How Frugal Am I?

Pretty damn frugal. One of my pet peeves is how wasteful plastic bags are. Not that I'm particularly "green". I actually find the over use and commercialization of that term rather nauseating. I absolutely positively cannot stand waste. If it has value don't chuck it into the landfill. Which brings me back to plastic bags. Plastic grocery bags, if left unchecked, will literally take over your home. I try to be good and take one of my many reusable shopping totes on my retail expeditions. However, being the forgetful sort, I invariable end up with plastic shopping bags laying around. What do I then to with those bags? They are handy for lining small trash cans, like those under the bathroom counter. Use them doubled, as they seem to be getting thinner (and thinner) and are usually riddled with holes. Only the brave (or stupid) would attempt to put liquid waste in them. Another handy use I find for them is padding items to be shipped. (Yes, I also save all my smaller boxes for mailing in). That takes care of plastic shopping bags, but what about all those zip-lock food storage bags? First of all, I try to use as few of them as possible. I am very partial to the glasslock storage set I found at Costco. But sometimes you just need a zip lock bag, like for freezing bread in small portions. Home baked bread has no preservatives and will tend to mold if not eaten in a timely fashion. I only buy good quality heavy duty freezer bags. And, as long as they have not held meat or fat, I wash and reuse them.  Yesterday was "bag washing" day.

The bags are scrubbed in hot soapy water, rinsed thoroughly and then given a sanitizing bleach water soak. In good weather they are hung on my clothesline but during the winter they are hung on one of my Ikea folding clothes racks and left to dry in the brewing room. That is the warmest room in the house because that is where our libations ferment.

Raspberry Melomel

I finally got to bottle a mead! 

I proudly present to you, Raspberry Melomel.

Yes, I'm still mourning that cyser mead tragedy. Sniff. True to form I couldn't get this melomel mead bottled without at least a mini disaster. There should be 5 bottles ready to join the wine cellar. As I was corking the wine I noticed that one of the bottles had some unappetizing looking hard water scale on the inside. Even though the bottle was scrubbed and sanitized that was not something I'd want to present to guests. The wine from that bottle now resides in the decanter and I'll have to drink it now (oh, darn). I do lightly back sweeten my fruit wines so it isn't that bad. But I know it will be really awesome in about 6 months.

I also powered though and racked all 11 gallons of my remaining fermenting wines. Now to ignore them for another few months. Wine making is perfect for a lazy gal like me. Put 'em in the closet and forget 'em.

Another Serger

Remember back on Nov. 16th when I showed you a serger I'd received from Freecycle? Well that one turned out to be beyond repair. I decided to try once more. There had to be someone out there with a serger they didn't intend to use. And sure enough, someone did. It turned out to be a good friend of mine who is also active on Freecycle. Look at this little beauty she gave me.

This is much nicer than the one I had before. Thank you, Marti! I promise to put it to good use.

Big Mama Smurf

Guess what? I get to be a small Roxi!

I guess it all depends on who's doing the selling.

This is Big Mama Smurf, my new dress form. It is a size small in Dritz's new Simple Fit forms. I hadn't even considered this one, because Amazon doesn't stock it. I happened to be in Jo-Ann Fabrics a couple of days ago, using my 40% off coupon to buy a quilting ruler, when I saw that they had these dress forms on sale at $100 off regular retail. But I had already seen a Dritz product up close and wasn't impressed. It was an older Dritz My Double form offered on Craigslist for $30. It was incredibly flimsy, which was what the online reviews had warned. I made up my mind to order that red Singer form from Amazon. And I nearly did. Until I saw that Amazon was going to charge me sales tax on it. And I'd still have to wait a week or more for it to arrive. What if it was damaged in transit? That would be a hassle to deal with. And I was never overly enthused about the red color. Besides, I would have to buy a size medium in the Singer (and lose at least an inch for it to work). The measurements on the small Simple Fit from Dritz work better for me. I still have to crank it all the way open but it sounds better, psychologically, to be a large SMALL rather than a large MEDIUM.

I couldn't find any reviews on this particular form but decided to go ahead and buy one from Jo-Anns. If I didn't like it, I could take it back. But I have to say, I love it. This new incarnation of the Dritz form feels much more substantial. I don't find it a bit wobbly. The center pole has 2 wing nuts that hold it securely. It adjusts for length at the waist and also has 12 dials for adjusting the waist, bust and hips. There is a little pin cushion on top, and a hem marker below. It even came with a lint brush. One of the complaints on the Dritz forms was that they didn't have enough padding to pin to. This one is still not overly padded but I can definitely pin to it. Perhaps Dritz has listened to their customers and fixed the issues. I think this is a very nice dress form for the money, especially if you get it on sale. Just an FYI, Jo-Anns, by the Tacoma Mall has them in stock (and on sale) right now.

Time To Choose

Do I want to be a medium Roxi? Or a large Roxi? Forget about small. That ship has sailed. I did manage to get down to a size 4, about 5 years ago. But only by cutting out ALL carbs and going to the gym 3 days a week. Let's face it. I like to eat. And I hate going to the gym. I can live without being a size 4. I think a size 6 is doable, though. Why am I thinking about losing weight? Is it for a New Year's resolution? Not really. I want to buy an adjustable dress form. I have a $50 Amazon gift card burning a hole in my pocket and am seriously thinking of buying one of these Singer forms. My dilemma is do I buy the medium or the large? I am currently just a smidgen larger than the medium at it's fullest. But if I get a large there is no way to adjust but up. I am going to get the medium size which will force me to get serious and lose a couple of inches off of everywhere. My strategy will be smaller portions and 6 small meals a day. Eating more often should boost my metabolism. I will also limit myself to one beer per day (except on Pipe Club nights, duh). And force myself to drink more water. And I'll need to figure out some type of fitness program. Especially for my core (I have no waist). Can I accomplish this goal? Well, I'm pretty stubborn so there's a good chance I will.

I've Got A Beef With Safeway

About their ground beef. I have always known they add water to their meats. But the problem has increased dramatically. I like to fry my ground beef, not boil it. Today I stopped by Safeway to pick up some groceries to make tacos. I purchased a small package of their ground beef. 1.37 pounds at $3.69 per pound. I paid $4.51. I was shocked when I went to brown the ground beef before adding my seasonings. There was so much water in the meat, that it began to boil. In this picture I have pushed the meat to the left side of the pan. What remains on the right side is water. And you can't tell by the photo but it is literally boiling.

By the time it dawned on me to take this picture it had already been boiling for a while and I'm sure a lot of it evaporated. But even so, this is how much water remained once I'd drained the meat and skimmed the fat.

That is all water. I had let the fat cool and congeal. It was then skimmed off. This is what remained. 3 ounces of added water (I'm sure it was even more, since some had already evaporated). Safeway charged me over $.70 for that water. What a rip off. I will never purchase meat at Safeway again. If I want water, I'll turn on my tap.

I Can See The Light...

...at the end of the tunnel. It's a tiny light, but it's there. I'm about 3/4 of the way through organizing my fiber studio. I can now see most of the carpet. I estimate a week (maybe two) and I'll be finished. No easy task after 12 years of neglect. I am not allowing myself to play with any of my toys (looms, spinning wheels or sewing machines) until this mess is sorted out. Today's task? Organizing my spinning fibers. I already had them stacked up in totes, but they were all jumbled together. Today I am sorting them by fiber type, putting like items into a bin together, and labeling the bin. I have 12 plastic totes FULL of spinning fiber. And 2 of those totes are the giant, over sized kind. This is not even counting all the fleeces out in my garage. I never EVER have to buy fiber again. In fact my husband should shoot me if I try. If I live to be a hundred years old I doubt I'll spin this up. I have been selling off some of my fiber tools as I've unearthed them. I had 4 sets of hand cards, 3 swifts, 4 ball winders, 5 small hand looms (I kept 2), many duplicate weaving magazines, bobbins from spinning wheels I no longer even own, way too many lazy kates...you get the idea. Selling off those extra items has financed my latest obsession, vintage sewing machines. Out with the old toys and in with the new.