Happy New Year !

Wishing everyone a very happy & prosperous 2010 !

This year I'm going to set a goal of drastically reducing the amount of ready made pantry items I purchase. Obviously, there are staples such as flour, milk, eggs, olive oil, etc. that I can not make myself. But gone will be ready made crackers, cereals, cookies ... and much more. I have been practicing this goal for the past three or four months. Even with the holidays, I found ways to cut back ... less baking, making recipes from scratch (just where did that phrase originate?;) And I will take planting my garden more seriously with great planning strategy to produce more in the space I have plotted. This will be my third year of planting a veggie garden ... still a novice ... but with a better grip on what is involved. Below is a list of practices I hope to employ:

• never take my hungry children grocery shopping
  
• take my own reusable grocery bags WITH me instead of leaving them at home or in the car trunk
• grow, can, preserve, freeze enough food to last from summer to summer
• purchase no out of season ... grown out of country produce
• buy local and organic when possible
• buy only local farm meats (Thanks to watching the movie Food, Inc.;)
• use my crock pot more often
• plant only open pollinated, organic, heirloom veggie seeds
• use no toxic products in the garden or for cleaning purposes
  

This should be a good start for the new year.

Creating a Beautiful Rental Home: Tip 2~

I would like to wish everyone a 

Happy New Year. 

I am continuing with my quick tips in creating a beautiful home even if you rent!

If I have time in the next few days between entertaining I am going to try to come up with some wishes for the new year.

Tip #2

 Switch out light fixtures to suite your style. New light fixtures can completely change the look of a room.  You don't have to run out to buy a high end piece (you could if you wanted - there is no right or wrong). Many of the big box hardware stores sell inexpensive lighting such as Home Depot, Rona, Ikea, Walmart, Canadian Tire and even Homesense.  Store the original fixtures for the duration of your stay (we are storing them in the crawlspace in a box) and then hang them back up when you move out.

I didn't take a close up of the original fixture but you can get a glimpse of it in the picture

Before...

...after 

This room had a burgundy stained glass fixture with brass - so 80's. I found this light fixture on clearance at Home Depot for $70!