Vintage Dresser Redo

Dresser body

 

Drawers



OK, having a few issues with blogger, moving on.....

I found this dresser at my local thrifty several years ago for $50.00.
Although it didn't have any hardware, I thought it was well worth the price,
well made, solid oak, heavy, just needed a little help.
I slapped some pulls on it for the meantime, put it in my bathroom
to house towels etc, and there it stayed, looking forlorn and neglected.
Time for a redo!

After a good clean up, I gave the body several coats of
white latex satin, then did the  drawers in black latex satin.
~~~~Yes, I am painting in my office, library area.
I just put down an old shower curtain as a drop cloth.~~~~

The hardware was an issue...
Over the years I've collected a few drawer pulls and knobs....
You know what I mean, the cheap, falling apart
cabinet or chest by the roadside on trash day?
Grab that hardware!

With what I had on hand, hardware wise,
and a little gold spray paint, I was able to stylishly open the drawers.

Now I have a cute, new dresser in my sewing area to store my fabrics.


Till next time,
Bonjour




Everything's Coming up Roses/Free Rose Petal Masque Recipe

Rose Bush

Spring in North Texas, what can I say?
Tornadoes, rain, wind, sun and roses....

Pink roses, red roses, yellow roses, I have them all.
I like to clip a few to bring into the house,
so pretty arranged with a sprig or two of rosemary.
But so short-lived, in a day or two the petals are falling off.

Let's put those petals to use.
I collect the petals and place them into my bamboo steamer basket to dry.
Once they're dried, they go into a large jar and live in the fridge.
Mixed with some old fashioned, rolled oats,
and put into a muslin bag, they make a wonderful soak for the bath.

OR.....
Perhaps a facial masque.

Rose Petal , Oatmeal and Honey Masque

 

Ingredients:

1 cup dried rose petals

½ cup of old fashioned rolled oats

¼ cup of local honey (farmer's market)

two teaspoons of rose water (recipe below) or distilled water

Equipment:

food processor or blender, bowl, jar, rubber spatula

Method:

1. Put the rolled oats into a food processor. Using the "pulse" feature, grind the oatmeal for a few seconds until it resembles a coarse flour.

2. Add rose petals to the oatmeal in the food processor. Pulse again to break up the petals.
Remove mixture to a mixing bowl.
3. Add the rose water or distilled water, and the honey to the rose petals and oatmeal mixture. Mix well. (Add more or less water to form a paste).
4. Apply the rose petal mixture to your face and allow it to stay on for 30 minutes. Rinse off with warm water and gently towel dry your skin.

Store any remaining masque in a covered jar in the fridge.

 

Rose Water

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh rose petals

2 cups distilled water

Equipment:

tea kettle, bowl, jar, strainer

small pump bottle (found in the beauty travel section at most stores)

 

Method:

In your tea kettle, bring the distilled water to a boil. Place the rose petals in the bowl.

Pour the boiling water over the petals, cover the bowl and let the mixture come to room temperature.

Strain off and compost the petals and pour the rose water into a jar. Keep covered in the fridge.

The rose water can also be used as a facial spritzer, just pour a little in a pump bottle and spritz away.

 

I hope you give these recipes a try,

and feel free to share your own handmade beauty recipes.

 

~~~AND~~~

thanks to my sister Jamie for reminding me.

Love and miss you Jamie.

 

Till next time, enjoy God's gifts!

Bonjour

 





Vintage, Dressmaker Sewing Machine

My new find...
~ The vintage Dressmaker DeLuxe ZigZag Sewing Machine ~

Vintage Dressmaker Sewing Machine

Vintage Dressmaker Sewing Machine

 

 

1960's?

I've got myself a little sewing factory going on.

 

 

 

The vintage Singer Touch & sew. 1970's

 

 

The not so vintage Sears Kenmore. 2003

(I think the Kenmore is getting jealous).

 

With both a soap factory and a sewing factory going on over here,

the house is, shall we say, getting a little full!

 

The DIY dress form is still in the works.

Part 2 is on it's way.

 

Our first show of the season is this Saturday at the Waxahachie Civic Center,

maybe I'll sell enough to justify buying two "new" sewing machines.

 

Till next time, happy crafting:-)

Bonjour

Mini, Christmas Stocking Gift Bags And Tutorial

So....

We had a great day at the festival on Saturday which means I've been busy

making more products for our show this weekend.

I sold a few aprons, lots of soap and related bath products

and all but four of my cuff bracelets.

Needless to say, I'm a happy camper.

I put a lot of time and effort into the things I create so it

feels wonderful when a customer likes my handmade items.

Yesterday, in between canning and cooking

I found time to do some sewing.

These are little Christmas stockings that I market

as gift bags, big enough to accommodate a soap bar or two,

bath oil, body butter ETC.

They're a unique alternative to the standard gift bag.

I free-handed the pattern, pinned it to my fabric,

cut it out and got to work.

I do these in an assembly line fashion, grouping

like colors together to minimize thread change outs.

If you would like to make some of these for gift giving

here are the directions.

Supplies:

2 - 9 ¾” length x 8 ½” width pieces of fabric

2 - 6” wide x 5” long contrast for cuff

1 - 11” x 1” grosgrain ribbon for handle

My finished stocking measures more or less, 8 ¾” long x 7 ½” wide at the bottom and 5 ¼” wide at the top.
I drew the pattern freehand so yours might vary.
All seams are ¼”

Draw your patterns, one for the stocking, one for the cuff. Pin pattern to fabric and cut.
The top width of my stocking is 6” so I cut my cuff 6” wide x 5” long.

Directions:

1. With right sides together, pin and sew each cuff to top edge of stocking front and  back.

2. Press seam towards cuff.

Attach cuff to stocking.

(If you’re going to embellish the stocking with ribbon, buttons ETC, do it now).



Sew on ribbons, buttons, beads ETC.

3. Press under ¼” on the cuff top edge. (It’s easier to create your hem line at this point).

4.Open out the pressed hem line and with right sides together, pin and stitch stocking front and cuff to stocking back and cuff  (I zigzagged the seam also).

5. Clip seams almost to stitching line at curves.

6. Fold cuff in half towards the seam where you joined it to the stocking body

Attach handle.

7. Position your ribbon in the center of the cuff sandwich, with the raw edge

overlapping the seam about ½ ”.

8. Pin in place.

9. Fold the stocking toe towards the top, out of the way, bring the other ribbon end down and over the bottom and up to meet the other end of the stocking cuff sandwich .

10. Pin in place like you did with the other end of the ribbon.

11. Pin the rest of the pressed cuff edge over the seam.

12. Turn the stocking right side out and stitch the hem in place. (It was easier to sew this way).
At this point it looks like you attached the ribbon upside down, you didn’t.

13. Turn stocking right side out and fold the cuff down which makes the handle on top.

14. Press.



Handle at the top.



More stockings



As to the canning.....

My Hubby does not like me to blog about our food!

BUT...

My grandson Brian came over to help/learn to pressure can food.

He learned the basics of canning meat and stock/ broth

and helped/ learned how to make a chicken pot pie from scratch.

I sent him home with the pie and a few other goodies.

(I forgot to photo the pie).

Don't tell the Hubby!

I'm off to do more sewing,

till next time, teach the kids some skills.

Bonjour

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups Recipe

So…

Are you past the Mouse Quest, post yet?

Good, cause I have a recipe.

No, not the jello!

This one is for homemade peanut butter cups.

I wanted to make the hubby some sweets for his lunch pail,

something that didn’t require turning on the oven.

So I started rummaging around in my “CLEAN” cabinets.

I found almond bark, marshmallow cream, toffee crumbles,
colored sugar sprinkles,

mini baking cups, most of which were left over from the
Christmas candy making frenzy.

Peanut butter, powdered sugar salted peanuts and raisins.

That’s a start!

I know, peanut butter cups are just that, peanut butter.

But what fun is that, good yes, but could be better with a

little extra goodies thrown in.

I tried to come up with more goodies for the inside besides
creamed peanut butter, peanuts and raisins….

But canned tuna or salmon, or dried beans just didn’t sound good,

although, if I would have had bacon, I would have fried it up,
crumbled it, and put it in too.

Everything’s better with bacon, Target has a t-shirt that says so!!!

Anyway here’s the recipe.

Peanut Butter Cups Ala Terry

Ingredients:
Inside
½ cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup powdered sugar
½ tsp. salt
4 ½ tsp. Butter, softened
¼ cup marshmallow cream (optional)

Cream these together in a bowl.

Outside
1 cup creamy peanut butter
A handful of toffee bits (optional)
About 14 oz. almond bark (7 squares)
(I had the white almond bark, chocolate colored looks better).

Melt these in a double boiler, stir to incorporate.

Method:

1. Line your mini muffin pan with the mini baking cups.
2. Drop a teaspoon or so (the kind you stir your coffee with) of the
chocolate mixture into the cups, add a slight teaspoon of the creamed peanut butter mixture.
Here you can add a few raisins, peanuts, almonds, bacon, whatever.

(Probably not canned tuna or salmon or dried beans though).

3. Top off with another teaspoon or so of the chocolate, add some sprinkles and your almost done.
I put a raisin on top of the ones with raisins inside, a peanut on the ones with peanuts inside.

I sprinkled toffee bits on the ones with no bonus ingredients.

4. Set in fridge to harden up, and now you’re done.

Makes about 48

There you have it, easy munchies, no oven involved!

Better go wash my face, I feel something sticky on my chin.

Marshmallow cream I bet!

Till next time, happy cooking,

Bonjour

Bustin Arse (AKA, making product)

SO...

I know, I know, I've been absent in blog land!!!

The fall shows have taken over, 

one more to go and I'm finished for the year!

The Texas Country reporter show was fantastic.

We sold mega amounts of product (good) .

Yesterday we had a smaller show

which depleted my inventory even more (bad).

So now I'm scrambling to replace said product

 for the Christmas Market in December.

Today I made five - twenty bar batches of soap

and have plans on making four more batches

during the week.

I'ts doable, and I'll just squeak in

under the cure time allotment.

Nathan is due in on the 18th so I shall enlist his

help on making and packaging the other products.

He's pretty well versed on the workings of the soap co.

and has even told me that when I die he's taking over!

I guess he thinks he's Brad Pitt in - Fight Club!

Don't remember if I mentioned...

Got another wholesale account,

Maybe soon I can leave the surreal world of people-eaters

and concentrate on the homestead duties.  

Maybe even get to bed at a decent hour?

There's always hope...

Oh yeah,

I rolled out a new product this last week.

Brown Sugar Body Polish!!!

(Think sugar scrub with a fancy name).

YUMMY!



Brown Sugar Body Polish

Well it's after nine here in Texas

and I do have to work tomorrow...

I'll try to catch up on everyone's doings at lunch

during the week, can't wait to see what you' all

have been up to!!!

Till next time,

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble!

Oh wait,

no trouble, just toil and bubbles!

Bonjour

 

The Cow

SO...

Steve and I have been wanting to raise our own beef .
Not just any beef either.

Yummy, hormone free, grass fed beef!

Steaks, roasts, ribs, that’s what I’m talking about!

That requires a fence to keep said beef, aka cow in

and the cattle rustlers out.

The fence is about ¼ done.

Seems the most important thing at the time was to

make the property unappealing to would be crooks.

Phase one,

the fence down the driveway with a gate.

If you want in bad enough, you’ll have to go cross country.

We now need to complete phases two through

four to actually keep a cow or two.

Go figure!

Opportunity knocks…

Friend of a friend has cows, hormone free, grass fed.

Brangus? (Brahma, Angus mix)

We are now the proud owners of  ½ a Brangus.

Or were,

it’s now resting quite comfortably in my freezer.

All 156 pounds of it!

(Other ½ split with a friend).

What can I say?

I’ve had a steak or two at the restaurant on special occasions

but,

in my entire adult life, I don’t ever recall purchasing

a steak at the market.

Is that sad or what?

The rundown.

15 ½ lbs-hamburger, 1 pack-brisket, 3 packs-chuck roast, 2 packs-arm roast,

1 pack-pikes peak roast, 1 pack-rump roast,

7 packs-round steak, 3 packs-short ribs,

4 packs-rib eye steaks, 5 packs-t-bone steaks, 7 packs-sirloin steaks,

1 pack-soup bones, aka dog bones.

Price?

$381.25 or $2.44 average, per pound.

The Cow!!!!

It's our first time,
did we do good?
Till next time, moo...I mean,

Bonjour

P.S.

Hope we don't experience any

power outages this winter...

The Lion , The Witch and The Wardrobe

OK...

So I lied, there is no Lion or Witch, just "The Wardrobe"!

*** :) ***

I found this lovely piece in an antique store about five years ago.

$1oo.oo

We had "house guests" at the time and needed more closet space.

It still has the original hanging rod, 

with weird hook things that slide across the rod,

 kind of like bathroom robe hooks.

(wasn't sure how to use those) 

We just slid them to the side and used wire hangers.

There wasn't enough clearance between the rod

and upper shelf for plastic hangers.

Anyway...

"House guests" are gone, so now it's a pantry.

I didn't want to alter the piece so we just put a shelving unit inside.

When things are on sale at the market I buy extra and store in  "The Wardrobe".

Those cans of tomatoes, tuna, and such were really a good price!



I've had these forever, cheap, Wally World bookshelves.

There's one on either side of the kitchen island.
I don't know if you can see but,

 I had to put a piece of wood between each shelf for support.

Still room for a few more jars!

(Ignore the 5 gal. buckets in the background, that's just my soap oils).


This is the only closet in the house, although it is pretty big.
No, we don't have that much coffee,
I save coffee cans for food storage silly:)
More on sale food items in here also.
Bulk purchases are divided up into smaller containers.
Beans, rice, sugar, flour.....
I scored a large, laundry basket full of jars, canisters
and popcorn tins for $5.00 at the thrift store a few months back.
Plastic shoe boxes also come in handy.
YES!!!

Weird...
Something I have noticed at the market as of late.
Staple food items?
Not really being put on sale.
 It's mostly, what I like to call, "the garbage food".
Pre-seasoned, pre-cooked fast food, just heat and eat.
Then there's the plastic packages of meat swimming in marinades,
and the plastic tubs of pre-sliced veggies and fruits.

I don't know, I guess if you work, have three kids with after school activities,
get home late, ETC, ETC, ETC,
maybe this is your only option besides Mickey Dees?
But...
Seems to me, for the price of the fast food stuff,
you could probably hire a sweet, grandma type, retired person
to come over and cook wholesome food for your family.
I'm just saying....

Please, don't tell "The People Eater" or "The Food Police"
about my food stash!!

Oh yeah, weird again,
have the check- out clerks at your market been
commenting/asking about your bulk purchases?
They have at mine!

Need to go make soap, shows start in October.

Till next time, happy hoarding,
Bonjour

Pancake Zingers

Pancake Zingers

?????

You might be asking,

what are Pancake Zingers?

Well, I'll be glad to tell you!

They're a full meal deal.
 Meat, veggies and sometimes cheese,

all combined to make a yummy disk shaped treat!

No syrup needed!

I'm always searching for food to go.

I have to leave for work early in the AM

so on the road food is my only choice.

I try not to do the fast food places,

not good for my health or my pocketbook.

So here goes.

These are delicious.

Pancake Zingers

Ingridents for the filling:

1 small onion, minced

2 ribs celery plus some leaves, minced

1 small bell pepper, minced (any color)

1 small roma tomato, minced
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup cooked ham, minced

oil for sautéing

Ingredients for the batter:
1 cup flour
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 tbsp. cooking oil

Directions for the filling:

Heat oil in a sauté pan, (about two turns of the pan)

add onion, celery, bell pepper and tomato.
Sauté  till limp, then add the garlic clove and ham.
Warm through.
Remove from the heat.

Directions for the batter:
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix well.
In a large measuring cup, measure milk first, then add the egg, then the oil. Blend.

Add the liquid to the dry, lightly mixing. Now add your sautéed veggie/meat mixture.
At this point you can add any grated cheese of your choice, about 1/4 cup.
Use a light hand to incorporate.
Let the mixture sit a few while you're heating your griddle.

When a few drops of water dance on the griddle you're ready to go.
I use a small gravy ladle to spoon out my batter, and I can fit three cakes on my griddle.
(I have a seasoned cast iron griddle so there's really no need to grease the pan).
When bubbles form on the top of the cakes, flip and cook for another a minute or so.
Remove to a platter and continue on.
Makes about fifteen cakes.

You could sub cooked ground pork, diced cooked chicken or any meat of your choice.

I package these up three to a baggie and eat them cold.

Sweet and savory!

If you have any suggestions for one handed, on the road food, let me know.

I'm always looking for something different!

I mean it!!!

Till next time,

Bonjour

No Rain, No Problem! Farmer's Market To The Rescue!!!

So....

Since we had to quit the garden
 due to the  no rain issues/fines for using too much water,

a trip to the farmer's market on Friday was in order.

There was no arm twisting involved, I love to go,

only,
 I would rather not have to buy my produce.

Oh well,

the bright side is,

 I'm helping out a south or East Texas farmer.

(Gotta take the positive notes where you can)!

Anyway...

We scored about 20 lbs of roma tomatoes for $8.00

4 giant, red bell peppers for $1.00

okra @ $3.oo a pint (got 2)

green beans @ $3.00 a pint ( got 2 also)

new potatoes @ $2.00 for 2 pints

and, 2 fairly large cantaloupe for $5.00

Some of the goodies

Not too bad, especially compared to the supermarket!

We canned some of the okra yesterday for Steve's mom

and saved the rest to fry.
We'll do that on Sunday.

My Steve does enjoy his fried okra!

He also enjoys green beans and new potatoes,

Sunday on that one also.

Today I got started on or meals for the week.

First up was spinach/lasagna roll ups from Rachel Ray's kid cookbook.

Rachel Ray's cookbook

Naturally, I put my own spin on the recipe using ingredients I already had on hand.

Here's my take!!

Mince, mince, chop!

Ingredients:

1 small onion, minced

3 ribs celery, with some leaves, minced

1 red bell pepper, minced
1 roma tomato, seeded and minced

1 package spinach, drained and chopped (about one lb.)

(I had a package of blanched mixed greens in the freezer, swiss chard, spinach and beet greens)

about a 3/4  lb. of queso fresco, divided use (fetta or ricotta would work)

medium thick rue, about 1 and 1/2 cups  divided use (made with turkey broth)

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

6 lasagna noodles, cooked, rinsed and drained

olive oil for sautéing

Directions:

Sautee first 3 ingredients in heated olive oil about 7 minutes.

Add spinach/greens, 1/4 lb. queso fresco, 1/2 cup rue and nutmeg.

Stay with the skillet at this point.

Cook, stirring until queso fresco starts to melt.

Remove from heat.

Lay out your cooked lasagna noodles on a cutting board.

With a rubber spatula coat the noodles with your spinach/queso fresco mixture.
I added extra, crumbled, queso fresco at this stage, a little for each roll up.

Fill and roll up all noodles and place seam side down in a casserole dish.

Time To Roll!!!

Spoon extra rue over the rolled noodles, sprinkle with extra queso fresco or parmesan cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven till cheese melts and noodles heat through. About 15 minutes.

When I make these in the summer I stop at the baking step. I just cover the casserole dish with plastic wrap and pop in the fridge. When ready to eat just spoon out a noodle or two and microwave.

Great for gourmet, lunch box treats !!!

Yummo!!!

I'm curious...

Have you been restricted on your water usage,

fined for using too much?

Do you  recycle your water when possible?

Tomorrow we'll be canning the tomatoes,

frying okra and making the green beans and new potatoes.

Till next time,

Bonjour

Grinding Pork, Making Breakfast Sausage

Well....

Ground Pork

I'm experimenting again.

I haven't used my meat grinder in quite some time

but a great deal on some "pork roast" 

 made me pull it out again.

This meat was labeled  "for Carnitas", (a Mexican dish).

Heavily marbled, it seemed the right type of meat for breakfast sausage.

I ground it up, sort of,

the fat keep clogging the grinder,

added herbs and seasonings, then fried it.

It was ok, not great, dry tasting,

I guess I need to experiment some more.

Round Two!

I decided to grind some more to use as taco meat.

I trimmed away some of the fat this time and that helped getting it through the grinder.

I sautéed  the meat with some onion,

garlic and jalapeno peppers,

then added chili powder, cumin, diced

 tomatoes and tomato sauce.

I cooked until the liquid had reduced a bit,

then served in taco shells with grated cheese on top.

That turned out really good.

So the first batch, with the fat, turned out dry,

and the second batch with the reduced fat turned out great.

Maybe I cooked the first batch too long?

Maybe the acidity of the tomatoes in the second batch helped to tenderize it?

 Anyone have any opinions/suggestions?

Till next time,

Bonjour

Hacking, Canning & Fun

OK...



So we finally had the time to can up

all those wild blackberries we picked in the spring.

We also pulled out the flat of strawberries from first monday,

and the surplus tomatoes from the garden.

They've all been patiently waiting in the freezer,

 anticipating being turned into yummy pantry shelf goodies.

Also pulled a couple packages of

cooked pork roast to defrost.

Later I'll be making it into something for our work lunches.

For the berries we decided to

 can them whole instead of making jam or jelly.

This way they can be utilized for

smoothies, cobblers, pancakes, muffins etc.

 I used the instructions in Jackie Clay's canning book.

(A backwoods Home publication).

The process was to pour sugar over the berries,

1/2 cup sugar to each quart of berries, (same amount of sugar for both types of berries) 

gently mix, then cover. Let the strawberries sit for 6 hours and the blackberries for 2 hours.



Free blackberries

While we were waiting for the blackberry two hour window, we moved on to the tomatoes.



Squashing TO-MATERS

We blanched the tomatoes to remove the skins,

then quartered them.

Into the pot they went.

We squashed them with the potato masher,

 simmered for a bit,

then ladled into hot, sterilized jars,

adding 1 tablespoon bottled lemon juice to each pint jar.

Released the air bubbles, wiped the rims, capped, and

processed pint jars for 35 minutes in the water bath canner.

To can the blackberries, 

we heated them up in the turkey roaster,

(I like to use the roaster because

the product has a chance to spread out.

I straddle it between two burners,

making sure the middle gets stirred to the ends).

When it starts to bubble,

ladle into hot, sterilized jars 1/2" from the top.

I use a chopstick to release the air bubbles,

wipe the rims, cap, and boil in the water bath canner.

Strawberries process for 10 minutes,

blackberries for 15 minutes, (same method) 

The process timing was for pints,

we did 1/2 pints but used the pint timing.

After that we were on to making our lunches for the week.

I diced one package of the pork roast and set it aside.

The other went in the fridge for ham salad.

In a large skillet, I heated some olive oil,

added chopped onion and garlic,

 sautéed for a bit,

added 1 cup brown rice,

and sautéed a bit more.

Next I added the diced pork roast,

1 can of cream of potato soup, 1 1/2 cups water,

and some frozen mixed veggies.

I brought the mixture to a boil,

reduced the heat to low and cooked for 20 minutes.

Forgot to add any herbs or seasonings,

but I guess the canned soup had some.

Oh yeah, I did cook the roast with herbs, forgot!

By this time my brain was sort of fried,

(we started at about 9am, finished about 5pm.)

The ham salad will just have to wait till tomorrow.

In the middle of all this, I get an automated call from Citi Bank.

Hello, your credit card has been used for an online purchase,

suspected fraudulent.
Call us at bla, bla, bla number.

Being the wary, suspicious,

know that crooks call and Email

you to get your info, 

person that I am, I don't call the number they leave.

I call the number on my statement!

Sure enough, my info has been hijacked!

Seems Citi Bank has been hacked.

The credit card I haven't used in about 3 years,

the same card I haven't even

activated in that same amount of time,

 has been used to purchase something,

or some service online, at the cost of about $100.00.

They even tried to use it again at Cabala's.

(hope I spelled that right)

Declined!

DUH!!!

Seems to me,

an inactivated card should be

declined the first time!!!

But what do I know?

OK,

one long, excuse me, could you repeat that again,

conversation later, I'm to be sent an Email that I have to E-sign,

stating, I have no knowledge of this.

Never get the email.

(By the way, I'm the one saying, can you repeat that again).

Call again 2 hours later,

same excuse me, could you repeat that again, conversation!

 (I'm thinking, trying to can food here, it's your fault you got hacked, you fix it).

Thankfully my brain didn't let me voice those words.

EXPLAIN EVERYTHING AGAIN!!!

Got the Email this time. Hope my E-sign went through.

GEEZ!

I was assured that I would not be responsible for the charge,

but you know what,

in the end,  the charge has to be covered by someone.

Guess who that is?

Never even got make soap today, oh well!

At least I had fun canning, got to make some bread

and even had time to call Nathan.

Now it's 10:34pm,

 I work tomorrow, goodnight!

Till next time,

Bonjour

Free, Yes, I Said Free....

Well...

I've mentioned before that my husband Steve
works at a nursery

When the guys go out to do a landscape,

they invariably come back with rocks,
lots of rocks.

Texas specific rocks.... Shale, chalk rock,
whatever you choose to call it.

You can't dig three feet without encountering it!

They usually dump it along the creek bed sides
at the nursery property or....

put it in the dumpster.

What... Dumpster, are you kidding me?

No way!!!!!

Well...

Steve talked to the guys and they agreed to offload

said rock in a pile for Steve to take home.

Yeah, decent driveway in the works!

Steve's boss, Roland, let him use the
F550 to bring the rock home.

Borrowed truck

Even has a dump bed!!
Way cool!!!


Dust cloud on it's way!



After I took this pic I made a beeline for upwind!

Big rocks, little rocks, rock dust,
once it gets dumped, Steve drives over it to crush the biggies!
Eventually we will have a non mud driveway.
Not that it's muddy now, but in the spring,
let's just say, cars beware!


The lean, mean, working machine, AKA the hard working hubby!

Yes, it would be nice to have a non dusty,
concrete drive like we had in the city
but for a driveway as long as ours,
that just isn't in the budget.

Crushed rock is just dandy!
(And washing my truck is useless)

Can't beat free!
  
I'm canning tomatoes and making soap tomorrow,
should be fun!

Till next time,
Bonjour





White Elephant You Say?

So....

At Christmas,

my mother-in law's bible study group exchange white elephant gifts.

Guess, who's the load off receipt of all these white elephants?

You're correct,

 me!

About five years worth!!!

Ironically, I don't consider these as white elephants,

to me they are treasures, lovely, pretty treasures!

Tea cups with matching saucers,

some with petite porcelain spoons,

coffee cups and saucers, all in near mint condition.

What to do, what to do?

I needed another shelf.

I had a board, I had some wallpaper from the thrift store.

I covered the board with the wallpaper.
 (stapled it onto the board)

and placed it atop the two cabinets

between one of the kitchen windows.

I had to take down the curtain mounting brackets for the board to fit.

Now I have nowhere to re-mount the brackets.

Ok, I have a tension rod somewhere, I'm thinking.

 I can put it between the cabinets.

Found it.

Drat the curtain is too long now!

I don't feel like hemming it.

Wait a sec,

I have all those thrifted shawl type things,

let's see if we can use one as a curtain.

Many shawls, scarves and saris later I came up with this.

It's a very long, fringed scarf that I folded in half

and safety pinned close to the rod.

I gathered the front half into a ponytail with a ponytail holder,

pulled it up a bit to create a little puff, then pinned it to the back portion.

I used one of my many, many brooches as a center accent,

then topped it off with my dragonfly wind chimes.

The thrifted red shelf holds a Texas State Fair
Dr Pepper bottle that I use for dish soap.
(Dated October 13, 1973 Texas VS Oklahoma)
I have no idea when or where I got it.

Above the Dr Pepper sign is a bracket

that used to suspend a light, but now holds a lidless, black teapot.

Looks like it's pouring for all the cups below!

Do I really have this much stuff?

Yes, I do seem to have alot of stuff!!!

Do you have as much stuff as I do?

As you can see I love advertising art, especially region specific.

Most everything you see in these photos was thrifted or given to me.

That's my kitchen and I'm sticking with it!!!
Do you like?

Till next time,
Bonjour