Thursdays Threads

She's been busy sewing up the remnants and scraps into new projects. My daughter has a collection of vintage sheets that some people would die for. She's been collecting for years. We sew everything we can with them and just enjoy looking at the stash some days. It's our therapy.

This is a lovely springtime table runner, quilted and backed with white cotton.

Quilted coasters.

Purses and purse accessories.

Curtains to hide things.

And just recently children's tote bags.

This is just some of the creativity that keeps us sane. Seeing the scraps made into something functional is our motivation.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend. 

Thrift finds

January and February have been busier than usual thrift months. We've been on a quest to find canning jars and when we have we've either purchased them or followed them according to tag colors and sale dates. 50% off is always better. We've been lucky enough that they've been on the shelf still when we go back as much as a week later. That to me is the universe saying they were meant to be ours.

It seems that more have been available in January than in past months and we've wondered if it's because everyone was donating at the end of the year to get taxable donations. These are more that we added to our stash and we've found all sizes. The two aqua Mikasa bowls were an extra because they match my daughter's set she has been building.

Another Saturday stop yielded us four dozen more jars including a brand new case of old stock eight ounce jars with lids. Again it was a nice variety of sizes.

Living in a small townhouse apartment doesn't actually give you a lot of room for storage, but my daughter used a target gift card she received for Christmas and bought a shelf that fit in an empty corner. It was perfect for all the jars, crock pot and some of her collectible Pyrex. She made the curtain from a vintage "thrifted" sheet to match her color scheme for the dining area. She says she has enough to add a border to a table cloth she wants to make. I have a good supply of jars to keep me going for a while and yes, I've already used some.

There were other thrift finds too. Candle making supplies, Wilton silicon molds for her soaps and lotions, books on herbs and aromatherapy, double pointed knitting needles, Popsicle molds, fabric, vintage sheets, Vera scarfs and a vintage roll of whimsical kitchen wall paper.

Books had taken a way back seat for the two of us. We both enjoy reading and we had resorted to using the library because storage space for books was scarce. However we have rekindled our love of owning a few good books and started picking up those we can use or read and move on, but some will stay on the shelves here. My younger daughter took me to a book sale and I came home with only 10 books because I was quite choosy. I also have a difficult time carrying heavy items so I limited my selections. My favorite find has been the American Woman Cook Book from the Culinary Arts Institute that was printed in 1938. Found at Good Will for $3.98, but purchase at 50% off. It is a complete encyclopedia for the time. I am enjoying it so much, but I haven't tried any recipes yet.

This cutie is a hand made ceramic. The painting was so wonderfully done and yes he was a thrift store find. His face just spoke to my daughter and his color pallet matched her decor so home he came and sits lovingly on her shelf. I think this may be the first in a new collection of Gnomes.

I say that because of this. She has a vintage shelf with collected and thrift store Angels and several other thrifted collections around the townhouse. The wooden Angels on the bottom are hanging from the shelf and the sign says "Angels Gather Here". Yes they do and it's so wonderful to have simple "small" collections to brighten up our home. 

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

January is over and WOW what a whirlwind of growth and busy. A few days into February and it we're still going. 

Early in the month I found two cloves of garlic that decided to start growing. I was surprised because this is from what I harvested in 2014. I took a minute and then quickly put them into pots to see where they would go. Well here's the progress. They are 13 inches tall today and still going. 

I continued to learn new bread recipes and doing more with the dough. We are eating less bread so I'm baking bread every two weeks and finding myself using the old bread for croutons and bread crumbs. I store them vacuum sealed in jars and haven't lost any yet. So far croutons have stayed fresh for a month and some are still going longer.

I found a Rival Crock-Pot at the thrift store for 50% off, final cost to us was $4.49. Brought it home, cleaned it up and made a batch of Buffalo pulled chicken. It works great and is smaller than the one I had and takes up less room on the counter.

This was an attempt at Buffalo pulled chicken Stromboli. It was good, but I wanted better. I used a pizza dough for it and I thought it was a bit to hard.

This is the second attempt and I was happier with this one. I used a french bread dough that I let rise for a bit and baked at a lower temperature for a few minutes longer than a loaf of bread. I was excited that this fed six people. 

The canning continues. I added quite a few pints of chicken broth. I have an amount of jars that I'd like to have on hand that I'm working on. I also added more beef broth and as the year progresses I hope to add more. The picture on the right is all chicken. My daughter purchased a ten pound bag of chicken leg quarters for the grand price of $6.90 last week. At $.69 a pound I had to make it work. I boiled  them and took the meat off the bone. Total nine cups of meat. I filled three pint jars of chicken and seven pints of chicken broth. I made three cups of Buffalo pulled chicken. From it I made the Stromboli and put up one pint. I think I got more than most people would get from chicken legs and I figured it out with the future soups and meals to be about $.29 a serving. This does not include any breads, pot pie crusts, noodles, rice or vegetables that would be added, but that would probably increase the price to about $.43 a serving. I am pleased.

Finally the sock. This is as far as I'm going with my practice sock. I'm pretty sure I know how to weave the toe. It's a misfit I know, but I needed to do it large enough to visually see how it worked and I used large size needles and didn't change them as the directions said and I'm sure I can try now with smaller needles. I got the two sets I needed in the smaller sizes on sale with a Christmas gift card this week and will be figuring out my gauge and starting with more scrap yarn until I get it to where I need it to be. One goal met for 2015.
Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week. I'll see you all again soon.