For the lucky few who have extra leisure time this summer, I thought I’d put together some suggestions for productive and fun activities that will help enhance your personal, academic and/or professional life. Some of these suggestions are addressed as if to young people (students, adolescents, etc.) but can also apply to grown-ups.

My suggestions are divided into the following subsections:

• Summer Hobbies - activities with lasting benefits and meaning
  
• Summer Studies - develop skills that will be useful in life
  
• Summer To-Do’s - a few ways to get your life or home in order
  
• Summer Fitness - ways to keep cool and stay fit
  
• Summer Pet Bonding - make your pet happy and you healthy

Summer Hobbies

Here are some ideas for catching up on tasks that may have been neglected during the year.

• Write in your journal
  Write about your past year, what’s on your mind, who and what you like and dislike, your daydreams, anything. In future years you will be glad you did it and also amused by your younger self. You think you will always remember what happened when, but as time goes by, memories do fade and become forgotten. (Trust me, I’m speaking from experience and I’m not yet 30 and have a memory better than most.)
• Make a family video
  Go around the house and take a video of your family going about its regular business. You will be glad for the memories one day.
• Scrapbook
  Organize family photos, report cards, birthday cards, artwork, concert programs and other keepsakes from the past year into a scrapbook.
• Reading
  Reading (even fun fiction) can help improve your mind, vocabulary, grammar and writing skills. If you go to the library, you can read in an air-conditioned environment without having to pay for the air-conditioning or the books.

Summer Studies

Yes, summer should be fun, but there’s no reason it can’t be both fun and productive.

• Learn a new language
  The benefits of learning languages are endless. Learning a new language can help you to:
  • Get ahead in your career
  • Make new friends from different parts of the world. When you show an interest in someone’s language or culture, they are often appreciative and take an interest in you in return.
  • Improve your English (or first language)
• Learn to play a musical instrument
  Music enhances the mind in many ways. Studies have shown that children who study music at an early age do better in school than those who don’t. Aside from that, it is also just plain fun.
• Learn to sew
  Sewing is a very useful skill to have regardless of your gender. You can learn to mend clothes, make your own clothes and other things for your house, which can save you a lot of money. Older and more skilled children can even make their own clothes for the coming school year. Check out one of our earlier articles for more info: Save Money by Sewing Your Own Clothes.
• Take a computer class
  Learn to type properly, use a spreadsheet or database, design websites, make presentations, etc. Most jobs these days involve computer use, so knowing as much as you can about computers might help you get a higher salary.

Summer To-Do’s

A few suggestions for improving life at home and getting ahead on the coming year.

• Get a head start on your Christmas shopping
  This could save you time and money because you can shop at your leisure and take advantage of summer sales. Leaving your shopping to the last minute usually costs more because you are up against a deadline and usually have fewer options.
• Sort through your stuff
  Go through your clothes and things and prune out those you no longer want or need. You could donate the things you no longer need or hold a garage or yard sale and make some money to put into your college or retirement savings.
• Re-arrange your room or home
  Re-arranging your room or home can have a positive impact on your life. A change can be uplifting and produce an overall feeling of well-being and accomplishment, renew your energy and increase productivity.
• Clean out your computer
  Ideally you would do this several times a year, but if you use the internet and download a lot of things, it’s a good idea to clean out your computer on a regular basis. If there are programs you don’t use, uninstall them. If there are files that you no longer need, delete them. Clean your registry if you’ve had the computer for a while. Keeping your hard drive from getting too full will extend its life.

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Pictured here is a plaid suitcase made by covering a family size Bisquick carton, complete with Velcro closure and faux leather handle. This is another frugal but effective storage solution.

The directions for making this suitcase are thus:

1. Start with a cardboard food carton with one end shut and one end open.
2. Cut a piece of paper or fabric to the dimensions you would use to gift wrap this box.
3. Cover the box using either white glue, wallpaper paste, or decoupage medium. Cover each flap of the open end.
4. When glue is dried, use either Velcro, a button, string or ribbon to keep the open end closed.
5. Attach a handle of your choice with hot glue. Some possible handles are folded paper or fabric, pieces from old purses and backpacks, sections of dog collars and leashes, old jewelry.

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One of our readers, Anne, asked us where we find affordable fabrics for our sewing projects described in Madoline’s post Save Money by Sewing Your Own Clothes, so here we will share our favorite sources. Our information on physical fabric stores dates back 1-2 years, as we have moved to a remote area and no longer shop for fabrics in physical stores. However, online prices mentioned here were current at the time the post was written (March 7, 2008).

Our Favorite Sources for Discount Fabrics

• Walmart
  Some Walmart stores have discontinued their fabrics departments, but if a store in your area has not done so, it is the best source for affordable fabrics. While they carry many “fiber content unknown” fabrics, they also have many good quality fabrics suitable for clothing in the $1.00-$2.00 per yard price range. When some of their pricier fabrics run low on the bolt, they often lower the price to $1.00-$2.00 to clear it out - usually with between 1-3 yards left on the bolt, which is ample for making a regular sized outfit. Even the “fiber content unknown” fabrics can be used for some projects such as home decoration and miscellaneous crafts.
• Jo-Ann Stores
  The physical Jo-Ann stores, especially the superstores, carry a huge selection of fabrics for all sorts of purposes - clothing, costuming, upholstery and crafts. While regular prices are often in the $3.00+ range, they often have large sections of quality fabrics on clearance for $1.00-$2.00 per yard.

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I will show you how to make a nice storage chest from a regular cardboard box. The box shown here is an economy size carton of baby wipes, of which we buy a lot because they are great for cleaning dogs and upholstery. If you shop economy or family-size, you should have a good supply of nice large boxes to convert into chests. These chests can be stacked and displayed all over your house, storing essentials or rarely used items conveniently out of sight. Fantastical treasure chests would be great for children’s rooms to encourage stowing away one’s treasures (a.k.a. putting toys away).

The Box

1. Leave the top of the box open to start.
2. Draw a line around three sides of the box at the level you want the box to open.
3. Using a box knife, or other old knife, carefully cut the lid on three sides.
4. You can now flatten the top, which skews like a parallelogram.
5. On the fourth side, score only halfway through the cardboard to make a hinge.
6. Tape the top of the box shut and you have your chest with a flip top.

Covering the box
Either fabric or paper (gift including wrapping paper) is suitable for this. I usually use white glue, but you may prefer wallpaper paste or decoupage medium as being more durable. It is easiest to cover a chest in several pieces. Have a little extra covering to wrap around the lip of the chest for a nicer finish. I used a navy twill which had to be withdrawn from my costuming business because of imperfections. A lighter or floral print material would give the box a completely different air. if you so desire, you may apply one or two coats of clear varnish to protect the box.

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This project provided an attractive way to post incoming sewing orders without causing our home to resemble a warehouse or factory. It took very little time and cost about $3.

I started with a fancy picture frame from the thrift shop and cut a piece of black velvet slightly larger than the board which backs the frame. This velvet, padded with a piece of old fleece, covered the board and was glued to the back with hot glue. Black satin ribbons were arranged in an even lattice and glued securely in the back and crisscross points. The board was then re-inserted in the frame which now hangs on the wall.

An additional benefit from this project was that the glass cover from this picture frame replaced another which had been scratched.

Endless fabric combinations and styles are possible in making these memo boards. They can even have buttons or faux pearls where the ribbons cross. Those who do not have or wish to purchase fabric can salvage material from old clothing and bedding. Worn or faded fabrics may look shabby on a person, but acquire a vintage dignity when used in decorating.

When you purchase food, you are paying not only for the part of the product you intend to eat but also for the packaging, the bags, wrappers, and boxes which usually go straight in the trash. While plastic wrap and bags have little use beyond stuffing them full of trash, cardboard food cartons have a great deal of potential. And since you have bought it, you may as well use it. Here are a few examples of the many uses of cardboard cartons which you purchase along with cereal, crackers, cake mix, pizza, etc.

• Disposable trash receptacles. Food cartons stand up nicely and are good for catching bits of trash while you are cooking, saving you the cost of trash bags. The foil-lined and plastic bags inside these cartons are often sturdier and more leak-resistant than trash bags proper and are ideal for holding food scraps and bones.
• Throw-away cat litter boxes. Very few people relish the task of dumping out cat litter, lifting liners full of sopping litter, or scrubbing the gray-brown clumps from the bottom and sides of cat litter boxes. You can avoid this age-old task by cutting a rectangle from of the side of a cardboard carton instead of opening the top, filling this homemade commode with litter, and throwing the entire litter box away once a day. These litter boxes can be set on newspapers or other floor protectors if you have large cats.
• Cheap homemade notebooks. Use flat cartons as book covers, using one narrow edge as the spine. Paper can be stitched or stapled in folded sections or simply stacked. To be efficient, cut the box to fit the size of the paper rather than cutting the paper to fit the box. I made an exception with the sample pictured here because the idea of a notebook in a Jello box was too good to resist. Affix the pages to the spine with hot glue. If you want a bookmark, glue a piece of ribbon or string to the spine before gluing the pages. These are good for address books, shopping lists, anything. They can be covered with pretty paper or fabrics for a fancier look.
  
  

  

  

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