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shopping bags we used as craft paper!). In this way you can co-ordinate a set of coasters to whatever you please, be it your room dcor or a holiday theme. To protect the insert, it might be wise to apply a few coats of decoupage medium and finish up with a coat of spray sealer (this final coat counteracts the tendency of decoupage medium to get sticky in humid weather). The possibilities for inserts are endless, and because it's a quick project without too many steps, altogether appropriate for children. Think of a school picture or a child's drawing or writing, and you've only just begun to explore the possibilities.

PACKING SUPPLIES

If you're like me, and all of your friends and family live out of town, you might always be looking for containers to send treats on birthdays or holidays, or care packages to faraway college students. I have found some sturdy and excellent vessels in my recycling bin. Cardboard oatmeal containers, when lined with a couple of layers of waxed paper, seem to get the goodies there in fine shape. I have also cleaned labels from those brown plastic cocoa containers and used them for small-batch shipments. (Besides, the chocolate scent has a tendency to be absorbed into the plastic, so they make a great choice for shipping any treat that contains chocolate.)

Another container that works well for small batches of assorted treats is the lidded clear plastic containers that package those convenience sticks of premeasured shortening. (Do clean well with a grease-cutting detergent to remove all traces of shortening.) Because of their small size, it is usually possible to fit small cookies in snugly without a lot of packaging.

These are basic, as-you-found-them versions of containers, but you can always dress them up by gluing on fabric or paper sleeves. Or, if there are little ones around, give them brown paper sized to wrap around the container and have them decorate to their hearts' content. Glue the paper on, and you will have home-baked goodness wrapped in precious kiddie art, a two-in-one-treat!

It goes without saying that you will probably pack these containerized goodies into a shipping carton filled with newspapers or other second-use paper, but I have a tip for any of you who are loathe to throw out those Styrofoam packing peanuts that so many commercial shippers still use. Store them tied up in small plastic bags (recycled newspaper bags, the long, narrow ones, are great for this) and then use them, still in the bags, to fill spaces

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