Shoestring Chic #7: Capris, Two Ways

1.  At home, but feeling chic because I like the fit of my tee and it makes my eyes look blue. . .and I chopped the legs off  brown chinos to make these capris!  With my favorite tiny turquoise earrings, I felt good.  But is this really an "outfit?"  I debated even photographing this because it looks so ordinary.  But spare and simple is what I lean towards, so this outfit is true to my taste; plus, the clothes fit me well and I feel good in them - also one of my closet principles.

pale blue tee, thrifted:  $4
earrings -older than my marriage: free
brown chinos passed to me by my aunt Nancy: free
brown slides:  $30
total:  $34

2.  So here are the brown capris on a day I was teaching an ESL class.  It was also a bit chilly, so the boots were cozier than sandals.  I've seen the young things around town wearing boots with cropped pants and I thought hey! what a useful way to get more wear out of capris!  Do you wear this look?

 

brown chino capris:  free
green shirt, pass-on from my cousin:  free
classic Eddie Bauer denim jacket bought at the mall with my sister when I actually shopped at the mall - so more than 10 years ago! free
brown belt from my college days:  free
Ten Thousand Villages bead bracelet:  $7
earrings, gift from my friend Maria
my dearly loved Aldo boots:  $40

total:  $47

Below is the unedited photo that I used for my new profile pic.

Your turn!

Tip for Getting Price Tags Off

I adore reading "tips" at the back of homey cookbooks. In fact, any time I see "tips" I feel compelled to read them even though I can't possibly remember them all.

You know how some stores, especially the secondhand kind, stick their superglue pricetags right on the item?  I tried scraping it off with my fingernail, I tried leaving it in the dishwater to soak. . . now I know just what to do!

Here's the trick:  apply a little oil or a thin layer of shortening to a stubbornly sticking price tag; give it some time, a few hours, and then it should wash right off with soap and warm water. (I'd credit the cookbook if I could remember but, you know, I read so many tips, I just can't remember. . .)

Do you have a favorite housekeeping tip/trick?  Where did you get your tip?

 P.S. I hope you can join us for Shoestring Chic tomorrow! (details on the sidebar)

An Elegant Little Sunday Supper

Usually we have popcorn for Sunday supper.  But on a recent Sunday, we had sandwiches after church so we could stay for a member's meeting.  And so I wanted something a bit more for supper.

In the afternoon, my husband picked up some red raspberry starts from friends and they also handed him a bag of garden lettuce, baby spinach, and arugula.  I made a sharp vinaigrette for those pretty little greens, and then made an old-fashioned bread omelet (from More with Less) with mushrooms and herbed raw milk cheddar.

And then made popcorn for the children who like their Sunday evenings with popcorn. 

- - A Popcorn Event - -

Mommy:  What are you doing, Ben?

Ben:  Making horse and buggies.

[confusion and repetition of the question and answer; Mommy's brain working, working]

Mommy:  ohhhhh!  When you put your hands over your ears while you eat your popcorn, you hear horse and buggies, right?

Ben [gently patronizing]: Yes.

 

Folding Clothes

I Stop Writing the Poem

to fold the clothes.  No matter who lives
or who dies, I'm still a woman.
I'll always have plenty to do.
I bring the arms of his shirt
together.  Nothing can stop
our tenderness.  I'll get back
to the poem.  I'll get back to being
a woman.  But for now
there's a shirt, a giant shirt
in my hands, and somewhere a small girl
standing next to her mother
watching to see how it's done.

-- Tess Gallagher (read in Good Poems, ed. Garrison Keillor)

The gift of time, of keeping house with my children beside me.

And a green leaf heart - from Genevieve, "the first gift for your Mother's Day, Mom."

Good Mustard Eggs

These are the real deal - hardboiled eggs in a sweet-sour mustard brine.  Delicious!  Much better than the recipe I googled last year.  Thanks to Jennifer Jo for the good recipe.

Now, to complete my taste memory, I am going to make a spinach salad with mustard eggs, mushrooms, and sunflower seeds.

New Color for an Old Tablecloth

I use the good parts of old, stained tablecloths to make hanging hand towels - it's good upcycling for something that is otherwise useless.

But look at this tablecloth:  it used to be lovely navy and white, but after 11 years of hard use, it was an ugly faded purplish taupe.  I couldn't even see using it for its fabric.

But it was a wedding gift from Ten Thousand Villages. . .so I ruminated for a while. . .and hit upon the idea of dying it navy!  I talked to Jacinta for ideas because she dyes her clothing with smashing success.

I bought a clearance bottle of royal blue dye ($2), read the directions obsessively and checked Jacinta's advice again, and set to work.  I did NOT want a blue sink or blue wood floor.

I filled my black enamelware canner with water and kept it at a low simmer on the stove.  Poured in the dye and a cup of salt (why, I don't know - I followed the bottle directions on that).  Put on old latex gloves and lowered the tablecloth into the dye bath.  I poked and stirred at it with a metal spoon over 45 minutes, not continuously as the bottle instructed, but when I thought of it, as Jacinta advised.  Carefully fished out the tablecloth into my stainless steel sink (not the composite laundry sink that could have stained).  Rinsed it with cold water until the water was fairly clear.  Washed it in the washing machine in cold and dried it in the dryer, all to set the dye.

It came out a beautiful shade of cobalt - I love it!  In the middle, there are some lighter patches, so I'm guessing my stirring and poking was not sufficent to evenly distribute the cloth.  However, it looks like the play of sunshine and shadows through my windows (I was actually fooled for a few days), so I'm happy. 

And now I'm thinking of refreshing some black cotton clothes that have gotten a little grey.

Purifying and Using Tallow

I saved the fat I skimmed from beef stock when I made it a few months ago.  First, it sat in my fridge with stray pieces of gunk in it.  I contacted a soap maker to see if she wanted it. 

Then I thought I could at least strain the stuff before trying to give it away.  I got it out of the containers (it's hard like butter) and melted it again, then poured it through a cheesecloth lined strainer.

Now that it's cold and hard, it's pure white and will keep longer with the stray scraps gone.  I've been using it to saute onions at the start of a savory dish; I can't say I like the flavor of tallow on its own, but it disappears into a savory dish. 

And just think how thrifty it is!  I make super-nutritious stock, and then I get this by-product, free frying grease.  I still buy lard from my Amish butcher, though, because it makes fabulous biscuits and pie crusts.

Here I used tallow at the beginning of a stir fry because it has a high smoking point.

Some bok choy, the last chunk of a cabbage, a carrot, and scallions added at end. Then we sprinkled toasted sesame seeds over top at the table.