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By Ruth Haesemeyer ruthh@neighborsgo.com
For a housewife, the day after Christmas is a gloomy one.
After months of wrapping, planning and decorating, all you have to show for it are piles of torn wrapping paper, a dead tree and what Aunt Margery claims is a fruitcake.
But this year, I think holiday cleanup will be a more fulfilling process, thanks to Risa Weinberger, vice chair of the board of directors for State of Texas Alliance for Recycling. The environmental engineer and owner of Dallas-based Risa Weinberger & Associates Inc. recently visited with me about some ways to dispose of holiday waste in an environmentally responsible way.
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Christmas shopping comes but once a year. Thank goodness.
The pressures of this aspect of the holiday season seem to grow every year. I can’t think why — I just want to find the perfect present at a great price during the short amount of time I have available to shop. Is that too much to ask?
Ok, maybe it is. So I called on an expert.
My walls are driving me up the walls.
It’s time to get rid of the beige and bring in some color. But, as I’m learning from Susan Raschke, an instructor in the Interior Design department at The Art Institute of Dallas, choosing a paint color shouldn’t be a snap decision.
In my last column, Susan taught us about using a color wheel and combining colors that flatter one another. (If you missed it, you can find it here.)
This time, she talks about using colors to create a good feel and flow for your home.
First, there was the mint-chocolate-chip-ice-cream green and cranberry-red bedding collision of ’02. Then, the Cookie Monster-blue kitchen fiasco of ’07. So I didn’t want to risk the psychedelic nightmare of ’11.
Choosing paint colors has not gone well for me in the past. But I’ve been dying to add a little personality to our home’s painfully beige walls. So I called up Susan Raschke, an instructor in the Interior Design department at The Art Institute of Dallas who teaches an entire course on color.
As a housewife on a tight budget, I don’t have much to spend on clothes, so I shop at really inexpensive places. But bargain hunting has a hairy side, as I was recently reminded.
My poor lawn. Before my husband and I moved in, it was cared for by two little old ladies (I hear). Now, it’s cared for by a woman with the thumb of death (me).
Honestly, I bear my brown little lawn no malice. I simply have no idea how to care for it.
So my lawn (and the HOA) will be happy to hear that Farmers Branch Park landscape manager Pam Smith, who has a master’s in horticulture, recently took time to give me the following tips on lawn care 101.
Dress codes are daunting.
It throws me into a tizzy when I see one on an invitation.
If the event is business casual, do I wear a suit? If it’s cocktail, do I wear a gown? If it’s black tie, do I wear a tie?
My grandmothers don’t have much in common.
My dad’s mom, Jimmie Lou, is as Southern as her name. My mom’s, Audrey, is a Yankee from Pennsylvania. But both know secrets about life.
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