Thermal photos

My laptop would barely work so as a replacement, my husband bought an IPad.
 Isnt he sweet?
I don't really know my way around it yet but I am having fun with the camera app. These photos are taken on the thermal setting.
I think they look rather Andy Warhol-ish. As enlargements they might be fun in a modern room.

little girl aprons

Me and my mom
Christmas 1962- I would of just turned 5
Wearing an apron made by my great grandmother.  

My mom kept that little apron and I got it from her a few months ago.

My sewing project last night was copying that apron and sewing one for grand daughter Elizabeth. I just folded the old apron In half and laid it in on my fabric on the fold and carefully cut around it. I also cut out ties and a pocket, just eyeballing it.
Can you see the new fabric is printed with tiny tomatoes? Elizabeth loves eating May-toes!

The edges are all covered with narrow bias tape and a little button fastens the neck.

It took me less than an hour to sew it up. I am not sure it will fit Elizabeth right now as she is just 2 1/2.
I'll just hold on to it until it does fit her. And I better sew up another one for grand daughter Andie who just turned 1.


linking to
Think Tank Thursday at Joyful Homemaking

Keeping it real

I've slept soundly and all night 2 times in a row and am almost feeling like myself again.
Husband still seems tired but is walking short distances and able to do most things on his own.
Yea!!!!!

I intended to make veggie soup for supper last night but only managed to make a big salad and heated up 2 frozen meals instead. Marie Callendar made husband's pork chop. I had a Top Chef steamer bowl. Good enough but I sure glad I know how to cook and don't have to rely on these all the time.

My plan for today is to do some straightening in my craft room, catch up on that ironing and then do some sewing.

We are home!

Hello everyone. Well, it was a crazy week but not because of the weather. Husband's surgery was scheduled for the day of the blizzard so we went to Oklahoma City the night before and got a hotel room with indoor parking and that was just 2 miles from the Veterans hospital. Much of Oklahoma got more than a foot of snow but we were on just the edge and only got much needed rain.

The surgery and his first day of recovery went so smooth. Then we had news about a big problem and all the ways it had to be treated and we were anxious about that for 3 days.

By Friday afternoon, the problem was not a problem any longer - I believe because of prayers by us and many others.

We are home! Husband is still on several medications, will have some physical therapy and will be off work about 4 weeks. I think he is doing great.

Me? I will be taking care of him as he needs it and resting as much as I can too.

Thank you all for your sweet comments and especially for your prayers.


This is Husband resting at home in his recliner with an ice pack on his knee.
The staff at the Oklahoma City VA Hospital were wonderful.
But HOME is so much more comfortable.

It's gonna be a crazy week and I don't like crazy

My husband is scheduled to have some much needed knee replacement revision surgery this week
And this is our weather forecast!

We have made all the winter travel precautions and are just waiting to see what happens, not only for us but also for the hospital staff.

I may be offline for awhile and am just praying that the week ends with better health for my husband and calmer weather.

Some make, do and mending

 

I have not found much time to sew in February but I will show you what I did.

Remember that storage tub of patchwork I got from my parents back in the fall? I used some of the scrappy 9 patches to sew up some much needed pot holders for my kitchen.
I used 1 layer of Insulbrite and 1 layer of cotton batting in each one and they work great.
But after I finished these, I saw where another blogger used a square from an old terry bath towel to fill her pot holders. I may try that next time as I have a stack of fairly new bath towels that the side bindings gave away.
 

 

 

In that tub was an almost finished child size quilt- soft flannel and machine quilted. I added some bias binding from my stash, had to use 2 colors as I did not have enough of 1 to go all the way around. My grand daughter has been napping with it.

February has been a very busy month here- I really enjoy sewing and hope to do a lot more of it March.

lower water and electric bills

Below are our utility bills for November, December and January. 

We are billed for electricity, water, sewer, trash pick up and an ambulance fee on one bill by our city. 

Your may have to click on the picture to enlarge it if you want to see the numbers clearer.

 

The November and December bill are pretty much the same. 

 

 

The January bill is much lower.

Our water and electricity both decreased significantly.   
Nothing much changed in the way we do things except for 2 things.

 

1.  I changed from using our dishwasher to washing all dishes by hand. 

 

2.  Husband bought a LED tv for the living room that says it uses very little energy- I think the energy star tag on it said $17 a year~!

 

I am sure you all have heard that hand washing is less energy efficient than machine washing. 
But this is second time I have stopped using my dishwasher and documented the results-both times our bills went down. 

on my old blog where I wrote about it

My dishwasher is a 5 year old Kitchenaid. 

Lately,  our dishes were just not getting clean and the dishwasher seemed to run for so long.

 So,  I just quit using it. 

We have low water pressure in our neighborhood   and I think the low water pressure and the new phosphate free detergents are why it does not clean right anymore.

 I want clean dishes!  

I have no plans to replace it,  but I will just keep handwashing. 

 

 

Our old TV was a flat screen, also 5 or so years old.  I think it was plasma but am not sure.

Whenever it was turned on,  it let off lots of heat, almost like a space heater.  

This new LED tv feels room temperature whether it is turned off or on. 

 

I am not suggesting anyone buy a new TV just to save on your energy bill.  But if you are shopping for a new tv,  check out the energy use tags on them.  They really might "pay for their selves" after a few years if your electric bills decrease. 

 

 

 

Linking up the party at

Think Tank Thursdays

hosted by Saving for Six

 

A few bargains

Colgate toothpaste is 3/$6 with a $3 ECB refund this week at CVS. I used 50 cent coupons on each one, made each box about 50 cents with tax.
Planters nuts were 2/$8. I used $1 coupons on each as well as a $1 scanner coupon. I got a $5 ECB refund, made them about $7 for all 4 cans. These will be great snacks to take to the hospital for husbands surgery stay.

At Walmart, I used a buy 1 Pantene shampoo and get a styler free coupon that was in a Sunday paper . Made both hair products $2.97 total.

A new grandson will join our family in April. I found this too cute shirt for him at my favorite thrift store. It is Mud Pie brand and appliqued with a puppy with floppy ears. If it fits him in the summer, I can do a quick sewing alteration and make it short sleeves. The shirt and jeans were 50 cents each.

This weeks list......

I make a list every week of what needs done and what I hope to do

Monday was a very productive day
besides some weekly tasks like laundry and cleaning the floors,
the following happened....

spray painted this little wood dining set with black spray paint.  

Painted some plastic eggs- hoping they will look like realistic speckled eggs when finished but it will take some more  work.

Got started with some Spring decorating

And organized the drinking glass cabinet so I could fit in the new set of 6 insulated tumblers

straightened the Pyrex cabinet

I crossed a lot off of my list before I went to bed Monday

But not today.......

linking up to Tweak it Tuesday

at Cozy Little House 

Breakfast room turned kitchen wing- full reveal

Our  home has a normal size kitchen and 2 eating areas.

We have had both set up with dining tables and they looked pretty that way

but it was just not functioning for us.

Just 2 of us live in this home but we have lots of company and serve lots of meals

so,  we have changed the breakfast area from a dining area

into an extension of kitchen space.

We did not do any major construction- just adding some pieces of furniture and moving appliances.  

it started when added this Coffee Bar to the kitchen.  We put it in the space where the fridge originally was and moved the fridge over into the breakfast room.  

We are still so happy with the coffee bar.  Having all the coffee makers in one spot frees up lots of work space in the kitchen.  

the breakfast area
it has a big fridge, a chest freezer and a smaller fridge.
The white armoire was bought about 10 years ago for our daughter's bedroom.
Putting the toaster oven and bread machine on top of the armoire frees up even more counter top space in the kitchen.
It also adds lots of storage.  

The toy kitchen- just on the other side of my kitchen sink
the grands really like playing here and I can see them if I am cooking.

this breakfast area has very pretty bay windows
and I would prefer they were not covered up but I am so enjoying the extra kitchen  space.

my husband built this little bookshelf way back when we lived aboard Camp Pendleton- about 1989.
My cookbooks just fit on it
along with a few Longaberger baskets.  

another oldie but very special.
my son made this from a coat hanger- I think he was about 12 years old when he made it.
he is 31 now 

We spent almost nothing on this change- just the money on the coffee bar.
One of my goals for 2013 is make this home work for us with a little redecorating and rearranging.
Getting this room done makes our home much more functional and I am really happy to have it done.

linking to

Sunny Simple Sunday

Gender Neutral---- Ha!

Last night on the national news we watched was  a story about the push to make language

 "gender neutral"

They said some words were easy to change like 

penmanship should be called handwriting,  

firemen should be called firefighters.

Other words were harder to find a suitable substitute like manhole

I had just been shopping in the toddler department at Walmart and all I could think was

"ha!  where is this gender neutral activist group when it comes to marketing things to children?"

I needed to buy a trainer seat for the toilet for our grand children.  

One boy is fully trained, one girl is new to potty-training and is doing great, 

and we have 3 more grands (2 boys, 1 girl)  who start this when they are older.

So,  I just wanted a simple neutral seat that could be used by all the children and not look horrible in our bathroom.

I was so disappointed to see an entire endcap of bright color seats

all with licensed characters like Disney Princesses, Cars,  Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse-

all were very gender specific- and also way too bright and flashy for my decorating taste.

I was almost going to settle for Micky Mouse as he had a white background and was the least gender specific,

when I spotted on the bottom shelf

3 of these plain white cushy seats - decorated with just a few cute little yellow ducks.  

 It doesn't look too bad at all, does it?  

See that white loop on the center back?  

It can hang out of the way when not needed.  

I also needed to buy some pull ups for the older grands to wear when they sleep.  

I did not see any pull ups in any brand that were not gender specific- 

so we have Cars ones for the boy and Princess ones for the girl

but I would really prefer to just a neutral design that either could wear.

When my children were babies and toddlers,  baby things were usually aqua or yellow or mint green,  maybe all primary colors.  

Now it seems that everything for little ones is very princess pink or very boyish with trucks or sports, etc.

I am not trying to start a big discussion on whether gender neutral is a good  or bad thing for everything,

but I sure do wish the baby and children things for sale

were more practical, 

 less commercial 

and easy to use for multiple children.  

Batteries- My favorite way to organize them

Batteries- we use them in flash lights, cameras, tv remotes, baby monitors,  so many toys, etc!

I used to keep all the extra batteries in their packages in a basket but I never knew how many we had and it was just a mess to try to find the ones we needed.

I saw some plastic cases on my friend Susan's blog.  She uses 2 big pill boxes to keep her batteries.  

I liked her idea but we also use those big C and D batteries so we needed a bigger box.

We found our box in the fishing section of Walmart.
It has moveable dividers and is easy to organize.

It is also deep enough to store those big D batteries standing up.

I can even tell from this picture that we are running low on  AA batteries and will add them our shopping list for our next Sam's trip.    

Can you see it on the shelf in our storage pantry?

The only disadvantage to having this many batteries stored in one box is it is heavy.

But this battery box works for us and is one of the most useful things I've copied from an online idea.

thanks Susan!

And thank you all for your kind words about me being under the weather yesterday.  

I may of had a very mild case of the Rotovirus I keep hearing about on the news but who knows- I am just so thankful to feel good today.

I did go to Walmart today- not in jammies though- but properly dressed.  

Linking to

The Country Homemaker Blog Hop
and
Think Tank Thursday at Joyful Homemaking and Saving for Six

Not going to Wal-mart but I think this is funny

Why yes,  I am still in my pajamas 

I normally wear clothes all day but I am sick for the 2nd time this month - aargh! so I have worn jammies all day.  

 I did feel a little better this afternoon and took a shower and put on clean jammies.

 I hardly ever get sick and don't like this one bit.  

But I am very hopeful that if I get a good night's sleep tonight,  

I will be back to my busy self tomorrow.  

So,  sweet dreams to everyone, me included,

and do whatever you can to avoid germs.  

new clothes for the kitchen appliances

Here is a partial preview of the changes I've made to our kitchen and breakfast area part that I am claiming as more kitchen space.  

I moved this white armoire into the breakfast area for more storage and
for a place for the 2 biggest appliances to sit.
I would like to have cabinets added to this room but for several reasons- that is just not going to happen right now.

Manuela at The Cultivated Nest recently bought a similar white cabinet for her kitchen and that gave me the idea to move this armoire into our breakfast area.
It was originally in our daughter's bedroom when she was a teen but has not really been used for much since she moved out.

Using something we already had saved us at least $600 and so much time too.  

I didn't like the way the appliances were sitting out in the open so I sewed up some  new clothes for them.
I made all 3 this morning after doing my measuring last night.
I used some  natural colored  heavy muslin for all 3.
Then I thought they looked too plain so I added some iron on letters.
The mixer cover says MIX
the toaster over says TOAST and the bread machine says KNEAD.  

I had these iron on letters in my sewing room too.
My children used to made shirts with phrases ironed on and  all the extra letters were left here.
Since some of the letters had been used for other projects,  I had to be a little creative and could not put BREAD on the that machine as there were no Bs left.  

My measurements
and how I made the pattern.
I just measured the appliances and then added seam allowances.
No lining or quilting on these- just simple muslin slip covers~
that were simple to make and made totally with things on hand.

For sure- a Make,  Do and Mend project.


Linking to
Sunny Simple Sunday 

and 

You Flew Tuesday at Feathers Flight

a really fun sewing blog I recently visited

Spice Bottles

this is what my spice bottles started out as.

I cleaned them and scrubbed off the labels. 

Then I painted the metal tops red and added circle labels.  

I did not drink them.

 My mom drank some of them and my daughter's coworkers drank some.  

My daughter used the bottles at her daughter's first birthday party and then after the party,  

I took enough of the bottles to use for my spices.  

I tried to find some of the birthday party pictures to show you but cannot find them right now.

So,  even if you don't drink these coffee drinks,  I'm guessing you have friend or relative who does,  or you might can find some at a recycling place.  

Some little things from this week......

did you know that you can wash the canister on most vacuums?
I did not either until I saw it done on Sunny Simple Life.
This was fast and easy to do-
our vacuum is at least 5 years old and was very overdue for this washing.
The canister on mine comes completely off.
 My filter looks different than Sunny Simple Lifes so I washed mine in the sink and let it dry for 12 hours, like it says my filter but I had never noticed the instructions before.
It smells much better and just looks better too.   

Farmers Pork Chops in the front dish- sauteed spinach behind

I cooked this new to me recipe from the Charm of Home this week- it is a keeper recipe!
I pretty much followed her recipe except I just made a half recipe,  used Mrs. Dash instead of the seasoned salt and put the glass lid on this pyrex dish for the second part of the baking.    

I use the spice rack, junk drawer, utensil drawer and knife drawer every day.  But they had all gotten out of whack  so I spent a few minutes on each one- just straightening and organizing and discarding a few things.

I 've also done a little moving around in my home and have pretty much changed the breakfast room area into an extension of the kitchen- with no money spent.  It has really added to my kitchen work area.

I'll post pictures soon. 

The holiday on Monday was nice but made the week seem shorter and it just sped by.  

No plans for this weekend though and I am hoping to spend some time crafting and sewing Saturday.

I really hope to do a Cricut project,  I never got the Cricut challenge last week.  

I hope you all have a nice weekend!  

Pantry Challenge update

Meals this week

Sunday - I used this nifty triple crockpot to cook while we went to church.

In one pot #1 I put in a lean roast beef cut in cubes with some dry brown gravy mix bought in big containers at Sams. 

pot #2 was sliced carrots

pot #3 -was for instant mashed potatoes- they are not my favorite but my children are fond of them.  So,  I just measured out the water, salt and butter and put it on low to get hot.  When we got home from church,  I stirred in the dry potatoes  and butter,  and the mashed potatoes were ready as perfect as instant potatoes can be.  

We also had a big green salad with this meal.  

Monday- we had takeout from Panda Express

Tuesday- I cooked rice and served the leftover Sunday roast on top with some sauteed spinach and green salad.

Wednesday- Tuesday's leftover rice was made into fried rice with lots of veggies in it,  also heated up the last serving of  pepper chicken from Monday and more sauteed spinach.  

Thursday- shredded pork quesadillas with Mexican rice and a big green salad.  

I've been to the store twice this week- got basics like milk, eggs, yogurt, bananas, chicken broth. 

About that crockpot,  I had some Christmas and Birthday money from my parents.  I had so much fun spending it.  I got a sewing thread rack and about 80 spools of thread and dressmaker shears at Joanns- all on sale.  Then I got houseshoes,  a new Shark iron and that nifty crockpot.

This cooker holds 2.5 quarts in each pot.  

Each one has separate controls so you can cook up to 3 things at different temps.  

It also cooks slower, more like older crockpots,   so it may take all day to cook to something instead of just 4-5 hours like my big crock pot.  

I think this feature is great for when I will be gone or busy all day.   

One disadvantage is its size- the thing is almost 3 feet long and heavy!   I need to rearrange the storage pantry so it will have a place to be stored away when I am not using it.
I ordered mine from Walmart but I also so them in SamsClub when we shopped there recently.
They sell at both places for less than $40.



So far,  for the first 3 weeks in January,  I spent about $100 on groceries and household things.


Then, on Friday,  my husband had an appointment with his knee surgeon.
Husband's 8th right knee surgery could happen sometime in the next few weeks.
Since we were in the big city day and
 since the surgery and recovery will certainly keep us away from stores,
 we broke this challenge and  bought quite a few groceries that day.

Once again our kitchen is stocked but I did not make it all month on less than $200
 that is OK.
I still accomplished the goal to pay that bill with grocery/spending money.

So,  technically, I guess my pantry challenge is over but it is not.
The kitchen is full and  there will be no need to shop again for weeks.

My new plan is to get some things baked up ahead like par-baked pizza crusts and some cookies to put in the freezer for those busy days after surgery when I know we will be going to frequent physical therapy sessions.

Why do people think homemakers must be bored?
There always seems to be plenty of things to keep me busy
and to keep me on my toes.