Testing Pinterest - Organizing Plastic Bags

I know... riveting title, isn't it? I wasn't entirely sure how to put into words the mess that is my hall closet. Observe:

Yes - this closet it fully loaded with plastic bags. And, since I'm pretty sure everyone has a spot like this in their house or car (I'm talking to you, Mom) I thought I might test a popular Pinterest idea on how to take care of such a thing. The solution? Fold that shit up as tight as you can.

Here's how:

Step 1) Begin a Netflix TV series and have alcohol at the ready.

Step 2) Flatten out bag (and ignore the kittybomb)

Step 3) Fold bag in half

Step 4) Fold in half again.

Step 5) Fold the bottom left corner up until it is even with the opposite side, creating a triangle. Then fold up on the long edge you just created. Next, fold up on the flat side that you created from that. Continue and repeat.

Step 6 - When you get to the last little part of handle, stuff the ends into the pocket that your last fold creates. If you don't see a pocket, you went one fold too far - go back one.

Step 7) Throw completed, folded bag into a pile. Continue to sip alcohol while repeating steps with the hundreds of bags you may own.

Personally, I had 53 in our closet.

I'm not going to lie though - it was quite interesting to get to the bottom of the bags that we haven't used in a while. I found lots of old receipts. The oldest I found? This one.

WalMart, October 29, 2012. I'm sure I had older, but the ink was all smudged off.

So there you are! It's a bit time consuming and tedious, but I now have all 53 bags in one purse on a hook and they are no longer taking up the entire right side of my closet.

Glamorous? No. Super handy? Hell yes.

As a bonus Pinterest test... using a straw to remove a strawberry stem also works. Like a dream. I felt like a freaking genius at work today while doing this.

Dying to be Different

Happy Sunday! I just gotta start this by saying - I totally freaking love this dress! I was super excited how it came out. I also want to let you know beforehand that I totally failed at taking pictures of the process. So... you win, you lose, right?

I started out with this:

This dress may or may not have been homemade. There was a tag but it literally said nothing but a word that I couldn't read. I had no idea what the fabric was, how to wash, etc. It was also a very nasty color, stained in a few places, and just generally ugly. It's been hanging on my refashion "to do" rack for quite a while- until this weekend when I had an "AHA!" moment. What a perfect job for these guys:

I got a few of these on sale at Joann's, so I brought home some colors I thought may work for this dress. Once I got everything home I decided that red was the way to go.

Once I had the hot water and red dye in the bucket, I thought "well hey, let's get dye crazy" and added in a bit of the tangerine as well.

And this is where the pictures stop, friends. Here's the short checklist of items:

1) Dye in a bucket for a few hours, rinse and spin in the wash and toss in the dryer

2) This dress was way too small in the arms and a tad too small in the bust. To fix, I got rid of the arms altogether - they had holes anyway - and I made more a V-neck in the bust to let those babies breathe a bit more.

3) Chop chop! I cut off the bottom so it no longer stopped at my calves. Why is that a thing, anyway?

And that's it! Super simple changes to make a boring brown dress into something that totally stands out!

Hope you guys are having a great weekend. Stay tuned for Wednesday - we're testing Pinterest!

Back with a... Fail

So, I always tell you guys that I will always let you know when I fail. Well... I wasn't lying, and I'm back to blogging and starting off with one. I've had this piece for quite a while now, but was totally stuck as to what to do with it. I am a huge fan of orange so this screamed my name this past spring as soon as I saw it.

The problem? I had no idea what to do with it. Every time I put it on, I hated how it looked but didn't know how to make it better. Finally - today -  I thought I would come back with a bang and conquer my personal challenge. I adored the orange ombre-look, but those horrible flowers on top of my rack needed to go. away. So, I got to chopping and (looking back, thankfully) chopped only the flower front from the plain arm strap of the back.

So then, as with all of my projects, I went ahead and played with different ways to change it up. I figured now that the first cut was made I would automatically find myself a solution.

But this didn't look right.

And this didn't quite work either...

Umm... nope. Not that either.

So this is where I got frustrated. When this happens, I try to start myself back at square one. So, I put the dress back up where it was supposed to be. Since I had already cut the straps, I just pinned the flower straps to my shirt to see if I could get an idea of what direction to go with this son of a bitchin' dress.

Suddenly, it dawned on me: the only thing I didn't like was that the flowers were on top of my chest. How did I never think "just move them down"? So I played around with pinning the straps and once I simply shifted everything down a bit, I liked it a lot more. Also, without the front connected to the back it created a gorgeous hi-low hem with the see through fabric that I immediately loved.

So the solution? It was actually super easy, but I couldn't complete it - here comes the fail! The solution is to cut and sew the back straps into an open back and add a ribbon to create a halter. The problem with this plan? I don't own orange ribbon and since we just resealed our driveway and were stuck at home not being able to drive on it, I couldn't go buy some.

Here's the look with just simple pins and a simple plan.

Happy Sunday, friends! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and, as always, sound off in the comments or my e-mail thriftysew@blogspot.com.

Look out this week (around Wednesday) for some new and exciting !

Testing the Food Network: Peanut Butter 'n' Banana Ice Cream

So I don't know about you guys, but I watch the Food Network quite religiously. I think the cooking shows are the most fun and could truthfully watch them all day long. Confession: Sometimes, on Saturdays, I do just that. I also share my day with the HSN and QVC shopping channels. Don't judge.


So anyway, on Saturdays, there is a new show on the Food Network called The Kitchen - and I am obsessed. I won't go into details, but you need to watch it.

Anyway, two weeks ago on The Kitchen, they made a quick and easy "healthy" ice cream with bananas. And I had banana's. So, during the next commercial break I got right up and threw my banana's in the freezer. And then I ran straight back to the couch to continue watching. A few hours days later, I remembered my intentions and got all the ingredients together, including: frozen banana's, plain Greek yogurt, peanut butter, Nutella (or the cheapskates version, as I have),

I didn't quite think about the banana's when I was tossing them into the freezer. It didn't dawn on me until I brought them out that I had no idea how to peel a rock solid, frozen banana. Youtubing commenced. Turns out, you let it thaw for 5 minutes, cut off the ends, cut it in half and the peel comes right off with a little help from a knife (or your finger nails when you get frustrated with the bits that remain.)

Once peeled, toss them into your food processor in chunks.

Next, add to the banana chunks your Greek yogurt. This recipe calls for full-fat, original flavored Greek yogurt. Naturally, this is what I purchased.

Honest, I swear the "low fat" was hidden in the store... it appeared while in my fridge...

Next, add a gob of peanut butter into the food processor along with your yogurt and banana chunks. A gob is obviously the technical term for "however the hell much you want". I put this much:

Next, you turn on your food processor and let it rip until it's creamy and chunk-less. I turned mine on and... nothing happened. I played with it for a good 20 minutes, but it just wouldn't lock. So, for the sake of the blog, I swore a lot about the multiple dishes, but I got out my blender and wished it luck.

But... I didn't care all that much because I had a trusty friend by my side that tends to keep my stress down.

Next, you put your mixture into a bowl and "fold" in a gob (refer to the peanut butter part for definition) of the Nutella. This makes it look... well.. not so edible and delicious.

I didn't let it phase me, although it tried because my Nutella never really did "fold" in nicely, but instead stayed in small chunks that resembled poop. (It's what we were all thinking - I just put it in writing)

After a few hours, I took it out of the freezer to see how it developed. The top of the bowl resembled ice cream, but the middle and right underneath the top was still pretty runny, so I put it back in the freezer and vowed to come back to it in a few hours.

3 days later, I remembered it was in the freezer when I went in for some real ice cream. I grudgingly surpassed the real ice cream and took out the bowl of, lets be honest, mashed bananas and gave it a go. It was hard as a rock and looked a little like this:

After a quick microwave and a sit on the counter for a bit, I finally had my taste of concoction.

Results: Yup. Tastes like frozen bananas. And if you do this, definitely eat it a few hours after freezing instead of a few days.

As a side note: I'm not completely believing this is a "healthy" alternative to regular ice cream. I made one small bowl out of two bananas (200 calories), a yogurt cup (100 calories), a scoop of peanut butter (probably 100 more) and a scoop of Nutella (about 50). Together, this small bowl is 450 calories. I'd rather just indulge in a bowl of regular ice cream of the chocolate variety for just about the same and know I will enjoy it much more.

I'm Alive!

Hello all! I know, I know - I've been pretty non-existent for the past few weeks. You know those times during summer when life just... HAPPENS? And you start to not remember what spare time was? That's been my last few months. Now, I'm not complaining, because I've been doing some pretty great stuff and have been having some very quality family time. The downside to that was that I had to put the blog on the back burner. BUT! I have been thinking of you all and have tried to keep a photo diary of the big stuff...

 

I think we left off here, at Niagara Falls.

Then, I took a very long run in 94 degree (F) weather with a sweet bib on. It was dumb and it was hot, but it happened and my time for 3.5 miles was a good 10 minutes shorter than it was last year. It's a "one and done" kind of activity, so I won't do that again for another year. Thank God. I'm okay with that.

Then we had storms. Lots and lots of storms. And our power went out. A lot. And our gutters were clogged. A lot. And we called gutter companies to come clean them who charged for that service. A lot. So, my husband bought this contraption that worked but was also hysterical and made me laugh. A lot.

 

Marry an engineer, friends.

 

I'm also not going to lie - I did a lot of shopping, and not at the cheap places I prefer frequent. I went big, and then I went home to hide my wallet. This was my last Sephora haul...

I also spent some time gardening. Some of it was super unsuccessful because of the storms. For example, this basil that I managed to drown within a day.

However, the garden that I had planted/showed you during my video is looking pretty good. And by "pretty good", I mean it is gorgeous and I'm fantastic.

Even my hydrangea bush has come back this year. It may or may not have been butchered last year by a overly-happy shearer named: my husband.

Although my goal was blue...

 

It hasn't all been great though. I did serve this dinner...

How 'bout them sprouts, eh?

So, long story short - it's been a great summer. Now, I'm back... I hope. I hope to pick up again with some exciting turns to keep ya'll readers interested. Here's a couple of the ideas that I have been known to be thrown around in my head:

1. I've been pinning again on Pinterest and am playing with the idea of a mid-week Pinterest test.
2. I'm also thinking of having you, my readers, send me challenges: see what I can re-make, re-do or, most likely, what I can mess up.
3. Contests? Do y'all want to be winners of something?

So shout it from the rooftops, friends - what are your thoughts on these? Leave them down below in the comments or, as always, feel free to sounds off to me at my e-mail thriftysew@gmail.com. Help me make this blog something you can't wait to read :)