Sprucing up the kitchen with the pioneer woman

I just love the pioneer woman's stuff.  The other day I was in Walmart and noticed her table cloths.  I decided to buy one for each table and an extra one to make curtains out of.  I also bought a 4 pack of her kitchen towels.  Here is the result.

I fixed my sewing room chair.

I have been wanting to fix my sewing room chair for a while now.  It would slowly get lower and lower until I had to stand up and pull the handle to raise it.  Jeff said to order a new one but I wanted to try something first.

I went out to the shed and got a piece of big pvc pipe.  I cut it ten inches long and washed it up.  Then I took the bottom part off the chair and slipped the pvc pipe over the post of the chair.  I replaced the bottom of the chair, taped the little piece that holds it on and flipped it over.

I think it will work.  I wont be able to lower the chair but that is okay.  I always had to make the chair higher for my long legs.

I'm happy that I fixed the chair in about 15 minutes using stuff we had around the place and saved who knows how much on a new chair. 

That is my frugal fix for today and I'm hoping it works because I'm pretty proud of myself.

New table napkins

In my forever quest to save a few pennies and do things for myself, and avoid store bought I have made new table napkins.  The ones we were using had poinsettias on them.  I think it was time for some fresh new ones.  The last ones I had sewn, turned and topstitched.  They ended up being on the small size but we used them anyway.  This time I decided to just serge the edges and use only one layer of fabric hoping it wont hold in moisture.  And I wanted them a little bigger.  The first set I cut out ended up being more of a rectangle and made it harder to fold uniformly to fit in the napkin holder.  Finally I cut out 13 inch squares and serged them.  Ah, just right.  Now we have some bright colored new table napkins.

Making tortillas from scratch

I have been thinking about trying my hand at making tortillas again for a while.  So yesterday Hannah was off work and we had a little time so we decided to give it a go.

I mixed the ingredients up in my kitchen aid mixer.  We followed the directions and made the tortillas.

 

First we mixed and divided the balls of dough like the recipe said to.

 

 

After letting the dough rest and rolling them out Hannah fried them on a dry skillet like the directions said.

 

 

After frying the tortillas we put them between paper towels and placed them in a large zip lock bag.  We didn't close the bag until they were cool.

The tortillas we ate right off the grill were ok but kind of bland.  I decided to look at YouTube to figure out what I had don't wrong.

I found this video.

 

Not only does this lady know how to make great tortillas, she is funny.  She isn't trying to be funny I just found her to be funny.

After watching her video I realized I needed to use very hot water.  And her idea of saving part of the dough for the next day is great because then you can have fresh tortillas each day.  I am going to make them her way next time.

New bed sheets

We have not had new bed sheets for several years.  The last ones we had were when we bought our new mattress when we bought our house.  We didn't have a bed since we had been living in our 5th wheel for 2 years.  The bed was already in the camper.  Anyway we bought a new mattress and bedframe when we bought the house.  We also purchased a set of over priced Egyptian cotton sheets at the same time.  They were nice sheets but I never felt they were worth the high price.  They were soft but with having the high thread count it wasn't long  before they had holes worn in them.

Since I didn't want to pay that high price again for sheet I began searching for alternatives.  In the mean time a friend said she had several extra sets because her husband wore their sheets out in the feet area because of his long toe nails.  Anyway she gave me two sets of sheets which we used for about 3 years.  We finally wore those sheets out and it was just time.  I had to find new sheets.  All the previous sheets had been dark tan, light tan or blue.  I longed for a set of fresh white sheets.

Fast forward to now.  After looking online and in several stores for 100% cotton sheets I had about resigned myself to getting a cotton poly blend when low and behold, there was a set at Wal-Mart.  And the price at $43.?? was much lower than I was expecting to pay.  I only wanted 300 thread count because I had done much research and it was deemed to be softer and last longer.  So I bought a set of king size sheets and an extra pair of pillow cases because Jeff and I use two pillows each.

Jeff washed the sheets and we put them on the bed.  They look so nice and clean in all their whiteness.  I am so happy.  The best part is they are so very soft.  I expected a 300 count sheet to be at least a little stiff  but these were so soft.  I am quite pleased with my purchase.  Now if they hold up to being washed once a week and last at least a year I will be a very happy lady.

I guess I am simple.  A new set of sheets makes me happy.