wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door

I was inspired by my dear friend Ashley over at Our Little Apartment to highlight something I discovered lately to be rather useful. Don't fret, Ash, I'm not stealing your "Worth It Wednesday" feature; in fact, I don't yet blog regularly enough to necessitate any sort of "regular" feature. However, I enjoy reusing and recycling a great deal, and felt this was just cool enough to be mentioned on my little corner of the blogosphere.

Lo! The substance you don't often reach for, and in fact was a total mystery to the Kroger employee we questioned as to its whereabouts:


That's right, chums, cheesecloth! It says right on the label: Many Uses! They list things like straining, steaming, basting, cleaning, and polishing. I say...


Spicing! That happy little pile of cloves, allspice, and cinnamon - all bound up neatly in their cheesecloth bag - helped our hot wassail become as delicious as it did.

In addition, they kid you not when listing "cleaning" as an option. At work, we use coffee filters as an alternative to paper towels for cleaning the windows (since our coffee distributor gives us more filters than we could ever use). As for cheesecloth, 100% lint-free cotton means...


Fabulously streak-free shine. Also, meet Phoebette, my plant. You'll get the full story behind her later. It's quite a tragic saga. Woody Allen is rumoured to direct the heartfelt, yet quirky tale.

These are only a few uses I've highlighted. There are so many more. For example, I use bar soap in the shower, and always reach a point where the soap is too tiny or oddly-shaped to be easily maneuvered in any way, but I feel wasteful tossing those smallish pieces of soap. There's still soap there! I'm just too clumsy! The other day, an epiphany: Holly! Place those wee soapy bits into a square of cheesecloth to create a quasi-loofah! I promptly congratulated myself for being both inventive and environmentally conscious (a combination I love, by the way).

ALL THIS for the low, low price of $3.49! And that was just the Kroger price. Methinks you could snag some cheesecloth for even cheaper, depending where you choose to purchase your grocery-goods. Heck, it's not like it goes bad. Splurge the four dollars and keep it on the cupboard. I guarantee you'll come up with uses.

On an unrelated note, I felt very fall-esque to-day, so I tried the self-photographed-what-I-wore-to-day thing:


Uh, yeah. Please keep in mind that I have a rather crappy camera that is at least eight years old. Wait, maybe six. Anyway, blame it on the technology. And I look weird because I'm holding my scarf instead of wearing it. Let's go for take two:


Well, it's better, at least (apparently I really like holding my scarf). I'll work on it. I'm hoping to get a new camera sometime in the not-too-distant future; to expedite that matter, please tell everyone presently living in northeast Indiana to come eat at Applebee's and tip their server/bartender liberally if she has curly hair and blue spectacles. Thank you very much.

Ah, Thursday eve. Pilfered chicken tortilla soup (from my mother), The Big Bang Theory on DVD with my sister, and a new episode of The Office. Enjoy yours, friends.