Today I was thinking about what I could give the women who work at my temp agency. I've come up with a few ideas and will end up choosing one of them. I wanted to give them something environmental/green. Here is what I came up with so far:

*Travel Coffee Mug from the thrift store with a $2 organic coffee gift card in it and a few candy canes, then wrap it in newspaper tied with raffia (or a "one pot" package of organic fair trade coffee) - could also make soy hot chocolate mix! (I posted the recipe on this website)

*A plastic container filled with homemade biscotti

*HandMade Soy candles in vintage tea cups from the thrift store or mason jars

*Handmade Eye Pillows using flax seed or rice with lavender flowers and thrift store fabric or cut up clothing.

*To each give them a plant from clippings, pot them in thrift store found clay pots and decorate or paint the pots.

*Handmade Bath Salts using non iodized sea salt from the grocery store.

I find that people give each other so much food during the holidays that I was trying to think mostly of non-food useable gifts. I find that consumeable gifts are still always the best, like soaps, bath products, drink mixes...

I also went to the Salvation Army today looking for clothes for one friend but ended up finding clothes for another! I already had enough gifts for him but couldnt' resist because the clothing is normally VERY expensive retail and was in excellent shape. I paid $10 for a pair of pants and shirt that would normally cost probably $200. He loves these brands so he'll be thrilled. Also found an old Disco record  for $1 as he has dj turntables and loves retro music :)

Will go again this weekend to find items for the others! Phew..just two more people to go then i'm done "shopping"! :)

Peace.

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I do quite a bit of yoga but it is very expensive where I live. If I go to a regular studio, it's at least $100-$150 a month to go unlimited. I can't afford this and found that doing yoga at home with videos doesn't really do it for me as I love the energy with classes and it forces me to stick it out to the end!

After quite a bit of research, I located several places which offer free or cheap yoga. Now I can do yoga 4 times a week for $10!! Lululemon always offers free classes. It used to only be on Sundays but now they offer them on Sundays and Tuesdays! They are one hour and also offer free snacks afterwards.Check out www.lululemon.com for store locations and a listing of community events (free yoga!)

 Another yoga studio offers 2 community classes for $5. The classes go on for 1 1/2 hours. Moksha yoga (google it for studios in your area) offers karma classes on Fridays for $5 as well which means if I did yoga 5 times a week it would cost me $15!

I also found a woman who offers $7 classes and they are really good. It took me awhile to look around, but check local papers or entertainment magazines where yoga classes are listed.

Another option is to take a class offered weekly through the city you live it. THey are usually taught in community centres and run for about $50 for 8 weeks or so, which is nice.

If you are new to yoga, studios normally offer a free trial class so to start you can go to all the studios in your area and ask for a trial class.

As a last option, joining a community gym is usually inexpensive and gyms tend to offer yoga classes. I still have passes for a gym I used to go to which have 45min classes. I keep these passes on hand in case I can't attend other weekly ones.

I absolutely love yoga and hope to become a teacher next year!

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I realized this morning that my pantry is fairly empty but I didn't want to go grocery shopping till I get paid next week. I decided to take what I had on hand, throw it in the crockpot and see what happens!
Here is what I came up with:

1/2 cup lentils (I had 1/4 cup of green & 1/4 cup red)

1 1/2 cups brown rice

4/ 1/2 cups water

1/3 cup tomato paste

1 tsp each of oregano, celery salt & onion powder

1 large carrot (sliced)

Place everything in the crockpot on low and cook until rice is done.

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