Month: February 2026

So Much Better

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

Ever since the fenced garden was built and we had the two baby pools plopped beside it drove me crazy. Then add the gargantuan grill that was so heavy I could never quite get all of the weeds pulled from behind it and it made me even crazier. I knew there had to be something better we could do with it. I started watch Tia Weston and her $1 house on Youtube. It is a great series of amazing DIY that her and her father did. Anyway, I loved what she did to her backyard and it sparked an idea in my head.

First of all I wanted to buy as little as possible and just use what we already had. When I took apart the wooden trellis I saved the boards. The fit perfectly as the garden edge and I decided to paint them red to match the bottom of the fenced garden. I already had the red paint so no extra money spent there.

While those were drying I finished pulling the rest of the weeds and digging the trench for the border.

I knew we had some weed barrier out in the shed so after I laid the border down I went to get the barrier. I think the garden gods were smiling down on me because the barrier was the exact width and length that I needed.

I figured out where I wanted the planters to go. I know the baby pools are not the prettiest things, but they work so well and since we already had them they didn’t cost a thing.

I used the two bags of mulch that I already had but I needed some more so Jackson and I ran to Home Depot. I picked up mulch, soil and some pansies that were on sale. I cut up cardboard that we had been saving to lay in the purple planters. I also finished the mulch. I knew I wanted solar lights, but Walmart didn’t have the same ones I have in the front. I almost bought some that just looked to industrial. I ended up with the glass crackled solar lights.

It turned out so good.

I found a box of the solar string lights that I had gotten when Big Lots was going out of business. I put those around the fenced garden. I haven’t done much work on that yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

I covered the pools with screens for nighttime because the cats will dig in them.

I love how bright the lights are. I now want to get these for the front. The string lights didn’t get a chance to charge.

This week I’m going to fill the purple planters with dirt and work on the fenced garden. I need to get some seeds in the ground by the weekend.

I picked up a pot that was out by the shed. It had ants in it and then got all over my hands and started biting me. I remembered that if you chew up purple nettle and put it on the bites it takes the sting out. It sure does! It’s classified as a weed, but there are so many benefits that it provides. I’m just glad I remembered that one.

It’s A Beautiful Day

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Outside StuffLeave a comment

Gorgeous, perfect, errand running day. Before we started off I decided that I really wanted another Iced Thai coffee and Donny wanted to go shop a new furniture store that had it’s grand opening on Monday. He wanted to see if they would, in any way, be competition.

We also ordered so shrimp rolls to go so we’d not get hangry.

As it turns out this new store will in no way compete with Donny’s store. The people working there are so nice and extremely helpful, but I have never seen furniture like this.

This is fur and padded. The whole thing is covered.

Need a bed with a fake fireplace. I gotcha covered.

Everything was shiny or disco ball mirrored. It was a bit crazy. BUT, they had one thing that I would have bought on the spot if we had the room for it and I’m not kidding.

This massage chair!!!!! I have never ever experienced a massage chair like this one. When I tell you it was freaking amazing, it was. I did a couple of short massages and did not want to get out of it. I was actually thinking to myself, do we really need all the furniture we have in our living room. We don’t actually need a chest of drawers in our bedroom. I would never get out of it.

When we left they gave us a goody bag. It was sweet and a bit weird. I’m always nosy so I’ll show you what was in it.

I can’t get this to charge so I’m going to throw it away.

This works fine. It has different light settings and is really cute.

These are double walled glasses with rubber bottoms so they don’t slide around. Big Winner of the bunch. Donny has already washed them and poured a beer or two.

The only thing I needed to do was go to Gladewater and hit up Sasquatch’s for some ground beef. they carry the best and it’s such a good price. Of course we couldn’t leave with just the ground beef.

Could not leave without a root beer candy cane. I made it into a sharp point and asked Donny if he wanted to go down memory lane and then I poked him in the hand with it. Didn’t everyone do that in elementary school?

We picked up some staples.

Some crazy big carrots

Had to get some snacks. Not pictured is Donny’s cheese with truffles. I cannot stand the way truffles smell. It makes me physically sick. Donny had some when we got home and I asked him to please take it to work because I just cannot tolerate the smell. I think it’s like people who think cilantro tastes like soap. But no matter what, I can’t have it in the house.

I am under a time crunch to get the garden going. I have a vision for what I want to do. I shared it with Donny and we tweaked it a bit and I started.

We decided to get rid of our grill. It still works fine, we just don’t use it. I know we live in Texas, but the kids and I don’t really like grilled food or BBQ. It was taking up so much space. Since we can’t plant in the backyard due to the chickens destroying anything growing the side yard is precious real estate.

The beginning.

I could have just mowed over it, but I needed to take out these skinny trees that were growing back and I wanted to use my pick axe and hoe to get rid of as many weeds as possible before I put down the weed barrier.

This is where I stopped for the day. I plan on attacking it again tomorrow. I may not be able to walk after this, but there won’t be any weeds and it will look so much better than it did last year. I really do love outside work.

Walkie Talkie

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Day Date, Longview, txLeave a comment

Hannah was feeling overwhelmed when I picked her up from college on Thursday. When this happens we go for walks. We decided to start at The Green, our favorite park. It’s so much easier to talk about problems and life goals when you are surrounded by nature, I think.

The trees were in bloom so that led us to Google Lens to try to find out what kind of trees we were seeing.

We always say hi to Shelldon because he is just so cute.

We always stop to play the xylophones. The one Hannah is playing is like experiencing a sound bath. The notes are so clear and beautiful.

And of course we had to admire our favorite tree. It is just so symmetrical and stands out against all of the other trees.

After a few loops around the park, we decided to go walk on the trail in our neighborhood. On the way there we passed beginning of the Boorman Trail that we had never started from. I always see this statue and wonder what this trail is like and where it actually goes. So we decided to pull in and find out.

The trail was beautiful. It’s more up kept than our more rustic trail near our home.

We still walk over the creek that runs through all of the trails.

We had walked quite a ways when Hannah spotted a park up ahead. As we got closer we realized that this is the park that we normally start with when we walk this particular trail. Since the first time we came here almost 6 years ago, I noticed the racquetball courts. They are a little run down, but I still want to bring our racquets and hot a few balls.

We don’t know what exactly this is but we thought it was funny.

We found another little library that we want to bring some books to.

This was a productive walk because we decided that we want to have a table at the next Art Walk downtown. We’ll see how that pans out. We decided to head back to the car and go to our next trail.

I am so happy that our neighborhood trail is finally open. As we were walking we found out why it had been closed for so long.

Apartments are going in. This makes me so sad. We still have the rest of the trail that is still heavily wooded, but it’s just not the same.

I am very happy that one of the bridges is open again. The city did such a good job rebuilding it and it means that we don’t have to drive to the entrance, but can pick up the trail from our neighborhood.

I don’t know how many miles we walked, but it was a few. I wore my Brooks which I never do for walking the trails. I normally wear my Merrills or Sauconys. This meant that I had a very painful blister on my toe. Hannah wanted to go to the gym later that evening so the next morning I was even more sore and my feet were hurting.

On Friday Donny and I were in Kilgore just puttering around. We went to an estate sale and on the way back he wanted to go see what there was at Synergy Park. We found Lake Elder, which lucky for me, had a 1 mile walking trail around it. That was sarcasm because yes, I do love water, but I was wearing my footbed clogs. Being the trooper I am I walked that blister screaming mile.

It was absolutely beautiful though.

My reward was getting spring rolls from our favorite Thai place.

So worth the pain and if you haven’t ever tried a Thai iced coffee you are missing out. In fact, I think I may go get another one today.

We need to run to Gladewater today so, who knows, we might just go take a walk around the lake there. I’ll be sure to wear appropriate shoes this time.

Thrifting Tuesday

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn thriftingLeave a comment

Since the kids weren’t hanging around with their friends after class I had an hour and a half to kill in Kilgore. Of course that means hitting the two thrift stores that are not far from campus. I found some pretty good things today.

I’m pretty sure this bird pitcher was not intended for watering plants, but it’s perfect for my propagated ones and the seed trays.

Makes topping these off so much easier.

I have been looking for a pottery mug for a while. I browsed the World Market website because I had seen some there before that I liked. Then I found this one. The lid was taped down so I couldn’t see the inside. It has a removable tea infuser.

And it’s from World Market.

I burn soy candles because they burn so much cleaner. I picked up three of these candles for a song. They are brand new and soy.

I think they came from the same place as the bird pitcher because they had the original handwritten price on them and the writing was the same.

My woobie (coffee tumbler that Donny named) was getting pretty worn out. The seal was on its last leg. It was over 10 years old so it has lasted. I found a brand new, exact one and couldn’t be happier.

I also picked up some jeans and a workout shirt. I have these same jeans in the cream color and I just love them.

I got more seeds started and finally found a place for my sun and moon.

I hope tomorrow is a pretty as today was. I need to get my watermelon seeds in the ground.

Switcheroo

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home StuffLeave a comment

I was surprised today when Jackson bought me a calendar he found a Books A Million. The problem I had was that I have almost no room on my walls for a calendar. Because I loved this calendar I was determined to find a place that it would fit.

I moved this mail holder so I could put the painting of Queso up. I never really liked the holder so it’s going to get donated. I had my iron sun bell where the calendar is now so I moved it to the window shelves. I just love a Blue Dog Calendar.

I like it even better here. It’s always fun to switch things up a bit.

Blowing Away

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

The last two days have been so windy. So windy, in fact, that one of my wind chimes blew down. I needed to get my seeds started. All I could manage to do were two of them because the seed starting containers kept blowing away.

My planters came in so I started putting them together.

It wasn’t hard, just time consuming.

One down and one to go. I was so excited to see that I could order purple containers. They are so much more fun than the plain silver ones. I can’t wait to set them up and get to planting.

On a good note, Jackson finally cleaned out his closet and got rid of the things he doesn’t wear anymore.

I now have a stuffed bag to donate tomorrow.

There is one shirt that he had in the pile that I’m not going to donate because it has his character that he developed for Tower Heroes game.

The characters name is Hotdog Frank. Yep, I’ll be saving this one.

Birthday

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn BirthdayLeave a comment

Thursday was my birthday. Truth be told I have always been weird about my birthday even as a child. I would hide under the table when the kids at my birthday parties would sing happy birthday. My parents used to rent out the skating rink to have my birthday parties, when I was a bit older, and I liked that because everyone was having fun skating and the attention wasn’t on me. One year Donny called ahead to the restaurant we were going to just to make sure they would sing happy birthday. I wanted to die of embarrassment. I’ve been to Kiddie Park in Austin and a night field trip with the kids elementary school on two of my birthdays because that is just how I like to celebrate. I like making sure everyone is having fun and yes, I like doing that kind of stuff myself.

Thursday all I wanted to do was get a head start on the garden and front beds. There is just something about digging in the dirt that makes me so happy. I moved all of the flower pots and got to work digging up the weeds that had started to grow again. Then I used my hand held claw to till it all up.

I pulled out the metal trellis and painted it because I was starting to see rust on it. Donny and I ran to home Depot to pick up the mulch.

I got the cucumber seeds in the ground and planted some lettuce in the bigger pots. I used oil rubbed bronze on the trellis and it looks so much better.

This is not where the pots will stay, but it’s their home for right now. I don’t know if we are going to have another frost or not. I’m hoping not, but you just never know.

Jackson and Olivia gave me a gift.

She wanted to paint something for me and Jackson told her that he knew exactly what I would love and I truly did. It’s my Queso who I miss every single day. She did him in watercolors and I can believe how amazing it turned out. Our neighbor across the street works for a food restaurant supply company and he brought over a 5 lb bag of mozzarella. He didn’t know it was my birthday, but it was a great gift nonetheless.

Hannah has been sick the last few days, so we just got takeout at The Catch. Their seafood is so good. The night ended with a gluten free birthday cake that Donny got me.

Today I had told Donny that I wanted to go to Jefferson, one of my favorite places in the world. Hannah is still under the weather and Jackson was working on something in his room so it was a day date for Donny and me. We got later start than we had planned, but we managed to hit a couple of my favorite places.

We never miss The Old Mill. It’s huge and so fun to look at all the different booths. We didn’t end up purchasing anything, but it was fun to look around.

Next we went to the General Store. They’ve done some renovations and added more rooms since the last time we were there. I loved this groovy room.

They carry everything from old timey candy, novelty toys, goumet food, shoes, clothes and also have an ice cream bar where you can get milkshakes, sodas and food.

We were getting hungry and couldn’t decide where to go so we just went to our fallback, Auntie Skinner’s. The food is pretty meh. I had nachos and Donny got a steak sandwich. My food was okay because how can you really screw up nachos. Donny’s was not as good, so it was a little disappointing.

As we were walking to my very favorite shop in Jefferson we walked by the Jefferson Hotel. It has new owners and they have made this place so gaudy. It’s so sad to see.

Made in the Shade is the best store!

They have a little bit of everything. It’s so my style and I could spend hours in it. Donny found some cute Pol overalls for me. I tried them on, liked them, but just wasn’t feeling the urge to buy them.

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It could have been because I felt like a stuffed turkey after eating a plate of nachos. Or it could have been that I was extremely sore from all of the yard work and was grumpy from having to disrobe in the dressing room. The only thing I ended up buying there was some Zum jumbo lip balm because my lips were so chapped. I did try on some Aura Blends perfume oil, but none came close to my Kuumba Made.

I can’t wait to come back during the summer because this courtyard always has so much going on.

It was getting close to 5 when everything closes. We decided to drive around and look at all of the historic houses that are also Bed and Breakfasts. Jefferson’s magic will pull you in and make you never want to leave. I can’t wait to go back. It was a very good way to end my birthday.

Spring Is In the Air

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

I had an hour and a half to kill in Kilgore. Instead of hitting the thrift stores I needed to go to Dollar Tree and Walmart to pick up some items for starting our garden. But first I need to make room in my trunk. I had been hauling around two big bags of clothing donations for months. Luckily for me, there was a donation drop off next door to Walmart.

Because I was picking up three kids I couldn’t use my backseat so I was thrilled to find these bins to make room for my purchases.

In Walmart I picked up the seeds I needed. We decided to only plant crops we would actually eat. I also found a good deal on a huge bag of potting soil.

Didn’t realize that the picture came out upside down, but you get the gist of it.

I was also out of bird seed for my feeder so I needed to pick that up also.

At Dollar Tree I picked up these baking pans with lids. I’ll put the seed starter pots in them to act as a terrarium. I have had the seed pots since last year. I got them 90% off at Dollar General.

Dollar Tree had some cute flower pots. I needed some for herbs.

My best finds at Dollar Tree were these celestial metal art. This one is the exact color of our front door.

I loved this one, just not the color.

Nothing that a little spray paint won’t fix. I left the can so you can see how big these actually are.

It looks so much better.

I also did some weeding and looked to see if any of our plants are worth saving after going through winter. The hydrangea is budding. I was worried about that one.

The mint comes back every year.

My mums actually survived being dragged from the laundry room to outside about a million times.

I brought my peace lilies outside to do a little trimming on them, add some more soil and give them a good soak.

Also, here is a cost efficient, easy to make dinner.

If you don’t like Italian sausage you can substitute whichever kind you like. I took this picture before I added the parsley. Donny thought that the potatoes were pineapple. The whole dish was really good and it made enough for me to pack leftovers for his lunch today.

Just Keep Swimming

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Easy mealsLeave a comment

Today started off rough. It was so foggy. It wasn’t too bad in town, but once we got on the road it was like I was driving in a cloud. It got so bad at one point I just turned on my hazards and tried my best to see the road. I white knuckled it until I got back home.

Hannah wasn’t feeling well when she woke up so she didn’t go to class today. She started feeling better so we went to the gym for about an hour. I like working out at night so much better than the daytime. It’s so busy and just has a whole different vibe. Lucky for us Sprouts is in the same parking lot so we decided to treat ourselves to some sushi.

I haven’t really felt like cooking lately. It was feeling like I was just making the same things every week. I decided to get out my binder and do a little meal planning. I found 4 recipes that I wanted to make this week.

I made my list and headed to Aldi. I was pleasantly surprised when I found a parking space near the door and it didn’t even look too crowded. It started off bad when I walked through the door. People were not moving and going in all different directions. I finally got through that mess. The next issue was that there were older couples, like 5 of them, that were walking side by side and just randomly stopping. No one was smiling. Everyone just seemed so grumpy. One couple, who I kept having to say excuse me to, the woman was just mean mugging me the whole time I was shopping. She reminded me so much of this woman that I had an interaction with when I was an embalmer.

I worked the overnight shift at a funeral home in Austin. It was just myself and my embalming partner. We got a call to make a removal at a nursing home. He always liked to deal with the families and the paperwork while I did the embalming. Anyway, this was a very nice nursing home. It was very stately with dark wood and jewel tone colors. There was a woman sitting in a wheelchair in the reception area. She called me over. I always tried to be very nice to anyone I came into contact with on a call. She took my hand and told me that I reminded her of her daughter. She said it several times in a very sweet voice. Then she said, in a not so nice voice, I want to kill my daughter in the library. That was very unexpected and needless to say I pulled my hand away and went on my merry way. Working in the funeral business I have so many crazy stories.

Back to Aldi. I finally got checked out and was so happy to be out of there. It was just a strange day all around. People were driving crazily running red lights and not looking where they were going so I was happy to be headed home.

Since Donny has to work until 8 tonight I thought I’d make something super easy.

I would definitely bump up the temperature to 350.

I added onions because we just like them. I browned the mushrooms and onions in the skillet after I’d cooked and removed the meat.

It turned out good except for my wonky looking crust. After this very weird day I needed something easy.

One Thing Leads To Another

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn OrganizingLeave a comment

This morning when I went to unload the dishwasher I realized that I needed to organize our cup cabinet. We had some wine glasses and other coffee cups that we just don’t use on the regular. I got that cabinet done.

When I started putting the glasses on top of the cabinets (it’s where we keep the bar ware) I noticed that the glasses and other items that were on there had that greasy film. I pulled everything down off the top of the cabinets and got to work scrubbing the top and the walls.

After everything was washed I realized that there were some more canisters that I wasn’t using that needed to go up there also. That lead me to cleaning out the baking cabinet.

I also found some foodie magazines from 2018 that I had stored on top. I wanted to go through them and tear out the recipes that I wanted to try.

I’ve had this binder for almost 20 years. I worked for a catering company and kept a lot of the recipes we used. I also added recipes from magazine and some I had printed out. I use sheet protectors and it works pretty darn well.

There were so many that I removed because I knew I wasn’t going to be making any of those recipes.

I have a thing for cookbooks. I prefer them to using online recipes. I had almost forgotten about my binder. It doesn’t really fit anywhere so I just put it on top of my cookbooks.

And how cute are these vintage bowls that we use for our cats water?

Since it was a short work day for Donny we went to the gym after he got off. I have found that if I just ride the bike my legs don’t hurt at all. That’s a win.

I feel like I had a very productive day.