Contain Yourself!

Today we will share other people's transformation of trash and talk about my minor obsession with things that hold things... CONTAINERS! I suppose it is related to my mom's love of Altoid Containers (great job on Whacking that yesterday, by the way), but my obsession is not specific to any single product. Basically, if you sell something and it comes with cool packaging, the value of it increases exponentially and in some cases, can be responsible for my brand loyalty.

I'll explain further, but first a brief note...

The mailman just came and went yesterday and either she FORGOT my mail bag filled with postcards or nobody... not one of you... took five minutes to jot your mailing address on a postcard and send it to me. I knew you were going to think I was talking to someone else. I knew it.

So, I'll try again. For all new comers, old-timers, and lurkers of highlowaha.com... Eager Beaver looking to do acts of kindness. Send postcard with your mailing address to 4012 Harvestwood Court, Grapevine, Texas 76051 and see if you're the lucky recipient of a random act of kindness. Remember... if you don't want to, you don't have to include your name.

Now onto containers.

There are 

all kinds of containers and packaging I love to collect. Red boxes from Talbot's are the perfect way to create fancy packaging for homemade coupons, redeemable for either a dinner of your choice; an outing of your choosing; or any of the other hundred ideas you can come up with. Shoe boxes from Stride Rite can be covered with contact paper, fancy wall paper, or decoupaged and used when packaging up a box of cookies. I used four Stride Rite boxes one Valentine's Day and covered them to look like white envelopes. When you lifted the lid there were lip shaped cookies on the inside. S.W.A.K! Brooks Brother's shirt and suit boxes make great Attitude Boxes (a whole idea we'll cover another day). The boxes pictured here came when I purchased stationary. I've been keeping them for something I want to make at Christmas. If you could see them up front you would agree, they are way too nice to simply throw away.

Boxes aren't the only containers I collect. My husband ordered a bunch of these white containers in order to do a temperature study at his warehouse. All I know is there were a few left over and I was the lucky recipient. I am trying to be judicious with them, so I've only used a few. Here's one I use to hold all my spare buttons.

I love Mott's Applesauce containers. I stalk my kids as they are eating a serving, in order to make sure they don't throw away the containers. I use them to hold paint when we're painting, beads, rhinestones, google eyes... any and all craft items. They're easy to wash out and to stack and store when I am finished.

O.k. enough about me and my the trash. Cassie sent me some fun pictures of two things she likes to keep... wire hangers and old socks. Check it out.

The socks become puppets and the hanger becomes a awire trellis for her potted plants! Ingenious, right?

Announcements:

• Taste of USA: Yesterday was New York. Today is Tennessee and Michigan. Friday is the day that residents of the state should post the "taste of their state." If you have questions, click on the Taste of USA icon in the top right hand corner. Cheryl and Katie have done a nice job of presenting all the important information!