The light and timer we set up on the coop to give the flock lengthy days must be doing its job. So nice to have fresh eggs again, and such pretty ones too!
Another nice addition to our household this week is homemade soap. Yesterday I received a package in the mail from Laurel, containing my share of the soap we made, now well-cured and ready for use. It's a biggish batch and should last us until I can get it together to make another batch on my own. I'll give some of the small bars as gifts, but keep the big ones for the bathroom and shower and kitchen sink.
I went thrifting this week, in search of flannel sheets for our bed. I didn't find any, but I did come across a couple other treasures. The first was a cast iron griddle pan, in perfect condition. I've been wanting one for ages, but not badly enough to pay for a new one. But for $7, we now own this one:
We're going to break it in tonight, making hamburgers for dinner. Matt says he's going to go find a small brick from our collection and clean it really well to use as a hot press for making things like panini and tuna melts.
I always keep my eye out for sewing supplies and candles, things that can be expensive if bought in large quantities new, but are always cheap and abundant secondhand. We use a lot of candles, especially in winter (our living room is not particularly well lit, so we always have candlelight at dinner). I bought a bag of about 15 tall taper candles for $3, then found a bag containing a bunch of lovely ribbon and some thread for $2. I like wrapping gifts either in reusable bags or with fabric and pretty ribbon that can be reused, rather than the weird plastic-y kind that is everywhere. Plus, with a couple young kiddos in my life, this kind of thing is very useful for craft projects.
We were down to one set of flannel sheets, and needed another set to swap out with when the other set goes in the wash. But not a single thrift store I went to had any queen-size flannel sheets. I stopped at Fred Meyer for some groceries and peeked into their homewares section to see what they had. I found a nice set of cream-colored sheets (two pillowcases included) on sale for $20, so I got them. They're very cozy, they'll last us a long time, and they mix and match well with the rest of our bedding too.
Matt and I try to limit what we buy, because we already have more than we truly need, but we keep a philosophy of "pay for the good stuff," things we know we'll use and that will last a long time, even if they're not completely necessary (case in point: griddle pan). We also keep in mind our "someday plan" of having a bigger house and more property, where our sometimes strange collections of tools and books will be more practical.
