Mod Apron

Modern homemaking for the frugal urban mama.

Posts tagged repurpose

Jun 3

Apron unplugged

So I sorta disappeared over these last two days. It was, as I like to refer to it, “a spontaneous unplugging”. It wasn’t planned or anything, I’ve just subconsciously kept all online activities to a minimum for the past 48 hours. I was feeling so good after the first day of unplugging, I just kept rolling with it. It was a lovely little internet vacation and I’m ready to get back in the saddle today.

And what I’ve lacked in inter webs lately, I made up for in groovy weekend fun. Here’s what I’ve been up to, lo these past 2 days:

The street we live on is having a sidewalk fair all weekend. Yesterday we walked for blocks and blocks in both directions, enjoying the activities. So much fun stuff to see and do!
We bought a cabinet for the living room! At the aforementioned sidewalk fair. We found it at this great antique store and snapped it up for a song (and needless to say, we paid cash). I’ll post some pics at some point in the future, but I want to surprise my mom with it when my parents come to visit us in a couple of weeks. And since she reads this blog (Hi, mom!), I’ll wait until after she sees it to put it on the blog. But hey - spoiler alert - it’s antique, hand-painted and GORGEOUS! Yeah, I’m pretty much in love with my new cabinet.
I sold a few things on Craigslist. That’s me, always trying to declutter and simplify. Feels so good.
Lots of tea drinking and book reading has been going on this weekend. I’d like to say the tea is because I’ve quit coffee completely but no, that hasn’t exactly happened. But I’ve certainly cut back. Baby steps, right? As for the books, I’m currently reading this and this.
We had tuna sandwiches for dinner last night. Ha! Sufficed to say, my trusty meal plan got a bit jumbled this weekend. It happens sometimes. Not often, but sometimes. But when it comes to meal planning, I truly believe that rigidity is a recipe for failure. Sometimes ya just gotta roll with it. The good news is that now I’ve got some unexpected meals in my arsenal for next week. And funnily enough, Dennis said the tuna sandwiches were one of the best dinners he’s had in awhile. (I’m not sure how to take that… Compliment or insult?)
I think I’m going to make some cherry jam today. I think it’s a touch early in the season for local cherries because some of those pretty babies I bought at the farmers’ market last week turned out to be a bit tart. But we don’t waste food around here, no sir! So I shall repurpose them.

That’s about it for now! Hope you’re having a delicious Sunday.

Apr 18

We’ve got a back door that leads to a dark and spooky stairwell. Well, actually, it’s not that spooky - it goes down to the shared garage - but Maya is convinced it’s definitely haunted. And in order to keep my poor child from needing years of therapy, I decided it was high time to put some curtains on that back door window. In order to, you know, prevent the ghosts from peering in. (This house is over 100 years old, after all. I wouldn’t be surprised if it truly is haunted!)

I wanted something sturdy and functional. But I also wanted something cute. I decided to save some money and purchase some remnants from the local fabric shop, since I didn’t need that much material. But when I took the measurements, I realized that what I needed was just about the size of 2 dishtowels. I bet you can guess where this is going!

There’s a great little five-and-dime about a block away from us. I popped in the other day and discovered that, lo and behold, they had some cheap canvas dishtowels with totally adorable designs. I had a hard time choosing which ones I liked the best!

In the end, I opted for these two charming green and turquoise daisy towels with a coordinating hem. I simply folded over the top and stitched it up so the towels would hang nicely from the curtain rod.

The finished product: Dishtowel curtains! I love ‘em!

And here’s what this project cost me:

Curtain rod and hardware = $6.79

2 dishtowels @ $4.99 each = $9.98

Total cost = $16.77 plus tax

Not bad for a custom-made ghost barricade!