I'm hoping to have a heavily handmade and affordable holiday season. I've been posting ideas on my blog, but would love to hear what others have come up with.

How about going into business for yourself - markup over 1,000%.

Get a good filtering system.

Get some plastic bottles.

Run municipal water from your tap through the filter.

Into the bottles.

Sell the filled bottles for $1.00 each ...

... or, if you don't want to be greedy - 50 cents.

That's what Coke, Pepsi, Danone, Nestle, et al. do.

Municipal water in almost all areas is more stringently and more frequently tested than bottled water.

Have yourselves a happy week, everyone.

ole joyful

P.S. We bi!ch about the price of gas ...

... but nary a peep about the price of bottled water!!

Human beings are reasonable?

Who says so?

o j

I've been making flavored cocoa mixes for years and giving it in all kinds of inexpensive containers (usually bought at the end-of-Christmas sales) as part of our traditional homemade baskets/trays/bags/cups/jars of food for friends and family. I guess this year I'll have to add a shaker of cinnamon sugar and confectioners' sugar to punch it up a bit... I have a source for mini-marshmallows that I've also added to the cocoa mix.

I also paint a primative skinny snowman with a black tophat onto the top 1/3 of a long cinnamon stick and tie a short piece of fabric (usually a small woven plaid fabric - ripped into strips so it has a ragged look) around the snowman's neck to look like a scarf. These make great swizzle sticks for cocoa or cider.

Thanks for sharing the new twist on an old favorite.

-Grainlady