Frugalista

Do you think Mama Cardinal looks pregnant yet?

Isn't she adorable? Although I thought the recent visits to the Nuttery a few weeks ago signaled nesting season, to date I've been wrong. However, with a blog history such as mine, I see that it shouldn't be long until, once again, I'll be peeping into the Lady Palms, looking for a nest!

I wish I could tell you that Mr. Bruce is excited about his pending retirement, but if I did so, it would not be the truth. What he is feeling is more along the lines of "what will we do without a steady paycheck?" I keep reassuring him that we will be fine just as we've always been. If we had lived our lives waiting to do things until we had money we would never have had four children I can tell you that much! In the spirit of what I've just told you, I am now having to adjust myself to having another frugalista in the house. One is more than enough! Whereas before he hardly looked at the price of a purchase, now he's doing some comparison shopping. Just last night he returned from Wal Mart with some bags of Smarties, the candy I give out when I'm out selling. "Do you know how much I got these for?" Yep, I do because that is where I prefer to buy them when they are in stock. Lately, however, I've had to resort to Walgreens where they cost about 75 cents a bag more which doesn't seem like much, but when you give out as many as I do, it all adds up.

While Bruce does still have a paycheck we are getting things done. Among them was the eye exam we both had at Costco on Monday afternoon. I'm still good to go, his prescription has changed a little bit. New glasses are in the works. I'd made arrangements with Sarah to stop by Sun Dance on our way so Bruce could see the operation. I knew he'd be just as impressed as I was when I took the tour some months ago. Graciously, we were shown around the facilities. Here a guy is using some sort of cutting machine:

And here, pictured on the upper left, Sarah is showing him some of the products they produce:

Sweet, sweet, Alejandra is pictured on your right. As you can see Sarah doesn't have long until her next baby is born!

My sunglasses broke on our way to Costco. Well, more accurately, while pulling them out of my handbag they broke, so we stopped at Ross on our way home for a replacement. Except, in our new shared frugal existence, I bought four pairs for the price of one.

Seriously, can you believe how cheap they were? Who has ever heard of a pair of sunglasses for 99 cents?? This little $9 purchase should last a long time!

This is sounding really kooky isn't it?

With nothing really in mind for dinner, I looked around the kitchen to see what I could fix. Why, how about cabbage soup?

Kathy, our market neighbor, asked if I wanted a cabbage from their garden on Sunday. Apparently, they are nearly cabbaged-out following their bountiful harvest. As a child I hated cabbage with a passion. Why? Our school cafeteria cooked it to death, basically turning it into green slime. And then there was the smell! That said, somewhere along the line I tried cooking it myself, and I fell in love with cabbage. This is my first attempt at cabbage soup, and by golly it was pretty darn tasty.

Potatoes, some left over corn, diced carrots, along with some celery and onions gave it more flavor. This would make a nice vegan meal had I not put the chopped bacon on top. A rainy, dreary day, made it the perfect lunch yesterday.

And the frugal ways continue as we leave in the morning for a little overnight camping trip to Gold Head Branch State Park in Keystone Heights, Florida. Never heard of it? Neither had I until Bruce found it in one of his books. Four years have passed since our last camping adventure which is just plain shocking to me. It is going to be super cold however, as in overnight lows in the middle 30's! Once again we are going to sleep in the car which sounds super weird, but isn't. The Element was comfortable, the Pilot will be more so because it is roomier. Using the little mattress from our fold up bed, we'll be nice and cozy. The cost for the campground? $20. The gas will cost way more than that! Despite the cold, I'm looking forward to seeing a part of Florida that neither of us have ever visited before.

In not so frugal news, our bike rack did not fit the Honda, thus a spiffy new one that hooks into the trailer hitch made its way to our driveway yesterday afternoon. I can hardly wait to ride my bicycle on the small hills there, in what should be brilliant sunshine, and coolish temperatures. Sounds perfect, right?

Trying to remember how we did use our old bike rack that time, I went back into my photo library to check it out. While there I found this photograph of what our home looked like back then, before the tree had to be removed. Made me a little sad...

Of course, had the tree never been removed, I would not have my bird obsession because the tree was so gigantic I never could see what they were doing up there. Although I was tired of that color scheme, looking back on it now, I wonder why?

I'm sick of this frugal stuff, aren't you? Let's do some nature shall we?

Just when I thought I would never see my eagle again, Monday morning, as I was nearing the home with the tree, he flew right over me!!! Parking my bike in their driveway, I ran into the backyard to get a shot. He did not stay for long, taking off for parts unknown.

In my last post I mentioned my gerbera daisy, but did not show you the evidence--well, here it is:

Lo and behold, here's what it looked like after yesterday's rain:

I'm pretty darn excited to tell you the truth because I thought it would never bloom again!

Most of yesterday afternoon was spent signing prints, new ones, and replacements for those sold. Here's a stack which represents what I sold over the weekend.

Unbelievable. Who knew I could make something of this? As we were leaving Sun Dance Bruce remarked that they all loved me. "Really, is that the impression you got?" It is all like a dream sometimes....

I've made a little fun of our frugal ways, but really, it is the smart thing to do, whether you have a steady paycheck, or not. Using resources at your disposal, re-using, smart shopping, these are practices everyone would do well to adopt; perhaps our economy wouldn't be in the mess it is, if, both private citizens, and our governments got into being frugal!

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Yesterday afternoon the London arm of our family arrived safe and sound, warm and dry. I was overjoyed at seeing them both, however, you know how it is at the airport--the hugs are short and sweet as there are other cars lined up ready to swoop in the moment you leave your spot. Mostly Matt was starving, and as it was nearly 6PM by then, I mentioned a new place that has opened on Orange Avenue nearby. Wouldn't you know it? Matt, while working for Georgia Tech, had eaten at the Atlanta locations of Taqueria del Sol multiple times. Because it is a new favorite of ours I was happy to learn it passed the vegan test, so it wasn't long before we were devouring their tasty food. Orlando friends--check it out because it is yummy!

Afterwards I wondered if perhaps they would like to visit the Florida Santa before we went home; they both were excited to see it in person. Lo and behold, as they sat in the car, I popped out with my camera and the folks who own it were outside! My curiosity about what was under the tarp has been satisfied--it's a small boat full of gifts. Then too, the man asked if I'd like to have my photo taken with Santa, and because I knew my blog readers would love to see something so silly, I hopped up on the porch and struck a pose.

Meanwhile, Matt mentioned to Tom that he'd seen Mommy kissing Santa Claus....oh the things one thinks of! The folks were really pleasant, explaining that the shack comes apart, storing easily, however, they would not reveal where they got the Santa! Good times.

Generally I've found if you ask nicely most people are happy to share their stories, and in some cases, their property. As I left the house yesterday morning, looking down the street, what should I see but my friend Sue on her new bike! We took off together down Appleton towards the eagle spot on Ferncreek. She'd only seen it in the photographs and was happy to see it in person. But, once we got there the tree was empty....

I told her some folks mentioned it oftentimes likes to hang in a back yard down the street on Lake Conway so off we went. Slowly we made our way down Waterwitch because I couldn't exactly remember which house it was. Sue spotted it first, way up high. Because my zoom won't go so far, I decided to knock on the door and see if we could go into their backyard for a closer look. Ann was only too happy to let us do so and how delightful was she? Very delightful! We chatted about the neighborhood and the habits of the eagle. Pointing the camera towards the eagle most of the time, I was thrilled that I got a few shots off takeoff and flight.

Amazing right? Not so much the picture, but the very thought of flight...hard to get one's head around.

I did my best to get all of my wrapping done,

trying to incorporate one of Bruce's techniques while mostly failing miserably.

I would pull off all these little tabs of tape, promptly use them, and then forget to redo it, only noticing when I got to the end of a package. Oh well, makes a fun picture nonetheless.

Beth, Roger's daughter-in-law, has been working for him most of the year and at the moment, because Roger's mom is in the hospital, she's on her own. Late in the afternoon she sent me a message that the gigantic canvas, ordered by a young lady from the market was ready. I scooted right over there to pick it up. For the last several years Trish and Roger have not had a Christmas tree or any decorations for that matter. This year they are making up for lost time. I LOVE what she did with her front porch:

As you can plainly tell, the fog has lifted, as have the clouds, and it was bright and sunny--perfect weather for a visit from our London boys. They did manage to stay up, in spite of the fact that it was about 2 in the morning when they finally gave in to their weariness. Today is going to be a good day. After I deliver the canvas, we're going to do something--just what I don't know yet, but it will be nice whatever it is.

Lastly, on Saturday, I might have mentioned how Winter Garden set up a big stage at the market for performances by various children's classes, dancers, and so on. The rendition I heard of a boy playing the recorder and a girl doing a solo on "Kumbaya," was sweet. What was really, really super was the local Baptist church doing the "Hallelujah" chorus under the direction of their charismatic leader! He invited the audience to sing along, and sing along we did!

Good times indeed. If hearing that song doesn't put one in the Christmas spirit, nothing will.

Daylight has come to our part of the world which means I'm outta here...let the good times roll.