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Showing posts with label homemaking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homemaking. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

PinTuesday








Source: etsy.com via Natalie on Pinterest


Some days, this seems like the best option.  At least temporarily.




We're working on a lot of home projects... 
we've painted the office and the bathroom, 
and I think the pink stairs we inherited when we bought the house 
(and discovered after removing horrific teal carpet) 
should be next on the hit list.
Thinking grey treads and white risers?


Source: oprah.com via Natalie on Pinterest

I'm ready for fall and hot dinners in the crock pot!  
I've never tried doing noodle dishes in a crockpot, but I think it's worth a try! :)



How fun is this!  File it in the "dream house someday" category.  




Fall is on the way! Can't wait to need sweaters again and for "warming up the kitchen" to be a positive to baking, not a drawback! ;)

Monday, August 08, 2011

I'm Still in Love With Turquoise

I may have run out of turquoise spray paint, but I'm still in love with turquoise, as is evidenced by the following...


(Except I'd wear grey Toms instead of sandals, and I probably wouldn't have the courage to wear polka dots.  So not the sweater.  Especially since it has a bow, which isn't really "me".)


.
.

Beth at Babyette is gorgeous, as is this lovely sling!



Ok, maybe this (and the next one?) is blue.  Whatever.  I love it anyway.

Source: etsy.com via Natalie on Pinterest


Source: etsy.com via Natalie on Pinterest


I have a necklace by this etsy seller with dark brown beads, and I love it.  It's really sturdy, AND when a bead broke (our fault all the way)  the seller was a total dream to work with and fixed it at no extra charge.

So... turquoise.  Just seems like summer to me!  :)  What colors are you loving right now?  Gray seems to be making a big splash right now, especially with yellow...

Friday, July 15, 2011

Pinterest-ing


Home inspiration board...

Style inspiration board...


I've been enjoying Pinterest... such a fun way to collect inspiration pictures and ideas!  :)  You can see my boards here.  I can't decide whether I need to have lots of specific boards - individual rooms of the house, for example - or just big boards of broader things, but either way it's working and I've found some really fun ideas to inspire future projects.  If anyone needs an invite you can email me or leave your email in a comment!

Also, Micah says I can paint our piano. Yesssssss.  But what color? 

Friday, September 03, 2010

Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil Review

In our home, we try to keep things deliberate and simple.  That approach gets a bit more complicated when we add in budgeting, like for our food purchases, but basically our food approach is pretty simple.

1. Life is too short to eat things that taste yucky.
2. Life is too short to obsess over what we eat, after all, we're going to die anyway.  Our efforts can be better used on things that will last eternally.
3. Life is too short to further shorten it by willy nilly consumption of unhealthy industrialized food, and we have a responsibility to our children, and to God, to try to leave things better than we found them.

So basically, we try to eat healthy - real foods, local foods, sustainable foods - we try to eat frugally - home made foods, from scratch foods, bulk foods - and we try to eat practically - simple foods, nutritionally dense foods.

Nathan approves.
One simple way that we try to be healthy is by making sure that the fats in our kitchen are good fats.  We avoid all vegetable oils and shortenings, and prefer butter, olive oil, and lard.  And, we've been exploring coconut oil as well!

Tropical Traditions was kind enough to send us some of their delicious coconut oil for review purposes.  We LOVED it.  If they had sent us five gallons instead, we would have eaten it all and died of happiness... so I guess it's a good thing they didn't or we wouldn't still be around to share how good it is! ;) 

As a nursing mama, I've noticed that my energy levels are better when I make a point of having plenty of good fats in my diet.  I know a mama whose midwife specifically recommended to her to take a tablespoon of coconut oil every day to make sure that she was getting enough good fat in her diet!  I know that personally, I would much rather take that tablespoon in fudge, but either way coconut oil is a great fat to be consuming and I have felt that for me personally it was an energy booster.

grilled cheese sandwich with coconut oil... yum!



We still need to sit down and do the math to see just how large a place coconut oil will have in our pantry and diet. 

But, as this very tasty jar of Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil confirmed for us, coconut oil definitely will be a pantry staple from now on around here!




Ways to enjoy Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil:
  • on bread!
  • in fudge!
  • use for popcorn - this is particularly amazing & Micah's favorite oil to use for popcorn now
  • in baked items - just substitute for butter or other oils
  • use on a grilled cheese sandwich


Is there any coconut oil in your pantry? :)

_________________________________________________
Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it unless I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.  I am not a nutritionist or medical professional and any opinions in this post are merely my own opinions and are not to be construed as medical or nutritional advice.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

paint it turquoise! paint it turquoise!

It wouldn't be fair to Martha to blame her for my recent spray painting spree, but I do just love this cover and since it has turquoise in it it seemed a fitting photo to kick off this post!

My husband recently bought me two cans of turquoise spray paint.  So far I have painted two lamps, two dinner plates, a glass bottle and lid, a few clothespins, a disposable diaper box with the flaps cut out (they make great storage bins, they even have handles!) and the lid to a kitchen canister.  :)

I had forgotten how relaxing it is to watch something transform with paint.

How refreshing it is to create something that will stay that way... unlike the good dinner or carefully made bed or folded laundry or clean dishes, all stacked in place.

Those things all have their own unique sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, but there is an added satisfaction, for me, in knowing that unlike many of my tasks which are done over and over and over, this will stay and look good (hopefully) and not revert to it's previous state.

 Although sometimes an undo button might not be such a bad thing, like when I accidentally did not cover quite enough of the sidewalk while painting the second lamp.  A friend suggested I spray paint it grey over the turquoise, but my husband objected that it might look as if I had covered up graffiti on our sidewalk.  I refrained from saying that technically he would be within reason to consider my spraying the sidewalk turquoise as graffiti, but I think he has enough reason to roll his eyes at my liberal use of spray paint without that, thankyouverymuch.

Anyway. Without further ado, here is one of my projects that I'm particularly pleased with.  I purchased a set of two of these lamps at a garage sale for $3 quite a while ago, and we've been using one as our office lamp.  I didn't like it, though, and I had originally planned on spray painting it all white... but then I had the turquoise... and I thought it would be really cheery and fun with it.

I have a quick tip for you if you're spray painting a lamp... if you have a dead light bulb (the one in our office lamp was dead - thank you procrastination!), then put it in/leave it in before painting.  It will save you the trouble of masking the round hole there to keep from gunking up the light bulb socket! I saved the turquoise bulb from the first lamp and used it on the second.


I love it.  :)  It makes me smile to see it, especially since I switched out the (rather staid) shade that had been on it with this funky one.  It seems to fit with the turquoise better.



Have you revamped anything lately?  :)  Do you think one can ever have too much turquoise?  And do you know of anything that needs sprayed turquoise?

'Cause I'm looking around my house persuading myself that everything I see does not need to be turquoise... or does it...



Also, if you haven't seen House of Turquoise... :)


Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Tick Tock, Chickenpox

Sometimes I just need to lose the household clock.  Some days I scale back the 'to do list' to include
- change diapers
- feed everyone
- make dinner
... and "nothing" else.  "Nothing", of course, opens hours quickly filled.  Filled not with catching up on laundry or cleaning out the fridge (worthwhile tasks, of course, and in dire need of happening), but with snuggles, one on one, and good stories.

And also, in our particular circumstances at the moment, calamine lotion, oatmeal baths, and lots of diaper free time, since the chickenpox seem to have hit his lower back particularly badly and I think the diaper makes it worse.

But his fever is gone, and his spots are scabbing over, and I know that soon, soon, we'll be back to our usual activities...

... and that beautiful soft smooth skin will be back, too!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Reflections in the Dishwater


"Christian women must reject any distorted view of the modern housewife- whether it be the miserable household drudge; the fanatical, sock-matching wonder-woman; the child-centered, worn out soccer mom; or the deceptive, apron wearing vixen.  When we consistently renew our minds by absorbing Scripture and by passionately embracing the sacred calling God has truly given us as women, we will refute the perverted image of the desperate housewife by believing His promises and showing the world there is something better for which we can truly be passionate!"
- Passionate Housewives Desperate for God  

This book came in the mail yesterday afternoon, and I've already read it all.  It was a breath of fresh air and encouragement.  I was blessed with some rare quiet time this morning, since I got up around 5, and was able to finish it and then turn to the dishes and watch the sunrise while thinking over what I'd been reading.





"If the world can convince us to acquire a taste for the futile blandness found in a self centered marriage, to be content with recreational motherhood, and to prefer a sterile, disposable version of home "economics," then we will miss the beauty and poetry that is ours in the heavenly magnum opus of a God-glorifying, well-ordered home."
- Passionate Housewives Desperate for God (bold added)

Today I'm thankful for the beauty of clean dishes, of sunlight coming through windows, of my dishsoap in a pretty recycled vinegar bottle, and watching the sunrise as I wash away, wearing my beloved gloves... 
 "What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God.  
We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred 
and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, 
but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow."              
- Martin Luther


Celebrating the beauty of biscuits...
yummy flaky biscuits... 
 
and leftover biscuits so I can have them with breakfast 
...and for the peace to take pictures of the reflections in my dishwater, and  to share my reflections with you. :)

Monday, February 15, 2010

Butter, Cont'd

In my email this morning...

Not sure how Amazon figured out that butter is a theme around here, but they are right that we need a replacement butter dish. 

  Fiesta 2-Piece Covered Butter Dish, Scarlet
KitchenAid KSM150PSER Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer, Empire RedWhile it migh match my beloved (and yes, despite my misadventures, still alive!) Kitchenaid (although from the pictures it looks like they might just clash catastrophically), my dishes are actually white... so I was leaning towards replacing my white butter dish with another white one.  You know, when I actually dare to replace it and risk repeating the whole scenario.  As it is, the bottom, dish part technically is fine, it was the lid part that broke into the neighborhood of five pieces, so we can just keep using it for a while.

As an aside, I love how that last sentence makes it look like we have a tough, possibly mafia involved butter dish going around breaking into entire neighborhoods. No small timer here.  On that note, beware, y'all, we're not a family to be messed with... apparently even our butter dish has a criminal record!

With that bit of silliness, I'll close... hope your Monday is off to a good start... :)

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Valentine's Hearts

I am not very good at crafts, but I did a very simple one recently, and it turned out, so I'm excited to share it with you all! :)

I basically did this, but punched two holes instead.  The salt dough is easy- just 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup warm water, 1 cup flour, then mix (I added red food coloring!) and bake at 250 for around two hours (until hard.)

Here is the proof are the pictures...

The baked hearts...
My beloved ball of twine... perfect for so many things, and cheap, to boot!
That funky looking heart there was what I did with the leftover dough. :)
I threaded the twine through the holes of the hearts... 
I made those with a straw, and it was easy since the dough stuck in the straw and it punched it out nicely.
Then pull it through the other side, and take a picture of your feet.  This step is essential. ;)
Decide how long you want your hanging loop to be.  Then tie it, trim your ends...

... and hang it somewhere fun!
Or quirky... ;)

Happy Valentine's Day (a little early...)!