weekend doings

Our part of town had a number of garage sales this morning. We looked at a few residential sales but they did not have anything we wanted. So we headed to the one at a nearby church that had a big, well-organized sale. We spent about $25 and here are a few of the treasures.

bright kitchen towels 25 cents each

oversized Santa mugs 25 cents each

small Glasbake casserole $1

Big hammers - $5 each, Jeff got 2 of these. They had a box full of them and he said $5 is a bargain for brand new big hammer.

dark red printed soft cordoroy fabric, it is rolled up and I have not measured it but it is a lot of yards - I guess at least 10 yards $5
Jeff smoked a turkey and 4 pork loins. They are sliced and frozen in meal sized containers. We ate some for lunch and it is all really good. This is a real convenience food for us.
When we moved into this house with its whit-ish carpet, we wanted to buy a carpet cleaner. At that time, I researched them on Amazon but they mostly had lousy ratings and recommendations. We have since hired a company to clean our carpets, he does a great job but is expensive and occupies the house the a good part of the day.

We have also rented Rug Doctors a few times and they do a good job too. But you have to get done and return them within 24 hours.

But I still wanted our own machine so I could clean whenever I wanted. I found this Hoover Steam -Vac on Amazon last month and it had great ratings. The price seemed fair and I ordered. Jeff cleaned the back hall last night and it did a really good job. It does have a smaller tank than a Rug Doctor. But it will be very convenient to just use it whenever we want.

Thrift store fabric and a new lily

Jimmy is here this summer between law school semesters. He was an internship at a non-profit law office and works weekends as a waiter. The computers went down at the law office so he got leave early. He stopped at thrift store and found this fabric. It is very orange and very early 70's. I think it 4 or 5 yards long and he paid 50 cents!
This a lily of some sorts, I don't have a clue what kind it is. It is from a bulb we got from Jeff's mom. It looks a little mis-shapened because the wind is blowing really hard, even for Oklahoma where the wind is always sweeping down the plain.

This is the second one to bloom and the blooms only last a couple of days, I went ahead and took the picture even though I knew it would not be great in the wind because if I waited, it will be done.

Interesting sale idea

Food Pyramid has a nice website and they post their new weekly ad every Wednesday morning. I just checked it to see if they have any specials we need.
On their front page and third page, they have coupons for Buy 1 Get 1 Free. At most stores, they run this special on 2 like items.
Food Pyramid is promoting their house brand, Best Choice, and have different twist on B1G1F. When you buy a name brand item, you can get the same thing in Best Choice brand free. This is a great idea if you a brand-name shopper but you want to try out the lower cost items but are unsure if your family will like them.
Some of the deals are buy one can of Libbys vegetables and get one can of Best Choice vegetables free, buy one Jimmy Dean Sausage and get Best Choice free, buy Sargento cheese and get Best Choice free.

KFOR, the NBC station in Oklahoma City did a feature story about generics versus name brands. They compared soda, milk, cereal, cheese slices, peanut butter and graham crackers. Third graders did the taste tests. The results surprised the children. They liked the name brand soda, peanut butter and graham crackers the best, the cheese was a tie and they like the generic cereal and milk the best.
The 6 name brand items sold for $22.11 while the generics were $17.16.

I have frequently bought store brand items and most of them, we think most of them are just as good as the brand name items.

What's for supper

I usually work a morning shift but today I am working in the afternoon. I enjoyed my morning at home and had plenty of time to go for a walk and do some housecleaning before getting ready for work.
Supper tonight will probably be some of those 88 cent Farmland ham steaks.
Carrots are my favorite vegetable so I got a batch of them ready to cook when I get home. It is just 1.5 pounds of peeled carrots seasoned with a little salt and pepper, a sprinkle of sugar and a few pats of butter. Since it is so hot, I will probably cook them in the microwave for about 15 minutes.
We all like a big salad with supper.

I think salad is best made a few hours before the meal so it has time to re-chill in the fridge before serving.

Restaurant salads are so good because they are served chilled and sometimes on chilled plates too.

one more new apron

This is another of the apron styles from the McCalls pattern.

It also used bias binding to cover all the edges. It took quite awhile to sew for just an apron. I like it but it will be last apron I need to make for myself for some time.