For My Next Trick

It’s been wet and dreary here in the I.E. every day since Saturday. As a barometer as to how often and how long this wet weather has plagued the area … that pound of coffee is almost depleted.

I need the sun to come out, because I’ve got things to do – first of which is head to Starbucks for another pound just in case this kind of weather is our new normal.

Stuck inside, television has been boring. Fortunately, I had a few PBS and KCET shows recorded (Sherlock Holmes, Victoria, Wives of Henry, Doc Martin), so I managed. I’m within inches of completing that needlepoint project begun in May of last year, and I’ve indoor biked myself 57.2 miles along the Route 66 Challenge (66 miles), with only 7.4 miles to go.

I also need the sun to come up so I can head to the Dollar Tree in Rancho Cucamonga for supplies to knock out a project I initially thought to be a million dollar idea.

In dealing with my cast iron skillet, I always leave a kitchen towel over the handle to remind myself the handle is hot from the oven. With so much on my mind lately, I momentarily lost focus the other day, removed the reminder and almost sent myself to the emergency room reaching for the hot handle. Just-in-time, I remembered and tossed a kitchen towel over it.

That’s when it occurred to me I should stitch up a cover to slip onto the handle.

“Oh wait!” thought I. “That’s a million dollar idea”.

Thinking I’d copyright the idea and open an Etsy store, I googled “heat resistant cast iron skillet handle covers” to make sure my idea was an original one, and whatdoyouknow … handle covers are already out there.

Who knew?

Still as budget minded as ever, judging the item not pretty enough to be worth the price, I rationalized I could make a few of my own from quilted fabric but then ran across a five-minute DIY idea … fold a potholder in half, align the edges, sew along the bottom and side seam, leaving one end open.

Doesn’t get any easier than that, but did you know the price of potholders can run as low as $3.99 per item in a plain solid design, to as high as $34 for a set of two in pretty designs?

Dollar Tree is exactly that – one dollar, sometimes two for a dollar.

Works for me.