Expensive Days

 Life has been expensive lately. I found out the dishes I got for wedding gifts that we've been using for 38 years have toxic heavy metals in the designs. I searched all over the internet for something I'd like to replace them, and I finally settled on Corelle Cherish.

I decided since the designs were what were problematic with my old dishes, I wanted no paint on my new dishes, but I didn't want something too plain, so I went for embossed dishes. DH and I went around a bit on how many place servings to get. I wanted a service for 12, he thought a service for 8 was sufficient. I always use paper plates when I have a houseful, but if I only have one family and maybe an extra or two, I use real plates. Since one of my daughters who is in state has a family of six, once you add DH and I we are already at 8, and if they come often my MIL or my sister are here, so I made the case for 12 place settings (which is what I got). 

I'm still looking for an all white tea set. Prices nowadays are ridiculous on everything! All white suits me fine, because I have a milk glass collection, so now my everyday stuff more closely matches that. 

Besides replacing all my dishes, my dishwasher broke! I had donated my dish drainer in the big purge last year, so I needed a new one. I looked at Amazon and saw most were running around $80!!! I wasn't paying that, so I checked Target. They had a tiny one for $10, but most of the larger ones were in the $40 range! DH and I went to Dollar General, and I bought the only one they had, which was $8. I also bought a couple drying mats for $5 each, since I knew the dish drainer would work for dishes, but not for pots and pans and such. I've got a repairman coming on Monday, and while he's here I'm going to have him check to see if the ice maker in my freezer can be fixed. That broke a couple years ago, and I've just been doing without. If I'm going to be paying for appliance repairs, I may as well see if they all can be fixed. 

My Bernina still hasn't gone in for servicing. It's still sewing just fine, but it's overdue for servicing, and I mean way overdue. As soon as I get over the sticker shock for the appliance repairs, I'll see about getting it to the spa!

I have proof my Bernina is sewing OK. Today I made outfits for two of my grandsons. The other day they were over and had gotten their shorts wet. They wanted to change clothes but I didn't have any spare clothes for them. The five year old chimes in with, "You can make us some, come on brother, let's go pick fabric for the clothes Nana is going to make us!" He grabbed the three year olds hand and marched them both downstairs to the fabric room. All you grandmothers out there know you've been assigned a task at that point. 

The younger one chose motorcycle fabric. He turned three today, so I put three motorcycles on the shirt. I happened to have two red t shirts in their sizes, so I just appliqued on those. 

The older one wanted VeggieTales fabric, so I did what I could to make the shirt look like Bob the Tomato. 

As far as quilty sewing goes, I'm piecing on my Singer 201. I've sewn a couple quilts into rows while finishing up my Modern Technology blocks. I find assembling rows a pretty easy leader/ender project. Sewing the rows to each other is not great to do as leader/enders. I've also been working on clue three of the Ruby Jubilee mystery in Quiltmaker magazine. I'm not finished yet, but I like the stuff I've made so far.

One of the quilts I'm assembling is just a little one made from units that were hanging around. I snapped a photo when I stuck it on the design wall.

I had a bunch of pinwheels, but most were brown. I decided to try a Trip Around the World setting, and I ended up with only about six to eight units left, not enough for another row, so I figured that was close enough. I have a couple fabrics in stash that would make good borders for this. I still have three rows on the design wall, I'm not quite done sewing rows. 

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting back into the groove of being at home without a houseful of people!