Change Of Plans

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

For over a month we had an Airbnb booked for a two night trip to Granbury and Glen Rose. We also already had our tickets for Fossil Rim, the drive through safari. We were looking forward to staying on the lake, kayaking and doing some antique shopping. Just a nice little getaway in the middle of Donny’s vacation time.

We kept our eyes on the weather as the dates approached. It was not looking good at all. Stormy nasty weather was predicted on all 3 of the weather sites I use. Luckily, the Airbnb allowed us to cancel with a full refund. My daughter, who lives in the DFW area, can use our Fossil Rim tickets for her family. So that worked out well.

Our problem was where do we go. Every place that sounded fun was getting the same bad weather. Then I thought of a destination that I hadn’t been to in years, Galveston. Starting from scratch with the Airbnb s is daunting because I have to go through every minute description and read ALL of the reviews. I had decided that we needed an extra day because the drive was double of what the original trip was going to be and there is so much more to do in Galveston.

I found many, narrowed them down and went to Donny to have him look at them. Monday through Thursday is what I had added to my wishlist. I was so relieved to have that out of the way until Donny let me know that he had changed his vacation days to Tuesday through Saturday. This meant that my original list of airbnbs would not be accurate due to the different dates.

Two hours later I had whittled my list of 29 down to 5. Donny and I went through them and he and I both picked the same one.

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It’s so cute, cozy and right by the beach. It will fit our needs perfectly.

We leave tomorrow and I’ve been racing around trying to get everything off my list accomplished.

Is anyone else a list maker? I think I’m just a type A trip planner. I feel like it makes it so much easier once we get there to know we have everything that we need. I also make a packing list that I take with me so that I don’t forget anything.

And with all of my planning, Donny will just throw some clothes in a backpack and he’ll be done.

I honestly cannot wait to get away even if it’s only for a few days. Kids are in charge of the house. Let’s pray that my garden and chickens survive.

Speaking of bird, we have had martins build there nest in the soffet aria of our house since we have lived here. Every year a baby will fall out of the hole. Martins only have 1-2 babies and last year they only had one. It fell out of the hole twice and we put it back in. The parents scream at us until we come out and find it. It didn’t make it and the parents mourned that baby. I can’t have that happen again so I made a baby bird catcher.

No baby bird is going to die on my watch again.

Avalon Faire

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Day DateLeave a comment

I feel like it always rains on Easter weekend. I know it did every single time when we lived in Baton Rouge. Saturday was a bit unnerving.

Even though the tornado sirens were going off for what seemed like forever, we luckily did not see one near us. The wind was crazy and the rain was blowing sideways.

Because Avalon Faire is always in April and only open on the weekends, Easter Sunday is the only time that Donny can go. I gave the kids their Easter basket along with Olivia and Gavin and Donny and I headed out. Because we did go early the crowds were not bad at all. Surprisingly it wasn’t even muddy.

We didn’t go last year and they had made quite a few changes for the better.

There are more bridges and wooden walkways. There seems to be more food options. Donny got a beef sandwich and then we both got sausages on a stick that were really good.

My favorite shop used to be the Marrakesh Market because they used to have a whole wall of pottery. It’s still there, but it’s more in line with costumes and baskets. I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to get a mug. We did see a tent where there were mugs, but there wasn’t really anything that I loved enough to pay the price they were asking.

We watched a skit that was funny.

We always get a bottle of Mead. This year we our choice was Apple Pieser that tasted just like apple pie. Donny Found a tumbler/koozie that this man makes out of leather. He had so many cool pieces to choose from. The lids are interchangeable so it will be pretty handy.

We had made our way around the faire twice and I really didn’t see anything that caught my eye until Donny saw this shop that had leather purses and pouches. The sweet older couple that makes everything were so incredibly nice. I found the perfect crossbody bag that I later found out is called a Viking Druid pouch. I love that it holds everything that my other purse did.

We saw part of the jousting, but I was more interested in just how close we could get the these birds that they use in another show.

Sometimes the pond isn’t as full as it was on Easter, but thanks to the rain it was to the brim.

The whole faire is just so pretty and the weather was amazing. We even wore long sleeves and didn’t sweat a drop.

When we got home the kids were flying their kites in the backyard.

What a glorious day it was.

Progress

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

It seems lately I’ve only been posting about our garden, but truthfully, that’s what we’ve been working on the most. We’ve gotten some decent rain lately, like today it’s been raining all day, so the plants have really taken off.

The squash and radishes are getting so big. I had to use Google Lens to see what one of the plants was because there seemed to be several popping up and they didn’t look like the traditional weeds I see normally. Turns out it’s Morning Glory which can be very invasive, but if it’s grown on the perimeter where no other climbing plant is, is is a great pollinator.

The tomatoes, zinnias and basil are still doing well. Donny went in and pruned all of the sucker stems off of the tomatoes so that should help them grow taller.

We decided it was time to build the trellis for the tire cucumbers since they have gotten so much bigger.

We also added bamboo stick so the potted cucumbers will have something to adhere to.

The cats have started digging in the raised beds so, even though it’s not pretty, we put some of the reclaimed wood across until the plants get bigger because they don’t seem to dig where there are larger plants. There is a lot of unplanted areas in the purple beds because I still need to plant my seedlings and we needed a space to do that once they get to the stage where they can live in a larger bed.

How do we know that the warm weather is here to stay? We have a seasonal cat. Monkey stays inside as soon as it starts getting cold. When the weather starts warming up she will only go back outside once there is no chance of cold weather. Every. Single. Year.

And I don’t know if I have mentioned it on here, but I despised my watering can. It is supposed to sprinkle water out, but it sprinkled out of the top holes and poured out of the bottom ones. Drove me crazy!

I found a different one at Walmart and it’s works perfectly. Just the right amount of sprinkle that doesn’t drown my plants. It’s also in my favorite color.

I also wanted to add that I have NEVER been able to grow cilantro from seed. I now have two plants that are actually looking like cilantro finally.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Relax

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home StuffLeave a comment

Yesterday when I went out to check on the garden I saw that cats had been digging up my potted cucumber sprouts and flower sprouts that were also in pots. The little rascals had not been digging in the front bed with the cucumbers because I saw the opening where they were getting in and I strategically placed some flower pots in front of the opening. I, however, did not know what to do about the pots that were in front of the enclosed garden until I remembered seeing some wood that a neighbor down the street had put on the curb for the bulk pickup.

This was the first load I picked up. The woman who lives in the house came out and told me to take as much as I wanted. It was stacked up like a Jenga game so it was a bit difficult to not knock down the whole pile that came up to my chin and was longer than my car. I think it was from a deck they removed.

I stacked some of the pieces under the pots to see how that would work to deter the cats.

I sent Donny these pictures and asked him if he thought I should go pick up some more because they would be a good barrier border around the chicken coop. We have had some problems with possums getting in. He was all in so I went for a second trip.

It was hard sweaty work to load and unload all of this wood, but luckily I decided that this was enough. There were screws in most of the boards. It took me a while to figure out it was the star bit that I needed. I worked on getting the screws out.

When I come outside to do some yard work, I always have a helper. She can hear me come outside and jumps over her fence to hang out with me.

I did catch her standing in the middle of one of my raised beds, so we are working on leaving the garden alone. When I go back inside she runs home and bounds back over her fence.

After all the hot back breaking work I decided to take a little rest in the backyard. When the shade hits the back part of our yard is feels so cool and breezy. I grabbed a blanket, cushion, cold drink and my book and headed out.

Can we just say it was a gorgeous gorgeous day?

O’malley likes it when I chill with him in the yard.

And a big thanks to our chickens who are finally laying again. We are pretty sure it’s because we have been adding the pepper flakes to their feed.

Party?

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

Tomorrow Hannah turns 20. She came down with a horrible cold a couple of days ago, so she isn’t sure she is going to be up for her get together. She wanted to sit out by the fire pit, play corn hole and board games with her core group of friends. The way she feels right now would not be fun for her at all. But, things could change in 24 hours so that meant that I had to get the yard ready just in case.

While I was mowing I noticed that the mulch was piled up over my cucumber plants in the front bed. I thought Donny might have done it when he was watering. Nope, it was the cats. I dug them out, measured the length and width, and we headed to Dollar Tree to get some kind of barrier. I had seen some in Kilgore that I thought would work. Our Dollar Tree hardly ever has anything because it sells out so fast.

They had 11 left. I didn’t know if it would be enough. Donny said it would, plus they were all tangled up so I just scooped them all up.

He was right, it was exactly the right number that I needed. I didn’t even notice when I bought them that they have the same curly scroll that the big one has.

While I was waiting for Donny to get ready to go to work I decided to paint the sun on the front of the house gold. It was bronze and teal. I just didn’t like the way it looked. I think this is much better. I am planning on painting the black cord white.

While I was mowing the back I found this hot wheels bread truck from 2014. It’s missing a wheel and was full of dirt, but it’s so cute.

We have a pretty big backyard, but 2/3 of it is wonderful but that other 1/3 is so lumpy. I have no idea why. It makes it so hard to mow that side. Luckily the good side is the side where you walk in.

We are doing a bulk trash pick up because there was a huge pile of branches that had been sitting by the gate (you can see the big dead spot) for over a year. Not only are those on the curb, but the blue chair and some other trash we have will soon be added to the pile.

The fire pit needed some help so I used the hoe to get rid of the weeds. We have had a 50 pound bag of sand just sitting by the patio. It wasn’t going to get used. We got it for the chickens put its not grainy enough. It works great for around the fire pit.

The weather was so beautiful today that I just didn’t want to go inside. My cat O’malley is the chicken protector so we laid on the grass and just chilled with the chickens. I did try that thing where you fall to the ground and play dead to see what the animals will do. The only chicken that had any interest was Penelope, one of our oldest. All she did was cautiously walk up and peck my belly button.

I spend so much time in the front yard and hardly any time in the back. I think that’s going to change because in the afternoon there is so much shade from the trees it makes it so nice to be out there.

And just because, I made a lamp out of my solar lights. I didn’t know what to do with them once I hung up the electric ones. I think it gives off a nice little glow.

P.S.

Even if she is feeling better the party might not be here. Gavin is house sitting for his neighbor while they are on a cruise. They gave him permission to have a pool party which Hannah is more than agreeable to use for her birthday. I guess we will just wait and see.

Estate Sales + Catch Up

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home StuffLeave a comment

On Thursdays Donny and I like to go to estate sales. Today he asked me if there were any that looked interesting. The two from our favorite company didn’t really look all that interesting. There was one about 30 minutes away in Gilmer. We decided to take a little drive and go to that one. The last 4 miles of the trip was a 1 1/2 lane road that had drop offs on both sides. It was beautiful though.

It was unfortunate that the sale itself was not very good. Everything was way overpriced. The company that held it was one we had never been to before and I don’t think we’ll ever go back to one of theirs again.

Last Thursday, however, there was a sale in my very favorite neighborhood in Longview. Nugget Hill is one of the oldest, if not oldest, neighborhoods with the most amazing houses.

This house was across the street from the home where the sale was. It’s always been one of our favorites. I looked it up online and even though it’s not for sale anymore realtor.com still has the photos up. The address is 814 Charlotte if you’re interested.

This was the house of the sale.

I cannot tell you the love I have for old houses. The house seemed like a maze and had some very cool items for sale. Since I have pretty much finished the inside of our home I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular and just actually came to see the house. I did find some flower pots outside in the garage area that I picked up for $2 a piece.

I also picked up this Himalayan salt tea light holder.

The rest of Donny’s time off last week was spent buying some plants, cleaning off the patio and working on the coop.

Planted some lavender and repotted my avocado tree whose pot was broken in the storm.

My little cilantro seedlings and some rosemary have new homes.

I used some of my propagated pothos to plant in the wall pots.

The bird feeder that I had in the garden area was not being used by the birds as they preferred their hanging feeder. I decided to turn it into a bee watering bowl instead.

Wiping down the patio was my baby. Pollen is heavy and the dirt that blew in with the storm was making everything a real mess.

This is what was covering EVERYTHING. It took several hours to get all of the fabric and rugs washed and pollen gunk cleaned off. I found the lemon sage castile soap at Drug Emporium. It got an excellent rating on Yuka and was 1/3 the price of Dr. Bronner’s. Plus the smell is so yummy.

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It was so worth all of the hard work.

We have a trunk on the patio that we picked up at an estate sale several years ago and had never really paid attention to what was inside.

We soaked everything in vinegar and cleaned them up.

I feel like I’ve been burning the candle at both ends so today after we got home I watched a lifetime(ish) movie, complete with a unbelievable plot and bad acting, and took a nice long nap complete with Milo and Baby Ruth.

A Wild Hair

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Outside StuffLeave a comment

Donny and I have been busting our butts in the garden and just outside in general. He went back to work today. Turns out the twang in my ankle didn’t miraculously heal overnight so my day started like this.

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There was one project that I had on my list that I really wanted to get done today. I had already painted one tire and planted my cucumber shoots in it, but since I seemed to have WAY over planted seeds and have about 21 tomato plants I needed another container to grow them in. That meant I needed to paint the other tire. Thankfully Donny had brought it into the front yard and had washed it down so it was ready to go with minimal walking for me.

I thought I wanted to paint it red, but once I had finished painting it I didn’t like it. It was just TOO red. I had a thought and mixed some of yellow and red together. I liked the outcome.

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It was a kind of flamingo orange and was much better than the red.

Ever since I painted our shutters I have not liked the color. Our door is a dark turquoise/teal color and the shutters were a baby/light blue. Every time we went into Home Depot I would gravitate toward the paint samples and bring home the ones I thought would work. Several years of doing this and I still couldn’t decided. After I saw the tire I knew the color I wanted. Not the flamingo pink because it was too “Miami vice” for me, but I had some of the brown exterior paint that I thought would darken the salmon color up to where I wanted it. I dumped the rest of the tire paint into an old coffee can, added yellow, red and a couple of dollops of brown.

I did not plan to paint my shutters, but once I mixed the paint I couldn’t wait to get started and get rid of that horrid blue.

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It is exactly what I had in my mind.

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Can we just take a moment to realize that the blue was in fact awful.

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The blue color clashed horribly with the front door. Now the colors work so well together.

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It was worth every painful step up and down the ladder. I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out. I also didn’t have to buy any more paint because I just used what we had and was lucky that it was all exterior paint. And yes, I have no patience so when I have a project in mind I need to get it done then and there.

Frazzled

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn thriftingLeave a comment

A new semester started at Kilgore College. They have some classes that run for 8 weeks and some that run for 16. Jackson has 2 that run for 8, but one is online. Anyway, I had asked him what time his class started and he told me the same time as the last one. Okay, perfect, 11:30. He texted me his schedule, but I didn’t look at it because he had already told me the times.

Yesterday I decided to have a slow morning since we didn’t have to leave until 11:05. I took a shower and had just gotten out and was in the kitchen eating a banana. Jackson walks in fully dressed with his bag. I said, You’re ready early. He said, yeah, we have 10 minutes until we have to leave.

Excuse me, but it’s only 9:22. Then he tells me that his class starts at 10. This is the class where I just stay in Kilgore because it doesn’t make sense to drive back because it takes 20 minutes each way. And that’s hitting all green lights. To tell you that I have never gotten dressed so fast. I threw on the bare minimum of makeup, took my hair out of the towel, grabbed a clip for it and we rushed out. We left at 9:37 and got there at 9:58. When we got there I realized that I had left my phone at home. I was not going to just sit in the parking lot so I just told him that if he got out early to just wait.

I actually did find some cute things while I was there.

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Even though I do not like wearing black, I tried this on anyway and it is so cute on. Plus Donny and I are planning to go on a mini vacation next month and I think it will be perfect for dinner or something.

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A pretty top from Maurice’s made it into my cart.

I know that a lot of people don’t like to buy shoes from a thrift store, but when they are in excellent condition I definitely will. I just wipe them with alcohol and give them a spray of Lysol and they are good to go.

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Excuse the unmade bed, I was in a bit of a rush. I have been wanting some huaraches. Growing up in Corpus, we used to go to Mexico and get them. I was so happy when I found these and they are so comfortable.

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These are Pali Hawaii Jesus sandals. They are going to be so great for summer.

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A little ceramic cup to hold either my makeup brushes or cotton rounds. I haven’t decided yet.

I did get a book.

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I was 20 minutes early and so far it’s pretty good.

And because we are always having to run to Michael’s for art supplies, this time I actually remembered that I needed to get some french hooks for a pair of earrings that had broken.

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I need to give them a good clean, but they actually broke over 20 years ago and I have just kept them because they were some of my favorite earrings. Better late than never.

Crazy Storm

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

I check the weather every day. Several times a day on 3 different weather sites. Yesterday there was 20% chance late in the afternoon. Nothing crazy. At 4:45 we got alerts on our phones of a tornado warning. Donny called right after that and said they were closing down early because the weather was supposed to get bad. As I headed up there it started raining. Big heavy raindrops. The wind was also whipping around. When I got to Donny’s work it was pouring so instead of me getting out and going to the passenger side he just jumped in and we left. By the time I pulled out of the parking lot I couldn’t see, even with the windshield wipers on full speed. Then the hail started. We were inching along with all of the other cars. We all had our hazards on because you couldn’t see the road ahead of you. I started panicking. I was in the middle lane with hail, cars and rain I couldn’t even see through. Donny told me to get over and turn into this big parking lot because it had an overhang. Another car was already parked underneath and then another car joined us. Just as quickly as it hit, it went away. This was a crazy fast moving storm.

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Luckily there didn’t seem to be too much damage in the garden.

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The wind was so bad! There were things just flying around. It was a mess.

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We lost power right at 5:00. We didn’t even get hit the hardest. White Oak had thousands without power. I think we had around 800. Luckily we have my candle tray. It came in really handy.

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We finally got power back around 11. The wind was still gusting like crazy. It ended up blowing our backyard swing over which has never happened in all the years we’ve had it.

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It was still going strong this morning. The whirlie gigs were whirling.

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The electric company is replacing the power poles in our neighborhood. We have a transformer on ours so that meant that we were not going to have power for most of the day while they replaced it. I did have fun watching them put the new pole in. It’s fascinating.

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We live in the gardening zone 8. That means that we should have already had our last frost and plants can safely be planted.

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And then Mother Nature said, “hold my beer”. It’s supposed to be 32 degrees the next two nights before we hit the 90’s on Friday. Yeah, that’s not weird or anything. So, I got to cover all of the plants.

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The patio plants went to their cold weather home in the laundry room. The other plants that are just now sprouting and our flowers are all inside along with the seed trays.

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Now to just keep Baby Ruth, our kitten, out of them.

A Favorite Home

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn homeLeave a comment

In our 20 year marriage Donny and I have bought and sold 3 houses. As I’ve written before, the Baton Rouge home was my favorite. My second favorite was our house in Bryan, TX. Donny and I were talking about the garden he had planted there and just for fun I googled the house and found the listing when we sold it. I lost so many of the pictures we took there when our home in Baton Rouge flooded. I’m glad that I have these even if they don’t show some of the best parts like the huge cedar closet, the wood paneled bedroom and the back patio.

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It was in the historic district. We could walk to the downtown to have ice cream and wander around the antique shops. Heritage Park was around the corner where every 4th of July the neighborhood would gather together and listen to the brass band play patriotic songs while the kids walked in the children’s parade in decorated wagons and bicycles. There were hotdogs and picnics. It was truly magical.

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The kitchen had so much storage. There were 2 double pantries and a broom closet. I still have the canisters, pitcher and bowl and the cafe martin art.

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I loved the living room color that was already in the house when we bought it. the dining room had wallpaper above the wainscoting that I didn’t really like so I painted it a light olive green.

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The top picture is the den and if you could see the other side, that was the kids’ playroom. Our bedroom was on the first floor. There is a cabinet over the white chair that held the TV. We called our bed the mothership because every night we’d all pile into it and watch a movie. Most of the time it was Snow White because Hannah loved it so much. Yes, we did use the fireplace. The kids loved to sit in front of it on cold wintry nights.

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The red bathroom was the en suite to our bedroom. It was also the only bathroom downstairs. Hannah had the largest room. I don’t know why they opened up the futon for the pictures, because we always kept it as her seating area. She had such a whimsical space.

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The first of the two bathrooms upstairs was mainly used by Bethany who loved her wood paneled room that isn’t shown. I’m pretty sure she has pictures of it somewhere. Jackson had a cute room. The door with the curtain led out onto the balcony and roof deck. We had a keyed deadbolt so that door was rarely used. The red hanging shelf between the door and the window is now painted yellow and holds my spices over the stove. We still have the three tiered shelf. It’s in our hallway.

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The top picture was the babies bathroom. It didn’t have a shower, only a tub which was perfect since they were so little. This is the balcony that was right off Jackson’s room.

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The balcony led to the roof deck. I wish there were better pictures of the backyard. The patio was such a great space. There were always friends hanging out back there. The house was on 2 lots so there was so much room for the kids to run around and play. It wasn’t fully fenced when we moved in. We put the picket fence up.

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This is one of my favorite pictures. I love how the light is streaming through the pickets of the fence.

It really was a great house while we lived there and sometimes I do miss it. Bryan was a great place to live.