Thrift at Home

 I save sheets that have a stain somewhere, a rip, or whose partners were worn to shreds. I use sheets in sets, pretty much, so the orphan s...

I had already put a pair of little girl's brown boots in my shopping cart at the thrift store, when Phoebe seized these little brown oxf...

Before I bought Phoebe's plain navy coat on eBay, I looked at the photos closely.  I wanted to add ribbon down the placket and at the zi...

The plastic silverware holder that came with my dish drainer was too flimsy for our loads of dishes.  I was eyeing a stainless steel one on ...

On a little yearly outing with my best friend, one of my favorite harbingers of spring. . . The rug is woven from donated denim by volunte...

I'll start by saying we drive a gas-hog SUV because that's what we could pay cash for last summer (it's a 2004) and haul our fam...

I started another vest for Phoebe, in a cloudy blue grey, but the needles were a half-size larger and it seemed that the vest was just gett...

A friend read this poem at our women's retreat in March, and I loved it so much.  It speaks so gently of traditions and generational dif...

There are so many details to keep track of in our modern lives, especially for the person who is running a household.  Add multiple people i...

A little happy thing that I do is take an ugly, reusable shopping bag and sew some scraps of fabric over its logos to make it look better. ...

Yes, there is a learning curve when you choose to make food from scratch instead of buying it at the store.  But seriously:  can you really ...

The baby is not here yet, but I am spending all my time in serious preparation (a.k.a., nesting) which is why I have been silent in this spa...

I noticed that the reduced-pesticide local Stayman apples were not selling well at the market stand. The apples had that late-winter wrinkly...

I wonder sometimes how much food preserving I'll be able to do when the baby comes in May, so I've been coaxing some canning project...