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

Frazzled

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn thriftingLeave a comment

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

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

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

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

img_20260317_1213251635992489540641980614

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

img_20260317_121510948704296839671064923

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

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

img_20260317_121817520115576982614794336

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

img_20260317_1230022952391226978073380890

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

img_20260317_135058636_hdr5608911922818521544

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

I did get a book.

img_20260318_112556827_hdr8180161698794228084

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

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

img_20260317_1408274096845955453380943406

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

Crazy Storm

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

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

img_20260315_170653635_hdr818477633880661373

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

img_20260315_171137985650451752859377398

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

img_20260315_171215305_hdr3370183653885760603

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

img_20260315_190816749_hdr4691796163015642036

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

img_20260315_1720072096028002603470166089

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

img_20260315_190356140_hdr1131709221911441037

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

img_20260316_131539785_hdr7397588326483125560

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

img_20260316_1934138257791050003709810970

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

img_20260316_1934040103604181669264932445

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

img_20260316_215728840479518958352908846

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

A Favorite Home

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn homeLeave a comment

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

screenshot_20260307-130225~22390523066291979644.

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

screenshot_20260307-130236~22570752811505582214.

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

screenshot_20260307-130230~22916171300419490295.

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

screenshot_20260307-130242~23431116317417784915.

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

screenshot_20260307-130248~24844809588726717583.

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

screenshot_20260307-130254~22303454807866088254.

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

screenshot_20260307-130301~27476389009119168863.

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

screenshot_20260307-130307~26203188318795757369.

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

screenshot_20260314-220934~35218559638462214050.

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

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

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?!?