I like to make my own throw pillows. I used to stuff them with the batting stuff, but lately I've been purchasing regular pillows for about 3 bucks on sale and using them inside the pillow sham. I love big fluffy pillows on the bed. My Wal-mart has a bin where they have material on sale---sometimes it's a dollar, or two, a yard. I usually don't pay more than that for it.

I also like making my own pillowcases. I'm re-doing my bedroom, using some black in it and I've got black silky material for some pillowcases. I'll also trim some tan ones in black. They're really easy to make and I don't even have a sewing machine. I was contemplating getting one, but I enjoy sewing by hand, very relaxing to me.

I make so much stuff people call me Martha. LOL. I always make my own curtains, cover lampshades, duvet covers, t-shirt quilts. Last week I made my DD a storage bed and curtains. Details and pix on the organized home forum. Sometime I make my own cleaning products ( I clean houses)and will take any bottles, too. I hate the thought of waste but don't buy "cheap" anymore cause it wastes money in the long run. Just think about all the things our grandparents "made" because of necessity.

I'm learning to cook a few of our favorite Mexican and Chinese foods. It's healthier because I know what's going into the process and cheaper because I'm not paying $20+ for just one meal.

A mess.

beer

Anything I can think of. I enjoy sewing and am always on the look out for an idea on how to remake or reuse something .

Supper.

LOL Ed! I do that too!

Maria

LOL ... Lunch as well as snacks.

recycle clothing....
cut up linens and thin sheets to crochet and knit shawls, make rag rugs, potholders, aprons, shorts, skirts, quilts, covers for computers etc, lap blankets etc. Reuse remake...jeans can turn into anything from shorts to tote bags to covers for your hammocks when they get unsightly to potholders....

My ex- made a rug quite a number of years ago.

Cut strips about 3" possibly slightly wider of worn-out wool-type clothing, brought the edges together, with cut edges turned inside, sewed them together with running stitch, to form a tube.

She put worn nylons inside the tube, which made the rug springier.

If you want the final rug 3' longer than wide, when you have three feet of the tube made, turn it back on itself and sew the two tubes together, turning at the end and sewing down the far side of the original piece.

The difficult part is to sew carefully around the rounded ends as the rug develops - it's easy not to allow enough space with the tube being sewn on. If you do, the rug will not lie flat but bunch up at the end like front of a ski or toboggan.

If you have it in mind to carry out such a project, start putting the word out to all your friends to save their worn out clothing, for you'll be surprised at how much you'll need.

I can probably get more precise information for any of you who might be interested.

Good wishes for a rug that you can be proud of.

By the way - I don't recall what happened to Sue's.

ole joyful

Everybody mad!

Stella

I make my clothes and dye my own hair.Do a pretty good job of it too.

cut my son's hair. He is only two so I don't think he minds :)

recycle clothing

A complaint ...

... ain't it a shame that us old guys seem to lose the hair on top - but not on the sides? And back.

Which means that we still must visit the barber as frequently as ever ... and don't even get a reduced rate due to the smaller amount of cutting required.

Actually, I don't do it myself: I get my son to cut my hair.

Further - we need to wear a hat, not only in the winter, but holes in the ozone layer being what they are, in summer, as well.

Haven't taken to making my own hats, yet, though.

I've been fortunate in having been able to find some of those corprate promotional hats.

Good wishes as you seek to avoid getting "clipped" in your business transactions.

Actually, quite a few of us have learned some more effective - and cheaper - ways of getting things done by visiting here. As well as having learned some ways to avoid being "clipped" as often.

A bargain - as one can read for free (but it costs to open your mouth, on several of the forums).

Thanks for your service, Spike.

ole joyful

I make my own Sodas. I bought a soda making machine that paid for its self and then some within a month. Not only that because I have a diabetic and family members with other health needs I love the freedom of creating my own soda. My soda machine syrups use splenda vs aspertame which is wonderful and are lower in sodium then store bought sodas. We re-use each bottle so there's never a soda bottle to throw away. And we can flavor with real juice for the children if we so choose.

Like I said. Has paid for itself. Long term health benefits for my family will more then pay for the one machine!

I also make all pancakes, waffles etc from scratch. When you have to cook for people who can't have sugar, sodium, potassium and must have low protien you make all the food yourself!

Ohh, and we use tap water to make the soda. Not bottled water.

I "make water" ...

... oftener than once a day.

Don't reuse it, though - throw it out.

Unless I'm at Uncle's barn - in which case, it gets returned to the fields with the manure - to help grow the crops that you like to eat.

Did you eat today?

Thank a farmer.

When we get corporate farming entrenched - we won't have the world's cheapest food any more.

I sometimes ask my city friends how they'd like it if, working in a bank, they had half a million or a million on deposit there.

At the end of the year, the manager calls them in and, with a long face and with possibly a tear or two in his eye, says that the bank is having a rough time, and ...

... they can pay him his salary for the year, or ...

the interest on his money.

Unfortunately, they can't do both. They'd like to be as accomodating as possible - they'll give him/her a choice, as to whether he gets salary or interest.

Most say, quite indignantly, that they'd *move their money down the street*!

I reply, exactly - and that's what a lot of farmers are doing.

Liquidating their asset, then going to work for some other agency. Or retiring.

My brother, who retired from farming last year, says that he makes more from his investments than he did from farming.

I say, exactly - I've been telling you that for years. But ... you weren't listening.

Most farmers know that ... but they don't want to hear it/deal with the reality.

If a farmer gets a decent rate of return on his invested asset, he works for peanuts, usually.

If drought, frost, poor markets, illness during harvest, illness of his animals, etc. hits him - he may well work for nothing for an extended period.

Or even have to pay for the privilege of working.

And - there's no overtime for working long hours in harvest, on weekends if milking cows, etc. Cows must be milked at least twice daily, 7 days a week.

There was one cow on the Canadian Prairies that was ill with that mad cow disease - and it has cost our farmers many millions of dollars in lost markets. Some have gone broke, committed suicide, etc.

Really tough game.

You can tell that I grew up on a farm (left 57 years ago), lived among rural people in a foreign country for a time and was a clergyperson in rural areas for a number of years.

And a personal financial advisor for a number of years, as well.

Learning how money works - an interesting hobby. That pays well.

ole joyful

Compost.

I took me 5 minutes of contemplation before I got the "make water" one. Now I'm giggling so hard I can't type. Thanks for the smile

I grow a small garden and put peas, beans, broccoli, tomatoes, etc in the freezer for winter eating. I can't imagine how farmers have ever made a living...every year is something to battle, lack of rain, too much rain, etc. I'd starve if my livelyhood depended on my garden. I start many vegetable and flowers from seed. I also sew... mostly curtains nowdays and small things, now that the kids are grown, I don't make them clothes, but do some repairs and altering that would cost a lot to have done elsewhere. tish

I made a tool belt out of old jeans. Cut off the entire legs and crotch. Keep the waistband and pockets. This can be done regardless of the size. (Oops, except the size must be bigger than you. Ladies size one wouldn't work for me. Tee hee.)

sus905

Us old guys have to deal with that more than when we were younger.

Best not to try it into the wind, though, as I advised one fellow on another thread a while ago.

Good wishes to all.

joyful guy

hmm...

I moonlight for a seamstress, who pays me to clean up her studio, and is teaching me how to sew on top of it- I'm not very good, yet- but by next year, I'll be making all my own skirts (I'm not much for fancy tailoring, myself- a yoke waist is 'fancy' enough)

on top of that, I come home at the end of every month with a trash bag full of fabric that she's thrown out...

which can be anything from scraps of 100 year old toile (great for sachets, pincushions, or stuffing) to 3 solid yards of fake fur (I made a throw for the couch- I call it 'snow cat' fur- DH refers to it as 'cruella DeVille's lap rug')

but the coolest thing was getting back into crocheting with a big hook that looks like it used to be the handle of a feather duster or something (yard sale find)

I've made three little rugs, and a dozen or so 'soft trivets' and am starting to play with color and pattern now :)

I made the canvas cable bags for a local jam-band, and got 'free tickets forever when we get signed' plus all the seltzer I can drink at shows.

I lucked into a bamboo grove slated for bulldozing, and came home with enough to panel my sunroom-:) my very own tiki hut!

most of the furniture is groundscored (we traded the china cabinet that was abandoned by the previous owners for a much smaller sideboard with a friend, and both of us are still snickering that the other one actually WANTED the ugly things) and repainted to blend in with the house...

and I'm working out a deal to trade clothes and labor to a local potter in return for using her studio and slab roller to make tiles to over-do the laminate counters in my kitchen....

sometimes,I wonder how people for whom 'just buying something' is an option ever develop an imagination?

My friends kid me that I write down the travel, mileage, etc. on my car when travelling ...

... on scraps of paper ...

... which they accuse me of losing. They're largely right.

So - I took a rather thick, shiny-paper flyer of regular correspondence size that came in the mail, folded it.

Took some sheets of paper that had been partly or wholly used on one side, folded them in the middle, also.

Put them into the shiny-paper cover.

Lay them flat on a newspaper, shiny-paper side up.

Stapled through the shiny paper and internal papers, then through into the newspaper.

Folded over the staples, using sharp point of a knife blade under them to give them a loop, so as not to cut the paper.

Now I have a booklet to carry in the car to write down mileage, calculate miles per gallon, when I changed the oil, etc.

Cost? The price of a couple of paper-staples.

I also try to get receipts for most stuff that I buy (for cash, mostly). Keep them in a small pocket in the car, as well.

And they tend to get lost, as well.

So ... I cut up an old envelope, pasted it to the inside cover of the auto mileage booklet, to hold the receipts.

Have only used it a couple of times. It should work O.K., though. I may want to fold down the front panel, to make it easier to slip in (and retrieve) the receipts.

Cost? A dab of glue.

When I say, " ... I changed the oil ...", that's a fact. The amount that the required amount of oil costs, plus filter, is much less than the cost of an oil change at the dealer's.

I have a friend who lets me borrow his ramps, so that it's easy to get under the car to remove the drain plug from the oil pan, and the filter (for which he has a wrench, that I also borrow). Plus a bucket to catch the oil (and a drum into which to pour it ... using his funnel).

He gives me tea, as well (O.K. - his wife does), which is better service than I get at the dealer's.

And I take a tea bag to them, occasionally.

Which I don't do to the dealer's, either, truth be told.

Good wishes for making your own stuff - and fun.

Taking some measures to ensure your continued good health, as well.

I'm very thankful that I haven't needed to take a pill in, I suppose, thirty years.

ole joyful

I used to make my own baby wipes. A friend gave me the first homemade version as a gift and that got me started. Took a round Rubbermaid-type storage container, the perfect size for half a roll of Bounty paper towels. Sawed a roll of Bounty in half and put it in the rubbermaid. I then pulled out the cardboard tube in the middle and pulled up the middle sheet to start the roll. Mixed 2 tbsp. baby magic soap with a cup of water, poured it over the Bounty and put the lid on tight. Flipped it over after a few hours to help spread the liquid. Those baby wipes worked incredibly well, were strong as any I ever bought commercially, and I saved a ton of money. It was nice when I went back to store-bought, though. :)

I make my own bread,at half the price of store bought.
A heck of a lot better as well.
Also cut hubbys hair,he prefers it to a barber cut.
eliza ann

Gee...I never thought of how conservative I am. I guess I take it for granted that I would rather do for myself than others. I think it really boils down to creativity:

I make my own compost for my garden, chicken/beef/vegetable/fish stock for soups/stews, I make my own bread because I love the taste and sense of pride I get. I try to make all meals from scratch because it's healthier and tastier.

This may sound goofy, but DH and I put on a huge halloween display at our house every year. Almost all of the decorations: from tombstones, graveyard fence, to animatronics are made by us (mostly me). :-) It's more challenging to have a quart of paint, some wood, fishing string, and try to make something creative and spooky with it. Something about homemade stuff makes it more real and fun.

Make my daughters formal dress wear, latest idea, she has a military ball in a couple weeks (for ROTC), we are going to make a dress out of camouflage. She loved the idea. Shorts from old used pants. Gym shorts that are needed in specific school colors. Actually I use to sew alot of clothing for growing family and even tried crafty stuff to make a little extra money. Fabric I had'nt gotten to for intended item...into comfy quilts or blankets. Any interesting thing laying around for garden stuff, such as a brake drum used on top of a metal something(?) for flower basket. Make fences out of discarded pallets for that spot in garden to cover with flowering vines and going to woods for sticks to make interesting fence line, looks old timey. Also do hair cutting/trimming for my kids. Recycle water and milk jugs for my plants to be. I do most of our tune ups and anything else on our vehicles that I know I can do myself. If I can make or do someting myself I will try it....Love the challenge!!!

Hi again all,

Update on the homemade mileage booklets, with enclosed envelope to hold receipts, for the car.

Moved recently.

Lost the book.

Drat.

Also - snowplow banged the mailbox, so it's looking rather heavily battered, hung over to one side, door won't even think of closing, etc.

When post office sent note asking me to fix mailbox, told me township would fix/replace it.

Not wanting increase in taxes, and as mailbox appeared repairable, decided to make it homestyle project.

Undid mounting screws, took it to shop, hammered it back into reasonable shape (landlord's hammer - couldn't find mine till after the job done). When he helped, I used broken spring leaf from a truck that I think that I picked up on the roadside in another province, to hammer the support for the hinge back into shape that would allow door to close almost like new.

Wanted to wire brush (substantial) rust off and repaint - but couldn't find drill. Paint is in spray cans thrown out by a truck repair garage where I worked as security guard - till 5 years ago.

So mailbox just temporarily mounted, till drills (wire brushes already installed) are found.

Now, where the heck did we put them?

Have a joyful holiday weekend, all.

ole joyful