May 2009 Recap

Wow, seems like May just flew by. Lover is finally home with no big travel plans scheduled, so we spent all month trying to catch up. I spent a week without a car, but then we found a cute little Pontiac Grand Am for me. It's old, but in great shape and has lots of pickup, which is a necessity for me. The best part was that all of Lover's overtime paid for the car, so we didn't have to dip into the car fund. Yay!

Other goals we've made progress on:

• Increase emergency savings by $500 We're up to 88%!
• Plant a vegetable garden Yesterday I planted three tomato plants and a canteloupe. I'll be planting the rest of the garden outside this week, and I am so excited to have my kitchen counters back!
• Learn canning My sisters-in-law and I are going to try our hand at this at the end of the summer. Sara has all of the supplies, so that is great! I am also going to try to make some freezer jam while starwberries are in season.
• Get together with family more often. We're still seeing Luke's family about once a week, and we've been seeing my brothers about that much as well.
• Read 12 non fiction books this year Still working on my next two; A Chance to Die and 100 Christian Women who Changed the 20th Century

In addition to these goals, we've accomplished a lot around the house:

• Painted the inside of the front door
• Painted the entryway and hung a chandelier
• Painted the stairway
• Stained the moulding around the front door
• Installed the moulding around the living room window.
• Installed the baseboards in the guest room
• Planted hanging baskets of petunias
• Gotten quotes for power washing the house
• Installed a window in the workshop
• Started working on the back "mudroom"

So, I think May was pretty productive!

Thrifty Finds

Been busy lately planning a baby shower and a going away party, as well as taking a few days off with my lover. It hasn't left much time for blogging, but now I've got a whole bunch of content for blog posts.

I've been hitting up the thrift stores in our area looking specifically for onesies for the baby shower, but also because I love thrift store shopping! Here are my finds this week:

I found this great candleholder that is tall enough to be interesting on our mantel. It's a little over a foot tall, and the capiz leaves and bronze stems are subtly reminiscent of the metalwork we have over the couch. When I lit a candle in it last night I loved the pattern it threw on the wall, and the way each little leaf glows. Best part... $3.99!

This little milk glass dish is destined for my office/craft room. I can't start renovating this room yet, so I am focusing on finding the accessories and furniture necessary for this room. It helps me bide my time till we're ready to start on that room, and it means that it will all come together that much sooner because I'll (hopefully) already have most of the stuff. I'm thinking the dish can hold paper clips, notes, beads, or change... :-) 

My other finds were a steering wheel cover (with Pooh Bear on it!) for $1.99, another addition to my creamware obsession, this little skinny vase, a martini glass for a secret project I am working on, and a fun red and yellow bangle bracelet.

All told I spent about ten dollars, which means that not only did I find some great stuff, I did it with thrifty and frugal flair!

Friday Fav: Ritz Toasted Chips

Luke and I discovered these a week or two ago, and we are obsessed. :-)  They are at all the grocery stores, and I saw them at BJ's too. They are light and airy, and soooo tasty, and pretty good for you, as well. Our favorite so far is the Sweet Home Sour Cream and Onion. We taste tested them at Wegmans, where they were sampling them with a small piece of turkey, Delish!

So go run to the store and buy yourself some. That's where I'm headed, as we are all out! :-)

Vinegar's First Cousin, Baking Soda

In a recent post I told you all about how I use vinegar in my cleaning. I also promised you that I would return with a post about vinegar's first cousin, baking soda, and tell you all about how to clean with it. Well, here I am, as promised. 

Ready for a quick science lesson? Sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate is the chemical compound with the formula NaHCO₃. Betcha didn't know that. I'm betting you also didn't know that ancient Egyptians used a form of baking soda as soap. I'm really wowing you, aren't I? 

I said all that to say this, baking soda is all natural and time proven. It's way better for you than Comet, or Fabuloso, or whatever else you've got under your sink to scrub away at nasty stuff. And, in my opinion, it works a lot better than those products do too. 

Exhibit A: My refrigerator. As I have referenced many times before, the previous owners were not big on cleaning. Actually, that's the biggest understatement of the century. I am convinced that there were areas of this house that they NEVER cleaned. The side of the refrigerator being one of them. When we pulled the fridge out from the wall, the side closest to the wall was caked in some combination of drips, goo and dirt. How did I conquer this colossal mess? Well, I sprayed it down with a solution of vinegar and water, and let it sit for a minute. Then, I sprinkled some baking soda onto my rag, and started scrubbing. Baking soda is abrasive, and the reaction between the baking soda and the vinegar meant that in no time at all my fridge was sparkly clean. 

Exhibit B: Clogged Drains. Old House + Girl with Long Hair + Other Yucky Stuff = Frequently Clogged Drains  The best way I have found to clear these clogs is the winning combo again. Sprinkle some baking soda down your drain (be generous!) followed by a healthy splash of vinegar. After all the foaming settles down, place a plastic lid (from a Tupperware) over the drain for 10-15 min. In the meantime, heat up some water in the tea kettle. Then remove the cover and pour the boiling water down the drain. Works like a charm, everytime. I also do this to my kitchen sink drains on a monthly basis, as a preventative measure. 

Exhibit C: Smelly Fridges and Garbage Cans. Baking Soda naturally absorbs odors too, so be sure to keep an opened box in your freezer and in your fridge, and sprinkle some in the bottom of your trash can. Seriously, what can't this stuff do?

Still not convinced? Here's a whole list of other uses for baking soda. Tell me, what are your favorite uses for the white stuff?

my fifteen seconds of creativity

There is a little area at the top of our stairs that really challenges me.  It is directly opposite the stairway, and it has a nicely sized window that lets in a lot of light and keeps the stairway from being dark and depressing. The previous owners customized this area by (what else?) adding wood paneling and a mirror. Oh, and the window doesn't open. It can't. It is not designed to open. (Hello? Who ever heard of such a thing?) Anyways, it is one of the first things you see when you walk in the door, and it is certainly the first thing you see when you walk up the stairs. This is what it looked like on move in day;

Lovely, no? You don't think so? Well, it just so happens that I agree with you. :-) I've been racking my brain for months now trying to figure out what to do with this awkward space. I started out by taking a chest that we inherited with the house and painting it a creamy vanilla color. The chest fits in the space perfectly, and is just the right height. Then, I was stuck. I had no more good ideas. Don't you hate it when that happens?

So, today, I put on my creative hat and this is what I came up with. 

What do you think? I think it is definitely an improvement, but I don't think I've hit the nail on the head just yet. Anyways, here's what I did. 

• Painted the chest, like I said.
• Made a roman shade out of muslin and the existing miniblinds, via these instructions. It was pretty simple, and this way we still have a way to shade this window in the summer.
• Hung the curtains from our apartment bedroom on the existing rod to soften up all of the harsh vertical and horizontal lines going on in this little space.
• Hung a favorite print from a calendar and two pretty mirrors.  
  
  
• I have loved this print for a long time, and I always manage to find a home for it. I like how the gold mirror goes with the frame, while the cream mirror coordinates with the chest and the walls. 
• Added a paper star for whimsy.

It's not great, but it's definitely better than what was there. The best part is I didn't spend any money, so if I change my mind and want to do something completely different, I can! 

Friday Fav: Lists

If you know me at ALL, you know that I love lists.  There are times when I consider the fact that I may be addicted, and promptly dismiss it as crazy. I really couldn't function without my many, many lists. To prove it, here is a sampling of the lists I currently have floating around:

• Grocery List
• To Do List for Bellisima Photography (my business)
• House Remodeling To Do List
• Wardrobe Shopping List
• Plant and other yard shopping list
• A complete shopping list for every room in the house with estimated prices
• Today's to do list
• Yesterday's to do list
• A list of the goals we have for 2009
• A list of pantry essentials we need to stock up on.

Are you convinced? As overbearing and nitpicky as this may make me sound, lists actually help calm me down. In fact, one of the best stress busters I know of is to sit down and make a list. I have done this for to do items, for identifying the things that I am worried about, or of the qualities that I admire in my husband. :-) 

What about you? What coping mechanism do you have for handling stress and keeping your day-to-day life organized?

Dressing Up the Dining Room

When we bought our castle a little over a year ago, we started in on the rooms that really needed our attention, like the living room with its cork walls. Other rooms, like the dining room with its white walls and un-carpeted floors, were left pretty much alone. We set up our table and chairs, brought in a lamp or two (as there was no overhead lighting) and called it a day.

Hoever, by the time January rolled around, we were pretty tired of the white walls, and were ready to start paying some attention to the previously neglected dining room.

Here's what the dining room looked like when we bought the house;

This is the only room that has the original crown moulding. The room also has all of the original window and door trim, as you can see in the pictures. What you can also see in the pictures is that the ceiling was several shades darker than the walls (good ol' smokers) , and what you can't see is the hole in the ceiling where an overhead light would go. The beautiful trimwork was completely overshadowed by the yucky ceiling overhead and the boring white walls.

So what, you asked, was the problem with this room? Well:

• Miniblinds on the windows


• Fugly, dirty area rug


• Boring white walls


• Stained ceiling


• No overhead light


• Stained, scarred wood flooring.

When you walk in the front door  you see the dining room on the right, and the living room on the left. So, naturally, we went with a similar palette in the dining room as in the living room. We chose a paint color two shades darker than the oyster we used in the living room, and went for a more dramatic blue as our accent color. Using the same color scheme, accent color and metallics (a deep gold) makes both rooms look cohesive and balanced.

This is what the dining room looks like currently;

Here's what we've accomplished in the dining room so far:

• Replaced miniblinds with silky curtains. I made these by adding brilliant blue Indian sari fabric to storebought gold drapes. The curtain rod is the same as the one in the living room.


• Painted the ceiling a clean and crisp white. (Note to self. Don't ever take up smoking. Second note to self; if first note is ignored, only smoke outside)


• Painted the walls "First Anniversary" This is actually the same color we used in our bedroom, but the color looks so much deeper in this room.


• Installed a ceiling fan with a light Yay for overhead lighting! Meals are so much nicer now that we can see our food. We found this fan on clearance at Sears for $30. Only problem was that it was a brushed nickel. So, we took it all apart and spray painted it a deep gold to go with the curtain rod.


• Hung a picture wall. Four out of the six pictures on the wall are ones that I have taken, I love how this turned out! The pictures are all either pictures we took on a trip somewhere, or suggest a "journey" which is the theme we were going for.

Still to do in this room;

• Replace plugs (3) on walls


• Refinish floors


• Tear out built-in desk and shelves and cabinet on wall opposite window.


• Paint wall opposite window. (Currently this wall is covered in more of the burlap stuff)

April 2009 Recap

• Increase emergency savings by $500 We're up to 76%
  
• Have a month's worth of expenses saved. We've got this up to 77%!
• Increase car fund by $1K My car went caput this week, so we are car shopping. But, that is what a car fund is for!
• Have a garage sale-ing fund for the summer months. I've saved a few dollars, and I still have a month before there are really a lot of sales.
• Go camping. We've set the dates for a few weekend camping trips, I am so looking forward to this!
• Throw 2-3 good parties We've set the date for Culoare Zi 2009, and we've have the menu planned. Yay!
• Plant a vegetable garden The seedlings are growing up quickly, and there's just a few more weeks before we get them growing in the ground!
  
• Read 12 non-fiction books this year. I've read Passionate Housewives Desperate for God and Behind the Ranges Currently reading two others.

That's it for this month. I think we did pretty good since we weren't here for two weeks, and I spent a week at the hospital with my grandma. (She's better!) We'll see what May brings!