Place-making

A neighbor was giving away some pieces of furniture, and gave us a small table.  I cleaned out a neglected corner of the laundry room, and made a quiet little place to sit and work on something. There were also two small shelves that were claimed by family members.

A child was working on making a face shield for sledding, and decided to use the side of a 2-liter bottle.  Since it was curved, the child decided to iron it under a piece of kitchen parchment paper..  Turns out that what this plastic does when heated is to immediately shrink and make large, smooth blisters.  But this worked out in the child's favor, because three of the blisters were placed just right for the eyes and nose of a pair of goggles.  Child went on to build a full face mask off of that.

Later on I did my own experiment with another cut-up 2-liter bottle.  What came out was a smoothly pebbled (with bumps up to about 2 inches across) otherwise flat surface that is about five inches by seven.  It looks very nice, but it would take a lot of bottles to cover a surface of any size.

I also did an experiment into making flatbread.  Cooking it on the griddle and in the oven had very similar results, except that the griddle was better for browning it.

One small step at a time

We finally have matching light bulbs in each bathroom light fixture.

I glued a broken chair and drawer (not to each other), and put them back into service.

The dress project is nearly complete.  The directions had me sew in each sleeve inside-out for fitting, and then disassemble the seams and re-sew the right way.  I also managed at one point to sew one side of the zipper half an inch higher than the other side, which took some time to correct.

I've also been looking at my homemade armchair, which is more comfortable than it looks, at least for me, and thinking about giving it a wider back and seat to make it a couch.  The couch that it originally went with it is unusable until the sides are rebuilt, and it is too large for the living room here.

Really what I need here is a sort of freestanding window seat, with storage both above and below.

I've started saving dryer lint and chip bags for future projects.

There was a household hint in a recent Reader's Digest to put a ball of aluminum foil in the dryer to cut the static electricity.  I didn't really notice any difference in the static cling, but after a number of loads, the ball of foil is much smoother and denser, and looks a lot less like aluminum foil.

Excursions

I happened to be near a discount grocery recently, which has dented and slightly outdated and discontinued groceries, and I found some good deals.  They had a sign up explaining the differences between Best By, Use By, and Sell By dates.

The regular grocery store has a few shelves here and there with similar deals.  They took down their signs about supply issues, and seemed better stocked this week.

I turned the thermostat down two degrees, but I'm not sure the savings in natural gas is worth the cost of the extra food my family will be eating to keep warm.

I recycled an old memory foam mattress topper into cushions for a rocker.  It has a temporary cover made from velvet curtains safety-pinned and sewn with long stitches (basted), until I find the fabric I want to use for it.

My husband has been playing with tin can camping stoves.  One design could hold a beer can stove like I made some years ago.