I didn't have a steady enough left hand to paint stripes on my right hand!

Highly collectible Bakelite napkin rings.

How I manage Amazon Prime Days

Amazon Prime Days are here, and maybe you’re like me — suddenly surrounded by influencers sharing their favorite deals and must-have finds. It can be so tempting to buy things simply because they’re on sale, even when we don’t really need them.

If you’d like to avoid the pressure to “buy, buy, buy,” you don’t have to unfollow your favorite bloggers. My little trick is to simply delete the emails or posts before I even open them. The subject line usually tells you when someone is sharing Prime Day deals, and skipping right over them means you never have to battle the temptation!

A few days of sales isn’t worth ending up with things you don’t need, can’t afford, or don’t have room to store. During Prime Week, I just stay in my own little lane and don’t pay much attention to the endless stream of deals. It really works!

My approach is simple: I go about my regular routine, buy what I was already planning to buy, and if it happens to be on sale, that’s a happy bonus!

Meanwhile, back in the garden...

One thing I've learned is that harvest season is much more enjoyable when I have a plan for what I'm going to do with the vegetables before I pick them. When I can, I try to divide the veggie garden tasks into manageable daily tasks. The green beans at this time do best if I pick every second day. The cucumbers and squashes can go three days. The tomatoes are just coming in and I imagine very soon they will be every second day if not daily. It saves me time if I know how I will prepare them before I pick them. For squashes it could be pan frying for dinner, or making a batch of squash fritters for eating that day and for the freezer. The green beans are usually for cooking that night for dinner with most of them being prepared for the freezer. 

It also helps if I pick only one vegetable and deal with that before picking another. On Wednesday I picked the cucumbers and made three bottles of pickles--one of whole smalls, another of large slices for sandwiches, and another of round slices. With the remaining cucumbers I set aside some for neighbors and then made a cold salad of sliced rounds with a simple dressing of water, vinegar, sugar, salt and fresh dill--all of this is to taste. With that done I cleaned up my mess and went out to pick the tomatoes--our first big harvest of the year. With those I sliced the perfect ones for dinner, made a batch of chopped tomatoes for bruschetta, put some imperfect ones into a freezer container to make tomato sauce later, set aside some underripe ones to ripen on the counter, and lastly put some aside for neighbors. 

The next day I did the green beans and the summer squash, preparing them for the freezer and setting some aside for fresh eating that day and also for neighbors. I find that most mornings fly by this time of year. Between harvesting, preserving, and sharing the bounty, there is always something to do, and I enjoy every bit of it. Before I know it, it's afternoon and the garden baskets are empty, the freezer is a little fuller, and the day is ahead of me. 

On to knitting--today I'll be finishing up a lovely V neck pullover in mYak Tibetan Cloud in a seafoam green. I hope to post it next week. Tonight I'm excited to start one of the projects below. The first uses beautiful Quince and Co. Chickadee merino wool for a basic gray blouse which is something I'll wear often. The next one is a Christmas sweater in the always great Rowan Softyak DK for when I want to do a little bit of fun colorwork.

Blouse No. 4 in Lamana Como

Folk Art Lover in Rowan Softyak DK