This year has been pretty terrible for winter storms. The “polar vortex” has caused extreme cold weather even down into the deep south, there have been blizzards in the midwest and along the east coast, and folks have had to deal with snow, whiteouts, freezing rain, ice and power outages. Whee! In the past… Keep Reading
Search Results for: Make Do and Mend
New Skills for a New Year
I’ve never had much luck with New Years Resolutions. I tend to be wildly optimistic about what I can accomplish and set unreasonably high goals. It’s a personality flaw. What I’ve found in the last few years is that contrary to conventional wisdom (set a measurable goal)–I do better when I simply have a set… Keep Reading
Frugal Upstate’s 13 Favorite Posts from 2013
As today is the last day of 2013 I thought I’d take a quick trip down memory lane and share with you my favorite 13 posts of 2013! For years I had wanted to make an Easter Egg wreath out of those plastic Easter Eggs you can buy. This year I finally got around to… Keep Reading
Meal Plan 11/12
Welcome to winter here in Upstate New York! Today is our first real snowfall of the season, so it’s got me thinking about warm comfort food for this week’s meal plan. Here’s what I’ve got to plan around this week: 1. It’s a weird week. Yesterday was Veteran’s Day and everyone was home, Saturday kicks… Keep Reading
5 Great Reasons to Use Layaway this Christmas
So it’s layaway season again–and since I’m a “Walmart Mom”, they wanted me to help spread the word that this year it’s FREE to use their Layaway! That’s right, no opening fee or anything! Not only that, but they’ve expanded the departments/items that can be placed on layaway. Before I go into all the nitty… Keep Reading
Getting Prepared for a Canning Session
Canning is a wonderful way to create a long term store of healthy, cost effective food for your family. The whole process goes much more smoothly with a little bit of organization. . . so today I want to show you how I get prepared for a canning session. This is the process I go… Keep Reading
Master Food Preserver’s Course — My “No Kidding” moments. . .
Last week I attended the Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Master Food Preserver Course. This was a full 3 day course with both lecture and practical exercises culminating in a final exam and the award of a certificate of completion. I now have to complete hands on experience and keep a log of my activities that I… Keep Reading
Tutorial: How to Kool Aid Dye Yarn (sponsored)
Here we go with another challenge from Walmart–make something fun with Kool Aid! I knew immediately what project I wanted to try: Dyeing Yarn! That’s right–for years I have been seeing tutorials online about dyeing yarn different colors using Kool Aid powders. This was just the incentive I needed to finally try it. First off… Keep Reading
Sewing for Father’s Day
***Note: Yankee Bill–stop reading right now!*** When Walmart asked me to do a Father’s Day post I decided that it would be fun to sew Yankee Bill some sort of car organizer. After all my local Walmart has a good sewing section (yes, we are one of those lucky stores!), and I figured it would… Keep Reading
How to Tune Up Your Bike for Spring
This is my bicycle. I bought it in Bel Air Maryland in 1990 shortly after I arrived at my Officer Basic Course for the US Army at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. It’s a Gary Fisher 13″ Marlin and I believe it cost me $400–making it (at the time) the most costly thing I had ever purchased… Keep Reading
