More doll clothing

Seriously considered making a Newsie hat so that it looked like a mini me wearing clothing made from my clothing.

Ariya wanted a baby boy...

...But I wasn't going to pay for another twin, or a triplet, just to get boy clothing.

So I made some.

Spinning Down

So this post is about how NOT clever I can be. Should have bought stuff to save time and money a long time ago.

First the Food Processor

I have spent over 3 hours a week for the last year making a weeks worth of food. I eat roughly the same thing every day and don't generally mind that at all.

Most of my time is spent cutting the food in preparation to cook.

I bought the BLACK & DECKER FP6010 Performance Dicing Food Processor.

I finished cooking all my meals in less time than it would have taken to dice my food without the machine. Less than an hour from send to end. A little longer to let it finish cooking in the oven (Time i don't generally include in my overall time.)

Second:
I Airdry 90% of my laundry. Well 90% of what covers my flesh is Air Dried. it is by item count 80% or space consumed about 95%.

It takes forever and often times the clothing (Levi's) isn't (aren't) dry for days.

I have wanted a spin dryer for a long time. SOoo I purchased one of these with a portion of the Tax Return.

The Laundry Alternative Mega Spin Dryer, Huge 22 Pound Capacity

1 load of laundry and close to 3/4 of a gallon of additional water came out of my load in 5 minutes and it was still coming out when I stopped the machine to hang the clothing.

My work shirts came out almost completely dry.

Like so many other things ordered long after they should have been. I am very pleased.
This should also use less power. The automatic setting on the dryer ran for less than 1/3 the usual time for my work clothing (amount of stuff doesn't change much at all).
Which means it saved about as much as switching the whole house to LED bulbs for a day (assuming you are like a mother I know and need to have 200watts of power to see the sun... at noon... on Mercury... during a Solar Flare.)

A Plant hanger... On the cheap.

Amazon wanted some thirty dollars for a hanger that looked anything to what I would call decent.

So I made one out of 550 cord that I will call... Decent because it cost $3.

I got bored. Imperfectly.

A podcast I was listening to was talking about imperfection. How it is the little blemishes that add character to things.
I've written posts about this at another blog.
So I was thinking about my former online dating profile and how I said something along the lines of Imperfectly perfect.
Then there was this rabbit hole....

2013 mail time alert.

This is a doorbell coupled to the mailbox so that when the door on the box opens it rings in the house. The doorbell itself has been hacked to play the blues clues mail time song, which my twenty something year old sister loves. The goal for this project was to not have to buy anything else. This was done entirely with scrap on hand.

The other armrest I made in 2013

And still use today.

In 2013 I needed an armrest.

Decided I needed a pull out arm rest. This was made with the last of my scrap wood.

Note: still use it 4 years later.

That year I made myself a cheese cake 2013

For my Birthday I made myself a "Cheese Cake." 

No today isn't my birthday!
The family still is not allowed to tell you when it is. 
I had a quiet birthday, just like I wanted. It was perfect! 

If you don't know when my birthday is it is because I don't really do birthdays, holidays, and most weekends. When I lived alone I only realized it was my birthday when I got a call with a bunch of screaming maniacs, my family, singing as terrible as they could, purposely, reminding me it wasn't just a workday. 
You see when you know, without doubt, you should be dead many times over, birthdays become trivial. 
Spend a few years sick unto dying, everyday is a new birth. 

Truck sleeper... 2014

So to celebrate being completely debt free and After years of talking about doing it... I finally made the sleeper for my pickup. The top two are from last night, it was raining and I didn't have a place to stay so I pulled some of my stuff out of storage and made a bed. Today I invested $40 in lumber and elevated the bed. I will be making drawers and such. As well as a way to cover the windows.

Batterie dispenser

Made from the very box they shipped in.

When I made a bed... In 2014

Spent some time today with my father making a bed frame for the wife and I. 
The pistons are on the way so that it can open without injuring my shoulder... Again. 

No the ninja turtles are not my bed sheets. 
I have Batman someplace around.

Oh Christmas Tree.

Finally did this one.
Ariya loved it.
Although this was the last time the tree had anything remotely looking like decorations on it.

Next year will be better.

Ugly, our baby gate.

Ariya wouldn't stay out of Heidi's stuff... Now she cries at not being able to get into Heidi's stuff.

It isn't pretty but it is effective.

Trampoline safety rail.

They wanted $50 for a rail on Amazon.
My cost?
Depending on if you include the cost of Draggyn (my heat gun)

About 7$
$5.5 hose clamps
$1.5 pvc