What? You’re not impressed?

My husband wasn’t either – until I told him they were free!

You still might question what possessed me to bring home some mostly dead plants – even if they are free.

I’m so glad you asked!

First of all – they’re perennials. That means that they will come back year after year from the roots.

These have already blossomed for the year and have died back – leaving behind seed pods full of seeds – which is the second reason I grabbed them.

So not only can I plant the roots, I can harvest those seed pods and plant them as well.

And plant them I will – all of them!

My plan is to plant some of them in my flower garden, and the rest of them – and all the seeds I can gather – will be planted and sprinkled into the deep ditch in the front of the house.

This ditch is too deep to be mowed safely, so I’ve been trying to get wildflowers started in it. Ideally – the plants will naturalize and I will have my own beautiful wildflower garden.

But for now – I am thrilled with my free plants!

Sometimes a little knowledge can  turn what others see as trash into a real treasure!

I’ve linked this post up with Works For Wednesday over at We Are That Family.

These nasty little buggers are hard to catch. You can’t swat them – they move too fast. Since I couldn’t get them with brawn – it was gonna take some brain.

So I googled fruit fly trap.

Oh my the things I learned! Did you know that fruit flies can lay up to 500 eggs at one time?! Yikes!

One site even told me hold to make my own fruit fly farm so I could watch the entire life cycle through a 2 liter pop bottle! Oh joys! I think I’ll pass on that one.

I did find several do-it-yourself type traps designed to catch the little varmints and decided to try a couple different designs.

Design one – an old canning jar with apple cider vinegar and some ripe bananas as bait and a cone made from paper inserted in the jar. The theory is the flies can get in, attracted to the smell, but can’t get back out.

(Please notice the beautiful scalloped edge on the top of the cone! Would you believe I planned it that way? I didn’t think so. Actually – the only scissors I could find were Angel Girl’s pretty edging ones.  Nothing’s too good for my fruit fly trap! Maybe I should add a decorative ribbon – say – a bright yellow?!)

The second model is also a canning jar with apple cider vinegar and bananas, but this one has a piece of plastic wrap stretched over it and secured by a rubber band. It also has small pin holes pricked in the plastic.

So far – they are both working.  When I get a few fruit flies, I throw the whole thing in the freezer for about 30 minutes. It kills those critters dead. <insert evil laughter>

Then I sit it back out on the counter and attract some more.

Take that you pesky varmints!

For a few hours on Friday evening we were all held captive by the love story of my radiant niece and her prince charming.

Through-out the ceremony and the reception I heard many comments on how beautiful everything was – and how delicious the food was.

I just smiled.

I knew that my very frugal sister had worked very hard to create all that beauty and deliciousness – all on a budget.

My amazing mom (you all know her as Nana), with the help of my sister and niece, made all seven of the bridesmaid dresses, and the wedding gown.

Instead of renting tuxes for all seven of the groomsmen, my mom made matching blue vests and silver ties for them to wear with their own black pants, black shoes and white dress shirts.

The attendants, wearing all that beautiful blue and silver, were all the decorations needed to bring color to the front of the church.

The couple had friends provide the music – which was wonderful! They also spent a lot of time planning the ceremony itself – making it meaningful and personal.

For the reception, my sister turned a barn-like room into a romantic and almost intimate space using borrowed tablecloths, candles and twinkle lights. Never underestimate the power of twinkle lights and candles!

For table skirting, she bought twin size white sheets at Wal-Mart for $4 a sheet, cut them in half and pleated them right on the tables using masking tape to hold them. She used a borrowed tablecloth to cover the top of the table – including the masking table.

Then there was the food! My niece and my sister put in lots of hours to make everything from scratch. My sister made hundreds of homemade rolls, and gallons of pulled pork that was served with barbecue sauce on the side.

They hosted a “potato party” and several of their friends came to help them peel, cook and mash hundreds of potatoes to make make-ahead mashed potatoes. They doctored them up a little with cheddar cheese and toasted garlic before being placed in aluminum foil pans and frozen – ready to be baked for the reception.

They did buy prepackaged salads to save time – but added a fancy dressing and croutons to dress it up.

The kitchen help was made up of friends from church who volunteered to help make their day special.

I can’t forget the cake! My niece worked for several years at a high-end bakery that is famous for it’s decadent desserts. The owners made the cake for her – free of charge.

It was luscious! As one of the cake cutters, I stood there for an hour and cut pieces of the three different flavors – decadent chocolate, raspberry vanilla and caramel.

All those layers of ganache!

I so wanted to lick my fingers!

It really was a beautiful wedding.  The sanctuary was filled with love – the food and the wedding garments were made with love – and the couple was celebrated with love.

Isn’t that what it’s all about?

You might remember that my niece is getting married – and since we haven’t had a wedding in the family since my little sister’s (which was about 17 years ago) – this is big stuff!

Normally – I’m a cotton skirt and blouse kind of gal – but I like to have a nice dress for those few occasions – like weddings – that call for them.

The only problem is – the last time I needed to dress up I was several sizes bigger than I am right now.

So it was time for a new dress.

Easier said than done.

I started my hunt at my favorite thrift stores because I am basically cheap and can’t imagine spending full price for a dress that I will wear just a few times. I could feed my family of seven for a week on what some of those dresses cost!

But I found there wasn’t much selection in my size – or any size.

One looked like something my Grandma would wear.

My niece said another looked like an Easter basket.

One was such a slinky material that my behind jiggled when I walked. I know this for a fact because my sister said so! I love you B!

I tried 2 dresses on at the Nifty Thrifty. Silly me. I’m not really sure what I was thinking – they were sheath-like dresses that really tall and skinny people wear. (I am neither – I have lots of curves – especially where I sit!). I got one over my head and it got stuck. Really stuck.

I’m claustrophobic and went into a near panic because I couldn’t get it to move. I debated on whether to call out to my husband to rescue me – which would have caused quite a scene! Or just get the scissors out of my purse and cut myself out – then I would buy the dress and try to explain to my husband on the way home.

I did neither. I took a deep breath and with a little more wiggling I got the dress off. No. more. sheaths. No. more.

I figured my best bet was The 17th Street Consignment Store. But after looking through the dress racks t least 5 times, I had come up short. I tried 3 dresses on. Although I didn’t get stuck, they still didn’t work.

One showed too much cleavage.

The print of another was just way too loud.

And the third one was to tight in all the wrong places. It screamed “Hello – this woman loves mashed potatoes with butter!”

I was on my way out the door empty-handed when I saw it.

It was on display in the front of the store in plain sight. How had I missed it before?!

I fingered the material and checked the size.

My husband – who was trying to hurry me out the door – saw me and said, “Go ahead and try it on – I’ll wait.”

Seriously. He said that.

So I tried it on.

It fit.

I turned around in front of the mirrors – not bad. The color was nice – not to muted and not to bold. It was fitted, but not too tight.

I stepped out of the dressing room to see what Jan thought. He smiled. The lady behind the counter smiled and said it looked good. She also added that it was a very expensive dress – from Coldwater Creek no less!

And the price was just $10.

Sold.

But wait – there’s more!

Since this was a consignment store and the last time we visited I had left several boxes of things to consign – we had $15 of credit waiting for us.

I not only got the dress for free – they actually paid me $5 to buy it!:)

It was a happy day people, a happy day!

One of the things on that list was to hit a few thrift stores for those last minute additions to the kid’s suitcases for their week away – a couple of t-shirts, some shorts, and a couple pair of capris.

Dagmar and I headed to Grant City to check out our favorite one there, arriving soon after they opened the doors for the day.

We had just started our search through the racks when an older lady came in carrying a sack and looking a bit frantic.

“Dorothy!” she said, “Have you sold that bag of clothes I brought in before?”

Dorothy (the lady working that afternoon) replied, “No, I don’t think so – I think they’re still sorting it out in the back – why?”

“Wilbur put the wrong bag in the car!” (She held out the bag she was carrying) “We brought home all the clothes that didn’t fit and donated  the bag with his best clothes in it! He tried to put his pants on this morning and he could barely close them!” our frantic woman said as she moved quickly through the store to the back room.

I was still speechless with surprise over this outburst, when, just a few minutes later an older gentleman came in slowly wearing some very tight pants, his rather large tummy hanging over the waistband.

Poor guy could hardly breath – it had to be Wilbur.

Dorothy just pointed to the back room, smiling.

We could all hear the excited voices of his wife – the frantic woman – as she feverishly pawed through the donated bags in the back room.

We all heard her shouts of joy when the lost bag was recovered.

We all watched her triumphant exit from the thrift store with the correct bag in hand – followed rather slowly by her husband Wilbur who still looked as though a deep breath would burst a seam.

Then and only then did I laugh.

Within a 48 hour period in 2 different Goodwill stores in 2 different states – my daughter bought these 2 very different shoes.

One is a pretty and quite feminine pair of black heels.

The other is a clunky pair of insulated army boots.

And she loves them both!

I’m glad that she is comfortable as a pretty princess in pumps and as a tomboy keeping up with her brothers on the snowy trails.

I hope she never outgrows either one!

But I’m even more glad that she is comfortable – and even excited – to go shopping at a thrift store.

She’s not only a pretty princess and a tomboy – but she’s also a treasure hunter!

Valentine’s Day just happens to be one of my favorites!

Somewhere around baby number three we realized that finding a sitter and heading out to eat on Valentine’s Day was more expensive and stressful then it was worth.

So I made a special meal for the entire family – and served it by candlelight.

A tradition was born.

This year was no exception! But since we had a church activity on Valentine’s day – we celebrated early.  Dagmar was our chef for the evening and decorated the table with candles and napkins.

It is amazing how beautiful 25 cent silk flowers from the thrift store look in candlelight! It’s also amazing how candlelight covers up the baskets of unfolded laundry, the piles of toys, and the school books that never got put away!

Notice the napkins? Over twelve years ago I bought some nice red cotton material, cut it into napkins and hemmed them up. We’ve used them for Christmas and Valentine’s Day ever since!

The menu varies somewhat from year to year – but always includes red jello with Cool Whip. This year Dagmar got fancy with a heart mold and conversation hearts!

An Italian dish – like cavatini or lasagna is almost always our main dish. This year it was a yummy sausage lasagna! She added a lettuce salad and freshly baked baguettes. We filled our garage sale stemmed glasses with pink lemonade to drink.

Dessert is always cream puffs – always!

They are filled with French vanilla cream and topped with chocolate ganache.  Yummy! This year we fancied up the plates a little with Smucker’s raspberry plate-scapers.

There is usually a card or two to open, maybe a small gift or chocolate treat.

It’s a simple, but very special way to celebrate with my Valentine’s.

What better way to say “I Love You” then with food!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow the left-over’s got out of control. I had lots of  little containers full of little bits of stuff.

It was time to be creative.

Buddy was my “sous chef” for supper – and he loves thinking outside the box! Normally he comes up with all sorts of wild ideas and I remind him to stick to the recipe.

But not tonight!

He grabbed different things from the fridge and together we figured out somewhere to use it!

He used up some of the extra milk we got on sale to make his favorite pudding. We put that in parfait glasses. Then he did a layer using the dibby-dab of cream cheese mixed with the chocolate ganache that I had hidden in the back of the fridge. He topped it with the last of the whipped cream from the dessert the other night.

Then he found two graham crackers in the cupboard and crushed them on to sprinkle on top. I grabbed the last two tablespoons of crushed walnuts that were in the freezer and added them to the crumbs.

Dessert was done, now it was time for the main dish.

We started with the left-over chicken and cream sauce.

I dug out the chicken and cut in up. Meanwhile, Buddy found some left-over turkey, some gravy, part of a container of mozzarella cheese, a bit of left-over onion dip, and some cold buttered noodles.

Perfect!

We cooked up the two odd packages of pasta that were open in the pantry. Mixed the whole thing together with the left-over cream sauce and added enough milk to coat everything.

I was just pouring into a casserole dish when buddy discovered a small container of crushed saltines.

We tossed them with a little Parmesan cheese and sprinkled the whole works on top.

It baked for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees and we had a one-of-a-kind delicious casserole – almost entirely of left-overs!

Don’t you just love an (almost) free meal!

Picture by Luigi Chiesa

I love turning something apparently useless into something wonderful…

…like chicken bones.

Last night Angel Girl and I made a chicken pasta dish for supper. After I had cut the raw chicken off the bones, I noticed that there was still some meat left on them.

Instead of throwing them out – I dumped the bones and skin into the crock pot and covered them with water.

I threw in a skinned and halved onion,  some celery, and a scrubbed carrot (cut in chunks).

Then I added a few peppercorns, some dried sage, parsley and thyme.

I turned the crock pot on low and forgot about it.

This morning I had a rich dark chicken broth waiting for me!

I drained the broth and refrigerated it.

The bones and vegetables went to the chickens since they had given up their lives for the sake of the broth and had no flavor left.

The fat will rise to the top of the broth as it cools and can be easily taken off and thrown away.

Now I have a nice broth to use in a soup, or in any recipe that calls for chicken broth.

It’s a good feeling to use up even the scraps – although I may never attain to Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s high standards…

“Anne’s a good housekeeper…I’ve looked into her bread box and her scrap pail. I always judge a housekeeper by those, that’s what. There’s nothing in the pail that shouldn’t have been thrown away and no stale bread in the bread box…”

Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery

The hubby and I loaded up our passel of young’uns and headed for the big city the other day.

Ya’ll know the big city? It’s the one with traffic lights and more lanes of traffic than I have lines on my clothesline.

We aren’t like most folks who head right to the mall when they hit town. No – we drove right on past it and stopped at Goodwill. Figured some other silly person can pay full price, wear it 6 months and donate it. Then we’d buy it for a few bucks.

Works real well.

We also hit the DAV and came away with real nice camo jackets for the whole crew, even found camo hats for a few of them.  We’ll be styling this fall!

Then we headed off to find us some vittles. There were lots of fancy eating places – but we kept driving until we saw Arby’s . The sign said 5 regular roast beef sandwiches for just $5. Now that’s our idea of good eating!

After a stop at the Arctic Cat dealer and a scenic drive we finished our day at Sam’s Club were we had a mid-afternoon snack of free samples.

And that’s what happens when the country folk hit the big city – some might call us cheap, but I think it’s just frugal family fun.

Photo by Leon7 / Wikipedia Commons