Shower Curtain Pillows

I hope those of you who’ve seen this already don’t mind a bit of a rerun.  I’m reposting part of an old post for today’s pillow challenge at the CSI project.

Back in the summer I whipped up some pillows for my living room.  The area rug in that room is green, and so I wanted to carry that through to the accent pillows for the sectional. I started with some feather-filled pillow forms, a shower curtain, and a silk skirt, all picked up for a buck or two at thrift or consignment stores in the last year.

When I was originally planning this out in my head, I  knew I wanted to use a button closure for the shower curtain pillows, but was not excited at the prospect of making button holes (my sewing machine has become very temperamental of late).  But guess what?  Fabric shower curtains have a row of button holes along the top edge for the hooks.  It was brilliant! Basically, I just cut the shower curtain into strips, folded them over envelope-style with the button-hole edge positioned as the top flap, and sewed up the sides.  I made two of these.

 

 

For buttons, I went through my old button jar and picked six, all of them pearly white, but different designs.

 

I cut the skirt into front and back panels and sewed up three sides, and used a zipper from one of the original pillow covers for the fourth side.  I kept the skirt's contrasting edge for interest. The polka dot pillow (there are two of them) came from Target.  For a time they were selling just pillow covers for $4.99.  I decided not to worry about whether or not all the different greens work together, and instead think of it as fresh and fun.   Nature puts all different colors of green together, right?

I like my pillows cheap and comfy!

 

 

 

Monday’s Money-Saving Tips

Have you become acquainted with Groupon yet?  When you sign up with Groupon, you will get one email a day offering you the opportunity to snag an awesome deal.  Each day’s deal is different, and it’s specific to your metropolitan area.

I’ve been getting the emails for about a month now.  When I signed up, I received a coupon code for $10 off my first deal.  A few days before it expired, the deal was a year’s subscription to Midwest Living for $5.  Since I needed to use the coupon, I snagged a free magazine subscription.

Recently the deal was for $50 worth of merchandise at a certain store for $25 (I can’t be specific, because I’m giving it as a gift).  I still had $5 left on the coupon, so I got a $50 certificate, but paid only $20.

Other recent deals have included

• $25 for $50 worth of merchandise at The Gap
• $12 for $30 worth of stuff at Once Upon a Child
• $20 for 5 tickets to a popular area children’s museum ($44 value)
• $10 for $25 worth at a well-liked local restaurant

Pretty good deals!  You won’t be interested in every offer, but it’s always up to you whether you purchase or not.  If not, just delete the day’s email and you won’t hear about it again.  If you like it, click on the “buy” button, and it will take you to the website, where you will follow instructions for payment and redeeming the deal.  There will also be the option of buying it as a gift for someone else.

You will also receive a unique referral link to share with friends.  If they join Groupon within 72 hours of clicking your link, you will get $10 in Groupon bucks when they make their first purchase.  I don’t want to come off as a mooch, but if you choose to sign up, here’s my link, just in case :) http://www.groupon.com/r/uu8647597  (Then you can share your link with your blog readers!)

Now it’s your turn.  Party rules:

• share a money-saving tip that will help others
• you must link back to me in your post, preferably using my button code, which you can get in my right side column
• link to your specific party post, and not your general home page
• please be polite and visit several other participants and leave a nice comment
• I will delete entries that don’t link back to me or do not fit the party theme; I’m not mean, I just gotta follow the rules

Linky will close Monday Nov. 8 at 11:59 pm central.

Our Persimmon Adventure

My friend tells me that she has been unable to leave a comment on my blog for a while.  Something about the form doesn’t allow her to do it.  Is anybody else having that problem?  If so, tell me on my Facebook page, or email me:  holly {at} homebodyholly {dot} com.

Not far from our house is some common land with a wooded area.  This is the third autumn that I’ve been driving by and seeing a couple of the trees with persimmons hanging on them like jewels.  I’d never had persimmon in any form, though I knew their reputation for being puckery.  But I got online and found recipes for persimmon jam, persimmon bread, persimmon pudding…it sounded like something I needed to try.

I sent Craig and the kids over to pick some.  I was envisioning a bagful of persimmons that would become yummy edibles.  The thought made me feel kind of resourceful, like a pioneer woman (no, not that PW!).

Apparently of what was left of the fruit, most of them were too high to reach.  They brought me back 4 persimmons.  Four.

 

Okay, so there would be no persimmon jam.  But we needed to at least try them.  Based on my internet research, I determined that these were probably the tomato-shaped Fuyu, that are “commonly eaten raw, often sliced and peeled…[and] have a mild, pumpkin-like flavor”.  As opposed to the acorn-shaped Hachiya that are “mouth-puckeringly tart unless absolutely, supremely ripe” (source).

Doesn’t this look more tomato- than acorn-shaped to you?

I peeled and sliced them.  Skippy and I were the only ones who would try a bite; now we know what they mean by “astringent”.

It dried out my mouth and left a strange cottony feeling.  Kind of like eating foam insulation, like a mouthful of sand, like sucking on a shop vac…you get the picture.

I guess they weren’t ripe or something.  Any persimmon experts out there than can tell me what went wrong?

Don’t forget Monday’s Money-Saving Tips party!  I hope to learn some thrifty tricks from you.

Pumpkin Pie Seeds

Did you roast your pumpkin seeds?  With all the sweets we’ve had in the last few days, I did the first batch with just olive oil and sea salt, but I have a couple pumpkins left and the next batch will be these tasty treats:

• 1 cup pumpkin seeds, rinsed and dried
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 6 tsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1. Spread the seeds on a large baking sheet and roast them at 250 degrees for 45 minutes, or until completely dry and lightly browned.

2. In large bowl, stir together the pumpkin pie spice, salt, and 2 tsp of the sugar; set aside.

3. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

4. Add the seeds and remaining 4 tsp sugar to the skillet, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until sugar melts, about 45 seconds.

5. Scrape seeds into pumpkin pie spice mixture and stir to coat.

6. Allow to cool and store in airtight container.

Here are a few more pumpkin seed recipes that sound like they’re worth trying:

• Spiced Pumpkin Seeds 
• Caramelized Spicy Pumpkin Seeds
• Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Seeds

Aftermath

November advertising special:  buy one month ($15), get one free.  Perfect for promoting your product for the holiday season!

Well, one person came to the Money-Saving Tips party yesterday:  Gina shared some great ways to save on Lego.  (In fact, her blog Moneywise Moms is chock-full of frugal tips.)  If you missed the party, don’t worry, it will be held every Monday. 

Halloween is over!  Is anyone else kinda glad?  I’ve always been a little at odds with the subsequent candy overload.  I’m fine with treats in moderation (and I do snitch some of it), but I’m not cool with a candy free-for-all for days on end.

This year Craig and I came up with a system which satisfies all of us.  For five days (which started Saturday because of church Trunk or Treat Friday night), the kids can weigh out 1/2 lb of their candy for the day.  They can eat it when they want, and I won’t complain.  But after Wednesday, it’s gone.  We’ll stash the good stuff for the occasional treat and get rid of the rest.

My antique scale is accurate, and we tared it with the cereal bowl.  Half a pound of candy is actually less than you might think, but it’s still plenty more than I would normally allow.

So what happens with the Halloween candy in your house?  Do you just let them have at it, or do you have some controls in place?

Monday’s Money-Saving Tips

Friday’s Knock-Off Party was a good start to what will be a monthly event.  If you missed it, be sure to check it out for some pretty cool handmade Pottery Barn, Ballard Designs, and Restoration Hardware knock-offs.  I was originally going to do it the last Friday of every month, but I’m going to change that to the last Thursday of the month, so I have Friday to highlight some of the participants.  That means that the next Knock-Off Party will be Thursday, Nov. 18, which is actually the third Thurs since the fourth Thurs is Thanksgiving.  Clear as mud?  The November party will be a Christmas edition; hopefully your entry will have something to do with Christmas, but I won’t make a hard and fast rule of it.

And now, today is the first weekly Money-Saving Tips party.  Share your frugal tips that may help someone else save money. 

So, you know the foaming soap pumps that are popular now?  You can get them pretty much anywhere, from Bath and Body Works to Walmart’s own brand.  I like them a lot (especially when the kids were smaller and tended to pump way too much soap and not rinse very well).  But did you know that you’re paying for about one inch of soap and the rest is water?

Here’s how I make mine go even further.  Once the bottle is about half empty, I fill it back up with water.  It still foams up and cleans just fine.  In fact, I do this three or four times with the same bottle, until I can tell that the soap/water ratio is getting thin.

Then I use the whole thing up.  If the pump is still working well (they seem to eventually wear out), then I put about 3/4 to one inch of non-foaming liquid hand soap in the bottom, fill it up with water, give it a light shake to combine, and proceed.  You can do this as many times as you want as long as the foaming pump is still working well. When it seems that the pump has expired and the soap is just kind of squirting out and not foaming anymore, then I buy a new bottle and start the whole process over again.

The trick is using just a little soap and mostly water when you refill it.  It will not work to refill the foaming pump with pure liquid soap.  Don’t get fooled into buying the foaming soap refills; just buy a bottle of regular liquid hand soap and that will last you through a good number of foaming pump refills.

Now it’s your turn.  Party rules:

• share a money-saving tip that will help others
• you must link back to me in your post, preferably using my button code, which you can get in my right side column
• link to your specific party post, and not your general home page
• please be polite and visit several other participants and leave a nice comment
• I will delete entries that don’t link back to me or do not fit the party theme; I’m not mean, just a rule-keeper 
• 

PB, BD, RH Knock-Off Party

The winner of the Willow House giveaway is #38, Mary Ellen!

My project comes from the March 2008 Ballard Designs catalog.  The Ball and Spear Finials came in a set of 3, original price $69, sale price in this catalog $39.99.

I started out with this…thing…that I got in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby for about $2.  I suppose it’s meant to be a finial, but the gold color was really kind of yuck.

This was actually one of my very first blog projects, and I didn’t take any photos of the process.  First, I spray-painted it with gray primer.  Then using gray and white acrylic paints and a dry brush method to give it a weathered look.  Although in this side-by-side the colors look quite a bit different, the catalog says their finials have a “weathered gray finish”.

Today I have it on top of my hutch, which currently is not so much arranged as just a haphazard placement of things as they come into the house, both inside and on top.

A close-up of the dry brush technique:

I must confess, I actually did the painting before I saw it in the Ballard catalog, and though I knew when I bought it that I would paint it, I wasn’t sure how until I saw the same item on another blog, as is explained in my original post.

So this is a happy coincidence that it looks so much like the Ballard finials, but the take-home message here is look past what you see on the surface and imagine what it could be.  Don’t judge a book by its cover and all that.

Party rules:

• your knock-off entry must be made by you
• it must inspired by Pottery Barn, Ballard Designs, or Restoration Hardware
• you must include a picture of the original item from the catalog so we can compare
• it must be a specific comparable item, like my lamp shade, and not just a “this kind of has the PB look to it”
• you must link back to me in your post, preferably using my button code, which you can get in my right side column
• link to your specific party post, and not your general home page
• you should be polite and visit several other participants and leave a nice comment

If you need more details, see this post.  List will be open until Sun Oct 31 at 11:59 pm.