Monday Message

"Wherever possible, produce your nonfood necessities of life. Improve your sewing skills; sew and mend clothing for your family. . .Develop handicraft skills. .and make or build needed items." (President Spencer W. Kimball)

I have been stretching my sewing skills to the max this week. We were given three suits all needed something. Two needed hemming. That is easy. One needed taking out an inch less, easy. They make them with some extra to do that but then one jacket needed taking out and one taking in and the sleeves shortened... this all took two whole days and I was stressed I would ruin them. It required deconstructing, bad deconstruction.

It was very scary. My mother-in-law was the best seamstress ever and I sure miss asking her questions.  I miss her all the time already but this week I could have used her help, though at times I felt like she was answering me. Like when I would have to think on how to do something, I would think of a short cut and it was "no, you need to do it right"...grrr, so I did.

This is that splayed out suit pictured above. The pics are kind of dark but this is it after I took it out. This was the hardest one.

This is the suit I had to take in and shorten the sleeves after finishing.

It was all very hard and stretched my sewing abilities to the limit but saved us so much money and now he has them to wear to church.

So building sewing skills is a great skill to pick if you are looking for a skill to work at. I plan to keep working on building on what I already know on sewing.

I was able to get this little shelf that is an upgrade to the last one I got which my husband will now use in the workshop, trying to have nothing go to waste.

I wanted to put this in here to show that used things aren't bad. I know years ago they got a bad rap but remember that saying I like - second hand is not second class.

It is very helpful for our budgets and environment.

We have picked up things and restored or refashioned them for ourselves and for gifts. It's an especially good idea now that we turn our attention to the gift giving season. One time I picked up this stool someone set out to get rid of. I got it and noticed their garbage had blown around so I got the stool loaded and picked up their garbage. I knew what I wanted to use it for right away so I brought it home and cleaned it up and it is now my spinning stool.

It works well for me. One time I got a plastic kids kitchen one piece toy and brought it home, scrubbed it up, put a bow on it and gave it to the neighbor girls on Christmas, they loved it. Probably thought Santa brought it, only mom knew. So don't pass up things you could use or gift with a little love and care. This is just another tool of being frugal.

I watch a podcast where the gal goes to thrift store on Thursdays. This is her day out. She set an amount, like stay under ten dollars, and she said she only gets what is useful to her. Someone said if money is so tight why not just save that money up to get something you want. Giving herself the day out is something she really wants. I'm the same way, I prefer to spend less. That ten dollars goes further in a thrift store.  

I also hemmed a pair of pants for myself and I cut an old towel for cloths and surged around them.

It has been a busy week. I have also been tweaking things I moved last week. I still have one more tweak to do then I will put a halt to some of the fall/spring cleaning.

Even this cart was used and some in and on it as well but this cart works well with the drawers. I moved the plastic container in the top drawer so you could see under it, it has watercolor crayons in it. Under that is empty palettes for paint mixing and the altoid tin I made into my own little watercolor box. 

The next drawer has pens and pencils and erasers, the next watercolors and in the next I have even more watercolors. In the bottom I have paper towels and a container of tubes of watercolor paint. This means I moved the tatting thread to the plastic drawers.

So those are things I have done plus some vacuum sealing which helps lengthen the life of my food.

I encourage you to stock up on your storage as you can with holiday sales as the stores run some food sales at this time of year.

Think outside the box. When you are about to toss something stop and think what could I use this for...?

Try to be more frugal and think of more meaningful gifts rather than things that are costly.

Share what frugal things you are doing this holiday or just in general in the comments below.

Missy says being thrifty is a great way to stretch your dollars.

Tippy Longstockings says this is a stressful time of year so look for a bit of sunshine and stretch out in it.