Month: April 2026

Summer Sandal Dilemma + Mini Thrift Haul

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Frugal LifeLeave a comment

I purchased a pair of the two strap dupe Birkenstocks 4 years ago from JC Penney. I think they were around $30. I wasn’t sure if I’d like the double strap sandals so that’s why I just picked these up on sale to give them a try. I ended up loving them and wearing them almost every day during the summer. Well, they were getting quite worn out. The sole had come out of the left one and they were cracking.

Obviously they weren’t genuine leather, but for being what they were they lasted a lot longer than I thought they would. It was time to replace them so I started looking online. I really like the White Mountain footbed sandals. I have a pair I got almost 3 years ago that are still going strong. The leather is thick and it took a while to break them in, but now they are so comfortable.

White Mountain does carry the double strap sandals, but since I was getting them to take on our trip and I was going to be walking quite a bit in them, I knew I probably wouldn’t have time to break them in. I did a little more scrolling and landed on the Birkenstocks. I had heard that they last 10+ years, so I bit the bullet and ordered them to be shipped to Journeys so I could just go pick them up.

They were cute. They were comfortable. They were, however, not genuine leather. I guess I just didn’t read the description as well as I should have when I was ordering them. Now, I’m not opposed to non leather shoes. It’s just when you pay $117 for sandals you expect them to be leather, not Birko Flor. (fancy way of saying vinyl) So I did a little research on the Birko Flor and this is what I found.

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So, I’m paying a whole lot more for these that are going to last the same amount of time as my cheapo ones from JCP. That didn’t sit well with me at all. I’m not a brand person and only chose the Birkenstocks because of how long they last, well, the leather ones anyway. I did a little more googling and saw that Kohl’s (one of my least favorite stores ever) had a pair that were leather and on sale. I drove to Kohl’s, tried them on and immediately said YES. So comfortable. Fit me better than the Birkenstocks. (I think they are narrower and just fit my food better)

No break in period and I was able to walk all around Galveston in them. I’ll say that’s a huge win. Plus, they were only $37! I love a good bargain. I was able to take the other ones back to Journeys to return them with no problem.

Yesterday Hannah was wanting to go to some thrift stores to find add some pieces to her wardrobe that would work for layering. While she found quite a bit, I only came home with 3 items.

I found this round mandala printed throw, table cloth, wall hanging, I guess it can be whatever you want it to be. I just have it here for now. I love it because my favorite colors are yellow and orange.

We needed another laundry basket because my second one cracked and it pinches me when I use it. I like using to because it just seems to get the laundry done faster. I wasn’t looking for one, but I saw this and since it was only $1.99 I grabbed it.

It looks brand new and feel sturdier than any I’ve seen at the store. I thought the label was different than any I’ve seen.

After a quick Google lens search, it turns out that it’s a vintage laundry basket that goes for a pretty penny on EBAY. Who knew.

Last, but not least, I found a orangey red top that I’m wearing today with my wide leg jeans. (yes, I washed it when I got home)

Comfort is the name of the game.

Growing Up Big

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

Last Thursday Donny and I felt it was time to get all of my seedlings planted. We planted tomatoes, bell peppers, rosemary, oregano, marigolds, zinnias and wildflowers.

The purple beds were mostly empty because we were waiting to plant was was in the seed trays. I didn’t realize how many tomato plants I had started. Last year we our tomato plants hardly produced anything. I think we maybe got 5 tomatoes all summer.

This season we have an abundance. We made trellises for them out of the bamboo sticks and some wood I had. I was planning on putting tomatoes in the orange tire, but decided on the zinnias and wildflowers. Having the flowers seems to have helped with the pollination which is what I think was missing last year.

The summer squash is starting to fruit and so are the cucumbers.

So after we finished planting and weeding everything was looking good.

Friday night we got a storm. A big storm. The winds were insane and then it started hailing. All I could think about was our poor plants getting pelted to death. The next morning when I went to check on the damage, this is all I really saw.

My avocado plant that used to have dozens of leaves was now bald. That was the only plant damage (shockingly) so I’ll take it.

I cannot express how relieved I was.

Not only did the garden survive, but we are getting blooms on so many plants.

Started off as seeds and now look at the zinnias.

Our lavender plants are blooming and they smell so good.

I didn’t think the hydrangea was going to live through the winter but it did.

We also though the hostas were dead and even tried to dig them up. Ooops, they are just beautiful.

Now to just keep the bugs off everything.

Daughter Day

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Day DateLeave a comment

This is Jackson’s birthday weekend. In fact, today is his actual birthday. He and his girlfriend had planned a trip to Dallas to go to the Aquarium and site see.

I made sure that they had plenty of snacks and drinks for the road trip.

Since Donny had to work it was just Hannah and me. I asked her if she wanted to hang out and go do things. She had been wanting to go to Avalon Faire and since it was the last weekend that’s where we headed.

It was much more crowded than when Donny and I went the first weekend. I think because it is so spread out it wasn’t bad at all.

Obligatory selfie just because.

Ye ole dragon.

We were loving the monk on the left. We all need a monk hair hat.

We ran into Gavin and put him in the stocks.

A memorial to one of my very favorite sellers who is very much missed.

It was so hot and we had been there about 2 hours when we decided that we had seen everything, watched some shows, and were ready to go get a cold drink.

We stopped at Zipppy J’s, our favorite convenient store. Not only did we get drinks, but we got food. Never sleep on gas station food. Well, at least here anyway.

Here’s to our super healthy lunch of a crispito and chicken leg. I don’t even like fried chicken, but this is heavenly chicken. We were so full and decided to cool of and take a little rest before we headed out again.

Hannah had seen a necklace on a woman at the faire. She asked her where she bought and turns out the woman’s aunt has a booth at the 504 where she make jewelry. Go to our favorite store and see if we can find her? Say less. She actually had a pop up on this day so we lucked out.

Hannah talking to her about what she is wanting. While she was looking at the jewelry, I was roaming around finding treasures.

Did not get these, but they are so fun. No idea why I look so dirty here. Must be the lighting.

There is one piece that they have had since we have been coming to the store. I want it. I love it. It’s really big. It’s really cool. It is one of a kind. It is hella expensive. It is from a very old circus.

I also spotted these tables that if I had room in my home I would have snatched them up so fast. Hmmm, maybe I’ll get rid of some things so that I can find a place for them.

Remember when I dropped my mug and it got a big old chip and crack in it?

It was from the 60’s and just gorgeous.

This place is SO big and is basically a maze. A fun maze though.

Hannah asked if we could go to the Dreaming Peddler. It used to be so close to our house but they had since moved into a much larger space. I miss the coziness that the old store had, but they are able to have a drink bar and a small live music stage here.

We had such a fun day together. Although I did not come home with the amazing antique circus sign (sigh) I did get a few treasures.

I got the mug which I used this morning and it’s fabulous.

I also did a matches restock. They have the best ones at the 504.

Oh, and I, for some very strange reason, was craving a bean burrito from Taco Bell. I haven’t had Taco Bell in years. It made me sick. Don’t eat at Taco Bell. The end.

Day 4 – A Little Sightseeing

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn VacationLeave a comment

We woke up and got ready to leave. Check out time was 11, but we wanted to get an early stop so we were on the road by 9:45.

We’re definitely going to miss our cute little Airbnb. I cannot tell you how great the location was. We never actually cooked a meal in the kitchen but it was so well stocked it wouldn’t have been a problem to do so.

We decided, on the suggestion of our host and my sister, to stop off at Kemah and see the sights there. It’s actually just an exit on our way home so it wasn’t really out of the way.

The boardwalk was nice.

If you can’t tell by my hair, it was a bit windy.

We didn’t ride any of the rides, but if you have kids this looks like it would be a fun place to hang out.

We didn’t stay all that long because we were getting hungry. We had seen this diner on our way to the boardwalk. We had a really good breakfast. If you are ever in the Kemah area I highly recommend it.

Next stop was Nacogdoches. the oldest town in Texas, founded in 1779. I have always loved their downtown. It has the cutest shops and very friendly people.

We went to the visitors center which is also a little museum. We had to stop at Su Su’s. I love popcorn and we got a bag of the strawberry cheesecake and a bag of the Ulta butter popcorn. Both were delicious.

So many yummy treats to choose from and they have now opened a fudge and ice cream room. I had to reel it in because after all my Pina Coladas I really didn’t need a whole lot more of sugar, but everything was so tempting.

Donny wanted me to see the inside of the Fredonia Hotel. It was built in 1955 and is just gorgeous. We did a little walking tour around the inside.

I loved this cozy courtyard. The pool is something you would see on a 1950’s postcard.

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I got this picture off of trip advisor, but it’s exactly how it looks in real life. Just stunning.

We are definitely planning to do an overnight here one of these days. I realize it’s only about an hour from our house, but it’s still sometimes just fun to have a little adventure close to home.

All in all we had such a wonderful time. We both needed to just get away for a few days and relax. Galveston is now on our list of places we are going to go back to visit.

We have never really been into souvenirs. So other than the clothes I got, this is what we consider our treasures of our trip.

Shells that I washed and put into our smaller glass fish.

A coaster from our favorite place that I turned into a magnet.

And last, but not least, cheesy photo booth pictures where we didn’t know what to do in them. The third was was where Donny said to make a scary face. Oh well, we tried.

Galveston Day 3

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn VacationLeave a comment

Today was beach day! We got up early to catch the ferry to Bolivar Peninsula. We got in line around 9:15. I had heard the wait could be long but I figured on a Thursday, not at a peak time, it wouldn’t be too bad. After waiting an hour we decided to back out and leave.

Unfortunately this was our view from the backup camera. We decided to just ride it out and about 15 minutes later we started loading. We actually did see a school of dolphins.

They were right where this picture was taken but those suckers are very fast swimmers. The weather had predicted overcast yesterday which was why it was history day and not beach day. It turned out to be sunny and today started out very overcast.

I had heard that the best place to look for shells was to make a right at Stingeree Rd. We didn’t want to go to Crystal Beach because we weren’t planning on staying on the peninsula for very long.

As you can see there was quite a bit of seaweed. Didn’t bother us though. I think the high tide brought a lot of it in because we had no problems walking along the shoreline.

We walked for quite a ways picking up any cool looking shell we saw. We wanted to head back to the ferry before it got too busy. We also had planned to visit some pocket beaches on the East side.

It was easy peasy coming back. There was only about a 10 minute wait. It was sprinkling so we just stayed in the car for the duration of the ride back to Galveston.

The first beach we wanted to go to was the one by the Tipsy Turtle.

It was a nice uncrowded beach. There were, however, a lot of man o’ war there.

The breeze and the weather turned out to be so nice so we walked both ways down the beach.

Our plan was to have lunch at the Tipsy Turtle, but I wanted to go see the hurricane statue that was on the seawall.

It’s such a poignant piece of art.

By this time it was getting late in the afternoon and we were starving. Instead of driving back to the Tipsy Turtle we decided to go to our favorite place.

Of course, The Spot. This time we chose to eat in the Tiki Hut. I ordered the shrimp diablo tacos and Donny got a burger. Both were so good! The drink of the day was a creamcicle margarita. Yes, I had two. That makes the grand total of drinks I had on the trip seven. I didn’t have anymore after that. They were quite delicious though.

We needed to get back to the Airbnb because we both needed showers. We wanted to go drive around and find the carved trees that are in the historic district. When Hurricane Ike hit the island in 2008, it destroyed a lot of trees. Instead of having them just be stumps, artists carved different statues out of them.

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This one was called Venus on the Half shell. We saw a few more but I didn’t take anymore pictures because they are in people’s yards . We also were awed by the gorgeous homes all over the island. Just beautiful.

The one on the left is called The Easter Cottage.

We really didn’t know where we wanted to have dinner on our last night here. Katie’s Seafood was recommended to us, but that was on the water, by the Strand, where all of the construction was. As we were driving through the Eastside Historic District we saw this.

It’s the oldest Mexican Food Restaurant in Texas established in 1916. We absolutely had to try this gem that was right in the middle of a neighborhood.

I got the cheese enchiladas, my normal order anytime we go to a Mexican restaurant. Donny got the fajitas. It was all wonderful and you just know the restaurant is truly good when their salsa kicks ass.

We actually closed them down being one of two tables left in the restaurant.

It was the perfect ending meal to our time here.

After our nightly walk on the seawall where we almost got run over by two undercover police cars who ran the red light as we were crossing, we returned to our humble abode.

Donny and I both love Galveston so much. He doesn’t really care for beaches, well, it’s actually the sand he doesn’t like. Here though you are surrounded by water but you don’t necessarily have to walk on the actual beach. We like it here so much that we were actually driving around seeing houses for sale and looking them up on Zillow. Maybe one day. Now we had to go in and start packing because we were heading out in the morning.

Galveston Day 2

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn VacationLeave a comment

We woke up early to go to the Bryan Museum. The museum holds a portion of J.P. Bryan’s collection. It is housed in the rebuilt Galveston Children’s Home that used to be one of the orphanages on the island. If you didn’t know, Galveston was hit by a catastrophic hurricane in 1900 that demolished the island. Over 8,000 people were killed. It is the largest natural disaster to ever hit the United States. At the time there was no sea wall. Afterwards they built a 17 ft sea wall because the storm surge was 16.3 feet. If you ever get a chance to watch the movie/documentary Isaac’s Storm, I highly recommend it. I saw it several years ago and have always been fascinated by everything that went wrong on that day. There are also several good documentaries on YouTube about the storm.

We got to the museum at 9:45 not realizing that it didn’t open until 10. This gave us a chance to walk around the grounds.

There are so many monuments around the island that pay homage to the 1900 hurricane.

When we went inside to buy our tickets they asked us if we wanted to pay $5 each to see a documentary about the storm. Of course I said yes. So in we went.

Can we just marvel at this restroom for a minute?

The museum is 3 floors and is filled to the brim with artifacts from all over the world. I swear Mr. Bryan, who by the way is 86 and still collecting, is a modern day Indiana Jones. The artwork itself is incredible.

The top 3 on the right are by Andy Warhol.

This one was my favorite. It’s much darker in person. I love the way the lights just shine.

Donny was telling me that Mr. Bryan must have known Donald Sutherland because this was Donald’s house. Donny either did not have his glasses on or something because look at the description card.

We did get a good laugh at that.

I absolutely love Folk Art.

There were some amazing pieces.

There was just so much of so many different artifacts.

We thoroughly enjoyed our 2 hours spent here. Worth every penny, except for the documentary. I found it very strange that it didn’t mention St. Mary’s Asylum orphanage. Every single documentary I have watched always mentions it because the story is so heartbreaking. There was no warning of the hurricane for any of the residents. The nuns at the asylum noticed the water rapidly rising. The orphanage was right on the beach. They tied the children to themselves with clothes line. No one made it.

After the museum we were getting hungry. Definitely weren’t going back to Fish Tales. I had heard of a place called Mel’s Blue Plate. It was located in a Valero gas station. Oh lawdy, that was some of the best shrimp I’ve ever had.

It’s only open for breakfast and lunch and who cares if there’s no water view because the food is out of this world delicious. By the way, calories do not count on vacation.

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Literally inside a gas station.

I had wanted to see the Rosenberg Library. It’s the oldest, still operating, library in Texas. The building was finished June 22, 1904.

The 4th floor was remodeled to look exactly how it looked when it was opened.

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There was a whole section on the hurricane. They did a great job on that exhibit. You could push buttons and the narrator would talk about the pictures. There was a big screen that Donny pushed the button for and guess what was on it? The Great Storm. The exact same documentary that we had paid $5 to see at the museum. Donny just said, “we were bamboozled”. LOL

I had walked up to the 4th floor and Donny had taken the elevator. Because I’m deathly afraid of heights I decided to take the elevator back down so I wouldn’t have to look down all the way to the first floor as I was walking down the stairs. We stepped into the extremely small elevator car. The doors closed. Donny said, “This is a Westinghouse elevator which I don’t think they make anymore”. We pushed the button for the first floor. Nothing happened. We tried pushing other floors. Nothing. Donny said, “Push the door open button!”. I have never been out of an elevator so fast in my life. Needless to say I will take the heights over being stuck in a small box.

Next we decided to go to The Strand. It is the historic district with shops, art studios and restaurants. Donny and I both follow an artist named Mike O’Quinn. We love his work and love to watch his videos of how he makes each piece.

The woman who works there had just sold 20 something pieces to one person which is why there are so many spaces. I loved the smiley face on the far right. I don’t know why we didn’t buy one, but I’m thinking I’ll be getting a piece for Father’s day for Donny.

We went into the Witchery which I thought was really cool.

I hadn’t been to the Strand since I was about 13. It’s changed a lot.

The architecture is amazing. I love the fountains.

One of the other things on our list for today was to see the two churches that were raised after the hurricane. These were done without the modern tools that we have today. With each 1 inch raise the workers had to make sure that the buildings were completely level else they crack in the middle. I can’t even wrap my head around how painstakingly slow that must have been.

While crouching down to take this picture the wind blew me over right onto my butt. Slightly embarrassing, but extremely funny.

We were getting hungry again and decided to find a place to have happy hour. That is one thing about Galveston, it has some fabulous happy hours.

We were a little hesitant to try The Spot. It’s several venues in one and looked a little like a tourist trap. Boy were we wrong. It’s privately owned and is fantastic. It became our favorite place to hang out. We decided on the 21 and over Rum Room.

We ordered fried pickles and diablo shrimp. Both were amazing. The servers were so incredibly nice. The drink prices were so cheap. I had two Pina Coladas which makes 5 if you are keeping track. We chatted with a server that grew up in my hometown so that was fun. We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon here.

I will say that having rich alcoholic drinks in a body not used to either creates quite the “I’ve swallowed a bowling ball” effect. We went back to our Airbnb so I could take a nap. Unfortunately while I slept, Donny was stuck inside because he didn’t know the codes to the doors and couldn’t get back in if he would have left. Luckily I didn’t take a super long nap and I was ready for our nightly walk on the sea wall when I woke up.

Did I mention just how perfect the weather was?

Galveston Day 1

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn VacationLeave a comment

Donny and I actually got an early start. We were on the road at 9:30. We knew that we couldn’t check into our Airbnb until 4, but we wanted to do a little sightseeing and arrive early enough to be able to do it.

The drive wasn’t bad at all. It took us about 4 1/2 hours. We could smell the salty air as soon as we got on the island.

We were ready for lunch and I thought that the Lucky Lounge did taco Tuesdays. They didn’t really have food, but we had some drinks. I had the first of a few Pina coladas that I sipped on throughout our trip.

Such a cool place and the bartender was so nice and was giving us recommendations of places we should check out. We definitely needed food. I had read about the Fish Taco Company. It’s off the beaten path but the reviews were so good I wanted to give it a shot.

The tacos were SO good. Donny and I both got the Captain Johnny Shrimp Taco. I don’t how it was made, but it was delicious. I really wanted to try to eat here again, but we just ran out of time.

Their logo is so cute.

When we were getting in the car to go check into the Airbnb, Donny said, “there’s your house”. It was the cutest house that was quirky and colorful and suited my tastes to a tee.

The location of our little apartment was perfect. We dropped our luggage off and decided to go walk around and see what there was around us.

This was a 5D theatre that wasn’t open. (since we were here mid week there were some things that only opened on the weekends) I googled it and the reviews were awful so I guess we weren’t missing much. We wandered into some Tshirt shops that were WAY overpriced. We saw the Beach Break shop and decided to check it out. The prices in this store were amazingly cheap compared to the others we had looked in. This store also had two sides and one side was a boutique-ish store. I really never get souvenirs. I don’t ever wear shirts of places we’ve been, it’s just not my style, but Donny found the cutest items for me and yes, I had to have them.

I absolutely love these pants!

and this purse is just the cutest thing.

We decided to walk down to Murdoch’s which is two souvenir shops with a big deck overlooking the waves in between.

It’s the building on stilts.

Another great place to get tshirts and whatnots because their prices are also really good. We grabbed a drink and sat in the rockers to enjoy the breeze.

If you’re counting, that’s my second Pina colada. 😉

We wanted to take a selfie and right as I pushed the camera button the wind almost blew my sunglasses off of my head.

Second try.

The place we were staying was a very short walk to Pleasure Pier. It’s not open during the week right now, but we weren’t planning on going there anyway. We did like the lights from the ferries wheel at night though.

We really didn’t have plans for dinner. We had made a quick trip to Walmart and picked up some snacks and drinks and by the time we decided we were hungry it was after 8. There was a mustang car show in town so we walked over to where they were staging it. It was mainly the souped up racing cars, not the vintage ones that we prefer. Since they were at Fish Tales that night and according to Donny the restaurant was “walkable” that’s where we decided to have a snacky dinner. I didn’t want anything really heavy because it was getting late and because we had an early day planned for tomorrow.

There is a reason that we do not like to eat at chain restaurants, especially anything under the Landry umbrella. The hostess who seated us looked like she hated her life. No smile. no talking just laid the menus on the table and walked away. Our server seemed even more miserable. He took our drink orders (3rd Pina colada for the count) and we only ordered 2 appetizers, crawfish eggrolls and dynamite shrimp. The view was gorgeous minus the loud engine revving from the mustangs and the racing up and down the seawall. There were actually cheers from the other customers when a cop pulled one over.

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We waited forever to get our order. Our server came over and told us that the bartender was overwhelmed and that was what was taking so long. Did he not realize we had a direct view to the bar and the bartender was in no way overwhelmed. Plus there were hardly any people in the restaurant. Since I was once a server it was obvious that he just forget to put in the order. Honesty is always the best policy and it’s much more believable. When he finally brought our drinks and food, he just plopped the two plates down with no appetizer plates at all. I had to get up and ask another server for two small plates. The food was so bad. The egg rolls were mushy and the dynamite shrimp was so over breaded and the shrimp inside were hard as erasers. We couldn’t even finish the food. All in all it was an awful experience. we were not going to let that dampen the trip. We were just hoping that we didn’t get sick from the food.

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Do not eat here!!!

We ended each night with a walk on the seawall. The weather was perfect.

And as a post note, I have meant to get these Galveston blogs out so much sooner, but I was the last person in our family to get the dreaded, evil, awful cold virus. It hit me full force late Friday night and I stayed in bed with a fever, body aches and more congestion than I can ever remember having, all day Saturday and Sunday. I got a steroid shot today and am finally feeling a little more myself.

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

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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.