Recycled jeans and tomato pudding

Another idea for making money lately...recycled jeans. This pair has fancy cuffs. I've also been just embroidering and putting fancy fabric patches all over them. These are actually selling in my antique room. I buy them for about $2.00 at the thrift store and then put a few hours into embellishing them. One woman said she'd been stopping by on the way to the mall to look for some unusual jeans and ended up buying a pair of mine.Of course, as my friend Grace says, it's not something you can depend on but it's a nice windfall.

By far the best way to save money is not to go to stores. Better still I often play dinner roulette. This is where
I have no idea what we'll have until I look into the supplies on hand. Sometimes I can google the ingredients
I have and 'recipe' and come up with something. We took my dad to dinner Sat and the restaurant owner gave me the recipe for my favorite side dish there. Here it is.

Aunt Delsie's Tomato Pudding
5 biscuits (I use about 4 slices any type bread torn in large pieces)
1 Qt. tomatoes
4 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tblsp vinegar
dash pepper and salt
dash of nutmeg (I used 2 dashes)
4 Tblsp melted butter

Mix the whole thing in a casserole and bake uncovered for about 45 min at 350degrees.
Eat this with your eyes closed-it's ugly but so yummy!

Jonas Gerard painting

I discovered this artist today. What energy! It makes me want to stand up and paint. No hesitation. Movements of joy and what happens on the canvas reflects that joy!

Money vs/and the love of making

This year I've gone from full time to part time work making about as much per hour as possible in this
rural community. So the budget is lean and extra expenses cut into savings (taxes, speeding ticket, dentist,
medicine, etc). So...I begin to think of making money from making things. I already have a room in my friend's antique store selling stuff I've accumulated, recycled linen clothes and jeans I alter and decorate. I repair jewelry. But I need some bigger sales.The beaded hanging lamp above hangs in my sewing studio and
people love it. A store where I pick up jewelry repairs asked if I could bead one to sell there so...

yesterday I worked on this lamp I picked up from the Restore on Friday. I'm keeping track of the time spent
and may have found a way to make a bit more from an altered item. It's not finished and the beads are from
my huge leftover collection from my old bead store so there's no investment other than the $8.00 lamp.

This lion is ready for his personality and features. I don't think I could sell him as I've come to know his ways while working on him. This is different from making something for sale (for me). I don't think of how long I spent making him or the costs of materials. Do you think there is a line between making for sale and making for the love of it? I feel there is and it's different for each craftsperson. It'd be nice if I found some way to bridge the two but then, it was fun making that lamp...Fingers crossed I can get a little beaded lamp business on the side!