Free Toys: Paper Villages

Occasionally I'll post an idea that involves crafts, since crafts are a great way to use existing materials rather than buying finished products. Plus, they are usually a fun way to spend time with people or to entertain kids for free. This is not primarily a craft blog, and the purpose of these posts is NOT to make useless stuff you don't need and suddenly have to store (my main complaint with crafts for their own sake), but to provide viable free alternatives for items you might otherwise buy at great expense. 

That being said, I offer you The Art of Paper Villages.  

A friend of mine who is eight years old recently acquired a beautiful Bratz dollhouse. (Well, maybe it wasn't Bratz. Some kind of dollhouse, anyway.)  It had paper furnishings. Yes, it was a sturdy card-stock with shiny prints of their various sofa cusions, rug textures, and bedspread fabrics, but this beautiful (and no doubt pricy) dollhouse was furnished with essentially the same furnishings that I used when I was eight and had no money.  

Paper is an amazing thing. There are all kinds of lovely,expensive papers you can buy at fabulous art stores such as Sam Flaxx or Meninger's, and heavy craft papers are easily available at hobby stores such as JoAnne's or Michael's.   

Ignore them. We want free paper.  

Here's directions on how to make a paper village that is guaranteed to be equally as fun as a store-bought Bratz dollhouse. If you are all crafty and talented, it could be a beautiful hand-made gift for a child in your life. Or, if you can't draw a line to save your life (although I can't think when your line-drawing skills would end up being life-saving) you can do with with any kids in your life and the time itself ends up being the gift. At any rate, I made these when I was a kid and recently made them again at work while waiting for reports to load. Try it, you'll like it.   

You will need: 

Some kind of paper (office paper is great, but please don't go buying stuff! Use whatever is available.) 
Some kind of something to mark with (You can get fancy with markers and crayons, but a simple ballpoint pen, pencil, or old lipstick will do.) 
Maybe some tape or glue (although, if you don't have any, you can fold little tabs in the paper to get it to stay.) 
Something with which to cut paper (Fancy craft people may have xacto knives, any pair of scisors will work, and if you're good, you can just crease it until you can rip a straight line.)
Ok, do you have everything you need?   

Fold the paper into fourths in such a way that the four sections are side-by side. These will be your walls. If you are planning on using glue instead of tape, first fold a little tab over before folding in fourths. This way you have a gluing surface when you are ready to put it together. 
While folded, cut peak into the paper to make a "house" shape. 

Unfold. All four sides will have this peak. The official architectural term is "gable." Learn it-- free knowledge is a good thing. ;) 

Cut off every other gable. This way, when you set the four sides up to make a room, the gables will be across from each other. 

Use the remaining paper to create a roof by cutting a large rectangle and folding it in half. For best stability, cut it slightly wider than the walls of the house. That way the roof can rest easily on the gables.  
Before you tape your house together, you'll probably want to decorate it. Unfold your pieces so they're flat and draw house bits all over it. I don't know -- go crazy. Doors, windows, crumbling bricks, etc. Most people can draw squares and rectangles, which is pretty much what doors and windows are, so don't feel out-classed just because you've never had a drawing class. Do the same for the roof if you like. It's important to do this while the house is flat because it's a lot easier to draw on a flat surface than on a piece of paper with nothing behind it. 
Once you are done decorating, set your house up in 3-D and tape it together. I highly suggest adding tape to the roof because it will help the whole thing hold its shape better.
Ta-Da! You now have a paper house.   Try experimenting -- 

Use several sheets of paper to get bigger houses.  
Try making houses with steeper pitched gables (this means pointier roof triangles) or flat roofs.  
Try taping several house pods together to get interesting shapes.  
If you want to use the inside of the house, you could fold the paper in thirds and leave one side open.  
Try copying styles out of some of your favorite books or off the Internet. Would a Seuss house look different from one drawn by Edward Gorey?  
What kind of people live in your paper village? What kind of stores are in your village? How do you know what kind of building it is? 
Try using different types of paper to get a different effect. Sandpaper, if you have it, makes a great texture for roofs or pathways. Construction paper is sturdy and you can make really awesome houses by cutting out window boxes, flowers, doors, windows, etc out of construction paper rather than gluing them on. 
If you don't have construction paper, look through those annoying junk mail advertisements for local stores and find colors in there that you like. You could collage pictures from the circulars or just pick out textures that are interesting. For example, you could cut up an advertisement for trash bags to add trash bags to a back door of a store. Or, you could use that picture of a large rump roast because it would make a really pretty red flower.  
If you have fabric swatches, you can use these instead of paper for decorations. 
If you have blocks of wood leftover from construction, you can draw right on the wood to make a village. Then you can store the blocks in a grocery sack and have a whole transportable village that you can easily take with you.   
For inspiration, look at cityscapes made from unusual objects or Look-Alikes, a book with art by Joan Steiner.   

The fun thing about this is that it is entirely endless-- as long as you have a pen, paper, and maybe scisors, you can keep building to your heart's content.  

I'm interested in seeing what you come up with -- post links to any pictures of your paper villages in the comments section :)

How to Live Without TV

I don't know how much your cable bill costs you every month, but I

 know how much mine costs. It costs $0.00. With a little ingenuity (or maybe a major paradigm shift) yours can cost $0.00 also. 

First of all, (and this is the hard part) you need to call up your cable provider and cancel. Do it now. I'll wait.

. . .

     ...

         . . .

Are you back yet? Ok.

"Now what?" I hear you ask. Well, there are other, freeer sources of TV that you may not have tapped yet.

The Internet

• If you just want mindless entertainment, sites like YouTube have plenty for everyone. 
  
• Most major networks have full episodes of your favorite shows available. Try the following:
  
• NBC : Click on Watch Video in the main menu, then select those shows with the green circles. These have full episodes to view
• CBS : Click on "Watch & Chat" and there will be a selection of full episodes to watch. These are arranged by"room" where you can discuss the merits of the content with other avid viewers.
• ABC : Click on the menu item that says "Free Episodes", and watch free episodes of all that they have available.
• Cartoon Network : Click on "Video", then "Shows", then select the one you want to watch. They are only available for a limited period before new content replaces it.
• Check out other video sites like hulu.com or made-for-web cartoon sites such as homestarrunner.com
  
  

This is assuming that you have an Internet connection (since you are reading this blog.) If, however, you access the Internet at a public spot, such as a library, you might want to bring a set of headphones (if you have them.)

The Library

I could really do a whole post about the library and how wonderful it is, butI'll just focus for now on film selections. Many libraries have extensive DVD and video collections, some of them with newer TV seasons.  Or, you could try branching out and watching older BBC or PBS specials. There might even be some classic films with people who are pretty and good at acting. Who knows, you might even learn something! Scary thought, huh?

Your Friends

Whether you realize it or not, your friends might be an excellent source of TV.  For those of you who watch Gray's Anatomy or Heroes just to be able to talk about it at the office the next day, why don't you find people you'd enjoy discussing it with during the commercials? Commercials are better when you're not watching them, anyway.  If TV is truly a social event for you, share it with somebody with a bigger screen and a better cable budget than you have.  It's a great way to get to know people and maybe share something you love with someone new.  Plus, your friends might have an extensive existing DVD collection of shows you haven't watched yet.  Chances are if they are excited enough about a show to buy the DVD, they will want you to borrow it, watch it and share in the wonderfulness that you might be missing otherwise.

Netflix

I hesitate to mention this because Netflix does, in fact, cost money, but if you already have a Netflix account, you are already spending the money anyway. Do you realize you can get seasons of your favorite shows through the mail? It's amazing! They play in your DVD player and everything. If you don't already have Netflix (or insert media service of choice here), you might find that it's cheaper to get a basic subscription than pay for cable. I know, I know, it's a "spend less" mindset rather than a "spend none" mindset, but I mention it because it might be a cost-saving option. And it might be the "gateway" into just foregoing your TV altogether. 

Watch Less TV

This is actually my favorite TV option here. There are about a million things to do besides watching TV.  Maybe even a million and five. Anyway, there are a lot of alternate activities. You can go for a walk, play with your kids, start a novel, read a novel, learn a new skill, pick up some freelance work, put a few extra hours in to get that promotion, find a new job, learn to sew, learn to draw, volunteer, get more sleep, take a long bath, etc. I don't know -- go crazy. If boredom was seriously your main reason to watch TV, then you might be pleasantly surprised...

Well, even with all those options you might find that it is just too hard to cancel your cable. If the TV is too tempting, have you considered just selling the box altogether? Then you'd get extra cash, extra space, and one less bill every month. Plus, it might cut down on arguments about TV watching. But maybe that's not for you. I'd just as soon keep it for movies and games, personally. Living without the cable bill (not to mention extra channels, pay-per-view, DVR, other various add-ons) is enough for me. 

Saturday Night Live gives Excellent Money Advice

Yes, we should all watch Saturday Night Live to get amazing money advice. Watch and enjoy. 

(incidentally, Hulu.com is a terrific way to access TV skits and other video content not found on YouTube if you are foregoing the price of cable.)

Not Spending Money (versus Spending Less Money)

In today's economy, we are all trying to spend less money.

The name of this blog is "Not Spending Money". It's not "Spending Less Money," or "Buying Things On Sale Instead of Just Not Buying Them At All."

One of my pet peeves is when a book or a website on money-saving tips includes items such as the following:

•  Buy clothes at Target instead of at Name-Brand boutiques
  
•  Save at least 10 % of your paycheck, and split your savings into buckets for short term, medium term, and long-term. 
  
• Clip Coupons at your local grocery. 
  

These are all good bits of advice, as far as advice goes. In fact, the advice is so good I might even point you in the direction of better-qualified authors to explain more about these wonderful nuggets of advice. But let me tell you why they are not the focus of this blog.

• Many of us haven't shopped at name-brand outlets, let alone boutiques, in ages, and new clothes at Target get super pricy. What I want to know is how the heck am I going to find something in my EXISTING wardrobe to wear to that wedding, or whether I will have to cancel because I can't afford to buy a new dress even from Salvation Army right now.
  
• Saving 10% of a paycheck is a really terrific idea, but a bit hard to do when you get a paycheck and subtract all mandatory bills (rent and utilities) and you still don't have 10% left. 
  
• It's cheaper just to not buy sugar cereal or single-serving applesauce than it is to clip the coupons and buy them on sale. Besides, my time is worth more than the few cents saved by going through piles of junk mail telling me to buy useless stuff just so I can find those rare coupons that are applicable to food I was planning on buying anyway.
  

A lot of people out there will tell you where to find cheaper gifts, buy cheaper outfits, or less expensive restaurants to frequent. 

This blog is here to share tips for dealing with the difficulties of not spending the money for cheaper items at all.

Because sometimes, saying no is a lot harder than just saying "no."