For my next trick...

ALDI just recently came to Texas and although sticking a quarter in the cart and buying your own bags is somewhat...weird...I really love this store!  The closest one to me is really nice and clean and man, those checkers are FAAAAST.  For Texans, this is a totally new way of shopping and it's apparently hard to adjust.  My husband went in while I sat in the car one day (I had a cold and was doing my duty by keeping away from the general public) and I watched about 5 women get downright flustered at the lady attending the carts when I could see her explaining that you put a quarter in the cart to unlock it.  Oh, they got M-A-D, MAD.  I watched angry women walk away and thought that was probably for the best.  They would have blown their tops when they checked out and had to buy their own bags.  Speaking of...

I've bought SOOOO many ALDI bags now that I think I have enough to make a couple of market bags!!!  LOOKIE...

Cut off the top and bottom of bag with rotary cutter.

Start folding like this until you get almost all the way up.  ALMOST.

See that little part at the top?  LEAVE IT THAT WAY!  :D

Remember how your mom used to cut noodles?  It kind of looked like this.  DO NOT cut that little top part we left unfolded!

Mmm....  Noodles...  This is what it'll look like when you're done cutting.

Unfurl!

OK, open up that top seam that we didn't cut through! 

You're going to cut in this way through every 'noodle'.  This will make...

...one super long piece of plastic bag 'yarn'! 

Roll it up!

The beginning of my new market bag made from already recycled ALDI bags!!!  It's brilliant!

Our new kitten!  Her name is Gia!

Sweeties!

 

 

 So, as you can see, I'm making a market bag!  I think it's ridiculously awesome.  You take bags that are recycled in the first place and then MAKE something out of them to be used forever!  You can't even imagine how sturdy this crocheted plastic yarn is!  I'm just jealous that it wasn't MY idea in the first place! 

Egads and stuff...

A friend brought up meal planning recently and I thought, 'Oh, I can answer this!  I do meal planning!!!'  I DO plan our meals and shop from that list.  I also subscribe (in other words, pay) to a service...  The recipes are great and all but I'm trying to cut costs.  Life is expensive and the last thing that I want to do is pay someone to do my job for me.  Can I not sit down for half an hour one evening and print out some new recipes and make a grocery list from that?  I was just looking up 'meal planning' on Google and I swear that half of what I found also started in with the couponing...  Ugh.  Oy.  No.  I don't use coupons.  I've tried it and no matter what, I end up spending more than I would had I just gone to Wal Mart and bought store-brand.  I don't buy name brands and using coupons just makes me buy name brands.  So, my goal for next week is to cancel my meal planning service and do it myself!  I'll *try* and share my menu when I come up with it.  ;)

Now, for my BIG NEWS!!!  I finished Baby H's wool shorties!!!  I'm a sucker for a free pattern so I used this one:  Little Fire Crochet Pants

Hammy in finished shorties.  Those are some serious thighs...

Finishing the gusset...

I crochet with the very first hook my Grandma ever gave me.  It's pretty beat up.  lol  I saved an earthworm with it once...

I love this colorway...  It's beautiful!

Working on the leg.  I lost count of how many rounds it took me to do the first leg so I eyeballed it. 

My boy in the finished product.  It's been lanolized since this picture so now it's super soft.  We just adore these pants!!!

I LOVED it.  I have to give the pattern-writer a ton of credit on this one.  I usually don't like the look of crocheted woolies but this is a pattern that was easy and worked up so beautifully!  I used merino wool yarn from Pancake and Lulu in the colorway, INK.  The shorties are so lovely and squishy and they fit the bubs so perfectly.  I had to crochet extra rows in the gusset since my little guy has some MEGA THIGHS but that's easy enough.  I love it.