As featured in the story "A Candle For Christmas" from the book: Christmas In Dairyland (True Stories From a Wisconsin Farm)
For germ-free cutting boards, slice a lemon in half and dip in salt. Use the salted lemon as a scrub for your cutting board. First rinse the board with hot water to remove surface debris. Then scrub with salted lemon. Let the salt soak on the board 5 minutes. Rinse in hot water.Another Christmas decorating idea I has was to create ice sculptures in the front yard which I made by several sizes of globes. I decorate the house inside with the help of evergreens and ribbons. Traditional glass ornaments for decorating the mantel and the table tops are also used. What I really like about evergreens is that they stay fresh for a few weeks and after the season is over I can easily burn them in the fire place. As far as the bulbs and ribbons are concerned, after the Christmas season is gone I store them in flat boxes. It is important to know that the best Christmas ideas do not necessarily mean a great deal of money or storage of items.To make solid candles, select several glass containers. Pint or half-pint canning or jelly jars work well. For the wick, measure out a few more inches of string than is needed to reach the bottom of the container. Tie the string around a pencil. Put the pencil across the top of the container to hold the wick in place. When the paraffin and crayons are melted, pour the liquid wax into the container(s). When the candle is set, snip off the wick about a half inch above the wax.Some of the kitchen products from decades past are actually very toxic. Plastic storage containers, non-stick pans, and coated cans have all been shown to leach petrochemcials into our food. Canning jars are free of plastics and BPA that is in so many canned foods and storage containers. These jars come in a variety of sizes and shapes for storing dry goods, left overs, and even for packing lunches.The candles I have made with a single piece of string only burn for an hour or so and burn quickly enough so that most of the paraffin remains intact. To use the paraffin again, melt the candle and pour the wax into other containers to make solid candles.5. Stop LeachingCast iron, stainless steel, copper, and enameled iron cookware are all safer choices than non-stick. In fact, cast iron has been shown to impart iron into foods, which can help people suffering from iron deficiency anemia.You can enlighten your Christmas by following some of my Christmas decorating ideas by using the natural evergreens and ice; you won't have any storage issues with them and they won't cost you much. Of course, you don't have to settle for the same Christmas decorations each year. You can make the ice globes in different shapes and you can buy new bulbs and ribbons in different colours which are quite cheap. Last Christmas I even used some popcorn and cranberry strands instead of the traditional ribbons. After the season was over I placed the strand in the trees outside so that the birds could enjoy. In conclusion, stylish and smart Christmas decorating ideas don't have to be expensive; you can use simple things to make your Christmas unforgettable.Egg shells, coffee grounds, and veggie scraps can easily break down in a small back-porch compost bin. Even apartment dwellers can compost in a container. If you have more space, you can build a large open-air compost with stakes and chicken wire. Add yard waste and fibrous material such as dryer lint to a larger compost. Extremely aggressive composts can digest hardy organic garbage. If your back yard compost is large enough and hot enough, you may be able to add things such as pet waste, paper towels, vacuum cleaner canister contents, and even fatty food waste.For more ways to green your kitchen, take to Going Green Today EcoQuiz!A green kitchen saves tons of money. Disposable kitchen products simply put cash in the trash and grow our pollution problems. Here are five things you can do today to start saving money and the planet.Caution: Do not heat paraffin directly over the burner. Paraffin is easily combustible. Use a double boiler or a two-pound coffee can set in a pan of water. I put the coffee can on top of home canning jar rings (the rings, not the flat lids). If the can is not set on top of something, the concave bottom creates a vacuum when the water begins to heat up, plus if it�s on the bottom of the pan, it's just that much closer to the burner.~ Solid Candles ~
************
Author: LeAnn R. Ralph
No comments:
Post a Comment