I Can't Believe It! I Won - Again!

OK. So Kimba over at A Soft Place to Land had a great giveaway from Purple Lemon Designs a while back. I entered. I won. I didn't know it! Not until Kimba waited forever for me to respond and then when I didn't - she finally got a hold of me. Funny thing is - I went back and checked the post where she announced the winner. I read that post. I guess I just skimmed across the bottom part where she announced it and totally missed it. What a dork! Not Kimba. Pam.

So, ya want to see what I picked out for my prize? I really like it. A lot. It's a personalized address stamp. Except mine won't have this last name or this address. It will have my last name and my address. Just in case you didn't realize that!



Here it is again - on stationary this time. I'm thinking that it will look really great in red ink this Christmas when I send out cards. Or in green ink for St. Patty's Day. Not that I send out cards for that holiday. I'm just sayin'. How 'bout orange this Fall? A pretty pastel that's still bright enough to show up in the Spring? Actually, that blue looks great.


Anyway, I'm excited about receiving it. If you're looking for a personalized gift that is reasonably priced, you should go check out Purple Lemon Designs. Kelly has a lot of great personalized products in her Etsy shop; address stamps, stationary, note cards, kid's stuff, book plate stamps, lots of wedding items and so much more. It's a great way to get a quality product and support small businesses. That's always a good thing.

Have a wonderful day!

Saturday's Change of Plans

Do you remember when I told you about the peyote smokin' knuckle-heads that previously owned our little Cape Cod and put 80, 001 tons of rock all around the yard? The rock that has haunted our landscaping endeavors, thus far? Well, HALLELUJAH, PRAISE THE LORD! It's finally gone! MW had removed about 35,000 tons of it already - but with his work schedule and the fact that the hot tub out back calls to him in the night to come and get her running so he can partake of her sweet muscle - relaxing, tension - removing, hot, bubbly, swirls of delight - he really hasn't been able to find the time to remove any more of the rock. So, we did the next best thing. We hired our nephew to do it. He just graduated and had some extra time on his hand while needing some extra cash in his pocket. He spent Thursday and Friday taking wheel barrow after wheel barrow full of rock and removing it to the nether-regions of the pot holes and trenches in the alley. I must say, that was definitely money well spent!
Since Little Britches spent last week recovering from sinusitis/bronchitis and seemed like he was itching for something to do, I figured I might as well capitalize on Pay Day and hire him out to do some weeding. A new Webkinz was much more appealing compensation to an almost nine year old than cash, though. So, we settled on finding this certain new furry (albeit stuffed) friend for my little guy as his reward. Friday we came up short-handed at all the stores we hit. And I was bummed to find out that our town's Hallmark is closing it's doors within the next few weeks. But our search for the perfect Webkinz brings me to our Saturday adventure.

We had big plans for Saturday. MW got free tickets to the Indianapolis Air Show where the Blue Angels were going to be. He saw them once when he was a kid. We thought it might be a fun way to spend an afternoon. On our way to the air show we needed to stop by the next town over to get the promised Webkinz for Little Britches. There is this completely awesome store there, Ousley's Harvest Market. It's a combination of florist, garden center, and the most adorable little shop you've ever laid eyes on. It's a complete delight for the senses every time I go. Since all we needed was to grab a Webkinz and I was on the phone anyway, I decided to wait in the car on MW and Little Britches.

After just a couple of minutes, MW pops out of the door and waves me in. He wanted me to look at this gorgeous plant he saw and get my opinion on it for our front flower bed. We're looking to mostly fill it with perennials that will have a long bloom time AND great foliage. We're not asking for much, are we? Well, this plant he wanted to show me was an annual in our neck of the woods, but I know that sometimes annuals can be over-wintered indoors. So, we found a nice sales lady and asked if this was the case with this coreopsis. This lady was completely awesome. She was so knowledgeable about plants. And not the kind of knowledge that she picked up from the label on the container or during work orientation, either. She had the kind of knowledge that comes from a lifelong relationship with horticulture. We heard lots of tales of different tricks that her grandmother taught her about plants growing up. She told us how to take cuttings from plants like the beautiful coreopsis we saw or geraniums (one of my favorites) and start a root system on them so you can have more (free) plants next year. She also told us how to find and start our own sweet potatoes. She said that they were pretty poor growing up and her mother would start them and just use the vines as decoration. She would set it on the kitchen window sill and let the vines grow up the side and over the top of the window as a natural valance. I've read where this was really popular during the Victorian Era. So, anyhoo, she offered to take us around the garden center and show us the perennials that fit the bill we were looking for. She was so passionate about flowers we couldn't help fall in love with so many of them ourselves...

As we were leaving Ousley's with a red wagon full of new perennials for our flower bed, MW looks at the cart, looks at me with a confused look and laughs. "How is it that we came here for a Webkinz and left here with an Explorer full of plants?" Me: "Hey, I was going to wait in the car. Remember?"

By this time it was too late to make it to Indy for the air show, so we went home and played in the dirt instead. I did have to call and report that sales lady on the way home, but in a totally good way. Because of her love/passion for and knowledge of plants, we ended up making a completely unplanned purchase. And, she didn't work off of commission. She was simply there to be a help and guide. She did that very well.

Thanks to LouAnn, we are well on our way to filling up our flower bed. Thanks to Aaron, we didn't have to dig through oodles of rock in order to plant them. And thanks to Little Britches, I have a few less weeds in the yard. All in all, I'd say we had a pretty productive weekend.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

Black Beans A-La-Cuban

How 'bout a recipe today? It's been a while since I've posted one. Last night I was talking with my BIL and SIL, who've been eating a lot of beans lately and it made me think of this recipe. We were served this dish quite a few years ago by some of our good friends in the Sunshine State and it became an instant favorite in our family. It's an authentic Cuban dish that a friend of theirs from Cuba had made for them. Being an ethnic dish it was different than anything I was used to eating. This one is DEFINITELY worth a try, believe me. It is oh, soooo good!

BLACK BEANS A -LA-CUBAN:

1 lb. bag of black beans
1 ham hock
1 large onion
1 large green pepper
1 can whole olives
2 beef bouillon cubes
salt
season all (like Lowry's or Nature's Seasoning)
olive oil
red wine vinegar

Pick through your beans to remove any small rocks, rinse them and soak them over night. This step is really important. Soaking the beans removes whatever it is in them that causes gas. They will swell a lot during soaking - which means it won't happen in your stomach.

When you're ready to cook them, cover them with close to double the amount of water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add your ham hock, beef bouillon cubes and salt. Let continue to boil.  Or, if you choose not to use bouillon cubes, cook the beans in beef broth.

Now, dice up your onion and green pepper (I use a food processor for ease.) and sweat them in a little olive oil. Add them to the beans, along with some of the season all and your olives. You can use green or black olives, your preference. I don't like green olives, so I use black. It's probably starting to smell divine right about now!
Cook on medium heat for 2-3 hours until beans are tender and not runny. Check your seasoning and adjust to taste.

OK. This is the part that may seem a little strange, but believe me, it totally makes the dish. Just before serving - pour a little olive oil and red wine vinegar over the top of the beans.

Serve it with rice. Any kind will do, but if you can get your hands on Basmati - it totally rocks. Also, it cooks in only ten minutes. You can serve it on the side or do what I do. I ladle some of the beans into a bowl and, using an ice cream scoop, place a pile of rice right in the center of the beans.

I do hope you give this Cuban Black Bean dish a try. It'll make your taste buds want to dance!

I'm sharing this post at Traditional Tuesdays, Teach Me Tuesdays, Fat Tuesday, Simple Lives Thursday and Hearth and Soul Blog Hop.

School's Out, School's Out, Teacher Let The Monkey Out!

School's out, school's out, teacher let the monkey out! Yay! I am soooo glad to be done with school for the summer. Little Britches is glad to be done with third grade! Unfortunately, he kicked off Summer Vacation with a trip to the doctor for sinusitis/bronchitis. Today is his 4th full day on antibiotics, so I'm thinking he should be feeling quite a bit better today.

Now that we don't have school to contend with every day - I'm really looking forward to getting a lot of projects that have been hanging over my head knocked out of the way. It seems like every since I started working on the shade and shower curtain for my bathroom, I've lost just about all ability to blog. I guess the blogging juices just won't flow at the same time that the project juices do. Hopefully this will change soon. I've just been coming up dry. And, I haven't done anything remarkably stupid to blog about lately. Not that I'm complaining or anything. :0)

Anyhoo, I'll be lurking around, working in the garden and at the sewing machine, and waiting for creative inspiration to strike. Hope you have a wonderful start to your summer!

An Excited Thank You

I wanted to send out a big, warm thank you to Rhoda at Southern Hospitality this morning. Yesterday she hosted the Crazy for Burlap Party that I participated in. I was amazed at all of the uses that creative people found to do with the stuff. If you missed it you can still get some ideas. Rhoda posted highlights from the party on her blog today. Guess who almost fell out of her chair with excitement when she saw the picture of her bathroom on there? :0)

So, thanks Rhoda, for a great party and for adding my shade to your highlights!

New Bathroom On The Cheap

Today I thought I'd share with you one of my most favorite rooms in my house, so far. But first, let me give you a little back history. When MW and I were looking for a house to buy upon returning to Indiana after nine years in Florida - well, let's just say it was not a quick nor easy process. I'll save the details for another day. Anyhoo, we learned our lesson financially (the hard way) early on in our marriage and decided that we didn't want to be strapped to a huge house payment this time around. We decided to buy a home where the payment left us plenty of breathing room each month and we could fix it up with cash as we went along. So, we settled on a cute little repo. It had great bones, but had suffered severe neglect. The carpet was trashed and the furnace quit working immediately, along with the whole onslaught of things that you deal with when you buy a repo. Thus began our journey of making this little house a home on a shoestring budget.


This is what our bathroom looked like when we bought it. Notice the nasty carpet, broken mirror on the medicine cabinet, mildew on the top of the wall, and that brick. A friend said that going into my bathroom felt like walking into an alley. The brick was broken and not applied in a decent manner. And it was beyond filthy. I spent 7 hours with a toothbrush just trying to get the crud off of it. My hand looked like a claw for days.

The first thing we did was strip off that awful wallpaper and border, Kilz everything and paint it out white. Even the brick got a fresh coat of white paint. It was all of the same paint that we used to paint the rest of the house upon moving in - so I don't really count that as an added cost.

The foul carpet was ripped up and replaced with vinyl peel and stick tiles from Lowes. The tile runs less than a dollar per square foot. I don't remember how much it cost us, but I don't think it was very much because our bathroom is so tiny. You can close the door from the toilet, which is at the opposite end of the room - if that helps you get an idea of what we're talking about here. :0)

My favorite part - and the reason I'm linking to the Frugal Decorating Ideas Party at The Shabby Nest today - is what I used to wallpaper the top of the wall above the bricks. Here's the equation I used to decide what to wallpaper with: music lover + wanting to have something unique + being cheap frugal = wallpaper from a hymnal. I had 3 old hymnals in my book stash, so I tore some of the pages out of one of them, bought a container of wallpaper paste for $5 (I still have a ton of it left) and went to town. When I was finished with it, I gave it a coat of the same polyurethane that we sealed our painted floors with to protect the paper from the bathroom humidity. It worked like a charm.


This picture was taken before it was sealed with polyurethane. You can see here where a little edge of paper is raised. Once it was sealed, it layed right down.



The final major thing that the bathroom needed was a shower curtain and shade for the window. I posted about making these out of burlap yesterday. I was able to buy enough fabric (6 1/2 yds.) to make both of these items for $15 using my 40% off coupon from JoAnn Fabric.


The last thing I need to do is paint out the rest of the wood surfaces white and it will be complete. Since I still have the paint for that, it won't cost me anything except labor.

All in all, for less than $100 I was able to transform this little bathroom from back alley to beautiful (with the help of MW laying the floors and ripping out detestable carpet). And most of the budget went into flooring. It's now one of my most favorite rooms ever.

Want to see it one last time?

This was before. This is now (almost complete).

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my little bathroom. Check out The Shabby Nest for more frugal decorating ideas.

Have a great weekend!

It's A Burlap Party!

Well, I finally got my projects done for the burlap party - about 15 minutes ago. Nothing like getting right down to wire before finishing it. But, it just wouldn't be like me if I did it any other way. I sorta got hung up on figuring out how to do one part of it. I'll explain later. Would you like to see what I made?

Drum roll, please.....

Ta Da!


I finally got around to making a shade for the window and a shower curtain for our teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy bathroom. It's spent the past 15 months since we've lived here just as naked as a jaybird.


The shade even works. Impressive, huh? Yeah, I'm sure you're just 'oooh-ing and aaah-ing' right now wondering how someone could go through life with such undiscovered talent. This is where you can gag if you must.


For real, though. I really like it. The burlap was a breeze to work with except for the part where I had to try to figure out how to make button holes 'cause I'm too cheap to buy grommets. My sewing machine is supposed to make automatic button holes. It has a special presser foot and everything. I never could figure the darn thing out. The manual that came with my machine had instructions in 4 languages and I couldn't comprehend a single one of them. They should make sewing machine manuals in the "For Dummies" series. I ended up googling how to do it, and thank God, I came across a video clip. I was bright enough to make a practice strip to try them out with first. Even with that, it took me a really long time to make those boogers. I started to really get the hang of it when I had 2 or 3 button holes left to make.

Originally, I was going to make my shade and shower curtain out of ivory/black toile. I so love anything toile. It gives me warm fuzzies just thinking about it. But, since the weather is heating up I kind of feel like I don't want anything visually heavy in there. I love how the burlap still lets light filter in the window while providing much needed privacy. I might decide to make a toile set for winter some year. We'll have to see. But, for now, I'm digging the burlap. It let's my "hymnal" wallpaper be the star. (I'll post more on that later.) I still need to paint out the wood surfaces. Once they are white like the rest of the woodwork in there it will be perfect (for me).

So, did you join the party? Would you like to see what other creative ways people used burlap? Then follow me on over to Southern Hospitality and let's see if we just can't get some more organic inspiration for this awesome fabric!