Thursday, September 24, 2009

Enter To Win A Vintage Style Pink KitchenAid Mixer And Raise Money For Breast Cancer Research

PartSelect is hosting a Paint Your Appliance Pink Sweeps to help raise awareness and $10,000 for Breast Cancer Research -- and they're giving prizes away to those who help.

To participate, simply paint a pink ribbon on any major household appliance, photograph it, and then email, blog, or Tweet your entry (using the #pinkappliance hashtag). For each entry received, PartSelect will donate $25 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, up to a maximum of $10,000. And everyone who sends in a photo will be entered to win 1 of 3 Pink Prize Packages valued at $369.97, including a Pink KitchenAid Stand Mixer, Pink Mixer Cover and more.

Entries are accepted until midnight on September 30, 2009.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Recycling By Selling Online

In the spirit of thrift, I advocate recycling -- not only by changing or re-purposing, but by sharing your resources (hand-me-downs and hand-me-ups, if it works!), as well as buying and selling used items at rummage sales, flea markets and thrift stores. Reselling items no longer used (or deals you find) is just good common sense -- in any economy. But the reality of reselling is that it's work.

In order to make the most money off of your no longer used or needed items, I asked Hillary DePiano to share some things to consider before you decide to make your computer pay for itself and dive into selling online.

Hillary has been selling on eBay since 1997 and is an eBay store owner, PowerSeller and Trading Assistant. She has experience selling on many different platforms and shares her experiences with others through her blog, The Whine Seller, and books.

Here are Hillary's Top Three Things To Know Before Trying To Sell Anything Online

1. Make sure you have the time to sell the item online. Selling online can be very time consuming. Before you even consider listing something online, make sure that you have the time to write a proper decision, answer buyer questions and pack and ship the item in a timely fashion. Failure to do any of these in a reasonable amount of time can cost you dollars on this sale by deterring optional buyers or future business from buyers you didn’t answer in time or bad feedback earned for slow service.

2. Make sure the item is worth selling online. Do some research into the value of your item before you attempt to sell it. Heavier items like furniture or workout equipment is worth less online because buyers don’t know how to handle the transport of such a large item. Heavier items can also sell for less online because people aren’t willing to pay the more expensive shipping costs. There are some items that are just simply better suited to being sold in the classifieds or at a garage sale so be sure to do some research into your item before you dive into trying to sell it online. If you can sell your item for more through an offline channel, be sure that you don’t miss that opportunity.

3. Make sure that you’ve considered all fees. The item you have may be worth $5 more if you sell it online but if the eBay and PayPal fees work out to $10, then you are actually losing money overall. Take a moment to consider all the costs associated with sell online when you are looking to price your content. If the fees are eating up any additional profit you’d be making, it just isn’t worth it.

More about Hillary: Hillary DePiano is a fiction and non-fiction author best known for her play, The Love of Three Oranges and her e-commerce blog, The Whine Seller; you can keep up with her at Twitter too.

How To Dry Ribbon & Avoid The Iron

From Popular Mechanics, June, 1957, how to avoid shine on washed ribbon.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Daily Care OF Wooden Floors

More from How To Protect & Preserve America's Homes (Moore's Handy Index Book): tips on the care of varnished, shellacked, and painted floors.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Tips On Buying Rugs

Tips on selecting the proper size rugs and how to place them found in several 1940's issues of Modern Woman magazine.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Make Tailored-to-Measure Lingerie Boxes

From a 1952 issue of The WorkBasket, complete instructions for making lingerie boxes; great if if you have materials on-hand -- if not, it may just be cheaper to buy lingerie organizers.


Avoid Mistakes With Poisons

If you've run out of those Mr. Yuck stickers, here are some tips on making your own poison bottle warnings from Good Ideas: An Interesting Collection Made By Eddy's:

How To Make A Lamb Candle From A Vintage Cake Mold

Inspired by my interview (part one, part two) with Luke M. Vaillancourt where I learned how his mother first began filling antique chocolate moulds with wax prior to settling on using the vintage confectionery molds to make chalkware pieces, I dug around for this vintage scan from The Workbasket with instructions for using a lamb cake mold to make a lamb candle. (Easter may not soon be on the horizon, but perhaps you have a more suitable cake mold for the upcoming holiday seasons?)



Thursday, September 10, 2009

Vintage Recipe Thursday: Foundation Recipe Rolled Cookies

My recipe for this week's Vintage Recipe Thursday comes from Delicious Cakes for Every Occasion from 6 Foundation Recipes, a 1932 booklet from Airy Fairy Cake Flour (via the Priscilla Proving Plant) Commander Larabee Corporation, Minneapolis, Minn.

How To Free A Sticking Or Dragging Door

Tips on dealing with a door that sticks or drags -- before you pane it -- from the November-December 1967 issue of Workbench.

Friday, September 4, 2009

How To Make Hairpin Lace Lamp Shade Covers

The instructions & patterns for making three different hairpin lace lampshade covers from this 1954 Coats & Clark's Modern Trends magazine:



Another Home Ec Edition Of High-Five Fridays

1 LA Weekly gives a nice review of the Culinary Collection at the Los Angeles Public Library.

2 Tips for storing fresh fruit & vegetables at SustainLane.

3 Creative Fat Grrl is breaking the rules & making up recipes as she goes along. (Sounds too-too familiar!)

4 & 5 At Kitsch Slapped, I've posted the pattern & instructions for making a retro (1957) "free form" decor board for displaying your pictures etc. on your walls -- and I'm dishing on my love of reading vintage, out of print & just plain "old" books (which also applies to several topics here at Things Your Grandmother Knew).

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Vintage Recipe Thursday: Frozen Fruit Cheese Salad

This is my first time participating in Vintage Recipe Thursday -- but it's the 23rd edition.

The recipe I'm posting comes from Creative Cooking with Cottage Cheese, a vintage booklet from the American Dairy Association Test Kitchen featuring -- you guessed it! -- recipes with cottage cheese as an ingredient.

I'm not a real big fan of cottage cheese... Unless it's in a cheesecake, lasagna or stuffed shells, I usually pass on the stuff; but this dessert recipe features lots of fruit & sugar, so I might just give this Frozen Fruit Cheese Salad recipe a try...

(Don't forget to check out the rest of the vintage recipes in this edition.)

How To Remove Nail Polish From Fabric

Years ago, after naggin' my dad for making them late for dinner with another couple, my mom was "forced" to apply her nail polish in the car (while my dad drove); not 10 minutes after they left, they came back into the house again because mom had spilled nail polish all over her pants (grey sans-a-belt pants, as I vividly recall).

Mom was fuming, especially because dad was enjoying it all too much, making statements about just who it was that was making them late for dinner. (Bad daddy!)

My mother ended up throwing out her pants -- I bet she would have liked to have known about this tip from a 1940's Modern Woman magazine and given it a try. (Then again, those pants were probably ruined due to being associated with the row with my dad! lol) Anyway, here's a tip for you to try, should you ever end up with such a problem with nail polish on your clothing.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

How To Keep Your Thermos Clean

Another tip from Good Ideas: An Interesting Collection Made By Eddy's, just in time for back to school and cooler weather thermos use.

Basic Painting Tips

From How To Be Your Own Decorator, by Helen Koues, Director of Good Housekeeping Studio (copyright 1926 by Good Housekeeping Magazine; second edition, printed April, 1927), "Painting Points."

Tips For Better & Safer Food Storage In Your Refrigerator

From a 1937 Frigidaire publication, tips for better & safer food storage using your refrigerator; they aren't as dated as you think!


Things Your Grandmother Knew © 2008 Por *Templates para Você*