Finished My Wire-Wrapped Sea Glass Bracelet

When my kids were school age, one of our favorite summer excursion venues was our local beaches. The kids would comb the shore along with me, hunting for the perfect seashell or jewel-like piece of sea glass. I accumulated quite a collection of sea glass over the years.

There aren't many opportunities for my kids to beach comb with me these days. Their lives keep them busy. But I have my seashore collections to bring back those fond memories.

You might remember that a couple of years ago I posted about some of the wire-wrapped jewelry I was making. I also began a sea glass bracelet, using wire-wrapping to both make the frame for the bracelet as well as secure the pieces of sea glass. I put it away unfinished and pretty much forgot about it.

One day this summer I came upon the project in a drawer and set it on my dresser to get to this summer. In clearing up the dresser earlier today, I decided to just finish the bracelet. I didn't have much left to do, just fashion some sort of wire-wrapping clasp.

The silver-plated wire bracelet holds five pieces of sea glass, 1 large pale blue piece, 2 white pieces, and 2 lime green pieces.

I'm pleased with how it turned out for my first such piece of jewelry. And I'll always treasure the memories it represents from my children's younger days.

Do you clean and/or polish your shoes?

I remember watching my father polish his work shoes when I was a girl. He had a cardboard box with all of the supplies kept inside. I would watch him rub the polish into the leather then buff the dried polish till the shoes shone. My mother took care of our shoes, removing scuffs from patent leather with rubbing alcohol, covering marks on other leather shoes with a liquid polish, or washing our sneakers in the washing machine periodically. There always seemed to be a pair of drying sneakers sitting in front of the refrigerator where warm air came out and dried the shoes. This was normal care-taking of shoes. 

If a shoe developed a problem, there was a shoe repair shop nearby that could fix them. My dad would boast that he'd had the same pair of dress shoes for over a decade, taking care of them himself in the evenings and by getting them resoled at the repair place when needed. My dad wore an odd shoe size which was difficult to source, so making shoes last longer was imperative. But my parents were also just normal thrifty people, like most folks I knew as a girl.

I wore leather dress shoes to my job pre-kids, and I used the skills I learned to keep my shoes looking nice for as long as possible, too. But sometime in the last 35 years, the art of shoe care and repair just got lost in our society. Shoes got cheaper, were often not made from good materials like real leather, and replacing worn-looking shoes seemed more feasible than doing the work to make them look nice again. There's a big exception to this, though. Good quality sneakers/athletic shoes are expensive.

I can't wear cheap sneakers. I spend the extra money to get sneakers that work for my persnickety feet. For most of the last 10 years, I've bought black sneakers, because black doesn't show dirt as readily as lighter colors. I hose my black sneakers off from time to time when coming back in from the garden, then let them dry in the sun. This summer I decided that I wanted some light-colored sneakers. I chose this pale green pair. They go well with capri-length pants and my khaki skort -- my summer uniforms for casual days. I feel that now I don't look as dorky as I did with black sneakers and a skort. But I still wear my black sneakers for really dirty work.

One issue with the light-colored sneakers, they show dirt very quickly. I've been reminded that I need to clean these more frequently than I do my black shoes. One of the things that's changed over the years, though, modern sneakers and athletic shoes are often made of synthetic materials that seems to clean easily. With this pair, I hold a shoe over the kitchen sink and use a little dish soap on a rag to clean the dirt off the toes, where I seem to get my shoes the dirtiest. Then rinse under water and set in the sun to dry. I seem to need to do this a couple of times a month. This last time I was thinking to myself that you don't hear much about people polishing or cleaning shoes any more. A couple of years ago I went to buy actual shoe polish for my husband's dress shoes and had to go to a couple of stores to find what I needed.

So now I'm wondering, does anyone else regularly clean or polish their shoes? Is this a chore you routinely do? Have you found ways to make the job easier or gentler on your shoes?

Summer Dinner With Guests Using What I Had on Hand

Hi friends, how was your weekend? Did you find some time to relax and recharge, or were you in go-go-go mode Friday through Sunday?

I was medium busy. We had company for dinner Sunday, so I spent most of the weekend cleaning, cooking, and rearranging furniture. I didn't have access to a car to go grocery shopping before Sunday afternoon, so I just decided to work with what I had on hand. In the end, it all worked out, dinner was delicious, and I enjoyed the challenge. Here's what I found in our freezer, pantry and garden to use for a "company" meal.

(Is it food porn if it's basic humble foods?)

I had a whole chicken and a package of little smokies in the freezer for the meat portion. I barbecued the chicken whole.

After the chicken had sat for 20 minutes, I cut it apart (like I do for roasted chickens), giving us a total of 10 pieces of chicken, 4 breast portions, 2 legs, 2 thighs, and 2 wings. This was a casual meal, so eating with our hands was definitely in the plans. 

While I was parting the chicken, one daughter was heating the little smokies. I'd bought these packages for 49 cents on markdown at Grocery Outlet a few months back and kept them in the freezer.

For vegetables I looked to my garden. I picked 2 large cucumbers, several ripe tomatoes, and a small bowl of basil leaves. I made a dressing of home-grown garlic, home-grown oregano, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Just before serving, I grated in some Parmesan cheese.

I also dug some of our potted carrots. I cut the greens off and scrubbed the roots, split in halves, and oven-roasted them. I like to leave just a tiny amount of the carrot tops still attached -- evidence they're home-grown.

I needed a starch, so I made rosemary-olive oil bread (a French bread recipe adding chopped fresh rosemary and using olive oil in place of vegetable oil). I doubled the recipe, so this made a very large loaf. We served this sliced with butter (nothing quite like real butter).

And for dessert, a blackberry pie. My husband picked 1 1/2 quarts of blackberries from our property early Saturday. I baked the pie later that afternoon.

In addition to chilled water to drink, I also made a pitcher of blackberry lemonade, using (of course) juice from our blackberries plus lemon juice, sugar and water.

It was a warm day, so I set up a table on the deck where we could enjoy the lovely evening breezes. We lingered over the table until the sky overhead darkened. A lovely evening with lovely guests.

Although I spent a good chunk of the weekend cleaning and prepping for company, there are a couple of  side benefits that I get to enjoy for days to come. One, the next day's meals are easy to throw together. Chicken sandwiches on rosemary bread along with little smokies made easy lunches on Monday. And Monday's dinner was a simple pot of chicken and dumplings with leftover salad and more fresh blackberries. The other side benefit is I get to now enjoy an extra clean house and tidy outdoor living spaces until we mess it all up again. 

I'm a bit tired this evening, but I'll be back tomorrow with another post.

Another Way to Cook With Leftover Meat Fat

If you have a surplus of fat leftover from cooking meat, here's another way to use it while cooking.

Here's about 2 tablespoons of bacon fat that sat in the fridge for about a month and may or may not have picked up questionable odors and flavors. Rather than risk ruining whatever I'm cooking, we've been using old fats in place of lighter fluid for starting charcoal briquets when barbecuing. 

To use the fat, I first melt it in the microwave.

Then we pour it over the cold briquets as I would lighter fluid. We've also experimented with spreading the fat right onto the briquets. That also works, but pouring melted fat is easier.

Then we light the briquets with paper, sticks or bits of cardboard inside the chimney along with the briquets.

The fat is a little slower to catch on fire than the lighter fluid, but it burns longer, allowing the charcoal to fully heat and develop a nice white ash on each briquet. To help the fat-covered charcoal catch fire, we add some paper and sticks to the chimney. 

As a bonus to the long burning of the meat fat on the briquets, I feel better about eating food that has been cooked over charcoal covered with meat fat than charcoal covered with a petroleum or alcohol (not the drinking kind) product. Adding fewer chemicals to our food is always a plus.

Anyway, we've been doing this all summer and are not only glad we have a way to use the old fat, but also we appreciate how well this has worked while saving money on not buying the commercial fluid.

This Summer's Stay-cation

There wasn't going to be an opportunity for me to have a getaway type of vacation this summer. So when my husband told us he would be going out of town for 8 days (part business/part pleasure), I thought I could try to do some local stay-cation types of outings to make my week feel like I'd gotten away. One daughter is house-sitting for the month, but she was able to join my other daughter and I for 3 outings.

On the first outing, we visited the vintage and antique town a short drive from our home. Again we brought a picnic lunch, this time a simple one. I made a container of egg salad and brought slices of homemade bread and a rice cake for me, plus apples, nuts, and jugs of water. We treated ourselves to dessert at the locally-owned fro-yo spot. We'd gone into this place to check it out on another visit. I loved that they made many of their offerings from scratch. And they had a sorbet that would work for my dietary restrictions. Since I was shopping for a birthday gift for a friend, we visited shops we'd never been in before, which made this outing feel special to all of us.

On the second outing, the three of us visited our town's farmer's market. It's located in the central part of the business and retail district of town and just up the hill from the beach. Our main goal at the farmer's market was to buy some peaches and for my daughter to buy a gift for a friend. The guy selling the peaches gave us great tips for picking ones that would be ripe very soon. He told us the peaches we chose would be ready in two days, and he was right.  After visiting the market we ducked into the lavender shop to enjoy the fragrance and a complimentary cup of tea, the the art supply shop for my daughter to pick up a needed item for a job the next day. And we weren't done yet. Remember I said the beach was just down the hill. The three of us walked down the hill and spent an hour at the beach with a kite. Fun day!

The third outing was our biggest adventure. We got up and out early to catch a ferry across the Sound to the peninsula. A short drive from the opposing ferry dock brought us to the Norwegian town of Poulsbo. This is a fun place to visit. Lots of Scandinavian atmosphere, a couple of great little museums, a free aquarium, shops, restaurants, a waterfront with a nice park, and locals who never fail to entertain us with their stories. We enjoyed the town for the entire day, walked close to 5 miles, enjoyed our breakfast by the water, had a picnic lunch in the waterfront park (we're big on picnics), walked a beachside boardwalk around part of the bay, enjoyed the sights of a frolicking sea lion, and basically exhausted ourselves on fun. On the ferry ride back to the mainland we spotted a harbor porpoise and some flying fish.

In addition to taking these outings, we tried to make the 8 days feel like a vacation in other ways. We ate meals outdoors, had a movie night at home, barbecued, and even had a couple of nights where I didn't cook dinner instead each fending for oneself.

The stay-cation came to an end with this evenings dinner of hotdogs and fresh produce from the garden. My husband will return late tonight and tomorrow life will go back to non-vacation time.

For a variety of reasons, away-from-home vacations rarely work for us in summer. The garden needs constant attention from June through September. My daughters are more and more becoming busy with their own lives and jobs. Summers are actually the good time of year to remain in the Seattle area. And frankly, I find so many places I enjoy going that are a short drive from my house. So a summer stay-cation will likely be in my plans for many years to come.

How about you? What kinds of activities are there to enjoy near you in summer?

What does a Danvers Half Long carrot grown in a pot look like?

Yesterday I pulled the first two Danvers Half Long carrots grown in pots in my garden. The larger of the two was about 6 inches of usable root and about 2 inches in diameter across the top. The seed specs said roots typically grow to  6 to 8 inches long. I'll be leaving the rest of the carrots in the pot for another couple of weeks, and I'll see how much longer the largest of those look at that time.

Danvers Half Long carrots are among a few carrot varieties that can be grown in shallower soil, such as in pots. As the name implies, these carrots do not mature at lengths comparable to grocery store carrots, but remain shorter, yet are still wide at the top.

I used these as carrot sticks in our lunch today and they were delicious. They had just enough carrot flavor with a little bit of sweetness and juicy as far as carrots go. The packet said the carrots would mature in 75 days. In my lower-sun garden (too many trees), these took closer to 100 days. 

The pots are now looking jammed with growing carrots. I'm looking forward to many more snacks and meals using our homegrown carrots.

Dishcloth vs. Sponge: Which do you use, and how do you do yours frugally?

While we're on a kitchen "preferences" roll, I also wanted to ask about which you tend to use, dishcloths (like washcloth, not towel) or sponges.

In our kitchen, I use both. I use dishcloths for countertops and most cookware/prep equipment/dishes and sponges with scrubbing side for the pots and pans that need more scouring, like frying pans and pots that have been used to cook rice or other starchy foods.

Here are 3 of our 4 dishcloths. I pick these up at Value Village and Goodwill in the bath linen section. Goodwill has better prices on towels and cloths than Value Village. I picked a basic color range that would go with our kitchen, hues ranging from sage to avocado green. The colors are dark enough they don't show staining like my previous white cloths did. 

As you can see, each one is slightly different from the next. It doesn't bother me that they don't look alike. I only have one out at a time, so no one is comparing colors.  I picked them up over the course of 2 years, whenever I found a cloth in my chosen color range. I spent between 99 cents and $1.49 each for the washcloths. They're thick and durable and should last another 2 to 4 years. (I've had them 2 to 4 years already.) I change washcloths daily and launder twice a week. With twice weekly laundry, 4 cloths means I can have a clean cloth each morning.

The scrubbing sponges are from a package I bought at Dollar Tree. The packages have shrunk from 4 sponges to 2 and now cost $1.25 instead of $1. I need to find a new shopping source for sponges, I think. To clean the sponges and keep them sanitary, I put them through the dishwasher on the top rack every other day. I'm less likely to replace a sponge with a new one if the current one feels and looks clean.

How about you -- are you a dishcloth person or sponge person, or user of both? Have you found bargain ways to buy, use, or maintain your dishcloths or sponges? 

Cloth Napkins vs. Paper Napkins: Which Do You Prefer?

These are our everyday cloth napkins, six sets. They're the napkins that we use for everyday meals and snacks. Six sets may seem like a lot of cloth napkins. However, I've been collecting sets of fabric napkins for about 40 years and I haven't retired a set yet.

The set of the left, the sage green napkins, I sewed to go with a Christmas tablecloth for the kitchen table about18 years ago. We also use them in spring, near Easter, with a table topper in a pink and sage green floral pattern. 

The next set, the pink set, was given to me by my mother about 40 years ago for a birthday gift. The color went with my everyday dish pattern.

The burgundy set I bought for myself about 40 years ago because they (and matching placemats) were on clearance at the department store where I worked. As a manager, I also received a 30% discount from the clearance price. The deal was too good to pass up. The store practically paid me to take these home. Anyway, we use the burgundy napkins year round, depending on my mood. I especially like these because of their dark color. The color hides stains really well compared to some of our lighter-colored napkins.

The next set of napkins is a tan, green, and gold autumn pattern that I mostly use in fall. I bought these napkins at Marshall's about 15 years ago to use at Thanksgiving one year. As it turned out, we liked them well enough to use for daily meals as well.

The pastel plaid napkins are a set of four napkins that my mother sewed for me when I was 21 years old. I was young, living on my own, dating someone who was also on a tight budget and we picnicked a lot for our dates, sometimes just us, sometimes with another couple. My mother put together a picnic basket of plastic dishes, cutlery, and these fabric napkins for me to use on picnic dates. I still use these for picnicking and remember my mother's love that went into sewing them for me.

The last set of napkins, the pink floral napkins, I bought at target about 15 years ago to go with some similar placemats that we use mostly in spring. These napkins have that romantic, English countryside vibe that I love so much.

It was my mother who got me started on collecting cloth napkins, which seems odd as we were a paper napkin family when I was growing up. But somehow my mother could see something inside of me that would enjoy using cloth napkins and would appreciate using fewer single-use items in my daily life, such as paper napkins.

Don't get me wrong. We do use paper napkins on occasion. I've found that guests often prefer paper napkins, as they don't have to worry about staining napkins when blotting their mouths or wiping fingers. So I keep my eyes open for nice paper napkins in the package at garage sales and clearance after season sales. We also use paper napkins when on road trips. I'd hate to lose a fabric napkin at a rest stop or in a hotel room. For the rest of our meals, we really are happier using the cloth napkins. 

If you're wondering, I wash the cloth napkins along with the dish towels, rags, and other linens twice a week. We have enough of each pattern that there are back-ups in case any get too dirty to use again. Otherwise, we each use our own napkin for a few meals, leaving them neatly folded on the kitchen table at each individual's place.

Cloth napkins are more rugged and durable than most paper napkins. Once a paper napkin is used, it looks used. I think a fabric napkin can look fresh, if folded neatly, for a couple of meals. But I also can see the merits of paper napkins. They are more hygienic in the sense that you're likely to replace a paper napkin with each meal. And you can take food to go wrapped in a paper napkin and not worry about bringing the napkin back home. And staining a napkin is not even a consideration with paper napkins.

What do you think? Do you prefer cloth or paper napkins? Do you use a mix of both?

From Rags to Riches?

That old saying could possibly have an alternate meaning for us frugal folks. Perhaps by using too-far-gone clothing as cleaning rags, instead of purchasing cleaning cloths or using paper products for cleaning, our bank accounts may increase by a few dollars per month.

This may seem an odd post, but I think some of you can relate. Today's pre-lunch quick task was to sort out the rag shelf. Our cleaning rags occupy a narrow shelf in our laundry/cleaning supply cabinet. As you may have guessed, the majority of our rags are well-used clothing and household items that are way past their prime. As family members retire their old clothing items to the rag shelf, the shelf becomes more stuffed and jumbled. A good sorting is needed from time to time. 

What I found today.

Some of our rags were once t-shirts.

Some rags were once cotton leggings or pajama pants.

Some were cotton socks.

And some were dish or hand towels/cloths.

Part of today's job was to turn the clothing items into more user-friendly rags.

I cut the t-shirts in half.

I cut the waistband off the leggings and pj pants (to use in a future project), then cut the remainder into two pieces.

And I slit the bottom of socks to make a larger, single layer rag.

Perhaps this seems like busy work. For our family, I find we're all more likely to grab a rag for cleaning if the rag is less wieldy or awkward to use. It also makes much more sense to use half a t-shirt as a rag or half a pair of leggings, if that is all the cleaning surface required for the job. I wind up doing less rag-laundry in the long run this way.

We have another category of rags in our house -- single-use ones. These are old clothing items made of synthetic material that don't absorb liquid very well. They are perfect for really greasy or oily cleanup, like the time I spilled about a cup of cooking oil on the kitchen floor, or when I was cleaning up the paintbrushes after using wood stain on our bistro table. Sometimes getting the grease or oil out of a a used rag is more work than the rag is worth. Mostly these rags are on the small side, like a single, hole-riddled sock (or other unmentionable). I found enough of these single-use rags to fill a small bucket today. Once used, we'll feel comfortable throwing them away. 

My rag shelf is now orderly and ready for the next big cleaning day, which is later this week. Oh goody :-(

Can I stay within our grocery budget while dealing with a digestive disorder?

I haven't posted our grocery spending for June or July because I simply gave up keeping track of what I was spending and buying. I was making several trips to the grocery store every week for a while, just trying to find suitable foods for myself. And I knew I was spending a lot. I did save all of my receipts (I always do). I just haven't added it all up. And I'm not sure I want to. 

Do I think I've spent more than normal for me? Absolutely. Here's how I look at it. Food is part of my "medicine" for now. If I had a serious illness that required expensive treatment, I wouldn't forgo the treatment due to cost. I would find money in our budget elsewhere to pay for the treatment. What I eat directly impacts my healing right now. And that can be more expensive.

In addition to transferring money from one budget category to another, I am using what I can from our abundant garden and orchard, and I can and do eat lots of rice, which we buy in bulk. The additional cost for me right now is in buying extra meat, nuts (almonds and peanuts), and some more expensive grains (more expensive than plain rice). I have to go easy on less expensive forms of protein, such as dried beans. In addition, I find I need to buy more expensive versions of common foods so as to avoid specific ingredients (such as mayonnaise instead of "salad" dressing" -- latter contains modified food starch).

Otherwise, I am cooking from scratch almost all of the time, and that as we all know can be a big money-saver. And I continue to shop around for best prices on specific items (such as buying from the bulk bins at WinCo for millet and quinoa instead of from the packaged grain section), again a bargain way to get nearly identical ingredients for about half the cost. And finally, we are trying very hard to not waste food, freezing extras when we can and not serving any of us more than we're hungry for.

I will gladly forgo a vacation this summer if it means I can feel healthy again. Some things in life are optional, like vacations, new cars, designer clothing. But others, such as good health, are not. Like Alice said in the comments last week, (to paraphrase) good health is what makes the rest of life go smoothly.

2 Years Later and My Begonia Plant is Going Strong

How was your weekend? I hope you enjoyed some time off. We've had beautiful weather, so I made sure to have lunch outside each day. Anyway, I wanted to update you on my budget begonia basket from 2021.

I bought this tuberous begonia bulb for $3.50 in spring of 2021 to plant in a free-pile hanging basket. When fall rolled around that year, I discontinued watering, allowed the foliage to die back, and moved the bulb, pot and all, into our garage for the rest of fall, all of winter, and early spring. In mid-spring, I brought the pot back out to the deck and began to water it. After a few weeks, some new growth emerged from the soil. We enjoyed the large white begonia blooms all summer. When fall of 2022 rolled around, I repeated the process to ready the plant for winter storage again. This past spring, I brought the pot out and began the watering routine. So far I have 6 blossoms in some state of blooming. I also have about 8 stems with leaves on the plant.

Here's a photo from the original plant in 2021. It was a nice, but small plant for this basket that summer, only providing about 4 blooms total. Last year the plant was larger with more blooms and leaves. And this year, the plant is filling the basket even more.

To overwinter begonias, the plant needs to be prepared by decreasing watering at the end of season/beginning of fall until the point the leaves have withered. Before the low outdoor temperature drops below 50 degrees F, the dry plant needs to be moved to a cool, not cold, and dry location, like a garage or cool room of a basement. Some folks dig the bulbs out of the soil and store them in a dry medium like vermiculite. I've found simply allowing the plant to die back and the soil to dry thoroughly is enough for my situation to overwinter in our cool, but not freezing garage.

When spring 2024 rolls around, I'll bring the potted begonia back out to the deck and start the watering routine up again. I hope by next year I have even more blooms on this plant. 

My original cost was $3.50. With 3 years of enjoyment so far, my cost per year averages out to a little over $1. That's a bargain for so much beauty and so little work.

Caring for a Hydroponic Grocery Store Basil Plant Once Home

one-month old produce department basil plant 

My daughter grew impatient waiting for my home-grown from seed basil this summer, and in late June she bought one of those basil plants sold in the produce department of the grocery store. She paid about $3.00 for a pot of about a dozen basil stems grown hydroponically in a tiny container. The container looked to be about 4 ounces in capacity. All of these plants were without soil and kept in a flat of water at the store and over-wrapped in florist cellophane to hold in moisture and prevent damage to the leaves.

Once home, the label said to remove the protective cellophane and place the little pot in a deep saucer with about an inch of water, then place the whole plant in indirect light indoors. I suspected basil plants cared for in this way were designed to last a couple of weeks, max, with no soil to provide nutrients and even out the moisture.

a soil level view of the dozen or so plants all together in a single pot

Since my daughter really wanted her basil to last all summer, I gave her some instructions for lengthening the lifespan of her plants. The roots had grown very long and were tangled, coming through the holes in the tiny cup. I knew the roots couldn't be pulled back through the holes to remove the plants from the cup. So I told her to use the clippers to snip down the sides of the cup in several places, breaking off the cup sides as she could without injuring the plants. Then I gave her a 1-gallon pot to fill with fresh potting soil. After filling, she carefully sank the basil plants still in the now broken-open cup into the larger pot of soil. Our thinking was the roots would continue to grow and would escape the tiny cup and find growing space in the larger pot. 

For the first few days the plants looked a bit wilty. My daughter gave it water daily and placed it outdoors in a filtered-sun spot during the days only. The plant had spent its entire life inside a temperature-controlled greenhouse. So I assumed that it would not be hardy enough to live outdoors all of the time, nor could it handle a lot of direct sun.

It's been a month now and her plant looks beautiful. It's bushy and thriving under her care. I've shown her how to pinch back the tops of stems, instead of plucking off individual leaves, when she wants basil with her lunches or wants to make a small amount of pesto. By pinching back stems to harvest, the flowering stage of a basil plant's life is delayed by many weeks. I do think she'll be able to keep her basil going for the rest of summer as she'd hoped.

My daughter has given her basil plant the British man's name Basil (pronounced with a short -a- in the first syllable). Basil the basil. A little humor goes a long way in making days bright.

Turning My Week Around

It's been a week of setbacks, setbacks to our property, our car, my health, and the garden. When things just keep going wrong, I have to do two things: 1) identify those things that are going right in life, and 2) make a forward step somewhere in my life.

As for number one, as I was watering the garden today I counted 16 growing pumpkins and winter squash in my little pumpkin patch. This makes me very happy. I caught myself smiling and humming a tune as I watered and counted. Now that was a great way to change my perspective on my past week. The rest will turn around soon, too.

For the second item, I was at Value Village on senior discount day and found something on my list, a plastic gift wrap storage box in pristine condition.

The manufacturer identifies this as an underbed storage box. But it's the exact length of commercial rolls of gift wrap paper. Fred Meyer sells this for $17.99.

At Value Village, it was marked $6.99. With my senior discount, I paid $4.89. Not too bad -- a $13 discount for an item I needed.

Tuesday evening, as I was putting together my schedule for Wednesday's chores, I decided I would prioritize tidying up the gift wrapping supplies. Our assorted wraps, gift bags, tissue paper, cellophane, basket/bag fill, bows/ribbons, gift tags and cards, packing peanuts and bubble wrap had taken over an entire closet. I gathered up the packing peanuts and bubble wrap and set it all aside for our free pile this next weekend (will list on Craigslist if we can't get rid of it in the neighborhood). Then I brought all of the rest of the supplies to the dining room table. I sorted absolutely everything. 

When I finished, I had some torn wrap and tissue to add to the compost, stuff to give away, and only took up one shelf in the closet for our various packaging needs. 

One of the things that pleased me the most is I only had a handful of stuff for the trash can, less than what would fill a sandwich bag. When I set out to my task, I brought a grocery bag for the garbage. It turned out that I didn't need that bag at all.

And we now know exactly what we have and that we don't need to buy gift wrap, ribbon or greeting cards for a long, long time.

You know, the satisfaction in cleaning out that closet really helped to boost my mood. Between counting the pumpkins and sorting our gift wrap supplies, I now feel like life is going a lot better than I had previously believed. 

I hope your week has been a good one. 

The Finished Garden Bistro Set

Jog your memory a bit -- this is what I started with in May of this year, a $5 garage sale table and two $5 thrift store chairs.

I spent many hours sanding, staining, spray painting, and sealing the pieces. I took a bit of a break from this project earlier in the month and came back to the pieces this week.

Below photo: Here they are, sitting opposite the grill station on the small patio in back, as viewed from behind the fig tree.

I'm not that pleased with the seats. They were a mess. Remember, these were upholstered chair seats. So the plywood under the foam and fabric was thin and water damaged. It probably wasn't all that great to begin with, given that the manufacturers planned for the wood to be covered with foam/fabric. The layers of one of the wood seats' edge had split. I filled the edge gaps with wood glue and clamped it closed until the glue dried. The top of the water damaged seat was wavy and rippled. I didn't want to sand too much off, so I figured I'd live with the result. 

For the time being, I have enough lime green shower curtain fabric left over from making patio cushions plus the foam from the chairs to make removable chair pads for each seat. I'll get to this next week. Chair pads will conceal the finish of the wood seats. In the long run, I'll probably buy a new piece of plywood and cut new seats, then finish and seal.

Below is the view facing the bistro set from the small patio. 

Cost-wise -- I spent about $40 for the pieces and finishing supplies. I used 2 1/2 cans of spray paint and about 1/2 can of sealer, plus a small amount of stain. I also bought a dowel to make plugs for some holes in the wood seats. I have a little paint leftover and lots of sealer/stain, plus most of the dowel to use in other projects. 

Was it worth it? I like projects, so I don't consider my time spent as a negative. The cost was a whole lot less than any bistro set I could buy ready made. My family really likes the set-up and are all looking forward to having breakfast, lunch, or a glass of iced tea at the little table on the little patio. So yeah, it was worth it.

The candle and candle holder on the table were free. Both were found on free piles. The candle holder had some autumn foliage wired onto the stem. It wasn't the look I was going for, so I removed the faux fall stuff.

The pillar candle was found in a basket of free candles a few years ago. It was just the right size.

One of the things I like about making over secondhand finds is in the process of working on the pieces, I put a fair amount of myself into them. They no longer feel like secondhand stuff or someone else's castoffs. But instead, they feel wholly mine.

Answering questions about my health

I've received a handful of emails asking about my current health situation. I'm usually not one to divulge a lot of details about my health, but I thought I'd take a couple of minutes to  answer questions. Also, these friends were genuinely concerned for me, and/or have similar situations and wanted to compare notes, not just overly curious.

What's my diagnosis?

A little over 30 years ago I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance, barley intolerance, oat intolerance and IBS-D. I also have life long allergies to tree nuts (except almonds and macadamias) and bivalve shellfish. I've been able to manage my IBS-D over the years through diet control and have been able to quell flares within a month or two of increased dietary strictness.

Since that original diagnosis, I've discovered that I can't tolerate guar gum, xanthan gum, gellan gum, locust bean gum, cellulose gum, carrageenan and enzymes added to flour. The thickeners and emulsifiers are known to trigger flares in many folks with IBS or one of the IBDs.

What's making me sick right now?

I've been in a persistent IBS flare for 8 months, since November. I have been eliminating practically every possible thing I could think of to get this one under control. I went completely gluten and dairy-free and avoided all of the other foods I know I have problems with for 2 months and still wasn't well or on the way to being well. For the 4th of July I thought I'd come up with a menu I could eat, no bread, just sausages, corn, potatoes, vegetables, salad, fruit, dairy-free dark chocolate, a rice cake, marshmallows, and some candy that I thought would be safe to have as a treat -- jellied fruit slices and gummi candy. I read every label and didn't see anything I knew I couldn't have. And then I got really sick a day later. I looked up every ingredient in every product I ate and found an ingredient in several of the foods and treats I ate that is on the list not to eat for sensitive individuals -- modified food starch or modified corn, wheat or potato starch. 

My goodness, modified starches are in so many food products. The gummi candies, the jelly candies, the sausages, marshmallows, and the mayo-like salad dressing that I ate on the 4th and 5th (the leftovers) all had modified starches. I was sick for a couple of days and didn't piece this all together until the 7th of July. 

I suspect I've been eating modified starches for a long while, not knowing they weren't for me. It was sometime last fall that I began buying a few extra treat items and packaged foods to have around the house instead of always baking and cooking from scratch. In addition, sometime in late summer/early fall I bought a large 50-lb sack of bread flour that contained enzymes. I'd been slowly doing my own self in all these months.

How am I doing now?

I have now stayed completely away from all of the foods that I now know are harmful for my system. While I'm tired and run down, I'm feeling better and my IBS symptoms are abating. I'm on a diet high in anti-inflammatory foods. The theory is that eating these foods will help in the healing process and reverse any damage done by a prolonged flare-up. I've also been able to add back in cheese aged 3 years+ (which is only one brand of Parmesan cheese in my local stores) and an organic, all-purpose white flour made with just wheat, no barley or enzymes. This flour is expensive, so I make my family bread with the other flour we have and I bake my own bread using the organic, barley-free and enzyme-free stuff.

I'm really kind of annoyed at the big food manufacturers. Modified starches and gums are in food products that are sold as healthy alternatives, not just the boxed meals or other convenience foods. I can't eat commercially-baked products, as the flours bakeries use contain the same barley/barley malt and enzymes that mainstream flour has. It's a lot of label reading to find unadulterated products. I noticed at Christmas time that even the heavy cream for whipping now contains carrageenan. (Carrageenan, by the way, is linked to UC, intestinal lesions, and colon cancer in animal testing.) These additives are, for the most part, cheap ways to improve the texture of food products. 

To those of you who reached out to me about my health, thank you. I hope that now I am on the path to being well again. And for those who indicated you are also going through similar issues, I hope you find the key to unlocking good health for your own self. Thanks again, friends.

My week, so far

It's been a very busy week, but busy in a good way. Everything is growing so well. This year's petunia pots are my best, fullest, showiest ever. 

I didn't space my petunia plants as seed specs suggested, but instead crammed in about 10-12 plants per pot. These were seeds I collected from my purchased 2020 petunia plants which were red, white, and blue (purple, really). I saved seeds from those petunias and have been starting my own plants each year since. I have yet to have a red petunia again, though. But I do think that pink, white and purple petunias are pretty, too.

I am in the midst of the raspberry harvest season. I've made two batches of raspberry jam for a total of 8 jars. Raspberry jam is my favorite of all that I can make with what grows on my property. I hope to make another 4 jars later this week.

We're also eating a lot of fresh raspberries with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This is Monday's dinner, French toast smothered in fresh raspberries and blueberries, topped with blackberry syrup from last years' blackberries. A delicious way to get my antioxidants.

The rose hips are getting huge! Rose hip syrup is an old-time way to get vitamin C. Rose hips also make a nice tea. And some folks make jam with the hips. I'll likely make a small batch of syrup.

Despite all of the busyness, I have taken a few moments to sit in the leafy shade of a few favorite trees.

What's been going on in your week?