Author: thefunkyfrugalista

I live in a cozy old home in the Piney Woods of east Texas. This is my journal Follow me on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/stacy.kappelmanbruce Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefunkyfrugalista

This ‘n That

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

First I want to start by saying we had a scare last night. Hannah and I went to workout and got home about midnight. I was checking on everything when I heard the neighborhood dogs barking like crazy. I looked up and there were two huge coyotes just walking down the middle of our street. If the dogs hadn’t alerted me I wouldn’t have even known they were there because they were ninja quiet. I start yelling at them to go away because our two male cats were outside. Donny heard me and came out to see what in the world was going on at that late hour. We hopped in the car and started chasing them around the neighborhood to get them to leave. They did not want to leave and kept circling back to our street. We had the windows down yelling at them and honking. They finally left but I’m sure they will be back. We have a feral cat colony across the street and it breaks my heart when there is a missing cat.

Fridays are like every normal person’s Sunday for us. It’s like the end of the weekend because Donny has Thursdays and Fridays off. Since we did all of our running around yesterday today was home day. While he was cleaning out and fortifying the chicken coop (we had a possum sneak in the other night in the wee hours) I was painting one of the old tires that we had in the backyard. Donny had used it for planning potatoes a few seasons ago and I wanted to spruce it up and use it for cucumbers.

My cucumbers are almost ready to be planted. I don’t know how well they will do in the front because it is just so dang shady. I’m going to plant some in the full sun and some in the shad and see how it goes.

That’s some of my tomato plants in the round containers next to the cucumbers.

I may have overdone it with the tomatoes, but who knows if they’ll all live.

I have 3 that I cheated and bought at home Depot. They are still living so that’s a plus.

My watermelon is finally sprouting. Those are my babies because I love watermelon and buy so many during the summer. I would just love to be able to pick them from my garden.

So far everything is going well. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

As soon as the compost is ready I’ll be spreading that all over. For some reason Making compost has always intimidated me. We made it all the time at our house in Bryan. I have no idea why I felt this way. I decided that if I don’t do it right, that’s okay, but so far it’s been really easy. I also found that using the weed weasel thing to mix it up is so much better than the hoe and stick I was using.

Sorry about all of the garden talk it’s just that I am trying to record everything so I’ll have the records for next time and it’s also what took up the majority of our day today.

But, that’s not the only thing. Hannah and I went to Crunch to workout. I absolutely love this gym. No one cares what you wear. Everyone is so nice and helpful. We have started doing the circuit workout and then cardio. Tonight we found the holy grail of working out. It’s the sauna! We sat in that beautiful hot room and when we got out it felt like we had taken a sedative. That will definitely be our ending every time we go. I just can’t even explain how wonderful I feel after sitting on those cedar benches for 15 minutes.

Because Sprouts is in the same parking lot I had to run in and get some lotion. I am almost out of the patchouli buritti and decided to go with a new scent.

This is my favorite scent. It says floral in the description (I’m not a floral girly at all) but I’m not getting that from it. All of the scents that I have tried are really good, but the lotion itself is outstanding. Non greasy, soaks in and keeps my skin soft all day long. Highly recommend. Natural Grocers, Vitamins Plus and Drug Emporium also carry this brand.

Now I’m going to talk my cat Malley off the ledge because he is wanting to go outside. He can’t meow so it’s the grunting sound. Poor thing. He always settles down when he realizes he has lost the battle of wills.

Estate Sale Day

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Estate SalesLeave a comment

Our favorite thing to do on Donny’s day off is to find an estate sale. The estate sales here start on Wednesdays and that used to me great when Donny had Wednesdays off because things weren’t so picked over. We had run some errands and I checked the estate sale websites and one was close and looked interesting. So we headed there.

The house was huge and there was still so much stuff left. We love the garages because they always have some of the best items. Donny found 2 very old files with an interchangeable handle that he thought would be good for failing some of my jewelry.

Since it was the second day everything was 25% off.

I liked this necklace except for the Christmas theme that it had going on.

No problem, I just used my jewelry pliers and took the charms off.

I am a sucker for a sleeveless all cotton blouse.

The house had the cutest courtyard with a little workshop. I don’t know if people just didn’t go out that door but I found the best thing out there. Maybe no one bought it because it looked a little wonky. It had a lean to it and didn’t seem sturdy. For $25 I knew we could fix it. I have been wanting one of these forever, but didn’t want to pay the retail price.

All it took was a trip to Home Depot to get some rebar and once Donny put that through the pole it was sturdy as ever. I just love it!

Swap Out + Jewelry Making

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

Since all of the trees are blooming we feel like there isn’t going to be another freeze. I was so sick of looking at my sweaters and how much room my winter clothes took up I decided it was time to swap out for my warmer weather clothes.

Bye bye winter clothes.

All washed and ready to be hung up.

I’ve decided that this summer will be the Summer of maxi skirts. I really like skirts in the hot weather because the air flow is unmatched.

After everything was washed it only took about an hour to bag up the winter and hang up the summer.

After many days of waiting for the weather forecasters storm to hit, it finally did last night. I slept through it but when the kids woke up they told me that it was bad, thundering, lightening and pounding rain. The storm stuck around most of the day so I decided to make some jewelry. I wrapped my first piece of sea glass.

I practiced making a few spoon rings.

It takes a lot of arm strength to get a good bend on the rings. I’m getting better at it. They really are a lot of fun to make.

I made shrimp and crawfish etoufee.

I doubled the recipe thinking I would freeze some for a later date.

It was a huge hit and luckily there was enough leftover for Donny’s lunch.

Poppin’

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

It’s only the second day, but this time change is kicking my butt. It always takes me at least a week to get back into rhythm. I couldn’t fall asleep last night and then both Donny and I overslept. Ugh. But on a happier note, the garden seeds are a Poppin. I was a little leery about buying these flower seeds.

I picked them up at Walmart and luckily that had a pack that was for the more shady areas as well as full sun. Every pot I planted them in looks like this.

It’s almost time to start planting my seed trays.

We had to run to Walmart yesterday because Donny’s reader glasses broke. I had seen online how if you put fake snakes in your garden it will deter birds and critters. I don’t know if this is true, but I found these to use.

We’ll see if this actually works.

The one thing I love about the time change is that it gets dark later. I was able to do the first mow of the season at 5:30.

I put one of the snakes where the iron trellis is and it gave me a start when I was mowing.

I’m getting ready to do the winter summer clothes swap out so I was going through my closet to see what I didn’t wear. I had picked up these men’s vintage Dickies overalls a couple of years ago for $1. They were hanging on Donny’s side and I had just forgotten about them. Since oversized overalls are in style now, I just cut the legs off to the length that I like and they are almost exactly what I almost paid over $100 for.

Gotta love a bargain!

A Little Day Trip

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Day DateLeave a comment

On Friday Donny had to go pick up some wall art at the Tyler store so I went with him. After we picked up the artwork he knew I wanted to go to World Market. I so miss having one in our town. We noticed there was a Kirkland’s next door. We decided to stop in there to see what their wares because it used to be such a cool store. Well, it’s not so cool anymore. I have had this angel for over a decade that I got at Kirkland’s.

The picture above our couch was from Kirland’s also. This was our home in Bryan that we sold in 2010.

screenshot_20260307-130230~24165036958842698023.

I used to love that store, but it’s just changed and not for the better in my opinion.

But on to the best store.

There were so many things that I could have brought home with me, but I was thinking of the lack of space that we have. Plus Donny just wouldn’t go for the double papasan chair that I just love. We did get some snacks and Donny snuck some lemon curd in the basket because he knows how much I love it.

I found two goodies.

By the time we finished browsing the entire store several times we were starving. Donny had heard that Ruby’s was good so that’s where we headed. I love Mexican food but I’m more used to Tex-Mex. There was no Tex in this Mex. My go to is cheese enchiladas. They did have their version of them but I did not want the cabbage or the piece of fried chicken that came with almost every meal. Even though they were not what I was used to they were in fact very good.

On our way back through the azalea district of Tyler we saw this really cool looking park so, if you know us, we had to stop and see it. Turns out it’s the Tyler Children’s Park. We didn’t really know where the main entrance was so we had to walk down this very steep, uneven rock steps.

The park was absolutely beautiful and sad because there were trees, statues, benches and bridges all dedicated to children who have passed away.

We walked around the whole park and it was a pretty good little trek.

I just love when we find these little hidden gems. I think I’m going to have to keep some hiking shoes in the car though because I was wearing the same shoes as when we found and walked around Elder Lake.

When we got home we were trying to decide where to hang the lantern from World Market. The final resting place.

it looks really good when the lights are off too.

And as for today, the storm we have been expecting for days finally hit. When the weather is beautiful I will be outside almost the whole day. That means that the inside of our house is getting slightly neglected. Well, today I got everything dusted, de-cat haired, vacuumed and mopped. That always puts me in a good mood.

The kitchen is always an ongoing cleaning challenge just because someone is always making something. I was so sick of dirty dishes just being piled in the sink with the excuse that they didn’t know if the dishes were clean or dirty in the dishwasher. Ok, opening it would probably answer that question but I made it easier.

I wish that we could all just normalize lived in homes. My kitchen is definitely lived in.

I’m hoping tomorrow the weather will be clear and I can be back outside.

Wednesday & Thursday

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Longview, txLeave a comment

I am so far behind in keeping track of what all we have been doing. I look back on these blog posts when I need to remember what we did when. An example is I wanted to find out when we got the chickens. I needed to make sure that Ruthie was over 6 months so she could be spayed. It really does help me keep track of my everyday life.

The forecast had called for storms on Thursday and Friday so on Wednesday I wanted to get the fence line cleaned up in the front. It was very overgrown and there were several of the dreaded extremely pokey dew berry vines.

I ended up filling 4 of the 33 gallon sized trash bags with weeds. I had to take them to Donny’s work to toss in their dumpster because we had no room in our trash can.

I have had my composting container for almost 3 years. It has been very neglected. I decided to move it closer to where I can utilize it better. I guess ignoring it made some pretty good compost though.

A much better home for it.

Donny had texted me on Wednesday saying that we were missing a really good estate sale. I was sweaty and had been working on the fence line and didn’t want to stop mid way. We decided to head out to see if we could find any treasures Thursday morning. I did find a few things.

The sea glass was in the dish surrounding the candle so I had to buy the whole thing. It was only $3 so not too bad. I want to try and wire wrap some of the glass to make pendants.

I found this bag of silverware and went through it to see if there were any I could make rings out of. There were a few so I decided to just pay the 10 bucks they were asking for the bag. Luckily when we checked out she gave them to me for a dollar. Sweet!

When Donny was checking out I looked out the window into part of the backyard I hadn’t ventured into and saw this shepherds hook. I have been wanting a good heavy one but, since I’m cheap, I didn’t want to pay a lot for one. This one was only $6 so it came home with me.

It still hadn’t rained a drop and the sky was clear. I checked 3 different weather sites and they all had different forecasts. I’m beginning to think they use a magic 8 ball to predict the weather. Because it was actually a beautiful day I wanted to go get some elephant ear and caladium bulbs. I needed to replace our hostas that were dead. We also wanted to pick up some flowers to attract the pollinators. Donny and I spent most of the afternoon trying to figure out where to plant what and in which pot.

I used my new shepherds hook for some violas.

The rooster got some lavender. It smells so good even with no flowers yet.

The hyacinths also attract bees and the marigolds are good bug deterrents.

We had run by Dollar Tree and I found this cute flamingo whirly gig.

I found these cute mushrooms. They came on the same size pole as the flamingo. I didn’t want floating in the air mushrooms so I just used my bolt cutters to shorten them.

I hope the birds find the little bird feeder we put in. The martins have already started making their home in the hole above the patio. I’m so glad they come back every year. Donny and I are trying to figure out how to put a net under it because last Spring the only baby they had kept falling out and ultimately didn’t survive.

We had been wanting go to the Thursday trivia night at Oil Horse Brewery downtown. Hannah wanted to go with us and we thought it would be fun.

We did so bad, but it was so much fun.

It was crowded and we got there late so we were at the table/bar against the window.

The building with the green lights is actually apartments. Hannah and I both decided that if we had a chance we would live there because they were just that cool.

We were cheering on this little toddler girl outside the window playing Cornhole. I was leaning over to see outside the window, got overzealous with my cheering and knocked Donny’s beer over. The whole thing went down my shirt, through my shirt and was pouring onto my jeans. So that was the end of the evening. (trivia was on the last round) Except we went to Super 1 because we wanted ice cream and I smelled like a brewery and that’s okay because the ice cream was worth it.

Impatient

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

Yesterday I had to run to Home Depot to get the rest of the soil I needed to finish up filling the raised beds. The front garden is so shady that it takes forever for something to grow. I found out that Impatiens and Vincas do well in shade so I looked for some there. No luck so I headed to Walmart where, online, it said the flowers were available. I could not find any of those flowers inside or out. I did find some tomato plants. I do not like the beefsteak or any of the large variety tomatoes. I prefer Roma but the smaller tomatoes are so hard to find for some reason. I picked up the last two that they had. Even Home Depot only had the large variety. While I was there I also picked up some strawberry plants.

Strawberries in.

I really dislike buying plants and prefer to start them myself with seeds, but I was very impatient to see something growing the the gardens. I am nurturing my seed trays and making sure they get enough sun. I keep the lids on at night but I have to leave them outside just because we don’t have the space inside.

I added a few more seed trays to the bunch.

My celery is starting to grow. I just plant the bottom part that I cut off.

I don’t know how my green onions are still alive. I just left them outside during all of the freezing weather.

Since I have planted seeds in the raised bed where I normally keep the seed trays at night I decided to just line them up outside the border and hope no animal gets into them.

Two things really irritated me today.

I went to move the weed sacks and the bottom dropped out of the bigger one.

This is the biggest one that I just don’t know what to think about it.

The city is putting in new electric poles and changing out the street lights. The light across the street has been burned out for a few months. At first it seemed so dark but I got used to it and actually started liking it because we could really see the stars so clearly

The light that was there before gave off a wonderful amber glow like this one down the street.

Did they put that kind of light back in? Oh, heavens no. We got a blinding LED light that is turned the wrong way so it looks like aliens are trying to beam up my neighbors house.

I guess I need to be careful what I wish for because I did call the city to let them know the light was out. Why Longview why?!?

More Garden Progress

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

We have had the fenced garden for a couple of years now. It’s been okay, but always seemed a little messy. The dirt was always piled up in mounds. The stepping stones would end up buried. Part of the wood is rotting, but it will make it through at least one more season.

I was going to go get bricks to put up an inside border. It would have cost about 15 dollars which really isn’t bad, but since we are trying to use what we have I decided to cut some boards and use those instead. I didn’t like the plain concrete stepping stones so I painted them red. While those were drying I tilled up the soil and started spreading it out. After I dug the trenches for the boards and put them in I filled the space with mulch and laid the stones back down.

It looks so much neater now. The door used to close. For a while now we have used the rake to hold it closed. I bought some garden hooks at Dollar Tree. You get 4 per package.

Just looking at this picture I’m pretty sure I’ll be repainting the boards.

I used the other two to hang up the onions and the lantern.

Now I needed to get some seeds in the ground. I have tried all different kinds of plant markers. No matter what kind I get, they never seems to work. They either get moved, washed away or are just missing. I decided to make a diagram (poorly) .

The big blank space on the side is where the tomatoes will go.

I started filling in the planters with dirt from my really big pot and some others I’m not using right now.

I’m so excited because my seeds are starting to sprout finally. It’s a fine line between watering them too much and not enough. We got a new hose and sprayer. It’s still very stiff and hard to maneuver. I was looking online for a hose holder. The one that I really liked was, unfortunately $80 so that was a no go. I saw some free standing holders, but the reviews were not so great. There are baskets and pots that hold the hose also, but I just didn’t feel like paying what they were asking. Then I remembered that we have a huge pot that we have had trouble growing things in. My Jasmine died. My begonias died. So I thought this would be the perfect solution and it was.

I didn’t realize that you need to soak parsley and broccoli seeds overnight. So hopefully I will get those in the planters tomorrow.

The sun was out all day with not a cloud in the sky so that meant that my solar lights were getting all the charge they needed.

The lights make all the difference at night. I can’t believe how far this side yard has come.

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.