What the hell do you people who don't fold fitted sheets do? Ball them up?
As close to this as possible
Fold the fitted sheet, tucking in the corners, into a strip. Fold the flat sheet into a similarly-sized strip. Place on top of the fitted sheet. Fold the pillow case(s) into small squares, place on top of the sheet strips. Then fold the whole package into one parcel, and no more searching for pillow cases or crumpled up balls of sheets. Attachment Deleted
Fold the fitted sheet, tucking in the corners, into a strip. Fold the flat sheet into a similarly-sized strip. Place on top of the fitted sheet. Fold the pillow case(s) into small squares, place on top of the sheet strips. Then fold the whole package into one parcel, and no more searching for pillow cases or crumpled up balls of sheets. View Attachment
This right here is my major thread takeaway. Brilliant!
This benefit reduces your real property's assessed value by $70,200 prior to computing the yearly tax liability.
The Homestead benefit is limited to residential property. To qualify:
1. An application must be on file with the Office of Tax and Revenue;
2. The property must be occupied by the owner/applicant and contain no more than five dwelling units (including the unit occupied by the owner); and
3. The property must be the principal residence (domicile) of the owner/applicant.
If a properly completed and approved application is filed from October 1 to March 31, the property will receive the Homestead benefit for the entire tax year (and for all tax years in the future). If a properly completed and approved application is filed from April 1 to September 30, the property will receive one-half of the benefit reflected on the second-half tax bill (and full deductions for all tax years in the future).
Senior Citizen or Disabled Property Owner Tax Relief
When a property owner turns 65 years of age or older, or when he or she is disabled, he or she may file an application immediately for disabled or senior citizen property tax relief. This benefit reduces a qualified property owner's property tax by 50 percent. If the property owner lives in a cooperative housing association, the cooperative will supply and collect the applications. The following guidelines apply:
1. The disabled or senior citizen must own 50 percent or more of the property or cooperative unit; 2. The total federal adjusted gross income of everyone living in the property or cooperative unit, excluding tenants, must be less than $125,000 for the prior calendar year; and 3. The same requirements for application, occupancy, ownership, principal residence (domicile), number of dwelling units, cooperative housing associations and revocable trusts apply as in the homestead deduction.
This is what I'm talking about. It's not the homestead exemption - it's a specific senior citizen tax exemption.
:::Pulls up a chair to talk to mominatrix @majorwife meshaliuknits about Halloween costumes:::
This is a THING with me because I NEVER had store-bought costumes. My mom would take me to Beverly's in August and we would sit and pour through all the patterns and I'd pick something out, and she would buy the pattern and all the supplies and spend the next two months at the sewing machine hand making my costume. And my cousins, because there were 5 of them, they always had those 80's store-bought ones. We were all fairly lower-middle, but there were some areas where I lucked out as an only child - McDonalds, Christmas stockings, and Halloween costumes.
I've made my kids' so far, but I am just not 1/10th the finish seamstress my mother is, and honestly I don't have the time or the patience for it. This year I'm seriously phoning it in.
I wish I had the pictures in digital form. She made me a Care Bear, a unicorn, a potted flower, a bag of Skittles.
i will say that it was nice to see a lot of homemade costumes in the halloween kid thread the other day. i think i only had 1 or 2 store bought costumes when i was a kid. now im not that good of a barometer since we were poor, but i see poorer family members shelling out $40 for a costume when i know you can make it cheaper. if they knew how.
as a whole, we have shifted to store bought costumes for kids on halloween
I keep thinking that making my own will be less expensive, but it's a lie.
When I buy the nice costumes from Costco, they're $25.
Making costumes = always more than that. If I'm using fabrics or yarns from my stash, I'm not paying for it outright, but there's still cost there. My head, though, is in a different place if I go to Costco and drop $50 on two costumes, then if I go to a fabric store and drop $30, then to Michaels or Target or Staples or Home Depot for incidentals for another $30. It doesn't register as 'costume', it registers as 'supplies'. But it's almost always more.
Heck, I probably paid more than $25 for stuff for DD's Hermione costume, not including clothes she can wear to school as part of her uniform.
This is SO true, at least for me. All the fabric I bought was on sale, but because I sew infrequently, I'm not good at estimating or calculating how much I need and so I overbuy. And if I need to make some kind of attachment, I may buy two options (say, velcro and an elastic strap option) because I'm not 100% sure which one will be easier/work better until I've got the thing made and sitting in front of me.
I can't remember the last time I worked from a pattern, so that's part of it, too. For DD1's costume I searched Etsy wondering if there was something I could buy that was close enough, and when I couldn't find anything I looked at how other people had made similar dragon-type costumes and put together something that was manageable at my skill level.
Not folding fitted sheets very well is the reason why we have closet doors, folks.
Well, MY closets have doors because I would kill for the space in that picture above, so I have to close the door to keep it all from tumbling out it's shoved in so tight.
My sheets live in the hamper until I wash them the night before the housekeeper comes again. TAKE THAT BOOMERS!
I used to say that homemade Halloween costumes were the only acceptable costumes for little kids because that's what my mom did. That was before I had a kid.
Now I think homemade vs non is just another volley in the ongoing mommy wars.
:::Pulls up a chair to talk to mominatrix @majorwife meshaliuknits about Halloween costumes:::
This is a THING with me because I NEVER had store-bought costumes. My mom would take me to Beverly's in August and we would sit and pour through all the patterns and I'd pick something out, and she would buy the pattern and all the supplies and spend the next two months at the sewing machine hand making my costume. And my cousins, because there were 5 of them, they always had those 80's store-bought ones. We were all fairly lower-middle, but there were some areas where I lucked out as an only child - McDonalds, Christmas stockings, and Halloween costumes.
I've made my kids' so far, but I am just not 1/10th the finish seamstress my mother is, and honestly I don't have the time or the patience for it. This year I'm seriously phoning it in.
I wish I had the pictures in digital form. She made me a Care Bear, a unicorn, a potted flower, a bag of Skittles.
Dude. After my mama died our costumes were mostly things we could pull together with existing items. There were maybe two Halloweens where we got the plastic 80s jumpsuits. WE WERE RICH then.
But, god, those things were lame. All the hairspray fumes must have gotten to us.
I was wondering how a thread about laundry and sewing had gotten so long. Then I got to page 3. Ok then, lol.
My parents are olds and from whatever generation comes before the boomers. I'm right on the cusp of being either a late gen x'er or an old millennial. I don't fit perfectly in either, so I claim neither. Also, although my parents are old, they're living young and still the lovely, compassionate people who raised me. I don't hate on all old people, only the jerky selfish ones.
For me the best I can do is rather than buy the Elsa dress I'm throwing together a bunch of random pieces to assemble something "Elsa-ish." It's my Sandra Lee approach to Halloween. Ha.
For me the best I can do is rather than buy the Elsa dress I'm throwing together a bunch of random pieces to assemble something "Elsa-ish." It's my Sandra Lee approach to Halloween. Ha.
For me the best I can do is rather than buy the Elsa dress I'm throwing together a bunch of random pieces to assemble something "Elsa-ish." It's my Sandra Lee approach to Halloween. Ha.
So you'll be drunk while doing all of this then?
I snorted gingerbread while reading this. I hope you're happy!
I used to say that homemade Halloween costumes were the only acceptable costumes for little kids because that's what my mom did. That was before I had a kid.
Now I think homemade vs non is just another volley in the ongoing mommy wars.
you say mommy wars and i say consumer culture killing creativity.
we have rules about these things.
Kids say what they want to be. I get them to commit fairly early. I research what's out there in terms of stuff we can buy, and if there's nothing good, I make.
...so, DD wanting to be Hermione, that was definitely a "assemble" costume. Even if I bought a commercial Gryffindor robe (which I did, but at a Thrift store), there was still a lot of stuff to do - - wand, scarf, tie, all of which are buy-able, but the cost escallates to a crazy level.
DS wanted to be a pirate. Costco sells good pirate costumes. Done and done. If he wanted to be something they didn't stell there (and the other options sucked) I'd make.
What I don't do is what my parents did: wait until October 30th and say, "what do you want to be?"... whatever the answer was, it'd be... "OK, we don't have the stuff for that... you can be a hobo!"
im just a cheap ass when it comes to costumes. i bought the first two with LB b/c i was insane. how cute was she as a whoopie cushion, tho?
i do a costume swap and get costumes for free. it has worked for the last 3 years with success.
but i also loved scavenged costumes - black clothes and some face paint for a witch. wings and glitter for fairy/bug/good witch, etc. i am generally happier with something creatively made.
but i am also the person who made a zombie fetus costume, so......
Yup, and we have it x 1.5 because we dress up every other Easter. So really most of the reason I convinced A he wanted to be a pirate this year was because we had costumes for Carl, J and myself, and some leftover fabric I could use for him.
I did spend like $50 on my Kentucky Derby Easter hat, so I can be creative, tacky and still spend $$$$$. That's talent.
I used to say that homemade Halloween costumes were the only acceptable costumes for little kids because that's what my mom did. That was before I had a kid.
Now I think homemade vs non is just another volley in the ongoing mommy wars.
you say mommy wars and i say consumer culture killing creativity.
All I can say about the costume thing (because I don't want to think about it too hard), is that there are many MANY people that can't put together their own costumes if it's not bought together in a package. It takes way too many brain cells or something.
What I don't do is what my parents did: wait until October 30th and say, "what do you want to be?"... whatever the answer was, it'd be... "OK, we don't have the stuff for that... you can be a hobo!"
Post by sparrowsong on Oct 21, 2014 15:08:02 GMT -5
It's definitely not cheaper to sew homemade costumes but I don't mind spending money because they are really enjoyable sewing projects to work on. And it's fun to envision the desired costume and really get close to that vision, instead of settling for the version in the stores.
All I can say about the costume thing (because I don't want to think about it too hard), is that there are many MANY people that can't put together their own costumes if it's not bought together in a package. It takes way too many brain cells or something.
Me. It has taken me four years to figure out what costume I can wear to this annual Halloween party I am attending.
For me the best I can do is rather than buy the Elsa dress I'm throwing together a bunch of random pieces to assemble something "Elsa-ish." It's my Sandra Lee approach to Halloween. Ha.
So you'll be drunk while doing all of this then?
I was going to ask if she was going to dress her kid up as a Kwanzaa cake.
I can sew. DH does the ironing (thank you Army). He is better at laundry too. We both suck at cleaning. We are both Gen Xers. Wonder what this all means.
Oh, and I can sew a button on a shirt. My mom, a pre-baby boomer, worked in a garment factory in college (her mother and aunt got her the job). Her job was to check the buttons. She taught me.
If my grammy had been alive when I was older (she died when I was 7), I am sure she would have taught me to cook and sew since I would sit and watch her do those things and was totally and utterly fascinated. She would laugh and answer all my questions. But then again, I was also fascinated by the mangle in her basement laundry room too.
My mother says all the time she has no idea where I learned all the stuff I know (canning, baking, etc.) since she never taught me. I just tell her that I learned in on the internet.