Category: Home Stuff

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Relax

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Yesterday when I went out to check on the garden I saw that cats had been digging up my potted cucumber sprouts and flower sprouts that were also in pots. The little rascals had not been digging in the front bed with the cucumbers because I saw the opening where they were getting in and I strategically placed some flower pots in front of the opening. I, however, did not know what to do about the pots that were in front of the enclosed garden until I remembered seeing some wood that a neighbor down the street had put on the curb for the bulk pickup.

This was the first load I picked up. The woman who lives in the house came out and told me to take as much as I wanted. It was stacked up like a Jenga game so it was a bit difficult to not knock down the whole pile that came up to my chin and was longer than my car. I think it was from a deck they removed.

I stacked some of the pieces under the pots to see how that would work to deter the cats.

I sent Donny these pictures and asked him if he thought I should go pick up some more because they would be a good barrier border around the chicken coop. We have had some problems with possums getting in. He was all in so I went for a second trip.

It was hard sweaty work to load and unload all of this wood, but luckily I decided that this was enough. There were screws in most of the boards. It took me a while to figure out it was the star bit that I needed. I worked on getting the screws out.

When I come outside to do some yard work, I always have a helper. She can hear me come outside and jumps over her fence to hang out with me.

I did catch her standing in the middle of one of my raised beds, so we are working on leaving the garden alone. When I go back inside she runs home and bounds back over her fence.

After all the hot back breaking work I decided to take a little rest in the backyard. When the shade hits the back part of our yard is feels so cool and breezy. I grabbed a blanket, cushion, cold drink and my book and headed out.

Can we just say it was a gorgeous gorgeous day?

O’malley likes it when I chill with him in the yard.

And a big thanks to our chickens who are finally laying again. We are pretty sure it’s because we have been adding the pepper flakes to their feed.

Estate Sales + Catch Up

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On Thursdays Donny and I like to go to estate sales. Today he asked me if there were any that looked interesting. The two from our favorite company didn’t really look all that interesting. There was one about 30 minutes away in Gilmer. We decided to take a little drive and go to that one. The last 4 miles of the trip was a 1 1/2 lane road that had drop offs on both sides. It was beautiful though.

It was unfortunate that the sale itself was not very good. Everything was way overpriced. The company that held it was one we had never been to before and I don’t think we’ll ever go back to one of theirs again.

Last Thursday, however, there was a sale in my very favorite neighborhood in Longview. Nugget Hill is one of the oldest, if not oldest, neighborhoods with the most amazing houses.

This house was across the street from the home where the sale was. It’s always been one of our favorites. I looked it up online and even though it’s not for sale anymore realtor.com still has the photos up. The address is 814 Charlotte if you’re interested.

This was the house of the sale.

I cannot tell you the love I have for old houses. The house seemed like a maze and had some very cool items for sale. Since I have pretty much finished the inside of our home I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular and just actually came to see the house. I did find some flower pots outside in the garage area that I picked up for $2 a piece.

I also picked up this Himalayan salt tea light holder.

The rest of Donny’s time off last week was spent buying some plants, cleaning off the patio and working on the coop.

Planted some lavender and repotted my avocado tree whose pot was broken in the storm.

My little cilantro seedlings and some rosemary have new homes.

I used some of my propagated pothos to plant in the wall pots.

The bird feeder that I had in the garden area was not being used by the birds as they preferred their hanging feeder. I decided to turn it into a bee watering bowl instead.

Wiping down the patio was my baby. Pollen is heavy and the dirt that blew in with the storm was making everything a real mess.

This is what was covering EVERYTHING. It took several hours to get all of the fabric and rugs washed and pollen gunk cleaned off. I found the lemon sage castile soap at Drug Emporium. It got an excellent rating on Yuka and was 1/3 the price of Dr. Bronner’s. Plus the smell is so yummy.

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It was so worth all of the hard work.

We have a trunk on the patio that we picked up at an estate sale several years ago and had never really paid attention to what was inside.

We soaked everything in vinegar and cleaned them up.

I feel like I’ve been burning the candle at both ends so today after we got home I watched a lifetime(ish) movie, complete with a unbelievable plot and bad acting, and took a nice long nap complete with Milo and Baby Ruth.

Switcheroo

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

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

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

Groovy Spoons

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I finally got my bender mounted. I didn’t drill a pilot hole first and it’s mounted into solid wood this time.

I did one spoon and then messed around with some wire.

I love the little flowery detail.

Yep, I truly needed some hand lotion. Making the rings was really fun. I spent two hours trying to bend a spoon that I knew was really too thick to bend. I finally gave up because my palm was bruised and my fingers were so sore. Hopefully I’ll make some more spoon rings tomorrow. I have quite a few to make.

My cat Milo has finally healed up after having a puncture injury that required a vet visit. Well, O’malley came home with the same type wound. His was between his shoulder blades. I doctored it up and waited to see if I needed to make a vet appointment.

Luckily his wound healed up with no infection. In fact, I heard a crow going crazy. When I went outside to see what was going on this is what I saw.

That’s O’malley up in the tree. He’s fine.

On a gluten free note, I found some strawberry GF pancake/waffle mix. We decided to have breakfast for dinner Saturday night and everyone loved them.

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The picture is a little steamy because of the waffle maker, but I found it at Walmart.

I made homemade whip cream and strawberry sauce. We also had eggs and sausage. There’s just something so comforting about breakfast for dinner.

Tonight I made crawfish etoufee with the GF all purpose flour. I am so glad I found it so I can actually eat flour based things like the roux in this dish.

It was so good!!!!!

Donny and I have started watching The Pitt. We really like it. If you need a good medical show to watch I highly recommend it. Each episode is in real time and it’s intense. Plus I just love Noah Wyle.

Black Friday

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I woke Jackson up around 8 so that we could go to the mall after I dropped Donny off at work. He works less than 2 miles away and the mall is a little under 3 miles. I was surprised that it wasn’t super packed. I think that every time Entertainmart has a sale we are a bit disappointed. It was buy 2 get 3 free on red ticketed items. The thing is, you have to look everywhere to find a red ticketed item and it gets frustrating. We looked around there for a while and then headed into the mall.

JCPenney always has some pretty decent deals. I found some bath towels that I really liked. I cannot stand fluffy towels. They also cannot be soft. It just grosses me out. I found the perfect ones on sale for $2.99. I only got 4 because that’s all I needed to replace.

I also found Donny some shirts and pajama bottoms for Christmas. Next Jackson wanted to go to Hot Topic. It was buy one get one half off. He found a belt and a shirt. I got Hannah some Christmas gifts there also. MiniSo was actually having their Black Friday sale tomorrow so we’ll go back because there are some items the kids want to get their friends. That’s all the shopping we actually did because a designer that Jackson loves was having a sale that started at 10 am. Some people might think it’s weird to let him pick out what he is getting for Christmas, but designer clothes aren’t cheap and I wanted to make sure it would be something he would definitely wear. Even though he knows what it is the clothes will still go under the tree.

After Jackson and I got home we ran to the thrift store because I needed to get a plate for my candles. I did find one and I also found some burlap for $2.00.

I had wanted something to put on the back of one of my bookshelves. I always use a dark walnut stain and because I have a lot of dark items it’s hard to actually see them. I measured the area, cut the fabric and used spray adhesive to get it to stick.

I think it turned out pretty good.

I also put together my candle plate.

I’ll end up switching out the candles as they burn down but it adds such a happy glow to the kitchen area.

The weather has also gotten much colder so that means bringing in all of my delicate plants from the patio. It’s supposed to be near and below freezing until the 10th. Winter in our home means it’s going to get a little plant crowded. I brought in one of my shelf tables from outside so that I had a place to put them.

We just always have to make it work.

Does anyone else cut up old sweat pants to make dusting rags? I swear they are the best rags. Jackson had a pair of sweats that didn’t fit him anymore so I cut them up.

I like to use the legs for ceiling fan dusting. Saved from the landfill and given new life.

Switcheroo

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We were planning on heading out the Avalon Faire, our local Ren Fest, but it rained on and off on Sunday. It seems like every Easter we get rain. Since Donny had the day off we decided to switch dining tables once again. I absolutely love the drop leaf antique table we have been using, but honestly, it’s just too big for the space. Everyone fit around it, but it wasn’t comfortable getting seated. The door is in a weird spot and was always hitting one of the chairs.

I had seen a parlor table on FB marketplace that I really liked, but when I measured it was going to be way too small. So we decided to bring in the rectangular table that we had used at one point during our years here. I still can’t believe that we have lived in Longview 7 years and in this house for 5 of those.

It was nice having Donny here to help me move everything around.

I plan on painting the bottom part as we’re out of the turquoise phase.

There is just so much more space. If we have more people for dinner we can always eat outside on the dining table there.

I have put the other table to good use. I was outside gardening most of the day today and it makes the perfect potting table.

And just because I am embracing my low maintenance style, this is how my hair looks when I just go to sleep with it damp. I do not miss my long hair one little bit. Now I can get ready in about 15 minutes. That’s definitely a win.

Did You Know?

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Our chickens didn’t lay many eggs during the colder months. That’s perfectly normal, but when it started warming up they started producing like crazy. We were getting overrun with eggs. We knew that it was time to start giving them away. I took them all out and did the egg test to see if they were all still fresh. We don’t wash them until we use them because it keeps the bloom on them and they stay fresh much longer.

We ended up having 107 eggs. We gave them to neighbors and co workers. We still ended up having too many so I decided to freeze them. Did you know that you can freeze raw eggs? The method I used was washing the eggs and then cracking them into silicon muffin pans.

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After they are in the cups you just sprinkle them with salt, this keeps the yolks thinner, cover them with cling wrap and freeze. When they are fully frozen, you just pop them out and store them in a freezer baggie. They can last up to a year.

I also made soy marinated eggs. They were so good.

I did a batch of pickled mustard eggs also but they need to pickle for about 10 days so I haven’t been able to try them yet.

I save all of my glass jars to reuse so if you happen to look in our fridge that’s what you’ll see most of. I use them for sauces, leftovers and pickling.

I also have a new favorite meal. I keep roasted sweet potatoes in the fridge at all times because they are a healthy snack and I eat them every day with fried eggs. If you haven’t tried it yet I highly recommend it.

It only takes about 25 minutes to roast a whole pan and they reheat well.

I Found A Way

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Everyone knows that you are supposed to drink water every day. I would always fill my tumbler up, take a few sips, and then somehow just lose the tumbler, forget about it, you get the idea. Lately I had beginning to feel dry. Kind of like my skin like a sponge left out in the sun. I googled how much water I should be drinking every day and it was a lot, 80 ounces to be exact. I knew for a fact that I wasn’t getting anywhere near that so I came up with a plan.

Every hour I would fill up my mason jar to the 1 cup mark and then I would just chug it. Think guy at a frat party chugging. I would mark it on the dry erase board on the fridge because I knew throughout the day I would lose track of how many cups I drank.

This is the third day I’ve done it and it’s been so easy. I will admit that I have probably gone through a roll of toilet paper per day but I hear that it gets better once your body adjusts. I can honestly say that I feel so much better. It’s amazing how fast it works. Hannah is even trying it out too. She has the blue tally marks. Even if you don’t like water, you can chug 8 ounces in under a minute and the benefits are so worth it.

I also found this amazing pumice stone. We have a VERY old gas stove. Even though I clean it there was always this flat burned on stain. I have tried scraping with a razor blade, baking soda, bar keepers friend, cleaning paste, really just about everything. I was in Drug Emporium and ran across this.

I thought it couldn’t hurt to try. So I got to rubbing.

You can see the spot where I started. It took a lot of elbow grease, but it came off like a charm.

I couldn’t believe how much better it looked and there were no harmful chemicals used so even better.

Dining Nook Dilemma

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Our poor little dining nook is hardly ever used. It has been through so many changes since we first moved into this house almost 5 years ago.

We first tried our normal dining room table. That was WAY too big.

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I had another smaller table that we used until we could find one that we really liked. This one was okay, but it was just too narrow.

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We had this round table in our breakfast nook at the house we were living in before this one.

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Unfortunately we got rid of it when we moved because we actually downsized about 50% of our belongings. I had gotten the table off Facebook Marketplace and like it, but didn’t love it.

The table we have now I actually got for free. I was helping our landlord get one of her houses ready for new renters. The old renters had left this one behind and she asked me if I wanted it. I did and I love it. It’s an antique drop leaf. I refinished the chairs that I picked up at the thrift store. They were only $2.50 per chair. The problem is that the door needed to be about a foot to the right when the house was built in the late 1950’s.

I can’t really change anything until the weather warms up because the outside plants in front of the window need to still be indoors.

This is another angle.

I would really like an island cart with seating. Something like this, but I would rather build it myself out of something I could repurpose.

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I’m sure I’ll figure it out, it’s just bugging me right now. I want something that is just more user friendly which is hard in this particular space. It could be I’m just going through a funk and next thing I know I’ll like this room again. I guess time will tell.

The Nest

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A few years ago Donny and I had to be in Oklahoma City. It was just an overnight and I found the cutest Airbnb.

It was a four Plex and our space was the upper right unit.

Not only was it just so cute, but it had the MOST comfortable bed. We felt like we were in a nest. It was so hard to get up the next morning.

It doesn’t look like much, but oh how looks are deceiving.

After we left we couldn’t stop talking about this bed. I went so far as to message the host to find out what kind of mattress it was. Come to find out it was an iComfort Serta. That’s the exact mattress we have. Then he let me in on a little secret. He had a mattress topper on it. He couldn’t remember what brand it was. I looked around our town, but couldn’t find anything that matched what his topper felt like. I put it out of my mind until last week. I decided to look online to see what I could find on Cyber Monday. I found what I thought would be perfect. I found it on Amazon. It has 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of fluffy topper.

I couldn’t wait to open it.

It actually takes a full 48 hours before it’s fully fluffed up. Well, we needed to sleep on it so it only got about 14. Luckily the mail person delivered it at 6:30 in the morning. I didn’t tell Donny I ordered it. I wanted to see if he even noticed.

This was just after I put it on. I left the sheets off all day for maximum fluffing. Let me tell you, It was worth every penny. We finally have our own nest. Now if only the cat would stop waking me up by laying on my neck it would be perfect.