Lesson Learned

My plan on Tuesday night was to make stuffed corn tortillas.  It calls for Masa harina, which says it is a yellow corn flour mix.  At the store it cost almost $5 for this bag, which was 4-5 lbs, but I didn't think I really needed one that big.  In the same section was the above pictured Quaker Corn meal, which says it is for baking and  breading, so I'm thinking same thing, cheaper price (cost $1.79 for 24 oz.).  Boy was I wrong.  Apparently they are made in two different ways, so you can not substitute one for the other (see this chowhound.com post for more info).  The mixture above would not form a dough or ball or any kind, so I tried making corn meal mush, a recipe found on the back.  I'm sorry to say that it wasn't very good even when I mixed in butter and syrup as suggested.  I ended up just throwing it out.  All I can say is "Now I know."

In addition to my fail in cooking yesterday, my husband and I put in a new bathroom faucet.  This cute little thing was only $28 at the Home Depot.  I wanted a bronze one but they start out at $88, so I settled for this one.  We really need to replace the old one since it had been dripping and a new aerator didn't do the trick.  Our water bill was up $10 from the previous month, which I attribute to this lovely drip, so this was a need.  The bad part was my husband couldn't fit under the sink so I had to help him.  I definitively recommend wearing goggles with this project, because when you are installing tiny debris falls on your face.  It should have been quick and easy but once I fit myself under the sink and got the faucet hooked up, my husband discovered the P-trap didn't fit to this new fixture.  Thankfully it only took one trip to the store to remedy the situation.  Now I will breath a sigh of relief: "AHHHHH"

I'm linking this up to Tackle It Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Mom's Play Room

So to get ready for the rummage I also need to go through my own playroom of junk I have collected.
Here is before:

After hours of hard work rearranging, here it is:

Everything to the left wall is all my mom's stuff which I hope she will remove. She was staying with us for over a year and collected a lot of crafty things (which she probably has at home already).

Everything on the bed and in the blue tote need to be sorted and hopefully put in the rummage or in a thoughtful place. The shelving unit has my art/craft and sewing supplies.

This is a closet shot. I have a shelf to the left with misc things. There is a box with all my office supplies with tons of notebooks, thank you cards and envelopes. There are clear totes with mementos from my daughters school projects and more binders from college days.  The right side shelf has mostly my scrapbooks and my supplies for scrap booking. The gray tote at the top is paperwork I need and a box of shoes I don't feel like parting with. Still more work to be done.  Twenty-four days until the rummage sale. When this room is done I hope to add a TV and DVD player with some foam mats for a nice work out space.

I'm going to link this up for a Tackle It Tuesday at 5minutesformom.com.