One of the most inexpensive ways to create stonewalls in your home/haunt is by using good-‘ol cardboard boxes. Boxes laid flat and painted to the desired effect are relatively easy and cheap methods of creating stonewall effects.
The availability of the material is stunning. In fact, most people and businesses are more than willing to give up large, bulky cardboard boxes taking up precious space. It’s incredibly lightweight and the amount of cardboard to re-do an average bedroom can be hefted by one person.
Another plus is that if your cache of cardboard is destroyed……….SO WHAT? More is always available, and except for painting time and material, free seems incredibly cost effective.
Cardboard is not only for just good for covering walls, it can be used structurally to create walls, columns, and facades and look good while doing so.
And the all so important off-season storage dilemma is covered here as well. Since cardboard is easily folded, it stacks well vertically or horizontally.
Acquiring Cardboard
So right now you’re probably thinking about you local grocer and how he helped you out with some boxes on your last move. Well unless carrots start growing six feet tall forget it!
We need square footage with as little piecing together as possible. Washers, dryers, water heaters, and cabinets are excellent boxes for wall work. Refrigerator and freezer boxes are the crème-de-la-crème of cardboard scavenging.
The best place to find ALL these kinds of boxes is in new residential construction. It’s hard not to tell when the plumbers have “topped out” all the fixtures in the building as a huge stack of boxes appears in the waste heap. That’s right ………Waste. I refer to these occurrences as “Box Days”
You may want to ask permission from the sites superintendent to avoid unneeded arrests, but I can almost guarantee that nobody’s going to object to you removing bulky waste from the housing tract.
Kitchen and bathroom cabinets that have been purchased from major production outlets ship boxed. They tend not to be cut like someone was chewing their way out, like some washer, dryer and water heater boxes are, as the heavy appliances are maneuvered out of their boxes and into place. Keeping an eye out on a tract or two of new houses is key to discovering box days.
Box days also occur when people move into their new home as well. You would be surprised at how many people clean through their stuff AFTER the move to the new house. Usually these boxes are either driven or carried around the corner to a trash heap and left there.
You can also score bonus finds in move-in rubbish such as motors, trim, paint, gears and old household stuff to turn into Halloween goodies and nobody really cares if they are removed.
Actually they’re not even supposed to be there in the first place.
By all means explore other venues where large boxed items are opened frequently, such as freight warehouses and import companies, but in this authors opinion, new and developing housing is the source worth watching.
The GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY
Corrugated board usually consists of outer flat sheets (veneers) of puncture resistant paper, sandwiching a central “filling” of corrugated short fiber paper (fluting), which resists crushing under compression and gives cushioning protection to the box’s contents. The cardboard has high end-to-end strength along the corrugated flutes, so the box is normally designed with the corrugation running vertically for stacking strength.
The veneers and corrugated medium are glued together along the outsides of the peaks and valleys of each flute, normally using starch adhesives. The starch adhesives are usually derived from corn, wheat or potato.
We are concerned with the double face cardboard because of its availability. Occasionally building materials such as sheetrock mud, lacquer, and cement will splash onto the sheets of cardboard and dry while in the trash. Most substances will come off with a simple brush of the hand or with a stiff broom. You can remove more stubborn areas with a square nosed shovel, inverted so the underside of the scoop is up. This will prevent the shovel from digging into the corrugation.
Cardboard that has been exposed to water, rain, or other moisture will separate and delaminate the veneers from the corrugation.
Preparations
So first thing you want to do to get started is to cut the flaps free at the top and the bottom of the box so the flaps remain intact. Find the seam where the machine glued the box together and cut along the crease originally made when the box was assembled. Don’t bother trying to save the flap here as it usually tears the veneer from the corrugation.
Lay the box flat on the ground so all of the flaps are visible. Notice the notches die cut into the sheet where the flaps once folded? Run a piece of 2″ masking tape, starting from the outside edge of the box, all along the notch, plus about 2-3″ beyond and into the field. Repeat for all the notches then walk or slide your foot along the tape to secure it well then turn the sheet over. We are going to tape these same notches again only a little bit different.
This time start your strips of tape about 2-3″ inside the field, similar to the other sides ending point, but when you reach the outside edge, run the tape about 4-6″ longer than the boxes edge. Secure the strip with your foot then carefully fold this extra tape over and onto the tape from the first side.
This will strengthen and fill the gap created by the notch. The extra tape that is folded over the edge to the other side prevents it from tearing into flaps again.
Delaminated cardboard should be trimmed back to areas where the glue still adheres the layers together. Using a sharp razor knife and a long, strait cutting edge makes this a simple task.
Trim any holes up by cutting a square or rectangle area around the damage. Then cut a scrap of cardboard that fits inside this area loosely(1/8″ gap). Taping both sides of cardboard with a 4″ overlap beyond any 90 degree angled corners is good to secure it in place.
Most rips and tears in cardboard can be re-joined simply by pushing them together, and taping both sides with 1″ overlapping strips of 2″ tape until the piece feels sturdy along the tear As always, any rips that tears through the outside edge should be taped with a 4-6″ overlapping strip.
Whatever you do, don’t spend more time taping together small pieces than you could finding a decent box! Before taping up sheets like jigsaw puzzles, stop and evaluate the overall useful square footage you have to deal with. Is there more than 80% of the box intact? Do I have to fill a lot of punctures and tears?
A box with 20% fill and repair is almost too much work considering the availability of boxes. YOU have to ultimately decide if a box is worth your efforts or not.
Shortages of money for tape can be a factor. I always keep on the lookout for discarded rolls of partially used tape while digging through the construction rubble. A lot of contractors leave behind all different kinds of tape. Ductape (not very paintable but strong as hell!) is always in abundance around tract home sites. The tape the stucco lathers use around here to seal their 3/4″ foam board is THE BEST for our intended application. It is pretty much a veneer with adhesive and it paints just like cardboard.
Painting
First off, lets cover some of my frugal basics of paint and painting supplies. Never throw away rollers unless you absolutely have to! Remember that most Halloween paints are black and grays, so washing out the color
is near impossible. If enough paint is washed out the roller it becomes soft and fluffy and totally re-useable. It will still be black or gray but rinsing out enough paint to save some money isn’t that much work.
Most hardware stores, back in the paint section, have what they call an “oops” area. An oops area is where all the custom coloring is done…….sometimes twice. The quart, gallon, and five gallon containers from the employees first attempts at the customers colors are usually reduced price steals. Where else are you going to find five gallons of black 30 year exterior latex enamel for $15.00? Concrete paints, porch and deck polymers, and the always abundant latex varieties are all victims to colorant errors. This is something I do faithfully every time I enter my Home Depot or Orchard Supply Hardware stores. Always seems to be a gallon black or a shade of gray in there all year long. Beware of the paint Nazi who thinks she can tell you how to paint and with what. PVA primer CAN be pigmented.
First thing you’re going to do roll on the mortar color first. For the mortar I use a lighter shade of gray than the stone color…..which is best black. Very dark and forbidding. You’re going to want to get an extension pole for your roller or this might get hard. Broom handles work in a pinch and are even the right thread count. I then park all the vehicles on the street to free up room in the drive. You want fairly firm ground so the job of rolling paint evenly goes easy. Concrete is ideal but I’ve seen some dirt driveways that will work just as well given all the small stones are raked or swept so as not to poke through the cardboard and to insure even paint coverage. What will not work well is the lawn or your neighbors lawn so just use his driveway instead.
When all the cardboard has been laid out on the driveway and in the garage, I roll a heavy single coat on, being sure to roll the paint into the creases created from the folding of corners in it’s previous life as a box. The advantage to mass painting is the dry time alone from opening up a can again and again. As of this writing, the Home Depot in my town doesn’t stock them anymore since they informed me that they are just going to hire some teenagers to use the forms to make the pre-made concrete stones they sell now…..hmm.
Orchard Supply to the rescue once again. The concrete molds have been in stock there forever. So get a walkway mold and align it with on one side or the other of your painted sheet. It’s easiest to use a colored pencil similar in color to the color of your base coat. This makes it not so noticeable and you don’t always stay within the lines so much, right kids? I tried using a Sharpie on one sheet and I hated myself for all the dark, heavy black lines left to cover. Using the mold upside down, trace the contour of the stones out onto the cardboard. Now, lightly scribe the two outside flanges where the pattern forms a “v” on one side and an “a” on the other side made by the mold’s outside shape. These will be the keys to line up the next areas to be scribed since there’s no concrete to line up the mold with again and the mold shape itself makes it hard the judge the distance from the last stone to the next to keep the mortar thickness the same. Once I can see the rocks I can’t help but miss the ass in my face….yummy.
They best part about this next phase is you get to sit down and paint the stones. The cardboard isn’t all that uncomfortable, so the whole family can pitch in and help. I use one of those small foam bushes with soft little angled bristles. It is set on a curved handle with comfort in mind because painting this way with a standard brush would require you to post your wrists while painting to stay within the lines. By posting I mean setting your wrist down on a surface much like when you write with a pencil. but this is like moving a matchbox car with a tight turn radius around the rock patterns we scribed earlier. Another plus of this curved handle is it allows you to dip the brush directly into the paint can to wet the foam pad. This eliminates the pouring of paint into other smaller containers which wastes paint.
In no time at all you’ll have each stones outline down to a rhythm. Most all the stones can be completed in two independent outline strokes and one more stroke to fill. Try to have an adult go first, stenciling ahead of any children. We know how eager they can be sometimes. Once the mortar coat is dry to the touch, you can stack all the sheets into one pile. Try to complete one sheet at a time. Stencil all of it then paint all the stones as well. Trying to complete a dozen at once is way too overwhelming of a task, believe you me. The stack is way soft now and everyone shouldn’t mind painting for a little bit. No need to have perfectly painted stones because “The Powers That Be” didn’t waste His/Her/Their time making them identical so neither should you.
Grommets
This is one of the greatest tools ever overlooked. see Figure 5. The grommet installation kit. Stores like Harbor Freight sells kits like this for about $4.99 and comes with something like 100 or so grommets.
The grommet gives us a strong anchor point without worrying about any tearing or ripping or having nails or staples pull away from the wall from it’s weight. A small round punch is used to make a perfect circle. I use a small scrap of plywood underneath the cutting operation so as not to dull the cutter. A steel base with 1/2 the grommet poking through the hole is placed below the cardboard. The other 1/2 of the grommet is placed on top of this with a steel punch made to curl the soft metal grommet in the base then smacked with a hammer till it seats down. Do not beat the piss out of it since the grommet since it crimps itself onto the cardboard. You would wind up with an even bigger hole that I’m not quite sure they make grommets for.
Another large plus of grommet is that while you are happily making holes for nails and hooks you might not realize that you are also putting in holes made perfect for bungee cords, the grommets intended purpose. Now you can suspend your cardboard walls overhead and make them ceilings. Shifting walls and ceilings are easily made by stretching out a sheet of cardboard so it is suspended mid air. Using a PVC or 2 x 2 lightweight frame to stretch and anchor the bungee’s to. Moving the frame can easily be accomplished with air rams or motors. Even easier is to suspend the sheet on a frame and have it anchored so you can manipulate the cardboard itself. Probably somewhat safer as well.
Cardboard is very versatile and very common. Let’s give a real haunted look instead of those shiny black plastic bag ceilings all too common in towns everywhere.
Douglas Trouette is owner of SIC Productionz. SIC Productionz provides D.I.Y. Halloween animatronics and other inexpensive holiday animatronics as well as Halloween haunted props.
Okay, guys: listen up! I am here to tell you what women want for Christmas. You probably already know it, but you don’t understand it. What am I saying? Well, those little ads that have been mysteriously popping up on your dresser, on your workbench, or plastered to the windshield of your truck did not get there by accident. Somebody who wants you to pay close attention to what she really wants put it there. You don’t think the wind blew it there do you? Oh, please! Let’s go down the list and find out what your lady really wants for Christmas. I abbreviated everything for clarity and to be concise. That means the 27 items she really wants are condensed to just five. Get it?
1. Jewelry – You had to ask? What woman doesn’t want something shiny to wear on her fingers, around her neck, her wrist, her anklet, her belly button…Okay, I’m not talking custom jewelry either. I’m talking about something that will retain its shine in all weather conditions and can be counted in the number of karats it possesses. You can count on it setting you back at least through the following June, probably as late as Thanksgiving…
2. Chocolate – Milk chocolate just doesn’t cut it, fellas. Better for you to pick it up by the brand: Peregina, Godiva, and Richart are a few that come to mind. Yeah, get her the little stocking stuffer Santa chocolates too. She’ll think that you are being real sweet!
3. To the Islands! Okay, time to splurge. Go all out and book that early February vacation to Paradise. You know you will need it by time that the 17th measurable snowstorm plasters your driveway. Oh, by the way, no matter how much she thinks that the kids should come along, make arrangements with your parents to
come and spend the week at your house. If the kiddies come down with the flu at least they will be in a familiar environment with adults who will spoil them rotten!
4. Spa Membership – This one gets tricky. If you give her a spa membership, she will say that you think she is getting fat/old/wrinkly, etc. You’re walking in dangerous territory, men! Better yet, make sure that it is a place where her friends already hang out. Tell her you want her to have regular quality time with her girlfriends. She won’t buy your pitch, but she’ll join especially when you present her with the other gift that she wants: chocolate.
5. Stuff For Her Minivan. You know how hard it is for you to summon up courage to drive the family van, right? Especially after driving your Dakota all week. Who wants to be caught driving that thing? She does! This is where you really have to die to self: give her spark plugs and spark plug wires for Christmas and leave it at that. Just kidding. Better to find the name brand auto parts she really wants: floor mats, seat covers, pet pads, etc. All the frilly little things that make her vehicle, well, her own.
Are you still not sure what she wants? Then just look. That advertisement on your workbench is open to the page for the item she wants… the one with the big, red circle around it. So, just get it and leave it at that. If you do, you’ll be singing, “peace on earth and goodwill toward men” in no time. Merry Christmas!
Matt Keegan is a madcap auto enthusiast and contributing writer for PitStop Auto Parts, a seller of discount auto accessories includingCatco converter and Taylor wires for your motor vehicle.
Witches, Goblins, & Trick or Treat
Ever wonder how, when and where Halloween came into being? Actually, if it hadn’t been for Pope Benedict IV kids today would have nothing to do but play video games and watch TV each October 30, for it was in the year 609 AD that the good Pope set aside November 1 as a day devoted to honoring martyrs, and therefore saints, both known and unknown. Formally entered into the Roman Catholic calendar in the year 900 AD, the day became known as All Saints Day and is observed to this day by Catholics around the world.
What’s so Scary?
The scary part emanated in England where the day became known as All Hallows and the evening before (Oct. 30) was dubbed All Hallows Eve, soon shortened to Halloween.
As a kind of counterbalance to the holiness of All Saints Day, practices dating to pre-Christian pagan days were revived. In preparation for the coming of winter poor people would appear on the doorstep of the well off and demand food, clothing and alms. To the warm and cozy householder these scruffy souls must have seemed evil indeed. And to the cunning scruffy what could be more natural than to exploit the squeamishness of the well heeled?Witches and Goblins.
The poor, especially the elderly and even more so old women, became the scapegoats for any calamity to visit a medieval village. And so evolved the image of the witch.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines a goblin as “A grotesque, elfin creature of folklore thought
to work mischief or evil,” an image perfectly in sync with small fry getting into scary costumes and knocking on doors.
Witches by the Million
In doing research for The Witch of Greenwich Village this writer discovered that there seem to be myriad witches in our midst. In the innumerable mentions of the word witch on google some truly bizarre sites are cited, including: Witch School.com, How to Kill a Witch, Witch Hunter, Witch Magazine, Tools of the Witch, etc.
Anyone who thinks that witchcraft, Satanism and black magic are things of the past should think again. Criminal cases involving such accusations crop up every year, the young sometimes accusing their own parents of involvement in the occult.
For a synopsis, an excerpt and reviews of this writer’s novel please visit http://www.thewitchofgreenwichvillage.com
Frank O’Donnell bio
Playwright/Novelist
Frank wrote the book and lyrics for Robin for Good, a musical comedy based on the Robin Hood legends. It played to rave reviews and standing ovations at the Muskoka Festival in Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada for a summer season. His drama Twisters was produced on Theatre Row in Manhattan. Eight of his one act plays have been seen in a variety of venues. The Witch of Greenwich Village, Frank’s first novel, is currently in print. For a synopsis and an excerpt please visit http://www.thewitchofgreenwichvillage.comThe father of seven children and five grandchildren, Frank and his wife Dolores reside on Long Island, New York. As an actor O’Donnell appeared in over thirty plays and nearly a dozen films.
A visit to the Pantomime is a longstanding Christmas tradition. Children and grown-ups alike love it, this peculiarly British way to celebrate the festive season. When else would you take the kids to see a woman playing a man, a man playing a woman and the most blatantly fake animal ever seen on a stage?
There are several elements that must be included in a traditional Panto; the show should be based on a well-know fairytale; there must be singing and dancing; topical jokes as well as old chestnuts; shameless double entendre; lots of audience participation; familiar stock characters must appear, and of course there must be a transformation scene where the put-upon hero or heroine finally achieves their destiny.
The word pantomime originally meant the person performing in a dumb show – a play without words that today we would call a mime. Later it began to refer to the show itself. The form of the modern pantomime is thought to be based on the Italian Commedia dell’arte, a humorous play which would combine music, acrobatics and slapstick and include familiar characters, stock storylines and topical jokes.
In the late 19th century the trend for casting a well-known actor in the pantomime began at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and continues to
this day. You may be fortunate enough to see a great performance from a comedy legend, although nowadays the roles are more likely to go to soap stars, ex-members of short-lived pop bands and TV reality show survivors.
So why do we love it so much? Firstly there is little on at the theatre that the whole family can enjoy together. Secondly it is all so familiar; you know the stories and the characters, it is just like putting up the Christmas tree with the decorations you use each year, a long-remembered ritual. Ultimately however, the charm is its utter irresistibility. However down you feel when you go into the theatre, you cannot help but groan at the appalling jokes, cannot help but join in with ‘it’s behind you!’ and cannot help but sing along with everyone else in the finale.
Most importantly it is the best way to introduce your children to the magic of live theatre. There is nothing like the excitement of a live performance, with its unpredictability, its tension and most of all, its atmosphere. A pantomime is the perfect way to let your children experience that magic.
Visit Big Panto Guide http://www.bigpantoguide.co.uk/ to find a pantomime near you in the UK.
What is a simple small act of giving during Christmas that does not cost much can leave behind memories that can last a lifetime to a loved one.
I remembered many years back, when I was a small kid of 10 years, one of my aunt who was a devout christian and who celebrated Christmas gave me a christmas present. It was a big sized book that I could read, on the story of a pirate on the high seas. It gave tremendous joy to me, a small kid at that time. It wouldn’t have cost her more than $10 for it, but her act that day gave me tremendous joy that lasted until this day – a simple act of giving that touched my heart, and which remains cherished. Though this aunt is now living in another foreign land, thousands of miles apart, and there has not been any communication between us for over twenty over years, yet there is this unwavering bond of love that somewhere in this world, there is someone who cared many, many years back, and whom I would desire to want to look her up and visit if there is an opportunity. Indeed, time and distance has not diminished the very memories of her beautiful act of giving that day.
I used to wonder why it is said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. I always felt that receiving something from someone else and keeping it in my pockets was more blessed than to give away.
But then when I think of this little piece of history
and personal experience, and recalled the tremendous amount of joy in my heart when I received that story book as a gift, I could remember how my aunt’s face also lit up, and glowed, and she seemed to be to be almost like the wonderful fairy who takes care of everyone on earth, and I am sure she felt blessed, and happy.
Indeed, it is when we give away from ourselves and give to others, such as our loved ones and those in need that we can be blessed in return. A gift is a gift..because we give without expectation of anything in return, but the laws of nature and of this universe dictate that when we give out of love, this love is translated into an energy that cannot be explained, and which will touch lives, and change perceptions, and make the world a better place to live in.
So this Christmas season, pause and think of how we can sow love and give gifts and presents of love to others. Our gifts may not be expensive, but yet they can touch a life when we give off our hearts, and away from ourselves and when we give out of goodwill and love.
Indeed, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Peter Lim is a Certified Financial Planner and Marketing Strategist. If you are wondering what you can consider as gifts this season, consider some exciting ideas found on the web site ” Christmas Gift Ideas for Your Loved Ones” at http://www.1best-deals.info/christmas-gift-ideas and the Travel Reward Vouchers at the blog http://www.insider-niche-marketing.blogspot.com
Christmas costumes are fun too! We all had fun dressing up for Halloween, but did you ever think about Christmas costumes. Imagine your kids coming down on Christmas morning to see Santa, and Mrs. Clause standing by the Christmas tree. Would that be exciting? When you were a kid, would you have gotten a kick out of that?
Christmas Costumes could be a great new tradition to start, if they are not already a big part of your holiday celebration. Every year you and other members of your family just start dressing up, and poof, a new tradition is started. Christmas traditions create lasting joyous memories. Traditions also provide future generations with a guide line, that they can improve on. When you get married, you often have to combine two family traditions, and that creates new traditions.
Of course Christmas costumes are just one possibility of traditions to pass down to your offspring. One of great ones we had, was for the youngest of the family to place the toper on the Christmas tree, helped by the oldest of the family. One fond memory is when Grandpa (who could barley lift himself, let alone a two year old) knocked over the Christmas tree. After finding out every one was ok, it made for a hilarious moment caught on 8mm film ( thats a big clue as to may age). The point is, the whole family will for ever remember that moment in time. I continue this tradition on to this day, and I expect my children will do the same..
Hmmm.. I hope I never knock over the tree..
Just for fun one year, try passing out Santa hats, Reindeer hats with antlers, or some other funny looking Grinch stole Christmas hat, and watch the fun start. The kids and adults alike will have a great time. You have just spread Christmas joy that goes way beyond the gift giving. You have just created a togetherness that, in my opinion, is more in line with the true spirit of Christmas, that gifts under the tree just can’t match.
Christmas costumes do not have to be expensive. Felt hats are very reasonable, look good, and can be packed up at the end of the day and saved for next year. You don’t have to buy the velvet Santa suit, when a felt Santa will do just fine. Or, instead of the whole suit, you can go with just the Santa hat and beard and still have a lot of fun.
Can you imagine the fun you could have with kids baking Christmas cookies while dressed as Mrs. Clause? Or having a Santa and an Elf pass out the Christmas gifts? Man, thats a Christmas to remember. Not to mention the in-laws are really going to be impressed.
Just remember the fun we have dressing in costumes for Halloween doesn’t have to end there, costumes are for Christmas too!
James Newton and Edie Deween own and operate their shop in Augusta Ga. And have a web site for you to make purchases at http://www.sweetdeal4u.biz. Where you can see all of our Articles.
Fall is harvest time so take advantage of the bounty of nature. It’s Thanksgiving time, so take advantage of the generosity of others. Some clever hunting and gathering can help you save time and money and still have a festively decorated home for the holidays.
1. Gather branches, leaves, seed pods, pine cones, acorns and anything else from your yard that fits with the fall color scheme.
Even without a glue gun you can arrange attractive centerpieces and mantel displays.
2. Visit the produce department of your grocery and pick vegetables that suit your color scheme.
Squashes come in all colors, shapes and sizes and last a long time unrefrigerated. Pumpkins may be reduced after Halloween and work well. Arrange them in groups, alone, or around the greenery.
3. Check out your garden for what’s in bloom.
Lucky you if you have chrysanthemums, but many other things will do if you’ll take a second look.
4. Cheap tip for a real glow? Buy a fair-sized mirror at the dollar store or thrift shop, place it on your dining room table, buffet or any low table (you have to be able to see the reflection) and cover it with tea lights or candles. Beautiful!
5. Get accent pieces from your local Goodwill store and thrift shops. People donate the most amazing holiday decorations that can be yours for pennies. – hand towels, wreaths, pillows, dressed stuffed animals, wall pictures, bedspreads, water globes, statuettes and serving pieces. Drop by often until you find what you need. 6. Change out your lamp shades.
Check out the lamp shade selection at Goodwill and buy some to fit your color scheme, or simply in darker shades to cozy up the house. It only takes a
minute to change them. Just make sure before you go to check how your lampshades attach and match them.
7. Don’t forget to check out the holiday picture frames at the resale shop or garage sales.
You could move a favorite photo to a holiday frame and place that somewhere prominent. Neat if you use photos from former holidays, like when the kids were little, or your grandparents were still alive. Also look over the prints at garage sales and bargain stores with an eye toward the frames. You can throw out the print!
8. If you have a neutral couch with pillows, shop the bargain stores for accent pillows in fall colors, or change them all to the thematic color. Slipcovers are also a possibility.
9. Let the children make some decorations.
Some suggestions: Painting Thanksgiving pictures you then frame and hang on the walls or use for placemats. Cutting out leaves in fall colors to place around the centerpiece, scatter across the front door step to welcome guests, or pin to curtains. Given them clay or play-doh and let them fashion pilgrims, turkeys, leaves, or fruits. 10. Don’t forget yourself! Most thrift stores set up displays of holiday apparel you’ll want to take advantage of for you and the kids. (And the most beautiful hostess is the one who is rested and enjoying the event herself, so take care of yourself and use your EQ skills.)
©Susan Dunn, MA, EQ coaching, http://www.susandunn.cc , mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc . Individual coaching, business programs, EQ Alive! #1 rated program to increase your EQ – simple, no memorizing, it works. Email for information, and free ezine.
Here comes another Thanksgiving, and with it, lots of talk and writing about being grateful.
This is a good thing, that should be carried in our hearts and minds all year long.
A gratitude list
“He’s makin’ a list and checkin’ it twice….”
Wait a minute, isn’t that a Christmas song, and we are talking about Thanksgiving, right?
Right on both counts.
Here’s my notion – we all know how to talk the talk about Thanksgiving, gratitude and abundance.
I’m interested in moving you and me from talking the talk to walking the walk.
One way to move from talking the talk to walking the walk is to put it on paper in the form of a gratitude list.
What’s on your list?
So get out a sheet of paper or get ready to type on your keyboard.
Think back over the last
year. For what are you grateful? What are the things you have to be thankful for? To whom are you grateful?
I want to invite you to actually do three things:
Thing 1: Make the list.
Thing 2: Keep it with you.
Thing 3: Read it at least three times a day. Once when you get up, once as you go to bed, and one other time of your choosing during the day.
Watch your mood and perspective change.
Visit The Article Guy for more leading edge tips and tools for writing articles that bring you prospects, publicity and profits. You can also subscirbe to our monthly Article Empire Tips Newsletter. You are also invited to visit my Express-Start Article Writing Program for more information on the next article writing tele-seminar.
I have been fortunate in my career to train with some excellent people.
One of those has been author and parent educator Steven Glynn. He came to Tallahassee in the early 80′s when he was first starting out, and I was glad to learn much from him in that training.
One of the many things that has stuck with me is Steven Glynn’s definition of abundance. According to Glynn:
“In terms of the world, you have abundance if, when you get up in the morning, you have a choice of what to eat, a choice of what to wear, and job to go to, and a way to get there.”
That quote certainly puts all of our striving for more and our discontent into perspective, now doesn’t it?
My guess is that everyone reading this
article has a choice of what to eat, what to wear, a job to go to and a way to get there. If you don’t have a job right now, you have a way to get one.
I also guess that within five miles of where you are, you could find those that do not have these things.
This definition of abundance, when kept in mind, can lead to only one perspective on the world:
gratitude.
Visit The Article Guy for more leading edge tips and tools for writing articles that bring you prospects, publicity and profits. You can also subscirbe to our monthly Article Empire Tips Newsletter. You are also invited to visit my Express-Start Article Writing Program for more information on the next article writing tele-seminar.
I am going to have to write to the big-wigs at Sears. Or call them.
What’s the idea, anyway? What kind of a message is that to send during the holiday season? Wish big?
But that’s exactly what the Sears television commercials are suggesting — wish big.
Then again, why not?
People in this country are already living beyond their incomes and are charging all of those lovely ‘extras’ to their credit cards. So why not wish big at Christmas time? By all means, spend your available cash on necessities like food, shelter and clothing. And then put that expensive piece of jewelry — or a large-screen television — or a computer complete with a $4,000 color laser printer — on the credit card and pay it off over the next two or three or four or five or ten years. If you do that, you’ll feel better. Much better. Then you can do it again next year and extend that payment for another ten years.
Children are living with inflated expectations about what they ‘should’ want for Christmas, too. Toys? Books? Dolls? Stuffed animals? Certainly not. Expensive electronics. Games. Ipods. A computer for their rooms so they can roam the Internet and be a target for every sexual predator out there. That’s the thing children need. Not something which will challenge their imaginations and their creativity and their thinking skills.
Materialism and consumerism and capitalism. That’s what we should have more of in this world. That’s what people need to get them out of debt and back on the road to financial solvency. That’s what people need to help them be healthy and live more comfortably. After all, if people are busy working to pay for those “wish big” items, they won’t have the time or the energy to worry about what the politicians or the big corporations are doing behind their backs.
Wish big, indeed.
Well, I can ‘wish big’ too.
Here’s my idea of ‘wishing big’ for this holiday season –
1. I wish that people would be nicer to one another. You know — the old ‘golden rule’ — treat others the way you would want to be treated. Then maybe we could say that certain things no longer exist: CEOs who pocket huge salaries while
they squander their employees’ retirement funds, as well as other types of fraud and theft, not to mention wars and murders and rapes and child abuse and spouse abuse and elder abuse.
2. I wish that those people who are intolerant of other people — whether it’s because of skin color or lifestyle or economic status or religious beliefs — would learn to be a bit more tolerant. Even a slight increase in tolerance would make the world a better place.
3. I wish that all of those people who are victims of natural disasters (tsunami, hurricanes, earthquakes) could have plenty of food and warm blankets and sturdy shelters and money to rebuild their homes and their towns and their villages.
4. I wish all of those people who are sick and dying and in pain could find a cure for their ailments or relief from their suffering.
5. I wish that those senior citizens — and younger, people, too (especially those families living without health insurance) — who have to make a choice between buying their medicine and buying groceries would not have to choose but would be able to afford both.
6. I wish all of those people in the world who are hungry could have an abundance of food, and I wish all of those people in the world who need shelter could have a home to call their own.
7. I wish all of those who feel lonely and unloved and unwanted could find find comfort in the love and companionship of friends and family and neighbors and the community around them.
These are a few of my ideas about ‘wishing big’ for the Christmas season.
What are yours?
© 2005 LeAnn R. Ralph
LeAnn R. Ralph is the author of the books “Cream of the Crop (More True Stories from Wisconsin Farm)” (trade paperback, Sept. 2005); “Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm” (trade paperback 2003); “Give Me a Home Where the Dairy Cows Roam” (trade paperback 2004); “Preserve Your Family History (A Step-by-Step Guide for Interviewing Family Members and Writing Oral Histories” (e-book 2004). You are invited to read sample chapters, order books and sign up for the free newsletter, Rural Route 2 News — http://ruralroute2.com