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Phyllis Diller's houskeeping hints

Last weekend we had a yard sale.  It was a somewhat spur of the moment thing -- I decided to go get the license Thursday and then organized like a mad woman the rest of the day so that I could be ready for business at 8am Friday.  Things turned out well -- in 2 days we sold almost all our unneeded things and made some money too.

One thing that didn't sell -- although we didn't bring them out until near the end of the sale on Saturday -- were old books we've had stashed in the basement.  These aren't actually our books -- well I suppose they are ours now as we've had them for something like 5 years.  It's complicated.  Anyway, we started digging through them a bit and Pete posted some of the weirdness at over at PeteLit.  And now I share this gem -- Phyllis Diller's housekeeping hints. . .

First the dedication, which reads:

Dedicated to all the ladies who would rather skip the housework

And here are some gems from the pages:

• Never serve meals on time.  The starving eat anything.
• Discuss religion and politics at a dinner party so people get into heated arguments and don't notice what they're eating.  They may also think the arguing caused their indigestion.
• Buy an easel and leave it lying in a conspicuous place.  Much will be forgiven if people think you are an artist.
• Run the vacuum often.  Not to clean -- to drown out the kids.
• If you are single, get married on Thanksgiving Day so you can insist upon eating out on your anniversary.

Ah, that wacky lady!

When you have to vacuum your knitting. . .

you know it's been a WIP for far too long.  In fact, I began this shawl waaay back in 2004 and I try to pick it up every year, work on it a little, then put it up on the top of the bookshelf in my room.  Luckily I put the pattern on top of the basket, so the shawl wasn't dusty but the basket and pattern were -- so yes, I vacuumed it.

So here I am again, but I feel this is the year I finish it.

Seriously.

The Pergo Nearly Did Me In!

Remember last week when I mentioned the demolition?  Well, I spent a good portion of the week in that little room -- scraping, sanding, painting, painting, painting, cleaning and finally installing Pergo.  I thought I would get all of this done myself, but the painting took a lot out of me, so I waited until the weekend so that Pete could help me with the Pergo.

As a result of this project, I now own a saw!  Pete knew how excited I was to get it and let me make the cuts with it -- it was fun at first, but by the end the novelty was gone. 

Pete & I actually worked well together (somewhat surprising after the gas grill assembly debacle of 1999) and somehow finished the floor over the weekend.  We could have knocked this thing out in no time at all if it wasn't for that radiator.  Fitting the flooring around the 4 legs and 2 pipes was a nightmare. 

All that's left is some (more) paint touch up and the quarter round.  I'm feeling exhausted, but proud.

Here's what $6 will get you. . .

Garage Sale season is coming to an end, so Maddie and I took advantage of the absolutely gorgeous weather today and hit the road.  It was a pretty successful day really.  I left with $16 in my pocket and came home with $10. 

Since my photo is pretty bad, I'll tell you what I found.  First up was that set of blue pressed glass, footed glasses.  They were pretty and cheap, and I have a weakness for pressed glass, so they came home with me.  Then there was the Lodge cast iron pan -- at only $3, I couldn't resist.  New it would be $30 (plus a fortune in shipping charges I'm sure since this thing weighs a TON!)  At another sale I picked up the Polaroid camera on a whim as Maddie hasn't ever seen one.  I hear that Polaroid isn't going to make the film anymore, but Amazon has some in stock and I guess there is some compatible film from Fuji.  It should be fun to play with at any rate.  Then there was the Walker Evans book I picked up for Pete.  And finally -- Pyrex.  This is a nice big casserole with the Verde pattern on the lid. 

Speaking of Pyrex. . . I may have a bit of a problem.  This is a picture of my Pyrex haul from the last couple weeks.  Yikes!

IKEA Chocolate

I'm reviewing IKEA Chocolate over at the Chocolate Blog.

Worried about plastic?

I am.  And not just because of the latest new snippet.  I've been making the switch to glass food storage containers and I'm trying to make more of our food at home so it doesn't come prepackaged in plastic (trying being the key word here).  And I've been anti bottled water for a while now for numerous reasons (landfill woes -- thriftiness -- etc. . . ).  Fortunately I work from home and homeschool, so Maddie and I are more likely to drink out of real, actual glass glasses instead of plastic.  However, when we are on the run it isn't easy to carry along beverages and stay away from plastic.  Maddie has been into using a plastic commuter mug for her water, so I knew I had to find an alternative.  Enter Klean Kanteen!  I bought mine at Amazon because they were cheaper there and I also got free shipping.  Now we each have a safe bottle for on the go! 

Book Recycling

We are a family of readers and book hoarders.  There are books in every room -- overflowing from bookshelves and night stands and elsewhere.  Every once in a while we go through a shelf here and there and try to find a few we can part with.  This past weekend our county's land use department held a book recycling event -- it was a joy to behold!  Book lovers from throughout the community came with boxes of books they no longer wanted and left with some great used books.  From what I understand, the unwanted books at the end of the event were recycled instead of thrown in the landfill -- excellent!

So what if your community doesn't have an event like this?  Well, you could get one started, but there are other alternatives.  We also have a local used bookstore and they take used books and give you a store credit in return.  Or you can sell books to Powell's online.  I've done this before and the process was seamless. 

I'm sure there are other responsible ways to depart with books you no longer want.  I'd love to hear other suggestions!

Who paints like this?

This past weekend was a soggy one.  In fact, there was a lot of flooding around where we live as it rained for three days straight -- by this I mean that it rained without stopping.  Being cooped up obviously drove me insane because I decided on the spur of the moment on Sunday morning that I was going to demo the "little eating room" as we refer to it.

I was a little late getting some "before" shots, but this is near the beginning of the demo.  The previous owner had built some rough benches around the perimeter of the room which covered this old green paint, the radiator and the floor where the linoleum is showing.  This bench was useless -- not comfortable for sitting and pretty ugly (it was fiberboard covered in wall paper and the top was composed of pieces of scrap wood and melamine.)  And since this isn't a large room to begin with, it alwyas felt cramped and those benches were part of the reason.

The bench was taken apart, old flooring was removed and the ugly, weird shelf above the windows was demo-ed.  After that  it was off to Home Depot for some paint, Pergo and I even purchased a saw!!  (More on that soon!)  Pete was very helpful with the demo and heavy lifting, but now I am left on my own this week to put back together what I have decided to destroy -- sometimes I think I've lost my mind!

Today has been about scraping and sanding in preparation for the paint.  Can you believe how sloppy the previous owners were when they painted? 

Politics

Are you still here?  I'm sure the title of this post will cause some readers to pass right by without further reading.  In fact, that's exactly what is so discouraging.  Why is the "p" word turning into a bad word in the USA?

This past weekend, while relaxing at my mom's place on the river, I tried to bring up politics on several occasions (I mean, how could I not with the DNC last week, the RNC this week and all the news items about Palin!) and everyone literally went running.  Maybe I'm crazy in that I love politics and think it's vitally important to the future of our country to discuss the issues.

In the end, my brother-in-law sat with Pete and I and discussed some of the issues.  He is far to the right and I am on the other end of the spectrum -- a serious liberal.  At first he was very defensive, but in the end I hope he understood that there is common ground and that open communication is the only way that this country can go forward.  Getting hung up on a single issue (2nd amendment for him) is no way to accomplish anything.  This kind of single issue divisiveness is a tactic used by politicians and we must not let them get away with it.

So if you are still here, I'm glad.  It makes me feel a little less lonely and a bit more hopeful.

I could go on and on about everything going on with the presidential election -- I'll suffice it to say that I'm loving it.  It gets me fired up!

Oh -- and don't feel too badly for me.  I'm married to a fellow lover of politics. 

New Pincushion Challenge Theme

I've been getting emails recently about the Pincushion Challenge and all you pincushion lovers will be happy to know that the hiatus is over and the new theme has been posted.  I'm looking forward to making my pincushion and I hope you are too!