"Yet another photo of my towels" OR "How I managed to use 2 1/2 rolls of paper towels in almost two years"

It's true. I bought a six-pack of paper towels when I got married and moved. We have 3 left in the cupboard and half of one on the paper towel holder.

It was a very easy transition to "nearly paper-free" for my family. Here's how to do it.





First, go buy yourself some new towels. Body towels, hand towels, washcloths, kitchen towels,
and kitchen washcloths. Also, get some cloth napkins that aren't too fancy. You know you want to, because all of yours are old and worn out and mismatched and stained from the cocoa recipe you decided to use. Here's the key: MAKE SURE THEY MATCH. In my house, kitchen stuff is yellow/white, and bathroom stuff is brown/tan.

Secondly, find a convenient place (or two) for your old towels. Mine go under the sink with cleaning supplies and in a closet. Tell everyone in your home what the new towels are for, and the old towels are for cleaning or
for things that will stain. It's easy to tell, since your new towels all match and your old towels are...old and gross. It's so nice to be able to wipe up the sink, dust, wash the windows (try cutting up old thin PJs), wipe up spills on the floor, and dry the car after washing without having to think about which towels to use.

Lastly, your cloth napkins are to be used. Even for spaghetti sauce or chocolate or yucky fingers from dinner. Because they're not too fancy and intimidating and it's okay to yuck them up.

It's really very easy and I don't think I do any more laundry from them since I tend to wash all my towels/dishcloths at the same time.

















Just keep in mind that no matter how "paper-free" your household is, you should always keep an emergency paper towel roll on hand, because some messes are too yucky to be thrown in the washing machine. Like cleaning up the area around the mousetrap. Or dog vomit. :)

HELP! I have no storage in my bathroom!

So what does a person do when their bathroom has this much shelving/storage?

By the way, does anyone know what the two metal things above the sink are??? They look like toilet paper holders to me, but the curved back is going the wrong direction for that... Anyone?

Well, this girl got some metal baskets from Target (Dollar section, baby!) as Halloween decorations. Yup. Halloween. I removed a towel bar from the wall, and repurposed the nails in the walls and hung the baskets up. One for my hubby, one for me. Perfect! The only thing that would make it better was if I suddenly got more ambition and sewed some fabric liners so that I could store my smaller items like mascara without them falling through the bottom. But lets face it...that's not going to happen.

Quilt Completion and Anniversary

Over a month ago, D and I celebrated our One Year Anniversary (yup, it's so special it deserves capitalization). We used our state park pass that we purchased earlier this year and hiked around a nearby park on Saturday, and then on Sunday we saw my parents and went out to dinner. Relaxed and low key---that's us! I made some cupcakes, and attempted to make them "our wedding" themed with green and cream colors. I had coconut on mine and D got mint-flavored for his, since he doesn't like coconut. They were not as pretty as they were tasty.


In other news, I finished the quilt that I showed that "sneak peek" of last time. We have a friend who is pregnant, and I am way too excited about this upcoming little one. Therefore, I made my first quilt ever. EVER. and it turned out adorable!!!

I followed the tutorial from the Purl Bee with some fabric I bought impulsively from JoAnn's a few days prior to deciding on a quilt. I was very nervous about the binding, since I've never done anything like this before, but I used tutorials for a mitered corner and making my own green double fold binding, and it really wasn't too bad. I used my sewing machine for one half and then finished it off by hand. I didn't swear once while making this!!! Now that's impressive.

I am so happy with how it turned out. I wanted to make one that would be fun and bright, and also gender neutral, which I think I accomplished. Plus that animal fabric is so cute! Hopefully the future momma will like it.......

Oh and by the way...

I've been busy. Here's a sample. Ok, you're right, it was more than a sample. I am SO bad at secrets.

A photo heavy post...

Oh, HELLO there, tomato.


I see you've brought friends!



And look at that lovely little pumpkin-shaped one.


Remember those three little tomato plants I got for my new box? Well they aren't so little anymore.
They're ginormous. I after 63, I stopped counting the tomatoes. Too many, perhaps??? Never.

I thought I would give you all a nice tour of my deck. Oh, I wish it were a beautiful 5 acre farm with gardens and flower gardens and landscaping, a chicken or two, grass mowed with a push mower, a picnic table and fire-pit. But we aren't in "the right place" for a real home just yet (remember that whole unemployment thing??) so we have a deck. This is me, making the best of it.

I'm attempting to grow as many vegetables as possible in pots. The tomatoes are obviously going very well. Additionally, we have:

Peppers (complete with bloom):
Peas (a total failure on the left there, since they dried up after a long weekend away and haven't recovered yet)

Green beans (a similar story on the top there, only I think there is an additional "something is eating the leaves" thing going on):

Carrots (down on the bottom, we'll have to see how these manage, since I'm fairly certain that root veggies were not intended for 5" deep pots):

And more peppers (on the right):

Rounding out the deck tour, we have

More carrots (in the blue pot):

Cucumbers (doing surprisingly well with lots of blossoms and what I can almost certainly say are FUTURE CUCUMBERS!):


All I need are a few lawn ornaments and I'll be "that neighbor".

P.S. I selectively excluded the hanging basket that I have because it is the only non-edible plant I got this year and is completely and totally dried up and pathetic. *sigh*

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

The strawberry picking was pretty good, although the we missed the first round of picking, and the berries for the second round were fairly small. That meant a long time picking, and a long time cleaning and slicing.

Once again this year I made jam. I got 6 1/2 pint jars (don't worry, the half jar went straight into the fridge and is pretty well gone already) and hope that will last us a little while. My dear hubby likes his jam sandwich snacks.

I made my first attempt at a strawberry rhubarb pie (the rhubarb was the last of the season from the farmer's market down the street!) and it turned out beautifully. The strawberries pretty much eliminated the tartness of the rhubarb, so this pie was perfect for those of us who don't particularly like that tartness. I found the recipe HERE and would highly recommend it.



Definitely put a baking sheet under this pie in the oven, just in case the juices get away from you. I had expected it to be one of those extremely juicy, flops on your plate sort of pies, but once it cooled it held it's shape when cut and didn't have too much juice either. What can I say, I was impressed with my pie skills. You should try it, too!

With the total success of the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie came the total failure of Strawberry Hand Pies. The problem came when I prioritized the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie and left the hand pie crust dough in the fridge too long. It dried out and became unruly and unmanagable. It cracked and the strawberry juices leaked out, leaving puddly crunchy messes all over my baking sheet.

We ate them anyway and they were described as "fine". Oh well. At least they were eaten and I'm determined that next year's hand pies will be delightful.

New happenings

I started my new job at the end of January, had a long long long training experience there, and finally was starting to get out on my own and do things for myself. I experienced so much stress during this time, I wasn't sure if it was the normal "you are new and just have to suck it up and get over the hurdles" kind of stress, or if it was "this job is so genuinely stressful that you can't stop thinking about it" kind of stress.

Needless to say, I was constantly worrying about it, constantly thinking about what needed to be done for work, constantly dreading meetings with my supervisor because of the things she would instruct me to do, that I was terribly unhappy. I had thought that after the initial hurdle of stress, things would get better. Then, I looked around at my coworkers. They were always busy, constantly missing deadlines because of insane workloads, constantly under review and covering their butts. I heard one woman (who recently resigned) threw up every day before coming to work. The (good) benefits were keeping a lot of people trapped there.

And I didn't want to get anywhere near that myself. I hadn't taken care of myself at all since I started working--no haircut, no exercise, no decent (ie semi-healthy) meals, no relaxation, no crafting. My last day there was Monday, the 27th.

So we are back to being a one-job family. I feel bad for relying on my husband for so much, and that he is trapped at his job for the money and benefits. At the same time, I know that I made the right decision because of how relieved I felt on my last day. So I'm back to job hunting, and in the meantime, I'm trying to live as cheaply as humanly possible.

Yesterday, I spent my time doing something that I haven't had time to do. Something that makes me unbelievably, undeniably, unimaginably happy.


I rearranged, re-folded, and organized our linen closet. Ahhhh... that's better.

And it was a free activity!