First Shop Stop

I needed some new unmentionables and as I said here my favorites are Jockey for Her microfiber.

Jockey for Her

In our area we have Ross, TJMaxx, and Marshalls.  I always stop at Ross first because they seem to have the best prices. The other two stores may have better selections so when I know exactly what I’m looking for so I stop at Ross first.

First stop for a bargain: Ross

I bought a bagful of Jockey undergarments whose retail price was $140; 14 pieces in all.

A load of new lingerie

My cost: $47.10.

Where’s your go-to bargain-arama?

Winning Streak

Over the past week I’ve won 2 different giveaways: one from Tiffany at No Ordinary Homestead.

Tiffany is an American now writing her blog from Berlin, Germany.

And one from Lacey at Feathering My Nest.

Lacey is writing her blog in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

I won a Ramsign from Tiffany which I told you about here when I won the first one last year.  I ordered this one identical to the first: one for the side door and one for the front door.  The real thing is even more perfect than the photograph.

My sign will look like this except the numerals are different.

The second thing I won is Everest Nutrition Krill Oil which lines up perfectly with my current pursuit of health and well-being.

I’ve been wanting to try krill oil which is extracted from krill living deep within the waters surrounding the Antarctic. Krill are very small, shrimp like crustaceans found in open seas throughout the world.

Research from the scientific and medical communities confirms the beneficial effects this oil can have in promoting heart and joint health, lowered cholesterol, improved moods and comfort during menstruation. (Information on the benefits of krill oil from Dr. Oz’s website.)

I’ll report on krill oil effectiveness when my month’s supply runs out.

Have you won anything lately? Or added omega-3 fats to your diet?

Serious About Fitness

I have finished 2 3 weeks at the gym.  I did every exercise on my workout which is 3 sets each of 5 circuits. It takes about an hour with the warm-up.

Jillians Michael’s book is the first 12-week program I’m following.

My workout wardrobe is never stylish.  I’m not at the gym to impress anyone. Some of my pants had holes in the “ahem” area which made doing all the contortions one must do to produce good form kind of indecent. I needed new pants. (I have plenty of shirts.)

Gym bag is packed and ready to go.

#1 I bought a new pair of gym shoes by Asics.  They have a generous toe box and so don’t press on my big toe like my old shoes did.

New gym shoes

#2 I bought 2 new pairs of workout pants at Marshalls. (I looked at the pants at Dick’s but they were between $60 and $80 a pair. WOW!) A pair of workout pants at Marshalls is about $15.

2 pairs of charcoal grey gym pants

I used this criteria for the pants:

• I don’t wear cropped pants, only full-length.
• I decided all my pants will be some shade of charcoal or dark grey (no black).

Useful rewards for my time at the gym.

Do you wear cropped pants? Shorts? Short shorts?

Panes in the Potager

You saw back here that we use old windows (which we bought at a yard sale for a song) to cover newly seeded garden squares to help maintain heat and moisture in the early spring weather.

2 casement windows cover a 4 foot by 4 foot square.

These windows were themselves becoming weathered.  The paint was chipping off and the glazing putty was hard and cracking apart.

The paint was cracking off at an alarming rate.

I thought I should scrape them and paint them so they would hold up for years to come.

These well-worn windows were not difficult to scrape.

After scraping much of the paint off I primed the mostly bare wood with Zinsser indoor/outdoor primer.

Primed with exterior primer

Then I used all my green acrylic paint to tint some old white paint.  Honestly I did not add any blue but the color sort of came out aqua.  I guess the reflection from the sky blued it up a little.

I wasn’t going for this pale Martha color. I wanted something bolder.

As a topcoat I used Benjamin Moore’s Bunker Hill Green in an exterior low lustre soft gloss which I had decided on as a garden color here.

The newly minted Glade Garden Green.

Painting windows is a time consuming job because of the various surfaces.

A newly-painted window set in place.

At this time I’m only painting the “out-sides” with the top coat color.  The bottoms are getting white primer.  After I reputty ALL the window panes perhaps I’ll finish with some green.

Can you spot it? Not nearly as garish as you might have thought.

Very Versaillish, n’est-ce pas?

Have you made a bold color statement? Or are you a lover of pastel shades?

I’m linked to

I Decided to Use Blue

I told you here we were planning to use the fence from our demolished porch as the entrance to the potager.

We have a good expanse of old iron fence to use at the kitchen garden entrance.

First Charlie derusted it with wire brushes on an electric drill.

We have a variety of drill attachments to clean metal.

Then I gave it a coat of Rust Reformer by Rustoleum.

The rusty iron fence before and then derusted and sprayed with Rust Reformer.

The Rust Reformer goes on matte black.

The rust inhibitor was sprayed over the derusted fence.

After that 2 coats of Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel in Navy.

Ultimately I decided to paint the fence gloss navy blue.

I really love how it’s turning out.

Do you reuse things? Like what?

Let’s Save This . . . and That

The renovation to The Glade has started. We’ve already salvaged the iron railing from the porch to use in the potager.

We’re working on this railing.

I want to take some time now to identify other fixtures and fitting at The Glade which are to be SAVED, not demolished.

1.  This outside light had lovely natural verdigris and surely could be used somewhere, perhaps on the new side porch.

This outdoor fixture (about 8 inches tall) is covered with natural verdigris.

2. The knotty pine paneling in the dining room is staying so when sections of the wall are removed the paneling should already have been carefully taken down so we can cover any new drywall with this paneling which I’m planning to paint.

From floor to judge’s rail height the dining room has tongue-in-groove wood paneling.

3. I already told you about saving the front door and the back door and reusing them.

Our solid wood front door is being moved but not discarded.

4. Naturally we’re going to use the exterior wood shutters that are original to the house.  We have a few extras but they all need a paint job which I’ll start in warmer weather a set at a time .  Last time I painted them I did them all at once with a paint sprayer.  I would not do that again. (Clarification: I would use a paint sprayer I would not paint all the shutters at one time.)

Shutters on the house are Duron’s “Thunder Grey.”

5. We’re also keeping our refrigerator and dishwasher until they stop working well. I’m not one to replace something that’s not broken. I’m frugal like that.

The dishwasher is staying; the stove is history.

I’m sure I’ll think of other fixtures and fittings that can be salvaged from the property before the job is finished.

Are you a saver? Or do you like everything new?

When Cost is the Object

We’ve been working on our old iron fence here  so we could use it as the entrance gate to our potager.

The potager needs a proper entrance.

In order to make it stand firmly we needed something to hold the hollow metal standards in the ground.

The fence posts are hollow.

First we went to Home Depot to buy a length of 3/8 inch pipe but it cost almost $20 so that was not going to work for me.

Then as we were driving down the boulevard we remembered our friend’s   automotive yard. (One man’s clutter is another man’s business.)

Lots of diverse items populate this yard.

He was there trying to make a transaction about a big rig when we drove up.  Charlie asked if he had any old pipe lying around and told him the purpose.

An old piece of rebar cut into 2-foot lengths would solve our dilemma.

He had a piece of rebar which he cut into 2-foot pieces with his torch.

A torch sends off sparks and handily cuts the rebar.

Charlie cooled the hot ends in some water that had collected in a tire.

The hot ends of the rebar were cooled in water collected in an old truck tire.

For $5 we took the custom cut rebar home to  see if it would work for setting up the fence.

Do your projects have a cost limit? Or do you spend like Martha Stewart?

Back to the Loading Dock

I told you about one of our salvage places in Baltimore called The Loading Dock here. In order to actually purchase something there you must become a member for an annual fee of $10.  It costs nothing to look.

Slogan at The Loading Dock: “You could build a house with what people throw away.”

Our membership expires in May so I wanted to take another spin around the place just in case there was something interesting. How about these red cabinets?  Are they for fire extinguishers? Don’t know.

How could these metal cabinets be used?

They still have tons of doors,

The far sign says “more doors”.

windows,

Wood windows are $5.

sinks and other fixtures.

Sinks – singles, doubles, even triples

Outside there are palettes of polished granite tiles.  Not sure how these are used.

Piles of pavers and granite tiles.

The most interesting item we saw this time was an old stove for $300.

Magic Chef stove

Once I get rid of OUR old stove I definitely want a new one but this one was very interesting and in good (but not perfect) shape.

“Turn out fire before closing cover” –  thanks for the reminder.

We didn’t find anything for our remodel but it’s always fun to look.

Do you go for appreciate salvaged or previously used items?

Hollins Market

Charlie and I were looking for a little outing on Saturday and so we headed downtown to one of 6 traditional markets in Baltimore all established in the 18th and 19th centuries. The markets attract customers to their stalls where butchers, bakers and fish mongers still ply their trades today.

Scenes of Baltimore tile the exterior walls of Hollins Market.

Lexington Market, Baltimore’s first public market erected in 1763, was financed by a lottery. Eventually eleven markets sprung up throughout the city. More than half of those markets remain in use today. The other ones are Cross Street, Broadway, Northeast, Hollins and Avenue. We opted for the one closest to us: Hollins Market.

Hollins Market was established in 1877.

Hollins Market sells meat, vegetables, salads, baked goods and seafood plus some extra goods and services like check-cashing, gifts and cell phones. We bought some produce including strawberries for $1 per pint.

L&R produce stall offers both fruit and vegetables including a wide variety of fresh greens.

Hollins Market, a block-long, 30,000-square foot facility, has a two-story front built in 1877.  Located in Baltimore’s old Lithuanian section, Hollins Market is the only one to still retain its second floor. Up until the late 1950s, vendors along three blocks of Hollins Street sold goods outside the market. This market was the last to close its outside street stalls.

Eddie’s is a busy stall selling sandwiches, sodas, and snacks.

Charlie tried some fried fish from Eddie’s.  He says we’ll keep looking for some fresh market fish.  Perhaps Broadway Market which is right on the waterfront in Baltimore’s Fells Point would be a better choice for fresh fried fish.

Lovely meat stalls sell fresh poultry and meat including every part of a pig that can be smoked.

Hollins Street Market Info: Southwest Baltimore Established 1846 26 S. Arlington Ave. Baltimore, MD 21223 Tues. – Sat. 7 a.m. -  6 p.m. Beginning April 1st, 2013 – open on Mondays.

How about the bossiness of these signs?!

Do you go to unique shopping venues?

Walked into Lowes

I walked into Lowes. Was looking for something else. Saw a stack of charcoal grey cotton throw rugs for $3 each (marked down from $12).

2 new, soft-on-the-feet, absorbent rugs

Bought 2. They were perfect for the Cottage bathroom.

I’m shocked that a $3 rug could be so perfect.

Went back for more.

What do you impulse buy?