BC Living
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Embark on Culinary Adventures: 5 Must-Try Solo Dining Experiences Around BC
4 Tips on Balancing a Nutritious Diet with a Side of Indulgence
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Embracing Plant-Based Living this Veganuary and Beyond
Inviting the Steller’s Jay to Your Garden
6 Budget-friendly Holiday Decor Pieces
Dream Home: $8 Million for a Modern Surprise
B.C. Adventures: Our picks for May
Spring into Fun in Kamloops: The Best Events in the City
7 BC Retreats Where Solo Travellers Can Find Inner Peace and Wellness
BC Distilled
Melodies and Museums: Solo-Friendly Entertainment for the Independent Traveller
Arts Club Theatre Company Celebrates 60 Years
SOLO CHIC: 5 Essential Pieces for the Stylish Solo Traveller
8 Gadgets and Gear for Your Solo Adventures
A Solo Traveller’s Guide to Souvenir Hunting in BC
A fun and easy way to cut back on plastic use
The best Christmas gift I received last year was a locally made, reuseable food wrap called Abeego.
My family uses these nearly every day for school and work lunches and throughout the summer for picnics. It has cut back our plastic wrap use significantly. In fact, when was the last time I bought a roll…?
This year, we decided to try our hand at making some from scratch—and it turned out to be a cinch… right up until the last step, which involves configuring some sort of button–string closure mechanism. We tried sewing small buttons on opposite corners. We also have a version with a string sewn into the very middle, which then gets tied around your bundle. In the end, we decided to just opt out of the closure step altogether since it takes about 50 percent of the prep time and we have plenty of big rubber bands and lengths of string handy in our house, ready to perform containment duties in a flash.
It is a really fast project, and you can complete several, say six to eight, in about 30 minutes.
1. Scraps of fabric, preferably sheeting weight, torn into squares the same width as your cookie sheets
2. Pure beeswax (a few votive candles work fine)
3. Parchment paper or Silpat
4. Clothesline, rigged up wide enough to hang one or two squares of fabric to dry
5. Clothespins, safety pins or paper clamps
6. Scissors or a paper cutter
7. Buttons, beads and string, if desired
Preheat your oven to 150° F. Tear or cut your fabric to size. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper, and place fabric on top.
Using a vegetable peeler, shave beeswax onto your fabric. Don’t use too much, though; you may want to do a test piece so you get a sense of coverage. (I think we got it right on our third one and it was about half as much as I assumed we would need.)
Place in the oven until all wax is melted and soaked in, about 8 or 9 minutes.
Remove from oven and pick up with clothespins (careful, it’s a bit hot!). Hang to dry about 5 minutes.
Use a paper cutter with a decorative edge or pinking sheers to cut a pretty edge.
Check out the Abeego website for closure ideas or just get creative!