Lingering Summer

As a mid-westerner turned California-girl, I usually hate this time of year. As everyone I love pulls out hats and gloves, jeans and sweaters, and starts decorating with colored leaves, and scarecrows, I am dealing with heat. Lots of heat. Last week it was 104 degrees. And did I mention I don't have air conditioning? Yeah. Feeling sorry for me yet? =) 104 is hot with no air. Instead of fighting it this year, I have decided to go with it. Our summer was busy, busy, busy and it feels like we didn't get to do summer. Just live through it. So, I vow to walk right past those tempting Fall and Halloween aisles, and ignore my sweaters (okay, my one sweater. Used in December. For one day.) and instead I am lingering over summer. I think there will be pools, and beaches, a new water park, and ice cream. Lots of ice cream! And in October maybe it will be cool enough for me to pretend that its fall! Maybe... ;)

Thrifty!

I love to garage sale/thrift, and I got out twice this weekend to the thrift stores. Garage sales are scarce in our neck of the woods =(. I am excited to share with you what I found!
A shirt for my baby (he's two) from the clearance rack, and a fall sign to decorate with. Fall is definitely in the air... I snatched this up as quick as I could, a beautiful lap quilt that is all hand embroidered and hand quilted. For $5! Nuff said!

The thrift store down the street from us is a great place to find quilts! I found this one a few weeks ago, all hand quilted, with lace insets, and trim and appliques, for $6! It has a couple stains that need to come out, but nothing a little baking soda won't fix, and it will probably be a backyard quilt anyway...

I also found this skirt that I looooooooooovvvvvvveeeeeeee for $8. It's Liz Clayborne.

And, no trip to the thrift store is complete without buying some books. One sweet one on the home filled with poetry and cute stories, and the other my favorite find of the weekend--an original Nancy Drew. (the modern ones have been edited a lot you know). I want to collect these, but have never seen them in the stores, only lusted over them on ebay. Yay! And, it was only $2.50!

I love love love thrift stores! Oh, and the thrift store karma was good to me. I also got Trivia Pursuit for $1.50. My DH and I had been talking the night before about how we needed on in our house!

Hope your thrifting was as fun as mine! Have a great weekend!

Makin' Lists

Hi! I'm still here...just mentally occupied elsewhere. We spent all of July out of town, visiting family, going to the lake, doing some sight seeing, and celebrating one special wedding, five wonderful years of marriage, and one important birthday. By the time we got home and unearthed from the piles of laundry that grew while we were gone, all I wanted to do was sit. And be home, ya' know? Get back into our routines, our life. Of course, that only lasted about a day. Travel changes you. Doesn't matter where you go or how long you have been gone, in some ways you come back different. This trip really affected my eyesight. I began noticing things about my house and how we live that I had never really paid attention to before. Like how dirty a house gets in a month! Or pieces of furnicher in the wrong spot, or that I don't even like anymore! Pictures that need to move, a lamp that needs to be changed out, routines that need to be different, new experiences I want to capture in our day to day life. So, I have been making lists. I love lists. Seeing life all spelled out on paper ready to go gets me excited for what is coming. It helps me be able to visualize the changes that I want and how to best achieve them. Of course, none of those changes can happen until you put your nose to the grind-stone and get to work! I'm sure that I will post about some of those changes soon...until then, I gotta go find a pen!!!

Stuck on Stickers!!!

Help!!! I am totally stuck on stickers!!! Actually, I love it! Oh, and I think I have got it all out of my system! (only time will tell!) After doing this to my baby's room, I realized that Target had safari "stickers" in the clearance aisle, so I ran over and scooped them up! Now, that blank spot over the changing table where you don't want to put something up that will fall down, looks like this...
Love it! Actually, I hated it when I was doing it. It was hard for me to get the stickers off and onto the wall without being harmed (the stickers, not me!), and I was anxious over not having a plan or diagram for where to place them, but I love it more every time I see it! And when now entering the room, it is necessary to yell "monkey" and make monkey noises! Fun!
Another item in the clearance aisle made me think of this...

I bought this plate a few weeks ago at a discount store. Love it! At $2 you can't go wrong, but I felt like it needed something. I was going to stamp it, which I had read about on other blogs, but Target had "stickers" on sale...so, $4 later and now it looks like this...

Much better! And, if that is not enough Target clearance aisle decorating for you, I also stumbled upon these...

I don't think you can tell, but it is a set of three mirrors. I could not believe the price and so I snapped them up without really thinking about where I was going to put them. (you can always return things right?) Well, my husband walked in the door and was amazed at how much bigger they make the room look, I realized that I had just the perfect spot for them, (right at the door so you can check your lipstick before leaving the house--very important!) and I love them more every time I see them too! So, welcome home mirrors! There is just one problem...see the lamp...yeah, I know. It's too big now. Yep. And, see all the darkness...ah ha...not a color in sight. You know what that means...more shopping...and more decorating! (I'm all broken up about that. =) My poor husband!!!

ps--I just realized, the candlestick is also a Target clearance item purchase! I do love Target for decorating! Big plans for that little love...big, big plans (for me anyway)...I'll let you in on it someday!

Creative Couponing!

I love coupons!!! I love couponing!!! I have to admit that I have become a coupon snob, and if I leave the store without having saved at least $30 I am very depressed! However, I hate coupon organizers. I love filing coupons, so I started with this organizer...

I use one for food items and one for 'drug' items. It is a nice holder, but a few things about it really bugged me. Small things really...you have to fold a double coupon in half in order for it to fit and when you get wide coupons they hide the category title making it hard to file coupons away. Luckily, fate--in the form of my cutie-pie eating machine called a dog--intervened and I was down an organizer. What to do? Well, dust off my sewing machine and try to put one together myself. Here's the result...

I love it! I used the one I have as a model, found fabric remnants at WalMart, put some interfacing between them to make it a bit stiffer, and sewed them together with bias tape. It was so easy and a great beginners project! This is the first completed sewing project that my machine has seen, so I am quite proud, and don't even care about the little imperfections that are there. Oh, and it only took an hour and a half!

I made the dividers from file folders by cutting them and extra half inch wide and then cutting out the tabs. I have a new favorite tool--a corner rounder--that made things all pretty, and I am in business! It is so easy to file away my coupons now, and the pride that comes from being able to use something that I made is incredible!

Sewing, it works for me!!! Well, I should be paying bills right now--or sleeping--so I leave you with one more look...

and an encouragement: if you have something boring to do and you would like a tool of procrastination go over to weareTHATfamily.com and check out this weeks "Works for Me Wednesday" there are always tons of great tips and they are worthy of a good hour or two of "productive" procrastination!!!

Progress!

As my toddler turns into a pre-schooler, I started thinking about re-decorating his room, getting a big boy bed, etc. As we are big fans of the alphabet song right now, I thought it would be fun to create a chair rail boarder with the alphabet. I was thinking of cutting the letters out of wallpaper so that they would be colorful, and have different patterns on them, but fate decided to decorate for me! I happened upon some Alphabet wall "stickers" at Kmart for $3 and could not turn it down! Here's what the room looked like before...

Boring, right? Here is the after...

I can not believe how cute it is, or how easy and fast it was to do! And my son loves it! He goes over to the wall now, pointing to the letters and singing the ABCs! Cute and educational! Love it!

Of course, you know what that means now right? There is a big, sad, empty space over the changing table....I think Target has some Safari "stickers" on clearance....I guess I'll see you later! =)

How Ya Doin'?

So, how are you doing?
I mean you. How are you doing? Do you even know?

I have been lost in blog-land. Too many blogs, not enough time. Plus, there is a tasty bit of gossip playing out in the blogs right now...if you like gossip...I read blogs (well, most of them) because I find that they energize me. The colors, the pictures, the ideas, the money saving tips. All are fabulous and I have found that they help keep the fire under me lit. I totally scored in a purchase today--it was an idea that I saw and liked on a blog. I made my own chicken stock last week--another idea I got from a blog. I am totally recovering my dinning chairs with a vinyl table cloth--at least until I no longer have toddlers! This idea came to me because my creative brain has been sparked by blogs. I love blogs! I love reading blogs! But even though I get more creative "fire" from blogs, I realized lately that there are other things that keep my fire burning that are just as important that I have been neglecting--journaling, praying, reading Scripture, walking, laughing with my family, talking with loved ones--all these things are vital to my life. My passion for my home has been awakened by the blogs, but I have a tendancy to put all my eggs in one basket, and as strong as my fire is right now, I have to say that my little voice has become very hard to hear.

So, how are you doing?

Because reading other people's words, seeing other people's homes, agreeing with other people's ideas is one thing, but your little voice is more important and I have been shutting mine out. I blame her. She is saying things I don't want to hear--that project looks fun, but save your money instead; wait, it's not time yet; go slow, focus on what you already have; your time will come but its not here yet...
Tomorrow is my birthday. It's a big one. And my little voice is using this special event to wake my brain up and remind me that she is still there and she is smarter then all the rest.
(Oh, and thanks for asking...I'm going to be 28...for a while, I think!)

Maybe you are like me. Maybe your little voice has grown distant. What can you do to reconnect? Because blog friends are great and inspiring, but your little voice is the friend that will always be there waiting for you.

Tomorrow I am going to celebrate. I am going to celebrate one more year of life. I am going to celebrate another opportunity to be alive, to make an impact, and give love away. I am going to celebrate my little voice--the person that I am--by taking some time out of the day to focus on her. After all, we capitalize the word "I" because it is important. And the next time I sit down at my computer to go into blog-land, I think I will start with my own blog first!

ps--I find gossip tastes sour after a while anyway...

Life...

Life is not filled with coincidences, but moments orchestrated by God. Grab at those moments, linger in those moments, and you will be lingering with Him.

Project Procrastination Party--The End!!!

Well, I tried to 'harvest' worms last night by laying wet pieces of cardboard on the ground. Nope, no dice. I am sure that the fact that my lawn is dead has nothing to do with it, and don't want to know what this says about my soil! =/

Anyway, a trip to the bait shop, and three dollars later and we are in business!

Then all I had to do was put it together.

The lid without holes goes on the bottom, and I put two big bricks on that to lift the composter off the ground. Then, one tub in which I put four small bricks at each corner. The other tub goes on top of that. I got my newspaper nice and wet, rung the extra water out, put that in the tub with a bunch of old leaves, some dirt, and my new friends! I buried some food for them under all the newspaper, covered it all with some wet cardboard and put the lid on.

Now, I am not a worm person, but I am fasinated by this, and wish that the sides were glass like an ant farm so that I could watch them do their thing. (but not really, cuz the bin has to be dark for them). Anyway, in about three months I should have compost so stay tuned! That is, as long as my crazy dog doesn't eat the whole thing, which might happen, we'll see!

It will be nice to go to bed tonight with a "project complete" thought running through my head.

If only I can now fix my sprinkler cover! Tomorrow....

Project Procrastination Party--The After: Part One

Well, hard to believe, but two weeks have past since I joined up with Melissa's Procrastination Party at The Inspired Room, and I have no idea where the time went! Oh, okay, maybe I do...I spent most of it here:

I found book one and two at the thrift store down the street for two dollars and am hooked! I am at the end of the second one and anxiously waiting to see how Father Tim proposes to Cynthia and am going to pay another visit to the thrift store to see if they have the third one, you never know, I may get lucky.

I have not forgotten about my projects (the sprinker cover and composter) and am happy to report that my composter is nearly finished. All I need is worms! (more on that below). My cover, however, is another story and has me learning a lot about how wood splits when you drill into it, how hard wood is very difficult to work with, and how buying a trim piece to nail on as a side was not really the best decision! We'll make a trip to the hardware store this weekend, so be on the look out for this project in the near future. In the meantime, here is all you wanted to know about an easy composter:

I got this idea from a local Parenting magizine around Earth Day, and thought that it would be fun to try. While we don't really have a lawn or a garden right now (ha!) I plan to in the future and would love to add my own compost to the mix. While getting started, I found better plans here, and those are the directions I am following to make it. I bought two 18 gallon bins from Target. To these bins, I drilled 20 holes in the bottom of each (1/4 in), about thirty holes along the sides of each bin (1/16in), and then thirty holes on one top (1/16in). I then shreaded a bunch of newspaper in preparation for my worms.

I could go to the bait shop and buy worms, but the instructions say that if you leave a wet piece of cardboard on the ground overnight, you will have worms in the morning as they come out to feast on the cardboard, so I am going to try that. I'll tell you how it works tomorrow!

Until then, I have two more chapters left and then I'm off shopping!!!


Congratulations on everyone who finished their projects, to see more and to be really inspired to create or finish a project of your own, head over to theinspiredroom.net and thanks Melissa for hosting this and encouraging us to get something done!

Update: It's finished!!!! Click here to see...

Smile on Your Brother

Tomorrow the post office is doing a food drive. I put the card in my to do box because I wanted to participate but did not think I had anything to give. This morning I looked at the card again and went to the pantry still thinking that I had nothing to give. Fifteen minutes later I came up with this:

Apparently I do have something to give! You never know what you have until you try! So, I encourage you, check your pantry, load it up, and smile on your brother! (why that song comes into my head while doing this I don't understand, but it fits!)

For more information go here

Let Go. Just Let Go!

Project Procrastinators Party

Melissa over at The Inspired Room is hosting a Project Procrastinators Party! I love this because I always have something that needs to be finished! Here is my project, and pop over to The Inspired Room for more inspiration to get things done this weekend!

As an early Christmas present, my family went to the pound and adopted a dog. A super cute, high energy, crazy dog. The first thing he did when we brought him home was to eat all the wires connecting up our sprinkler system--a few days after we planted grass in the yard! Since then, I have been meaning to make a cover to fit over it so that he can not do it again and we can get the system up and running (we are fond of our grass you know!). A week or so ago I went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (these are great stores!) and got a bunch of old wood and some screening to make my cover, but life has interfered! Grad school assignments, work projects, children, bills, laundry, and the handy excuse of the saw not being charged up meant that work on my box has stalled. Not anymore! Time to get this done! I'll be sure to post the end result.

The other project that is started but not finished is the compost bin that I am putting together using two 18 gallon storage tubs I got from Target. For this project, I have to figure out how to buy worms! So this weekend I will be finishing up that project as well.

Can't believe it is the weekend already! Hope you have fun getting some of those 'to do's done!

Spring Has Sprung!

I don't understand it, but my rose bushes are giving me FaBulOuS roses! I have not done anything to them (including water them) over the winter, or prune them, and they are being choked out by the Plumbago, but for some reason this is the result:

They are so big! I did feed them some Miracle Grow Rose food, so maybe that is all they needed?!?!?!?!?! This gives me (a false) hope that I can garden! Happy Spring!

My Happiness List

I realized the other day that "busy" for me does not mean "happy" so I took an inventory of what did. Here is my Happiness List:

--Living Simply

--Family Dinners

--Cooking/Baking

--Being Organized

--Having Bills Paid Ontime

--Being Under Budget

--Saving/ Using Coupons

--Faith

--Creating Something

--Reusing Something

--Growing Something

--Loveing Something/Someone

--Being Loved in Return

What is on your Happiness List????

The Little Voice

Where does your heart want to take you?

This morning I had coffee with a great gal, she is wise, funny, and energetic. She is put together, organized, and ambitious. This gal is me! Well, my inner self anyway.

We all have that little voice inside our heads giving us direction, encouraging us to try something new, trying to clue us in to living a life based on our heart priorities and not the wants of the world. Often, this little voice gets ignored as bills have to be paid, dogs have to be fed, and life moves forward. Yet, if this little voice continues to be ignored, the life we move forward into becomes something else. Listening to all the voices of the world pulls us instead toward someone else’s life, not our own. Instead of making our choices and decisions based on what we want and value we let others make them for us. If we want a lingering life, we must base this life on what we want, what we value, and in order to know this, we must have a chat with the little voice. We must stop and listen to the little voice.

My little voice reminds me that family is the only important thing, that developing those relationships is all that matters in this lifetime. My little voice directs me to: plant roses, learn knitting, can pears, make jam, keep your house clean and neat so you have time for other more important (and fun!) things, be active, make a to do list and cross things off, read more of that good book, stop watching television (okay, except Dancing with the Stars!), get outside a bit everyday, and always tell your family you love them—as much as possible.
When you listen to the little voice, you find so much more pleasure to your life than you thought possible. It may not be an easy life, it may not be a low stress life, or a pain-free life, but the enjoyment gleaned from it increases immeasureably when listening to the little voice.

What is your little voice telling you?

I am rich.

I am rich indeed!

If you look closely, you can find joy and delight all around: the fragrance of fresh lavender, the nostalgic comfort of cinnamon applesauce, the natural grace of birds and butterflies.

~Donata Maggipinto, Everyday Celebrations

What is it that you delight in?

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

What a wonderful family time! Some adventure (will we find all the eggs we hid?), some new toys (many thanks!), and a wonderful meal shared with family: a great day! I hope that your day was as wonderful as mine and that you lingered over the beauty of this holiday.

A Lingering Life

A Lingering Life. That is what I want. To linger. To enjoy the small moments, the small pleasures of life. After all, isn't that what life is all about? The small moments, the quiet moments, the simple pleasures. In this fast moving, material world that we live in, I get so easily caught up in Stuff, instead of Life. Trying to move ahead, get the next best thing, cross the next 'to do' off my list, get to the next appointment. In doing so, I found that I so often missed Life. For I have discovered that Life is not in the big moments, but the small details. I want to linger in those small details. To linger over a great game of cards, a wonderful glass of wine, to linger with my son's laugh, or my husbands thoughts, to linger with the peace and rest of my Lord, a good book, and a great craft project, a warm fire, a filling meal, a beautiful sunset. These are the things that matter to me, and the things I want to spend my time in. To linger in the moment of a Lingering Life.
I want to explore these moments in this blog...won't you come linger with me???