The New Homemaker Newsletter for May 16, 2008
Dear Readers,
It's beginning to feel like summer here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon! I hope it's nice where you are, too. It's got me wishing for my clothesline again. Which brings me to what I want to talk about this Memorial Day weekend.
Maybe your family is one of the few that actually goes out and decorates the graves of our war dead on Memorial Day, but probably you are like me. We don't. I still like to take more than a moment on national holidays to reflect on patriotism, what it means, and how I can show it. It's the opposite of blind allegiance, and it's much more than flying the flag or putting a magnetic sticker on your car.
Right now what's feeling patriotic to me is decreasing energy use. With gas at nearly $4/gallon, it's becoming an economic necessity, too. So how can you decrease your energy consumption, save some money, and possibly save some soldiers' lives down the road?
- Dry your clothes on a line. The country would save more than 3% of our energy use if we did this just in the sunny months.
- Don't drive like a bat out of hell. Over 60 MPH gas mileage drops significantly.
- Clean out your car. Extra weight means extra gas used. If it's summer, do you really need to carry your tire chains?
- Use compact fluorescent bulbs
wherever possible. They use 25% of the electricity of standard bulbs. We dropped our electric bill $10 a month just by replacing ten standard bulbs with CFBs.
- Keep your tires properly inflated. You'll improve your gas mileage for free. For instance, last time John filled up the tank it cost *choke* $50. Keeping the tires properly inflated would add $1.50's worth of mileage on each $50 tank of gas, essentially.
- Clogged air filters can reduce your gas mileage by up to 10%, so keep your filters changed. You can even get washable air filters
- You've probably heard about 4-40 air conditioning--all four windows down at 40 MPH? Actually it turns out to be the opposite. Under 40 MPH, roll your windows down and turn OFF the air conditioning. Over 40, roll them up and turn ON the A/C, because having the windows open increases drag on the car. That'll save some gas, too.
- Finally, just consider not driving at all. We're sticking close to home this summer, and I'm doing a lot of online shopping and using public transit to save even more gas money. Carpool, car share, plan your errands carefully--do whatever you can to stay out of the car.
Did you see the review of our new ebook A Craft Fair Goldmine that TNH reader CB Potts wrote?
Well Worth The $6Wow,thanks, CB! We think it's a pretty good ebook too, and a great value at $5.95. The number one question I get asked is how to make money from home, and many people are considering crafting as a way to do that. There's no substitute for hard work, but insider info like this does makes a difference in how successful you can be.
Now most of you don't know this, but I'm a ghost writer by trade. I write business books for big name gurus -- if you walked through the Business section at Borders or checked out the spinner rack at Staples, you'd see my work, although it doesn't have my name on it.
So when I decided to look at A Craft Fair Goldmine this afternoon, I had a little bit of a bias. After all, if anyone knows how a business book SHOULD be written, it's me.
Guess what? This is hands down the best niche-specific business book I've read in a long time. In very readable, understandable language, A Craft Fair Goldmine spells out the basics of how to succeed in the competitive craft fair environment. Common sense suggestions are side by side with some surprisingly sophisticated recommendations.
A Craft Fair Goldmine is encouraging without being unrealistic: the cold, hard facts that crafting for a living is indeed work and does carry expenses are right up front, not hidden away as they are in so many similar guides. I particularly liked the list of resources for online sales and marketing strategies presented in the book: they speak to the acumen of the author, who obviously knows her way around building a business.
Knowing your target audience is always key, of course, and that point is stated repeatedly throughout the text. If you're planning on selling extremely high end crafts (for example, the $5,000 picture frames that sell at a show near me) this is probably not the guide you're looking for. However, if you're in the vast majority of craft sellers, you'll be sure to find knowledge that will help you improve your sales. Invaluable for the new entrepreneur, The Craft Fair Goldmine will also be of real value to the veteran craft seller. Strongly recommended.
From the Hacker Housewife
Did you know you can get TNH delivered to you, nearly every day? Yep, there are two ways to do it. The first way is one you probably know very well, since you're getting this newsletter: By email. Just go to Feed Blitz and sign up for it, for free. Once a day you'll get an email with that day's blog posts, polls, reviews, forum topics and recipes--everything, other than comments, posted to the site.The second way is a little more exotic. From time to time, you may have heard the term "RSS feed" out there on the Internet. What the heck does that mean?
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." It's a way of reading TNH and other favorite websites without having to go visit the site every day to see if you're missing anything.
How can you take advantage of these web feeds, from TNH or anywhere else? You get a software program called a news aggregator (or news reader) for your computer. With an aggregator, you can then subscribe to TNH's feeds, or any other news feed on the Internet, and have the news and headlines delivered to your desktop when you're ready to read them. There are tons and tons of news readers out there, and a lot of good ones are free. Top ones:
- Feedreader works with most versions of Windows.
- Net News Wire Lite is a free reader for Mac OSX.
- Google Reader gathers headlines for you and displays them on a web page accessible from anywhere. It doesn't matter what kind of computer system you use.
The Regular Roundup:
Latest Article
De-Stress Your Mornings
or most moms, mornings are a mad dash to get everyone up, dressed and out the door -- if your kid's shoes match, all the better. However the a.m. hours don't always have to be so hectic (we promise). Try just one of these tips tomorrow and you'll start to feel (almost) serene.
continued...
Recent Articles
Last week I told you about Home Spa Secrets, a fantastic 160-page ebook that's teaching me how to get the same effects at home. Right now I'm drinking one of the herbal tea recipes in the book. Yeah, it even goes into relaxing teas to make for yourself. And in a bit I'm going make up an herbal foot soak. THAT I'm looking forward to. Tomorrow Josie's made me promise we'll try the oatmeal and yogurt facial. What's with this kid and the face masks? She has the skin of a peach! Check it out--Home Spa Secrets.
Recent Entries from Lynn's Diary of a New Homemaker
Recent Member Blog Postings
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Active Forum Topics
Start or join a conversation any time!
Latest Recipes
More recipes in the Recipe Box--be sure to enter your favorites!
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All the best,
Lynn
The New Homemaker
http://www.thenewhomemaker.com
( categories: The New Homemaker newsletter )
