Showing posts with label upcycling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label upcycling. Show all posts

Friday, July 11, 2025

Local gardens and "weeds", Misfits

Today's morning walk was shorter because I was a bit tired from yesterday's exertion which included a five minute HIIT workout in the evening with April and Eiko.

It's cool and bright-cloudy today, just what a lot of wildflowers like, such as these dayflowers

Blue points of color among the pachysandra 

 Down the street there's a nice show of white daisies and yellow orange daylilies 


And to prove I did the ironing, here's me modeling the favorite pink shirt. I upcycled this, years ago, Liz Claiborne thrift store find, shortening the sleeves and hem and using a cuff to make a pleated phone pocket, and a button band section to make a tiny decorative pocket. 


The fuzzy hair tells you the humidity is up there. Here's a couple of shots of those fancy designer details (!)



And the Misfits bag is out for pickup.


I recently asked Misfits if they did a senior discount, and they replied no, but we do notify you of specials. It was worth a try in this expensive year.

While I was waiting, I decided it was cool enough to prune the sage.



In the foreground a bunch of leaves, which have now gone to friends, one of whom came right down the street to collect and chat.

Then Haleem arrived, effortlessly swinging a box of groceries onto the step.



Some of the canned goods are for the food pantry, the bread is to avoid baking in a heatwave, the chocolate bar is for my nerves, and the fruit needs no introduction. Except the apples are Rockit, small and crunchy. The peaches need a day or two, then I may freeze them.

The graham crackers are a current taste, crumbled into yogurt with lime or lemon juice.

In food and gardening, when I was clearing the counters ready for misfits prep, I notice several tiny potatoes now sprouting. So I sliced off just the sprouting areas, diced and roasted the rest for lunch with malt vinegar, and planted the sprouts in a container.  Waste nothing.

This afternoon is about reading and dozing on the deck, and admiring my pruning. Unless a lot of insurance related calls and messages happen.

Happy day, everyone, seize the day and the potatoes.







Saturday, July 6, 2024

Angelcots and other successful ventures

 I tried an angelcot, which turned out to be the texture of an apricot, and much more juicy, really good. It will make a good sauce with the last of the pancake batter, aside from being interesting raw.

Since I had tuna, I made mayo for a tuna salad on whole wheat toast. I really bless Leigh for this mayo idea. I'd always thought it was a tedious affair of dripping the oil in slowly while mixing, to get it to work without separating, so I've never bothered. 

But now, to think about it is five minutes from enjoying it. I make it right in the container I keep it in, and consider it great.

I'm noticing a lot of fireworks related angst, and my response: move to an Indian community! Where I live the development is now largely Indian. Very quiet Fourth, not significant to even the citizens amongst them. Now Diwali is a different story!

In freecycle news, two artworks were not picked up, after THREE no shows, ingrates, names now on my bad guy list. So I decided to upcycle them.


Took them out of the frames 


And one is now a canvas cloth for the tray Handsome Son and I use for tea and a little something 


Here's the back of the embroidered and beaded piece, people like to see the back. It's a piece of cotton lawn, to reinforce the silk.

The piece is hand dyed, one I made for teaching purposes for the embroiderers guild, when they valiantly tried to stitch freeform without a stamped or painted pattern. Very new ground for them but they threw themselves into trying, credit where due.


Then I turned it into a pillow, stitching it to a linen back 


Here she is with her friends on the sofa, and the frames join another for another try at freecycling. Often raw materials go better than finished artworks.

Since this was yesterday 


Feels like 107°f! A good day to stay indoors, cool, and making pillows and mayo.

Happy day everyone, good wishes for better times in the UK, and high hopes for a continued left path here in the US, too.



Monday, January 2, 2023

New year, new project

Yesterday I felt well enough, this is a very slow recovery, to make last year's lovely craft calendar into this year's handy note keeper.

Each month is now a folded-in section, sealed with tape, for notes, appointment cards, grocery lists, all the stuff usually falling about my bag or being magnetized to the fridge where it falls down behind the counter.






Last year's cover cut down and inserted on the back.

Purse sized and already with bits of reminders in different months.I was happy with this and had to sleep all afternoon to recover from the excitement.

However, as I keep pointing out to dismayed handsome Son, I'm not worse!

Happy day everyone, recycle something just to enjoy it and please tell us your favorite recycle.



Monday, November 17, 2014

Upcycling for socks

I knitted quite a few pairs of socks for me and others a while back.  Some I liked so much that I wore out the heels




what with all the walking I do, and these were too nice to scrap, and no fun walking in repaired heels, so I decided to upcycle them.


And here you see one of my new fingerless gloves on my gnarly old hand




and naturally the Dollivers wanted in on this




and two of them got new ski hats, which used to be sock toes, despite the pouring rain going on, because they figure sooner or later there'll be snow and skiing.

I warned them not to mention the new hats to the others, since I don't want to have to upcycle three more socks..