Farm Fresh Finances

 I am weird about money.  I'll use the white out correction tape that is broken and all pulled out of the dispenser and rub it on with my fingernail instead of throwing it out. I'll save the 1/2 c of hamburger meat that didn't fit on the pizza even though my husband is exasperated and doesn't think that little dab is worth saving. I re use plastic bags. I teach my children to sparingly use toilet paper and to use family cloth if it's only wee. I won't buy a book unless it's not available at the library, or I know (because I already checked it out at the library) that I'll come back to it, time and time again. I'll talk myself out of an adorable $3 sweater at Goodwill to make into wool longies because I already have several unfinished or worse, unstarted projects languishing in my studio.

But then I will spend money rather freely on what some people would consider serious splurges. I guess I feel like I can because I am so frugal in other ways.

One of the frugal projects: Dying Playsilks.

A word about play silks: Ah-mazing. Check into them. Seriously. My children of all ages, play with them every day. Every. Day.

They are kind of pricey though. I love supporting Etsy stores, WAHMs, and that is where I got our first set. But they were a serious splurge. I wondered if I would be able to make them myself. And guess what? I could!

Directions are all over the 'net. I got the 35" x 35" hemmed silk scarves from Dharma Trading for about $5 each--much less than silk at the fabric stores. Then I dyed it with food coloring. I thought this would be a fun project to do with the girls, but really, it's kind of boring.

Ok, really boring.

First you have to boil the silks in water and vinegar. For a long time.
Then you mix your colors with a little bit of water, and let the silks sit in them. For a long time.

Then you have rinse them, one by one. For a really long time.
I got them fairly well rinsed and then just got tired of it, so ran them on the rinse and spin cycle in my washer. I got a little pink on the yellow one because of that, but Aviana told me she wishes I had gotten more on it. 

 Then I dried them in the dryer. And they turned out like this.

 Then the chiddlers will play with them. For a long time :-)

Another frugal project. 2013 calendar.

We use our calendar on the wall to write down all our appointments and dates and events. Archaic, I know. It works for us though because Handsome Husband is very good about checking it before making plans and good about writing down what he has going on. As this is a habit that has been several years in the making, I am not planning on switching it up on him any time soon.

We got a very nice calendar as a Christmas gift from one of my author friends. Because the side bar was advertising books coming out from her publisher though, the date boxes were fairly teeny. As much as I love books and supporting her in her endeavors, I love big date boxes more.

We also got a free calendar from the bank--which had one picture. Of their logo. But it had nice big date boxes.

So yes. I did. I sat down with my scissors and my glue and reinvented our calendar.

 And saved myself about $20.

Which I then turned around and spent purchasing Season 4 of Sister Wives.

(I told you some people might consider them splurges ;-))