County Fair Time

This summer Matt and I are exploring our new region. And anything that we can do that doesn't require much driving is even better. Sooo, we went to our county fair. This fair had all sorts of advantages:

A. Matt's bank sponsors the fair so we got two free tickets (yay!)

B. The fairgrounds are about 4 blocks from our apartment so we walked saving even more on parking!

C. There was the possibility of elephant ears (and we all know how I feel about elephant ears!!!)

D. The intrigue of an activity called "cricket spitting"



So for the family members and friends who questioned the cricket spitting, I didn't actually see any crickets or other insects being spat out, but here's proof. We did see the Mutts gone Nutts, which was really cute and advocated for adopting pets from humane societies, a great idea.





The theme of the fair was "Year of the Corn" so this picture made perfect sense. The corn was yummy too.



I think this picture sums up our fair experience. Matt holding an elephant ear in front of the grandstand while truck pulling was going on (Bret Michaels was there the next night; we didn't go.) I thoroughly enjoyed my biennial elephant ear.

Yay for County Fairs!!!!! Support Local Businesses and Local Activities!!!

Product testing: Soap Nuts

I tried soap nuts as an alternative to laundry detergent.

There were about 25 soap nuts per box. According to the box, each load needs about 5 nuts (to be placed in the bag provided) and you can get about 4-5 loads from each batch of nuts.

One slightly blurry soap nut. The nuts have this resin on them that isn't sticky but looks like it might be. They don't have any smell to them.

The bag provided for the nuts.

The soap nuts in action.

End result: They worked but I don't think I would get them again. I could get about 3 loads from each batch of soap nuts before they started falling apart and I would have to pick out bits of soap nut from the bottom of the washing machine or dryer. And this is a silly thing but my laundry didn't smell fresh. Yes, I know the "smell" is mostly chemicals but I missed it when I used the soap nuts. For me, they weren't my favorite. Now we're trying a different environmentally friendly laundry detergent.

Kitties and reusable bags

Gus likes reusable bags.

Who needs a fancy cat-carrier when you can just use a reuseable bag!

Note to self: wash reusable bags....

Organizing the sock drawer

Hello, my name is Merrilee and I have a messy sock drawer. Very messy sometimes. I am pretty good at matching socks together but my dress socks and hose go everywhere in my drawer.

Solution: toilet paper rolls and an empty tissue box. I put my matched dress socks in a toilet paper roll, one for each pair and my hose in the tissue box. As soon as we empty another tissue box, I'll have more than one box for different hose colors but for right now, I have just one box.

However, the empty toilet paper rolls and tissue box were kinda boring so I decorated them with scraps of fabric and some mod-podge.

Much better!

P.S. Digging through my scrap bag is always fun, remembering what the various fabrics were used for originally. For example, the tissue box is covered in some scrap from an apron I made and one of the toilet paper rolls is from our curtains at our previous house. The scrap bag itself is actually an old skirt that I took off from a dress, sewed up the bottom, and put a draw string through the waistband. Ahh, memories!