastics, BPA, chemicals, and contaminants is enough to make a parent’s head spin.  Lunchbots helps take away the worry and confusion by offering 100% stainless steel containers.  LunchBots provide an environmentally friendly alternative to disposable containers and they go a step further to eliminate all plastics from its containers.  Finally, there is a stainless steel alternative with a lid.  The LunchBots containers are easy to clean, sturdy, and provide a great storage container for lunches …read more

Mismatched, ugly, too big, or just plain oddball buttons are perfect for tons of recycled kid projects that you can make on the fly. You don’t want to toss buttons, because they’ll just sit in that old landfill forever. Yeah one button is small, but many add up, and why not use them if you have them. If you don’t have buttons, thrift stores carry bags of them for super cheap.
Here are some ideas – although I’m sure you can think of more.
Button hair bands: Cut a piece of extra elastic to an average hair band size (imagine if a …read more

You know the problem with having many blogs that sort of interrelate? You write stuff at one that would be just as useful at another.
In thinking about what I’d like to write about here, I realized that I write a lot about saving money elsewhere. In case you’re interested, here’s a run down of some of the better money saving posts I’ve done on other blogs. This is also sort of selfish, because I’m trying not to repeat myself here, so now I’ll know not to write much more about stuff like…

11 Ways to Save Money on Organic Food
Top 10 …read more

…is my new computer desk and exercise bike! Yes, indeed, I scored some sweet deals this week. Let me just start by saying that we are the fortunate recipients of many hand me downs, especially kids’ clothing. I have friends and family members who purposely save their kids’ old clothes for us. In fact, we are blessed that it usually ends up being an over abundance of clothing. So we do what they did and pass it on to others who may be able to use them. I am not too proud to take a hand me down item. In fact, I …read more

Way back in the day before, before there were booster seats, my grandmother would give us telephone books to sit on so we could reach the table easier. Every family I knew had a telephone book on hand for just such an occasion. Now of course we have special seats for the littlest guys.
As you know, I’m annoyed at having to deal with so many phone books. Yesterday I told you how to opt out of receiving telephone books. Today I’d like to offer some uses for the phone books piling up in your home.

Recycle – All phone books …read more

Is there any (good) reason why I have three or four telephone books delivered to my door, or rather thrown on my front lawn, every year?
There are phone books for just my township and phone books for the county. There’s a phone book just for local businesses and phone books for every business in the county. This is such a waste.
Personally, I think telephone books should only be sent to those who ask. I look online for all my phone numbers anyway. I’m putting an end to it right now. Want to join me?
If you want to …read more

I recently received a SoilSaver composter. I prefer a compost bin over a pile in the backyard because it’s tidier and keeps out the pests. My family always had compost heaps in the backyard so I’m well aware of the benefits.
The SoilSaver was very easy to put together and put outside on a level spot of our backyard. My son is all into it and puts even the tiniest bit of organic matter into the compost bowl to bring into the backyard. We also raked up a big pile of leaves taking up space in a corner of …read more

So we’re still chopping down trees and every now and then a fence panel is replaced. Until all the trees are chopped we can’t take down the whole fence, however. Our backyard is looking pretty bad with old doors, fence panels and more. We were going to call in a dumpster but we found the perfect solution.
Our township has dump days twice a month. To get a ticket we have to apply at the Department of Public Works. Once we have our ticket we can bring over as many loads as we want. Plus, we can get a …read more

Six or seven years ago, my sister in law gave me marigold seeds from her garden. Every year since then I planted the seeds and harvested the flowers for more seeds the next year. They’re beautiful and hardy.They grow large bushes instead of small flowers. I’m always complimented on my marigolds and love to share them with others. I’m happy to report my marigolds have been planted all around the world! You can see what they look like in the picture above.
To harvest marigolds is easy. At the end of the summer when the flowers dry out, pluck them …read more