Fabulously Frugal Dolly

Just home from a lovely evening out with a dear sweet friend, we went for dinner at this lovely little place in Port Jefferson called Kimi.  It’s the only Japanses restaurant I’ve ever tried, but what do you want, I’m a midwest girl, it’s all new to me.  Not surprising consider all the weird crafts I do with my hands, chopsticks are not as hard to use as I once thought.  I can eat rice with em, and not by shovelling it from the bowl to my mouth either.  What really gets me is the flavors, like I said, I’m a midwest raised hillbilly girl, it’s called tempura, but that’s fried veggies.  Miso soup is lovely stuff, I just love the little cubes of tofu and how they feel like they just melt away in a dleicious cloud of wonderfulness.  Usually my friend and I opt to share a green tea ice cream for dessert, but today was a red bean kind of day.  I’ve got no idea what a red bean really is, but they taste fabulous.

Being as this is my cheapness blog, I feel obligated to say that for the two of us enjoying a fabulously prepared multi-course meal, it was well under thirty bucks including a nice tip.  I may be frugal, but I can’t stiff a nice waitress, it’s hard to leave a small tip for a crappy server knowing what miserable work food service can be.  By midwest standards that’s not a cheap meal, but in New York, the diner serves lobsters and there’s no two-for-twelve dinner specials.  I’m adjusting, trying new things, like seafood and tapas and Japanese food, but I still drool a little when I drive by a White Castle. 

Yesterday I was getting a little bit down, so I decided to do what always perks me right back up- I went thrift shopping.  The thrift fairie was kind enough to lead me to the most awesome pair of pale blue shoes with white stars all over them, and I’m thrilled with my awesome new shoes that only cost three dollars and some change.  As an added bonus, the laces of the shoes have felix the cat on them, a fondly remembered mascot of the video production program I was part of in high school, so of course I was giddy when they fit perfectly.  Sure, they’re probably out of style, but style never mattered much to me, if I like it, I’ll keep right on wearing it.

There’s not much else going on of late, thus the infrequent updates on my blogs.  Our remodelling project is well underway, I’m getting a whole new house it seems, just the outside is staying the same, save for the new windows and doors.  The kitchen is going to be shiny white, I picked out the cabinets at Ikea with our dear friend who owns our house, and we’re both excited about the nice things that we’ve picked out.  The bath is going to be fabuulous too- the tub has arm rests!  As a girl who just adores a nice bubble bath, that’s very exciting.  Not to mention that my hubby, being the smart guy he is, ran some of the heating under where our tub will be, so I can soak for an extra-long time without the water going cold.  Sometimes I step back and realize what a lucky girl I am, and I smile for days thinking about how two years ago I watched crackheads out the window, and now I watch a dozen swans swimming past.

I bought myself a treat of etsy a while ago, a needle felting kit, which I just adore!  It’s easier than I’d thought, after just a bit of playing I’d made a couple pieces, small ones, but still, they’re fun to do.  It just takes a puff of wool and the special needle- and ideally a mat to work on so as not to poke your table or worse- your hands- with the very sharp and barbed needle.  Supposedly the needles break easily, but it hasn’t happened to me yet.  I’ve made a couple jewelry type component pieces and 2 critters, a tiny little teddy bear and a partially unfinished goat.  The bear will probably go to my mom, as I know she’d just love stabbing wool with the specail needles too, and she’s got a soft spot for little bears.  The art of stabbing something into a cute little something else is perfect for me, I love it.  Once I’m able to do so, there’s a few other wool sellers on etsy whose shops I’ve been eyeing, wonderfully hand-dyed wads of wooly fluff awaiting stabbing into cuteness.  Some of the items that caught my eye are sampler packs of wools, different colors and whatnot, and the grab bag- my favorite way to buy something when I’m not quite sure which kind I want, if only there were grab bags of everything.  It’s the best way to try new things I think, get a good mix and often a good discount of something to see if you like it.  I remember going to the gem and mineral shows as a kid hoping to find the booth with grab bags- there were always great stones in those bags, and you got more for your money than picking out individual rocks for your collection.  Sometimes there’s be repeats if I got more than one bag, which I usually did as I saved up allowance for such occaisions.  It didn’t matter though, I loved the stones, I’d look at them all and keep what I liked and sometimes share a few extras with a friend.