Fireplace on, Freecycle and Finicky Folk

This morning, overnight last night in the 40s, I switched on the fireplace insert and found the flickering log light effects work fine and the heat function doesn't. After eight years I suppose not surprising. Mainly I only use it for the cosy effect, without the heat. 

No house heat needed yet. If my hands and feet are warm, that's fine for now. 

And I'm putting my heaviest hand weights on Freecycle, keeping only the ones I now use. 

I backed off from these after I passed eighty in order to protect my spine and wrists. I still get enough out of the 5lb ones and the, I think, 2lb. The smaller ones are for some hand exercises I was shown by Handsome Partner's physio, to keep my wrists out of trouble as I moved and turned him. HP, not the physio. They're still useful to avoid knitting injury.

No sooner said than did. Gone in an hour, several eager requests. I'm helping Keep (or get) America Fit!

I'm also offering a bag of clothing, some handmade by me, and have had not much interest, except for one person, there's one in every crowd. 

This person wanted me to text better pictures and asked EXACTLY what size. I had listed these items in detail. Hand stitched clothing doesn't work exactly to manufacturer sizes, whatever they are, and they vary.

I'd specified email only, my phone doesn't text pix, and had said the clothing was all women's small. 

I messaged back saying sorry, the items were now bagged and again they're women's small, usually meaning 6-8 in manufacturing ranges. Crickets now.

I'll probably deposit them at a local collection or the thriftie. I hope someone will get some use out of them. 

The handmade items are unworn, and fine but just don't work for me. The white toweling popover goes over your head and I found it was a bit of an issue to take it off, aging shoulders, unforeseen hitch. 

Gary has changed his mind about the paint. He now plans on a black wall. So he came over with sample strips of blacks to choose a couple to get paint samples and try them on the walls.  

I just hope nobody wants to change it later. It's quite a job painting a light color over a darker one, needs layers and strategy. I didn't get into that, just discussed various shades of black, warm and cool.

Happy day everyone! I hope your plans work better than ours in this neighborhood. We're a bit hit or miss sometimes. Except a hit for lunch. 

I was finishing up that great leftover soup and dropped the last of the fresh greens, mainly spinach, on top of the hot bowl of soup. It just wilted enough to be really good with the soup, and I think I'll do that again.

The early voting numbers are massive, record breaking. This may show the polls, and the people who still believe in them (narrator: see who pays for them first), are hopelessly out of sync with with reality. I strongly doubt  the "neck and neck" scenario.  Let's look for a blue tsunami.

Martha doesn't live here any more.

I've been reading House Beautiful again.  I love reading decorating HD magazines, and seeing dear little tables at a mere $1200, just to fill in that little corner on a budget..it's like reading recipe books you marvel at but would never be pestered to make.

Anyway, I figured, if Apartment Therapy can do it, and House Beautiful can do it, anyone can do it, so I had a little tour of House Adequate, which is where I live, but if I say it myself there are areas of flair and even panache. Downstairs only, too lazy to climb up and continue.  That's for another issue of House Adequate.

I followed the old maxim of using a lot, yards and yards, of cheap fabric when you have a massive window to cover.  The patio door is 92 inches wide, super extra large because it's the only downstairs window on that side of the house.  

Light does get through the passthrough from the kitchen window, and the living room is light enough.  But that window is out of my budgetary reach.  Even curtain rods are hundreds of dollars at that size, being custom made, anything over 84 wide is custom.  

Enter the handy eight foot pvc pipe, less than three dollars, slung on three big hooks anchored in the wall, using mollies.  The curtains are cheapish cotton tab tops, two pairs, one swaggy thing, and another pair of long tabtops in some transparent material forget what.  Total cost about $50.  And I think it looks pretty elegant. The other thing you can do for a curtain rod on a small budget and an elegant frame of mind is to use a long bamboo cane from the garden store, strong as anything, unbreakable, and long enough for a lot of windows, if you like a rustic touch.

Then there are the Arrangements of Art ideas, which I've been doing for years, long before House Beautiful caught on and all the posh Martha Stewart people.

And the funny object idea, here a child's chair rescued from the dumpster, brushed up and put below a fiberart work of mine.  It's decorative, but you'd be amazed at how many grownups pull it out to sit on it!

And whoever said you don't have art in the kitchen?  I do, why not. Oh, and remember my fussing about being shorter these days, and the counters too high to mix on comfortably, and what would be a good solution.  See that wooden top in the picture?

After wondering and measuring and faffing about whether to introduce a table or an island, neither in my budget, I realized, as I was reorganizing the kitchen ready to start painting, that the storage shelves are sturdy and the right height for me. 

Two cutting boards side by side on the top of one, and now I have my right height mixing counter and very well it works, too.  Happy to hit on this solution using only what I already had in the house.

Dear blogistas, especially people on a limited budget, what cool ideas do you have to share?  please do, always on the lookout for good ones.