Little Corner of the Yard

On October 18, 2026 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Outside StuffLeave a comment

A while back I had mentioned that I wanted to turn the corner where our sad fire pit sat into something more special. We had the saucer swing which had always been hard to sit in and when it ripped I fixed it with duct tape. The whole project stalled because I just didn’t know exactly what I wanted. I also didn’t want to spend a lot of money. I do believe that sometimes a person can actually speak things into existence.

So here is where this whole project started. Donny and I went to an estate sale our on Gladewater Lake. It was the second day of the sale and I was sure that the item I was wanting would be long gone by the time we got there. I didn’t tell Donny that we were going so I could buy this item. The house was gorgeous and it was owned by a plastic surgeon. He must have traveled extensively because even the things that were left on the second day were pretty amazing. There were two lounge chairs from the Queen Mary that were unfortunately $225 each. That wasn’t what I came for though.

How awesome would it be to have this as your backyard? Anyway, as soon as I walked up the path to the sale I saw it. I told Donny that I wanted to get and he said let’s look around. Uh, you don’t know it but this is what I came for. When Donny walked into the house I told the man working outside that we were going to buy it. It was $30 but since it was the second day I got it for $24 and change.

The paint was chipping in places, but it was sturdy. I was starting to get the vision for my corner. I definitely couldn’t keep it white. Nope, nope, nope. I wanted this corner to be fun and colorful.

I chose Icy Grape Krylon spray paint. One piece of the puzzle was complete. Now to figure out the rest. Because I wholeheartedly believe that if I wait a bit, items will find me. That’s exactly what happened.

When one of Donny’s salespeople needed a house we referred them to our landlords. A house became available on the next street over from us. Donny told the person that we have a very good relationship with the landlords and to please keep the house up since we vouched for her and her husband. Well, after a year they were moving back to the state they were from. The day the moving van left I went over there and looked though the front door window. It was trashed!!! Donny and I had already discussed that if this happened we would clean it out for free. I contacted the landlord and told her our plan. She felt bad not paying me, but there is no way I’d take any money since we were the ones that referred her. She told me that if there was anything I wanted to just take it. There were 2 things I found that I definitely wanted. A small patio set and two wooden boxes. The corner was not coming together.

Of course I couldn’t leave them bare wood. It took at least two coats on every side, but I think they are so cheerful. I keep a supply of oops paint so this project was cheap. I didn’t know if I was going to use them as planters or what, but I knew I’d figure it out.

Last Thursday Donny saw an estate sale and asked me if I wanted to go. I had already checked the sales on the website and didn’t really see anything that caught my eye, but I never say no to any estate sale. When we walked into the garage I saw this.

It’s 6ft tall and was turquoise. I asked it it had already been sold and they told me no. I looked all over it for a price tag but couldn’t find it. One of the workers told me they’d take $15 for it. Sold! When we went to pay for it Donny didn’t have his wallet and my purse was in the car. I ran back out to get it and when I was walking back in I saw this in a flower pot. I pulled it out, brought it in, and asked if it was for sale. I got it for $8 and the only reason I found it was because Donny, who never leaves his wallet at home, did this time. It was meant to be. I went over it with a light coat of the icy grape and now it looks iridescent.

It was also turquoise so I painted it the color scheme I was using.

I spent all day yesterday working on the corner. I think it is turned out exactly as I pictured. I’m still not completely finished but here’s what I have so far.

I had to dig down 12″ to place the spinner. I also got the peacock from the rent house.

The wood 4x4s that we had around the fire pit were rotten. I picked up edging and pebbles to fix it up.

I painted the edging and spray painted the pebbles.

This is the little set I got from the rent house.

I still have some painting to do like this walk way, the chair and the blocks under the wooden boxes. I stacked the boxes because I figured we could use the top as a buffet when we do s’mores or hotdogs. I painted some wooden poles that I’m going to string our solar lights on. I just have to dig down about 6 inches for each one and I am so sore today from hauling everything out there and also carrying the edging and bags of pebbles. I am super happy with how it’s turning out. I just love a good place to hang out and read or just chill. I never thought I’d get this done. Ever. LOL

The Menagerie

On October 16, 2026 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home life, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Sometimes I feel as though we have a small zoo. I feed 3 young skunks. They have gotten so used to me that they just walk right by me and I can walk around them without them running away. We started seeing them when they were very young. Standing with their front feet in the bowl was a normal occurrence.

They are getting so big.

Mr. Whiskers, who at one point looked like he was near death, is doing so well. His coat has filled out. There are no wounds on him. He eats at least 2 soft scrambled eggs a day cooked in coconut oil. In fact, he’s eating one right now.

He now allows me to let him sit on my lap, but he still refuses to come inside. On my walk the other evening I happened upon an almost new two story cat house for outside cats. I knew the people that left it on the curb, but when I knocked on their door they weren’t home so I dragged it up their driveway and went and got the car. This will ease my worry a bit about when it gets cold. I don’t know if they will use it or not, but it will be there for whoever will. I’m going to put it on pavers and make it a little more homey.

Every morning I wake up, start the coffee and then go outside to feed and water the cats. I heard this strange meow coming from behind the potting table. I thought it was Mr. Whiskers and that he had been in a fight and was hiding. I called Donny outside to help me find him. Nope, not Mr. Whiskers.

Meet Koda (if you are familiar with the movie Fern Gully, he is named after Batty Koda. Just look at those ears) I took him to the vet and he is 5 weeks old and weighs 1 pound 5 ounces. Well, last week he did anyway. Donny was not happy with our find, but who can resist that face. He loves Donny.

Ruthie was not thrilled with the kitten. He is pretty crazy and loves to try to wrestle with her. She slowly warming up to him.

We still have Milo, Malley and Monkey. Monkey will come inside when it gets cold. Her decision not ours. She is a very stubborn little cat.

As far as an update on Penelope our house chicken. There have been a few changes. I got this thing our.

She is very happy with her window.

I also ordered her this wonderful creation from the Tiktok shop.

I take her on a walk every day. She absolutely loves it. Her favorite place is the walking trail.

I spend a lot of time outside and so does Penelope. She even has her own chair.

I also bring it inside so she doesn’t have to be in her cage all of the time. I thinks she’s living a pretty good life.

So that’s our little gang minus the 7 chickens in the backyard. I do love animals.

p.s.

I haven’t been writing lately because my WordPress is still messed up. I’ve been working with the help center and we think we have it somewhat fixed. Thank Goodness

Day Out With Donny

On October 2, 2026 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Day Date, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Donny lost 2 salespeople which means his store is very understaffed. This means that he only gets one day off a week. Yesterday was that day. We knew that it was going to rain sometime in the late afternoon. I had seen two estate sales put on by our favorite company so we decided that would be something fun to do. I hadn’t even looked at the pictures on the website so I had no idea what was even for sale.

The first sale was in a very nice neighborhood. This was the second day of the sale so we didn’t know if there would even be anything left. People here are serious about shopping estate sales. We were told by a few of the people working it that it was so crowded you could barely get through the house. No thanks, I’ll just look at the leftovers on the second day. There was still so much left. I spent $7.00 and this is what I bought.

All of the candles and the body butter were unused. The Winter Candy Apple is not a scent that I would ever buy full price, but it was only 2 bucks and I do like body butter. It will work fine on my legs after I shave. I loved both of the candle scents the smaller one is creme brulee and the Yankee Candle is Italian Christmas Biscotti. Both are going to be good for the cooler months. I am always needing tapers and votives. I had a trivet for over 10 years. It got broken and I just got the first one I found at the thrift store. It had fruit all over it and wasn’t really my taste. I love the fish trivet. It goes so much better with everything that I have in my kitchen. The necklace is for Hannah my goth child. It absolutely is her taste.

I also picked up this candle holder because I love the stained glass look. When we got home I put a candle in it and it glows so nicely.

My very favorite thing I found was just in a a random basket in the bathroom.

I follow a guy on Tiktok who talks about all of the fragrances from the 70s and 80s. He has mentioned Youth Dew several times. In high school my friends mother used to wear it and her whole bathroom smelled like it. When I opened this bottle and smelled it, it didn’t smell as powdery and old lady-ish as I remembered. It’s actually the bath oil and there was no price on it. When I took it up to pay they just charged me a dollar for it. When we got home I put some on to see how it interacted with my skin. For some reason scents that smell really good on other people don’t on me and vise versa. I was shocked how much I loved this scent. Even Donny said it smells good. I had to run up to Hannah’s work today and a woman who was in line said that she smelled incense and it smells so good. It was me. This Youth Dew smells just like a cinnamony incense. It reminds me of how the incense ball in the Catholic church that the priest waves around but spicier. Best deal of the day right there.

We drove the the second sale and it was pretty much empty. There was a red vintage hutch that Donny thought could go where our bakers rack is but after really looking at it, it was just going to be too bid for the space. It was so cool and would have given us more storage in the kitchen but I think opening the fridge is more important and I wouldn’t have been able to if we had purchased it. Donny was off looking at things in the house and I had walked into the backyard with these two women. They stopped to look at some plants that were growing. Turns out the were Thousand Mother plants so they told me to take some of the “babies” off of the edges because you can plant them and they will grow.

As soon as we got home I watched a YouTube video to see how to plant them. Hopefully they will take off.

By this time we were starving and the dark clouds were rolling in. We had both seen a review on a little taco shop that’s in a convenient store down the road from us. We could have eaten there, but we wanted to go ahead and get home. Donny got a pastor quesadilla and I got the pastor tacos.

Holy cow they were so good! I did try the hot sauce. All I did was lick the top and it burned my mouth so badly I had to chug milk. If you are ever in Longview you need to try the food at Tejas Mart. It will not disappoint.

Since we ate lunch so late we weren’t hungry for dinner. There was a nice steady rain falling. Donny was watching the football game and I had roasted tomatoes that I needed to make soup out of.

It’s still raining today and nothing hits better than tomato basil soup. I need to go have lunch and then work on my WordPress site on my laptop. I had to finish this post on my phone because I’m not able to scroll for some reason. Hopefully I can figure out what’s wrong. Ugh.

New Tradition

On September 29, 2026 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn familyLeave a comment

This year I decided that we should celebrate the Autumn Equinox. It’s the first day of Fall where day and night are equal. I thought that it would be a fun way to kick off the beginning of the holiday season. Unfortunately it is still hot here in Texas but we are getting slight reprieves in the morning and evening hours.

I knew that I wanted to have the dinner outside. I didn’t have any holiday decorations out yet so I ran to Hannah’s work and picked up a few things.

I am usually the use what you have kind of person, but the most expensive item was the owl and it was only $3.99. The candles were 50 cents to a dollar.

For the menu I wanted comfort food so I made chicken and dumplings (flat dumplings not the weird puffy ones), baked bread, made a salad and baked an apple pie. I also ran by Braum’s to pick up some vanilla ice cream in case anyone wanted it a la mode.

I didn’t take any pictures of the food but it was all so good. We had a small group, just our family and Olivia but it was so fun eating outside and not sweating to death.

We will definitely be keeping this as a tradition.

Product Reviews + Thrifted Styled

On September 7, 2026 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn product reviewsLeave a comment

The family loves Dr. Teal’s body wash and we normally use the Lemon. During the holiday they have limited edition scents. I decided to try the Snowy Night body wash and it smells heavenly. So heavenly that I actually went to the Dr. Teal’s website to see if they were going to bring out the lotion. No luck, just the bath salts and I don’t like baths.

I am almost halfway through the shampoo and conditioner I got at the Refillery. I absolutely love them. I don’t wash my hair everyday. With these products I can go 4 or more days without my hair feeling oily, dirty or gross.

I put the sticker on the shampoo bottle so I’d know which was which. I found the website where you can order both in bulk.

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I haven’t ordered it yet because I think I want to continue getting it from the small business that’s downtown. But, if you are looking for a good shampoo and conditioner this is the one to try.

A while ago I bought this heat brush at the thrift store for a dollar. It was brand new. I forget I had it and wanted to wear my hair straighter than I normally do. I’m not a huge fan of my straighter because I feel like it could burn my hair. I didn’t know how the brush would actually work but I gave it a try and I really liked the results.

I did crank the heat up, but it doesn’t really touch your hair like a straightener does.

Straightened:

I still think I prefer it air dried, but it’s fun to change it up once in a while.

One more product that I had forgotten how much I love. It’s the Petco cat litter that you scoop yourself. Petco was out forever during the lockdown so I genuinely forgot about this litter. You just buy a full one and then bring the container back to refill. I think the first buy is about 20 bucks and then its about 17 every time it’s refilled. The container holds 30 lbs so it’s a really good deal and the litter itself I awesome.

Remember the sun wall hanging and the cherub vase thingy I got not too long ago at the thrift store? The sun was just sitting on the counter and I couldn’t decide where to hang it since I am literally running out of wall space. The cherub holder was an awful gray color and you couldn’t even really see the cherubs at all. Well, I painted it terra cotta and hung the sun up beside it.

It’s in our bedroom where I do my makeup and store my jewelry.

One of the pumpkin patches has flowers. Fingers crossed I actually get a pumpkin by Halloween.

P.S.

If you read here and saw that we had an astronomical electric bill, Donny called the electric company to find out what in the world was going on. Well, it turns out he completely forgot to pay it. They said they thought it was strange because he always pays it on the same date every month. Good think it didn’t get cut off.

A Little Fashion

On September 7, 2026 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn The Enchanted NomadLeave a comment

Today is Donny’s birthday so that means going out to dinner. He hasn’t decided between our old favorite Fun Noodle or Saltgrass. I decided to break out some of the items that I sell.

I absolutely love these wide legged pants. They are so comfortable. I just paired them with a tank top since it’s still over 100 degrees here.

The copper cuff with the Peruvian opal goes well with my stone bracelet. I added the tigers eye cuff ring . Because it’s a cuff I can wear it on different fingers.

The stainless copper and brass cuff and ring go well with this outfit so I added those.

Last, but not least, are my moon earrings and sun necklace. If you can’t tell I love anything celestial. The sun and moons are carved out of bone.

Now I can’t wait to find out where Donny Wants to go eat because I am starving. Oh, and instead of a cake, I got his favorite Key Lime pie from the Butcher Shop. Yum!

Been A Minute

On August 24, 2026 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home StuffLeave a comment

Truth be told, I haven’t been on here in 2 weeks for 2 reasons. One is that during the day I’m watching the Lindsay Clancy trial. I actually can’t sit still and just watch it so I put on my headphones and actually get a lot done. I think it must be the stress. I’m not going to write a long list of how and why I would vote as a juror, but you know I do not like the color pink but yet here I was last Thursday.

I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a pink shirt so I found this huge one where Hannah works. I used the little rubber band trick to try and make it look a little less like a tent. Donny said it looked like I have a giant belly button. He ain’t really wrong. LOL

Reason number 2 is that Donny and I have been watch the series Silo on Apple TV in the evenings. It’s so good and we’re sad that we have caught up and now have to wait until Fridays to watch an episode. We have 2 left before we have to wait until next year for the last season. What a bummer.

Number 3 is that I let Penelope use my laptop to watch a listen to chickens on YouTube. I put up a pen in the living room so that she has a space that’s hers and not just a box and random puppy pads. I don’t know what we are going to do with her. She still cannot walk and just kind of scoots around. It’s not a great life for a chicken but she does seem to enjoy YouTube.

Our garden is on it’s last legs except for the pumpkin and watermelon vines. I’ve been dead heading all of the sunflowers, zinnias and marigolds to harvest their seeds for next year.

So far I have these 3 bowls full and today I have a cereal bowl full of the seeds.

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I am going to have a lot of flowers next year. The white zinnias that came up later are still going strong.

I had a gorgeous basil plant growing in the big garden. Something happened and it fell over and for the life of my I couldn’t get it to stand up again. I dug up as much of the roots as I could and replanted it into a pot. It went into shock for several days, but now it’s looking good.

Hannah and I went to her work on her day off. If you don’t know she works at this really good thrift store that is only 3 minutes from our house. She also got a job at one of the big haunted houses here and it super excited about doing that. She really loves her job and even when we were there on her day off regular customers just stopped her to chit chat. I did find 3 items that I purchased.

Anything with a sun and I’m in. Moons too. This one is slate and hangs by a leather strap.

I thought this amber jar was so cute and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

I also can’t pass up a handmade mug. This one is from Hill Country Pottery.

Can we just talk about the heat for a moment? Our electric bill is 489. We live in a 1008 square foot house. What in the world is going on. Well, it could be that we have the original 1961 windows and I like a lot of sunlight so I raise the blinds and open the curtains. We also had the air set to 73. Not a good combination. Being that I am extremely frugal we now have our thermostat set at 78. I have pulled down all of the blinds and closed the curtains. So basically I live in a cave because I will only turn on a lamp when it’s necessary. Honestly I thought I would be sweating like a pig but other than the windows the house has good insulation and it’s not bad. When I’m in the kitchen cooking I do use this handy dandy device.

It’s getting used to not having all of the natural light. Yesterday I did all of the laundry and folded it in my dark, only lit by a lamp, room. It was actually pretty cozy.

I also have one of the mini swamp coolers in our room.

Since it’s hot as hades (108 this weekend and that’s not the feels like) I’ve been doing crafts. I painted the faded out frog I got from the estate sale.

And I used 66 toilet paper rolls (some were actually paper towel rolls) to make some flowers. I still have to paint them. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow during the trial.

And can I get a big HALLELUJAH? Olivia, Jackson’s girlfriend, took the bear!!!!!!!

They started back to college today so I want to wish them a very productive semester. Not the bear.

Paint It, Find It, Fix It

On August 10, 2026 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Frugal LifeLeave a comment

Remember when I painted the back of my bookshelves to match the curtains? Well, every time I looked at it, it didn’t look gold it looked like a sad beige, which will never be in my home.

It was just so one dimensional and sad looking. I mixed up some paint. It’s the yellow that I had with brown that I also had.

After I finished this paint job it was still looking too one dimensional. I decided to try wiping stain over it but apparently I had used all of my stain. I found some burnt umber acrylic paint and added water to it to thin it out quite a bit. I just used a sponge brush to wipe it on and then immediately wipe it off. I wanted to give it a “it was used in a cigar smoking room” effect.

This is exactly what I envisioned.

Now it makes me happy when I see it.

I have been missing a 4×4 piece of wood on the corner of the front flower bed for a while. I don’t know what happened to it. Donny might have taken it to use for something but I really don’t know. I have to drive by this empty lot on the corner of the street that leads to the entrance of our neighborhood and the loop every day. I saw a piece of a 4×4 just laying near the curb. One evening when Donny was driving I told him to pull over so I could grab it. He didn’t know what I was talking about so he had to do a u-turn. He pulled into the middle turning lane and I jumped out. He was yelling “hurry hurry a car is coming”. I had on flip flops and was doing my best not to get run over.

It’s a pretty busy intersection but I got it safely.

It fits and it didn’t cost a thing.

Our saucer swing broke. The middle circle came out so it was just the outer fabric circle left. We couldn’t use it because you would just fall through if you tried. I didn’t want to buy a whole new swing this late in the summer so I decided to redneck fix it. I bought 4 rolls of Duck brand tape and got to work.

Does it look exceptionally appealing? No it does not. Did it actually work? 100% it did. It cost less than $12, much much cheaper than a new swing. I’m most likely going to change out the swing next year anyway so this was a quick inexpensive fix. Don’t sleep on the powers of Duck tape.

I have been looking for a table for Hannah’s room to go where the 6ft tall teddy bear resides. I hit up 2 estate sales because on the website both looked like they had something that might work. They didn’t but I did find some candles and a goofy frog for cheap.

When I get some free time I’m going to repaint him. He’s a bit faded.

Last, but not least, it rained on Saturday and a little tiny bit on Sunday.

The temperature dropped when the storm blew in. It rained for several hours and thank goodness the neighbors know I’m a little strange because I danced in that rain. Our grass is getting brown and we needed this so badly. I do love summer so much, but when it nears the end of August I’m ready for some respite from the heat and am looking forward to Autumn.

Garden Update

On August 1, 2026 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

On Thursday I was feeling marginally better thanks to Donny giving me two wonderful back massages. I’m thinking it’s my psoas muscle so I’m just going to have to wait it out and try not to overdo it which if you read this you will know this is extremely hard for me.

On this morning Donny found several chickens in the already damaged pumpkin patch. They were all happily taking dust baths and no plants survived. We headed to Jake’s Feed Store to pick up more pumpkin seeds. I am right at the tail end of them being ready for Halloween, but I’m just going to take that chance.

I zip tied the little fence together to make it stronger and then we put up the hard chicken wire and regular chicken wire and zip tied that to the fence. I replanted seeds, gave them a good water and crossed my fingers that the chickens couldn’t get in.

Because I was already sweaty and gross I decided to go ahead and think out our side garden that had gotten overgrown. Our sunflowers had to be staked up along with several tomato plants and zinnias. As always there was morning glories that had to be taken care of.

It’s always sad when the summer garden is coming to an end.

Even though the tomato and cucumber plants are looking worn out we are still getting produce from them. I found this cucumber hiding in the mess.

We aren’t doing a winter garden so I decided to plant more pumpkin seeds on one side of the enclosed garden just to be able to see something growing.

Watermelons are still going strong. They take up so much space, but we have 4 in the purple bed that are still going strong. We had 5, but Donny was checking one and it fell off the vine.

The two baby pool also have watermelon growing. Donny found one hanging on the fence that needed an immediate sling. I found an old run pad and zip tied it to the fence and our metal rooster.

We’ll see if this will even work. The hot Texas sun may burn up a lot of my plants, but watermelons love it.

We’ve had a lot of luck with our sunflowers this year so I also planted some more seeds just to see if they will grow. These are the last blooms of the ones that we grew earlier.

We also cannot forget about our pollinators. They need water also. I had gotten the flower bird bath and over the summer it had gotten rust spots. I spray painted it, washed the stones and put a plastic planter water catcher in it.

Rough Few Days

On August 1, 2026 By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

These past few days have been ROUGH. On Tuesday I did something to the right side of my body. Everything was seized up. It was so bad by Wednesday that after Donny got home, at 5 on Wednesdays, I got on our Chi swing machine to see if I could loosen anything up and was in bed by 5:45. I woke up at midnight and went to just lay down on the couch with our tens machine on. I also think that I’m having phantom gallbladder symptoms again because I haven’t been taking my ox bile daily like I know I should.

I swear by this stuff. I’m feeling a bit better today, but the hip and shoulder blade and where my gallbladder used to be is still giving me fits.

When we woke up Thursday morning we found out that we had ants. They were all over the kitchen sink and the countertop next to the sink. We haven’t had a problem with ants since we have lived here. We cleared everything off of the counters and got to work.

After a quick Google search I found this product is safe to use around pets and is non toxic. I honestly think it’s just lemongrass and geranium essential oils. It killed them all off though so that’s a win. Because I don’t want them to come back and so far they haven’t, I mixed in some essential oil with my castile cleaning spray.

I need to move it into one of my amber glass bottles since I added the oils.

The worst thing that happened was to one of my pumpkin patches in the backyard. This is what it looked like on Wednesday.

While we were handling the ant problem, Donny looked out the window and said, “there are chickens in you patch”. I ran outside and one of the brown chickens was having a field day scratching up all of the shoots. I tried to save as many as I could but they were so damaged. I was devastated.

I put screens over the top to see if it will deter her. We’ll see.

On a different note, I found the best watermelon I’ve had all season at Aldi.

I prefer seeded ones but they are hard to find and when you do find them they are so expensive. This one will do just fine.

House chicken has a friend. She likes watching this cat wave its arm. She also likes watching TV and at night I put on the Roku Zen Life channel because she also likes music.

And one last random bit. We only have one this year, but it’s a cutie. Very shy and never raises it’s tail. Its tail is different and looks more like a cat’s tail.

The Funky Frugalista

Author: thefunkyfrugalista