Ben Goes to Church on Pentecost Sunday

Alternate titles:
Mr. Pirate Pentecost
or
Ben Follows All the Color Suggestions For Pentecost Sunday
or
Ben Dresses the Part to Read the Pentecost Scripture
or
Ben is Crazy But Not Old Enough to Care if Mom Posts This

A New Charger Envelope for a New Phone

I meant to tell you that back in February, my cell phone died.  It was not a smart phone.  I was wary of getting a smart phone - so much to manage!  to understand!  And the cost of not understanding could be high because you could incur charges for going over your data plan.  But my dumb phone could not handle the attachments that Ben's soccer coach was sending and other things like that.

As a thrifty person who likes to comparison shop, I find technology purchases extremely frustrating.  It's so hard to figure out if I'm comparing products appropriately, or which features I would actually use in real life, or if the inexpensive option is actually a short-lived piece of crap.

When I struggle with questions, my husband's solution is to "just google it."  So I did.  I searched "simplest smartphones," and "best cheap smartphones," and things like that and found out I'm not the only one willing to have a slow phone with less storage for a modest price.

I found out I could buy a Samsung Galaxy 3 Express for $40 at my AT&T store (we have our plan through AT&T), and it suits me just fine because I tried to think carefully about what I wanted to use my phone for.

I mostly use it for texting, occasionally calling when I'm away from home, and then some Google Driving for navigating on trips.  I snap a few photos here and there, but I mostly use my nice camera.  I rarely use the internet on my phone and I never check or reply to my email on my phone; I do that on my laptop where I feel less claustrophobic with a bigger screen (am I the only one who feels claustrophobic with small screens?).  I use the phone's timers and alarms and calculator.  I do have it synced with my online calendar, but it's not reliable; I don't think that's unique to my phone! The only app I downloaded is a money-tracking app (Dollarbird), and although my kids have asked, I don't know if there are games on my phone because I'm not interested.

The nice AT&T guy did convince me to buy a $25 case and $89 headphones for the phone.  I was so relieved to be getting a working phone that I ignored my typical rule of taking time to think through purchases and do a little research on price first.  When I sheepishly showed my purchases to my husband, his face confirmed my sneaking suspicion that I needed to return the headphones and case and comparison shop.  Sure enough, I got a case on ebay for $5 and still haven't purchased headphones because I just don't listen to music or podcasts on my phone (but I could be convinced!).

I made a charger envelope for the new charger.  But this time, I included a pocket on the back for the USB car converter, and I keep the envelope in my purse.  It's nice to grab-and-go without worrying about battery life.

So I've had my smart phone about three months now, and I do like it.  I feel like I've hit my goal of phone-that-doesn't-exclude-me-from-socializing-and-networking-but-doesn't-cost-a-fortune-for-bells-and-whistles-I-am-not-using.

What other thrifty smartphone tips do you have?  Or is this an area where you are willing to pay for convenience, functionality, and security? (I have those areas, too).  I'd love to hear how others manage!

Flowers in the Rain

I decided I couldn't wait for sunshine anymore.  So here are some of my flowers, and then, I took a little walk in the neighborhood with my camera because I love seeing how people put out flowers and decorations.  I have thought of doing a semi-regular feature on the gardening efforts in my city to document the loveliness and ideas.

I put thyme and begonias in my hanging pots on my porch.  I settled on this combination after trying a number of things, and both plants are always luxuriant and happy.

My big pot has creeping Jenny as well as a purple sweet potato vine to spill out over the sides.  Then there is a fuchsia geraniaum, 3 dark-yellow marigolds, a purple basil, and four begonias.  Oh!  And a spike! Which some stranger has already yanked up in passing, so I pushed it back in and stroked it and hoped for the best.  The squirrels also dug in the pot like crazy, so I put mothballs in bags and set them under the leaves and it seems to be keeping the squirrels out of my pot and the carcinogens away from my edibles.

I planted cilantro seeds in this container in the back yard, and I thought the squirrels and birds had eaten all of them, but lo! they emerged! I'm going to try the cut-and-come-again method to see if I can prevent it from going to seed right away.

I snapped a photo of this vine-weed for my Easter post.  Its vibrant growth needs no help from me, which I love.

A neighbor's window box with sweet little figurine.

No need for balustrades on this neighbor's porch with planter boxes.  And such charming colors.

A lush combination of creeping Jenny (my favorite!) and big begonias.

 This office building is slated to be torn down, but I'll enjoy the pretty mossy roof over the door until then.

How does your garden grow?

A Little Tutorial for Patching Holey Jeans

Holes in jeans knees that you want to mend?  Here's one method (more methods at the bottom of the post).

Unpick a side seam on the jeans leg with the hole, whichever seam is not flat-felled but just a single seam, using a seam ripper.  You are trying to get it open far enough to fit it successfully under your sewing machine needle.  Probably at least 4" below and above the hole, but I just eyeball and unpick a little more if I need to.

Cut a rectangle of scrap denim or other sturdy cotton fabric and put it inside the jeans leg under the hole.  Pin it on the outside of the leg to mark the boundaries of the patch; you are going to sew on the right side, so you want your pins on the right side marking where the patch is underneath.

Now start at one end of the patch and sew back and forth in close zig-zags - I do parallel to the waistband of the jeans, but I suppose you could do parallel to the leg seams - which is attaching the patch.  I sew more densely over the holey/weak area, but I do patch generously beyond the hole, too, as insurance against more holes.  The pins are marking the upper and lower limits of the patch, but you pull the jeans out of the sewing machine and check what's going on back there.  I usually trim the patch a little bit where the sewing didn't get all the way out to the edge.

Turn the jeans leg inside out, match up the side seams, and sew it closed.  I sew a straight seam and then zig-zag the edges together to mimic the serged edge.  Done!

Sometimes I mend holes in knees by hand.  I use lighter-weight fabric for the patch and a field of hand stitches in perle cotton, contrasting or matching.  Here's Phoebe wearing a pair of jeans with both knees mended in blue perle cotton with blue fabric inside.

Genevieve is at this link wearing hearts on her knees.

Ben at this link has a monster on his knee.

I show a friend how to patch jeans' knees.

Steeping Tea the Pretty Way

There are these lacy cloth things that I've seen in old-fashioned kitchen that are used as lids.  Sometimes they even have beads dangling at their edges to weight them down.  So I rooted through my bag of doilies that I keep for sewing projects and found a suitable "lid."

I often put tea that is steeping for iced tea outside my kitchen window to keep every little bit of heat out of the house that I can, but I don't want anything or any critter to drop into my tea.  I also don't want a metal lid to seal to the jar during steeping. So now I have a pretty, breathable lid for my jar.  Does anyone know more about this method - is there a name for this fabric cover?

The Etsy Problem

After a bout of making and photographing, I was all set to open my etsy shop.  And indeed, if you look at my blog sidebar, there are a handful of listings.  I had two main reasons for opening my shop:  to give Genevieve a venue for selling her handmade potholders (so happy and colorful!), and because I had a friend who was successful on Etsy willing to go over my shop with me and give me advice.

But.

Now I am not sure what to do.  I was having problems with a listing, so I went to Etsy's forums to learn about the glitch, and I stumbled across a number of threads where sellers are explaining and complaining that Etsy is pulling strings behind the scenes in confusing ways and their sales are way down.  I had noticed a severe drop in my sales in 2015, and my theory was that Etsy was trying to force out shops like mine that were side-gigs that didn't shell out money for advertising or have slick marketing. 

I was poised to do the rest of the listings yesterday and today.  Now I'm not sure what to do.  I don't want to put time into a sinking ship, but I feel bad coaching Genevieve this far with no income to show for it. My husband shrugged and said, "Business."

So I'm recalibrating and hoping to find another venue for selling some handmades.  Discussions and advice welcome in the comments!

Another Antimacassar for Dad

This one is to replace the turquoise handtowel thrown over the back of the new recliner.  Mom asked me to make it "green, gold, and brown."  I didn't think I had much in my scrap bag to fit that color scheme (and yes, I limited myself to my big bag of small scraps), but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Unlike the earlier antimacassar, I did not take the time to handstitch around the edge. I'm busy finishing up projects for my etsy shop instead!