Winter Porch

Well, I finally undressed my Christmas porch! I mean, it’s February and it’s 70˚ outside!!! Who wants to have winter!? Well, I do.

I actually took down the obviously Christmas decorations a couple of weeks ago. I thought I could make the rest work a little further into February. I mean, gosh, I still have a pumpkin on my porch! Why not keep the winter looking decor?!

We have had several days when there were snowflakes in the forecast. We just can’t seem to get the cold and the moisture together! I’m sure we’ll get snow in March! Ugh!

The flocked trees just seemed like a wish that was left ungranted.

A store at the mall was tossing these trees after last Christmas. They had used them as store displays. Did I want free flocked trees? YES, please! You should have seen the mess it left in my car! I was not ready for that mess in my house, so I used them on the porch. They definitely looked wintery.

I left the red ribbon on the pillows. It can be for Valentine’s Day, right?

The ice skates, sled and snowflake pillows stayed out, too. I’m still hopeful we will see snow before Spring.

 

Tea Ball Tree

A tea infuser, sometimes called a tea ball, is what you put your dried tea leaves in in order to make the tea. It keeps your tea leaves from floating around in your teacup. Of course, tea bags do the same thing but aren’t nearly as cute.

Since my chorus has hosted a fundraiser Tea for the past six, going on seven, years, I became interested in tea infusers. They come in all shapes and sizes. I had one aluminum infuser that had been my grandmothers. 

One day, while browsing Pinterest, I came across this picture…

Oh, my goodness! Tea balls as Christmas ornaments!! I loved the idea and started hunting yard sales and estate sales. One Sunday afternoon I ran into my friend, Donna, at an estate sale. I told her about my idea. She joined me in my hunt, so did my mother-in-law, Brenda. I’m not sure I actually found very many of the tea balls in my collection my self. Every time I saw Donna she was handing me another treasure. Brenda gave me a box full of tea infusers for Christmas one year! 

This Christmas I finally had enough “ornaments” to fill a tree!

Ok, I think I need a better tree. This was actually a branch off of an old tree I pulled off the curb! 

I thought the tree needed a little color, so I added these fake poinsettias I’ve had for a while. 

You can’t tell from the pictures, but I had the greenery stuffed into some styrofoam in a piece of crockery. It made me happy to see it on the counter. However, I will have to do something different next time. It took up too much valuable space for setting out nut clusters and rolling out cookie dough!

I loved my little “tea tree”. It would be cute to add little teapot ornaments to it. Tea bags or other tea items would be fun, too, and add more color in the process. 

Thanks, Donna and Brenda, for my fun Tea Ball Tree!

 

Spring Table

My goodness it has been a busy Spring!!!

I’m sad to say this seems to be our new pace of life.  The last time I posted on this blog was December! And here it is May! So, I am going to try to do a little catching up in the next few posts. With school coming to an end for the year, hopefully things will slow down a little. I would really like to get back to testing and blogging about new recipes and such. Fingers crossed!

To be honest, January and February are a bit of a blur. With a child in college and a child in high school they returned to school after Christmas break at different times. My timeline got a little skewed! I know we had ONE day of snow.

In March (Notice I skipped February! Who knows what happened then?!) we were honored to host a sweet missionary family and our pastor and his family for dinner. I didn’t get any pictures of the people that night-ugh. I am really out of practice doing this blog thing! Plus, we were just having too much fun! I did think to take a couple of shots of the pretty Spring Table decorations while I was in the midst of setting the table. I borrowed a few things from my Mom, and a few on-sale spring flowers finished off the look.

Unfortunately, one of the cats thought my little birdie was real! I used it anyway.

This bank was from forever ago! Not sure if it was mine or my sisters.

Here are a few decorations from around the dining room/den and the porch.

I jazzed up a wreath by using twine to tie on a few flower pots. More sale plants filled some pots, others stayed empty.

I have been waiting for just the right occasion to use this garden themed ribbon.

I made two crockpots full of Pork Chops with Field Peas! Using the crockpot is the way to go when company comes! This is a crowd pleasing recipe!

Individual Banana Pudding cups were also a hit at dessert time.

I hope you have been enjoying your Spring, too!

 

Christmas Decor 2016

Welcome to our house!

Why do we all love decorating for Christmas?! I suppose nostalgia has something to do with it. There is also the fact that our homes get a face-lift for free, unless you buy new decorations each year.

I pulled this little wagon out of a dumpster this summer! It is perfect filled with fake presents and a cookie jar on our porch coffee table.

I was thrilled to find this fun Christmas ribbon on sale at The Paul Michael Company while on vacation this summer.

My husband’s childhood sled came to live with us! Oh, if that sled could talk! I’m sure there would be stories it could tell!

I made this North Pole as decoration for the seasonal membership recruitment for my chorus. The flower-pot base worked well with the empty wrapping paper tube I got from a gift shop. A little paint and ribbon and voila! I couldn’t stand to just throw it away, so it found a home on my porch.

Look what I made to go in my fancy new kitchen!!! Well, actually, I made three!

If you look closely…

you might recognize the fabric from another project! I love “free” stuff!

I love my new kitchen!

I enjoy the old things we have, too!

…like plaid Christmas plates

and vintage decorations!

I picked up these “JOY” ornaments at last year’s after-Christmas-sale. I wish they had had all the right letters in the plaid. Oh, well. I like the was the light shines behind them at night.

This great German crate (a hand-me-down from my in-laws) got relocated this year. Skeeter seems to approve.

The gray and red from the kitchen came into the den. I picked up the snowflake pillows on sale last year. I guess that is where I got to thinking about the gray for the kitchen. The sweater pillows came from Goodwill. I couldn’t commit to cutting the pillows just yet. So, these are held together with safety pins.

I truly hope you all can find TRUE JOY this season-which is only found in Christ the LORD!

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good news of great joy, that will be to all people.” Luke 2:10

 

Artwork from Alsace

There is a new piece of artwork in our kitchen that I didn’t show you in the “big reveal”.

When we were originally discussing paint colors, I told Chip I wanted to paint the cabinets gray. He kinda looked at me like it was not a good idea. I told him it would be a “French Country” look. That idea he liked. The idea of a French Country kitchen got him to thinking about using some photos from our trip to France last summer. We finally agreed on a photo to use! I thought I would first share other photos related to our new artwork. We may even get some more printed!

Here is a map to show you where the Alsace region of France is located. As you can imagine, France and Germany argued and fought for many years to see who got to keep the area. So, while Alsace is in France, there are lots of German influences.

We drove in to Alsace from Wittenberg, Germany. Wittenberg is about halfway between Leipzig and Berlin. Our car time was about 7 hours.  The scenery was breath-taking! Gorgeous vineyards and quaint little villages were everywhere.

Vineyards were not the only crops we saw. We came across a lovely cherry orchard. Alsace is crazy about cherries!

 

I loved the flower boxes everywhere.

These trees looked like they were straight from a fairytale!

Finally, we arrived at our bed and breakfast. Part of the home was built in the 1700s!!!!

The weather was lovely! Our hosts welcomed us with coffee and delicious coffee cake.

Here are a few pictures of the inside.

This is the view from our room.

The girls stayed in the loft attached to our room.

After a little time of resting and getting acclimated to our new digs, we headed out to find some dinner.

The first place we stopped was a little out of our price range. We had already taken this cute picture to remember where we had eaten! Then we didn’t eat there.

We did not get the group shot at our actual restaurant. To tell you the truth, we looked pretty tired in most of the pictures.

We were actually lucky to get to eat. The folks at this restaurant only spoke French. Fortunately, Megan had worked with a French language app before our trip. She was able to order dinner for all of us. We were all very grateful and she felt pretty proud of herself.

We did learn to order water without “gas”. Carbonated water is apparently a big deal in Germany and France.

The food was very good. The fried egg on the pizza was a little weird. I ordered that for the local experience. I do not plan to repeat that experience any time soon, however.

We had our dinner outside. Right next to our table was a lovely patch of lavender. We noticed something buzzing around in the flowers. Katie is a bit scared of bees, so I went to check it out for her. It looked like a tiny hummingbird! I tried and tried to get a good  picture. Look closely at the picture below, just left of center.

I did a little research on what I thought was a tiny hummingbird. It turns out that what I saw was a hummingbird moth! Here is some good old Wikipedia info for you. I thought it was cool and had fun trying to capture it in a picture.

When we got back to the B & B we decided to stroll around the little village a bit.

The currants were beautiful!

We stayed in Alsace a little while and took day trips to the town of Riquewihr and the Haut Koenigsesbourg Castle. Hopefully, I will get around to sharing those pictures one day, too!

As we left our quaint little B & B to head to Paris, we stopped to snap a few more vineyard photos.

The grapes were far from ripe. I’d love to go back during harvest time.

Oh, I almost forgot to share the artwork we had printed for the kitchen!

The canvas is actually a little larger than the actual window was! You can see the original photo above with the other photos of the bed and breakfast.

I liked this photo because it reminded me of all the window boxes we saw while in Europe! I loved them! This picture kinda felt like it was part of our kitchen. The wall in the photo kinda matches our cabinets. We ordered the print from a place called canvasdiscount.com. When we ordered it we had the option of ordering a hanging kit. We had not planned to order it originally. However, it was only a few bucks, and by ordering it, we were bumped into the category of getting free shipping. Ordering more saved us money!

Well, that is all for now. I’m ready to go back to Alsace!!

 

Kitchen Makeover

We had a wonderfully busy summer!

Here is a little run down of our summer. I’m sure you were all equally as busy!

*Family reunion

*Childhood church reunion

*Vacation Bible School

*Minor home repairs-required a little painting

*Teenager working

*Teenager volunteering

*Teenager getting braces

*Teenager taking and passing driver’s test

*Quick Vacation to New Orleans

*Theater camp + performances

*Birthday celebrations

*Regular church activities + a few extras while our pastor was on sabbatical  (mostly my husband’s duties)

*Regular chorus activities

*Back to school shopping in town and out of town

*Band camp

*Garage sale x 2

*A couple of fun activities thrown in there when possible-lunches, pool days, etc.

The biggest activity of our summer, however, was painting our kitchen-walls and cabinets! Since our summer was so crazy busy, we decided to tackle the painting in stages. We thought having several different small messes would be better than having one gigantic mess! I am so glad we did it this way! You will have to forgive me-I failed to take “before” pictures. I’m really kicking myself over it, too. I kinda thought…I take pictures all the time in the kitchen. Surely I can use some of those. Well, mostly I had pictures of food in the kitchen. These photos from Thanksgiving a couple of years ago were the best I could find. You can read about the Thanksgiving experience here. (Scroll to the bottom of that link for all the other links.)

Our kitchen was red with brown cabinets.

We had a few red and green accents around the room.

Cream colored counter tops…

trim…

and floor

all had to stay. There was just not the money to do a big overhaul.

Several years ago there was a program on HGTV called Decorating Cents where they did room makeovers for $500. I loved that show! Anyway, our budget was not even $500! There was money for paint and that was about it!

I was so excited to get started, I only took one picture during the project.

At least there was one!

The red walls got a coat of Kilz. That stuff is messy and stinky!

After the primer dried we put the cream-colored paint on the walls. At first, I had my doubts. I thought maybe after a second coat I would love it. I wanted to cry after the second coat. It was supposed to match the trim but it didn’t. My sweet hubby, knowing I would not be happy the way it was, took me to get paint that matched. Then he helped me repaint the walls. (We also painted the back hallway.) We only had to give it one coat but barely had enough of the color-matched paint. Lesson learned! Get a sample!

The cabinets got sanded, painted with Kilz, then two coats of paint. After all the cabinets were painted, we drilled holes for new pulls and knobs. The pulls came black. The knobs were 87¢ wooden knobs I spray painted black. I also spray painted and reused the hinges.

Without further ado…our gray kitchen!

I love it!

I think my fancy red gel pro mats I got for Mother’s Day look great with the gray cabinets!

When choosing the cabinet color, I thought about the cream on the cabinets for a while. With the cream floor and cream counters, that just didn’t seem like the way to go.

Since we were on a shoestring budget, and I had already taken a chunk out of it for the extra wall paint, I had to use what I had on hand for the “updates”.

Fortunately, I come from a long line of pack rats!

These black cabinets were original to the house (1954). They were removed when the pipes froze and the kitchen flooded (1991). The cabinets were not ruined, so they were kept in the garage–for years! They were full of random stuff that had belonged to my grandparents. The stuff found new homes, and the cabinets got a facelift. They were just plain, old wood-no stain, no paint. I gave them a GOOD scrub and some black paint. These cabinets look so much better than the mismatched drawers and file cabinet that were stacked high with papers and random stuff.

I love having my vintage picnic tins where I can see them more often.

I really like our little coffee station now. I especially like the coffee cup shelves my husband cut for me.

It’s not anything fancy. It’s just a 2×4 from the garage cut to fit. I used two pieces for the back row and one for the middle row. We no longer have to be careful opening the cabinet, hoping the cups don’t fall out on us!

I picked up this canister set at a garage sale when we lived in Indiana.

Years later, I couldn’t resist the spice set when I saw it at a garage sale in Arkansas!

We continued to use some of the splashes of red and green we had used previously.

More red and green with the new gray!

A new little display with old items fills this corner of the counter now. I did purchase the tray. It was on the clearance aisle at Walmart. Everything else I already had.

I started to clear the papers and pictures off of the refrigerator. Then I figured I would try to “keep it real” here on my little corner of the world-wide web! (I did move the bright pink lunch box!)

I have used these little green bottles to decorate several times.

Another shoestring purchase was this lampshade. It was all of $5 at Walmart! The lamp has been with me since my sophomore year in college! It seemed a little low on the counter, so I pulled a couple of color coordinating cookbooks from my collection.

This little shelf was necessary-I guess. I wanted some way to hang my ice-tong paper towel holder. I thought we could figure out a way to hang them from a little shelf. Well, as you see, they are just hanging from the wall. Oh, well! I like having the little decorative shelf anyway! (and my new $5 Walmart clock)

My friend, Danielle, gave me a mixed set of these adorable plates last year. I’m kinda in love with black and white check right now! The tiny little pail was Megan’s. When she was little, she would put three buttons in it and pretend she was Sal from Blueberries for Sal.

I saved the Fried Apples can a long time ago because I liked the way it looked. I have probably had the artificial hydrangea for 20 years.

One thing that was exciting about the whole kitchen makeover was the cleaning! ALL of the cabinets got cleaned out! I even cleaned the top of the refrigerator!

I got this great cake stand on our trip to New Orleans this summer. We drove through Lake Village, AR so we HAD to stop at the Paul Michael Company! They had a great sale going while we were there. I had to maintain my composure because there was only so much room in the car!

My grandmother’s old baking tins are now on display. I actually tried baking in them once. They did okay but needed lots of non-stick spray. It was kind of a pain to scrub all those little grooves.

This utensil caddy was at one time a planter. It was given to us with a plant in it after my husband’s grandfather’s funeral. I had an artificial plant in it in another room. I like that there is more room for my utensils. They were cramped in their old container. I did have to put a little filler down in the bottom of the planter. It was just a little too deep for my spatulas and such.

This skinny set of drawers had been in our garage. It was unpainted and filled with some of my grandmother’s piano music. Since we eliminated the mess that was in this corner, the drawers were perfect!

I love that I live with talented people! Katie made this portrait of me for Christmas last year. I just have not had anywhere to hang it until now. I asked Megan to paint the pictures of the poppies. She painted from a picture we took while in France last summer. I just LOVE my new pieces of artwork!

I made the cork board when I was waiting tables at the Olive Garden while in college. The bartenders saved the corks for me that summer. Once I had the board all finished I had them all sign the back for me. Fun times.

Well, there you have it, our updated kitchen on a shoestring! I hope you enjoyed the tour!

 

Christmas Porch 2015

When I was a kid, I would spend HOURS outside–riding my bike, building a clubhouse, just wandering around the yard. I still enjoy my outdoor wanderings. It gives me a minute or two to “unplug” from the world. I guess that is why I enjoy setting Christmas decorations out our porch so much.

Of course I made my favorite Christmas Wreaths again this year. They are a little different each year! The porch is just a little different each year, too. See last year’s here.

One new thing I used this year was absolutely free!

When we got our tree and free greenery this year, I noticed several slices of tree around the greenery bin. You know, they always make a fresh cut for you when you get your tree? Those kind of slices. So, I grabbed them and shoved them in one of my greenery bags.

I simply wrote on the slices with a Sharpie! Of course you can get all fancy and use a wood-burning tool if you like. (Warning: I did wear gloves to keep the sap from getting all over my hands.) I was happy with them the easy way.

Luke 2

Another easy project was these pillows.

I just used my regular porch pillows and wrapped Christmas fabric around them. I was not ready to commit to actually cutting my precious Christmas fabric! The pillow in the middle is a sweater from Goodwill that I sewed up rather quickly. I didn’t even close the bottom-shhh. The red ties are rescued from some old kitchen chair cushions. Save! Save!

A few vintage items and things were starting to look pretty good!

A little more…then use the broom and all done!

All ready for the coffee drinkers.

 

A Little Christmas Decorating

It seems like it took a little longer to get in the “Christmas spirit” this year. I’m not really sure why. Perhaps 70˚ days have been a contributing factor. Whatever the reason, I still managed to put out Christmas decorations. Yippee!

The decorations are the same as in years past. Some just get relocated from year to year. I looked back in the PCTuesday files and found a Christmas Decor post from 2012. If you click on that post you can see some of the same decorations used in different ways.

We’ll start with outside.

I made my fresh wreaths again. It is such a relaxing activity.

I used some of the leftover greenery here and there around the porch, along with leftover pumpkins.

To really appreciate this greenery, you need to be sipping coffee on a Saturday morning–which we do as often as possible!

See? It’s like a little surprise for porch-sitters.

I guess this picture would have looked a little better if the kitchen blinds had been closed. Ahhh, hind-sight.

I even have a little nativity on the porch. Don’t you love the old tv tray? I got it here.

On to the inside…

Even though we have teenagers now, they are still excited to use our advent calendar. Looks like we were deeper into the season than we were when I posted about it in 2012.

This is a “new” kitchen wreath. The gingerbread man usually sits in a little sleigh with his little Christmas tree. His tree is filled with tiny gingerbread men and cookie cutters. You can see some of the little gingerbread ornaments in the outdoor wreath above.

This year I wanted something different-surprise, surprise. So, I tied him on a wreath. I pilfered the little rolling pin from Katie’s old kitchen play set. The giant rickrack was in a box of old ribbon I had saved from several Christmases ago. It looks like the icing you put on gingerbread cookies!

You will not believe where I got the little red ties for the cookie cutters and rolling pin. I recently got new chair cushions for the dining room. Megan tore open the old ones to reuse the stuffing for some of her knitting projects. Not knowing what I would use them for, I popped the ties off of the back of the old cushions.  Tada! At least my hoarding wasn’t in vain. I think this new little wreath is a winner. I like how it looks against the antique game board, too.

More in the kitchen. I think this is the first time I have used my old scale specifically as a Christmas decoration.

Look what’s in the colander–antique jingle bells!

Vintage overload!!! I hope not.

I pick up Scrabble games when I see them at garage sales and thrift stores. I always think I am going to make something cool-like Christmas ornaments or something. Since we enjoy playing Scrabble from time to time, I just have not been able to bring myself to do it. Maybe one of these days…but for now, a temporary use.

I stepped out a little on the china hutch. I bought a HUGE roll of double-sided wrapping paper at Sam’s. I was so glad to find a plaid paper that I liked. I LOVE plaid! Blue ticky tack is all I used to adhere the paper to the back of the hutch.

I really like how it looks with my Lenox Christmas china.

We folks in the South are often dreaming of a white Christmas. Usually, that’s all we do. We don’t get a lot of snow in Arkansas. However, last year it snowed ON CHRISTMAS DAY for the first time in 80 years!

I’m still dreaming of my girls to drawing some snowflakes on the chalkboard for me. They have been busy studying for semester tests. Maybe they will get to it during the break.

The wool garland is not new.

I came across the pompom strand and red rickrack in my scrap box. I think they add a nice little touch of whimsy. The pompoms even look a little snow-like.

My in-laws brought the girls these fun little wooden toys from their travels to Germany.

I love my glittery music tree. You can see more pictures and a link to the tutorial here.

Just a few more pictures.

One of the many nativities we have collected.

THIS is the reason we celebrate CHRISTmas!

 

 

Scenes from a Walk 12-15-14

I decided to go on a walk this morning. Never mind the fact that there is a list of things to do today that is long as my arm! I figured I needed to walk since the high today is supposed to be close to 70–ugh! Don’t worry, it will be back to the mid 40s later in the week. Ahhh, Christmas time in the South!

I’ve been busy lately, like the rest of the world. Unfortunately some of those holiday pounds have found their way into my jeans!

A walk was necessary. It actually was even on my mile-long list, so was blogging!

So, for your viewing enjoyment, today I bring you the second installation of Scenes from a Walk. You can see the first one here.

Our neighbors put up this HUGE wreath every year. This year Kim added lots of magnolia leaves. It looks fabulous, especially with the spotlight on it at night.

Several of the shop windows downtown are painted.

The beautiful old Christian Church has pretty wreaths on the doors.

The county courthouse is decked out, too.

I may have to take another walk soon just to see more Christmas decorations!

 

The Lazy Gardener

I love fall. I love that fall appeals to all my senses–beautiful trees, cooler temperatures, rustling leaves, burning fields, apple and pumpkin treats!

Ahhhh!

I enjoy getting out my fall decorations, too.

We usually go to a pumpkin patch for our pumpkins. The summer rains were not friendly to the pumpkin farmers. This year we ended up getting our pumpkins at the Open Arms Pumpkin Fun Run fundraiser.

Typically, I grab some mums at Walmart or Lowe’s to set around with the pumpkins.

After the blooms have died and the cold sets in, I dump the pots in the trash. Yes, I know you can plant them. I never seem to have the time.

Well, last year, the pots never even made it to the curb! Shame!

They have sprouted lovely weeds courtesy of the wind and the birds.

There is another pot, however, that is different.

It decided to root itself through the bottom of the pot!

I have mums and I didn’t even have to leave home to get them!

They aren’t the perfectly shaped kind from the store–that’s okay.

I have not bought any fancy mums from the store yet.  I may let my “survivor mum” have a chance in the spotlight this year!

I have, however,  added a few decorations to the porch. I’ll get around to the inside of the house eventually.

Don’t you love that you get to use your fall decorations for a long time?!

Now, go make some fall cookies or something. Here is an idea–Applesauce Cookies.