Happy New Year 2015! Now that the holidays are over, winter seems to have gotten more severe and colder. We thought this week, we would share a couple of simple and helpful ideas, including directions for what has to be the easiest handmade scarf ever. We also have shared our tip for a ridiculously quick warm-you-up cup of soup, and a simple idea for storing Christmas decorations. But, before we deal with winter (in a good way), we invite you to take a look at some of the pretty flowers we grew last summer (shown above). It’s nice to remind ourselves that summer is not too far away. (That’s our story and we are sticking to it!)  OK, now for the winter stuff:

THE SIMPLEST HANDMADE SCARF EVER

Years ago, when Roy was on tour as an actor, he thought of the basic idea for this scarf. He bought a piece of fleece fabric, and used it as a scarf and mini blanket to keep warm during the many long rides in the touring van. The thing that makes this scarf so simple is fleece doesn’t fray, so no sewing in necessary. For this project you will need: A piece of fleece fabric, scissors.   For the basic, simple scarf: Cut fleece 5 feet long X 8 inches wide. That is the basic scarf!               Add decorative fringe: Measure and cut 2 inches into each end of the fabric, 1/4-inch apart and tie each fringe piece at the base.

The scarf shown above on the blue teddy bear is one we made for an avid basketball fan from a fabric remnant with a basketball print. Fabric stores have a huge variety of fleece fabrics with many colors and prints, as well as your favorite sports team logos. Be creative, design your own scarf any length, width and print you like! They make great Super Bowl favors using team colors or logos. (Beware! If you sell crafts, you should look into the legal aspects of selling any items with team logos or other licensed logos.)

WARM UP!                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

For a quick, tasty and warming low-calorie snack, try a cup of low sodium chicken broth with a dash of red pepper flakes. Microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Enjoy!

HOLIDAY STORAGE TIP                                                                                                                                

We store our Christmas decorations in plastic storage bins. We have lots of these bins in our storage unit and that sometimes makes organizing difficult. It can be confusing knowing which bin contains what. One thing we do is label all the bins with a piece of masking tape describing what is inside. To differentiate the holiday bins, we also put another small piece of red tape on the ends of each bin with the letter C for Christmas (shown). This helps us identify the right bins when we are trying to bring in our many Christmas decorations. We use same idea for other bins (H for Halloween, E or Easter, etc.).

No, we aren’t done taking down the decorations. What’s the problem? It’s not Valentines Day!

Stay Warm Everyone!

Roy and Kevin