Frugal Is......

as Frugal Does...

and far too often, I cannot be accused of being the Poster Child for Frugality...

but I do try to balance my Desire for Pretty and Organized with my other two Desires: Greenness and Cheap (well, not really cheap necessarily because Cheap doesn't always equal Frugal...but in this case, Cheap was definitely the goal)...

so when I decided a week or so ago that I could not stand the Dirty Unloved Pack-Ratty Garage one hour longer*, I also decided that no way was I draggin' out to the Wal-Mart (that isn't my Real Name for Wal-Mart...just a Polite One) or Lowe's to buy paint when I have A Lot of It stored in the cabinets...

but I also didn't want to do a colour-block thing...like I originally contemplated doing to stretch the paint...

instead I grabbed my Pig Popcorn Can...that I dearly love...and sacrificed it in the name of Cheenness...(that is Cheap + Greenness...astound ya'll don't I?)...

to make a Big Ol' Batch of Ostentatiously Olive (hey...that's what I'm callin' it) paint...enough to paint the garage and then some...The recipe for Ostentatiously Olive is a big can of Nameless Yellow leftover from the previous owners (Good Lord at the paint those people left), an almost full canister of Tea Leaf and a full can of Herb Tea...
and a whole lotta mixin'....I almost dragged out the paddle attachment for DH's drill...but I had the unusual good sense to see that had D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R splattered written alllllll over it...I also realized that my Pledge to Reduce my tendency to cuss when D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R strikes ...and I'm home alone to clean it up by myself instead of feigning pain and needin' to Go Rest while DH gets Clean Up Detail (all though truly he generally just wants me to move outta the way)...would be greatly jeopardized if I attempted to paddle-drill stir that huge thing of paint...I'm hopin' we're going to finish this project up this week and then I'll post ya'll a nice photo or two...I can already say it looks so good out there...I painted the old cabinets too (Autumn Ridge...a nice warm orange) and we put up more shelving...and hauled stuff to Habitat...

and I'm going to surprise the Mr by painting his pegboard a soft Cafe Creme and then doin' that little outline-the-tools with a sharpie thing...or maybe I'll just Paint It , Count My Blessings and Call It Good...

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*part of that stems, ya'll see, from DH's Annoying Habit of Always Opening the Garage Door...and Leaving It Open...so ev'rybody and their granmas drivin' by can see the crappy lookin' garage...with its piles of stuff...the man opens that garage door whenever he can come up with the filmiest of you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me excuses reasons to open that dang door and leave it up....alllllll day long on the weekends if he can possibly get away with it...so now we just don't have to worry about that any more, do we? and see...I'm not just lyin' so I can have my way...

We're Poor and...

I didn't even know it*...

let me explain...

Our 12-year-old nephew spent this past weekend with us...

and when he wandered out onto our back deck where me and the Mr were discussing the cost, time and labor...and the cost...involved in the pergola we are putting up, Nephew quietly listened for a couple of minutes and when a break opened up in the conversation, he ever-so-politely enquired:

"instead of building a pergola why don't ya'll buy a dryer?"

[insert a long-ish pause as both myself and the husband ran that through our tired old brains...]

we have a dryer***...true, it is in the garage and Nephew hadn't been out there this trip...
but what prompted his well-intended remark was the line of clothes hung out to dry in the backyard...

and expounding even further...

many months ago, a friend on an Internet group remarked (or maybe linked to) about an article that said something along the lines that having a clothes line is an indicator of poverty...and I guess I never truly believed that...

I mean, after all, hanging clothes to dry is simple...a no-brainer...if you have the space**, then you hang your clothes to dry because it cuts so much energy consumption and it saves so much money on the electric bill...(unless you have a gas dryer...do they still make those? and I have no idea what the cost of that NG is these days)...how can you beat free and environmentally-friendly?

anyhoo...but differences in attitudes and beliefs came roaring home to me this past Saturday when the Innocent One assumed we put the clothes on the line because we didn't have a dryer like the Rest of Known Civilization...and because maybe we couldn't afford one...

not, because as we carefully explained, we're tryin' to consume less so that perhaps there will be something left of this world and its resources when he is our age...

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*or else we're just backwards and I have had my suspicions about that off and on again anyways...

**and when I had the pleasure of traipsing around Europe after 2 teen-age boys (son and his friend) one summer, I learned you can wash and hang clothes up to dry just about anywhere...I expect DS and his friend loved seein' my granny panties hanging all over the places...'bout as much as I loved seeing their boxers drip drying...but we survived with minimal scarring...

***note the unplugged, um, plug on the dryer...

Consider Me...

Tagged...

(by DaisyJen and Paula)....

Rules:
1. Link back to the person who tagged you [check]
2. Post these rules on your blog [check]
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself [aren't ya'll in for a treat]
4. Tag six random people at the end of your entry [I will try my best]
5. Let the six people know by leaving a comment on their blogs [ditto above]

Six UnImportant Things About Myself

1. I don't like Face Things in My House...let me explain that a little bit...I don't mind Ceramic Chickens or Stuffed Pigs (don't have one of those yet) or Vintage Landscapes...but there is something about Human Faces hangin' about the place that just kind of freak me out...whether cast or carved or painted, I can do without them...

2. Word Verification...ya'll know...where you have to type a word or gibberish sequence to post a comment on a blog...or try to get It Ain't Happenin' Tickets to James Taylor that don't involve just paying to sit in your car and listen to your own CD...I am awful with Word Verification...there are times I just give up and go away...those times usually involve being on the 4th or 5th attempt and deciding whatever I was doing wasn't all that important to begin with...

3. I am Mildly Superstitious...I knock wood, but I don't freak over a black cat in my path...unless I have to slam on the brakes to keep from squishing him...I love cameos but will not pursue winning an auction for mourning cameo...if I knock over the salt, I will toss some of my shoulder...but since I can never remember which shoulder it is supposed to be, I toss some over both my shoulders...

4. An unfinished dream makes me nervous...I try to go back to sleep to bring my dreams to a Happy Ending...

5. Ever met an Obnoxious Picture Straightener? You have now...

6. I'm not all that I want to be/believe I can be yet...but I'm hopin' to get there one of these days...my baser instincts for pie and cussin' keep getting in the way...

now, I'm going to see if there is any one left in blogland who hasn't been tagged and if I can find someone I'll post them...

Tagged are:

Timi (from A Girl Named Timi)

Julie (from Gingerbread Pumpkin)

Darla (from Bay Side to Mountain Side)

There...that is 3...that may be allllll I do....I'm feelin' self-indulgent and slacky today....

Where is That Fine Line When I Need It...

Thrifty or Spendthrifty, Green or NSG (Not-So-Green), Actively Helpful or Actively Hurtful... those are the questions that have been buzzin' about my mind for a while now...

the dilemma: I, like millions of other people, love to decorate our home...and then I love to tweak the decorating...and while this Coastal Georgia Gal is not keen on the fashion world's current obsession with layerin' (Hot does not begin to apply to Coastal Georgia in July or August...sometimes September...Volcanic Super Hot or Broiling On the Surface of the Sun Hot might begin to address how hot it can become around here...Volcanic Hot plus an Extra 25 lbs of Fat do not add up to layering clothing), I do loves to layer stuff upon stuff in the house...that means I add more stuff to the stuff already in place...even if I have to move stuff outta the way to add more stuff...

I also love to rescue beings and things...not so much humans...I probably won't drag them home offa the curbside...well, if Brendan Fraser were hangin' out by the dumpster, I might invite him over to have some coffee and lounge in the Adirondacks for a bit...but only if he'd agree to help weed the garden...and play with the EBB...

that is the big lead-up to I tend to haunt second-hand shops...or thrift shops, whichever you prefer...and I tend to spend some $ there...

not tons of it...just a bit here, a bit there...

for a while [read=several years] I have patted myself (figuratively...I do not do Yoga...and did I mention I'm 43...and 25 lbs overweight?) on the back that not only was I wisely shopping to adorn the home place but I was also contributing to what I have designated as Second-Tier Retail...buying from thrift shops does not, to my knowledge, put money in the pockets of manufacturers who high-tailed it overseas so their products could be made for pennies with little-to-no repercussions for environmental pollution, hazardous working conditions and, natch, poverty wages...

but a bulb has began to, albeit feebly, flicker on and on in my cobwebby mind...

even if I'm supporting second-tier retailers (and I made that term up on my own...don't go expecting any real economist to understand what that means...or maybe it really does mean something besides what I decided it means), even if I'm keeping stuff out of the landfills and even if I'm stretching our dollars, those poor weakened things, further than shopping at HomeGoods (which, BTW, is simply hypnotic for me) or one of her sister stores...

what would happen if I didn't buy those necessary unnecessities? how 'bout if I only bought half of those frivolous things?

how much "stuff" do I need? and I use "I" because, and trust me on this one, the Husband could not care less...he appreciates "stuff" that hums and beeps and moves...or chops and burns and so on...but he truly does not care 1) what colour the walls are (he will give an opinion if pressed...and I have always regretted when I've pressed...see Blue Cave Room post) 2) he truly does not care what dishes we eat our food from and 3) he truly does not care if we have the Butt Ugliest Couch in the World...

and more importantly...if I were to not spend so much $ in the thrift shops, then what would that money be available to do...*

...my knee-jerk reaction says "Save that Money Because Hard Times They A Comin'"...and saving is important...and we have managed to save up some change...(not enough to quieten down my Hide in the Bomb Shelter with 500 Cans of Beans personality but I'm workin' on it)

...but lately I've begun to feel that Just Not Spending It is not enough of an answer...

lack of action is not always a positive action...the absence of doing harm is not doing good...at least not in my opinion...

don't get me wrong...I believe having "things" about us that we love is just part of our nature...we're kind of like crows...we likes the shiny pretties...and just don't even get me started on how that side of our personalities is pandered to and exploited by so many entities in our society...LOL...we could be here a long long time...

but you know what? another side of me is that I find it very hard to self-regulate...I mean, I will follow the rules in the workplace, at school, or at church (if we ever find one)...and I am the Keeper of the Board Game Rules (which is why almost no one will play board games with me)...but, evidenced by my 25 extra pounds which I've just decided to name "Bianca" and claim on my next year's taxes as a dependent, I do struggle with saying No to things I enjoy...and I think Big Sellers of Lots of Things sort of depend on that aspect our personalities too...

how long is this rant post?

(I'm windin' down...mostly because I need to excuse myself because I drank a lot of that second cup of coffee(and therein lies yet another stick to beat myself up with...the whole deforestation of the rainforest thing vs the cost of fairtrade coffee...I'm seriously considering just abandoning it all the way 'round)...and because I'm feelin' "Snacky"...and my feet are cold because I have no socks on...)

and exactly what is her point? [feel free to insert your own exasperated teeth sucking noise here]

I don't really know...I'm just floundering about here tryin' to find some direction...my putting these feelings/thoughts into writing, printing them out and then staple-gunning them to the debit card might help strengthen my resolve to not just spend less and more thoughtfully when I do but to let go of my fear and let go of some of our money to people who need it more than I need yet another wonderful antique treasure some fool gave away...hah hah hah...it is allllll mine thing to take up the space around here**...tryin' to build some type of solid idea of When is Enough Enough so I don't have to agonize over every little purchase that doesn't involve TP (and trust me...heard the arguments...not givin' up the TP)...

Just another rudderless Conscience Debacle floatin' around Cyberspace...any Wise Thoughts greatly appreciated...

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Did ya'll see that Byer's Choice Caroler leanin' against the back of the chair? 99 cents at the GW...can you stand it?

*and I do get that there are things that are requirements for alll except the barest bravest and toughest of us...all I'm sayin' is I'm going to fight my penchant for collecting Sets of Dishes...and Pig stuff (did ya'll see that cute little pig toothpick holder in the pix? 10 cents...and, of course, I don't have toothpicks)...and Rooster Stuff...and old Cookie Cutters...

but I cannot promise to fight off my book-buying habit...and I have a strange attraction to fabric...especially toile-ish fabric...God Help Me (seriously because it will only be His intervention that keeps me from whippin' out the checkbook...forget the debit card...take too long to remove all those staples) if I come across a Toile Pig...or Toile Pig Dishes...especially Brown & White Toile Pig Dishes...with a Free Copper Rooster Weathervane...

**we do already regularly contribute to 3 charities...but I know they can always use more money...

What Are They?

Back towards the woods, we have a Big Swamp bit of a boggy area...along with a little clear stream...well, what with havin' several dogs that love nothing better than running/rolling/digging in dirt and mud, that area has become off-limits to the four-legged children...well, maybe they love animal crackers better than that...but only if it hasn't been raining for 40 days and 40 nights...if the rain is present, then they much more love gettin' filthy and trackin' into my kitchen...

we fenced it off with cattle wire so I'm not often back there...but I've been tuckin' in some things here and there...plants that like moisture and a good bit of shade...

but before I show you a Big Surprise (well, if you're a gardener...and if you live in the Lower or Coastal South) there are few things I'd like to ask ya'll about...

first...is this a white trout lily? I noticed these for the first time this year...

next...is this just a Big Ol' Weed? I hope not...I think it is lovely...and what type of fern is this? I know nothing about ferns...and not much about native plants although I'm tryin' hard to learn about and plant natives when possible...

however...having said that about the native plantings and all...here is My Big Garden Surprise...

Guess what sweet darlin' plant she is (little hint given in the wording of that sentence)...I know...hard to tell with that washed out crummy photo...my 6-month sabbatical from blogging was obviously not spent learning how to take better pixs...

another hint...if you live below, say, Macon, Georgia or Dublin, Georgia...or really even in those places, you'd never think you could grow this species of plant...maybe with a ton of extra work...

anyhoo...I spotted her at GSU's Botanical Garden spring plant sale last year and thought they'd just lost their minds...but decided I would try to grow this plant...because I've always wanted to grow ______s but simply thought the climate made that a pipe dream...

[VeryBigGrin]

okay...that is a Lilac...I know...I didn't believe it either...a Miss Kim lilac*, to be exact...and can you stand it? She is just bloomin' away...and the scent...well, the scent is everything I dreamed a lilac would smell like...

like the first time you step into a warm southern night and smell wisteria...and understand what all those old-timey writers go on and on about in their quaint novels...

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*note the zones listed for Miss Kim on the nursery website...I know**...

**I always feel a little like Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail when I say I know...

Frugal Alert...$5 Magazine Subscriptions

not a big post...just a Heads Up...

if you go to Countryliving.com to enter their Pay Off Your Mortgage Sweepstakes, you can enter without subscribing to the magazine (look for the linky)...after you enter, you get a page offering a $5 subscription to House Beautiful (one of the few I still subscribe to) and/or a $5 to Good Housekeeping...

if you to Housebeautiful.com and enter their Dare to Dream contest, you can enter that contest without subscribing (again, look for the linky)...after you enter, you get a page offering a $5 subscription to, you guessed it, Country Living and/or a $5 subscription to O! at Home...

I had to get me one of those $5 Country Living subbies...and I seriously hopin' to win at least one of those contests...as if...

The Curtain Saga Continues...

The Altered Valance...sounds a little painful, doesn't it? and yes, it is toooooo small for the the window...and it was toooooo small when the room was Cave Blue...but I didn't really care because I rarely ventured in...

but if you squint you may be able to see the little O-rings with clips hanging on the end...waiting for Ta-Dah...toile curtain panels...I had this toile in my fabric stash...love it...and the blue is pretty darn close to the blue of the valance...
this is the aggrieved Mungo Mungo...who is cheesed because he had to wear this e-collar...because he developed a little crazy called Pull Out My Hair...but he's better now...or at least he hides his hair-pulling activity a little better...there is probably some new behaviour disorder about to bust out that'll make me long for the hair/e-collar days...
and here is the toile curing in the dryer ...you have to cure fabric before stitchin' it up, right? I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere...I think maybe by summertime it ought to be "done" and ready to be ironed...

there are yards of this stuff...and I do hate ironing...and I'd actually like to add a wide blue grosgrain border...

did I mention I hate ironing? and as for my sewing machine...well, ya'll, let's just say only its price tag has kept it from being flung out onto the front lawn after our last go-round over curtains...

there is a wide streak of trash in me when I get worked up...

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Big Ol' Disclaimer: I realized after I posted that what I should have said (because it is T-R-U-E) is that I hate blue walls in my home...love them just fine in other people's homes...kind of like Magnolia Trees, Wisteria and Rowdy Children...love 'em just fine when they live on someone else's property...

...but then I get to go home...

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oh...and the waverly curtain o-ring clip thingamabobs came from GW for 99 cents...and the fabric came from a great little antique shop in Metter, Georgia, for $10...for the whole bolt practically...I do love being able to dress Number 17 on a tiny budget...

now if we could just get some good Curbside Shopping in our town...

Adapting...

Our 4th bedroom recently gave up not only its designation as DH's office...but, thankyoumercifulsaintsabove, also the dark blue paint on its wall...the dark blue paint that contributed to the Room With Only 1 North-Facing Window being somewhat cave-like...extremely cave-like...hole-like...rat-hole-like...

DH wanted blue...I (don't get all tensed up) hate blue walls...I just do...can't explain it...although it may have something to do with that Near Death Experience at Tybee Island beach...a rather large woman sort of body surfed over my 5-year-old self...

of course, now being a Rather Large Woman myself I completely get how that could have happened but at the time I just thought I was a goner...

any-hoo...DH built himself a nice new office with a nice bright window and so the 4th bedroom-cum-office has cum-bedroom again...and the dark blue paint had to go...

that blue paint, BTW, smelled so horribly that we thought something crawled into the wall or attic above the room and died a s-l-o-w lingering exceedingly foul death...I feel sure if I get nose cancer in the future it will have stemmed from having to live with that G-Awful smell for a month or so...

we seriously considered taking all of the Sheetrock out...

but after the Rotten Fish Smelling Dark Blue Cave Paint was gone, I realized the thrifted valance was going to look a little odd in the Herb Green room...hey...I'm nothin' if not Sharp as a Tack...

so...time for Valance Surgery...because nothing irritates me more, financially speaking, than buying something from a thrift store and ending up giving it back...well, family members who bum money and don't repay irritates me more than that...and sales tax on automobiles...that irritates me a lot too...but only marginally more than the thrift shop thing*...

that's right...I'm removing the plaid welting that trims out the pretty blue-and-white fabric...the backside of the valance is the same plaid but if I can't see it, well, we'll call it good and move along...

as soon as DH returns home and finds where he stashed the screws to mount the brackets for the curtain rod, I'll post a pix...(unless it just looks T-A-C-K-Y...then I'll just make up some outrageous lie about the valance being stolen by squirrels...)

I know...frugal and a thrill a minute...

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*actually, a whole lotta things irritate me but it is usually what is closest to the end of my nose at the moment that is going to get the largest portion of my Irritation Stick...

Those Stinkin' Fine Lines...

no, not the ones creeping in around my eyes...that subject is still listed in the Almost Complete State of Denial category...(and we do not discuss the Crepe Neck Thing)

no, I'm talking about those fine lines, or not so fine lines, we all have to negotiate with ourselves each and every day...

each car trip has become a conversation with myself about Global Warming, Peak Oil and, of course, the freakin' Cost of Gas...

each grocery store purchase has all of the above in the conversation as well as Eat Locally, Organic Farming, Excessive Packaging and Did I Remember the Cloth Bags...

even a trip to the plant nursery which should be an exercise only in Beauty and Tenderness Towards Mother Nature not only involves GW, PO, CoG for transportation of plants to the site but also considering what fertilizers are used to force plants into premature but lovely bloom and the run-off into our water sheds as well as who is working those large nursery fields/greenhouses--

and don't even get me started about the crisis of conscience I go through when I want to buy something totally discretionary like a book (or, God Forbid, a magazine...especially my beloved British Country Living which flies across the Atlantic wreakin' allllll sorts of environmental damage...and, yes, I'm givin' it up...except the Christmas Issue...and maybe the November Issue..well, maybe just the Fall Issues), my beloved white button-downs...and, gasp, make-up...

I managed to ignore that little niggling guilt I felt about havin' my granny's solitaires put into modern white gold settings...and then I read in Affluenza about how 600 tons of raw material are required to generate a ring setting...

H-O-L-Y C-R-A-P...I hope I read that wrong...

Long Time No See...

I've been such a slacker...See, I got a Real Job...and I'm just not one of those talented women who can do it all...especially after 5 years outta the Work for Pay arena...but now I don't have a job...no, I didn't get sacked...I quit after the 3-days a week job turned into 5-and-6-days a week job...

Loved most of the people...I guess my 43-year-old self had too much of a Shock to the System going from Completely at Home to Hardly Ever at Home and Too Tired to Do Much of Anything When at Home...

ah well...

A few new pets, a few new projects...pretty much the same things that happen in all of our lives...

Introducing Evil Bun-Bun...seriously...now I know why he was alllll by himself at the feed store...he killed off his cage mates...

and seriously...now I know why people (me) do not believe rabbits are easy low-maintenance pets...and why other people (my husband) try to talk said feed store into swapping out said Evil Bun-Bun for a few little chickens...

the clerk laughed...in his face...

Dearie, the black cat in the photograph, despises EBB...EBB passionately loves Dearie...

Dearie climbs onto the desk to get away from EBB...EBB climbs onto the desk chair to sit and stare at Dearie...

for hours...

Good to be back...I've been reading ya'lls blogs for about a month or so now trying to catch up...which is hopeless...ya'll are some Blogging People...