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Now, let's get this show on the road!!

Our first piece of news comes from right here, in our very own guild. It's the Grand Re-Opening of Faith Black's Multi-Purpose Friend Guild!! After months of slaving, the guild is now being re-opened to the public. We've done a major overhaul on the whole thing - As you can see, there's now a monthly newsletter, we now have 1 new subforum, & another that has had its' title changed. We've also had quite a few new threads created, which brings me to our next piece of news:

I have taken this momentous occasion to begin monthly contests again. You can find this month's monthly here.
Psst. This month's prize is 100,000 gold!
Isn't it exciting?!

Next, we have a few words from ICareAboutTheWorld in the home:
Introduction: I care about the environment. I care about helping others. I also care about saving money & making your life easier. In this section, I'm going to be talking about how to do those 3 things. This section will be included in every issue, with tips on how you can do something for you (save money or make your life easier), do something for me (help others), & do something for us (help the environment & our planet).

For You: Do you have a cat? Is it expensive to have to buy litter for them all the time? Then why not make your own eco-friendly kitty litter?
This site has a recipe to make your own kitty litter.
All you need is newspaper, a paper shredder, some bio-degradable dish soap, a colander, baking soda, gloves (to avoid getting ink on your hands), & a screen for it to dry on. The steps are very easy to follow, & it doesn't take long to make (about 30-45 minutes for a 2 to 3 week supply, if you have one cat), & it recycles your old newspaper! That's one less thing you have to throw away, plus you can get your neighbors to donate to the cause! I haven't been able to try it yet due to lack of newspaper (I also use newspaper for the bottom of my guinea pig's cage, but that's for another issue), but I plan to as soon as I have enough newspaper stored up.

For Me: How much soda do you drink in one day? What about in one week? One month? Think about how many soda cans you throw away. There is a very well-known organization called Ronald McDonald House Charities. If you've ever been to a McDonald's, I'm sure you've seen those little boxes in front of the registers set up so that people can donate money to this organization. Many people don't realize exactly what they do, so let me tell you:
Ronald McDonald House Charities (AKA the RMHC) builds houses near hospitals for parents to stay in while their children are in the hospital for little to no cost, but that's just the basic gist of it. Many parents have to travel hundreds of miles to get to the nearest hospital when their child is sick. These houses are built near hospitals so that parents don't have to worry about traveling long distances or whether or not they can afford to stay in a hotel while their child is being treated. Children with life-threatening illnesses often need to stay in the hospital overnight, & it can be scary to know that their parents aren't going to be nearby if they are needed. The RMHC also offers home-cooked meals, private bedrooms, playrooms for children, special suites for children with suppressed immune systems, accredited education programs, recreational activities, non-clinical support services, & sibling support services, depending on the house.
Besides monetary donations, the RMHC also collects pop tabs (the tabs off of soda cans). They recycle these & use the money to fund the services they provide. They take can tabs instead of the whole can because it's more hygienic, & they are easier to collect & store than whole cans.
To find a chapter near you that collects these tabs, go here, select your country & any other info they ask for from the drop down menus, & select the "Ronald McDonald House Charities Chapter" to find a chapter near you. Give them a call & ask them about a place near you where you can drop off your can tabs, or you can ask your local House about getting a collection container that you can be responsible for filling through one of your own groups. It's inexpensive, helps the children & families in your neighborhood, & it's recycling. You can't go wrong!

For Us: Most Americans drink coffee in the morning, & after we make that coffee, we usually just throw away our coffee grounds, & they end up in a landfill somewhere. Coffee is completely organic, so there is no need for those grounds to end up in a landfill when there are many other things you can do with it! Below is listed several uses for old coffee grounds:
1. Coffee grounds are gritty. Use them with soap to scrub greasy hands and pots alike. The coffee acts as a scrub and rinses off easily. Keep a container next to your sink to keep coffee grounds in for easy access. CAUTION: I have been told that you can also use coffee grounds to unclog your sink, but I have since learned that this is NOT productive - They can actually make the clog worse.
2. A compost pile is a pile of dead plants, & old, rotten food that, with the help of bugs, becomes soil for new plants to grow in. If you already have a compost pile, you can add it to your compost. If you don't have a compost pile, you can start one. This site gives good instructions on how to start a compost pile to make soil for your garden. This site goes into a little more detail than the one above.
3. Use them, as is, to fertilize your garden. It is a well known fact that coffee grounds are great for helping roses grow, but they help certain other plants as well, like azaleas, rhododendrons & blueberries - acid loving plants. Sprinkle some coffee grounds on the soil around the base of your plant, but be careful not to let it touch the plant. The nitrogen in the coffee grounds should make your plants grow bigger, but try not to overdo it because it may hinder your plant's ability to grow bigger fruit. Coffee grounds in your garden can also help ward off bugs who eat them, without the use of harsh pesticides. It's good for the worms in your garden, too, which brings me to my next point:
4. If you raise earthworms for your garden, your compost pile, or for fishing, you can feed them cool, used coffee grounds.
5. Did you know that you can stain wood with coffee grounds? My mom & I plan to test this theory on some plaques in the near future, & I'm really excited about it! There are many sites with instructions on how you can do this, but the process may vary, depending on what you plan to stain.
This site explains how to stain cabinets.
This site explains how to stain hardwood floors.
You'll have to Google your specific use to find the proper method for your specific project.
6. Rub coffee grounds on your hands after chopping onions or garlic to deodorize them. My mom makes homemade, natural bath products, & we use coffee grounds to help us clear our senses while making our products so that we can tell whether we need to add more scent to a product or not. Perfume shops also use coffee grounds to clear your senses when you are trying to find one to buy. It's a great deodorizer, which brings me to my next point:
7. Does your refrigerator stink? Put some wet coffee grounds in an open container & leave it in the back of your fridge until they are dried out. Your fridge will smell of coffee instead of funk.
8. Ward off invasions. Sprinkle some coffee grounds around the foundation of your house to ward off ants & other bugs. It won't completely get rid of them, but it should help at least a little.
And remember, if you don't drink coffee, or you need more grounds than you have, stop by your local coffee or tea shop (like Starbucks) & ask them if they will give you their coffee grounds. Many Starbucks' now have a rack stocked with bags of used coffee grounds in their entrances - They understand how versatile coffee really is, & now, so do you!

Key points:
Save money & recycle newspaper by making your own kitty litter.
Save your can tabs & give them to Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Recycle coffee grounds 8 different ways.

And now for... The LOLs!!
Images courtesy of icanhascheezburger.com
(If you can't see the LOLs, you need to change your image settings. Go to My Gaia. Under the toolbar, find the picture of a gear. Hover your mouse over the little arrow to the right of the gear & click on "Preferences." Scroll to the bottom &, on the left side, look for where it says "Image Display: Show Whitelisted Images." From the drop-down menu, select "Show All Images." You should be able to see The LOLs now.)




Advertising information:
How to do it: Send a PM to FaithBlack using the following form:

You may pay to have your advertisements placed at the top of the newsletter. These advertisements must abide by Gaia's Terms of Service, Gaia's Rules & Guidelines, as well as Faith Black's Multi-Purpose Friend Guild's Rules. According to Gaia's Terms of Service, recieving payment to advertise other websites is not permitted, so please only link to other places on Gaia. This means that you may advertise other places in our guild, other guilds, art shops, marketplace listings, etc. All ads must be approved by FaithBlack before being posted to the newsletter.
Pricing:
To find how much your banner would cost, add up the pixel size, & divide that number by 2. To find the pixel size, right click on your banner, then left click on "View Image Info". Look for where it says "Dimensions". The pixel size will be there. If you still can't figure it out, just PM FaithBlack your banner & she will tell you the pixel size & the price.
200 x 40 pixels = 120g a month (240 pixels total divided by 2 = 120)
470 x 70 pixels = 270g a month
500 x 100 pixels = 300g a month
Get it? A moving banner (instead of a still banner) will cost an additional 50g.
All gold from advertisements must be sent in a trade to FaithBlack or to FaithBlack2001. All proceeds will go towards paying people who were hired to help with the newsletter and buying items for future giveaways.

Don't have a banner?
PM FaithBlack using the following form:

The prices for banners I make will be the same as the prices for posting banners in the Newsletter advertisements, but the 2 prices are separate.
Other banners I've made can be found in the Sticky titled "Banners for your sig" in the main forum of the guild.
All proceeds from banners I make will go to me, to my personal gold fund, which is separate from the guild gold fund.

That's all, folks!
That's all for this month's newsletter! If you have any suggestions, feedback, etc, feel free to post them here! Discussions are more than welcome as well. See you again next month!

This newsletter's team:
FaithBlack
ICareAboutTheWorld
Amethyst Bath And Beauty

All users who helped with this month's newsletter were volunteers & did not receive any payment for their work.