it's all about the little things...

I'm very thankful the wretchedly cold spell is over...

for now.

I took this while driving-- see my camera in the windshield reflection?

So,
I was thinking after yesterday's post,

"How much better is cloth, really?"

Aren't we also being called to conserve water usage and supplies? If everything I do is cloth, I'm washing twice the loads of laundry, and I run the dishwasher every two days-- for only two people (and Khan) in a household. Hmmm....

Drat, now I am confused!

Then, Yada Yadah's (aka MyStoryofHiStory's) comment on yesterday's post got me thinking even more...

I like her mantra and I am using it:

REDUCE, Reuse, Recycle,

in that order, she says.

So, on that line of thinking,

What are you going to do with all of your leftover candy canes?

You can put them in your coffee, which I learned from my mother and am doing right now,



Or,



Here's another hint! Use them for VALENTINE'S DAY instead of buying ALL NEW treats!

Find the heart lollipop tutorial here

And two other surprising things you can do with these peppermint hearts here.
(Hint: think heart wreath and edible cupcake liners filled with ice cream! OK, maybe that was more than a mere hint :) )

If you enjoy wine, here's another way to make your purchases keep on giving:


Try drinking charity wine!

We tried their Cabernet Sauvignon, and it was quite good for charity-based wine!

I think it's pretty amazing that anyone donates 50% of profits to anything. That's a big hunk 'o' profit!

Find out which states are involved and how you can buy if you're not in those states here.

I'm still looking for how to reuse those wine bottles after the wine has been consumed, since you can only have so many wine bottle oil lamps sitting around and the people we rent from would perhaps not want me to install a wine bottle chandelier in their ceiling.

Do you have a unique way of reusing glass bottles?
We usually just recycle them all.