From Table Cloth to Napkins

  I have had this table cloth for over twenty years.  It was something that came in my sales kit that was rarely used.  Lately I have made a conscious effort to try and cut back my use of Kleenexes by using hankies.  I had some that were my grandmothers that I have been using, but I only had a few of them. Instead of buying more I decided to see what I already had that would work to make my own.  This table cloth was the first idea that came to my mind.  Once I got it out and started looking at it I realized it would make some really nice cloth napkins instead. 

I used my square guides to cut out the material. I used a 12x12 and for the napkins and a smaller one for the hankies.  The material without print was used for the cloth napkins.  These ended up being a Christmas present for my mom, which turned out great.  The part of material that contained print I made hankies out of. They are just the right weight and softness.  Now to add to my hankie collection to cut back on purchasing Kleenexes even more!

I used my serger to finish the edges.  

For the napkins I used 4 threads, and for the hankies 3.  

I have been a busy beaver lately

It's raining today.  It has been over a month since we have received any considerable amount of rain.  Unfortunately, it's a little too late for my garden.  I am hoping to get another cutting on my rhubarb and the rain should make that possible.  It will also help yard.  We have had to resort to watering our yard, so we didn't loose it completely.  The yard had become dry and very brittle.  You could hear it crunch when you walked on it.  The normal paths taken to water the beds, and take care of the chickens were starting to become more dirt than grass at this point.  The rain is a nice and slow steady shower.  Just the right amount to allow the water to soak into the ground at a good pace.

I have been a busy beaver lately.  I am starting to feel as if I am nesting, and I know that's not possible!  Maybe it's gearing up for winter.  Friday our family went to a cattle sale.  I had went to the sale barn as a child with my grandfather and have fond memories of those times.  Crazy me, I made a comment to my husband that I thought that was something we should do with our son.  He happened to have the day off and there was a sale going on.  Just my luck.

We got up early and headed to the sale, which was a 45 minute drive away.  The aroma when we arrived smelled just like my grandparent's place.  It brought back a lot of memories.  Needles to say, my son wasn't as impressed.  We watched as they auctioned off all ages of cattle as well as breeds.  We were able to get an idea how much beef was selling for if we ever get an acreage and decide to raise a few for meat.

It was a little disheartening to watch a mother cow and calf sell together, only to have the  calf brought back in to sell on its own.  The poor thing wanted its mother and was freaking out because they had taken her away.  A little while later a newly born calf was brought in by itself.  I kept nudging my husband to bid on it.  He told me to stop or they are going to think we are serious. I told him I was serious, which he knew.  He asked where I was going to put a calf.  I am sure I could come up with somewhere.....  We didn't get it, despite my desire to take it home.

I went to a tag sale with some friends on Saturday. Nicole had found so many neat things at a recent one to outfit her new house, she convinced me to go with her.  This was out of the ordinary for me.  It was merely a glorified garage sale.  You show up early and wait in line to get a shopping number.  This meant getting up early.  Something else I don't care to do.  My husband and son went with me.  I had looked through the pictures online and saw a pressure canner as well as a White sewing machine I was interested in.  I enlarged the picture of the pressure canner and thought I could see a $2_. I was hoping it was marked $20.  If so that was a good deal.  New pressure canners sell for around $200.  We arrived before Nicole and I waited in line to get my number.  I was 7.  After we got our number we then had to wait until 8:00 to be allowed in. 

During our 45 minute wait Nicole dared me to go ask where the things I was wanting were in the house.  She said one of the guys running the sale wouldn't tell you.  I took this as a challenge.  I went up to one of the other guys and asked about the pressure canner and things went forward from there.  The people outside not only told me where the things I was interested in were, such as the basement, they told me exactly how to get to the basement stairs from the front entrance, and where I needed to go once I got down the bottom of the stairs.  From then on, I was on a mission.  If you have ever went shopping with me, you have found I generally have in mind what I am looking for, and once I find it, I'm done.

At 8:00 we lined up and were let into the house in order of our numbers.  Nicole was let in a few people behind me and had other things she was looking at.  I quickly passed the older gals and headed straight for the basement.  I may have even been the first one down there.  My son went with me to carry anything that needed carrying.  The canner....  We found it, it was marked $20.  I opened the lid as my son held it to make sure it was as nice looking inside as it was on the outside, and off to the sewing machine we headed.  I found it, ripped the bottom half of the tag off of it and headed upstairs to find Nicole.  I was done, except for a small pyrex dish I spotted while walking through the kitchen.  It was $3.  Now to settle up, and have my husband pack up the sewing machine.  It was actually for my mom.  It came with a neat sewing table as well all for $65.  I will have to post pics of both the canner and sewing machine when I can get them taken.  All in all it was a good day for bargains!

Getting Organized

For some people organizing can be overwhelming. Being an Aquarius, organizing is one of my traits.  I love to organize things.  Following through to keep them organized is another issue.  One of the issues for most of us is we don't know what to do with all of our stuff, or how to get it organized to be used more efficiently.  It can be expensive to purchase shelving, containers, or cabinets to help one get organized, so where do we begin?

Start small.  If you start with a small area instead of an entire room or house it is easier.  Start with gathering like things.  Maybe you start out simple by placing all of your items for your morning coffee in a small basket in the same cupboard or even on your counter.  

If you are like me, cupboards are sparse, and so is counter space.  My son found some nice coffee mugs on clearance at Kohls awhile ago. I loved the color, but where was I going to put them?   I didn't have the space in my cupboards for them. Instead of tying to find a place in the cupboards, I bought some inexpensive cup hooks and had them hung.  Now they add color to my kitchen. We placed them in an out of the way place just high enough my coffee pot can sit under them.

I don't have enough drawer space to accommodate utensils, so I use a crock.  My mom gave this to me several years ago for this purpose.  I have placed it on top of my refrigerator in the past, but that wasn't very convenient.  Instead it now sits on my counter next to the stove.  Not only is it decorative, it's functional. 

These milk bottles were my grandmothers and I have had them for many years.  I'm sure they are worth something, and have thought about selling them, but can't seem to part with them.  I have displayed them in various places around my house, shoved them into cupboards, and now they have a new use of holding my dish brushes.

I purchased several containers like these over the years and use them all over my house.  It is easy to place a label on them and change it when I find a new use for the basket.

These containers can easily be washed, while baskets cannot.  I use these baskets in my freezer to separate like items and keep things from falling out.  Check out these images for pics of freezer organization. 

These baskets stand up to the extreme cold and won't crack when used in the freezer. I have purchased them at both Walmart and the Dollar Store. 

I use these for many things:
-Nesting boxes for my chickens
-Organizing my gardening seeds
-Canned foods
-Sewing projects
-Canning jars
-In cupboards to hold small containers or lids
-Hold magazines

They make a deeper version which we use to hold car washing supplies and cleaners.
 

I also have several baskets around my  house. Some of my baskets are Longaberger Baskets, that I purchased many years ago.  These pictured are not.  They just look close enough that people have asked if they are. 

I found these basket about 10 years ago at Walmart for very little money.  I bought several of them in various sized and used them to hold items on my bakers rack.  At the time I lived in a very small apartment and had even less cupboard space.  The baskets held my dish towels, dishrags, and so many other things. 

Although baskets are very pretty, and I love how they look, they tend to collect dust just like anything else.  I also sewed the basket garters and liners to spruce them up.

If it's books, or knick knacks you want to organize, you can purchase inexpensive shelving units that will do the trick. You can also have shelves placed into closets for added storage for very little expense. As a carpenter, my father was doing this many years before it became popular.  He was always ahead of his time.  He placed drawers in kitchen cabinets for pots and pans.   He would place shelves in the corners of our closets to hold my purses, shoes, boxes, games, just about anything you want to place out of the way.  When ever I move to a new place, I have him rearrange my closet so that I have two hanging rods and a shelf above them for shoes.  This gives us more hanging space for clothes and we don't have to pack them away each season.   He also added this opening for me to get to storage above our stairs which was virtually inaccessible. I have yet to finish the doors.

I had more books than I had space for.  I didn't want to purchase an expensive book shelf at the time, but really need to find something to house our ever expanding collection of books.  I had a space at the top of my stairs that was empty or a catch all for things that needed to be put away.  At one time a small desk was there, laundry hampers and as I said, junk.  I would have loved to have placed a corner curio cabinet there, or a custom made book case, but this house has always been temporary, so spending money on something we probably weren't going to get to enjoy wasn't in the cards.  I was getting really frustrated with our piles of books and after finding a book shelf for my son's room to spruce it up, decided to get one for the area as well.

 

This book shelf was $15 at Walmart.  I didn't care that it won't last as a good quality one would and we can even leave it if we move.  For the price it helped me get a little more organized as well as find a use for the empty area. 

The black shelving unit my son chose when we redecorated his room is much classier looking if you are into black.

These wire shelving units are great.  This happens to be one in my son's room.

We have several of these around the house.  I have two in an L shape in our store room holding tubs of Christmas decorations, Halloween items, fabric, electronics, office supplies, wrapping paper, etc.  You can adjust the shelves to the height you want.  Some of them even have casters and wheels so you can easily move them.  They can usually be found at Sam's club and at times Aldi's has them as a special purchase.  I have several of them in various places in my basement holding my stock pile of canned goods, laundry soap, dry goods in tupperware such as flour, sugar, rice, beans, pasta, and so much more!

A few years ago I wanted something to house our ever expanding collection of movies.  You could say we collect movies versus paying for cable.  We watch from our collection often.  I found this cabinet for a little over $100 and thought the pie safe theme would go nicely with my dining room.  It's made of oak, which is my choice of wood.  I love oak furniture and when purchasing a piece that will last a long time, it is always oak.

Look at the amount of movies this piece houses!  And it is all out of site, not to mention in a closed cabinet not collecting dust.

 I like to purchase functional furniture pieces.  This piece houses our CD collection.

Keep in mind these are  things I have accumulated over the years.  I didn't go out and buy everything at once to help with organization.  Again, start small.  Decide what is bothering the most and start there.  Making things more simple and saving you time is always "a good thing".  Maybe you want to start in your bathroom.  I used to have a hamper for each family member in our bedrooms.  That meant I never really knew how much laundry I had to do until I took it to the basement and started sorting it.  This took more time and energy.  Something I usually have very little of.  By placing the hampers into the bathroom and designating each one for specif clothing it has saved me a lot of time.

These are actually inexpensive trash cans.  One if for light colored clothing and the other for dark.  I know when the hamper is full there are enough clothes to do a load of laundry.

The same goes for my towels.  I used to use a normal laundry basket until I found these at Walmart.  I only wish they would have been available in white.  These work great for towels since they are usually wet.  The holes allow for ventilation.  I have two of these.  One is marked for those towels I can use bleach on and the other for colored towels.  Again, once the basket is full, I know there is enough to make a full load of laundry. 

Shoe boxes are another great idea to help get your bathroom organized.  I use shoe boxes in my bathroom closet to house first aid items, deoderants, soaps, lotions, and basically anything that will fit into them.  It helps keep similar items together and from rolling or falling out of the cabinets.  I also use shoe boxes in our craft cabinet.

Magazine holders are great for organzing paper too!  I have these turned on their side and use them to hold construction paper, folders, printing paper, as well as card stock paper for making cards.

This cart hold my stamping items.  These were purchased at Staples when they were on sale a couple years ago.  The cart has wheels so I can move it to another room when we want to use the items.  I actually have two of these carts.  One was damaged in shipping so it was free.  The other cart used to hold my coupon items, but now has knitting in it.

Finding a use for items you may already have around the house not only saves you money, it is recycling at its best.  It puts an item to use in another area of your home. 

This changing table is a good example.  It was given to me years ago.  It has been in our storage room since we moved here 8 years ago being used as a shelf.  Finally getting rid of some of the things it was holding made we get creative with another way to use it.  I could sell it, but then I would most likely have to buy another shelf to take its place.  Instead, I decided to set up a sewing area in my bedroom.  

This area behind our bedroom door is always out of site, and has been the dumping ground for two filing cabinets, clothes that no longer fit, and about anything else we wanted out of site.  A couple weeks ago I got a bug to move the filing cabinets into the store room and switch them out with the changing table to hold my sewing things.  

I moved my machines up to my bedroom and made more room in my dining room which will be great!  I can now sew in my bedroom and not have to worry about moving from room to room to accomplish a project.  Once I get it all organized it will be in one place.  The oak towel rack sitting next to the changing table will be hung on the wall to hold material I have ironed.  It will help to keep it from wrinkling while working on the project.  I have a holder for my ironing board and iron I am wanting to find a place for as well.  It's a work in progress.  

My rack for holding tread sits on the back of the table perfectly.  

Since this is a work in progress, and I am in the mood I had better get back at it.  I hope this has given you a few ideas to get started organizing and I'm sure I will have more for you in the future.

In the meantime here are a few web sites and blogs that may help to inspire you:

The Container Store web site has many ideas for getting organized.
http://www.bohofarmandhome.com/
http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/search/label/Organizing%20Life
http://browse.realsimple.com/home-organizing/organizing/index.html
http://creativeorganizing.typepad.com/
http://www.hgtv.com/organizing-and-storage/package/index.html

A New Fruit Bowl

Pears were on sale for .99 a pound last week so I decided to buy a bunch hoping to dehydrate some of them.  I left the pears sitting in the bag from the store for a couple days because I didn't have anything large enough to put all of them in and not have them sitting on top of each other.  At least I didn't think I did.

While in the dining room looking at my new pitcher and bowl sitting there on the table, it came to me.  Why not use the bowl, as a big fruit bowl?  It works great!  Not only does it hold all of the fruit, it looks good sitting there too!  I am finding new places for a lot of things around my house lately.  It's as if you have gotten something new, without spending any money. Coming up with ideas and finding another use or place to display things is recycling in action!  Here are some other neat idea for repurposing items.

Not Just For Canning

I am sure many of you have one of these funnels sitting around.  Maybe you use it once a year when you can fruits or vegetables.  I know I used to, until I placed it with my other funnels.  I use this funnel almost as much as I do my others.  I use it when I am filling a jar with rice or grain to keep it from spilling over the edges.  I use it when I measure my home made cleaners.  I also use it when I am saving broth and pouring it into a container.  It saves messes, and saving me from making a mess to clean up, saves me time!

Frugal Friday~ No more buying swiffer pads

 
I have hard wood floors, which I LOVE.  They are very easy to clean.  One of the things I use to clean them is a swiffer dry mop.  I used to buy the replacement pads, until I realized I could use a microfiber cloth on the mop head.  I have some generic brand microfiber cloths, but my favorites to use are Norwex Brand.

The Norwex brand cloths are by far superior to any other microfiber cleaning cloths.  They attract more dust, are thicker, and much nicer to use. I like using the Norwex cloths so much I still have a box of unused swiffer pads in the closet.

It is easy to place the cloth on the head of the mop.  Place the mop on top of the cloth.

 Fold over one half and insert cloth into holes.

 Do the same with the other side.  

 Once one side of the cloth is soiled simply turn the cloth over and use the other side.

The mop is easy to access those hard to reach areas.  If I want to use a liquid cleaner I dampen the cloth and use a spray bottle mixed with 1/4 of liquid castile soap and then filling the remainder of the spray bottle with warm water.  Shake to mix.  This mixture cleans hard wood floors great and doesn't leave a filmy residue. 

If you would like to try to make your own cloths I found a site that gives you other ideas called:
13 Ways to Make Your Own Swiffer Pads

My Latest Bargain~ Princess House Orchard Medley Dishes

This is my latest bargain.  The items were listed as a set for $30 on the local facebook for sale page.  The set includes items not pictured such as dinner plates, salad bowls, and cereal bowls, salt and pepper shakers, a cheese shaker and a spoon rest.  The plates and bowls weren't in the best of shape, which didn't really matter to me.  I wanted the set for the tea pot and pitcher.  The other items were a bonus.  The large bowl is called a pasta bowl, however, the pitcher fits inside nicely just like an old fashioned pitcher and bowl set would.
   

When I did some research I noticed the tea pot alone was selling for anywhere between $20 and $60.  The same with the pitcher, bowl and platter.  I paid $25 for the entire set and am pretty happy with my find.  The ensemble goes well in my dining room. 

Platter along with the sugar and creamer set

 Although there are pieces that aren't in the best shape, I have already found uses for them.  The larger salad bowls are being used to hold fruit in the kitchen.  The cereal bowls and dinner plates are being used for chicken food.  In the future I can glue one of the bowls to a plate and make a bird feeder.  Recycling items for another purpose is one of the things I enjoy.  It brings out my creative side.

Recycling Packaging

One of the things I try to do is find new uses for essentially useless items that would normally be thrown away or recycled.  

They come in different sizes.  They easily stack inside each other for storage.

These containers are from our local grocery store.  They are used to package meat for "bulk" sales.  I normally try not to buy things that come with packaging like this simply because of the waste.  If I can buy directly from the meat counter, I do.  

Once in awhile meat will be on sale and the only way to get the sale price is by buying in larger quantities with the extra packaging.  I have found many uses for these plastic trays around the house and yard.  One of my favorite uses right now is gathering produce from the garden.  

 They are very sturdy and hold up well.  I can pick vegetables, cut herbs, lettuce and so on.  Carry the tray around with me as I harvest.  Once I have brought the produce inside and cleaned it, the trays are placed in the dishwasher for cleaning to be used again. 

A No Cost Hamburger Press

Before you throw away your recycling you might want to see if you can find another use for it.  I have a tupperware hamburger press, but don't like using it.  Each time I use it, I feel like the plastic press is going to break.  The patties it makes are also a bit larger than I like.

I decided to recycle a sour cream container and press out the hamburger meat inside the container to make a patty.  To my surprise using two worked even better.  I put the meat into one container and took another container and stuck it on top, just like you would if you were going to put them away in a cupboard.  Pressed the bottom of the top container to flatten the meat into a patty and walla.... a hamburger patty was born.

The first few came out easily, however,  as I made more they became harder to remove.  I had to resort to smacking the container on the counter to loosen the patty for removal.  I bought ground beef in a bulk package and formed it into patties to freeze.  I placed paper between each patty before freezing to make it easy to separate them for grilling.

I love finding new uses for useless items!

My Garage Sale Find

Well sort of.  I don't do garage sales, but I did find this "pre-sale" listed on facebook for sale in our community.  I found this for $15 which I couldn't pass up.  I know many people love to shop garage sales.  I have been garage sale shopping before, however,  felt it was a lot of running around, rummaging through stuff to maybe find something you think you can't live without.

I prefer to live without those types of things.  I have gotten things from both my grandmothers when they passed away.  I feel I have more things than I have room for, and know what to do with at times.

The chair matches my dining room set.  It doesn't match the existing chairs perfectly, but close enough.  I had been regretting not getting more chairs when I purchased the set many years ago.  I had wanted to get two more captain chairs,  but didn't want to spend the extra money.  The captain chairs were more expensive than the ones without the arms. 

This addition will give me five chairs.  One more, and I would be set.  Now when we have family over for dinners, we no longer have to drag as many chairs from the kitchen to use. This chair is really comfortable to sit in too!  I wonder, will there be fighting over who gets the chair with the arms?

Salvaging an Old Pillow Case to Make a Drying Bag for Herbs

This pillow case is several years old.  And by several, I mean over 20 years old.  It was given to my family after our house fire in 1982.  My mom had passed it on to me when I got married and moved out of the house.  I always thought the embroidery design was nice and having it be my favorite color made it even more appealing to me.  An embroidered pillow case is not something you see very often anymore.  Instead of throwing it away or using it as a rag, I decided to cut of the area that had worn thin and come up with a new use for the item.  

I plant a lot of onions and could use another bag to dry onions or herbs in.  After serging the edges and adding a hem along the top to run a cord through I now have a new drying bag!

Serging the edges inside the pillow case

Since this didn't need to be a "pretty" project I wasn't too concerned that the hem was uneven.

I hemmed the edge with my sewing machine. 

I purchased rope to make a drawstring for .37 a yard. And a set of draw string stoppers for $1.48.  You need to be sure the rope you choose will fit through the opening holes in the draw string stopper.  I used almost 2 yards of the rope for the project.

Place tape around the rope before cutting or else the edges can fray.  

 

 Thread the rope through a pin to guide it through the hem in the pillow case.  Be sure to leave a small opening when you are hemming to allow room to thread the rope.  I used a diaper pin.

Threading the rope through the hem

Once you have threaded the rope through the entire hem place each end through the draw string stoppers.

Tie knots in the end of the rope to keep them from pulling back through the stopper opening.

Completed projcect

Total cost $2.22

This will make a nice drying bag.  It will be easy to wash and dry after each use. Not to mention I was able to recycle something instead of throwing it away.