Birthday Décor to Last the Years!

My baby girl turned two last week! You know what else got a year older? Her birthday decorations! I made this sign out of cardboard boxes, construction paper, string and a glue stick for her first birthday (see it hanging from a tree in the first photo) and kept it for this year (see next photo in our home)!

First, I measured 20 6-inch cardboard squares (one for each letter in Happy Birthday and my daughter’s name) and cut them with box cutters. Next I cut out letters drawn with a straight edge. Lastly, I poked holes at the top corners of each square and tied them together with a few inches of string each. It’s my favorite color combo, but you can use more construction paper to change the colors.

Total cost: a few buck for a glue stick, paper and string, the rest I got out of the recycling bin and the tool box

Total time: I made this in one night while watching prime time television, including commercial breaks!

Result: A big sign of celebration at our house! We’ll use it for years and we can hang it up for any birthday, not just our baby girl’s!

Alternative Gifts That Keep on Giving

Ahh, the stuff of parenthood. While having a family does inevitably mean owning more stuff, we don’t have to get pulled into the consumer craziness!

Here’s a website that helps us reduce the amount of new stuff we acquire by reusing our friends’ and family’s stuff, and requesting non-stuff gifts: The Alternative Gift Registry by The New American Dream.

We used it for our baby shower but it could also work for birthdays, weddings, and holidays! It’s free and it works just like a store gift registry only better: you can list items from multiple stores or items not found in any store!

Here’s some ideas on what you can include:
• New Items from Multiple Websites that were hard to find (e.g. the stroller we really wanted was available cheaper from a lesser known online store, organic or non-toxic goods that aren’t carried by the big stores),
• Home-made Goods (like blankets, booties, and frozen dinners for those first few weeks home from the hospital),
• Used Items (we asked for used children books, crib mobiles, baby clothes, humidifiers and tons of stuff we didn’t think we needed new!), and
• Gifts of Time and Experience (like babysitting hours, zoo memberships, swimming classes, etc.)!

Total cost: $0 to you, and much less for your friends and family.
Total time: less time than registering in a store!
Result: less stuff in your home and in the landfill, more creative and personal gift-giving and receiving!