Guest Post: DIY Glitter Ornament

There’s nothing better than getting in the holiday spirit with some glitter and a good craft! This glitter ornament DIY craft is fun, easy, and inexpensive! Another bonus: this craft is super easy to clean up and won’t leave glitter all over everything. These look gorgeous on a tree and make great holiday gifts.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

clear glass ornaments
clear floor wax – make sure it’s Pledge brand with the blue cap bottle
fine glitter
cotton swabs
a paper cone funnel (or, my version: an envelope with the corner cut off)

Step 1: Remove the hangers from the top of the ornaments

Step 2: Squirt the floor wax into the ornament and swirl around the ornament to coat the insides. Don’t shake it, the wax will bubble up inside.

Step 3: Let the excess wax drip back into the bottle

Step 4: Use a cotton swab to pop any bubbles and wipe the mouth of the ornament from excess wax.

Step 5: Use the paper cone (or envelope) funnel to add the glitter into the ornament. Put quite a bit in to coat the entire ornament. Don’t worry, you’ll dump the excess out.

Step 6: Place your thumb over the mouth of the ornament and shake the glitter all around so it coats the entire ornament. Dump the excess glitter back into the container so it’s ready to go for the next round.

Step 7: Voila! Replace the ornament hook and you’ve got a gorgeous set of SPARKLY ornaments!

If you’re giving these babies as gifts, you can add a bow to the hook to dress it up a little more and find ornament sized boxes for pretty gift wrapping.

Author Bio: As a writer for Handbag Heaven. I spend most of my days accessorizing with purses and handbags, but outside of my job I spend time crafting, cooking, and shopping! The holidays are perfect for exercising my hobbies! I also enjoy spending time with my husband, family, and my precious puppy.

Guest Post: How To Have An Eco-Friendly Christmas

With all the excitement of the Christmas holiday, it can be easy to forget the green initiatives we use the rest of the year in our daily lives. Even if we do try to implement them, the commercialism of the holiday doesn’t exactly lend itself to being eco-friendly. There are ways, however, to be green this Christmas season:

1. Reduce your paper waste.

There are many ways to reduce the amount of paper waste you use during Christmas. Don’t over-wrap items, or use sturdy gift boxes that can be repurposed as storage containers and boxes for next year’s gifts. Try not to decorate with paper items, either. If you send out Christmas cards, try to use recycled paper, or better yet, don’t send out cards at all. Replace them with paperless e-cards or friendly phone calls.

2. Buy Fair Trade.

Fair Trade supports eco-friendly initiatives around the world, so lend your own support and buy Fair Trade gifts this year. Fair Trade products run the gamut from coffee and food products to linens, clothing, and alcohol. A simple Google search will turn up hundreds of licensed partners to help you find anything and everything you need for holiday gifts.

3. Buy local and handmade.

If you can’t or don’t want to go the Fair Trade route, you can reduce your environmental impact by giving local and handmade gifts. Seek out artisans in your area for gifts. You may find them at local festivals and fairs, farmer’s markets, and even through Etsy searches. Buying local reduces how much energy is expended to get your product to you, and handmade means significantly less energy went into making your products.

4. Use eco-friendly decorations.

Instead of using plastic or paper decor that will just get thrown away, try using natural items. This can include pinecones, potted plants, beeswax candles, and more. If want to get really creative, you can even repurpose old items like CDs and old Christmas cards can be used to make beautiful decorations. This isn’t just eco-friendly, but also family-friendly, as well.

5. Recycle!

When the holidays are over, don’t toss those pounds of cardboard and wrapping paper in the trash. Recycle them, along with any plastic, glass, or metal that may have accumulated. If you don’t have a recycling system in your hometown, try to get together with other families ahead of time to carpool and take your load to the nearest recycling center.

6. Give back.

Support green initiatives by giving back this holiday season. Donate to your favorite charity or adopt a child from an Angel Tree. Volunteer at a local shelter, nursing home, or hospital by spending time with residents, helping decorate, or even bringing a holiday treat. Being green is all about supporting compassion for the earth and its residents.

Go green this Christmas and make it even better than ever.

Nicole Rodgers has been blogging in the Green, technology, and fitness industries for three years. Last year Nicole decided to have a green holiday this year. She purchased ecofriendly ornaments, gifts, and etc goods in order to be green. After Christmas Nicole always makes sure to check out any cyber Monday sales in order to save money on eco gifts and ornaments for next year.

Guest Post: Prepare Your Home for the Holiday Season

The Christmas season is fast approaching, so it makes sense to think about getting your home ready in good time, especially if you are expecting guests. Many people have relatives to stay over the Christmas period, and proper preparation ensures that things will run a lot more smoothly.

When you are expecting people to stay in your home for a couple of days at Christmas, it’s a good idea to undertake a maintenance check well in advance. Things like neglected bath repairs may not bother the immediate family, but you may want things to be right for your guests. Very often people will live with a dripping shower or cracked tray for months but if guests are coming to stay then shower repairs may be in order. Replace any loose or worn tap washers before there’s a problem.

Cleaning the House

You may want to make a list of all the jobs that you haven’t got around to this year such as kitchen repairs and any bath repairs that might be needed. Clean and defrost the freezer a few days before you shop for Christmas food so there’s plenty of room for any extras. Clean all the rooms and make sure that the beds are changed and well aired before your guests arrive.

Replace any missing curtain hooks and if you have nets or voile at the bedroom windows give them a wash as this will brighten the room considerably. A vase of flowers in the bedroom shows you care about your guests, and often means that they will care less about any jobs you may have missed.

Christmas Decorations

If you are like many other busy people the task of decorating the tree and hanging the garlands often gets left until Christmas Eve. Your guests may want to arrive the day before Christmas Eve to avoid any traffic problems or train and bus cancellations. When you are expecting company for Christmas it’s best to make time to put up festive decorations a day or two before people are due to arrive.

Make sure that any cards you have received from your expected guests are in a prominent position and that presents are wrapped and labelled before people arrive. If you normally have a real tree that should have been ordered well in advance and delivered a few days before Christmas.

Food and Drink

Make comprehensive lists of all the things you think you will need, including any special dietary requirements your guests might have. Despite what people tell you they always eat more food than you could possibly imagine, so have a good stock of all the breakfast basics. You should have checked that you have more than enough crockery well before the event when you undertook any necessary kitchen repairs.

Use a thermometer to make sure that your turkey has reached the right temperature before you turn the oven down. Keep a list of any likes and dislikes your guests may have expressed so that dishing up the Christmas dinner runs as smoothly as possible. After dinner you can sit back and relax, for a while at least.

This post was written by James Harper on behalf of Hometech who provide bath and shower repairs which are a great alternative to replacing damaged fixtures as it reduces the amount of waste going to landfill.

Guest Post: Celebrate the Holidays Without Wasting Your Cash

If you are wondering how you are ever going to get through the holidays without spending too much money, you are not alone. It seems like all we do during the holiday season is spend money on stuff. Whether it be gifts, food, or a plane ticket home, there are no shortages of ways to spend tons of money. However, there are ways you can cut back on those expenses.

Create spending limits

One way to spend less money is to have a budget for your gifts this year. Establish a spending limit between yourself and your loved ones so that everyone is on the same page. As long as everyone knows that you are not going to spend more than a certain amount on a gift, they won’t feel compelled to buy anything overly expensive on you either.

Make your own gifts

The real spirit of the holiday is to show thought, so a great gift can be homemade. Give homemade cookies and fudge to people in the office; learn to knit scarves, sew aprons, or put together dolls for the children on your list. It may take more time and some effort to learn how to make things, but there are hundreds of possibilities explained on the Internet and it will only cost you a few dollars to give your friend or loved one a thoughtful gift.

Don’t overspend on the Christmas party

Instead of traveling to many parties, and spending a lot of money on food and wine, why not just have one party that everyone can come to? Have everyone bring a dish and see what everyone can come up with. If you don’t have time, or money, to commit to a big party, a small gathering with friends and nearby family should suffice.

Again, the meaning of the holiday is to be with your close friends and family, so don’t worry about having to go all out. If people really demand refreshments, or you want to get into the holiday spirit, you can bake your own cookies, or buy an inexpensive bottle of wine.

Stay home for the holiday

You might be tempted to go home to mom and dad’s for Christmas, but it might be better to just stay home and enjoy the holiday by yourself. If you have gotten a gift, you can always ship it to wherever it needs to go, and you can phone home, or use Skype, to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Your family will understand that it might not be worth it to pay for gas, or to purchase a plane ticket, to visit. If you don’t have much time off from work, you might not have a choice anyway.

This holiday season, don’t worry about spending so much of your hard-earned money. Instead, focus on just being with your friends and family and enjoying each other’s company. The memories made are what people will remember, not how much you spend on gifts or food for the holiday party. Don’t stress out. Just have fun and be jolly, and everything will turn out for the best.

Photo credit: Christmas tree by Jim Winstead/flickr

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Guest Post: Creative Handbags to Show Support

Here is a post by Lisa Bergeron-Carter and her unique handbag creations:

It’s a real honor to have the opportunity to be featured in Mihosuzuki blog! First, a little about me: I am a former Army wife and currently a proud military mom. When my hubby was serving in the US Army, we were stationed in quite a few different places so, as you can imagine, home was wherever we were at the time. Having been an Army wife for many years, and now a Navy and Marine Corps mom, I can relate to other military wives and mothers. I understand what they are going through as well as the lives they are living. I am a huge supporter of all military branches and I believe each one of them plays a part in our daily freedom.

After my sons joined the military I was desperate to find something to help me cope. It’s one thing to send your husband off but sending off the child you nursed and cared for is much harder and much different. While sitting in my living room crying because I missed my babies, my hubby asked me if he could do anything to help. He couldn’t, of course, but for some reason it reminded me of when he deployed to Desert Storm and how much I worried and prayed he would come back to me safe. I was also reminded of a purse I had made for myself while he was gone — made out of one of his uniforms (BDUs).

That very day I went to the fabric store to find Marine (woodland) and Navy (NWU) fabric because I didn’t have uniforms from my boys just yet, and then rushed home to work on a new design. My first purse was a double sided one: Navy on one side and Marine Corps on the other and each side had a photo frame where I put my boys’ pictures. I carried that purse everywhere I went, and almost everywhere I would go a mom or wife would come up and ask where I got my purse, and I would tell her I made it.

One day a woman came up to me in a shoe store and asked me where I got my purse, and when I told her I made it and she asked “How much do you want for it?” She took me by surprise and I didn’t know what to say because I had never thought about selling my purses. As I stood there with a shoe in one hand and my purse in the other she said, “I have a boy in the Navy and one in the Marines also, and I will give you one hundred bucks right now for your purse!” Needless to say I was shocked! I could not sell this purse because it was my way of having my boys with me all the time but told her I would make a purse just for her and she could buy that one. She agreed to the deal and once her purse was ready we decided to meet at a local restaurant for a cup of coffee; when I walked in with her purse she started crying and told me how much it meant to her to be able to carry something that would remind her of her boys and also allow her to show off her pride.

That was the moment when I knew what I wanted to do … I wanted to help other military moms, wives, and girlfriends have a way to show their support and love for their heroes, be it sons, daughters, husbands, uncles, boyfriends, brothers, or sisters. It didn’t take very long for word to spread and I was getting orders from all over the country. Every time I take an order we chat a bit so I can get a feel for who she is and I try to create a purse that fits her. No two purses are alike; each is made for someone special and has little touches to show that. I do not mass produce my purses or make the same one every time, each is a creation all its own and unique so there is often a wait but I have been told it is worth the wait!

I have been lucky enough that I am now getting ready to partner with Wounded Warrior Project and offer my bags for raffles to help raise money for those who have given so much for all of us.

It takes me about 8 hours to complete one purse, longer if the person wants to add options. I am careful to use only the best material and notions so each purse will last a long time. I double stitch all my purses.

First I lay out the fabric and other items I will need to make the purse.

Then I cut the fabric, interfacing and other notions. I lay them out to start the design and get a feel for the way the purse will look.

Once this is done I start to put it all together.

I love to add little extras like matching key chains.

Here are some pictures of the purses I have done through the years.

If you would like to see more of my work or information on my purses please go to http://www.lisabcarter.com you can also check me out on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/militarypursesusa