Your Fly is Down!

Ha. See what I did there with the funny pun for a title?

Seriously, though--I'm here to update you on how that experiment with the bay leaves turned out.

More Food Pondering

It's been a lovely weekend. Mr. Scrimp and I just celebrated our first wedding anniversary! That's right, we've been married for a whole year, which is next to no time at all to those of you who have been married for a while, and an eternity to those of you who think marriage is terrifying.

All in all, I gotta say I'm pretty happy with the deal I got, by which I mean that Mr. Scrimp is the best and I wouldn't trade being married to him for anything in the world.

I was mulling over things I could talk about on the blog today, and then I drifted into daydreams about our lovely anniversary picnic yesterday (we went to the beach. There was grass! There was sand! There was water! There was a picnic!). So I figured I'd talk to you a bit about food, which you know is a favorite topic of mine.

How much do you spend on food each week?

DIY Summer Top

Newest item on my list of wicked cool things? Sew Mama Sew, a repository of hip patterns, design ideas, tips, tricks, and techniques for sewing. They also sell some really beautiful and unique fabrics and maintain a blog with inspiration photos, links, and advice. What's not to love?

I'm particularly enthralled with this pattern, which I'd like to try very soon, especially because Mr. Scrimp and I are getting ready to take a trip to the beach, and I'm going to need something cute to wear there!

Doesn't this look like it will fit the bill nicely? I'm a fan.

Eww...

Summer is here, and with summer comes my least favorite group of creatures--bugs.

There's a long list of critters that I hate, hate, hate! Spiders, centipedes, cockroaches, flies, ants--I can tolerate them outside, but when they get inside my house, I am not a happy Mrs. Scrimp.

Unfortunately, ants and flies have both arrived in our house--mainly in the kitchen. Our kitchen has a door that leads into the back steps and then right out into the driveway, so it's not really a surprise, but it definitely is an annoyance.

The problem is, I refuse to even let chemical insectisides into my house. So, what's to be done? Well, I did some poking around online and have some ideas.

New Layout

Hey guys! Check it out! Scrimpalicious has a new look!

Be sure to leave a comment and let me know how you like it!

Reader Feature: Jill

It's long been a bloggy hope of mine that people will send me photos of projects they've done (or meals they've made, or gardens they've planted, or what-have-you) so that I can feature them here on the blog and share them with the world.

Today, I'm happy to present the lovely handiwork of Scrimpalicious reader (and personal friend to the Scrimps), Jill!

DIY Reusable Shopping Bags

Mr. Scrimp and I have a growing collection of reusable shopping bags. I like this. They're stronger than the paper bags we get at Whole Foods (and often hold more), and of course they sharply reduce the amount of plastic bags that we use.

What I don't like is the fact that every time I use one, I'm advertising for someone. Granted, if I bought a bag from them I'm probably ok with giving them a little shout-out, but I'd be just as happy having something prettier that I can take anywhere. I only use my branded bags for shopping. I don't use them, say, for a trip. Call me picky (I am). I don't wear many brand-name clothes either.

Well, now I know what to do about it! Living With Punks has posted this spectacular tutorial on how to make your own reusable shopping bag, and I love it!

She even managed to find cute shopping bag fabric at JoAnn online, so as soon as you read her tutorial you can order some fabric and prepare to get started.

(via CraftGossip)