Madame Theresa’s Handy Craft & Recycle Tips

I apologize for being a lazy blogateer.  Madame Theresa got caught up in the end of winter and beginning of spring, it seems…  it’s not like The Madame fell off the wagon and played RipVanWinkle someplace…LOL!!!! It’s more like a scene from Poltergeist:

“Carol Anne…. I’m in HERE, Carol Anne…”

None the less, I am here now.  And here’s what I have been busy working on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An update from the last post eons ago:

Georgie won the blog candy drawing; the 2 precious li’l peat pot buckets.   As I remember, we were going to post pictures on here, and never did learn how…..now that I have a couple new  websites, I’m sure I will be buying a camera and learning to post pics soon. 

 Georgie requested that we donate them to a nursing home or other good cause where they would be appreciated locally, so that’s what we did.  We discussed having a blog auction and donating the procedes to the animal shelter- maybe that’s what we’ll do next time!  Anyway, thanks Georgie, for your suggestion.

There are several new and exciting things to tell you about. I am now a dealer in paper art supplies- everything you could possibly want for your scrapbook, cardmaking, rubberatamping, or other paper hobbies is now available, by mail, through me!  I am an independant demonstrator for Stampin’ Up.  See our online catalog (through my link on the right hand sidebar.) Online ordering is coming soon, but meanwhile, look at the online catty and contact me if you’d like to order.  Or, if you’d like to order a real life catalog, they are $10.00 and come with a cardstock sample ring of all the 54+ colors we sell. 

I also have several paper art supply items not sold through Stampin’Up, that I sell when I teach bookmaking and 3D paper art projects. That list consists of:

Paper coasters, blank, ivory, 4″ square, in 3 thicknesses

Baker’s twine on tag cards,15 yards each of all 4 colors

Antique wooden bobbins from old textile mills, aprox. 10″long, 1/2″dia. with a 1″ head on them, to be used to creativly store ribbon odds and ends on. Looks cool in a basket.

Dusting brushes- similar to the ones Judikins sells, but these have green plastic handles.  Cheap enough to have 1 for each ink family.

Blank carnival tickets- these are COOL! Print up or rubberstamp your own carnival tickets, fortune cookie sayings or anything on these vintage treasures!  Colors: hot pink, denim blue, stenopad green, orange (think Halloween here) yellow, and white.  These are all single tickets, not double. Complete rolls of aprox 1,500-2,000 on a roll.

Blank white CD literature folders used to make 5″ X 5″ pocketed memory scrapbooks.

Soon we will be adding button jars- perfect to use in crafts or sewing projects, they are sweet little decorated jars of beautiful buttons in color families!

Call or email me for more info on the above misc. art items I sell privately, if you want more information. These are unique paper art supplies that I have on hand, ready for cash n carry 7 days a week.

My second independent demonstrator-ship is for Homemade Gourmet, a dry mix food company specializing in hosting gatherings where making 4 Meals in 4 Minutes is demonstrated.

The ability to make tasty appetizers, entrees and deserts , and make them FAST, is now possible with the aid of these wonderful food pantry staples. 

Gatherings where we make 4 Meals in 4 Minutes, and taste these fabulous dishes, is just a phone call away!  If the thought of HOMEMADE food appeals to you and having a “gathering” isn’t quite your style, I have workshops where 4-6 people come out, and using our food pantry products, make 8 family-sized main dish entrees for themselves to take home and keep in the freezer.  Most  entrees serve 6 or 8 people easily.  All pantry products and groceries and baking pans or cook-in bags are included in the low price.  This is the same concept that the “Gourmet to Go” stores in the larger city malls use-  “it’s their kitchen-their mess” …. LOL!    Come mess up MY kitchen.  Call me for details. 

  Or click on the link to the right.  You can browse the catalog and order from my website if you wish. There’s even a preferred customer feature where you can enroll for free in our home delivery subscription to get monthly bundles delivered to your door at 20% off retail,  and you pay by credit card! Or you can opt for just 4 times a year if you want. See the website for details.

That about wraps it up- now that it appears that I might have all the eggs in one basket, maybe updates won’t be so hard to keep up with.

Until later,  chow.

Those cool, clear, plastic jars with the lid that flips open on one side,  to spoon it on, or the side that opens to sprinkle it on are great containers to recycle! 

For starters, the Kraft Cheese container has a shrink-wrapped label on it that is easily removed by sticking a sharp knife, or other sharp object, under the shrink wrap label and making a slit to peel it off by.  No messy soaking in hot water or having to use a solvent (like Ronson lighter fluid) to get the sticky label  gunk off with, because there IS no “gunk”!

And with the lid off,  it has a nice wide opening, as wide as the container, for filling easily.  I have 2 or 3 or 6 of these…LOL! And this is what I put in them.

I keep flour in one.  This comes in handy when I grease a cake pan and need just a “shake” or two,  of flour,  in the cake pan.  It’s handier to get to than my flour canister that I keep put away under my cabinet.  I keep it to the right of the oven in a cupboard with the salt and spices, etc. ( Then I cover my cake pan with some Saran Wrap and shake a couple times. This really makes flouring a cake pan easy!)

The next container has a mixture of sugar and cinnamon for toast and/or cereal, like oatmeal.  Stored in same spice cabinet.  Everybody likes cinnamon sugar!   I use 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 2 TABLESPOONS  (the bigger ones of the two)  of cinnamon.  Shake well and taste.  You may want more or less cinnamon for your taste.  This is one of those recipes that you just have to make it according to your own taste.  (Cinnamon toast  was the second main food group my little brother lived off of when he was in college.  His first main food group was “fried eggs”. He could fry eggs and make soup and cinnamon toast.  Pathetic!!!)

The 3rd cheese container at our house is used for a NON food item, and carefully labeled as POISON and stored away from where small kids can get to it.  It is filled with snow-melt granules and usually kept in my automobile’s winter emergency kit.  It is handy to have if I am away from home and encounter a patch of ice like in a parking lot or sidewalk, where walking might be a problem.  I don’t really get outside if it is slick, but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.  Mark has prosthetic legs and can’t tell by “feel” if its slick or just wet out until its too late,  so having snow-melt in a manageable container is just perfect.  Be SURE to label it with a magic marker, and keep the container in a zip lock freezer baggie to protect the contents from humidity (so it doesn’t turn into a rock hard mess) and to also help protect your trunk or wherever you store your winter travel kit. Also, labeling it POISON, and writing the Poison Control Center’s 1-800 phone number on it wouldn’t be a bad idea either.  

These cheese containers are probably the second most recycled container goin’ on at our house.  If you don’t eat a lot of parmesan cheese, ask your friends and neighbors to save their empty containers for ya!  If you can think of any other uses for the containers, be sure to share them with us in the comment section.

The drawing for the 2 artisticly decorated peat pot party favors (boy that’s a mouthfull….) is Monday. I will draw a name out of a hat, from all the names of people who leave a comment on my blog.  I originally said it would be on comments left on Wednesday’s post, but decided to count it on any post until Monday. 

Thank you for reading- now go make yourself some cinnamon toast! 

Till tomorrow, remember:  I LOVE white trash….

(It’s easier to paint, saving me a bundle!!!!)