Felting wool sweaters

I have been felting wool sweaters that I find at the thrift stores!  I find it so rewarding to take something old and make something new from it.  I am just beginning to learn about felting and I am hooked for life.  In my house my feet are always cold, but the frugal side of me refuses to spend the money for the cheap slippers. They are uncomfortable and they only last a few months, for  me anyway. 

When I heard about making slippers out of old sweaters I thought that would be perfect for me so I tried it.  I was a little familiar with felting the sweaters because I had recently made some sweater felted nature study bags for some friends in our homeschool group.

(To felt a sweater, place it in a pillow case, tie the pillow case in a knot and wash in your top loader washing machine. You have to do 2 or 3 cycles but don't let it rinse use hot water, and soap. After the three cycles let the washing machine complete the rest of the cycles.  Untie your pillow case and dry your sweater.)

I have made a pair for each member of my family, now we all have very warm feet.

Felted sweater slippers

Pink felted sweater nature bag

I love this because of the natural colors.

Canning Grapefruit

I did not know that we could can citrus so easily. I just found out and had to try it. I love grapefruit on my salad, I use it instead of salad dressing.

To do this just prepare your canning jars as you normally would, have boiling orange juice ready and peel all of your grapefruit. Get as much of the white stuff off as you can. Fill your hot jars with the grapefruit then fill the jars to the top with the orange juice. Place the jars in a boiling water bath for ten minutes.  This can be done with oranges, Clementines, lemons, limes, etc. 

Frugal

As a family we have, for many years, lived frugally.  Some call it cheap, I call it WISE. We are not at all concerned about what other people have, It is a pet peeve of mine. We try to buy most of our clothes at church sales and thrift shops.  I personally find that Goodwill and Salvation Army are high priced for me. I like to pay $1 or less for a piece of clothing.  We don't pay for haircuts because I just do it myself. I don't need my nails and hair done to feel good, they will just break when I garden anyway.
We accomplished a big goal a few years ago by paying off our credit cards. We do not have cell phones or cable.  This is a mojor expense that most of my life I have not paid for, to me it is a waste. WHAT! 

The past few years we have been doing much better with things like couponing. I have saved a third on our grocery bill. We also bought a new car that gets better gas mileage. The insurance went down and the interest rates are lower than they were when we bought our older car. Believe it or not but it was less money each month for the new one.

We are also gardening more. We had to pay the upfront cost of building five raised beds, well worth it though. Last summer we grew peas, beans, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, radishes, zucchini cucumbers, and herbs. I have saved by freezing and canning the results. We have learned so much from blogs and have made most gifts given this past year. Thanks to those blogs I have also found felting!!!!   OH I love felting.

We have our family financial goals for the year. We bought an olive barrel last fall so that we could make a rain barrel this year. We may also make a solar panel, homeschool science project. Garden planning has already begun. Who knows what the year will bring, so exciting!

We will of course continue with our wise and frugal ways.