Friday, March 27, 2009

Surprise!


My brother in law, Nathan, wanted to throw his wife Natalie a surprise Birthday party for her 30th B-day! I did all of the decorations. This was the fastest I've ever thrown together a party. I started on Friday and the party was on Monday! Nathan bought Rock Band for Natalie's B-Day present and so he wanted a Rock Star themed party. I couldn't find any ideas online so I had to completely come up with everything myself. I thought Leopard print and red would be a fun RockStar like theme.



















Here's Natalie when she first walked in. She was completely surprised.

















Here's the Buffet table. The party favors were Leopard Print Chinese take-out boxes tied with red ribbon. It had a candle from For Every Body in it.














The Rock Star banner I made.















The Paint can balloon anchor.














30 Banner!















I decoupaged Leopard paper on the bottom of the glasses and added glitter around the edges.









We all played Rock Band and had a great time. Happy 30th Natalie!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Food Storage


I have been feeling a pull to get more food storage together lately. Food Storage is a good idea because you never know when you might need it. Your husband or yourself could lose their/your job, there could be an earthquake or terrorist attack that would make it impossible to get to the store. Or another Great Depression (many economist's feel it's very likely). I've been trying to think outside the box of things that should be in my food storage. We all know it's a good idea to have wheat, beans, water, and oats. What else would we need if we weren't able to make it to the store for an extended amount of time? What if we didn't have water or power?

How would we do our laundry?


I found the last American company that makes washboards.

http://www.columbuswashboard.com/

I felt it was well built and I was glad I bought one. If you never need it it makes a cute laundry room decoration.

Next on my list is a metal washtub.











I also bought a lot of the Fels-Naptha heavy duty laundry bars. It's a solid laundry soap bar. I found them at Ace Hardware.









Another important thing would be a laundry clothesline and clothespins. I found a retractable clothesline at Ace Hardware. It's called the Handi-Line. And you can get clothespins at the dollar store.








We have one 55 gallon water barrel filled up in our garage. It wouldn't last too long with 6 people so I want to get more. It is a start though.












I want to get a sure water tank ASAP. They have a 250 gallon to over 500 gallon tanks.
https://www.surewatertanks.com/



























Another important thing to have is handkerchiefs. You can wash them over and over. A better idea than storing a ton of Kleenex.









Another very important thing I have in my Food Storage is glad rags. http://www.gladrags.com/


Glad Rags are washable maxi pads. You might think that sounds gross but it would be hard to store a lot of maxi pads or tampons. They come in a lot of different sizes. If you couldn't get to a store you'd be very glad you had some of these.













I also have cloth diapers stored. If you don't need them someone else will. It would make a great barter item.





















What if you couldn't get to your bank or the banking system was closed down for some reason (For example the government closes it for a "bank holiday" to avoid a run on the bank)?

I plan on getting some silver coins soon. Right now it's hard to find a website that have silver or gold coins in stock. I found one after a lot of searching. http://www.apmex.com/ I feel silver coins are better than gold cuz it would be easier to trade things with silver than gold. I wouldn't store US Dollars because you never know what the value of the dollar is going to be. Gold and silver are always valuable.









Another thing I've stored is bags of hard candy. We are a nation addicted to sugar. If you don't need it it would make a great barter item.








I also keep some clothes, underwear, and shoes a few sizes ahead of what my kids are in right now. During the Great Depression not having these things for kids was a big problem.


Most every time I go grocery shopping I pick up some shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, lotion and/or toothpaste for my food storage. Get the stuff on sale! These would be priceless if you couldn't make it to the store.


I store vinegar and baking soda. You can use these two things for so many cleaning jobs and also you can use it in your cooking.

I have a lot of spices in my food storage. It's a great way to spice up some boring food storage!

Another thing that is hard to store a lot of is Toilet Paper. I have some but it goes pretty fast then what do you do? I have some spray bottles stored for this purpose. You put some liquid soap in it with some water and use it to spray yourself off with.













A sun oven is a great thing is have in case there wasn't any power or gas to run your stove. http://www.energystork.com/









A solar flashlight is another great item to have. http://www.energystork.com/










I hope I don't ever need to use all of this but I feel better knowing I have it just in case. It's better to be safe than sorry! Hope this gave you some ideas about things you've never thought to have with your food storage items.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Pinewood Derby












Christian participated in the Pinewood Derby with his Scout Troop on March 3, 2009. He worked so hard on his car. Here's a picture of him with his friend's and a picture of him putting his car on the track for his first race.












Christian got 7th place overall.














He won an award for most creative car!



















Great Job Christian!