The Fate of the T-Shirts

No garaging for me this weekend, alas. The sales advertised in Craigslist didn’t seem worth going out for, especially after last Friday’s adventure, when the only thing I brought home was an Ikea pants hanger from a free box. Hardly worth the gas!

So I decided to stay home and make masks. I had those two t-shirts from a couple of weeks ago to use for linings, and quite the stash of fabrics collected over the years. Plus, I was looking for mask patterns on Pinterest the other day and found one I just had to try, this veil style. Shout out to Jennifer Maker for the pattern. It was easy to make, her directions and pattern work well (there’s a youth size as well), and I’m finding this more comfortable to wear than other masks I've tried.

The hardest part was choosing fabrics! I often have to battle a feeling of “this is too good for me to use”, especially for something like a face mask that frankly I can hardly believe I have to wear in the first place (maybe you saw All This coming down the pike, but I sure didn’t!). But now it looks like we will be wearing them for possibly a long time to come, so I picked out three pieces from my stash, starting cutting up those tees, and voila.

 I realized after I'd finished sewing that it will be fun (well, as fun as anything to do with face masks is ever going to be) to coordinate them with my various eye glasses.

So now I'm all set for my next foray into public spaces. Have to buy groceries soon (it’s been three weeks; thank heavens you can freeze milk!), and who knows, maybe next week will bring better sales to check out.

Oh, let me finish with some good news: I found the free-box potholder that disappeared in the dryer! It had folded itself in half and was tucked just under the door in shadow so that it was hard to see. Hmmm, it's about the right size and shape, maybe I can add elastic on the sides and turn it into a mask...

It's Not Just Socks!

The garaging momentum is really building. Last week, spent a buck and a half. This week we were up to $3.25! One way and another, All This has probably saved me quite a bit of money. I didn’t buy gas for two months, or go out to eat (still haven’t had any restaurant meals that cost more than four bucks…yay, Taco Bell takeout), and so far this year I've only spent $72 garaging. Last year this time that figure was $183, and two years ago it was over $550!

I was definitely on the prowl for some heavy cotton t-shirts to use for making masks; I've read they make a pretty good filter. So I was pleased to pull a bright green one out of a free box, and found a dark gray 50₵ one further down the road.

Green and gray turned out to be the day’s color scheme. For a quarter, I brought home a fun wine bottle stopper.

And maybe it can do double duty as a Christmas ornament?

Another free box yielded two quite nice potholders. I can always use another decent potholder.

It was a good day for free stuff. Found a favorite childhood book at my first stop.

 Had a nice chat with the lady there. I remembered being there at a previous sale, and even what I bought, and was able to tell her how much I've liked this little bowl.

Splurged a couple of bucks on a bunch o’ magazines, some gardening and sewing, and all of last year’s Martha Stewarts.

My last stop was another 25₵ buy – a dog shedding tool I decided to try. For that price, why not? Apparently the resident Australian shepherd had disliked it. Fannie was okay with it, and clearly it did some de-shedding.

But I still like my Furminator better. If you need a really good, sturdy dog grooming tool, it’s the one I’d recommend. But they don't end up on driveways – at driveway prices – very often. It's actually something I bought in a store, but only after a lady at a garage sale was telling me what a great tool it is. So it has garaging roots! I’ll be donating this new one to the humane society thrift store, so I’m sure it will get a good home.

As I left the sale, one of the ladies in charge was crossing the street to her house, and I admired some of her flowers, She asked if I knew the name of them, which I did (echinops, or globe thistle) and she was so happy to finally be able to recall the name that she cut some for me to bring home!

When I got home, I started a load of laundry that included the t-shirts and the potholders. And somewhere between the laundry basket of dirty clothes and the folding of clean things out of the dryer – the gray potholder disappeared! In the two–plus years I've been in this house, I don't think my dryer has eaten anything. Not a single sock has disappeared. And now it seems to have gobbled up a potholder. And dang it, I used the green one this morning, and it's a really good potholder! 

I'm still hopeful it will reappear as mysteriously as it left. Perhaps in the company of socks I never noticed were gone.