Frugal Greeting Cards

December 5, 2019 ~ Fawn ~ 16 Comments

My stash of home-made cards was getting pretty low, but I have been waiting to make more. The librarian at our local library told me that she clears out the circulating magazines at the end of the year and they are offered first come, first served to the general public. She even offered to reserve a few for me!

I requested two copies of these three titles, because I thought they would have good pictures.

And they did not disappoint! I cut out any photo or illustration that appealed to me. I had purchased a package of 25 blank note cards with envelopes from the local craft store. They were on sale for $5 USD. Based on the size of the note cards, I created a cardboard template from a empty cereal box. I used the template to crop and frame the pictures I liked in a way that appealed to me.

I just move the template around until I have an interesting frame of the image and I mark inside the template with a pen.

Here you can see my template marks, ready for cutting.

Most of the cards are made from a single cropped image, but a few are collages, like this one.

26 varied, beautiful, handmade cards created for 20 cents each! Honestly, I like these way better than what I can find in the shops.

I did not make these cards today, but the exact same process applies to making holiday cards.

Any two dimensional image can be used. For past cards I have used antique photos, old calendars, used greeting cards, magazines, interesting tags that came on purchased clothing, parts of a playbill, a politically incorrect children’s book that the library was giving away.

I have a file folder where I collect interesting images for this purpose. When I have enough, I buy the blank note cards and get busy!

A Few Things I’m Grateful for This Thanksgiving

November 30, 2019 ~ Fawn ~ 11 Comments

We had some high winds Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, and when we woke Wednesday morning, we were greeted to this tree crashed down onto what is my usual parking spot. I’m ever so grateful that I parked in a different spot when we got home from the movie Tuesday night.

Half of the flatware and plates in this photo are borrowed.

I hosted a dinner at our apartment Wednesday evening for my children and their families/partners. Due to my minimalism and recent multiple moves, I did not have enough plates and flatware for 8 people, but I was easily able to borrow the needed items. No less than three people offered to loan me plates and flatware for the event.

(And by the time dinner was served, the electric company had cut down the tree hanging on the power lines and another crew came and hiked the electrical cords back up to their normal, safe height.)

All of my kids and their families/partners were able to attend the large family gathering this year, which is the thing for which I am most grateful.

Dear readers: I would love for you to share in the comments what you are thankful for this year. International readers, please chime in also. Surely, gratitude is not confined to federal holidays.

Bathroom Tile Project

November 24, 2019 ~ Fawn ~ 10 Comments

Sloppy painting, sloppy caulking and dirt have been accumulating for some time.

From the moment that I moved into this apartment last February the grime and careless workmanship of the tile repair bothered me. I knew that tackling the tile and grout was going to be an intensive task. I undertook some easier ones elsewhere in the apartment first, so that I could have some success under my belt before I took this on.

It turns out some of those tiles were only being held up with paint and edge caulk.

And it got worse before it got better. I scraped out the filthy grout before gluing the cleaned tiles back in place.

Loose tiles all over the place…

…got cleaned before they were glued back on.

After the glue set, I laid down fresh grout.

And the corner that set me off–

Before

After

Christmas Wrap

November 14, 2019 ~ Fawn ~ 9 Comments

The ladybug came off a bar of soap I bought. I have been saving it all year just for this application.

I know it seems a bit early for a post about wrapping Christmas gifts, but my family is travelling here for Thanksgiving and I won’t see many of them near the Christmas holiday. We have developed a family tradition of sending the wrapped gifts home with each other when we gather at Thanksgiving to save on shipping costs.

I use the same paper for gifts all year long. I just dress it up differently according to the occasion. I bought this large roll of cream drawing paper at IKEA from the children’s section. Here. I’ve been working on this roll for a couple years. The brown paper is reused from a framing job I had done. The gift tags were all cut from an 87 cent piece of cardstock. I’m still working through a large stash of ribbons and string that my mom collected over decades and passed on to me. I usually color on the gift tags in colors that coordinate with my ribbon or string.

I think the pile of presents makes a charming vignette in the corner for now.

My cost this year was just the cardstock. Everything else I had on hand. The paper can be reused and recycled. The fabric string and ribbon can be reused and composted.

Clean Threshold

November 10, 2019 ~ Fawn ~ 5 Comments

Beloved Readers-

I realized this is the second kind of lame post in a row. The bathroom tile/grouting project is time consuming and I can really only work on it when my son is visiting at his dad’s because there is no second bathroom to use while work is underway.

In the meantime, I amuse myself with small projects I can knock off in an hour our two. Here is one from this past week.

Here is the threshold to our apartment with decades of grime in the crevasses.

All that took was a bit of vinegar, a toothbrush and some elbow grease.

And it makes me happy every time I cross the threshold.

PS. I did not get the house that I made the offer on, so back to the property search.

Butternut Squash Soup

November 3, 2019 ~ Fawn ~ 12 Comments

I used a whole chopped onion and 2 tablespoons of butter, because that is how I roll.

Things that are on the horizon, but not yet complete: the cleaning and re-grouting of the bathroom tiles, the acceptance/rejection of the offer on the hot mess net-zero house, a minimalist remodel of the apartment living room (whaaat? who puts that kind of effort into a rental?)

And this really is my new favorite soup.

Why There Is No Blog Post This Week

October 27, 2019 ~ Fawn ~ 10 Comments

Well, okay, there is this….but there is no real content.

That is because I have been busily working behind the scenes to create content. Like the cleaning/repair/re-grouting of the bathroom tiles. I have devoted a couple days to this project and will likely need one more before it is done. And I so wanted to wait until I had Pinterest worthy before and after photos. They are soooo satisfying.

One of the other big things I did this week was put in an offer of a hot mess of a house. It hasn’t been condemned, per se. But the city basically told the owner to either fix these structurally unsound things or sell off. And they decided to sell off.

Southern exposure–one and a half stories of solar gain!

Here in one photo, you can see all that attracted me to the property–the collapsing deck and stair, the defunct hot tub, the cheap, disintegrating siding, the native species weeds in the back yard.

What really attracted me was the location in a walkable city, in a market that has been increasing in value in recent years, the above mentioned one and a half stories of southern exposure, a highly rated school district and the price, which was set to ensure the interest of rehab flippers.

And one of those flippers may get the property. So for now, I wait, and rest up….because if my offer on the property is accepted, I will be working hard to gut/rehab it for several months.

Just think how many blog posts I can get out of this wreck of a house!