My first quilt!

I'm designing a window display on Woodward Avenue in anticipation of the Final Four coming to Detroit. My team has 3 windows. Of course, I'm using mine to promote the glamorous life of thrift! The beauty of coordinating my window with my return to frugality and simplicity is that everything will be reused (can't wait to stuff my precious cashmere in the cedar lined hope chest!), recycled (I will re-roll the wrapping paper covering the floors and walls and make dresses from the curtains!) or returned (items from the thrift stores will go right back).

Learning a traditional skill, such as sewing, can have numerous money-saving and -accruing benefits. I could dedicate more than a few posts to this subject. It's all about learning for earning.

Dressing windows is really fun and I'm lucky to find opportunities to do it. In Detroit, there are so many barren and forgotten windows. I think it would be prudent to get more artists, small businesses, non-profits, school classrooms, etc. to use the windows to display their talents. Let's improve the streetscapes. We'll sign the liability forms, we'll clean up our mess (and theirs!). They're just sitting there, waiting for someone to love them!

Clean Slate

I just paid off all my non-mortgage debt, $800, down from $6,000 earlier in 08. Kinda scary. After steadily building a savings/emergency fund, I wanted to keep it above a benchmark number. It made me happy, to see it there, growing. Earlier, I thought I would pay the debt in installments while reaching a savings goal. I surpassed the goal and still owed on this balance. Nonsense. I'd rather not pay a fee while they hold my debt.

Reading a few personal finance blogs was all the motivation I needed. It's great to celebrate and relish in an accomplishment, but I needed to detach myself from the importance of maintaining this account balance and take action. It requires courage. The end result was as satisfying as the monetary goal!

If it's on the card, it wasn't my money to spend. Sure the promise of miles seemed sweet, I managed a trip to Portland for my friends wedding. But when calculated, I received only 1 stinking percent, of what I spent, back! It's just a weapon of mass consumption! Try spending only cash for a week and see if you notice a down tick in accumulation. And don't buy online. It's too easy to click a few buttons. There aren't enough barriers, psychological, physiological, whatev's.

The card will be relegated to exceptional situations or when I plan to quick pay. Now, I can focus on getting the savings back and not be throwing pennies at my debt. Gone. Poof. Hooray! Back in black.

Make your own toothpaste

Using these simple household items will give you a happy mouth! When we ran out of toothpaste as a kid my mom would pull out the baking soda. Just wet brush, dip and apply. When you really need to pinch go with baking soda. It probably costs less than a penny per brush. The taste will take some getting used to. The mild abrasion power of baking soda will leave your teeth feeling good and scrubbed. Worries about lack of flouride should be nil as research confirms, again and again, that flouride actually damages your teeth and is a suspected neurotoxin! Read here for more disturbing information about flouride...

Peroxide makes a good gargle. Mix with an equal part water. Make sure not to swallow any by exhaling slowly as you gargle. It is a strange sensation! Used in tandem, your teeth will be whiter and cleaner. Peroxide not only whitens, but kills odor causing bacteria. You may want to use the peroxide only once a week to see how your mouth reacts.

Notice there is only a speck of toothpaste on the brush. When using store bought toothpaste, that is all you ever really need! Never the amount shown in commercials to get you to overuse product and keep production levels up, up, up. I find myself foaming to capacity halfway through and having to spit and continue.

I could never bring myself to floss regularly until my husband was given a Reach brand dental flosser from a dental hygenist friend. You will become addicted!

Sound eerily familiar...

The Main Causes of the Great Depression. (click for a link, dah-link)
Choose to thrive. It's a cosmic casino, man.

Free Plastic Surgery...

...without the plastic or the surgery!

Touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Try it while placing a finger at the point before your chin meets your neck. Can you feel a muscle contract?

If you do it on the daily, you'll keep that muscle active and tight and prevent chicken neck jowls!

For a more advanced workout, contract all the muscles in your face. Mush your face in every which way, puff out your cheeks and suck them in, roll your lips over your gums and teeth, furrow your brow. This will keep your many, many face muscles in good, youthful shape.

And keep out of the sun peach skins...