Amping up boring baby stuff; Decluttering, inspired by Zero Waste Home

The other side of this bib has some ridiculous quote about fast food embroidered on the other side, so I only used the plain underside even before adding the embellishment. Also pictured here is my "sewing case," which was originally my Barbie case made for me a hundred years ago by my Papaw. My childhood Barbie collection included two knock-off Barbies: one with a pinched boob and one with a hole in her abdomen. Unlike me, my mom doesn't insist yard sale purchases be gently used. Even skanky knock-off Barbies were hers for the taking if the price was right. Btw, this case happens to be one of my favorite repurposings!

Not being one that thinks baby must wear $$$ outfits, I buy plain white onesies and embellish them to suit me. These appliqués are iron on, but I just tack 'em on, as the sticky backing didn't make it through many washes for the first of these I did. Back in the day when our DD was just a babe, I embellished her plain Jane clothes--mostly hand-me-downs--with little rosebuds. To supplement the items given to us or that I bought used, I would scour the stores at the end of each season for the best clearance prices on items that would fit the kiddo the next year. 

   I figure not spending big bucks on short-term-use items like clothes for a fast growing little one is one of the reasons that Hubby and I were able to pay off our house and other debts quickly. One of the reasons he is able to be retired and me not working at 50. We may not live like kings, but we're happy!

   Of course, we didn't do it all right, but what I wish I hadn't spent money on will have to wait for another day's post.

   Rainy, rainy day here in western Kentucky...but the little one is expected in a bit, so she will definitely brighten up this day for us! Hope something wonderful brightens your day today!!

Made a solemn vow to declutter an item every time I read a post over on Zero Waste Home. These are my two latest declutters: the only remaining peignoir item from my wedding trousseau and a pan I'd bought for a quarter at a yard sale, because I misunderstood what type of pan Hubby wanted to put under his seedlings. Seems a pan with holes in it will NOT suit for watering the little seed pots from bottom up. ;)

Meatless Monday: Lucky in love AND eggplant; From Bermuda grass to backyard farm in just ten years!

Oh, YES, my hubby DID can this tomato relish yesterday. He washed and waxed my car today. Gotta love a man who's handy in both the kitchen AND the garage!! When MIL declared she'd not can again, Hubby couldn't bear the loss of her delicious tomato relish and began canning it himself. He doesn't follow any canning rules, but the stuff hasn't killed us yet. ;)

Someone gifted me with four medium eggplants, hence the Eggplant-o-Rama!! Aunt K's Eggplant Casserole just out of the oven here; Eggplant Parmesan ready to go in.

LOVE Julia Child's The Way to Cook," tho' she might not approve of the way I use it. I've a bad habit of taking the easy way out with her recipes as my guide. Used a jarred tomato sauce for my eggplant Parmesan. And because I didn't have another recipe in mind for any leftovers, I used WAY more sauce than Julia recommended. Guess what? Tasted great despite me! (If my brain were awake when I'd made this, I'd have frozen some extra sauce for future pizzas. *sigh*)

Eggplant Parmesan...even simpler but just as tasty as lasagna!

   Started this post yesterday when I came across this great video of a man brave enough to transform his quarter-acre backyard into an urban farm!!
   This video of Richard Heinberg, retired-professor-turned-urban-farmer, is worth a look around but also worth a listen if you're interested in sustainability and the "simple" life. Who knew simple could be so complex?! (Thanks, Unstuffed, for finding this great video!)
   After our first frost Sunday morning, here in western Kentucky we're having a return of mid to upper 70's temps for a few days. LOVIN' that!! Our tomatoes are dwindling but still hopeful about the bell peppers. Hubby just planted some kale. What's up in your neck of the woods?

Not making my bed, well, not right away; Garden update

When the top part of this set of sheets wore out, I gave them to Mom to use for quilt fabric. She replaced the worn fabric with new material and gave them back instead! She even used the same material to put some little decorative touches on the pillowcases. I really don't think new sheets feel as good as the ones they used to make, so I was tickled pink with the make-over.

   Ever since I was a little girl, making my bed was something I'd do the minute I hopped up in the morning. Not anymore! I read some book on homemaking that recommended a wait of at least an hour before making the bed, to allow the bed to air and any night-time sweat to dry. The author even talked about HOW MUCH sweat accumulates in our sheets overnight, though I can't remember how much.
   Well, gross, I've had the willies ever since. For the last couple of years, I've been waiting at least an hour to make my bed every morn...all because of a book whose title I can't remember.
   This annoys me greatly, because I like to do the annoying little chores first thing and then not have to think about them anymore. I did mention I'm lazy, didn't I? ;)

By June 28 last year, our little western Kentucky garden was putting zucchini, Yukon golds and yellow tomatoes on our plates.

     This year, the zucchini plants are succumbing one by one to some predator bug, and Hubby refused to plant any potatoes due to potato bugs. On the bright side, we've eaten several zucchini and yellow squash, plus our first precious few yellow and red tomatoes, and with the help of a little fencing, the rabbits are no longer competing for our Swiss chard. Best of all, Hubby just ate the first two ears of corn. I call dibs on the next ones picked!
   How're things looking in your garden these days? Safer topic than asking about your beds, eh? ;)

Old becomes new and Cauliflower Soup too

One day Hubby dragged an ancient, white-painted mirror home, and because I had seen something similar in a Pottery Barn catalog, I requested he leave it as is but add hooks to it. Well, that was several years ago, and as the mirror languished in his outbuilding, its mirror cracked.
   Having long forgotten my original request to leave the chipped paint on it, Hubby recently stripped the paint and installed a new mirror. He remembered the hooks tho', and this mirror now graces a wall in our mudroom. (Click to enlarge and you can see the mud-sink reflected in the door.)
   So now every time I come in the back door, I can readily see that my hair is a mess. The mirror's makeover makes me want a makeover myself!

Yea, we're now getting cauliflower from the garden.
Not as white as its supermarket counterpart but just as tasty!

Cauliflower boiling in chicken broth, while the onions caramelize
in olive oil, butter and a little brown sugar.

This is where the immersion blender comes into play.
A can of cannelini beans in the mix helps thicken things.

Finally time to add some seasonings. Kept it simple
with salt, black pepper, white pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and Swiss cheese.
Added a sprig of fennel only as a garnish.
I'm not familiar with fennel's taste and want to learn more about the stuff before seasoning with it.

   Thunder-boomers woke me up this morn...at 4 o'clock. How rude! Hope you got to sleep in? Care to share any old-becomes-new makeovers gracing your home? Feel free to leave a link, so the rest of us can easily make the jump!

Make over: Customizing plain white sheets

Before.

One of the library books resting on my lap these days is The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss. (Learned about this book over on The Spicy Perspective; She is doing a fabulous job of providing recipes that adhere to Ferriss' "slow carb" ideal.)
   LOVING this book. If I remember nothing else, I hope to remember Ferriss' concept of the importance of finding the MED or "minimum effective dose." Of course, he's talking about the minimally effective amount of exercise, but this MED philosophy can be applied to save time or money in many areas of our lives.
   For instance, I realized that painting the bathroom Chinese red meant that--unless I wanted the RED bath to stick out like a sore thumb--I had to sprinkle little touches of red throughout our home.
   Not wanting our house to be ALL about red, I've been searching for the MED or minimum effective dose of red for the other rooms.
   When I visit fancy home shops, I always moon over the custom sheets...often embellished with fine laces or satin ribbons. But I don't need new sheets and wouldn't spend THAT much money on them anyway!
   An affordable alternative was in order: for our master bedroom, I decided my white sheets could use a little shot of red, and a little red cording (and Mom's sewing skills) just turned the trick.
   Still debating whether to put another line of cord on the top sheet. Would I like that just as well or better? So, guess I am deciding whether I have found my MED of red yet for these sheets. ?? Feel free to weigh in if you want!

Pretending 'this may be my last' saves me money

In the Great Depression, people learned to "Make Do, Make Over, Do Without" because when there's scarcely enough money for food, everything else becomes a luxury. Though most of us reading this don't worry about where our next meal may come from, consciously trying to make things last still helps our budgets and our planet!
   So, I play a little mind trick on myself before tossing/re-buying anything. I ask, 'What if this _____ is my last?" If this were my last pencil, I'd make do with a dull point to use all the carbon before sharpening it again. If this were my last tea towel, I'd durned well make it over instead of tossing it into the rag bag.
   The more I learn about the environmental impact of the products we use, the more I'm motivated to apply the 'this may be my last' mind trick. This past weekend I discovered a fascinating series produced by the Sundance Channel called Eco-Trip, and its episode about the impact of a cotton t-shirt really got me thinking. Evidently the use of pesticides in growing cotton make it the world's 'dirtiest' crop. So, I'll be looking for organic cotton, I'll be trying to buy from companies with ethical practices, and I'll be working even harder to make sure anything made of cloth that I do buy is well cared for.
   And if there's anything to this Peak Oil business, the ole ditty "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" will really come in handy.
From rags to riches
   Did I mention I have an amazing mom? She revamped these years-old kitchen linens of mine by sewing like-colored lace and little patches over the holes. Don't know where she got the "moda" ribbon that she repurposed to make some patches from, but at least four of my kitchen towels now sport this new "logo." (Including the one I accidentally burned recently!)
     Patched kitchen towels suit me fine. I'd much rather buy new clothes than new kitchen towels, wouldn't you? Sporting any patches over at your place?

Make over: Leftover tuna salad becomes Tuna Cheese Chowder

Let's talk about NEVER wasting food -- instead of hating leftovers, many of us RE-PURPOSE them instead!
   When feeding people that I don't see too often, I try to offer more than one thing, hoping to suit their tastes. Of course, that leaves me with leftovers, and I can only eat so many leftover tuna salad sandwiches!
   That's why I turned my leftover tuna salad (tuna, mayo, celery, capers, salt & pepper) into tuna cheese chowder. Cooked up some chopped onion & carrot sticks (too lazy to shred these, but a small dice cooks quickly enough). Stirred in a little flour then added some broth & milk and let the mixture thicken a bit before tossing it into the slow cooker with the seasonings below. About an hour before lunch, I stirred in the tuna salad; then stirred in some cheese about half an hour before eating. The slight crunch of the celery didn't affect the chowder a bit. I thought it tasted every bit as good as when I make it from scratch, as in the recipe below.
   I love changing leftovers into something new, don't you? Just found out Real Life Living has an idea for leftover French fries that I had never considered. Any leftover transformations you'd like to share?

Tuna Cheese Chowder 
2 med. carrots, shredded (1 c.)
1 med. onion, chopped (1/2 c.)
1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 c. milk
2 c. chicken broth
1 (6 1/2 or 7 oz.) can tuna, drained and flaked
1/2 tsp. celery seed
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. shredded American cheese (4 oz.)
In 3 quart saucepan cook carrots and onion in butter until onion is tender but not brown. Blend in flour. Add milk and chicken broth. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in tuna, celery seed, Worcestershire sauce and salt. Heat through. Add cheese - heat and stir until cheese is melted. Garnish with snipped chives. 4 servings. Recipe Source: Better Homes and Garden Holiday Cooking (Special Publication/Magazine from 1979!)

Lemon Pie Bars become lemon tarts

Had such a great time with the grandgirls this past week!!
   Grandgirl1 suggested a picnic, so our deck saw its 1st picnic of 2011. Yea! Here is our picnic gear, but really took the pic to show how Hubby solved the "I want the blue one" dilemma with the girls' water bottles. Even after drawing to see who got which bottle, the girls weren't happy, so Hubby made them both happy by switching the caps.
   I cooked on the days we just had one grandgirl on hand. Turned my lemon pie bars recipe into tarts...mainly to involve the young'un in the cooking, since I like this recipe better as bars. We "took turns" pressing the dough into the pans. G2 smooshed the dough into each little pan and then I finished by smoothing them out and up the sides.
Lemon Pie Bars
Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter (3/4 cup), softened slightly (cold if using food processor)

Cooling. Much prettier once dusted with powdered sugar. 

Filling:
2 cups white sugar
5 Tablespoons of flour
5 eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Mix 1 1/2 cups of flour and confectioner's sugar together. Cut in the butter or margarine. Mix well until the dough resembles pie dough consistency. (I use the food processor. Process until the dough follows the blade around the bowl.) Press the dough evenly into a 13"x9" inch baking pan.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.  (Takes 20 minutes in my oven.)
Meanwhile: Beat together filling ingredients: eggs, sugar, 5 tablespoons flour and lemon juice until completely combined. (Helps to stir together flour and sugar first.) Pour the filling mixture over the hot baked crust.
Bake the bars another 20 minutes, or until the lemon topping has set and bars are lightly browned. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar when cooled. Refrigerate.

I sneak 1 tablespoon of Ground flax into most doughs.

   If you make these into tarts, be sure to remove from pans while still warm!
   I am looking for some good tart recipes. If you've baked up some winners, please share a link to your post in the comments.
    We had family over for lunch including some from out of town, but they've gone now. After finishing this post, I'm going to chill awhile and watch a movie on Netflix.
   Hope you're finding plenty of fun on this beautiful weekend. It's sunny and 86F degrees right now here in Kentucky!!

This moment: Bird on the wing and another thing

Love how the bird feeder seems to be looking at the bird!

 Gotta love the long exposure that allows us to capture things like birds in flight!
   Hubby recently tiled our bathroom floor; yesterday he replaced the shoe mold trim, and he repainted the room today.
   Guess what? I didn't even know he was going to repaint it... Just found him in there repainting it the same color. He said if I'd wanted a different color, I should have let him know. *chuckle*
   Good thing I still like the color: Chinese Red by Sherwin Williams.
   This bathroom is my one bold stroke in this house! I did sprinkle little dashes of red throughout to unify the whole, but most of the other walls are fairly neutral.
   Well, except for our master bath with its blue walls & lighter blue ceiling.
   Dunno why tiny rooms give me permission to ply the more daring colors. Maybe it's my fear that I'll grow bored with the bolder colors, so I limit them to the tiny rooms that can quickly be repainted.
   What about you...are you WILD or MILD with your paint choices? Hope your weekend is wild or mild--as you wish!!

Thanks to Soulemama for this Friday photo sharing concept. Feel free to leave a link to your moment! 

Win some, lose some: Fabric adventures

Ooh, I hate it when I do something like this! When I was trying to light my candle the other day to refresh the wax on top, I broke a match on striking it. The flaming half dropped onto this tea towel. UGH, of all the goof-ball stunts!
   My fabric-refreshing went a little easier. A little de-pilling salvaged this tank top that I wear under a couple of tops that are a little too low cut.
   Durned undershirt started pilling after only a couple of washes. Trust me, I will be ever wary of buying any 92%Modal/8%Spandex fabrics in the future.
   I was reluctant to even try the fabric shaver on this relatively thin fabric, but the top was reaching the unwearable stage (I HATE pilled fabric), so I really didn't have anything to lose. I stretched the fabric completely taut before de-pilling, to reduce the chances of any folds getting caught and little holes being formed.
   The fabric shaver pictured here is slow and steady...I bought one another time that whirred like a motor boat & chopped plenty of small holes into the fabric as it mowed away the pills. Yikes! Used that one only once!
   Hope you're having more wins than losses these days!!

On my mind: Repurposing a doodad

Some law that says pharmacies cannot re-use prescription bottles continues to frustrate me. Until things change, I will recycle the recyclable parts & hope to find uses for the little colored rubber rings that come around each bottle.
   Love this shamrock a friend gave me, but I didn't want the terra cotta pot scratching the plant stand, so that's where these doodads come in handy.
   A couple of rings came off when I washed the pot's tray, but no worries, just a little Elmer's all-purpose glue turns the trick.
   Always keeping my eye out for new purposes for the doodads and doohickeys that seem to breed around here. If you have any other ideas for new uses for these little rubber rings, I'd love to hear them!

   Thanks, Rhonda at down-to-earth, for sharing this On My Mind concept. Anything on your mind? Share your link here or on down-to-earth. 

On my mind: Cute as a button, literally

Made a day trip to Louisville, Kentucky, t'day so the mumsy could buy a couple of sewing machines from her 97-year-old aunt who now resides in amazingly fine health in a nursing home. I unexpectedly ended up being gifted with a hodge podge of buttons that were collected through the years by my great aunt, who once made her living as a seamstress. Soo tickled to get these, as I'd been wanting to make over a boring cardigan with some nicer buttons...will let you know how that turns out!
   This funky wagon happened to be in Great Aunt H's neighbor's yard. Love it when a day throws nice little surprises my way! Any sweet surprises brighten your day?

Thanks, Rhonda at down-to-earth, for sharing this On My Mind concept. Anything on your mind? Share your link here or on down-to-earth.

Make over: Love it when folks get creative!

Okay, if you can stand just a few more glimpses of San Diego, I just loved these examples of how people can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary!
   What to do with all those seashells everyone keeps dragging home from the beach? Embellish a mailbox!
   And how to make a concrete wall look worthy of an oceanside view? Poke some rocks in it!
   What about those pervasive terra cotta tiles? Why NOT paint them?!
   Gotta love it when folks get creative with their outdoor spaces. Hoping these memories will inspire me to do something equally quirky...if only in the backyard where only friends/family will see.
   I think of such practices as green...essentially it's about making over objects to suit one's own personality. MUCH better than buying new, cookie-cutter commercial options. 
   Any funky/quirky/artsy goings on in your outdoor spaces?

Sweet dreams are made of this: Double sheets and heirloom pillowcases

   None of the sheets I can find these days seem to feel as good as I remembered the sheets were at my mamaw's house. Mamaw has long since left this world, but she left me with some great memories. And now some lovely embroidered pillowcases.
   Mamaw made and embroidered this pillowcase so very long ago. In the picture at left, you can see where my mom recently repaired a large tear in this one, and she replaced the worn out case ends with this new but old fashioned paisley material. Then she gifted the cases to me. Awww!
   Ever since a trip to Chicago for my 40th birthday (a decade ago!) and a stay at the downtown Westin there (link explains their bedding), I've been double-sheeting our bed in the wintertime. (The quilt and shams cover the pillowcases, so I can mix and match willy-nilly.) The extra sheet seems to be just as warm as an extra blanket would be without the added bulk. Gotta love that!
   Pictured above is our 1,000 thread-count 100% cotton flat sheet, a 600 thread-count 100% cotton sheet, an organic cotton blanket and the quilt. Our programmable thermostat drops the temp down to 65 degrees each night, and these covers keep us plenty warm.
   Hope you're staying warm as well. Sweet dreams!

Make over: Serving tray to computer desk

   Bet I'm not the only one sitting on her couch tapping away at a laptop that's sitting on a converted serving tray. The cushion lap desk (notebook stand) I'd bought previously worked fine for short sessions but occasionally I wanted to watch a Netflix on the computer without eventually feeling like I had a hot potato in my lap.
   This tray, which I think I got at Target, cost somewhere between $10-15 bucks. When I couldn't find anything suitable in the computer department, I found this serving tray in housewares. I figured it would fill the bill...with a minor alteration. Brought it home and had Hubby cut the front side of the tray off. (The front section came up too high and blocked access to the keyboard unless I arched my wrists.)
   Not a very classy solution, it gets put up at the end of the day, out of sight. Cheap as this sucker is, the side braces have worked their way out and had to be re-glued. And the finish is gummed up on the side pictured here...other side's finish is smoother. Still, works for me! Keeps the heat of the laptop off of my legs and provides a steady surface to boot.
   So, AM I the only one using a serving tray for a lap desk?

Make over: cloth bag to clothespin bag

Thanks to a conversation about reusable bags over on Practical Parsimony, I got the idea to use a freebie reusable bag I had on hand to revamp my 28+ year old clothespin bag. I'd made the original bag out of some scrap of fabric hand sewn to a clothes hanger, and after all these years, the thing was literally falling apart.

After snipping the handles off a reusable cloth bag, I just scissor-cut some slits in the top of the bag. After untwisting the wire coat hanger, I threaded the (original) hanger through the slits and then re-twisted the hanger shut.

Sewed the bottom of the bag a little shorter, so I wouldn't have to reach to the elbow for the clothespins. And wahlah, my new clothespin bag!

Make over: Entertainment center to bar

I consider our entertainment center, bought years ago when we upgraded to a 35" TV, one of my most well-thought purchases. Even as we were upgrading our TV set to what we thought was whopping big, I could tell from all my reading that bigger screens were on the horizon. For that reason, we spent a little extra to buy an entertainment center with doors, one that actually looks like an armoire when those doors are closed. Of course, now like so many others, we have an even bigger television, but the entertainment center didn't stay empty for long. I loaded up the TV shelf with assorted liquors, and Hubby installed wire racks from which to hang our inexpensive bar glasses. Up on the shelf that formerly housed a VCR sits a variety of other glasses. A wooden picture now graces the wall behind the hole that allowed the TV breathing room in the former entertainment center. Yup, pretty proud of the way this makeover worked out!

Make over: tabletop to vanity top

This is one of my all-time favorite makeovers. Hubby and I found the top from an old table out in the yard of an antique/junk store. Paid all of $5 bucks for it, though we did pay a small additional amount to have the rough, weathered surface planed off just enough for it to be level. Then Hubby carved out an opening in the center of it, installed an under-mount sink, and the former wood tabletop now beautifully gives some class to our t-tiny mudroom bathroom. Btw, this half bath is only as wide as the vanity! A pocket door made it possible for us to squeeze this in next to our washer/dryer.

Make over: leftover hotdogs

When the weather turns off cold, why fire up the outside grill when the fire in the wood-burner can cook your hotdogs on the hotdog roasting fork you use for camping? And for those days without a fire, a Crockpot will turn the trick. Just put the hotdogs into the crock, cover and cook them on High for 45 minutes to an hour. They cook in their own juices and taste better than those cooked by boiling on the stove.  
Leftover hotdog makeover: Italian-seasoned sauté
Ingredients:
Leftover hotdogs, sliced on the diagonal into 1/4 to 1/3 inch pieces
Green pepper, halved and sliced to desired thickness
Onion, halved and sliced to desired thickness
Seasonings:
Dried oregano (1/2 to 1 teaspoon depending on how many hotdogs)
Dried basil (1/2 teaspoon or less, optional)
Ground pepper to taste
(No salt needed: hotdogs are pretty salty to begin with.)
Olive oil, 1 tablespoon or less
Directions: Combine the dogs/green pepper/onion; sprinkle with seasonings and sauté in the oil in a non-stick skillet or seasoned cast iron pan just until heated through and fragrant. Serve hot.
   Recently discovered that Hebrew National brand has no fillers. A hotdog is about the only beef I eat, but I'm still searching for a decent vegetarian alternative.

Make over: Book love

I have a "flipping through cookbooks" addiction, which leads to many a worn out book spine with clumps of pages releasing from the spine. My sister-in-law who works in a library recommended acid-free book glue. Now I squeeze or brush glue down any broken spines or onto the spine-edge of loose page sections, secure the book with rubber bands & place the book spine down to dry. In the interest of minimalism, I recently pared down my bulging cookbook collection, copying beloved recipes before donating my seldom used books to our local library. This King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book definitely made the cut! Btw, check out the King Arthur Flour blog!