It's Time to Start Comparing

Today a new grocery store opened in town.  We didn't add another one (we have 2) but our Country Mart was bought out by King Cash Saver the end of last year.  Our other grocery store is a Save-A-Lot.  It was a no brainer before, SAL was much cheaper 99% of the time.  I needed tortillas for lunch so I went in to "check out" the new store.  WOW!  It looks nice and so different.  No more orange and green, it's now red and black.  They have a lot of new products and thankfully some that we could only get at Country Mart before.  I can't wait to go back when I have more time and really check it out better.  I did see a lot of organic and natural products on the shelves, which we didn't have much of a selection before.  I also seen some things that were cheaper than SAL.  The 2 that stuck out were bananas and milk, both of which we but weekly.  Time to make a price book again.  KCS is closer than SAL. It's only 2 1/2 blocks where SAL is a little over a mile.  KCS is open 6am to 10pm 7 days a week where SAL is only open 8am-8pm M-Sat and 8-6 Sunday.  I'd rather walk to KCS than SAL!  If you aren't familiar with KCS the best I can describe it is it looks like a cross between Food 4 Less and Save-A-Lot or Aldi's the way the store is set up.

Knotty Yarn

What a beautiful end to a busy day!  My pictures never look as good as the real thing.  Thus sunset was absolutely stunning!  It's rare that I even get to see them.  When I do and they are as pretty or prettier than this it makes them even more enjoyable.

After even more busy after the sunset (post coming soon on that) I sat down in my rocking chair, listened to KNVBC Radio online and took care of some knotty skeins of yarn.  I like balls better then skeins.  I don't mind sitting and rolling them and dealing with the knots most of the time.  Only when the knots are impossible, which isn't very often, do I not like it.  Do you like balls or skeins of yarn?

Thanks for stopping by!

Plarn

Sounds like a naughty word doesn't it?  LOL!  It's not a new concept to me but yet it is.  Plarn is plastic bag yarn.  One of the ladies in my crochet group has challenged us to make a sleeping mat for the homeless.  She has a mission or something like that that makes them and delivers them.  I'm not making a mat right now but I am making plarn!

I haven't counted how many bags I have cut up but I can say it's been 1 regular sized plastic grocery bag stuffed as full as I could get it without them falling out.  It took me most of the evening, with interruptions, to get 2 good sized balls.  They weighed about 2 1/4 ounces each.  That was quite a bit of work for those balls.  It's estimated to make a sleeping mat from the pattern the lady shared you need 500 to 700 grocery bags.

 Today I decided to re-roll my balls of plarn.  That way I can choose to have red/blue or orange/green.  I mostly have the red/blue because it's the grocery I shop at most.  The orange/green will probably just be with what I currently have because that grocery store was bought out the beginning of this year and is changing names and everything.  I'm guessing from seeing their logo that the bags will have red print on them.

Then there is also brown colored bags that we get when we shop at Dillons.  Family Dollar has yellow bags.  Neither of those stores I shop at very often though.  So my stash will probably just be red/blue.

I do have a brown, but's it a much heavier plastic bag.  It comes from our hot dog bun packages.  Right now I just have 3 bags, but there will be more.......

Thanks for stopping by!  Don't forget to leave a comment.

I Found More Yarn!

I know it's exciting isn't it?  I had started a new slouchy had using this Head Hugger pattern for my guide, but going off on my own with the size.  I discovered I didn't have anywhere near enough yarn for what I was trying to accomplish so I frogged it and made the rainbow scrunchies I posted about the other day.  I thought I had more of that yarn but I could't find it anywhere.  I can't remember now what I was looking for but I was like "hey check this out!"  It was stashed in a bag with a project (and wasn't being used) instead of in the yarn tote.  I'm glad I found it because I used it all up and most of what was left from the smaller ball I had.  I went ahead and made that slouchy hat....

Im calling it a "dread hat".  That was the intention for it.  I have had several comments on the hats I do have for sale that the "bag" needed to be bigger to accommodate big hair and dreads.  This "bag" can be worn tied closed or open on the bottom.  I think it turned out pretty cool.  I sure don't have enough hair to even begin claiming it for myself.  I would like to make more but they sure use a lot of yarn!

SO I weighed the project and it appears it used about 5 1/2 ounces of yarn.  I used the Redheart Mexicana yarn.  I love that yarn and always have!

Off to work on another project!  See ya tomorrow I hope.  Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave me a comment :-)

HHM

As I look outside my window:::
The ground was wet when I got up but it wasn't raining. I didn't hear any rain or thunder so it must have been a misty drizzle. The rest of the week looks good though.

 
Right now I am::: 
Sitting here typing this on the new iPad we got for the square pos system at the castle.  I'm trying to run the battery down. It's always plugged in and I know it's not good for the battery. Anyway besides that and taking care of customers I have a cuppa earl gray tea brewing 

Something funny from this past week:::
We've had a few nice days this past weekend which allowed me to open the window upstairs.  Fuzzy was super excited!  She sat in it for as long as I could see her when I walked back across the street anyway.

Currently Reading:::
"The Bridesmaid" by Beverly Lewis I finally renewed my Kansas Library Card and dan download e-books again from the "cloud library"  Almost finished with this one.  Over half way now :-)

On my to do list today:::

I've already gotten the incense soaking that I'm out of and there is no mail today so I don't need to pay bills.  Not sure if we will be going out of town tonight so I'm not really sure what we are going to do. I need to work on and finish up our tax stuff to get to our accountant. I have a slouchy hat to work on and there is always cleaning that can be done.

Today's Lunch:::

Most likely bologna sandwiches and chips

Preparing for Warm weather:::
It has still been warm/cold/warm/cold. More warm than cold now it looks like.  At least from the extended forecast.  Still just getting ideas on how to better prepare for summer this year.  How to stay cool is the main thought.



What I am crocheting:::

Still working on this slouchy.  I have started on the second ball of yarn for it.
From the camera:::

Something I Recently Made:::

I don't have a picture for you, but hubby made some amazing jalapeno cheddar bread this past week.  It was pretty amazing!

Praise/Prayer List:::
PRAISE, both hubby and I seem to be on the mend.  Hardly any coughing or congestion now.

Prayer My grandpa, he is 97 and still hanging in there.

Prayer My niece....still in foster care but in constant contact with family.

I'm joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom for HHM.  Go visit her and the rest of those who have joined in. 

Thank you for stopping by and visiting.

I Found Another Favorite

SO I was digging through stuff to get one of my ZOTE laundry bars to make more laundry soap the other day and I came across this Taste of Home cookbook from 1998.  I'd forgotten about it.  I've been enjoying looking through it and reading my notes on recipes.  I have found a few new recipes I want to try that I haven't made before.

Homemade Laundry

I have been doing laundry by hand for almost 2 months now.  Why? Well Our local laundromat has a lot of broken down machines and the owners, being older, aren't wanting to put a lot of money into fixing things, or so I have been told.  It makes it hard to get a machine sometimes, especially when someone else is there and washing a month's worth for a family.  I just asked nicely on a local facebook group how the community could help spruce up the place.  It turned into a bashing session of different people saying things about me and on and on.  Well one guy said "why not get a washboard and go down to the river".  So I took his advice, sorta.  I DO have a wonderwasher that I love love love, so technically not washing everything by hand.

2 T-shirts is a load and it struggles with washing a pair of jeans.  Therefore there are a few things I DO have to wash by hand.  You cant believe how dirty the clean clothes were!  I spent nearly 2 weeks rewashing them and washing real dirty clothes to get them clean.  They smelled awful too.  They didn't smell clean.  It didn't matter how much laundry soap I put in the washer.   For the most part I used Zote laundry soap when I started washing by hand.  That stuff is AMAZING!  I used a lot of [off brand] oxy cleaner too.  Some items I had to wash multiple times to get them clean.

Now a month and a half later, doing laundry is a bit easier.  So far I have been able to keep up with it.  I just do a little each night as there is drying room available.  Smaller non bulky items I wring out by hand.  What do I use to wring out the bugger things?  The wringer on our mop bucket.  It does a pretty good job.  Some day I want a spin dryer.  Something similar to THIS ONE.  It would make getting the water out of the clothes much easier and drying time much quicker.

Now for the laundry soap?  Well I still have store bought liquid that I use occasionally.  It only takes at the most half a teaspoon for a load.  I have noticed though, which I find odd, is sometimes it makes our clothes smell like smoke.  We are non smokers and we aren't around any fireplaces, etc.  What I DO like to use though, like I mentioned above, is Zote laundry bar soap.  I bought several bars a few years back because I was wanting to make homemade laundry soap, but never did.  I also got them for $1 each!  SO what I have been doing is shaving a bar of the laundry soap and adding 2 scoops of the [off brand] oxy cleaner to it.  It's Amazing and takes about 1/2 teaspoon per load.  With all the extra washing I did on the first bar, it has lasted a month and a half.  I'm expecting this batch to last a bit longer.  But still it cost me so little to make, it's not that big of a deal.  LOL!

I know there is more I could put in there, if I followed the recipes found on the web, but why?  I have soap and the oxy cleaner stuff.  Together they do the job and it satisfies me and hubby.  Also if there is a smell that you can describe as "clean" it's our hand washed clothes.  I don't need any artificial smell ingredients added to my laundry, it would just add to the cost too.  :-)