Repairing damaged surface of faux leather shoes

I know, real leather doesn't get this sort of damage. But sometimes, what you have is the faux leather. And once it's damaged, they look awful. What to do about it?

Faux leather is a plastic-like surface over a fabric structure. When some of the plastic surface gets scraped off (usually on the toe or the heel of the shoe), the fabric under part is revealed, and makes it so obvious that the shoes are a cheap, faux leather.

We've repaired this kind of damage to several pairs of shoes, over the years, using craft acrylic paint and clear fingernail polish.

About a year and a half ago, one daughter repaired her brown prairie boots. We didn't have a shade of brown which matched her shoes, so she took several browns that we had and mixed a suitable match. Her repair lasted about a year, and she recently retouched the surface of her boots.

About a week ago, my other daughter was lamenting needing to buy new black shoes. I told her to hold off, and we'd see about fixing her current ones. One day when she was sick, I decided to do something nice for her while she napped, and I fixed her shoes. They were pretty scratched on the toes and the edge of the buckle.

I used black craft acrylic paint (the kind you pay under a dollar for at Michael's or Jo Ann's), and a paint brush and dabbed paint onto the revealed fabric, under the plastic faux leather surface, on the toes as well as the buckle. I allowed the acrylic to dry thoroughly, and then a coat of clear nail polish over the paint. That's it. 5 minutes of hands-on time.

Here are the shoes, close up, with the fix.

And here's what it looks like from a normal, eye to shoe distance. Before, you could definitely see that the shoe was scratched and damaged. Now, you can't tell unless you are up close.

My daughter has a hard time finding shoe that fit her foot comfortably. So, we're always reluctant to have to replace a comfortable pair. Making these shoes last another year, at no cost (we had the supplies at home), is all Win.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a summer holiday week

Oven frittata

Friday

Basil and red pepper frittata
Garlic toast
Watermelon
Blackberry-rhubarb pie

Saturday

BBQ pork on buns
Watermelon
Roasted cauliflower
Blackberry-rhubarb pie

Sunday

Kale and cheddar quiche
Brown rice
Cantaloupe
Brownies

Monday

Hot dogs, buns
Watermelon
Macaroni salad
Creamy rhubarb jello
Deviled eggs
S'mores

Tuesday

Macaroni salad topped with egg salad
Watermelon
Creamy rhubarb jello
Mexican fried rice

Wednesday

Bean burger patties, topped with quickie marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese
French bread
Watermelon
Green salad from the garden
Cream puffs, filled with raspberries, whipped cream and raspberry sauce *really good*

Thursday

Leftover bean burger patties, topped with marinara and mozzarella
Corn souffle
Cantaloupe
French bread


A week ago, Thursday, I stopped at the produce stand and picked up a load of produce, including 2 whole watermelons, a couple of cantaloupe, celery, and red sweet peppers. The meals this past week included all of this bounty.

Oven frittatas are a fall-back item for us, as I can quickly get one put together, then into the oven for a decent main dish, with minimal work. The frittata from this week included some of the sweet red pepper, and basil leaves from our garden. It was yummy!

The creamy rhubarb jello, which was made for the 4th celebration, is a puree of sweetened rhubarb sauce, cream cheese and gelatin. It's a favorite way to eat rhubarb, in our house.

Mexican fried rice? This was like rice and beans, but with scrambled eggs added in. It was leftover from weekend lunches.

And now, we're back to "normal" summer meals. The produce stand goodies are almost gone, and I'm still working through the freezer and pantry surpluses. I'm doing well with the grocery budget for July, so far. We're 1 week into the month and I've only spent $1 (graham crackers for Monday).

How did your meals go this past week? Did you find that you had a lot of leftovers from the 4th of July, or Canada Day? Anyone using their watermelon rinds to make pickles this summer?

Have a great weekend!

Sometimes when you keep a kitchen garden . . .

you have no idea why some things do well one year,

and others do poorly.

If I were a farmer, then I'd be spending all of my free hours educating myself on how to grow a good crop, each year. But, as just a lowly, kitchen garden-keeper, my free time has to be divided amongst a variety of subjects.

Therefore, I have no idea why the raspberries did so well this year, but the blueberries, so poorly. It could have been the weather at the time of pollination. Or it could be the abundance of rain showers we've had in June this year. Or perhaps, raspberries like our yard better than blueberries.

Whatever caused the disparity between the two harvests, it may have been out of my hands.

All I can do is give thanks and enjoy what I've been given. And maybe make an extra jar or two of raspberry jam, in case, next year, the harvest amounts are reversed, and we receive a pitiful raspberry crop and an abundant blueberry one.

Not breaking the bank with my wardrobe this summer

Ah . . . change of seasons, time to take stock in my summer wardrobe. Time to go out and splurge on a brand new wardrobe for the new season. Yikes! Not going to happen, here.

A week ago, I took my daughters to St. Vincent de Paul's, for their Sunday 99 cents/ all clothing. (Yes! They started that back up!) I was looking through the jackets for something lightweight for summer, and I stumbled across this one.

When I saw it on the rack, I thought it might be too small, but I tried it on anyways. And it fit, and was flattering. And it was 99 cents! Does fashion get any better than that?!

It's become my favorite, go-to jacket of this summer. I wear it with casual, distressed-by-life jeans (why pay extra money to have a pair of jeans "distressed"?) or a skort, as well as more polished-looking dark denim or black jeans. I grab it when I'm going out to the store, or when I visit a friend. I wore it to church the other morning.

On Sunday, I got a compliment on the jacket. I looked down at the rest of what I was wearing, and I chuckled to myself over the rest of my outfit:

jacket . . . 99 cents, thrift store
sleeveless, black cotton sweater . . . 99 cents, thrift store (this past March, before my trip to SF)
black jeans . . . on sale, with $10 off coupon at Penneys, 4 years ago, I believe I paid $14 OOP for them (I take good care of jeans, and hang them up, in between wearings)
sandals . . . on sale, with $10 off coupon at Kohl's, about 2 years ago (I think they were $14, on sale, minus coupon, bringing them down to $4 something plus tax)
handbag . . .Target in 2006. It's my only purse, used every day, and still looks good

I thought to myself, you know, it really doesn't have to break the bank to look put-together. I don't need a $200 Dooney & Burke handbag, or to spend $100 on clothing, or have expensive shoes, to pull an outfit together.

I'm willing to spend more money on jeans than tops, as a good-fitting pair of jeans makes a difference in how I look and feel in my clothes. But my idea of "spending more" on jeans just means I'll spend $14, instead of 99 cents. LOL!

I've found, with tops, there's such an abundance of good-quality, excellent-condition tops on the second-hand market, that buying tops, brand new is a waste of money that can be spent in other areas.

In contrast, with jeans, it's hard to find a classic style jeans, that are super comfortable, and in good condition, at a thrift store. At my mature age, with mature taste and style combined with the desire to wear comfy clothing, when mature women find good-looking jeans, that are comfortable to wear and are flattering, they hang on to those jeans like a life-preserver in the white-water rapids of a rushing river. Those classic, yet comfortable jeans, with the minimizing panels/fabrics designed to slenderize us, just don't make it to the second-hand market very often. So my thoughts on jeans, my plan is to use a coupon, combined with a sale, and find a pair that fits and flatters.

Casual jackets can be another good find at a thrift store. My daughters have found several casual jackets that they've worn and loved to death, and I've found this khaki zip-up. So, thrifted casual jackets can save a bundle on the clothing budget.

As for handbags, I'm surprisingly satisfied with just a plain and inexpensive one from Target. It does the job. I used to think I "needed" a fancy-schmancy handbag. Now, I think I'm ultimately satisfied with a handbag that lasts for many years, so that I don't have to think about buying another one for a long while.

And the sandals. I almost feel like shoes are a controversial subject on frugal blogs. Some folks really want a certain type of shoe, or certain level of quality, while others can wear less expensive brands of shoes and be satisfied. For me, with sandals that I will likely wear for 2 to 4 hours at a stretch, I go for inexpensive, but comfortable. So these sandals, at $4 have worked well for me. I've worn them every Sunday for the past 2 summers, and an occasional day, mid-week.

So, this year's big splurge on a new wardrobe, for a new season -- 99 cents.

I love that St. Vincent de Paul's has restarted its 99-cents-all-clothing-on-Sundays deal, again. My daughters and I have decided that we'll check back there twice a month, this summer, for items on our wish-list.

What have been some of your favorite clothing finds at thrift shops or garage sales?

Feasting on the 4th of July

As usual, we tried to put on a feast for the holiday, without extra expenses. The only extra item we bought was 1 box of graham crackers, for making s'mores. Not too bad. So this is what we ate:

hot dogs, cooked over an open fire (that's the fun part)

homemade buns, half wheat/half white

macaroni salad (I found a jar of green olives in the pantry, plus added celery and bell pepper)

watermelon cubes

deviled eggs

creamy rhubarb jello (rhubarb sauce pureed with cream cheese, and gelatin)

lemonade (made from bottled lemon juice)

mint and lemon balm iced tea (garden herbs)

s'mores and cocoa/coffee

The weather has been on the chilly side, in my area, so the sorbet that I'd planned, was out. In it's place, s'mores and coffee/cocoa. We forewent the chips and sodas that are often at 4th picnics and bbq's. The herb tea and lemonade were enjoyed instead, and I made a creamy macaroni salad, for a starchy side dish, to take the place of something like chips. And of course, we're still eating a lot of eggs, so a platter of deviled eggs was a must. 

I already had hot dogs in the fridge. One daughter and I made a batch of burger and hot dog buns on Saturday. I had all of the ingredients for the remaining dinner dishes. 

We have a fire ring on the patio in the back yard. After roasting our hot dogs, we all sat around the fire to keep warm while eating dinner, and waiting for the hour to set off some fire works.

And for the s'mores, I had a bag of marshmallows and some clearance Easter and Valentine chocolate candy, to go on the graham crackers. 

The whole dinner really didn't require much time to prepare, in comparison to other holiday dinners. So, in all, I think the dinner went well.

I hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend. I'll be back tomorrow morning!

June 2016 Grocery Spending Journal

June 1. Out late with one daughter while she had some printing done at FedEx (they're open 24/7). While she was printing out stuff, I ran over to Fred Meyer just down the block. I have 2 FM in the area. This one is always dirtier, busier, and has a strange clientele, especially at midnight. But it's close, and milk is on sale for 99 cents/half-gallon, limit 6. I pop in for my 6 (all whole milk) and spent $5.94.

June 2. This time going to my regular Fred Meyer. In addition to more milk (4), I'll pick up 2 orange juices (also 99 cents), my free w/ coupon bakery donut (I chose a Bismarck, tomorrow's breakfast), 1 box of Quaker Breakfast Thins (Friday freebie), 1 2-ltr soda pop, lemon lime (Friday freebie), and 1 small jar of blackstrap molasses ($3.79). I had a $5.69 reward to use towards this purchase, so all I spent was $4.04. The cashier did a double-take when he saw the price, because he'd about filled the top of my little cart.

June 2. As I was driving, I remembered I had a rx to pick up for my husband at Bartell's. I stop in there, but also check their dairy case and found 2% milk in gallons marked down to $1 each. I buy 3, and spend $3. The sell-by date is today, so I'll freeze most of it, make some pudding, and make a bottle of chocolate syrup (for chocolate milk).

Total spent for the month, so far -- $12.98

June 3. Cash & Carry for a case of 15-dozen large eggs (about 57 cents/dozen), $8.59, 2 4-lb jars of chunky peanut butter ($5.27 each), 9.60 lb pork loin, boneless, at $1.68/lb, 5-lbs shredded sharp cheddar ($9.48), 5-lbs shredded mozzarella ($9.73), 8 bananas at 45 cents lb. Spent $56.10

Total spent so far -- $69.08

June 7. Fred Meyer for the Senior Shopping discount. I spent 1 hour and 20 minutes from the time I pulled into the parking lot, until I drove out. That's about my limit for focus when shopping. I'm trying to be mindful of that, as I make more errors/bad choices, when I exceed that amount of time shopping. Here's what I bought:

1 box of Nabisco Good Thins rice crackers (free with download coupon), 1 small jar of blackstrap molasses ($3.41),  25 ounce canister of decaf coffee ($4.49 -- I don't need it yet, but it was on sale and I had my discount, so this will get me through August, I hope),  30 ounce canister regular coffee ($4.49 -- I didn't go with French Roast this time, as those cans are significantly smaller now. I'll blend what's left of the French Roast can with this one, to stretch the dark roast flavor), 1/2-gallon 2 % milk, marked down to 99 cents (I was hoping for the Senior Discount on it, but was told dairy markdowns no longer get that discount), 3 lb canister vegetable shortening ($3.73 -- it was on sale, plus discount, better price than WinCo, with the sale & discount, otherwise, WinCo has the better priced shortening), 3/4 lb of whole almonds, for $5.84/lb, 4  10-oz packages of sliced baby portobello mushrooms, marked down to 99 cents each. They had several packages, I took them over to the scales and weighed them all and chose the 4 heaviest ones. The price works out to $1.58/lb.

On groceries, I spent $25.62.

While at Fred Meyer, I also bought ibuprofen, duct tape, bathroom tissue (a package with a small tear in it, marked down, plus it got my senior discount), plastic wrap (also a markdown, due to box had a tear in one end, now taped shut, works fine), and an inexpensive box fan, on sale (no AC, here). All of these items qualified for the Senior Discount. I used my calculator to price out best price per unit on the OTC, the tape, the bath tissue and the plastic wrap. The bathroom tissue is about the same price as what I bought at Cash & Carry several months ago, but better quality. The plastic wrap was $1.07 for 200 feet. The last time I bought plastic wrap was at Dollar Tree. I spent $1 for 100 feet. So, today I got twice as much for almost the same price as Dollar Tree.

So far, month to date spending on groceries -- $94.70

June 9. Dollar Tree for once per month or every other month. I bought 5 24 oz bags of pasta (rotini, spaghetti and elbow macaroni). The price works out to 67 cents/lb, which is the best I can do around here for pasta. Spent $5

June 10. WinCo for bulk stuff. I bought steel cuts oats (62 cents/lb) ground chipotle pepper ($9.87/lb), chopped dates ($2.14/lb), yellow split peas (73 cents/lb) milk chocolate chips ($3.11/lb -- plan on making English toffee candy this week), cocoa powder ($3.08/lb), raisins ($1.79/lb), soy beans (85 cents/lb), raw sunflower seeds ($1.36/lb), unsweetened coconut ($3.15/lb), 9 bananas (48 cents/lb), sliced almonds ($6.55/lb), dry roasted peanuts ($1.55/lb) and a 72-ct package of corn tortillas. I spent $19.61

June 10. Also went to the produce stand and bought a bag of small red potatoes, 2 zucchini, 1 large green pepper, 2 onions, Roma tomatoes, a bundle of celery and a lime. Spent $7.03

Spent so far this month, $126.34

June 14. Fred Meyer -- milk on sale again. I'm over that way so I stop in and pick up 4 half gallons of whole milk and 2 half gallons orange juice (99 cents each, limit 6 total of beverages). Spent $5.94

June 17. Cash & Carry for another 15 dozen eggs, at $6.98 (about 47 cents/dozen), 3 5-lb bags of mozzarella cheese, at $8.75 each ($1.75/lb), 8 bananas at 45 cents/lb. Total spent -- $34.54.

June 24. My daughters and I had a girls night out at Five Guys. I decided to take the cost of that night out from the grocery budget, as I'm doing okay with it this month. Cost -- $19.72. Was it worth it? From a stand-point of was a meal of 2 burgers, 1 cheese hot dog and an order of fries worth almost $20. No. But was a dinner out with my daughters worth $20? I think so. It's not something I would do every week. But it is something I would do every once in a while. We also ate the free peanuts, and drank free tap water. Anyways, for the month of June, I'm now up to $186.54. Time to rein in the spending for the month! Our freezers and pantry are well-stocked, and the garden is producing, so we're good with what we have on hand, until July's budget kicks in on Friday.

June 30. I was going to make my run down to the produce stand tomorrow, but I was visiting a friend today, and this friend lives near the produce stand. So, even though this will put us over budget for this month, in the end it saves us money in gas, on my not driving back down to that part of town.

Country Farms produce stand -- I buy 2 watermelons (39 cents/lb), 2 lbs of cauliflower (50 cent/lb), 3 red peppers, (33 cents each), 2 small cantaloupe (25 cents each), a small bundle of celery (49 cents), 8 bananas (50 cents/lb). Total spent -- $16.27

My monthly budget for groceries is $190. As the month ends, I have spent $202.81 for all food purchased, over budget by $12.81. Subtract that surplus from the $252.70 surplus from the past several months, combined, and I now have $239.89 in surplus, to use for stocking up in the fall.


Free meals -- large bowl of tossed salad, plate of brownies, 3 tomatoes, 3 slices of pie


What I bought this month:

Meat

almost 10 lbs of pork loin

Dairy

14 half-gallons whole milk
1 half-gallon 2% milk
3 gallons 2% milk
30 dozen large eggs
5 lbs shredded sharp cheddar
20 lbs mozzarella cheese

Produce

4 half-gallons orange juice
33 bananas
4  10-oz packages sliced mushrooms
chopped dates
raisins
small red potatoes
large bundle of celery
2 zucchini
1 green pepper
2 Roma tomatoes
1 lime
2 onions
2 large watermelons
2 small cantaloupe melons
small bundle celery
2 lbs cauliflower florets
3 red peppers


Pantry

2 ltr lemon lime soda (Friday freebie)
1 box granola-type bars (Friday freebie)
1 Bismarck donut (freebie with coupon)
two 16 oz jars blackstrap molasses
8 lbs of peanut butter
1 box crackers (Friday freebie)
25-oz can decaf coffee
30-oz can regular coffee
3-lb can shortening
3/4 lb whole almonds
7  1/2 lbs pasta
steel cut oats
ground chipotle powder
yellow split peas
milk chocolate chips
cocoa powder
soy beans
sunflower seeds
unsweetened coconut
almond slices
dry roasted peanuts

Meal out

2 burgers, 1 cheese hot dog, 1 medium order of fries, free peanuts in the shell

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the last of June

Friday

Leftovers for 1 (chili, bread and vanilla-rhubarb butter, tossed salad, carrots sticks and peanuts), dinner out with GF for son, and my daughters and I had a girls night out at Five Guys. Totally out of character for us, but we enjoyed it immensely.

Saturday

Scrambled eggs, topped with cheddar, salsa, chopped canned tomatoes and ground chipotle pepper
Rhubarb crumb muffins (scratch, Jayne's recipe)
Mustard glazed carrots (added mustard, brown sugar and butter to saucepan, after steaming carrots)
Tossed green salad from garden

Sunday

Roasted chicken leg quarters (the ones I bought for 49 cents/lb in 10-lb bag at Albertson's), canned tomatoes, salsa, black olives and seasoned with a mix of chili powder, oregano, garlic powder and salt, over
Brown rice
Sauteed kale, from garden, in saved ham fat from freezer
Fresh berries from the garden

Monday

Chicken and rice enchiladas (using the chicken left on the bones from the night before, mixed with leftover rice, for the filling, topped with scratch enchilada sauce from Belinda's site, topped with cheese and olives)
Green salad from garden, with homemade vinaigrette
Blackberry-rhubarb gelatin, using bulk gelatin, sugar, and wild blackberries, garden rhubarb

Tuesday

Garbanzo bean and pumpkin soup (pumpkin from the free pumpkins last fall, pureed and kept in freezer, plus homemade chicken stock, garlic powder, shallots and cumin, pureed with cooked garbanzo beans)
Garlic toast (on homemade hot dog buns from the freezer)
Green salad from garden, with homemade 1000 Island dressing
Fresh raspberries from the garden

Wednesday

Brown rice and yellow split pea pilaf
Deviled eggs
Salad of greens, garbanzo beans, black olives and vinaigrette
Poached plums (frozen plums, stewed briefly in their liquid, a bit of water and cherry extract)
Bran muffins
Brownies

Thursday

Cheese souffle
Pasta and veggie salad
Watermelon
Leftover brownies


I finally tackled that 10-lb bag of frozen chicken leg quarters. I broke it up into 4 portions, each portion has 2 leg quarters, which is about right for making something like enchiladas, or chicken in a sauce over rice.

And you'll notice that 3 of us actually ate out in a restaurant this past week. I was needing a girls' night out, my husband would not be home till almost 10 and my son was gone for the evening. So just us girls went to Five Guys. It was good, yeah, but I'm okay if we don't do that again soon. Two days later, us girls had more time together during the afternoon, and that time, we chose to bring sandwiches to the beach, along with iced tea, for an al fresco lunch by the Sound. And honestly, I enjoyed that just as much as the burgers and fries from Five Guys. Every so often, I need to stick my toes in the water to see if I'd like to go in. (That's me, every once in a while, eating out just to see what I am or am not missing.) Anyways, I didn't have to cook that night. Yay!

Also, still a lot of eggs and beans. I've come to really enjoy preparing eggs for suppers, as I don't have to think too far in advance, the way I do if I need to thaw meat or soak beans. And my family doesn't seem to mind all of the egg meals. So, alls good with that.

How about you? What was on your menu this past week?

A mop does not have to be pretty to work

I've seen those pinterest pages with very nicely done Swiffer-style mop heads that can be washed and reused. They're neatly sewn and look so professional. For a while,  I felt like my sad-looking mop head was put to shame. (Yes, I do sometimes catch a case pinterest-envy.) Then I realized, there are some things that don't need to look pretty to be functional. And to me, mop heads fall into that category. So, stand tall, old-rag-become-mop head. You're doing a fine job!

This is my reusable mop head. I fell into the same trap as many, and about 15 years ago bought a Swiffer because "it would save me so much time". For many years, I used rubber bands to hold rags onto the Swiffer. That did work. This past January, though, I got serious about mop heads (said, tongue-in-cheek). I grabbed one of my old pre-married life towels and turned it into a mop head that didn't require rubber bands.

I took a hand towel, folded it over, then folded this into almost thirds, measuring against the Swiffer head. Next, with my sewing machine I straight-stitched the ends to hold everything in place. I did this all rather hurriedly and spent at most 5 minutes. I didn't even bother with trimming the ends. I used an ordinary sewing needle, and my machine is nothing fancy, but it was still able to sew through all the layers of towels.

To use it, we slide the Swiffer into the opening and just line up the edges so the Swiffer is centered in the folded and stitched towel.

I didn't blog about this at the time, as I wanted to give this mop head a chance to prove itself. Six months of weekly mopping, and it's still holding up fine. The stitching hasn't broken. The mop heap still slips onto the Swiffer and stays on.

When my husband mops, he'll hold the whole thing under the kitchen faucet. When I mop, I spray the floor with a bottle of vinegar and water then mop. After each mopping, we put the mop head through the washer and dryer.

Part of me was expecting to have to mend this by now or have trouble keeping the mop head on the Swiffer. So far, no troubles.

Even if she isn't the prettiest of mop heads, she's doing a fine job.

The beauty of making this mop head with an old towel is that I have no shortage of old towels. When this one falls apart, I'll be able to make another.

Thought I'd show you what's going on on my deck -- the frugal stuff

Welcome to my back deck. The deck is on the south side of the house and gets quite a bit of sun, even with a yard surrounded by enormous evergreens. 

This is the one place on the property that I can successfully grow basil. I plant this trough with basil, started indoors from seeds, every year. Before I planted out the basil, this year, I was planting the tomato plants that I started from seeds, and I had these 2 leftover tomato seedlings. Not knowing what to do with them, yet, I just popped them in the trough. They've grown well and now I don't have the heart to rip them out. So, to the left, a bunch of basil, doing well now that it has warmed, and 2 tomato plants to the right. Battle of the Mediterraneans. We'll see who wins out.

Also, due to being the sunny spot, I have a couple of heat traps on the deck. I can't grow peppers worth beans, in the garden, so I'm trying some pepper plants, started from seeds, indoors, in these large pots. I will be thrilled to get some peppers this year. I'm sure you'll hear about it if I get any.

 Over near the shadier side of the deck (though still sunny for half the day), I have this small area, marking the entrance to the sitting area.

In the large trough, I have English thyme, started from some old seeds (about 6 or 7 years old), indoors. Thyme is known to be difficult to start from seed in the garden, itself. So, I seeded these into a small container and kept under lights for early spring, and moved out to this trough about a month ago. The thyme seems be to doing well, so far. My other thyme is in the herb garden, in a pot. I never get quite enough thyme from that pot, so this trough will provide the rest of what I need.

Just in front of the trough is a terra cotta pot with a begonia plant in it. Begonias are not hardy in our area. They either have to be dug up in fall, and stored in a dry place for winter, or started new each spring. I bought 2 tubers and planted 2 pots of begonias a year ago spring. I didn't have time to dig them up, last fall. So one day before a heavy frost, I pulled the 2 pots into the garage, and just kept them there. I didn't water them until I moved them back outside in early spring. I didn't know if they would survive, but they did. Surprise, surprise. So, moral of the story is if you can't do the best thing for the plants, do the next best. The other pot doesn't look quite as good. It's suffered with an infestation of slugs. Every time it gets one little hint of a flower bud a slug comes along and chomps it down. I slug baited yesterday and hope to bring that pot back to full life again this summer.

And behind that spot is the sitting area. It's a pleasant place to sit in mid-afternoon, when the full heat of the sun  has passed.

In the back corner of the sitting area are 2 more troughs, one planted with rosemary, the other with lavender. In front of the troughs are the pots of geraniums that I brought indoors for last winter. The pink geraniums I brought inside, pots and all and kept in a south-facing window all winter. The white geranium, here and in 2 other pots, I dug up and put several into a pot together. Then in spring, I divided the clump of geranium plants and repotted. They were leggy in spring, so I trimmed them back and they've been doing well.

 

The rosemary, in the left trough, I bought as plants a year ago, spring, after unsuccessfully trying to start from seeds. In fall, I dug them up and potted in smaller pots to bring indoors for the winter. IN spring, I replanted them, gave them a trim to remove legginess and they've popped back to freshness, nicely. The lavender, I left in the trough (also planted last spring), as I simply ran out of time last year. I just hoped for the best, and pulled the trough right up against the house. It survived, and gave me a lot of buds to cut this year.

At the top of the steps to the patio, I have my 2 4th of July pots. At Home Depot, a month ago, I found some potted petunias on the clearance rack. In each pot were 2 red, 2 pink and 1 white. So, I bought 2 of those pots, plus a small pack of blue lobelia. I planted the all of the pink petunias and 2 of the red petunias in urns in the front yard. And with two of the deck pots, I planted red and white petunias, plus blue lobelia (red, white and blue). Sadly, I only have the one little flag, so I'll be keeping my eyes open for a second for the other pot. (I got this one as a freebie on the 4th of July a couple of years ago.)

The clearance pots of petunias did not exactly scream 4th of July to me. I had to think, a moment, how I could use the red, pink and white flowers. And as I also came for flowers for the front urns, it occurred to me that I could put the pinks out front, and the reds and whites on the deck.

Just below each patriotic pot is a pot of Asiatic lily, violas, and the mums that I bought at the end of last summer.

Again, I brought the pots of mums indoors for the winter, and kept in a sunny window, until it was warm enough in my plastic greenhouse on the deck, where I put them for March and April. I trimmed off their legginess, and am hoping for pots of blooms for fall.

And this is one of the white geraniums that I had dug up and put in a pot with several others, for the winter. they're in a small-ish trough which is too big to bring indoors, as is. So I'll have to dig them again this fall.

I'm guessing you see a couple of frugal themes, here. One, as much as possible, I start plants from seeds. It's the cheapskate way to grow veggies and herbs. Two, as much as I could, I brought flowering plants, which are supposed to be annuals where I live, into the house for the winter, so I wouldn't have to buy the same plants for this summer. And of course, three, I always check the clearance rack of plants at Home Depot for annual flowers. You just never know what you're going to find.

You know, you really should have seen my kitchen and living room windows -- filled to the brim with plants for winter.

Cheap 4th of July decor -- 3D star decorations made from magazine or catalog covers

If you'd like to see how these stars look spray-painted in silver for Christmas decor, check out this link.

Remember a while back I showed you a 3D star I'd made from a catalog page (well, 2 pages actually). These make great and *free* 4th of July decorations, to hang from a tree's branches, or the eaves of your house, or inside, from the kitchen or dining room chandelier-style light fixture.

Catalog (or magazine) covers work best, as they're stiffer than the pages inside. you could also use craft paper, like construction paper or scrapbook paper. But I used catalogs. (Go search your recycle bin!) I saved catalogs for a few weeks, to amass enough covers to make several stars. You'll need 2 pages to make each 3D star. And with a catalog or magazine, you're in luck, as you'll have 2 matching sized pages to use for each star (front cover and back cover). Different sizes for the stars make an interesting arrangement, so don't feel like your catalogs have to all be the same size. Get your older kids to help, as this is a fun project (and keeps them busy for a little bit).

What you'll need:

old magazine or catalog covers (thicker paper works better)
scissors
glue stick
hot glue gun

Here's the how-to:

Tear off the cover, front and back of a catalog. Fold one edge over, on the diagonal, as so:

Unless you're working with a square page, you'll have a rectangular section that is single-thickness, with a triangle that is double-thickness. Cut off the rectangle section, leaving you with a folded over piece in a triangle shape.

Open up your page, and fold/crease in the opposite diagonal direction

Open up, turn your paper over so the nice side of the page is facing you, and fold that nice side to the inside, on the rectangle, this time.

Open, and fold on the rectangle in the other direction.

When you open this again, you'll see that you have a square divided into 4 squares, and each square divided into 2 triangles,with folds.

Use scissors to cut, almost to half-way to the center (so only about 1/4 the way across the page) on all 4 of the straight folds (not diagonal folds).

Turn paper over (nice side down), and fold points on all 4 corners, bringing edge of paper to diagonal fold lines, crease.

Now, take your glue stick and cover one flap of each point with glue,

and pull the edge of the unglued point over the glued point, completely, and stick together. Use a pencil or tip of scissors to press the inside of the glued point together, if needed.

When you're done, you'll have something that looks like this on the underside,

and this on the top side.

Okay, with me so far? Now take the back of that same magazine or catalog cover, and repeat. You should have 2 matching, 4-point stars. (I timed myself on one of these 4-point stars, and it took me about 3-4 minutes. It only takes making a few to get the hang of them and be able to do them this quickly.)

Now, heat up your glue gun. Take your 2 stars, put a dot of hot glue in the 8 places where I've marked the underside of one star with a pen in the photo.

Working very quickly, put the other star's underside up against the hot glue spots, but with a point radiating out from an indented place between two points on the opposite star. What you wind up is a complete star with alternating points, with the 2 undersides of the stars attached.

Use thread or fishing line to suspend from overhead. Simply thread a needle and stitch through one of the points, leaving a long-enough thread for suspending. That's it! If you want them to all look uniform, you can spray paint them. That's what I had thought I would do. But I changed my mind once I got them all finished.

I did these assembly line fashion, making all the folds at once, all the cuts at once, all the glue stick for each star at once, then all the hot glue for each star at once.

The wonderful things about these stars is they cost practically nothing (glue stick and glue gun),  they don't need to be perfect to look good, but if you mess one up, no biggie as they were practically free to make. And they're like everything else in life, the more you do the faster you get.

Happy folding!

p.s. if stars for the 4th of July aren't your thing, you may want to hang onto this idea for Christmas. Smaller versions of these are beautiful in place of bows on gift packages, especially if made with white card stock, or silver or gold scrapbook paper.


Again, here's the link to these stars used as Christmas/New Years decor, painted in silver.

Making jams last week

Three different jams, may look alike, but have distinctly different flavors

We had a lot of rain and overcast last week, keeping me indoors in the afternoons. Afternoon-time is when I usually tackle an extra project for the day. If I can, I get outside and do some gardening. Last week, I didn't have as many opportunities for gardening, so on 3 different days, I decided to make 3 different jams.

In our house, with what we get in abundance, we have our "ordinary" jams, most notably, the wild blackberry jam and the plum jam. I also make jelly every other summer with either red currants or crab apples. Those are ordinary jam/jelly flavors for us. Perhaps because of the abundance of their availability, those flavors hold no special appeal to me, and I just don't eat them.

But I do have a couple of jam flavors that I find truly divine. I love the flavor of homemade strawberry jam, really delicious stuff. And my all-time favorite jam, from my childhood, is raspberry. And now, I have a new extra-favorite flavor, Vanilla-Rhubarb Butter.

My husband has been picking the wild strawberries that grow on our property, and leaving them in the fridge for me to use. Early in the week, I had about a quart of these strawberries to use up, so I made a batch of wild strawberry jam. Wild strawberries have more of the strawberry flavor than cultivated strawberries (especially more than the ones grown for shipping  out of state). So these made great jam. I'm not fond of the whole-strawberry-in-my-jam thing, so I rough-chopped them with my immersion blender before cooking (hence the appearance difference from traditional strawberry jam).

We do grow raspberries in our garden. And almost every year, I put off making the jam until too late, and we've eaten almost all of the raspberries, fresh. This year, I just said to myself, "why wait to make the jam?" So rather than having lots of fresh raspberries a couple of nights in a row, I made a batch of jam with almost a quart of the fresh raspberries. I know we'll get out fill of fresh ones, but now I'm certain of some jam for later in the year.

And then on Wednesday, I was working n the garden for part of the afternoon, out weeding by the rhubarb. You know how it is when you're pulling weeds, you have lots of time to think and plan. And that's when I thought to make some Vanilla-Rhubarb Butter. I've seen lots of recipes online for variations of vanilla-rhubarb jam, but I wanted something smoother in texture. As I was thinking there in the garden, I decided I would puree my cooked rhubarb/sugar, and make it into a butter.

Anyways, I made the butter by tossing chopped rhubarb and sugar together in a stainless saucepan, and leaving to sit for a couple of hours. Sugar is a natural humectant, so it draws the water out of fruit. The end result is not needing to add any water or other cooking liquid to the jam. Some recipes will say to allow the fruit and sugar to sit, macerating, overnight. I've found just a couple of hours does the trick. Maybe it's better to allow it to sit overnight? It works for me, this way, so why fix it?!

Okay, back to making Vanilla-Rhubarb Butter. I had a couple of vanilla beans as well as extract on hand. My initial thought was to use the extract. My second thought was to save the extract, as vodka is so expensive in our state, my extract is costly to make. So I bypassed the extract, and just used half of a small-ish vanilla bean.

So, when my rhubarb was ready to cook, I took half of a vanilla bean and pulled it apart, lengthwise, to expose the interior of the bean and infuse more flavor. I stirred the mixture while it cooked. When all was cooked, and the sugar was syrupy and thick, I pulled out the vanilla bean pieces and pureed the whole batch with an immersion blender. I found with the vanilla flavor, that not as much sugar was needed, as a recipe for plain rhubarb jam called for. My initial recipe called for equal parts of sugar and rhubarb. As butter, it was too sweet. So I cooked up some thin-sliced rhubarb stalks until I had a ratio of 3 parts rhubarb to 2 parts sugar. When all of that was done cooking, I pureed once more, until I had just the right flavor.

If you do make a vanilla-fruit jam or butter, while the vanilla bean would look pretty inside the jar, you can also rescue that bean to reuse in subsequent batches throughout summer. I pulled my bean pieces out, rinsed with a bit of water, then bagged up for the freezer. I'll be able to use this same beans a few times this summer. It's flavor may weaken a bit with use, but towards then end, I can always add a bit of extract to subsidize the flavor from the bean, at that time. I kind of think I'll be able to get a lot of flavor from that one bean, though. considering how much flavor you can get from a couple of vanilla beans, when making your own extract.

As for the flavor of this butter, one of my daughters said it tastes like pie filling. It's flavor is divine.

Rhubarb is one of those plentiful garden items, with only a handful of uses in the kitchen. So, this recipe is definitely a keeper for us. I have more than enough rhubarb to make several jars of this butter, give some away, and then have more left for us to use.