Mother's Day/Father Day Recap- and Recycling

We are pretty low key here for Mother's Day/Father's Day. We just like to spend time together and not spend a lot of money on material gifts. Not because it's all the rage (with the recession and all it seems everyone is into saving money, simplifying) we have always done it that way. That's just how we roll. Some people call it cheap or lacking in forethought...we like to call it living a meaningful/ purposeful life and enjoying the moment. It's all how you look at it (and what type of access you have to a thesaurus).

For Mother's Day I went to Orchard Supply Hardware, spent $30 dollars on things we needed anyhow and got the free Orchid corsage. I love corsages and think we should make this an annual tradition for Mother's Day. So keep it up OSH cuz we are too cheap to buy one and would never plan ahead to order one from a florist. I mean we are too busy living with purpose and meaning. Paolo and Francesca also bought me the white tulips.







(Weird, as I am writing this an OSH commercial came on).

For Father's Day, Francesca and I made Paolo a crown and then she wanted one too. So here they are with their crowns. I made them wear them all day. Again, I think we have stumbled onto a family tradition. Plus I am recycling our grocery bags.




If I can re-use something I feel all good about myself. We are the type of people who go to a birthday party with oddly wrapped gifts. Mountains of beautifully wrapped gifts and ours sits among them...tin foil, brown paper bag. That's us. You'd think I'd feel embarrassed but no...the only thing I feel is moral superiority. That's how I roll. Take THAT evil, thoughtless consumers!

Gifts from a recent Birthday party we attended.




This is the gift we gave. Recycled brown paper bag which Francesca colored.



Ok, I'm not that good of a person. I just do it when it's convenient. We were out of wrapping paper (again...I was living in the moment). At heart, I am a consumer and must fight the urge to buy things that I do not need.

Now, Paolo really is superior about recycling/reusing. A few weeks ago he made this....






Yes, that' s a canister vacuum (at least 20 years old held together with lots of duct tape) with a garden extension cord. The cord on the vacuum was frayed (dangerous). The garden extension cord was cut in two (a gardening accident...I swear I want to fire our gardener. She does a terrible job and has a bad attitude*)


So, Paolo took two non-working things and made them into one working thing. He is such a MacGyver. We are so please with ourselves about this. Seriously. Proud. Is that sad?


*I'm the gardener. So while I'm at it I'd like to fire the cleaning lady, too. She's kind-of bitchy these days.