Sabby Ann

After crocheting a few doilies, and getting accustomed to working with crochet thread, I decided to tackle a new crochet project. I thought about making placemats or a tablecloth, then I stumbled upon crocheted curtains. In particular, I found a geometric block curtain pattern, pictured below: 

I absolutely love the look of this, and thought I’d give it a try. Judging from what little progress I’ve made on it over the past week, despite hours of crocheting, I’m guessing this project will keep me busy for weeks (maybe even months!). 

The particular thread that I’m working with is multi-colored and is called “Ocean” - it’s a blend of blues, green, and lavender. I have about 4″ complete on a single panel, and I’m not sure what I think of it yet. I definitely like the pattern, I’m just not sure of the color scheme. I think I’ll probably stick to solid colors next time.

Everybody knows those neighbors. You know, the ones with three or four cars parked in the front of the house, and with at least one of ‘em up on blocks. The ones with an overgrown weed-filled front yard. The ones with trash piled up, clearly visible from the road. 

It’s official: we are definitely those neighbors. Minus the graveyard of vehicles, that is. 

I went for a walk on Saturday, and discovered that our neighbors have a sheet of plywood propped up against the fence. It looks a bit out of place, and I stared at it for a minute or so as I walked by. Then it dawned on me… it was placed just so to hide the pile of old siding & gutters garbage piled underneath a tree on our side of the fence. I guess the waist-high weeds growing around the garbage bags just weren’t cutting it.

One of the blogs that I read recently had a snippet about how to save money on cleaning supplies. She suggested mixing your own cleaning solutions, using household products like  vinegar, lemons, & baking soda. Her other tips were also pretty basic - use washable mops and rags for dusting, instead of buying disposable items. Duh? 

I’m all about saving money! Just ask anyone who knows me. But moreover, I just hate cleaning. My house is usually messy because I have so many other things that I’d rather do. Really. It’s not that I’m trying to prevent my parents or in-laws from coming over… and I wasn’t planning to claim a Guiness Book record for that monster-sized furball behind the couch… 

Maybe I ought to have a print made of this, and hang it somewhere in the house.

Anyways, here’s my take on how to save money on cleaning supplies:  

Clean less often! 

This year I planted a small vegetable garden, if you could call it that. I bought several different types of seeds, but I only got around to planting roma tomatoes… so my garden currently consists of about 15-20 tomato plants, each with half a dozen or so green roma tomatoes. I’m going to be giving away tomatoes to anyone & everyone when they ripen! 

A friend, Summer Alyssa, also gave me some frugal tips on establishing a perennial garden. She suggested hitting up the clearance racks at garden centers & greenhouses, and picking up perennials plants after they’re done blooming for the year. Since they’re perennials, even if the plants look all wilted and dying, they’ll all come back next year!  Following her advice, I picked up a dozen or so for only a few dollars total (and some for just $.25/each!). 

Anyways, with the recent heat spell, I’ve been trying to keep the garden and new plants watered. When we got home from our trip up north yesterday afternoon, I headed out back to give everything a little drink. Apparently I forgot to turn the spicket off… 

The sound of the well running woke Eric up around 6:30AM this morning. After a few minutes of trouble-shooting to locate the source (a leaky faucet or toilet, and fortunately also not a burst pipe in the crawl-space), he figured it out. He estimated that it was probably in the ballpark of 5000 gallons of water. Oops! 

I was curious so I checked to see what the increase in our water bill would have been (if we were on city water!). Turns out that it only would have been an extra $21 or so.