Sewing Tea Bags!

 I recently sewed some reusable tea bags.

Some organza type material on a little girl's dress had gotten ripped. I cut the organza over-layer off of the dress. The dress can still be worn. I had the idea to use parts of the organza to make tea bags. 

I cut some various sized rectangles.

I folded them in half and stitched a French Seam on the two side edges.

To stitch a French Seam you sew the first seam on the outside of the tea bag.

The next step is: turn the tea bag inside out and stitch the seam on the inside, completely enclosing the raw edge. This is a good way to finish seams on really unravel-y fabric. 

I rolled the top edge over twice and stitched it down to make a casing for the draw strings.

I wanted to put two loops of draw strings through the top, going in opposition to one another like this:

I used a sharp needle to make a hole in the casing on one corner. Then I used a larger blunt needle to widen the hole and thread the ribbon through the casing.

I pull the needle with ribbon half way through the casing.

Then I flipped the tea bag to the other side, and pushed the needle and ribbon back through the same hole and down the other side of the casing.

I tied the two ends of the ribbon together with a single knot.

And, repeated the ribbon threading with another ribbon on the opposite corner.

Check out all my cute billowing tea bags in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Menu Inspiration!

Here are five budget meals that we have been enjoying at our house this week.

Everyone knows that Ramen noodles are a budget meal. When you fix them like this, though, they feel gourmet!

I cook the noodles. I pull them out of the cooking liquid while they are still bouncy and put them in a lidded pot to keep warm while I fix the veggies and eggs.

If I have vegetable or meat toppings that need to be heated I toss them into the cooking liquid. They pick up some flavor and get hot. Then I remove them to the holding pot with the noodles.

For the eggs: I bring the cooking broth to a nice boil, and crack the eggs into the boiling liquid (about 6 eggs). I put the lid on and cook them for 3 minutes. When the timer goes off I add a bag of frozen spinach. The spinach cools the water off enough to stop the eggs from cooking hard. And the spinach gets thawed and warm. Kill two birds with one stone! 

To make the Ramen Bowls even fancier, I will sometimes use a vegetable peeler to make carrot ribbons. Scallions are always a visually appealing topping, too.

For a real authentic Japanese topping and a boost of bone-building vitamin K2; add a spoonful of natto! :) 

Ham was on sale this week for 87¢ per pound. Ham can make a lot of great breakfast-for-dinner meals. 

We really like this Egg Casserole. I swapped the sausage out for ham this week. It was originally a Crock-Pot recipe, but this time I baked it in the oven at 350° F. for 1 hour.

We also had Ham and Egg sandwiches this week.

I make biscuits for breakfast sandwiches and sometimes I make English Muffins.

English Muffins get dipped in cornmeal before setting aside to rise.

If you didn't know already, English Muffins are cooked on the stovetop. It is handy to know some recipes like this that don't require an oven. If you are ever in a situation where you don't have an oven, remember you can still make English Muffins! Here is my RECIPE.

A menu in my house wouldn't be complete without a chicken leg or thigh meal. :) I have mentioned before that I buy the 10 pound bags of chicken quarters for 59¢ a pound and cut them up myself. Even if you don't cut the meat up yourself chicken thighs or legs are pretty affordable.

Our chicken meal this week was Chicken Armenian. Chicken Armenian is a gratifying meal with a small price tag.

The chicken pieces get browned on the stovetop before going on the sheet pan to bake. The onions add some interest to the dish because they are sliced as opposed to diced. A tomato based sauce gets poured over the chicken pieces along with the sauted onions and garlic. As the chicken cooks in the oven the sauce accumulates flavor and depth. The onions sweeten, the paprika permeates, and the chicken drippings mingle. Chicken Armenian is always a satisfying supper!

Another easy dinner with ham is Ham and Cheese Melt-y Sandwiches. We had ours on homemade croissants. Recipe coming soon! :) Croissants are not the cheapest bread that you can make, seeing as how the recipe calls for 3 sticks of butter. This could be a cheaper meal if you use a less expensive bread choice.

I laid the split rolls on a sheet pan and put a layer of sliced ham on the rolls and then covered the ham with sliced Colby Jack cheese. I put the sheet pan under the broiler for 3 minutes, until the cheese was Melt-y. 

Speaking of cheese, Kroger had a sale on 2 pound blocks of cheese for $4.97 with a digital coupon this past week. Gotta keep an eye out for sales and know what a good price is in your area. I don't keep an actual Price Book, but if you are just starting out on your journey to Thrift, keeping a price log for 6 months for your grocery staples can be a very useful tool. For instance I stock up on butter any time I find it for $2.50 a pound or less. That way I rarely ever spend more than $2.50 a pound for butter. $2.50 is a good price for butter in my area. Butter keeps great in the freezer, and is one of those things that you can stock up on.

And let me tell you God provides for His own! I want to acknowledge His hand in us being able to eat affordably. I'll share a story about a grocery blessing. Back in February Mr. In the Mid-west was in the grocery store and saw half gallons of milk marked down to 49¢ a piece. The Best By date was the following day, so the manager had marked them down significantly. Mr. In The Mid-west bought all he could. We froze the milk and have pulled it out of the freezer as we need it. Our family can polish off a half gallon of milk quickly enough, once it is thawed, that none has spoiled. Now isn't that a blessing, milk prices being what they are?

And the last meal for this post is Pizza!

The pizza in the picture is a little fancier than the one we had for dinner tonight. Our toppings this time were just cheese and pepperoni. The crust we like is this RECIPE. It comes out with a chewy texture and great yeast-y flavor every time.

Share your meals in the comments! Help us all with menu planning inspiration! :)

Psalms 37:25 

I have been young, and now am old; 

yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, 

nor his seed begging bread.

Skirt Make Over

 I worked on turning this skirt into a skirt for my two year old this past week.

This skirt was a thrift store find. It was a size 10/12 girls and much to wide for my little girl.

Upon further examination I discovered that this "skirt" was actually a pair of shorts. A very short pair of shorts, at that. Check out that tiny inseam!  I decided that the skirt would just have to be a split skirt, because I didn't want to figure out how to eliminate the inseam and you can't really tell when it is being worn.

I used a seam ripper to take out the elastic casing stitches.

I unrolled the casing. The elastic was serged onto the edge of the fabric.

I cut the elastic off at the serging with sewing sheers. I was not about to pick out all the serging stitches! 

Once the elastic was off I put in some gathering stitches.

I searched for some material in my stash that would make a suitable waistband and casing.

I found this peach colored material with cute butterflies scattered throughout.

It is very light weight and silky. And it matches perfectly!

I made a waistband and sewed a casing at the top. Then I pinned it onto the skirt, pulling up the gathering stitches to fit. I stitched it and finished the raw edge with a zigzag stitch.

I cut a piece of elastic to fit my little girl's waist.

Using a safety pin hooked through the elastic makes feeding it though the waistband really easy.

I stitched the elastic into a loop once I had pulled the elastic all the way through the casing.

A little tip that I have come up with, is stitching the elastic straight in one place, through the outside of the casing.

This makes it easy to straighten the elastic out when it tries to roll and twist inside the casing. I hate it when the elastic gets all twisted!

It fits really well,

And, I think it is super cute on her! :)

Oil Lamps!

 These oil lamps were my Grandma's. They used to live on her mantle above her fireplace. They never struck me as pretty, in fact I thought they were pretty ugly, to be honest. 

I have an affinity for anything old-fashioned and reminiscent of pioneer days, though. When my Mother offered me Grandma's oil lamp set I was excited to receive them, even though they were ugly. They are my first set of oil lamps! I couldn't wait to try them out! 

I began to wash them in warm, mildly soapy water. The dimpled surface had years of dust packed so hard that it took a scrub brush to loosen. And the  orange color wasn't part of the glass or finish, just layers of film from kerosene. Once they started to come clean they actually were quite pretty! The details on the stand part had some pretty swirls and scrolls!

After all the scrubbing they are a beautiful set!

I watched some videos on YouTube to learn how to set them up properly. I bought lamp oil from Walmart to fuel them with. It is supposed to be low/no smoke and odor free. Once the reservoirs we're full of fuel and the burners and wicks assembled, the wicks had to be allowed to soak up fuel for at least an hour before lighting.

We have lit the lamps and used them a few times in the evening. I am a little wary of keeping them out for regular use. I am afraid they will get broken. I don't have a mantle or shelf to place them up high when not being used. I may have to store them in the shed while we live in this house, and only pull them out for power outages or special occasions.

Do you have oil lamps? How do you use them: power outages, special occasions, regularly?

Matthew 5:15

 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel,

 but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.