Simplify Fridays

 

We have been blessed today with gorgeous weather. The sun is shining, the temperature is rising, more of our perennials are poking their noses through the soil. All is well here on the old Phillips homestead. 

While I didn't get the dining room finished its big clean, I do feel that I am managing to make my life a bit simpler. I have filled two boxes with items that were in the kitchen cupboards, the hutch and buffet. Soon I will be filling more boxes with other items that are no longer useful to me or the life I am hoping to live in the future. 

I have been shopping my fabric and yarn stocks and have figured out what I am going to make for Christmas gifts this year. I love the project bags I made as they contain the projects I hope to work on in a very pretty manner. Need to make more for the silent auction and for storing more projects as I put them together. 

I do find one thing getting a bit more complicated though, and that is shopping. 

Costs keep rising (well except for fuel that has been falling) and shopping for Canadian items is getting tough. Mind you today's shopping trip was only 2 hours and that included picking up prescriptions and doing some banking. Much better than the three hours I was gone the last time I was shopping. I only bought items that were on sale and on the list. However I found some instant coffee at Walmart for $2.00 a tin. I only bought one as I am not too sure I will enjoy it. I figured if I need a pick me up mid afternoon a cup of instant coffee would be much less expensive than a K cup. 

Our prescriptions have gone up as well. Now I am not sure if that is because of the tariffs, but it seems pretty likely. 

I did some sewing this afternoon. Yes!!! I managed to get the sewing machine working like a charm. I made sure the bobbin I was using was one for my machine and not one for the Brother machine, used the same thread on the bobbin as on top, cleaned the area around the bobbin of dust bunnies, and topped the tension up a tad. This seems to have worked. I got the undercollar stitched, the pockets in, the side seams done, and part of the sleeves done. Then I made a mistake, once corrected I put the sewing aside until tomorrow. Once I make a mistake, I begin to get frustrated and things go horribly wrong. I will pick up tomorrow and get the sleeves done and in. I may get the upper collar started as well. Sleeves always seem to cause me problems though, so I will be glad to get those done if that is all. One more item using up some fabric that has been in my stash for a couple of years.

I am up to 20 no spend days so far this month and I think there will only be one more spend day (church envelope) this month. This will really help pay back the money for the chairs. Hope to have those paid back into the account in a couple of months. Then I can work my way through the other pay backs. 

Off to visit you all before I get supper started.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.