The Three Amigos

What is it about this time of year that makes me want to clean, paint, and redecorate?!!

I think that after Christmas I'm just ready to de-clutter!

 

Since Christmas, the dining table has been covered with my wonderful husband's big kid present from me... A gas powered, remote controlled truck that goes extremely fast. According to a 32 year old man it's Awesome!

 

He has been working on it and so it's million little parts have been spread out.

Not a big deal but I'm just kinda over it.

So I gathered it up and put it in plastic bags and a big box which is now sitting in the bed room floor until I'm "over it" sitting in there.

 

What to put on the table now that its clean...hmmm...

The Three Amigos! Yes! Perfect!

 

 

These bowls are so heavy! I especially like the giant one in the middle!

 

These belonged to Steve's Grandma and she gave them to me before she died.

They were to heavy for her to lift them.

 

I love them!

 

The End.

 

 



Hello Its My Birthday and Its Fall

I just want to start off by saying that today is my 31st Birthday!

If you called me today I would answer the phone by saying "Hello, its my Birthday".

Isn't that a great idea!?

I got that from my fun friend Holly! You can find her and her girls here!

 

Last week I did some fall decorating around the house. I love this time of year!

I think I've said that a few times the last few post...

 

Dining room table..

 

 

Buffet

 

Fireplace cubby. I love this cubby!

 

See this piece of wood stuck in the brick...it was there when we uncovered the brick. I like it so much. It makes me smile. This is just one more thing that makes our old house so unique! At least that's what I call it...

 

Office

 

I also made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies last week.

 I might have called myself a genius for doing so.

 

Have a great week friends!



Apple Days

You know Fall is near when you find yourself picking apples!

I am blessed to have a place where I can pick all the apples I want for free!

I picked a Bushel and a half and could have picked more if I could have reached them.

 

They were a little small but tasted good!

So I made apple sauce! I'm pretty sure these were Winesap apples.

Core the apples and cut any bad spots out. Put them in a large pot with about 2-3 cups of water. 

Cook them until tender. Stirring very often so the ones on the bottom don't burn.

I have this great attachment for my kitchen aid that makes easy work of smashing the apples into sauce. I didn't have this the first few years I made sauce and boy does it make a difference!

I added 4 cups of sugar to 15 pints of sauce. The apples were a little tart so you can add or subtract the amount of sugar to your taste. I have a sweet tooth!

I also added some water until I got the consistency that I like. Not to thick and not to thin.

 

I then jarred it and processed it in a water bath for 20 minutes!

I love having it!

And I LOVE Fall!!!

 



Corner of my Home

I have been home this week and it has been so nice. The last few weeks have been really busy but this week slowed down and I have been enjoying it!

 

I have been cleaning, baking, mowing grass like crazy, and today I did some rearranging to the buffet and dining table.

 

I love doing this! Its so fun!

 

 

I use this wooden box all over the place! It just keeps getting moved around the house!

I made the napkins from dish towel fabric that I bought at the Fabric Shack! It is a great place to go for quilting fabric. Not a great place if your addicted to buying fabric...You can also buy online, in case you want to check them out.

 

 

I have this small box of old keys and the shapes are awesome! Some of them have little round tags attached to them telling what they go to.

I thought I would display them on a small piece of ironstone that I found at my local Goodwill.

I love ironstone! I have started a pretty good collection of platters.

 

My Grandma gave me this little aluminum collapsible cup from 1915!

On the dining table I stacked my large ironstone platters and placed a few odds and ins on top.

More keys! Aren't they great!

I think I am going to add some flowers to the milk glass vase.

I love changing things around. "Shopping my home" I think is what its called.

 

Enjoy your day friends!

 

 

 

 



What is making you smile this week?

The weather has been so nice the last few days and it does wonders for my mood!

The sunshine and warm breeze are a gift from God. I love it so much!

 

I just wanted to share a few things that have just made me smile this week. Simple things that make me happy and thankful!

 

First are these really great brownies!

They are so yummy! I do think homemade is best but these are so easy and super chocolaty!

 

These glass egg cartons are so sweet!

A good friend gave them to me as a birthday present back in the fall and every time I fill them with my fresh eggs it makes me smile! I love to see them sitting in the fridge when I open the door!

 

 

I learned to knit before Christmas and have found it to be a relaxing pass time!

I am currently working on dish cloths. They could also be used as potholders I think.

Its an easy pattern that is pretty quick!

 

 

Have you ever made "eggs in a basket"? They are super yummy!

I had never tried it until last week but they have fast become our favorite way to eat a fried egg!

Use lots of salted butter and it makes the toast so much better than out of a toaster!

My Better Half loves to dip the toast into the egg yolk! Me, I prefer the yolk fried almost hard. 

 

I will be cutting some of these today to bring inside the house!

They smell so wonderful! I opened the front window and the bush is right outside, the breeze brings the aroma right in! I love this time of year so much!

So let me know what is making you smile this week!



Painting turned into Remodeling

How are all my friends today? I hope this finds you well, warm, and happy.
I wrote this post Thanksgiving weekend and have been trying to upload pictures since then. Blogger has been a HUGE pain!!

I finally saved my pictures to photobucket.com and then copy and pasted to the blog post..!!

Anyways, this is what we have been up to.
 

I knew we had a long weekend so I talked my wonderful, sweet husband into painting the living room. It hasn't been done since we moved in 8 years ago! It was way over due!

 

Now our house is about 150 years old and you never know what you will find. Keep that in mind....

 

The living room is covered in ugly 80's dark paneling that we painted white immediately after moving in. We had a pretty good inclination that there was cool, old, red brick above the fireplace behind the paneling. So since everything we do around here turns into this HUGE ordeal or actually a huge mess, we went from painting to tearing off the paneling above the fireplace.

 

Now when we (I use the term "we" very loosely) tore off the paneling we found plaster! Great, plaster!! Of course this will not be simple. So "we" chipped off the plaster. Cool brick!! Yeah!!

 
We found a little cubby behind there that they had covered up at some time.

Wait there's more.

 

Around the fireplace opening is the ugly yellow-orange 70's brick and a very narrow, concrete mantel that we both hate but I was just going to paint the brick! Oh no. That would not be sufficient. "We" are already this far we might as well tear it all off!!!

 

Yep. So "we" did! We found that when they had put in the stove insert they tore out the lentil and some of the brick so there was a gaping hole above the stove. It's a wonder that the brick hadn't fallen even worse.

 

Stay tuned.....tomoorow morw before and even some after pictures!!

Office Remodel

If you have been  reading this blog for a while you know about the room that we have been working on for like three years that will eventually be the office... It has been re-framed, insulated, dry-walled, painted, and as of last night the windows are trimmed out! I'm so excited!! They look amazing! My lover and my FIL worked on it last night and will be working on it again today. My goal is to have it move in ready by next Saturday the 12th because we are having my dad a 60th Birthday Party and I want it ready to show off.

So this is what the mud room looks like...

You can barely get in the door!! 

This is the wood floor that will be going in the office. My love is such a scavenger!! About 8 years ago he and his dad built a house for a guy who owns a flooring company. The guy put top grade walnut floors in the house but he didn't want any of the knots showing in his floor so they cut all of them out. They were going to throw away the rest of the floor so my love took it home where it has been waiting to be put to good use! 

The only problem was that it was in the top of his dads garage and it was all in a bunch of pieces. It was no longer bundled so we had to carry it down in stacks! Wew! did I get my exercise! But it was free!!!

I will keep you posted!!!   

Spring Cleaning.....Mudroom

I have been doing some spring cleaning this week. The kind where you pull everything out of a room and scrub it from top to bottom, including the tops of the baseboard with a toothbrush. I love it when it is all finished. Everything looks nice and shiny!

Here is a look at the mudroom with everything out of it...

This old pump is still connected to the cistern but it doesn't work. We just haven't cut it off yet...it's been 6 years now folks!

After I spent the better part of the day scrubbing this room down...it lives up to it's name thanks to my Lover....this is what I came up with.

 This little hen is a ring holder. At least that's what my mom always used it for. It sat on the window sill above the sink my whole child hood. That's usually where you'll find it at my house.

Now I need to buy some chalk to write a welcome message on the board!