Homemade Hanging Baskets

I am in love with these hanging bathroom baskets posted by Lorie at Be Different...Act Normal. All you need is some string or ribbon, spray paint in a color that coordinates with your decor, and three nesting baskets.

For that matter, you could put these anywhere else--wouldn't they be beautiful in a pantry, stocked with fresh produce and dried herbs? Or perhaps several sets in a living room, displaying objets d'art and collectibles? They'd also serve well in a child's room, or hanging on the inside door of a guest room closet.

(via Dollar Store Crafts)

Recipe: A Radish Revelation Revolution

Well, Mr. Scrimp and I have begun to work our way through the massive pile of fresh local produce that came with our CSA yesterday.

And I have made an amazing discovery. I like radishes.

I say this as someone who has had a fixed dislike, if not loathing, for radishes, pretty much forever. They're like peppery, crunchy, raw potatoes--there is nothing I enjoy about them. I appreciate them aesthetically, but if you put radishes in my salad, I will eat around them and leave them sad and alone at the bottom of my bowl.

Until now. Ladies and gentlemen, you can cook radishes, and it transforms them into an entirely different food. I have become, in a matter of an hour, a radish lover. A radish aficionado. Someone who actively thinks about how I can possibly obtain more radishes.

This revelation was delivered to me via the newsletter that came with our delivery, which claims that people eat cooked radishes on sandwiches all the time in France. Intrigued, I gave it a try--and my only regret is that I didn't have more radishes.

And, because I want you to have this same experience as soon as possible, I am posting a recipe.

CSA

It's cold here in Ohio, so things grow slowly... but, at long last, today is the first delivery for our CSA (community supported agriculture) program! I won't be picking it up till about 4:30 this afternoon--nevertheless, I am so excited!

We got an email with a list of what we'll be receiving, so I'm going to share it with you in the hope that it will inspire you to look into a CSA in your city, too.

Container Gardening Experiment: The Saga Begins

According to the chart that Burpee published and Home Depot hung in their garden center, today, May 25, is THE BEST DAY OF THE YEAR to start planting seeds in Northern Ohio. So, I have duly planted a host of seedlings and am settling into the waiting game to see if any of them actually work their magic and, you know... grow.

I know some of my readers are fortunate enough to live in areas with a fair amount of available land to them. Mr. Scrimp and I, however, have a postage-stamp front lawn, a front step with a foot or two of space on it, and no back yard at all. So, traditional gardening just isn't really an option for us. We have a couple strips of rocky, weedy ground off to one side of our driveway, that gets just about the right mix of sun and shade to be perfect for growing plants in. That's it.

So? Container garden!

Free Stuff

Mr. Scrimp and I are making moves towards doing some container gardening (we're running late, honestly--we should have already started). In our quest to make that happen, I've been looking around for cheap sources of pots and clean soil. I'm also on the lookout for some old/scrap windows to use for a decorating project idea, a filing cabinet, and some bookshelves. And a mandolin.

Which brings me to the subject I wanted to discuss today.

When you're trying to be frugal, but also trying to do things in your home that require you to obtain things that traditionally cost money... what do you do?

A New Meaning to "Window Treatment"

So here I am, slinking quietly back into blogland. I think I'm finally settled enough at my new job to maybe start posting regularly again. Let's hope!

Meanwhile, I am madly in love with this awesome and easy-looking project from The Shabby Chic Cottage:

I would not complain about having one of those in my house. Time to start looking for windows!

Be sure to visit the Shabby Chic Cottage and see all the awesome posts there.

DIY Lighting

While surfing the web this morning, I came across this little piece at Greenopolis.

Titled "18 Green DIY Lamps You Can Make Before Dark," it's a collection of links and photos with inspiration, directions, or links to kits for lighting made from repurposed around-the-house (mostly) materials.

Definitely be sure to get a load of my two favorites, the cardboard fairy lights (pictured here), and the plastic cutlery chandelier.