Another day of cooler than normal temperatures! Today's high was only 76F!
In the morning, daughter went to check on her friend A's cat again. A is out of town for the weekend and had asked daughter to check on her cat and give him to eat wet food twice a day! Apparently, you can't leave out a quantity of food for him as he will eat it all in one sitting! Daughter checked on him last night and went to feed him again tonight, too. She will go, again, tomorrow morning; A is expected to return tomorrow evening.
I did another load of laundry (my bedsheets and a couple of the sofa dust sheets) in the morning and cleaned the bathrooms. Later, I remade the bed with the freshly laundered sheets.
But, today was the day to do some repairs and mending!
Daughter had a few decorative collectibles that had broken over the years, which had been kept in a box waiting for me to fix them. I am not quite sure why I didn't fix them earlier, but, I think I was waiting to buy some super glue. Then, the other day, I found some super glue in the same container as the acrylic paints! Today, I repaired two of the decorative items by gluing the bits together. There is one other item to repair (I hadn't seen it when I was fixing the other items); might do that, tomorrow.
Later, I sat down to do some mending. Daughter had a blouse that had developed a small hole in the fabric near the side seam. I darned the hole as invisibly as I could. She might not be able to wear it to the office, but, she can wear it while she's working from home. There is one other item I need to mend for her - a dress she had bought, in which there is a gap in the side seam between the top of the zipper and the armhole binding! I might have to undo the armhole binding to fix it. Might work on that, tomorrow.
After I mended daughter's blouse, I decided to "renew" and repair one of my small hand towels which had frayed edges. The frayed edges made it look rather sad and created a lot of lint whenever I dried it in the dryer. It didn't take long to cut some strips from a piece of fabric in my scrap basket and sew them on with the sewing machine:
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| Renewed Towel |
One upon a time, it was a bright red towel. Now, after years of use, it has faded to a sort of pink! I suppose this towel might have been a candidate for decluttering. But, I don't mind the fact that it has faded; it is still quite absorbent and functions well as a towel. I think the new binding will extend its useful life, even it if wasn't sewn very neatly and evenly! I suppose, I could have just rehemmed the towel, instead of putting the binding, too. Eventually, I will need to buy some new towels, but, for the time being, I can renew and repair what I have. It is the frugal thing to do! I save my pennies where I can in order to spend my dollars where I need to! LOL.
Today, daughter decided to cook the tofu we had bought, earlier:
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| Korean Style Mapo Tofu Dish |
She made Korean style mapo tofu. The original recipe had called for ground meat as well as tofu, but, she decided to make it a fully vegetarian version. It was very spicy because she used gochu jang (a Korean fermented chili paste) and ichimi togarashi (a Japanese chili powder) as well as regular chili powder because her packet of gochu garu (Korean hot pepper flakes) had somehow become moldy! Oh, and she added some fresh Serrano chilies from the garden, too! I tried a little of it with rice and it was delicious (even though I don't like soft tofu that much).
My next door neighbors are having another party, complete with DJ and disco lights, in the garden, this evening! I have all the windows closed, partly because it is too cool to leave them open (the temperature outside is 63F, as I type this and is supposed to go down to 62F, later tonight) and partly because it is now 12 midnight, but, the music is still quite loud!
Still later in the evening, daughter made some zucchini bread - the sweet version. I grated some of one of the huge zucchini for the bread and chopped up the rest of the zucchini and froze it. There is still one huge zucchini in the fridge, which needs to be turned into chutney very soon.
Today, I am grateful for:
- Sewing skills
- Daughter's cooking skills
- Chili peppers (and zucchini) from the garden
- Working appliances
- Daughter had a safe drive to and from her friend's apartment
Today's joyful activity was picking the chilies from the garden! I love being able to harvest the things I'm growing this year.
Plans for tomorrow include mending daughter's dress and maybe making zucchini chutney?
How was your Saturday? What are your plans for Sunday?
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August Decluttering Challenge:
8/1 - 1 pair gardening gloves
8/2 - non-working heating pad
8/3 - old purse/handbag
8/4 - 1 computer CD containing a report
8/5 - 1 plastic lid that cracked and broke in two
8/6 - 1 hooded sweatshirt (received a new one to replace it)
8/7 - old make-up I no longer use
8/8 - 6 plastic laundry detergent scoops (I use powdered laundry detergent; each new box comes with its own scoop; I don't need to keep the old ones, but, it seems such a waste to toss them in the recycling bin)
8/9 - 1 sponge paint brush (unused, but, so old, the sponge is no longer spongey!)
1 plastic food container
8/10 - 1 blouse (given to daughter); will be donated as she decided it didn't fit her properly
8/11 - 1 broken clothes hanger
3 bras
8/12 - 2 Zucchini! LOL! Eileen informed me that the zucchini don't count!
8/13 - Daughter's old artwork: A poster
8/14 - Daughter's old artwork: A painting
8/15 - 1 long dress (given to daughter) - she had urged me to buy it for myself one year for all of $1, but, I didn't wear it. She, on the other hand, loves it! It looks much better on her than on me!
8/16 - 1 coffee mug
8/17 - A book on cake decorating
8/18 - 1 bottle of perfume spray (an "our version of a famous perfume" that someone gave which doesn't smell good to me)
I like your pretty repair on the hand towel but admit that I probably would have sent it to the cats and dogs home (they always need towels) and would have bought new ones for the home.
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting for friend E to arrive. We've abandoned the idea of a picnic as it's a grey day and looks like more rain is on its way, so we're going out for a meal instead.
I admit that, usually, my first thought is how can I fix/mend/repair this item so I don't have to buy new! But, there are some household items I should buy one of these days - kitchen towels are high on that list! And, a new sheet set for my bed!
DeleteI hope you have a lovely meal out with your friend. Too bad the weather isn't cooperating for a picnic, though. The day started out cloudy and overcast, here, too, but, the afternoon is sunny. :)
There are so many things wrong with your neighbor's parties, but you already know that. I'm not a night person like you are and I would find it very hard to tolerate them.
ReplyDeleteMy mother used her towels until you could see thru them. She actually preferred them that way. I don't think they were very absorbent, but they were soft.
The music stopped at 12:50 a.m. and we breathed a sigh of relief! They had these huge amplifiers set up in their driveway, which is just 5 ft. from my house (that's the width of my side yard).
DeleteI use the old, worn towels for various odd jobs around the house and Dancer has his towels to lie on. :)
I love that repaired towel!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Angela. :)
DeleteThat towel looks great! I did the same thing with a set of mine to extend their life. Chilis add so much flavor to cooking. I just made some spaghetti with homemade sauce. I used fresh tomatoes, pressed garlic, shallots, salt, and cayenne pepper. Yum! Relaxed in the sauna today and chatted with a close friend on the phone...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Stephenie. I am enjoying my homegrown chilies. :) Your spaghetti sauce sounds delicious! I made some spaghetti sauce with my homegrown tomatoes, the other day, and it turned out really well. Sounds like you had a lovely, relaxing day. Hope you have a good week ahead - I heard that it will be getting hot, again, next week. :)
DeleteYour towel renovation looks pretty. I did a similar thing last year with bath mats and some seam binding but my bath towels are getting thin and I actually bought a couple of new ones last week. The animal shelter is too far away to visit easily and I am pondering if there is some way I can use my old towels other than as rags.
ReplyDeleteWe had a visit from DS and family and I spent precious time in the river chatting with DGD while her parents walked on the beach.
Thank you, Bushlady. I am glad you bought some new towels to replace the worn ones. There's nothing quite like nice, thick, fluffy towels to make one feel pampered. :) I use some of my old towels to cover the sofa arms to keep cat fur off the sofas. Others are used for Dancer to lie on or as extra bath mats. Could you cut up the old towels to make kitchen towels? Or use them to line placemats? Maybe your neighbor could use them for her dog?
DeleteHow lovely that you were able to visit with DS and family and have a nice chat with your DGD. She's getting to be quite a young lady now, isn't she?
You have been very productive. I like days like that, when I set to and get all those little jobs finished that I've been putting off for so long. I usually find they never take as long as expected once I put my mind to it. I love the repair you've done to the towel, what a brilliant idea. It looks so pretty too.
ReplyDeleteI've continued with my decluttering and managed to fill two large bags for the charity shop last week. I've also started knitting a winter jumper for Lily. X
Thank you, Jules; I wish I can have a few more such days, just to get the household task under control. You are doing well with the decluttering, yourself! Looking forward to seeing Lily's sweater (jumper) when you are done knitting it! :)
DeleteYou did a good job fixing your towel. It is pretty with the decorative binding.
ReplyDeleteThe Mapo tofu dish looks very good. And it sounds nice and spicy which I like.
I do like tofu but I don't often cook with it. When I buy it I use it in smoothies.
I have an old camera that looks very similar to yours.
I haven't used it in years and seeing yours, makes me realize I should pass it on.
Thank you, Debra. :) The mapo tofu turned out well; I don't like tofu that much, myself, but, it was good! I have another even older camera! I used it back when we could get the film developed and prints made at places like Costco. I should donate that, too.
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