Boxes and Jelly Jars = Organized 2011

For those who have some sort of organizing skills, this post won't be very useful. For those like me, it can really help!

First, get some nice boxes, such as the boxes copier paper comes in. The kinds with lids. Get 3 at least. If you have kids of school age, even college, get them one, too.

One box is to be labeled FINANCIAL. One is to be labeled HEALTH. And the last can be labeled whatever you need it to be - if you have a hobby, label it Hobby. Or if you're writing a book, label it Book. For the kids, label it with the year and their grade (or semester).

INTO THESE BOXES goes everything associated with it. If you have a son in college, as I do, into the FALL SEMESTER 2011 box goes ANYTHING to do with it. Receipts, their books, their notebooks, lab safety glasses, a folder with extra Scantrons it it, pens, calculator, ALL OF IT. Each day, things must be taken out of the box, and returned to the box. For the totally disorganized, just get them to THROW their papers into the box and slam the lid back on. The important thing is for the papers and items to be corralled where you KNOW they can be found. If something is needed - "I can't find my syllabus for Chemistry!" "I can't find my instructions for my science project!" - you KNOW it's in there and they must DIG for it.

Passwords, usernames, etc must be written on the inside of the lid, pronto. Go do it right now. Why are you still reading this? GO, and then come back.

For yourself, you're doing the same thing as for the kiddos. I have all my passwords and such written on the inside of my 2011 box's lid. I also have a little book, just a $1 book from the bargain bin at Michael's Crafts or the Dollar Tree store, and I write down everything to do with the web in it. Which forums I go to, etc. All my fave sites, my names, my blogs, etc.

For my work, I have a box. But mine is labeled "2011 Work/Hobby" - and into this goes anything I get from my employers, and anything I do to make extra money. ALL RECEIPTS go into it. And more. Recipes, ideas, thoughts, all of those scraps of paper get thrown in there.

So you get the idea about the boxes.

Now, the jelly jars. Get as many as you need. You are going to be saving change in them. Maybe you just need one for yourself. I need several, for my son and his friends. I put my change into them. I have them lined up on the top of a kitchen cabinet, and when I have change, I reach up and put it into the jelly jars, trying to divide it up pretty evenly. At the end of the year, you will not believe it. It can amount to hundreds of dollars. I give the jar to the recipient, and they can roll the money or pour it into the change-counting machine at their bank or at the grocery store.

Now, there is one more jelly jar or flour-sprinking tin you need to get. It is the Emergency Jar. I use a darling old tin contraption with a screw-on lid, that was used to sprinkle flour out onto pastry or counters. Use something you LIKE.

Into it goes your folding money you can spare. Even just a buck a week. Do what you can. It's your "house bank." Dip into it as you need, only as you need. Try to keep out of it, but it's also there for when you need to run and get a gallon of milk and have no money on you. In case of some disaster, you are going to need cash. ATMs might not be operable. You want to keep CASH on hand.

If you have good self-control, put a LOT of cash in it and "bank" from it. That's the Advanced Jelly Jar Banking System - don't try it unless you know you won't fritter it away. It can help you go to a cash-only basis and you can really find yourself saving a LOT of money.

Okay, try my system. I can't tell you how many times my a$$ has been saved by being able to go dig out a receipt or a little note where I wrote down something that happened. It's kind of like having a journal, only in pieces. At the end of the year, you can go thru the box and throw stuff out, or put it up as a snapshot of that year. And you count your dollar bills and your $20's out of that House Bank and you SMILE!

My Three Best Beauty Secrets

Happy Twelfth Night!

I hope everyone has a nice new broom to use this year! I love that "hay" smell of a new, real broom.

For a beautiful new year, I'm sharing my three best beauty secrets. Not to brag, but I don't look my age. Even with the gray hair. It's kind of embarrassing to still be getting male attention at this stage of the game!

My Best Beauty Secrets:

One
For extremely shiny hair, that is as supple as an eel, RINSE YOUR HAIR IN THE COLDEST WATER YOU CAN STAND. Yes, this hint is much more popular in summer and in hot climes. But honestly, rinsing in cold water will make your hair extremely shiny. So shiny, in fact, that it will look like you've put some kind of shine serum on it, only it is totally natural and has no greasy feeling to it whatsoever, and the hair moves naturally. Make sure to rinse the HAIR, not the SCALP. It's the hair that needs it.

Pouring cups of cold water over the actual hair part is the best way to go.

Two
Pond's Cold Cream. Unbelievably, this stuff will keep your face very young-appearing. Every night, wash your face lightly, then dry COMPLETELY, then smear on the Ponds. Rub it around lightly, all over, as if it's a soap. Then towel it off carefully (I keep a dry washcloth just for this), and wash your face LIGHTLY again. I finally wipe it with a scented baby wipe, very carefully.

Three
Eucerin, original cream. This item is well-known among dermatologists. Use the original cream, in the tub, and apply it anywhere you are dry. Most especially, put it on your lips, rub it in, and leave it on there. Go outside your lipline and let it just soak in. If you don't wear lipstick, apply it like a gloss when you go out and about. Put it around the eyes at night.

When skin ages, the backs of the heels, elbows, and knees often get scaly and dry. It's noticeable -- even if YOU don't notice it. No, it's not IMPORTANT to look YOUNG, but I do think it's important to keep these areas hydrated with Eucerin and looking cared-for.

And my last beauty secret, that is so secret I don't even assign it a number: FINISHED LOOK.

A finished look makes you look so much better than maybe the sum of your features can acheive.

When your look is finished, you project that this is so. It is an aura you give off, and it's really effective.

It's having a very tidy appearance.

Hair needs to be "fixed" - in any manner - as long as it appears FIXED -- either pulled back in a ponytail, caught up with combs, pinned on one side with a decorative bobbypin, off the face with a headband, etc. It just must appear DONE, even if you aren't sure it's the very most flattering style. As long as it is a definitive style, that is fine.

Face must be Pond's Treated and something done to FINISH it -- either lipstick, or eyes smokily rimmed with a darker color, or eyebrows powdered and pencilled, face powdered, or all of the above. But even just ONE thing done gives it a finished look.

There you have it, dearies. I have the most gorgeous blog readers of any blog!

Get Ready for the Carnival Season!

One of the great things about growing up in New Orleans was the carnival season, the Mardi Gras season.

Starting on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6th, the King Cake parties began.

So you can have a lovely Twelfth Night party on the 5th, then keep going on the 6th with the first King Cake!

The King Cake is a ring cake - really, more like a bread - that has a tiny baby doll hidden in it. It represents the Christ Child. In pre-Christian times, it was a bean in there. You can bake the bean, but if you use a plastic baby, then add it from the bottom after it's cooked. Use any coffee-cake-bread ring cake dough you want. Sprinkle Mardi Gras colored sugars on top (gold, green, purple).

The cake is cut into slices. You WANT the slice with the baby in it! Then YOU hold the next King Cake party!

And on and on.

We used to call our city "The Crescent City," due to the big loop the Mississippi River throws, and "The City that Care Forgot." Now, I just call it sad. All my people are gone -- and the city is so changed. I keep toying with the idea of flying there and driving around my old neighborhood, but I don't think my mind could take it. Might go loco.

But we must all just KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON, frens!

Here is a tag that would make a cute birthday bookmark - punch a hole and put a pretty ribbon or tassel in there.

I have a new printable collage sheet of them up in the Etsy shoppe. Read about how to save this tag over on the right sidebar!!!

Using Collage Sheet Tags: Some Examples

My husband was mystified about the whole "printable tags" idea. He was having trouble visualizing them going from their virtual state to their real state, so I printed some out so he could see them go from monitor screen to hanging on the screen door. He even helped cut them out!

I like to print them and send them to friends as little "perk up" mail and as bookmarks. My house is quite bare, except for shelves of books. My house echoes. I have 2 computer chairs, one dragged home from behind an office. Only 2 chairs in the whole place. No couch, not much of anything in the way of furniture, except a huge 8-foot farm trestle table that we scrub with sand Colonial-style to really get clean, and some benches made from split tree trunks. We have some little tables made from cedar fences, too. And bedside fruit crates.

But books are stacked up, placed on shelves, on the small tables; books are here and there, but not crazily so. And tags are sticking out of some of the books. But just a few. Go to a few estate sales where someone who hoarded things lived, and you'll be quite cured of the desire to go overboard on anything. 

But I have been using tags to decorate for Valentine's Day, too. I like seasonal decor - if it's kept light and simple. I really don't like putting away a lot of heavy, bulky stuff, or gathering up 10,000 knickknacks after a holiday is over. I like tags, because they are so easy. And it's kind of like that popular "almost from scratch" cooking - I like the EMBELLISHING part and the choosing of ribbons, not creating each and every tag from scratch. I just print them out and get to the fun part.

Here are some pictures showing how they can be used.