Frugal Friday

So can anyone guess what the first picture below is?

No peeking!  You have to guess first.  This is a way that we are trying to be frugal.  I'll give you a hint:  It's a food source.  A very, very cute food source :-)

Did you guess correctly?  Aren't they adorable? Little peeps.  Day old peeps.  I knew they were to be shipped out sometime on the 30th or 31st.  So yesterday after the girls' art class we headed to Walmart.  I was there to get a few things for Moira.  While there I remembered that we needed a box for our soon arriving chicks.  The one we had for our last batch has spent two years outdoors....in the goat area...where the goats and our children frolic in the afternoons.  Let's just say it wasn't suitable for this new batch of chicks.  So we purchased a new box.  Normally you will get a phone call from the post office to say your chicks have arrived.  Usually that phone call comes at 5:30 in the morning.  So, since I did not receive such a call yesterday morning I assumed that the chicks would be coming the next day.  Imagine my surprise when I got out of the van to hear little peeping.  What? Where?  There sitting on our porch steps (in the cold mind you) was *the* box.  The box that held "live baby chicks", that's what the label on the box said.  Not that you could mistake it for anything else.  With little feet, beaks and fuzz poking through the air holes.  And of course the peeping, lots of peeping.  That meant that I needed to grab shavings, a waterer and chick feed during Jed's speech therapy.

I am sure you can bet who was in total love with them.  Jonah is pretty obsessed with the little girls.

As long as we hand him a chick he is very gentle with it.  The trick is keeping his hands out of the box while we are trying to get him a chick to hold.  He most certainly does not know how to pick up a chick!!  Oy!!

This is Miracle.  Named for the fact that she survived the tumultuous trip.  Her little foot was sticking out of the box and wasn't moving.  I poked it, still no movement.  We ordered 15 chicks and they sent us 18.  They send more than you ordered due to the fact that there is a high likelihood that a few might not make the trip.  Little Miracle was being squashed by her sisters.  When we pulled her out of the pile she was still breathing, but looked on the verge of death.  Isabella held her close for heat, and gave her some sugar water and lo and behold she is a new chick!

Some snuggle time.

Even Jed wanted in on the chick holding.  He didn't want to hold it close (to prevent them from falling).  He still has some sensory issues. (Granted Jeremiah saw that the wireless was on.  We had it on for Moira's sake.)

We purchased 10 White Leghorns and 5 Americanas.  They sent us 13 White Leghorns and the 5 Americanas.

This is what that brown little fuzz ball will grow up to look like.  The Americanas lay blue/green eggs.  Very cool.

This is what the light yellow fuzz balls will look like when they grow up.  All white. They are very proficient egg layers, and lay white eggs.

This picture is of another way to try to save money.  Aprons.  Well, eventually all this fabric will be aprons.  Now, I have to say I was most certainly not as frugal as I could have been in the fabric department.  I'll explain in a bit.  The fabric on the right is for Saoirse.  I'll be making her a bib style apron.  The solid colors will be for the trim and pockets.  The dots will be for the body.  On the left is material for Flannery's apron.  The horses for the body and the black for the trim.  I'll be making THIS style apron for all the older three girls and my self. I have one already, and have made two others for others.

Isabella chose a dog pattern.  Again, the larger piece is for the body, the smaller for the trim.

The two fabrics with the tractors (the red and blue, and the blue and white) are for the boys.  These are for fun.  I plan on making them some tool belts.  Jonah loves to stick toy tools in his pockets and pretend to be Bob the Builder.

All the fabric on the line.  Mine is at the end.  The photos loaded incorrectly.  You can get a better look below.

There we go.  My fabric to my apron.

Now for some explanation on the need for aprons.  House work, gardening and tending animals all tends to be a bit on the messy side.  After years of doing such work in my normal clothing I have seen that it would be beneficial to cover my decent clothing up so that it lasts longer.  And as far as the frugality of the fabric goes.  Well my last apron I had bought the $2.33 fabric at Walmart.  It's held up just fine.  But I bought it for the cheapness, not for it's looks.  But lately it has become ever so apparent that my wardrobe is severely lacking in decent clothing.  The situation is this....I get 99% of my clothing either as gifts, hand me downs, or from Jeremiah, who snags something he sees on sale at Walmart.  There is nothing at all wrong with either of those methods of obtaining clothing.  However, that leaves me with a wardrobe that does not actually go together.  The last time I bought an outfit, for myself, that I was able to piece together to go together was 12 years ago.  I only have a couple of things that go together.  If both of my neutral shirts are in the wash, well I'm in trouble :-)  Not to mention that some of my shirts are from college.  That makes them about 18 years old.  Yeah, my wardrobe has issues.  So I splurged on the more expensive fabric.  I went for the $4.45 fabric!  That does add up when you need 4 yards of it.  But I thought this way, while I was working during the day I could at least look nice :-)  No matter what I'm wearing underneath I'll look presentable. 

I also felt the girls needed aprons as milking season will be upon us soon.  One of our goats is due today!  These aprons are long and will give them great coverage as they sit at the milking stand.  This way they can look decent when we go out as well.  They are not inclined to change clothing multiple times a day.  This way they can get dressed once and thow their apron on when they need to do chores outside.  A win-win situation.  This year I will be teaching Flannery how to milk the goats.  She is very excited to be learning.  So can anyone guess what I'll be up to in the next few weeks? Sewing, lots of sewing!