Life at a "Swell's" pace

It's Election Day! DID YOU VOTE? (Update)

The Presidential Election is on Tuesday, November 6, 2012.

I put my ballot in, did you? Here in Oregon we vote by mail, so when the blue envelope comes, I cast my vote and mail it back. It's that easy here in Oregon, but in other states, you don't have that ease and must head to a poll location and cast your vote. Just remember, even if the line is long, the crowd is loud, or the ballot seems long, your vote counts and is well worth your time.

Vote as you please, but please vote.

You have till 8: 00 PM your local time to get your ballot in.

So GO! VOTE!

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Political signs EVERYWHERE!

A hand made sign on the front of this house on how they support Obama.

Our house is ready for the elections!

Signing my mail-in ballot for Oregon!

Even Google is in on the Election!

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To find a poll location in your own area visit Ballot Pedia

Quick Tips 103: Things you can't go without knowing

Quick Tips: Things you can't go without knowing.

Use a baby food jar or other small jar to hold paint from a recent paint project. These extra, little bit of paint can then be used for quick paint touch ups and even to take to the paint store to match the color perfectly.

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Fold and store your sheet sets inside one of the pillowcases. This method cuts down on excess bulky storage in your linen closet, and keeps everything in one place, so all you have to do is grab it and go.

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Use funnels for twine, yarn, and baker's twine dispensers in your garden shed, kitchen, or craft room. These funnels help keep the string coming out at just the right angle and will help prevent knotting and tangling.

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Use a tension rod under your sink to hang your cleaning solution bottles on. Keeping them off the bottom of the floor under your sink helps free up space for other items, like a small basket of potatoes, for instance.

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Use toilet paper rolls to keep wrapping paper on the roll. The empty toilet paper roll can be cut down one side and fit over the roll instead of tape or a rubber band around the roll.

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Use a rubber band to help grip a stripped screw. A large, fat rubber band will help hold the screwdriver and will allow the teeth to grab the sides and give some traction.

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Use a plastic bread clip to hold onto the end piece of a roll of tape. When you want to use the tape, simply remove the clip, when done, place back on the tape end once more.

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Use large-wide rubber bands on hangers to hang delicate shirts and blouses. Slip the rubber bands over the ends of the hanger in 1/2-inch distance apart and hang your shirt, skirt, or delicate blouse to prevent slippage.

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Keep low-cut v-neck shirts from slipping down too far with Command Adhesive Strips. They come is a variety of different lengths and sizes and they hold for long periods of time too.

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Use unbleached coffee filter at the bottom of planters to prevent soil from falling through the drain hole. Using unbleached or eco-friendly coffee filters prevents your plants from being exposed to any chemicals.

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Eco-Tip: Use reusable coffee filters when making coffee to reduce the amount of paper waste within your own home or office. For this and other tips on going green visit, The Earth and Me Go Green.

Spooky night makes for great fright!

Skylar went as Max from Where the Wild Things are this year. And I am pleased to say that I made the entire costume by hand. My sewing skills are getting a bit better, and I had a blast making this costume. For Halloween day we hit some of the area merchants during the cities Merchant Trick-or-Treating. Thank goodness the rain let up long enough for us to stop by a few stores. After the downtown trick-or-treating, we went by to see a few cousins on Jeff's side of the family. They were all costumed out and ready to hit the streets.

We ran into Jeff handing out glow sticks for the Lebanon Fire District.

Some merchants gave out donuts and apple juice, others like Herschel's Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlour handed out Pumpkin Spice Ice cream in a mini waffle cone!

The business owners throughout the city were more than excited to see costume-wearing kids come into their shops, stores, and restaurants.

The cousins were all ready to go trick-or-treating and Skylar couldn't wait to dig into his stash of candy already.

I think he scored pretty good.

After the downtown walk of trick-or-treating, we headed over to the park to be a "Wild Thing."

Click here for a step-by-step how-to on making this costume

Once we got back from all the Halloween fun, we prepared our own house with some more spooky additions. Like our spiders!

To make spooky eyeballs click here.

How to make one Spooky Spider you will need:

8 glow necklaces

2 short glow sticks

1 large foam ball

1 small foam ball

Fishing line

*Similar to the ones below*

How to make spooky spider:

Snap the chemicals inside both short glow sticks and shove them into one side of the large ball. Hold the glow sticks together and stick into the large ball then into the small foam ball. These will allow the balls to stay together when the spider is hung. The glow sticks I bought came with a small rubber band attached to one of them so it made it easier to hang, but you can also just tie the fishing line around both of the glow sticks, between the two foam balls, as well.

Once the two short glow sticks are in place, stick the large ball with 4 of the necklace glow sticks on each side for the legs. Be sure and snap the sticks before pushing them into the ball. This way the glow sticks will already be glowing with you hang them.

Tie fishing line around the middle of your spider and hang. Be sure to snap the sticks before you place them into the foam balls, and make sure you make the spiders 30 minutes before you plan on using them. Glow sticks do get dimmer as the night goes on, so keep a few extras to replace them throughout the night.

SPOOKY SPIDERS!

Our house Halloween night!

Halloween Moon!

Hope your Halloween was just as fun and spooky as ours!

Eco-Tip: Replace one snack a day with an all-organic fruit or vegetable. Just one simple change could make all the difference in your diet. For this and other tips on going green visit, The Earth and Me Go Green.