My Sister’s Closet

Actually, I don’t have a sister, thank goodness. If I did, I probably would have had to share my precious clothes with her.

I do, however, have a close relationship with My Sister’s Closet (MSC) Recycled Designer Apparel. MSC is so much better than having to fight to be daddy’s #1 little girl.

Unfortunately, (for you, not for me) there are only store locations in the Phoenix area and San Diego. The prices are between 70-90% off the retail price on a regular day.

And that’s not all.

Need to get rid of some of your old clothes to make room for the new and exciting? They consign! What that means is that you bring in your tired clothing (tired to you, not tired to the world). It needs to be current, laundered/dry cleaned, and in good shape. Once they sell it, if they sell it, then you get paid or store credit. I don’t even know what they pay out in cash because I always need to buy more.

Their clothing consignment requirements are:

No more than 4-5 years old
A retail value of at least $40
In like-new and clean condition

DSC06871-001 — From the additional 70% off sale.

Probably 2 of the most exciting days of the year, that send me into a euphoric state, are the season changes at MSC. They occur around mid-Febuary and mid-August. I am on their mailing list, so I get a heads up when the change is about to roll around.

They conduct a progressive sale that starts at 20% off and ends at 70% off a couple of weeks later. That is in ADDITION to the already low prices. I actually take a half day off of work for each of these on the first day of the 70% off portion. I try on any dang thing that might possibly fit me. I usually end up with 2 giant bags of clothing. Here are some of my awesome finds on the last day of the sale:

DSC06870-001

This pale yellow dress helped me create one of my favorite photos of myself.

DSC07600-001 — Enjoying some Spanish wine from Palma de Mallorca on our transatlantic cruise.

DSC06868-001 — 2 Michael Kors handbags – one was $8.00, the other was $5.00.

DSC06866-001 — This is a Versace dress that I got for $15.00!

So if you’re my size, forget that I told you about a progressive seasonal sale, please.

Good ‘Til the Last Drop

No, I’m not talking about coffee here. I don’t need drugs to get me through the day. I’ve got a natural high (or I just tough it out). I’m talking about buckypaste, or better known as toothpaste.

This is a photo of my and Mr Beaverelli’s toothpaste. Our vanity consists of 2 sinks, so each side is stocked with our own personals. I’ll give you one guess on which tube belongs to whom.

You guessed it, the neat one on the left is the Mister’s. Not what you expected?! Yeah, I wouldn’t have guessed it either.

It is now time for me to take a tip from him on the waste front…not to mention the tidy front. I think it’s pretty self explanatory: grab a bobby pin (that is probably already laying at the bottom of a drawer in the bathroom somewhere) and nicely roll up your tube, moving it down as you go.

This is a good representation of just how lazy I am. It really doesn’t take that much effort to make sure the tip is cleaned off. In fact, I probably ultimately work harder because I have to twist and turn the tube to get the paste out.

I will try to be more non-wasting next time.

Trash or Not? Save ALL Those Plastic Bags You Bring Home

Okay, so yeah, plastic bread bags actually ARE trash when the bread is gone…but they don’t need to be thrown away just yet.

Do you ever have that awful, spoiled food smell in your garbage can in the kitchen? You don’t notice it at first. You go off to work, then you come home to the lodge smelling like a dumpster? There aren’t a whole lot worse smells that I can think of.

I also take the produce bags and save them separately to use for discards when I’m cooking. We normally try to keep bread from entering our front door because Mr. Beaverelli will go through an entire loaf in a sitting if he isn’t monitored. His folks were visiting, so we bought some for them and this is what was left in the end. I filled it up with the Beaverelli’s Healthy Breakfast Cheeseburger Casserole discards, tied it up and threw it away. No more rotten food sitting in the garbage to make us gag!

Don’t Throw Those Wine Bottles Away!

by Why not upcycle instead? What is upcycling, you ask? It’s taking something you’d usually just throw out, and re-purposing it into something usable and fabulous again instead.

Once a month, my creative, fun friend, Mary Katherine, hosts a girl’s crafting night at her place. She makes it desirable for even the laziest of people…she gets all the supplies and tells us what we owe her. This month: wine bottle wind chimes.

I started out with the best of intentions, but cutting glass isn’t nearly as easy as I thought it would be with the special tool we had to use, so my lazy ass decided to skimp corners instead.

What you need:

Kinkajou Bottle Cutter (or another cheaper brand: Bottle Cutter Kit – I have not tried this brand, so I cannot endorse it…but I’m all about cheap! The Kink belonged to my friend)
A glass bottle of your choice
Ribbon
Guinea fowl feathers
Hot glue gun
Glue sticks

This is the Kinkajou…get your mind out of the gutter and follow along here…

Here’s how it works:

Easy, right? Wrong. Okay, when it works, it’s wonderful, but it can be tough to get it perfect. Tips for getting a clean cut:

Choose a bottle with thin glass. How do you know if it’s thin or not? I’m not sure, but the Pellegrino water bottles worked nicely (and they’re a pretty green).
Make sure the cut goes all the way around in a straight line and connects at its ends.

I only cut 1 bottle after 2 of my friends had failed, uneven cuts. Mine just snapped right off where it was supposed to. That’s it, I give up, 1 bottle it is. I made it into a wind chime at first (I’ll show you how to do that below), but ultimately decided on the candle holder instead.

My bag of ribbons is sorry, so this golden mustard color was the only decent choice. Cut about 18 inches of ribbon (you can always cut it down more).

Tie the ribbon around the bottleneck into a bow and play with it until you get it to your desired bow size. Then, cut off any excess ribbon.Pull the bow up over the top of your bottle and get out your glue gun. Add some glue around the bottleneck where you will secure your ribbon back.Add some glue to the middle, inside of the bow so that you can slip your feathers into it.

All done!

As for the windchime, Mr. Beaverelli doesn’t like noises, so this was a no-go for this lodge. I used 3 of these large plastic pearl beads (these came from an old necklace that Mary Katherine acquired, I might add).You have to play around with different ways of tying the beads and how much distance between them. Pulling the cord through the bottle is the best way to eyeball it and then make adjustments accordingly.

She also throws away the key fobs and keeps just the key ring (she’s my hero). You’d think that this old icky thing is not something you’d ever want to keep around, but I like it way more than the shiny, new looking ones.

If only the windchime didn’t make noise…wait? Huh?

You could even use it as both! Try out on the mantle for a while and when you’re tired of looking at it and would rather hear it instead (and let your neighbors have a nice view) put it outside.

Really REALLY Free Market

by Really, honestly, truthfully…everything’s free! What a wonderful concept! Why half of San Diego wasn’t at the San Diego Really Really Free Market is beyond me. I still can’t decide whether I was more excited to get rid of things and provide someone with my old “treasures”, or acquiring my own special finds.

I dragged Mr. Beaverelli into this adventure too. “Honey, let’s clean out the ENTIRE house, k?” We didn’t quite make it through every inch of our place, but we’ll be sure to get it done before the next one in June. We donate a lot of stuff to thrift stores (mostly Amvets and Goodwill) and while doing taxes this year, we discovered that a lot of the odd items can’t be written off. Well heck, I’d rather give it away to someone free. There are also items, like food, that you can’t really donate to a thrift store. They had a food drive going too! How about those half used lotions and body washes? The kind you realize kind of stink…someone’s going to want your old crap, I can assure you. The most beautiful part was when Mr. B cleaned out the messy one car garage. There were full paint cans that he used before he moved into our place 10 years ago and a roll of linoleum that just hung out in a corner for 10+ years…ALL GONE!

Here’s some of the old stuff we got rid of. After being there for about 2 hours, 90% of our stuff was snatched up. I know it looks like a big, giant mess, but let’s be real, I wasn’t selling this stuff. If I were to take the time to put everything out nicely, other people were going to take off with the stuff that I was about to throw into my own bag.

Beaverelli’s finds! What a lot of fun finds: a corset that made my tiny beaver bumps look like a boy’s chest, a biker babe top, new plates, greeting cards, scrap book paper for my auntie, and shoes my size (I have tiny hind paws)!

You don’t have a Really Really Free Market in your city or town? Then it’s time you took matters into your own hands. Why not pick a day, go to a park (check to see if you need a permit) and advertise to all of your friends. Start with social media, put an ad on Craigslist, start a blog…endless possibilities!
by

Achiever Beaver

The Buck$ $aved Here

Archives

My Sister’s Closet

Good ‘Til the Last Drop

Trash or Not? Save ALL Those Plastic Bags You Bring Home

Don’t Throw Those Wine Bottles Away!

All done!