Five Frugal Things -- Craft Project or $450 Ralph Lauren Shirt?
1) I brought home a tangle of three MacBook charging cords/power adaptors from last weekend's garage sale after party, even though they were far from pretty. One was obviously past the point of redemption, but the other two were fine.
Dirty does not mean broken.
My daughter coincidentally came over with her charger and I noticed that hers was super messed up from a certain adorable, yet bitey feline. (It's a good thing she's cute!) One of the power adaptor/charging cord sets was an exact match, so she went home with a "new" replacement.
I still have a backup charging set in case Tuna Kitty starts a new cycle of violence.
2) I had an hour to kill away from home, so I drove over to the Hollywood library. (The Portland neighborhood, not the California district!) My goal was to grab some books to have on hand for when I'm in the mood to browse from my own personal library.
None of the Lucky Day books struck my fancy, so I went over to the fiction section and ended up with five random books. None of them had been on my radar, but I'll likely read at least a two of them.
Do you have any books to recommend? I need (NEED!) fresh ideas for books to put on hold at the library.
3) I sold a $7.99 thrifted Mickey Mouse plush for $40. I'd originally listed this "limited edition" guy at $50, but lowered the price after a month or so.
Stuffed animals are occasionally on the profitable end of things to sell, plus they're extremely easy to mail. (Always something to consider as a reseller.) Some eBay sellers make serious bank selling plush, but my knowledge in this category is pretty minimal. There's always more to learn, which is simply part of the fun in life!
4) I watched an Architectural Digest YouTube video, which took us lowly peasants on a tour of Andy Cohen's Hamptons beach house. I like pretty things and occasionally come away from this kind of aspirational (ha!) content with an idea or two.
Although I enjoyed the interiors, (seriously gorgeous wallpaper and tile work!) what I was most struck with was his embroidered denim shirt. I just knew it wasn't evidence that Cohen enjoys craft projects in his spare time.
Nope! It's an out of stock $450 Polo Ralph Lauren shirt, as evidenced by this Harrod's photo. I know how to do all these stitches, (chain, blanket, feather) and certainly have access to weathered denim shirts, (wazzup, Goodwill bins?!) and now I have a future project slotted into place.
It's making me remember when I embroidered red noses on a Goodwill bins Playboy sweater and then sold it on eBay as an "ugly Christmas sweater" for $50 back in 2018!
That was a fun project!
It took an entire evening to embroider all the noses, but it was fun and made me break out in laughter the entire time. Sometimes you have to make your own entertainment.
5) I forced myself to clean off the shelving unit component pieces, even though I was completely beat by the end of the day. Portland is looking at multiple days of forecasted rain and I knew they'd start to rust if I left them to sit out in these conditions.
They're now all nice and clean in my dry basement, just waiting for my husband and I to find the energy to reassemble them.
Sometimes it sucks to be the responsible grown up.
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Love the reminder about the Playboy sweater. I wonder how many people have worn that sweater since you spiffed it up!
Highly recommend Kathryn Stockett’s The Calamity Club! She is the author of The Help, and this one is just as good. I listened (via Libby, of course) and the narration was well done. It was also a satisfying 28 hours long (at regular speed).
I also recently read The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali. Also SO GOOD! I now have alllllll her other books on hold on Libby.
My two favorite audiobooks EVER are The Correspondent (Virginia Evans) and Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver). Must-listens on any list I have (narrator voice on Demon Copperhead is just SO spectacular I feel like it HAS to be read through ear-reading).
Other recent good reads:
The Quiet Librarian (Allen Eskens)
The Girl on the Mountain (Carol Ervin)
The Library Book (Susan Orlean)
Sorry… books are a favorite (frugal) topic.
I read a physical copy of Demon Copperhead and loved it, your endorsement makes me want to listen to the audiobook now though!
I recently read The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, and really enjoyed it. I get most of my library book recommendations from this blog!
I don’t think I’ve ever read The Lacuna. It sounds relevant to our times too.
I also recommend the Calamity Club. I'm about 100 pages away from finishing the book. I hope they make it into a movie as they did with The Help.
If anyone is looking for a light summer read there is a series of books by Marie Bostwick called the Cobbled Court Quilt Series. They are about a woman who opens a quilt shop and each subsequent book focuses on a different character that comes to the quilt shop.
First, Katy, I too enjoyed the Playboy sweater story.
Now, FFT, Progress at NDN1's Edition:
(1) NDN1's CF and I had a long and productive meeting with CF's financial advisor on Wednesday about NDN1's money matters. Briefly, as soon as we can get NDN1's tax records (which I put together with blood, sweat, and tears) for the last three years to him, he's going to start consolidating all her little PITA accounts into a couple of big accounts. This will be an enormous relief for both CF and me--and, I imagine, for NDN1's nephew as well (who gave us carte blanche to act as we see fit in this area during his brief visit in late May).
(2) CF has arranged for an estate sale guy (recommended by her realtor friend, with whom we met last week) to come to the house next Monday to see what might be sale-worthy. There's no question of having a sale at the house; he'll just pull out anything he thinks is saleable. NDN1 does have a few nice pieces of MCM furniture (a desk, a rocking chair, and two side chairs), plus a Stickley repro armchair and a few other things. There's also lots of old-fashioned brown furniture, but we're not holding our breath on those pieces.
(3) In emptying out the MCM desk this afternoon, I came across an unassuming little envelope containing a beat-up 1953 Jefferson $2 bill and a 1923 $1 silver certificate in mint condition except for the folds. As a character in one of the Anne of Green Gables books says, "You're never safe from being surprised till you're dead."
(4) I made sun tea this morning in one of my half-gallon Ball jars, using three bags of Constant Comment I found at NDN1's (in an unopened package, well away from the Pantry of Death). Despite the bags' age, the tea seems fine.
(5) And I haven't stuffed the Supreme Court so full of sycophants that it'll make any racist, inhumane decrees I choose. Grrrrr.
A. Marie,
I second your Number 5. Outrageous!
All the dead Presidents, and other patriots, must be spinning in their graves.
Those rulings tell the rest of the world the United States is not to be trusted. A pox on the six and kudos to Sotomayor and Kagan. May the six find it uncomfortable to be out in public - there is no constitutional justification for their ruling.
It really is baffling how these supposedly educated and "fair, unbiased" justices, senators, representatives and cabinet members, all MAGA of course, can be under the spell of a former reality tv personality who is also a 34 × felon and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on but nobody wants to read War and Peace on a blog. I would call them jellyfish (spineless) but that's an insult to the real jellyfish, the beautiful creatures who inhabit our oceans...at least for now. With the EPA gutted, who knows how long we'll have them.
Well said, Christine.
Thank you Lisa.
Mrs. Lynde, that's what! I adore Anne.
Carla, you get the Kindred Spirit award for recognizing the Anne quote! It's what Mrs. Lynde says in Anne of Avonlea when she learns that Marilla has adopted the Keith twins.
Katy, I just realized that Ralph Lauren has picked up on the decorative mending and patching trend. Haven’t you shown similar mending? Monochrome Flowers and paisley embroidery is a current trend in stores. Good eye to spot RL’s use.
1. I guess this will be frugal in the long run as I won’t have to drive an hour to my ex husband’s office if I do not wish to use the gas, nor drive 30 minutes to the closest library and have to wait for their limited hours, but I finally got internet at my house. I got Starlink after talking with neighbors about the difficulty of reliable internet here. To be fair, I had internet on my iPhone prepay plan but it is difficult to work from for some things. Also, as I said, the internet for it in this little town is iffy sometimes. Many times I have to post comments to this blog when I am in another town. We shall see if my work from home plan regarding paperwork/word processing actually works. Living in the boonies can be interesting and very cheap in some ways and very expensive in other ways.
2. I went to the farmer’s market after work yesterday (market was behind the city hall where I was working so very convenient) and purchased $18 worth of tomatoes, pink eyed peas, cucumbers. Farmer’s markets here are pretty expensive. I then took $20 cash to the store today and purchased for $17 and some change, mayo, watermelon, couple of diet 2 liter store brand soda which is not a necessity except for my sanity, sugar to make my three ingredient homemade peanut butter cookies, and something else I can’t remember.
3. I walked from 5:30 to 6:30 am this morning.
4. I paid my power bill for the month which was $62.00 for my 911 sq ft house. We will be in the high 90’s from this point forward for a while so I doubt it will be that cheap again this summer. Sigh. We have incredibly high electric rates for such a poor state. I will be running my air, unfortunately, a lot.
5. I do hope to cut the air off, raise the windows, and run the fan tonight.
I’m not sure if you only read fiction but I’m reading a memoir recommended in the comments here, A Different Kind of Power by former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and it’s very good. I get so many good book recommendations from commenters here, thanks everyone! Also seconding The Lion Women of Tehran and I recently read all the Thursday Murder Club books and really enjoyed them.
1) My sisters friend has season tickets for the WNBA team here. She sells the tickets for the most popular/profitable games which usually covers her entire season tickets cost and so she then gives away tickets for any games she can’t attend to her family and friends for free. Even though I don’t follow any sports, I found the game a lot of fun last year so was excited when my sister said she got some for this weekend if I wanted to go. It’s very kind of her friend to do this (I wouldn’t mind paying since I enjoyed it so much).
2) My son found a new book series to obsess over (Wings of Fire, about dragons) so I was able to get a couple from the library and have requested more on hold. I love that he loves reading so much and am grateful for libraries to keep a constant supply of books flowing for both of us!
3) Our family has one iPad and it’s quite old (by iPad standards, so maybe 9-10 years old) The screen is cracked and some of the apps no longer work because the software can no longer be updated (not supported by Apple anymore) I didn’t feel the need to replace it though because I only use it a few times a week to watch my workout videos on YouTube in the garage and my daughter sometimes would use it to play educational games, my son and husband never use it. It finally did completely break though and restarting, cleaning it etc didn’t fix it. I still may not have replaced it but fortuitously my uncle sent a text to the whole family and asked if anyone would want to buy his iPad, it was 4 years old, in perfect condition and he even still had the box it came in. He sold it to me for $150 which was a more than fair price (he said he wanted to give a family discount). So now we have a new-to-us used iPad. I really wouldn’t have felt good about buying a new one so this worked out perfectly.
4) My kids camp went on a field trip on Wednesday and they hit some traffic so didn’t end up getting back until much later than usual. It meant I got an extra hour to myself between finishing work and needing to pick them up, I used it to complete all these tiny tasks that I just hadn’t gotten around to, like depositing a check I’d received a few days before, activating my new debit card since the current one expires this month, rsvping to a birthday my daughter was invited too. Things you would think I could just do right away since they take literal seconds but for some reason had been putting off. Felt so good to have them all done though!
5) I cooked a pound of dried beans and then put them in jars and froze them. I keep canned beans on hand too but try to use my freezer stash first since dry beans are so much cheaper.
The banned book club I go to read "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" by Malinda Lo and loved it.
Today I went to the hardware store's "buy 3 HVAC filters, get one free" sale. Bought for $8 total a summer blouse and dress at the thrift store that supports homeless women. Ate the last of the homemade spicy chicken-black beans-rice soup from the freezer. Picked another handful of cherry tomatoes from the container garden.
My lovely rosemary bush was badly injured by the severe winter storm we had. Today I took cuttings of the healthiest limbs to root and will try again. The late winter ice storms we get since the weather has changed have killed every rosemary bush we've had.
My sympathies on your rosemary bushes, Ruby. I have to grow it in pots here in Central NY (fortunately, the pots seem quite happy in my sunny dining room bay window), but I never dreamed you'd have trouble growing it where you are. Chalk up another defeat due to climate change.
I am going to switch to pots. The current one did really well in a pot for a year and then I transplanted it to a spot that should have sheltered it in the winter, but the storm still got it.
I do love how beautiful they are when they grow big in the yard and start to look like something from Van Gogh painting, but those days are gone.
I'd love to recommend some books!
Lovely War by Julie Berry
A People's History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian
Nimona by N.D. Stevenson
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
I'm glad you were able to find a good home for Mickey! My children adore the stuffed animal section at the thrift shop and I always wonder if the majority end up in the trash.
I’m halfway through Buckeye by Patrick Ryan, a “Lucky Day” pick at the Hollywood branch recommended by a random stranger who was browsing the stacks next to me. She was not wrong - it’s a great historical saga with strong female protagonists. (Hollywood is my home library and I’m not a fan of the remodel - will be curious to see Belmont when it’s complete)
Ashley Poston writes great books.
I had an appointment with the eye doctor this morning. I walked there, even though it was raining lightly. It was only 10 minutes each way, but a little bit is better than nothing.
I did not need to get glasses, as my distance vision is still good enough, even though not perfect. And the small cataract we've been watching is about the same, so no surgery coming up. My insurance covered the cost of the appointment.
I consulted ChatGPT about my leftover ingredients, and it suggested breakfast quesadillas, made with scrambled eggs, cream cheese and tomatoes. It was pretty good.
I still had tomatoes to use up so I made spaghetti sauce, using tomato paste as well. Will have some tomorrow and will probably freeze the rest.
My grandson brought back the alley-picked camcorder and reported that it does work, so I will try to sell it.
I sold another top belonging to my sister.
Just think of the shelving project as adult tinker toys with the added giddiness of organization.
I bought 3 pineapple to turn into a gallon of jalapeno pineapple pickles. I had a taste a few hours later and they will have to be stored locked away in the shop fridge as they will not last until Sunday family dinner!
Back in the 1970's my mom would embroider jeans, jackets and hats for her clients (she was a seamstress). My 7 year old self would sit with her in the evenings embroidering my jeans. I saved them and my daughter wore them out. I have been slowly working on a denim shirt dress. Have fun with it!
I made a batch of sour dough bagels to deliver to my cousin, they're his favorite.
I’m a big Maeve Binchy fan, and Minding Frankie is my favorite. If you like mysteries, any of James Lee Burke’s series with detective Dave Robichoux set in South Louisiana are brilliant. I also enjoy rereading favorite children’s books, like Harriet the Spy!
When anyone asks for books they can get lost in I recommend William Kent Krueger’s “Ordinary Grace” and “This Tender Land”. Also his Cork O’Connor series - 22 books so far and all are excellent.
I agree with the earlier recommendation of Maeve Binchy’s “Minding Frankie”. I loved that book.
My favorite book of the past two years is “Remarkably Bright Creatures” but I suppose at this point anyone who wants to read it has read it.
Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache series is outstanding and one of the only I will buy new rather than risk spoilers popping up.
I haven't read "Remarkably Bright Creatures" but I was with two friends yesterday; one read the book and one watched the movie. They were both over the moon about it so it's now on my TBR list.
I still enjoy children's books too. One of my favorites is The Tale of Despereaux! Also, Where The Sidewalk Ends.(Hilarious)
,
My favorite book ever is A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Riley. The heroine is a medieval woman who faces challenges amid a difficult time period for women while overcoming adversity. Love this book and the two that follow it!
I agree--A Vision of Light is a fantastic book. Time for me to re-read it!
Historical fiction i enjoyed:
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
If No One Else Will by Amanda Skenadore
The Forgotten Midwife and The Women on Platform Two both by Laura Anthony
The Missing Pages by Alyson Richman
FYI for anyone who has a teen (13 up to 26 years for some participating libraries)or young adult reader in their family check out this free program: http://www.booksunbanned.com
1. I read on Clark Howard's (I think?) email that Home Depot's brand of batteries are the least expensive around. I bought a 24 pack even though at this time we only need two for a remote control. The 60 pack was cheaper per battery but I think we'd never use half of them by the time we expire!
2. I found a penny on the floor near the register. I think I'm a little over $1 in the found change jar for the year. That's not good news as the year is almost half over. But any money I find is still free money.
3. DH and a couple of our friends went to a free library program: Songs and Tales of the Sea. The musician grew up on Cape Cod and was very entertaining with his stories and old songs sailors and fishermen sang for entertainment while out on the ocean.
4. I picked up two library books and signed up for the Summer Reading Program where you try to fill up a Bingo card with each square having a different genre of books. For each book you read, you get a sticker to put on the corresponding square and a ticket to put into a raffle. Nice to get put into a contest for something I do anyway.
5. I'm making a double batch of Boston Baked Beans for the neighborhood potluck dinner tomorrow night. A frugal dish that will feed a lot of people.
I only read non-fiction but I recently enjoyed:
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
by Cory Doctorow
The end of my life Is killing me : the unexpected joys of a cancer slacker
by Annebelle Gurwitch
100 rules for living to 100 : an optimist's guide to a happy life
by Dick Van Dyke
American rambler : walking the trail of Johnny Appleseed
by Isaac Fitzgerald
I love my local library! I’m currently reading The Pohaku by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes and highly recommend it!
Favorite reads
What Happened to the Bennetts
The End of Her
Someone We Know
Britt Marie Was Here
Theo of Golden
The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett
The New Couple
First Lie Wins
She Didn’t See It Coming
Elm Creek Quilt Series by Jennifer Chiaverini
I just read “Britt Marie was here”! I had requested it in the library after reading “ My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry” by the same author (Fredrik Backman) which is even better than “Britt Marie was here” in my opinion.
Many thanks to you and everyone else suggesting books, I have put a few on my “request through the library “ list 🙂
The book I want to read is one that's in the news today. "Regime Change," not sure of the authors' names. Two NY Times reporters wrote it, it's just being released, and Trump is supposedly furious about it bc it is a book about him that is, shall we say, rather less than flattering.
A nonfiction book I recently finished and enjoyed is "Coming up Short" by Robert Reich. It is the former labor secretary's autobiography
Right now I'm reading "A Promised Land" by Pres. Obama. Very good author!
If you like LOL fiction, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series will have you laughing so hard your sides will hurt. Esp. the parts with Granny Mazur in them.
My husband loves the Stephanie Plum books. Now, along with your recommendation I will have to read them! Along the lines of comic fiction I loved Albert Smith’s Culinary Capers. A whole series about a retired London police detective and his adopted German Shepard (who flunked out of police dog training) that solve crimes they come upon. Funnier than words!
Lisa- The two authors are Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan (I have this on hold at my library now).
Favorite authors -- Elizabeth George, Emily St. John Mandel, Ann Patchett, Nevada Barr, Alexander McCall Smith, Daniel Silva, Dan Brown, Kate Atkinson, many others I can't think of!
Your grandkitty is very cute! It does make it hard when they're naughty.
We spent the day trying to survive the heat and didn't get up to much. We did use up some leftover pizza ingredients by making mini pizzas in our skillet again, this time with a little more finesse. They were delicious and it used up things that were taking up space and would otherwise have expired.
I must say my favorite book is still "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern! She also wrote "The Starless Sea" which is very very good, and long if you're looking for a chunkier read. My husband prefers audiobooks so he could listen while commuting or on breaks and really liked the narrator for "The Night Circus", they did a very good job with each character. "The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig and "Divine Rivals" by Rebecca Ross are two others that I like to recommend.
Short list this time.
1. People leave free piles at the recycling bins, as well as outright garbage. I picked up an enormous fiber basket for my daughter, a tray I think I can make into a riser and some bud vases.
2. Found a dime.
3. I made bars with a bag of frozen cranberries bought greatly reduced a while back. I shared them with 3 other people.
The best book I have read in a while is The Antidote by Karen Russell. It might not be for everyone, as it is fairly grim, long and has a lot of magical realism. The story deals with a praire witch, girl's basketball, dust storms and their impact of agriculture.
Sympathetic pats on the back for the adulting. Painful but necessary to a half-way decent life.
Love the story of the bunny noses. 😀
Thank you everyone for the reading suggestions! My library holds are about to get super fun!
I agree but in my case it is my "For Later" shelf as we are limited on holds!
Book recommendations: Isola, Calamity Club, Daughters of the Sun and Moon, everything written by Maggie OFarrell.
Some of my favorite authors are E. M Delafield, Barbara Pym, and Elizabeth Taylor (NOT the actress). They are all British, and the books are written/set in the middle part of the 20th century. Just a genre I really enjoy for some reason. I think you would like 'Diary of a Provincial Lady', by Delafield. and Excellent Women is my favorite Pym novel.
I’m currently reading and enjoying The Rabbit Factor (Antti Tomainen). My Friends by Fredrik Backman was also good, as well as Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting.
I don’t read a ton of nonfiction but was fascinated by Frostbite about the refrigeration industry. It is a long book! The Science of Cleaning was also really interesting.
I always appreciate your book suggestions.
Hello Katy!
I loved My Friends by Fredrik Backman-everything by him is excellent.
At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier
Just finished the audiobook of The Calamity Club which was excellent!!
all of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon-her writing is outstanding.
Olive Ketteridge by Elizabeth Strout - and all her books.
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
Happy Reading! Kelly