The Pinch

Some people find that having less money than average is hard. They wish they could afford those jeans for their children. They buy all the pink sticker items at Superstore, even if they don't usually eat 12 cucumbers in a week. They drive 20 minutes across town to buy 20 cans of the tuna that is on sale at 4 for $3. That's a savings of at least 15%, you know. They feel the pinch.

I've been discovering this attitude lately. A few people very close to me grew up with very little, and knew it. "Being poor" was always a restricting factor, to hear them talk. They remember scrimping and saving to buy the things that everybody else seemed to be able to buy easily. Life was hard, and would have been easier if they had just a little more money.

Seeing this attitute at work made me realize one thing. I can't think that way.

For me, frugality is a sort of game you play, even if you don't have to. You buy on sale, trying to make the grocery money stretch as far as possible, even if there is lots to spend. You rejoice when Lindor chocolates are marked down after Christmas. You make your curtains yourself, re-purposing fabric from another project. Your coffee table used to be something else; you're not sure what, but the top was only 4$ at Value Village, and the legs were on an old side table someone was giving away at just the right moment. Your favorite shades are sometimes someone else's mis-tints. You "buy used, and save the difference," as Michelle Duggar says.

And all the while, you feel terribly thrifty, honing your money-saving skills every chance you get.
Life isn't about how little you have, it's about how much you can do with what you do have!
Don't pinch me.




Does anyone care that the dress was borrowed? She's fabulous!

Easy Roman Blind Pattern

I've been struggling to make Roman Blinds for our upstairs windows since we moved here. I think the main problem was that I started with a pattern from Martha Stewart online.
I should have known.
I'm not her type.

The pattern introduced random parts with strange names like batten, without further explanation.

In my defense, I really couldn't find anything else online.

I started one blind, then stopped in despair and put it in the closet. I'll finish it before winter comes and we need more insulation on the windows, I thought. Then, I'll finish it by summer, when the light wakes us up too early. Then, by winter, for sure, this time. And now summer is coming again, and Kevin has been going downstairs after 5am and finishing his sleep on the couch, because it's darker down there.

So today I finished it.

But not with Martha. A friend sent me a pattern, and (although I secretly thought it would be just as hard, from my initial scan of the pattern), it was great! I had to make a few adjustments, in order to reconcile Martha to this pattern, but the finished blind is suitable for hanging (behind a valance in the daytime, fortunately, and in the dark, at night.

I've already started cutting the fabric for the next window. I'll follow the new pattern from start to finish, this time, which should simplify everything.

That was this morning. Now, it's lunch time, and Katherine is in her high chair, putting away vast quantities of food, and I'm snatching a moment online, to check for pictures of blinds with Google Image Search - should I be winding the thread around the little white circles?

I click on a likely image. "Make Shades Out of Mini Blinds," the title says. Hmm.

These look *so* easy! Glue, fabric, an old mini blind...

...on to Plan C!