chock-a-blog

the guilt I've always had it. Anything I find enjoyable becomes a guilty pleasure, because if it's enjoyable, then it must not be good for me. I should be doing something else, like emptying the dishwasher, or folding laundry, or vacuuming the floors. This house is overridden by tasks that need doing. But what I really want to do: thrift to find bargains, like this brand new Vera Bradley bag purchased for 2.99 at my favorite store in the world, the 22nd Street Thrift Store thrift to find this other brandless bag that I've been carrying my personals in lately thrift to find treasures, like these darling little springtime friends thrift to find fabric, like this Grandma's Attic retro print I bought to make Pointy Kitty for my sister. Pointy Kitty is a free template you can get from Hillary Lang at her whimsical Wee Wonderfuls website thrift to find reading material, like my latest three conquests. I'm deeply into nostalgia right now, though why I should be nostalgiac...

Cutting Costs I called Gadabout Day Spa to make an appointment with my stylist, one Ms. Mustard. Seriously. I've been seeing her for years. My sister and I have a joke about "getting the Mustard cut," as in, "I got an appointment to get my Mustard cut on Tuesday." Getting my Mustard cut is something I don't thrift on. My loyalty to a good stylist is based on how well she cuts short hair, because I used to wear my hair very short. Anywoos, I started seeing Ms. Mustard about five years ago, when my dad gave me a gift certificate to Gadabout as a thank-you gift for typesetting his resume. Five years ago she was one of the lower-echelon stylists, so her patrons paid $24 for a hair cut. Neighbor, that's a ganga. Over the years she's been promoted to higher tiers until I paid $29 for my last haircut. The problem with Ms. Mustard is that her hair cuts are so good that they hold their shape much longer than they ought to. My last hair cut (the one for which ...

ploye ploye ploye . . . order in the court! I've got that mad desire to clear my house of clutter. Today I started on the pantry. On the bottom shelf in there I have a Rubbermaid bin full of sundry flours I purchased back when I thought I'd make all our bread with the brand new extra large bread machine I bought at the church rummage sale for $12. Of course I quickly wearied of the notion and gave away the bread machine through freecycle, and conveniently forgot all that flour in there. I can't just throw it away! I started in on the buckwheat flour first. A quick web search yielded a recipe for ployes. This is what the contributor has to say about the recipe: This occupies a place of choice in our community. The Ploye looks like a pancake but is prepared with buckweat flour. It is used in place of bread. If you come from Northern New Brunswick and you are a BRAYON, it is a common thing to eat and is delicious. I posted it here so I would'nt loose it. After they are co...

In the year 2007 I resolve to breathe to eat to sleep to thrift I think I can handle that. Happy New Year!

Ah, the Friday after Thanksgiving: the cleanup, the carcass, the glorious bloat. Sally Lunn bread and pumpkin pie for breakfast. A day that feels like Sunday but is really Friday. What to do? Visit 22nd Street Thrift Store, of course! After a protracted conversation with DH about the lack of income, it's especially satisfying to come home with two giant bags of stuff, all for 33 dollars and 24 cents: Cassie got a new baby. She loved it. Loved it's nose right off.

Hope ya'll had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I spent the day with my parents, my sister and her family, DH, and Jack. We cooked the usual: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, brussels sprouts with chestnuts in maple butter. While dining we each declared our must-have food for Thanksgiving, the food without which Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving. Mine is Sally Lunn bread. Above is a picture of the Last Slice, along with the pan we baked it in and a cup of coffee. The table ware is Frankoma pottery. Mom bought a hodge-podge set at a garage sale and gave it to me when I moved into my first apartment. I've added to it here and there over the years. We've used it as our only dishes ever since then, except for a three year stint when DH's parents gave us eight multi-colored Pfaltzgraf settings that we used for awhile. We're back to the Frankoma and I'm always looking for new pieces but ...

Another 5 Generations My last post reminded me of this picture. I wish my mom had been there. Clockwise from top left: Grandma Breene, me, Jack, and Grandma Agnew. That's five generations, if my mom had been there. I could photoshop her in, but if you're familiar with my photoshop skills, you'll be glad I didn't. This picture was taken in June of 2002. Jack was about 10 months old. No noteworthy thrifting as of late; I've been staying home! What a novel concept! I've got a lot of reading to do for my class, lots of thrifty projects to work on, and I'm actually writing a story. I'm also wasting a lot of time doing puzzles on Lunchtimers. ((((Insert warning here))))

All Souls Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys which you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. Today, the first Sunday in November, is recognized in the Episcopal Church as All Saints' Sunday. We celebrate the lives of the saints, remembering that they did not become saints because they were somehow better than the rest of us, but because they were ordinary, everyday people who allowed the Holy Spirit to work through them. All Saints is a day for remembering and giving thanks: remembering the good people we have known and giving thanks for the goodness of God. So, some good people I have known, who have taught me to be thrifty: Not all of these goo...

all this for $7.83!! After school on Friday Jack and I went to 22nd Street Thrift Store for our weekly (sometimes twice weekly) fix. I had the 50% off coupon from the Tucson Shopper (and I have another, good 'til Wednesday!) so without it we would have paid twice as much for what we got, which still would have been a good deal. But $7.83 for this small load of goodies...neighbor, that's a ganga. First find: a goodie bag of Playmobil bits and pieces, including one genuine Playmobil horse and three knock-offs (rather interesting in their stylized appearance), five guys, a few bushes, and a handful of accoutrement, including two sets of keys. Jack was practically in orbit. Bought a strange set of 4 flat, die-cut rubber shark caricatures, each about 12 inches across, for Evan. Have no idea what they're for, but I feed Evan's shark frenzy whenever I can. I found a beautiful pair of black Kenneth Cole boots for $29.99, which would have been about $15.00 with my coupon. But th...

Thrifty Halloween: A Retrospective For his first Halloween (2001), Jack wore an Old Navy suit I paid FULL PRICE for. This was in the days before thrift store shopping (microbes and whatnot) became my raisin detray. For his second Halloween, Jack was a duck. The costume was inspired by the cap, which came from The Gold Mine Thrift Store, owned and operated by my mother's former church in Cave Creek, AZ. It's a sweet little gem of a thrift store, and Ginny L., the manager, is a second grandma to Jack. I bought the onesie at WalMart and dyed it yellow, then attached feathers from a yellow feather duster to the hiney. The feet are cut from a sheet of orange craft foam. For his third Halloween, Jack was a dalmatian because, at the time, 101 Dalmatians was his favorite movie. None of this costume was thrift-store purchased, but I did spend a lot of my valuable time sewing those little black felt spots on it. For his fourth Halloween, Jack was Batman. I made the costume myself, wi...

Two weeks ago my friend Ana and I spent the weekend in Bisbee at the Shady Dell (trailer park). This, of course, was a joy in itself. But also joyful was a funny little packed-to-the-rooftop musty-smelling thrift store out on Bisbee Road on the way to the Farmer's Market. I rejoiced in finding Jack a pair of OshKosh jeans for twenty-five cents. A quarter for a pair of jeans! Also found this cool ceramic skull ($1.00) just in time for Halloween. I'm thinking of sticking it in a planter and growing a vine out of it after the holidays are over. Reminds me of Mandy's Darth Maul mug with the cactus growing out of it. Though I had a great time in Bisbee with Ana, I was a bit disappointed to have missed our church's third annual rummage sale. I previewed some of the goodies and lamented the fact that I couldn't go to the sale. But I did go to church the Sunday after the sale. The youth group leader---who organized the sale---told us they'd raised more money in this...