Worked at the consignment store today...tuckered out!

But I did stop at the Dollar store on my way home and picked up a few things.  I went there for some honey and Febreze air fresheners and look what I came out with!  Oh, I did get what I went in for too and then some.

 

Aren't these too cute?  I seem to be into "pretty pottery" these days.  When I repotted my plants I realized I just use the same old clay pots and after seeing some of my blogger friends homes I saw their pretty planters and decided to "gussy up" mine too.  Can you believe this is the Dollar Store.....movin' on up just like the Jeffersons!  Oh!  And I got that rug too for the back door on the porch....it's pretty cheap but I love the colors and it's for the dogs to wipe their paws on which I can never seem to get them to do!  What's up with that?  

 

And will you look at these?  Little bright colored Wellies!  I tried to decide which color I wanted but couldn't make up my mind so I just got both of them! LOL!   My plants are going to be so happy to be dressed up for a change.  Don't tell them....I want it to be a surprise!

And last but not least...and I may have to go back and get more of these! Tee Hee!

Isn't this the bomb?  A red metal tub!  Doesn't it look like it's levitating on that rug or am I just that tired?  It really looks like it's floating above it but I swear...it's not.  It must have something to do with the geometric squares or there's something in this hot cider I'm drinking! LOL!

Well, I'm going to get a fire going in the fire place, get my jammies on and rustle up some grub for me and the girls.  I'll post the before and after of the kitchen cupboards, or part of them, tomorrow.  Tonight it's kick back and knit and stay warm.  Winter has finally arrived in the Ozarks and there's a bitter wind with it and an ice storm predicted for Monday so tomorrow will be gathering more kindling and getting more wood in from the wood pile.  Stay warm and have a nice cozy evening...I plan on it!  

Cleaning cupboards and TRYING to get organized!

Well, I started last night and I'm back at it.  I had to run some errands this morning and now I have the WHOLE HOUSE torn up....well, not really but when you clean cupboards it seems one thing leads to another!  I did manage to get the metal shelf unit onto the porch and got some things out of my cupboards that I don't use all the time and that were taking up valuable kitchen real estate.  The food items are "backups" and items that won't be affected by heat or cold hopefully.

 

After that, it cleared up some space in my "pantry" unit in the  garage which is right outside my kitchen door on the steps down to the garage.  So, then I cleaned that and in both places I STILL have room left over!  Yippe!  Yahoo!  Don't worry...I'll fill it up I'm sure. 

This is the top 2 shelves of the "pantry" in the garage. The top has bleach, ammonia, and water. My kitchen door is directly to the right and I am standing on the stairs leaning up against the opposite wall to take this picture.  That shelf is not bowed like that but for some reason it looks it in the picture.

The bottom 2 shelves above have my floor/carpet cleaning and laundry detergent making supplies.

  And will you "looky there".....an empty shelf! 

 Now, I've started on the kitchen cupboards but I work tomorrow at the consignment store so didn't I tell you....I'll have to leave with the kitchen all torn up but I'm making progress!!!!  Can't fault a girl for that!  Tomorrow I'll have before and afters of the cupboards.  I got smart after I started this post.  Have a great one!

Not feeling too well today..........

   I refuse to say I am sick although I have all the symptoms! LOL!  But I will not give in or give up!  I was pretty slow this morning and took lots of breaks but I'm feeling perkier tonight for some reason.  Maybe it was the green tea I kept imbibing all day or just looking around at all I had to do.  Anyway, I went out on my unheated (presently although it has a heater that I refuse to run)  porch which has become a "catch-all" and tried to do a little organizing and clearing out.  Also, this is my "giant" cold frame when I garden before I plant  the seedlings outside.   Oh, notice my great curtains?  They are everything and anything I could gather up and clip on to tension rods with clothespins! LOL!  I was desperate as I felt like I was in a fishbowl out there at night especially.  It is 3 walls of windows and in the summer when I crank them all open it's nice but it gets lots of western sun in the afternoon too and can get pretty hot out there thus....the "curtains".  Someday I'll sew matching ones when I can afford that much material all at once! Ha! Ha!

This is a cathedral bookcase that has shingled sides and twig molding on the sides and fronts of the shelves.  It was so different and the price was right so I bought it.  It has "country blue" shelves which is my least favorite color.  I think i got so tired of it because there was so much of it at one time everywhere.  I was going to paint it but of course that never happened!  I store my cleaned, empty wine bottles down there on the bottom right as I plan on making wine someday.  There are 2 metal dishes filled with shells from my adventures in Mexico and Belize years ago, clean empty jars that I use for all sorts of things around here and on the top shelf there's birdseed and the hummingbird feeders that are ready to use this Spring again.  On the left, second shelf from the bottom there's a ceramic sunflower bird feeder (laying down) that my Aunt Alice made several years back.  She was a favorite Aunt (as they all were) and I cherish it along with many other things she made.  All my Aunts are gone...all my relatives are gone except for 2 cousins and their families ie; all the people from the generation above me have all passed.  You know what that means don't you?  I'm next! LOL!

 Lots of the things on this porch are things that need to be fixed, or painted or DIY'ed in some fashion or just waiting to be re-purposed.  Below is a prime example.  The cupboard needs to be "hung" somewhere (on the farm it hung in my kitchen).  The doors need to be fixed as they're falling off if you open it and since I live alone there is no one to hold things for me while I try and hang them.....mirrors, shelves, cupboards.  I might have to hire a handy man just to help me get this stuff off the floor!   The jars hold seeds I collected last Fall.

Here's a little etagere' that folds up and has 3 shelves and some apple ceramic tiles on the back which you can't see because of the flower arrangement there.  My daughter made that for me and it used to sit on my dining room table until I started using it as a sewing table! Ha! Ha!  I have some miscellaneous pots and buckets and decorations for the yard there.  I'm think I might drag it into my kitchen though.  I could use shelves in there and it would go with my apple rugs.  It's dark green metal.  On the farm I used to have it on my screened-in front porch with plants on it.

So, I think I'll make some more green tea and get my "jammies" on and settle in and crochet as I'm starting to feel pretty "tuckered out" now.  Have a nice, cozy evening!

"I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date"!

I need to get my seeds ordered!!!!  If you start your plants from seeds now is the time for many of them to be started indoors and some needed to be started in January.  This is the R. H. Shumway seed catalog.  It's as pretty on the inside as it is on the outside and they have been family owned for the last 142 years!  They are out of Randolph, Wisconsin. 

Here are a few others.  Another beautiful and heritage seed catalog that I love is from Baker Seeds out of Missouri but I didn't receive it this year so I'll have to order from it online.  Of course there are many more wonderful seed companies besides these. 
I am doing something different this year which makes garden planning SO EASY and succession planting, which I never seem to get a good handle on.  It is Mother Earth News Garden Planner  accessible from their website  Mother Earth News 

Just do a search when you get there for "garden planner".  It is free for the first month and you can print off your plan and then if you want to continue you can purchase it for $25.00 a year but it is SO much more than a garden planner.  Here's a peek!

There's a video to show you how to use it and what it's capable of which is A LOT, much more than I can show you here.

Here's one of my little raised beds for example.  Below, you can click on "i" for information on specific plants and here is showing only about half of the information...you can scroll down on that window for Apple tree and there's lots more info!  The garden planner includes fruit trees and bushes in addition to vegetables and flowers.

This is my favorite part!  Based on your frost start and end dates, it tells you when to start inside, when to plant outside and when to harvest.  It also lets you know when you need to rotate certain plants year to year and where and when to plant your succession crops.  It's AMAZING!!!!!  I've had other garden planners both paper and software and this one is the best for the price that I have ever seen!   Thank you Mother Earth News!!!  Their magazine is only $10.00 a year and their website has so much free information it's mind-boggling!  No, I get nothing for saying all this but I have subscribed to their magazine for years and it's one of the few magazines that I will not cancel!  I hope this information is helpful to you gardeners out there.  I always like to share information about products and items that help me in my life.

 

Wal-Mart had some goodies for me!

I found a whole slew of great magazines at Wal-Mart yesterday.  My nemesis, along with books, old furniture, junk, etc.  Here's what I "snagged" on my shopping trip.

 

Doesn't this look interesting?  I love "old" anything...maybe because  I'm getting there! LOL!  It brings back memories of people and places which are no longer around....along with "lost recipes".  This is a special publication by America's Test Kitchens which have a show on PBS and always do a bang-up job in my opinion.

Another "special" publication, this one from Martha Stewart...the Queen of organization and couldn't I use a little help in that area!

I'm not much of a "romantic" but this one said country which is what I'm all about!  It also had an article on stenciling as an accent and had the catch words...flea market, farmhouse and garden which caught my attention!

I used to subscribe to this awhile back and they always have the cutest potting sheds on the front.  It's a great magazine but I had plenty of them I hadn't even read so I canceled my subscription.  The Vintage Bag Lady
posted this the other day but when I saw it in the store I noticed it had an article on the cottage gardens of Beatrix Potter!  That sold me...I had to have it as I LOVE Beatrix Potter!

 I canceled this subscription also but I could kick myself because every time I see it in the store I end up buying it because I love it so.  I was very intrigued by the article on selling homemade food without a commercial kitchen but after reading the article last night, you are limited in what you can sell and how.  But it is still a great magazine.

 Of course, I had to wander over to the garden section and I was actually looking to see if they had a raised bed kit like the one I bought last year.  It was $30.00 and terracotta colored plastic and you can make it bigger or just have more if you buy additional kits ie; they'll hook together.   I wasn't going to buy one yesterday but I wanted to see if they were still carrying them and if they were in the store yet and they were and for the same price as last year.  Meanwhile, I spotted some ceramic pots that I thought were cute and brightly colored!   They reminded me of my girl, Mary Engelbreit so I had to get them.

  I also spotted this little cutie!  On this one it was the checkered rim that got me!

 Well of course, I had to get some plants to go in them!  But I lucked out as these were $4.00  marked down to $2.00 and 2 of them had those cute little metal tins with them which I can use for something else.  By the time I got home I was exhausted from walking around Wally World for hours. I got a ton...literally...of groceries too while I was there.  Seemed like I was out of everything and I had to stop at the hardware store too.  Then I had to unload it all from the car and put it all away.  I was a tired buckaroo!

Whoopie! Whoopie! Whoopie!

Whoopie pies that is. I got the idea from Cherry Chick 
the other day when she posted some.  She did not include the recipe though so I went to www.allrecipes.com
(my favorite recipe site!) where I found a recipe that was highly rated for them.  Don't make these if you don't have any time to spare because they take time.  But they are delicious!  I'd never made them before.  There was a recipe on Food Network too but it called for shortening in the filling and I wasn't too crazy about that idea.

BTW...it wasn't just me that liked them.  I gave them out to friends too and they loved them! 
You could dress these up for Valentine"s Day too by dyeing the filling pink or decorating the top with something.  As you can tell.....they're going fast!
I'm off to Wally World today to get groceries and some items for future projects so stay tuned!  It's going to be a great week!

Craft Group met today...............

Happy Superbowl Sunday to all!  Go BEARS!!!!!!  Oh...they're not playing, I forgot...Darn it!  Oh well...maybe next year????  A girl can hope and pray and hope and pray and hope and pray.
Okay...enough about Da Bears.
We haven't had craft group for 2 weeks so it was great to get together again!  We laugh and eat and ...oh yeah....we work on our projects, almost forgot about that part.  I forgot to take pictures again!  I think I'm brain dead or it could just be sinuses...I'm hoping sinuses.  Next week for sure!(Excuse the font issue...not sure what's going on here but evidently I have no control over it!)
Karrie..you asked what I'm knitting....here goes...mittens for the Jolly Green Giant!

Told you!  No, actually it is one of a pair of oven mitts that will be felted (shrunk in washer since it is wool yarn).  That is my glove next to it so you can see how big it is.  I've only made a few scarves and then this so I am a fairly new knitter.  This is my first project using circular needles too and a few other techniques I've never done.  Thank goodness I have a great instructor or I would have quit a while back! LOL!  But I'm really not a quitter but I'm certainly not much of a knitter either...I guess you could say I'm not a "quitter knitter"!  Ha! Ha!  I was going to felt the first oven mitt after I finished it but thought I would wait so I can sort of gauge the other one to the same size, as my tension is better on the second one.

Here's what I worked on today at Crafts Group.....

If it looks familiar it's because it is....the other oven mitt.  I like things in pairs.  Plus, I have 2 hands so I thought 2 oven mitts would be appropriate.  But I can see the issue with the "2nd sock syndrome" as once I finished the first mitt it wasn't easy to start all over again with a second one as opposed to wanting to start a whole new project.  I just have to tell myself that 2 oven mitts ARE a project so it's not really finished until I get both of them done.  Sounds good....hope I've convinced myself.
Now you've also heard me say I am not a girly-girl and I'm not but I get a kick out of some girly things and one is some of the neat nail polishes they have on the market today.  I think they're fun and though I have no nails to speak of I wanted to try this polish.  The pictures are poor but it's the best I could do.  PLEASE...someone...., point me in the right direction for a digital camera, blog photo tutorial!  I need one badly!

 

See the pretty sparkles?  It has glitter and different colored hearts in it!  It's so pretty.  I couldn't resist!  The first one I looked at though was an OPI polish for multiple dollars which I didn't want to pay as this is just for fun and it will probably dry up before I use it all.  So, I looked around and they had the cheap stuff for $1.95....now that's my kind of price!  The only problem is, even if I shake it well I don't get a lot of the glitter or hearts to come out but I'm thinking that as I use more and more of it they will...maybe.  But it's cute and fun and I like it and in my little world that's all that counts! LOL!

 Oh!  there's a heart....see it?  I snagged one!

Oh!!!  See the glitter...it looks MUCH better in person, trust me!  Not the nails but the polish! LOL!
I am truly blessed as it takes very little to make me happy!  Today it only took $1.95 worth of nail polish.  Although I must admit some days are pricier than others! LOL!  Have a great Superbowl Sunday!