Category: Home Stuff

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.

Busy Bees

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We were able to get so much done yesterday. Thankfully it was a gorgeous day outside. I was able to mow in a sweatshirt and joggers and not even break a sweat. When the weather is in the low 70’s it seems like everyone is in a better mood, even the chickens.

Donny worked on doing a deep clean on the chicken coop getting it ready for winter. It never gets very bad because they are only inside to lay eggs and roost at night. He added more hay than we normally do in the summer to keep them warm since the temperatures will be dropping later this week.

He had to run to the feed store to get more shavings and when he did he accidentally left his phone and wallet on the roof of the car when he was leaving. He saw them fly off when he was on the loop. He had to go back and as he pulled over an 18 wheeler ran over his phone. If you need a good phone case get the ONN brand from Walmart. There was only a tiny crack in the case at the corner. Everything else was fine. He did lose a couple of dollars when his wallet flew off, but managed to find his fishing license so that’s a win.

While he was running his errand I was busy in the shed going through clothes that we had put away. I ended up donating 8 bags. It’s such a good feeling to lighten the load.

I had washed out our Brita pitcher. I couldn’t relate to people saying how long it took for their water to filter. Mine always just filled up so fast. I always wondered just how it did it so fast. That’s when I took the filter out and realized I had never inserted it correctly. So basically, we’ve just been drinking tap water for months.

I also realized that I like the taste of tap water better than the filtered.

Since the cats DO NOT like the mower I decided to give them a little catnip treat. Queso hogged all of the first pile. When Milo got a pile he REALLY like it a lot.

He’s done so well with coming inside at night. Last night Donny was in Milo’s chair. He feels safe in that chair because he’s still afraid of the ceiling fan and a/c. He laid like this watching Donny until Donny realized that he was wanting to go to sleep on his chair.

Happy boy!

One that isn’t so happy is Monkey. She does not like Milo or Queso. All they want to do is be her friend, but this is the face they get when they are in the house.

Now I’m off to do a quick clean on the house so that I can go through my closet and do some purging. We bought some space bags to condense everything. I hope they work.

Small Spaces

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I have spaces in my home that just make me happy. It could be one of my kids artwork. It could be shelves that I made that hold things that are special to me.

With little storage in our kitchen I have shelves that hold staples that I use on a regular basis. The shelves were given to me by a friend. Thank you Cindy. The bakers rack below it was found on a curb on my street in Baton Rouge and was helped carried home by that same friend.

Donny and I built shelves that fit in the kitchen nook window.

At night, with the twinkle lights turned on it looks so cozy.

I love when the suns shines in to the window above the sink because it bounces little pops of color from my stained glass.

When we got rid of Jack’s dresser I repurposed the drawers into shelves. The ones in the dining nook holds cookbooks and other fun little treasures.

I love plants

We have very few pieces of furniture that we have bought new. This green shelving unit is one of them. It’s from Nadeau, started off turquoise because we bought it specifically for our kitchen in Baton Rouge. I painted it green and I like it even better.

When our home flooded in 2016, I saved some of the drawers from our bedroom and made these shelves. I love the thrifted lamp with the stained glass bulb.

I love having shelves because storage is at a premium in our home. These are the most recent ones in our bedroom.

No matter what type of home you live in only bring in things that make you happy. Your style is your style. You don’t have to follow trends, unless that is what you like. Grow and bloom where you’re planted.

I’d like to introduce you to Stevie Wonder. I named him that because apparently skunks are blind. He was outside eating at the cat bowl and on the way to his food ran right into my leg. Didn’t even phase him, he just kept on to his destination. I think he’s getting used to me.

Savoring

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While I was scrolling Instagram today, I saw this picture.

I have seen so many people already putting up Halloween and Fall decorations. When I go into the stores holiday decorations are already on the shelves. I get it because I was once a buyer for a store and I know that Fall merchandise begins arriving in July. That doesn’t make me feel good about it though.

I admit that it’s easy to fall into the trap of always looking ahead, longing for what is coming up. Summer is waning and Autumn is just around the corner but I feel like I am letting Summer down by rushing into the next season before one is truly over. I’ve decided that I am going to savor the rest of Summer. I’m going to lean into the hot days that are left because I know that when we are in the coldest days I will be longing for the hot sunny days I was wishing away a few months prior.

I will take my time ushering Fall in. I want to not be rushing through my days, but to savor each and every one. I want to take pleasure in all of the little things and not rely so heavily on waiting for the big things.

Speaking of little things, Donny and I were in Big Lots and found that all of their summer merchandise is 50% off. We found some solar lights to hang from the jasmine trellis. Will they stay there? Who knows, but for right now I really like the little bit of extra light they give to our side yard.

I am not a chip eater, but Jackson and I were in Walmart a few days ago and he bought some new Doritos. Not a Dorito fan, but I tried one of his and OMG they were the very best chips I’ve ever had. I only ate 2 of his, but could not stop thinking about them. Today Donny and I had to make a Walmart run because I wanted to make roast beef croissant sandwiches for dinner and you can bet I bought a bag of these magical chips.

I am not a big fan of curry or spicy for that matter, but these are so good. Not very curry or spicy. I actually may have bought two bags and hidden one.

Fake It

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We have hanging planters that for some reason, where they have to hang, every plant that I plant in them burns up. The afternoon sun is like a laser beam no matter what type of plant we use. Today Jackson and I had to run to Dollar Tree to pick up some lint rollers and I found a solution. Fake greenery. I am normally against any type of fake plants, but since this is the only place to hang the planters, I thought I’d give it a shot.

This one is high enough up to where it’s not that noticeable.

This one is a little iffy, so I’ll probably replace those greens, but for right now, it’s okay.

I also found some Maybelline lipstick in a brick shade for $1.25. I rarely wear lipstick, I’m more of a gloss person, but I really like the shade so maybe I’ll use it every once in a while.

Every day the chickens await their snack. Their very favorite is corn tortillas. They get into a tortilla frenzy when they see me walk out with them.

You would think they never get any food at all. They are some funny girls.

And how pretty was the sky tonight? Well, minus all of the power lines.

House Scent

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It’s so funny when people come over and say, you smell like your house. What they mean is our house smells like this.

I have used this laundry soap for years and the whole family always gets compliments on how we smell. Since I’ve basically become nose blind to it, I don’t really even smell it anymore. If I am away from our house for any length of time though, when I walk in I can definitely smell it. It’s spicy, earthy and just really smells good. It’s such a comforting scent. Some people think it smells like patchouli. I guess it sort of does. Anyway, I did laundry and that’s when you can really smell it throughout the house. All of the Zum products are so good. I use the bar soap, lotion, room and body spray and body oil. If you like earthy scents you should try this brand.

We are supposed to be getting storms in a little while. It’s been raining and lightning like crazy. I tried to get a picture of lightning, but of course it stopped right when I turned the camera on.

Hopefully if the storm does hit us it won’t be too bad. So many cities are getting hit by really bad weather lately. Spring storms are getting crazy.

Flies + Plant + Weird

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One thing you can always count on when the weather starts heating up in the South are flies. They are awful. We normally have the big smelly fly traps outside that can catch thousands of the little pests. Problem is, they are really smelly and therefore you can’t bring them indoors. Since our kitchen is right off of the side door, it is a playground for the flies. I saw a video on TikTok that showed a woman using a pine cleaner and water to deter them. Even though I’m not a huge fan of the pine cleaner scent, I gave it a shot and wiped down every single surface in my kitchen. This is what I used. It is 85% pine oil so it only takes a cap full.

I didn’t know this, but Pine Sol doesn’t contain pine oil any more. If you can find this stuff it is amazing. Flies absolutely hate it. In fact, they were just gone. I’m going to keep using it, at least through the summer.

Last night we heard a crash. The pothos I had hanging above the sink fell. I’ve had it hanging for 5 years. I don’t know why the hook pulled out, but when I tried to untangle the chains from the vines, I couldn’t. The more I tried the more frustrated I became. It was like a giant tangled necklace.

Luckily Donny loves puzzles so he was able to untangle it when he got home. I just need to re-pot it into a lighter pot and get it hung back up tomorrow. I got a much bigger hook for it too.

When I was cleaning and spraying everything today, I realized we have some weird things in our home.

This is Gaa-Gaa pig. The kids gave it the name when they were really little. I’ve tried to get rid of it several times, but they will have none of that. Its head even broke clean off, but they made me glue it back on. I don’t know why they love this pig so much.

This fine gentleman is Christian Frog. He used to wear a cross necklace, but in one of our moves it was lost. That doesn’t make him any less of a Christian though. He sits in our living room. He has been with us for years and I just tell everyone that he keeps us honest. You can’t do anything bad under Christian Frog’s stare. He’s also a good place to keep Hannah’s cap out of the way until graduation tomorrow.

We are having quite a storm right now, so hopefully the big hat will still be there in the morning.

P.S.

Have you ever made a big salad to just keep in the fridge and eat on all week? It keeps me from grabbing an unhealthy snack when I get hungry and it’s so good with Aldi’s Mediterranean salad dressing.

I ate some tonight with quiche that I made. SO good!

Retro Disney + Comfort Food

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Today the rain started about 12:30 and has been coming down ever since. I was going through some boxes that I need to organize and I found one of my old journals. Inside this journal I found these.

My mother lived in California and went to visit her and decided to go to Disney Land. This was back when a trip to Disney was simple. Buy a ticket, stand in line to get on a ride, if you have to leave, get your hand stamped. Now it seems so complicated with the fast passes and wrist bands. I miss the simpler time. This was also the trip where our then 2 year old daughter was obsessed with Mickey and Minnie. We had great seats for the parade and Mickey took her by the hand and danced with her down part of the parade route. As soon as she returned to us she started stuttering. When we got home we took her to her pediatrician and they said is was from being so over excited and that it would go away on its own. It took about a month and she still remembers the parade to this day.

Also a rainy day means comfort food. I gave the kids a choice and they unanimously chose breakfast for dinner. Jackson especially loves waffles. So we had waffles, eggs, bacon and sausage. Not too healthy, but really good. That $5 waffle maker was one of the best purchases ever.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny. Fingers crossed.