Freezers and closets and the stuff inside them

Hello everyone,
Our new upright freezer was delivered last week and it's so nice.  It really holds a lot and it's so easy to see what is inside.
But this photo doesn't show the top shelf -

See all that orange juice?  I bought a bunch with coupons a few months ago.  I'm thankful to have a little stockpile of it because Irma pretty much wiped out Florida's orange crop and many orange trees.  

The door has lots of storage too. 

I've been freezer cooking for years- not full meals but ingredients to go in meals.  One ingredient we like is cooked pinto beans.   I had pintos stored in the pantry in a gallon jar and I ended up cooking every single one of them this week.  

I started out making a big batch of homemade refried beans and cooked pinto beans.  I prefer to cook dry beans in crock pots.  

How I make Refried Beans
we think they are  are Delicious and much cheaper than canned refried beans.

The cooked pintos will be used in chili or Mexican

 casseroles. 

They are all stored in plastic containers and labeled- ready to make quick meals 

I also cooked up almost 4 pounds of ground beef and seasoned it with my homemade taco seasoning.  This will be for tacos or rice bowls kind of like the Chipotle restaurant serves.
And I cooked about 3 pounds of plain chicken breasts to have for recipes like chicken pillows or chicken salad.

all these new containers are in the freezer part of our fridge.
Yes, we like and use lots of ice.  I think we are kind of in the minority on this though.  On blogs,  I've noticed when other homemakers show their freezers, they don't seem to use nearly as much ice as we do.
I even make homemade ice since the automatic maker broke for the 4th time.  I say that as a joke because I saw a Pinterest pin on how to make your own ice to get ready for hurricane Irma.  I had no idea that how to make ice could be a mystery.

At the Dollar Tree, I bought this little set of microwave egg cookers.  They are nice for cooking just 1 or 2 eggs.  for sure worth $1.

My biggest project this week was cleaning out and organizing my side of our closet.  

We have a big walk in closet and its actually our dressing room.  We don't have or need dressers in our bedroom as this closet is more than ample space for our clothes.  

I took out a big pile of clothes that I was pretty sure I hadn't worn one day.
Then the next day,  I folded and bagged them and reconsidered each one.
I kept back this top and did some sewing to make it over.  It had elastic at the bottom that I didn't like and ties on the sleeves that just got in the way.  So I spent an hour cutting off the ties and the elastic,  Then I rehemmed the bottom and sewed up the sleeve bottoms.  Now I like it a lot and I think I will wear it often.

This skirt is strange,  it is shorter on one side.  It has 2 layers and the top layer is sheer.
I don't know if it will work but I've cut apart the skirt and hope to sew up a sheer kimono from the fabric.  I kept out a lace overlay tank style top and hope to use that lace for the sleeves.  I'll let you all know if it works.

When the closet was straight,  I took 4 brown grocery bags full of clothes to the Goodwill.

I found 2 older pair of blue jeans that fit in the back of the closet.  When I first saw them,  I thought they looked too faded to wear.  So I looked up ways to make jeans dark again.
I read that using 1/2 a box of black dye mixed with a full box of navy dye would give a dark navy color to denim as long as the denim was woven with white threads mixed in.
My jeans seem to fit that description so I got the dye.
Then when I started dying them, they didn't look all that faded to begin with but I went ahead and dyed them anyway.
The post said if you use just navy dye,  your jeans may look purple afterward

I don't have an after photo because I finished them late last night and it was too dark to get a decent photo but both pair do look dark in a shade I like afterward.

Re-doing clothes you already own is a no-lose project.  If you don't like the clothes before you make them over,  you haven't lost anything but a little time if they don't work out.
New jeans and a new top would of cost at least $50.  I spent an hour in time and about $3.50 on the dye.  And now I have 2 pair of wearable jeans when I need jeans and a cute top.

My husband has been out of town all week and he just got home.  So I am going to sign off here and go visit with him.
Have a good weekend, homemakers