THE NO SHOPPING GAME

It is really fun to play the game where you have to complete a project with only what you already have in the house. You make up new dishes by combining the ingredients that you have. You wrap presents with whatever interesting stuff you can find.

It is a great game to play with kids, who need to learn that there are more ways to solve a problem than what first appears.

My most successful projects include:

Using aluminum foil or newspaper comics as wrapping paper.

Using children's hair decorations as an "extra" touch on the ribbon around a present. Christmas decorations are also a stunning first impression tied into a bow.

I like my oysters cooked in milk. I usually add garlic, but one boring day I added fresh spinach and blue cheese. YUM! You eat it with lots of crushed table water crackers. (Crushing two or three crackers into the soup, eating them and so forth.) I use canned oysters as I can not afford fresh. Drain the oysters, put into a large glass serving bowl, add three inches of milk, a handful of spinach and a quarter cup of crumbled blue cheese. Heat in microwave about 4 minutes until blue cheese is melted and soup is HOT.

Note that if you are cooking with milk it is better to use the microwave as then the milk does not burn.

I made a fabulous notebook cover by making a large cloud like glob of puffy paint on the notebook and carefully putting down a dragon patch. Puffy paint take 24 hours to dry so put it up somewhere until it is ready.

Puffy paint also can be used to cover up the part of the Velcro hooks that you do not use on your shoes. These hooks tear on clothes and collect nasty dust stuff. So carefully put puffy paint (the stuff you use to decorate t-shirts with your own writing) on the Velcro and push it into the Velcro with a wooden chop stick.

Excercise your creativity. Do NOT go shopping. %<)