Show Gratitude With Hostess Gift
Face it, the next few months are the party season. Which means you’ll need to be thinking hostess gifts. Here are a few ideas, compliments of Coming Home catalog:
For family festivals: a breadboard packaged with cheese and crackers or a set of festive dessert plates.
For a casual party: tapered candles wrapped in holiday napkins, holiday potholders, or a bottle of homemade cider adorned with a seasonal bow and holiday ornament.
Turn down the heat
Before paying for heat you could have conserved this winter, check out the energy-saving tips in a new free booklet from the U.S. Department of Energy and Owens Corning.
The 36-page booklet offers a hundred easy tips for saving energy and money. To order, call (800) 363-3732 and ask for Energy Savers: Tips on Saving Energy and Money at Home.
Don’t go up in smoke
National Fire Safety Week has come and gone but that’s no excuse for neglecting some common-sense guidelines for preventing home fires.
Make sure all the smoke detectors in your home are in working order.
Keep a fully charged fire extinguisher within easy reach of the fireplace.
Always use a fireplace screen.
Leave the glass doors on the fireplace open when burning manufactured firelogs.
Don’t use a fireplace as an incinerator for garbage.
The holidays loom
A pre-Thanksgiving chore at many homes is polishing the silver. After it’s all cleaned, what’s the best way to keep it from tarnishing? The folks at the Silver Information Center have the answers and they’re sharing them in a free brochure on silver care and storage.
For a copy, write to the Silver Information Center, Flatware Brochure, 295 Madison Ave., 8th floor, New York, NY 10017. Information is also available on the Web at www.silverinfo.com.
Thinking small
Are you new to the art of bonsai? Plenty of information about this gardening niche is available from the National Bonsai Foundation. The group offers a newsletter to members; for information about dues and events of interest to bonsai gardeners, contact the National Bonsai Foundation, 1775 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20006. , DataTimes