its a mad mission

First, a great Christmas craft to decorate your cards, turn into ornaments, or whatever else you may think of. I call them “Hallie Stars.” For anyone who knows my pal Hallie Gillett–and her art–you’ll understand why. I’ve become a little addicted, as you can see below.

(Google “paper stars” online for youtube directions.)

Second, it snowed here this weekend, and the snow actually stuck (not usually the case). I just persuaded the husband to go for a late-night walk around the block. The flurries from storm two have just begun! Woot!

After an autumn full of wedding invites and thank you cards, it’s not likely the Frankses will be getting out Christmas cards as well. But we will be enjoying our first Christmas with two families (which in spite of the horror stories, seems like it’s going to work out fine–there’s a reason we married someone from within our homestate).

Below is a picture of our tree. Since we won’t be around much for this short holiday season, recreating last year’s branch tree seemed like a lot of work. So instead I kidnapped the top piece of my 6-foot artificial tree being stored in a basement in Connecticut, and with a little finagling, voila. A mini tree. Our new squirrel ornaments bask in its mini glow.

This past year one of my journalism role models, World Magazine’s Marvin Olasky, moved to NYC in his latest “mad mission” to serve as provost of King’s College. He wrote an article about the move.

But he was talking about such things long before he wrote them there. Which in part inspired me to write my very first blog post back in July of 2007 (note who made the first comment). It’s great to be mad missioning in this city with such people.

I’m a tightwad (poor Bill is just now discovering the depths to which that statement reaches). For the most part, though, I think that’s a strength. Especially in this economic climate. So I’m going to try to post some money-saving ideas throughout the next year. In addition to the “amazon” one in a previous post, here’s two more:

1. Online shopping, part two: I do a lot more of this now, because getting to stores and carrying things home is just too much work here. I’ve discovered that if you google “JCPenney discount code” or whatever online store you are buying from, you can usually find sites that give you the discount codes for free shipping, 20% off, etc. I’ve saved quite a bit of money this way.

2. The “silk” $5 pashmina stand is ubiquitous to this town. Solids or paisleys, pashminas make a great scarf. But they also make a great curtain. Use one for a small window, two for a wider window. Simply buy some clip rings (Liberty stocks them for you Brooklyners) and a tension rod, and voila! You’ve got a good looking, nicely draping window covering on the cheap. Here’s my bathroom window.

(and I just used a spare yellow one for our christmas tree skirt today).