Gingerbread houses

My nieces are of an age where making "gingerbread" houses is engaging them so when they're at my parents' house, my mom provides them with pretzels, crackers, marshmallows and candies and I suppose icing of some sort.

Here is one of their creations from this past week....

Toasters

So we went toaster shopping earlier this year looking for something not made in China. The Kitchen Company had a dandy for upwards of $200. Hmm... probably not going to do that. We finally ended up spending around $30 on a cheap one at Bi-Mart. Yep, they were all made in China.

So in several months of use, it started heating unevenly so halfway through,  one must turn the bread around. Also turns out there is no little door underneath so when the bread gets stuck under the narrow little strip it's supposed to rest on, there is no easy way to get it out.

Cheap piece of crap toaster that worked less than a year

After visiting family in Iowa this summer, the Man was way impressed with my sister's vintage toaster she had found at a thrift shop. She promised to keep her eye out for another. Well... she was in town for a visit this week and brought this along... It toasts bread beautifully, has a little door underneath,  and was made in the good old USA!

American made really cool "thrifted" toaster

We're so happy over simple things... :)

Sleeping Bag Repair

In preparation for the Man's winter hunting trip (white tailed deer, muzzle-loader season), he requested his sleeping bag be repaired since the zipper would no longer zip. 

Busted zipper

A trip to Plaza Sewing netted a 100-inch long zipper.  Yay!  Seemed a bit pricey at $16 and change, but really... it wasn't made in China, so we don't have to worry about lead in case anyone ever chews on the new zipper, ha!  And the fact that this otherwise good sleeping bag was redeemable was worth it.

Nice, new, workable zipper

All it took was ripping off the old one and sewing the new one in place - about an hour's worth of work.  And the Man stayed toasty warm in snowy weather inside their tent with a wood stove.  It's a really large tent.