Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Our Fiscally Awesome Weekend

What started as a fairly laid back weekend, turned into something fun and unexpected:


We picked up some new art (on sale!) for the front room. Then to even things out, we had drinks and a light dinner at Two Brothers, a microbrewery in Warrenville.


On Saturday, we brewed a batch of pumpkin ale, which will be ready just in time for Halloween! The house smelled like pumpkin pie with all the pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. We saved the spent grain and might try cooking or baking with them.

Side note: Homebrewing is more for the love of beer than saving money. However, it might be a little less expensive this time. The ingredients cost about $45 for two cases (or about $1/beer), compared to a quality 6-pack of pumpkin ale for $8 or $9 (about $1.50/beer).


I managed to put off sewing the curtains for the back room for another weekend because we bought a leather couch from our neighbors for a song and a few beers. It might be "leather," but I can't tell. Now that we have the couch, we probably won't paint the walls. No more excuses with the curtains! Except for needing a curtain rod.

The same neighbors offered to help John replace the brake pads on his car. The guys ran into a few issues, but finally had things back in working order on Monday. It turns out only the rear brake pads needed to be replaced, which was about $25.


On Sunday, we enjoyed homebrews, pizza, football, and Risk with Jess and Mr. Lively. I always get kicked off the board first, so maybe I shouldn't have bought the game from that garage sale.


John was also Mr. Fix-It with our toilet. The one in the second bathroom was leaking around the base, so he replaced the wax seal that seals the connection between the toilet and the hole in the floor for about $4. Thank goodness for YouTube videos!


I made more progress in the shop by sewing and listing a few more pillow covers. Plus, my very first buyer contacted me to make a duplicate of the first pillow she purchased! I had to run out and buy some more fabric and of course I managed to walk out of the store with more fabric than planned :)

How was your weekend?

And thanks for all the lovely comments from Friday's post! Some of you said you were thinking about getting Hunter boots and I totally recommend them. They're perfect for rain and slushy winter weather.
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3 comments:

  1. I had such a great time with you two this Sunday! Thank you for having us over and for being such great hosts!

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  2. We made home brew this weekend too! It was our first time and it won't be the last. We're big beer drinkers around these parts and the hubs loves to cook and make everything from scratch ( i like to bake everything from scratch so we're even). The house smelled...weird, but that's because we didn't make pumpkin brew. Next time, i'll follow your lead!

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