The Life of a Housewife

UPDATE: How Grey's Anatomy Saved My Baby. Theoretically.

2012-01-23T10:14:00.000-08:00

Not theoretically....and make that babies. TWO days after I anchored these to the wall I took this picture.

How Grey's Anatomy Saved My Baby. Theoretically.

2012-01-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

I apologize in advance for the terrible pictures. I decided at the last minute of my little project that this would make a good blog post, but I didn't want to wait for the camera battery to charge.

This whole thing started because I may or may not have a slight addiction to Grey's Anatomy. I jumped on the band wagon about oh, seven years after the rest of the world did, but that's usually how it goes with me and the new-fangled moving picture box stories. Yesterday I was watching Grey's, and the episode was about Bailey's son, who is about the same age as my William, climbing up a bookcase, and knocking it over on himself. This caused severe internal injuries. It thoroughly freaked me out because I was having visions of little William doing the exact same thing. He is definitely a climber, and is 1, and a little boy, and is a little dumb when it comes to knowing what will and what won't hurt him. He's also my kid, and I'm a little special that way too...even though I'm not 1. Or a little boy. After seeing this episode I decided that something must be done.

I stopped at Osh on my way to the gym and went to the child safety section to get one of the furniture tie down thingies that I'd seen before. I found these, but I wasn't impressed. It said something about on the back about not leaving the child unsupervised in the room wherever you're using this, and that just isn't very realistic around here. I wanted something that made the bookshelves rather stuck. Besides, these were about $6 bucks, and I needed 6 of them. I then headed to the hardware section, because I had a better idea. I picked up a couple of boxes or corner brackets ( 8 for $5), and some dry wall anchors that will hold up to 50lbs. This morning I secured those suckers to the wall.

We have two bookshelves next to each other, so this is showing the inside corners of them. I put one of these on each corner. I'm pretty sure I could climb up those things and they wouldn't go anywhere, so if William tries something, he'd be more likely to break a shelf in half than to pull the whole thing down on him.

I have stuff on top of the bookcases anyways, so you can't even tell that they're there. I feel much better now knowing that I won't have a real-life Grey's Anatomy episode in my living room.

New Brahm Family Tradition

2011-11-24T10:29:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Yesterday I decided that I wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Thanksgiving. I'm thinkin' new tradition. I mean, my kids might not actually be mine if they didn't like cinnamon rolls. I'm a fat kid at heart. Really, I am. After my spur of the moment Brahm Family Tradition making, I started scouring the internet for an amazing recipe. Well, I found it, so here I am, after eating my second one, (See, told you- fat kid.) to share the yumminess with you all. I found this recipe, and really only decided on this one because I was curious about the whole potato thing. I mean really, who puts potatoes in cinnamon rolls? Apparently I do. Always. Forever and ever I will put potatoes in my cinnamon rolls. Next time I'm thinking of trying more of a cream cheese type frosting, but the frosting (or glaze, whatever) in this recipe is just peachy. (Or sugary, really.)

Classic Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Rolls:
1 cup mashed potatoes
1 cup reserved potato water
3/4 cup butter OR margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup hot water
2 envelopes Fleishmann's® Active Dry Yeast
1/2 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees F)
2 eggs
8 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, or more if needed
Filling:
1/2 cup butter OR margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Spice Islands® Ground Saigon Cinnamon
Icing:
3 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons butter OR margarine, softened
1 teaspoon Spice Islands® 100% Pure Bourbon Vanilla Extract
5 tablespoons milk, or more as needed

Directions

Combine potatoes, potato water, butter, sugar, salt and hot water in large mixing bowl. Stir until butter melts; set aside and let cool. Combine yeast and 1/2 cup warm water in small bowl. Let rest 5 minutes. Add eggs, 2 cups flour and yeast mixture to potato mixture. Beat until well mixed. Continue adding flour, 1 cup at a time until soft dough forms.
Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic (about 4 to 6 minutes), OR knead with electric mixer using dough hook. Place in a greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover.
Let rise in a warm, draft free area about 1 hour, until doubled in size. Punch dough down; divide in half.
Roll one portion of dough on a lightly floured surface to a 12 x 18-inch rectangle. Spread with half the butter. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle half of the mixture over surface. Roll up tightly lengthwise, sealing edges. Cut into 12 slices. Place in greased 13 x 9-inch pan. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover.
Let rise 30 to 45 minutes until nearly doubled.
Bake in preheated 350 degrees F oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
Cool for 15 minutes. Combine icing ingredients and drizzle over rolls.
Makes 24 rolls.

Footnotes

2 medium potatoes yield about 1 cup mashed potatoes.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 404 | Total Fat: 13.5g | Cholesterol: 51mg

Entry re-do. Or really just "Entry Do."

2011-11-07T13:20:00.000-08:00

Since we moved into our house a year ago, I've been wanting to do something with our entryway. You know, like make it look like an actual entryway and not just a short hallway with a door at the end? Plan A was to do board and batten, but I couldn't get away with just doing the batten and painting it white since our walls are textured and that would just look weird. Plan B was beadboard, which I still might do someday, but I wanted something cheaper and easier for now.

A couple weeks ago The Lovely Neighbor Jan and I went to Urban Salvage in downtown Fresno, which is by the way, my new favorite place, and along with a few other things, some of which I have no idea what I'm going to do with, I picked up two sets of shutters. I've been looking for old (cheap) shutters for a year. These, were $2 a pair. SCORE! After bringing them home, I decided that I finally knew what I wanted to do with the entry. Turns out, that one pair of shutters matched the height of an old window I had sitting in a closet. The window used to be in our guest bathroom, but I'd replaced it with something else a little while ago. I painted the window a cream color with some $2 ReStore paint from my paint stash, and then used a dark walnut glaze over it to age it a little bit. The bottom pane used to be a mirror, and the top was just a regular window, but I wanted something a little more functional for an entry so I put the mirror on top, and painted the bottom glass with chalkboard paint. I'd planned on not doing anything with the shutters, but after I got them up, they just didn't look right, so I dry brushed them with some of the leftover grey/blue paint from our bedroom.

The coat hooks I made out of some scrap wood I had in the garage that had come off of a pallet I'd found in a dumpster. In the process of making these I learned how to put in a new blade on a circular saw, and how to use a circular saw. I am woman, hear me roar. Again, I painted them with ReStore paint from my stash. The actual coat hooks I picked up from Lowes for $4 a piece. They're in the doorknob aisle, in case you're ever looking for them. Took me about 20 minutes to figure that one out. Fun fact: The hooks in the bathroom aisle cost 3 times as much as the hooks in the doorknob aisle. (Ok, not fun fact. Just an irritating fact.)

I saw a picture somewhere on Pretty Handy Girl's blog of some similar coat hooks that she'd made and adapted it to what would work for us. Her version had a lot more scrap pieces of wood put together with several hooks. I wanted ours to frame the window, and also have some hooks low enough for the kids to reach by themselves, so I made four individual coat hooks.

The garland came from my bookshelf. I think I've finally found a permanent home for that thing. At least until I decorate for Christmas...

The "Family" thing I found on Pinterest. Well, sort of. They used yarn, I used twine, 'cause I just love twine.

Source: cfabbridesigns.com via Hannah on Pinterest

I wish I had a before picture of the entry, but really, there was nothing, so just close your eyes and pretend like the inside of your eyelids are a light grey/blue color, and you'll get the idea.

Why I've been gone

2011-10-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

With this post the world will see just how obsessive I can get when I want something done. I get a little nuts. Just ask Husband. Our yard was a mess. Last winter it looked okay because of all the rain, but it wasn't anything to write home about. The grass was green, and that really was about it. Then spring and summer happened, and without working sprinklers the grass died. It was really really dead. The weather recently got cooler, so I set out to fix the sprinklers. With the help of The Lovely (and knowledgeable) Neighbor Jan, I'm now an expert on most things sprinklers. I fixed all the broken sprinklers and pipe, then went on Sprinkler Search 2011 to find all the sprinkler heads that were broken and/or buried so far underground that the water pressure wasn't making them show themselves. After finding all the sprinklers, I realized that I still wasn't getting the coverage that I wanted, so then I set out to put more sprinklers in.

Lots of these were dug. I ended up laying a little over 50' of PVC.

Now we have good coverage. I put in 5 new ones on this side of the house where there were none, and 2 more in the main part of the backyard where sprinkle was lacking.

Next I started in on the oleander bushes. ALL of them. We have about 8 of them, I think, and they're all enormous. Well, they were.

Now they're a little more tree like, and they're about to bloom again, so I'm kinda looking forward to that.

Here's the evidence of my labors. All this is hanging out in the little strip of no-man's-land on one side of the house.

I noticed pretty soon after I was done hacking those up, that some flowerbeds would be nice....

....all the way around the yard. I'm about 3/4 of the way done.

This is where I stopped. For now. Until later today.

Problem was, that after I loosened up the dirt next to the fence, then the dog next door (Not The Lovely Neighbor Jan's dog) started digging under our fence to come visit Bob. That was frustrating, but it wasn't a HUGE problem until I got out of the shower yesterday and the dog had come THROUGH our screen door, pooed in our living room, and was in the hallway to greet me. That was it.

Last night I put down 15 12x12x1 pavers just below the surface of the dirt. That dog isn't coming through there no way no how. That's Bob, by the way. Not Neighbor Dog. Neighbor Dog will never be seen on this side of the fence. Ever.

Now I'll show you some of the planting I've done.

Here next to the patio I've planted a new white rose bush, several garden mums, an aster, and some other thing that's pink that I found on clearance. Farther around the side of the house are two more rose bushes, a lavender one, and a red one. I've also planted some morning glories up against the side of the house, near the lavender roses, but I'm not sure if they're gonna pop up or not.

See! White rose is about to bloom!

I also made a big pot out of pavers and put a delphinium in it.

Around the side of the house I planted some calla lilies.

Noah also helped me plant some early snow glories, and wild tulips that hopefully will come up in the spring.

This is my new baby lemon tree. I'm excited about this.

Now to the front yard.

This is half of the shared yard between The Lovely Neighbor Jan and I. She planted all the stuff here. The only contributions I've made to this side is cleaning and sealing the wagon thing, and painting the little girl. Well, there's one other thing, but I'll get to that in a little bit. Lovely Neighbor Jan has planted broccoli, cabbage, mums, begonias, day lilies, and some other stuff that I don't know what the names are. I do have some garlic that I'm going to plant here, I just haven't done it yet.

A close up of the little garden girl.

This is my other contribution. I started some morning glories and moon flowers from seed and then planted them out by the fence. Since we're both cheap, instead of buying a trellis or something for them to climb, I just put some fishing line up for them with a few nails.

My side of the yard isn't so pretty, but that's mostly because everything is still young and small. The Lovely Jan gave me lots of stuff to put over here. (Free!!!) I've planted morning glories, moon flowers, day lilies, elephant ears, society garlic, early snow glories, daffodils, poppies, mums, and Japanese fountain grass. The rose here has a bunch of new growth and lots of buds on it that I'm excited about. I've only ever seen one blossom on this thing. I feel like I almost know how to take care of it now.

Noah likes to hide behind all the bushes while I'm working in the garden. :)

I also found some of these things on clearance. They're supposed to grow ridiculously fast and hopefully will cover up this stupid sliver of ugly next to our sidewalk.

I also fixed all the sprinklers in the front yard, so our tree has been watered and is about to bloom! Yay!

Happy fall everyone!

Mmmm...Potato Soup

2011-10-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

This is the best potato soup I've ever had. This soup is a big reason that I look forward to cooler weather. It'd probably be good no matter what time of year it is, but I'm a little weird about soup in the summer. Just can't do it. I made this for lunch today and thought I should share the love. Noah has loved this soup since he was just a baby, but he never remembers it since I only make it in the fall and winter. This year, since he's talking more, he's dubbed it "New Soup." He ate it with a piece of butter bread in one hand to dip with, and a spoon in the other hand to eat with between dips. That's my boy. :D Without further adieu, the Cheesiest Potato Soup recipe.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup diced onion
2 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 3/4 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (I double)
1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Directions

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Cook onion in butter until softened. Stir in potatoes and broth, bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
Puree potato mixture in a blender or food processor or using an immersion blender; return to pot over medium heat. Stir in cream, cheese, dill, pepper, salt and cayenne. Bring to a low boil and cook, stirring, until thickened, 5 minutes.

I'm still alive...really, I am

2011-10-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

The last month or so has been busy around here. Not so much because of running around with the kiddos, but because of all the projects I've been into. It has cooled down a little bit here, so I've been able to spend more time (comfortably) outside, which has been fun. I've always loved to be outside, and thankfully, the little boys do too.

Since it's cooled off, and the plants around here have decided to show small signs of life, I've decided to take on putting in flower beds and fixing all the sprinklers in the backyard. The sprinkler project turned out to be more of a "if you give a mouse a cookie" type of thing, because to get to the shrub sprinklers repaired meant I had to cut back all the shrubs...of which there are many that look like they haven't been touched in years. Then we had Sprinkler Search 2011 where I ended up following the PVC underground to see if there were sprinklers that had been covered up by dirt. I ended up finding two, but still wasn't quite getting the coverage I wanted, so after getting all of the sprinklers repaired, I put in almost 40' of PVC pipe and put in 4 new sprinklers off of the existing lines. I still need to put in two more, but I ran out of pipe. Bummer. Until I make it out to get more, I'm stuck.

My neighbor has been helping with all of this because she's awesome like that. She's also teaching me how to garden. It's been...about 3 weeks since she helped me put in a flower bed, and, knock-on-wood, I haven't killed anything yet. I think some of the mums might be on their way out, but there's still hope, right? Just the yellow ones though- the white ones are doing just fine for some reason.

I've also started working on a Master Bedroom make-over. I'm about half way done with that as I'm doing it in phases so that I don't have to dish out all the moo-la at once.

All this along with cooking, cleaning, and attempting to keep up with laundry, and everyone being sick for two weeks has kept me away from the blog for awhile, but soon, I promise, I'll take pictures of the madness and give you all a real update. Until then, cheerio!

Full Housewifery Disclosure

2011-08-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

Today at Life of a Housewife, I'll be letting you in on a few embarrassing secrets. First off, on my drivers license, it says I'm 5' 3." I'm not actually 5' 3," but 5' 2.75." Secondly, I occasionally use my lack of height to uh...well, you could say, play dumb. My mom is also short, and also used to occasionally play dumb. For her, it was the top of the refrigerator. Who knew what was up there, but she couldn't see it, (and neither could I, for all that goes,) so what she didn't know, couldn't hurt her. We keep our refrigerator pretty much cleared off, but I have my own version of her refrigerator.

I've mentioned in previous posts that our house is a little...uh, quirky. Well, part of that quirkiness is this little ledge thing that's above the oven. I understand why it's there, but I don't understand why it's there. If that makes sense. This ledge, is my refrigerator. The picture above is taken exactly from my eye level. See, I have no idea what's up there. Every once in awhile, I'll think that maybe I should actually drag a chair over to see what's up there, but then I think, "Do I really want to know?" and never do it. Well, ladies and gentlemen, today was the day. I gathered up the courage to stand up on a chair and see what everyone over eh, 5' 5" has seen for oh, about 9 months....but who's counting? Let me tell you, it was not pretty. Ready? Brace yourselves....

Ahhhhh!!!!!! The horrors! To think of all the people that have come over to our house and seen this. Ick. Sorry, everyone! I don't even know what all was up there, but I'm pretty sure it'd been up there for years. It was, shall we say, gooey, with a little bit of fuzz. Kinda like a rotten peach mixed with tar. Oh, and it smelled a little funky too. Although, come to think of it, so would a rotten peach mixed with tar, so we'll just stick with that description. While Noah was playing, and William was exploring the kitchen, I went ahead and grabbed my spray bottle of water/vinegar, my new-found love, and went to town. I even brought out the big guns, aka baking soda, for this one. Twenty minutes of scrubbing, a little vacuuming with my Dust-Buster, and it was all clean.

Ta-da! Not even a hint of grey....or fuzz. Then it was time to clean up, which brings me to the next part of the story. Last week we went on a little excursion to Target to pick up a spray bottle. I, being the Best Mommy Ever, complete with the cape, grabbed an extra spray bottle because I knew Noah would like to play with it. It holds more water than a squirt gun, and sprays farther than most the ones that he could use anyways.

This is my spray bottle with the vinegar/water solution in it. Apparently, while I was scrubbing away on my perch, Noah was paying very close attention to what I was doing, and when I went into the living room, I found this.

I couldn't help but laugh...and grab the camera. :D He must have thought the ottoman/toy boxwas dirty. He's got his spray bottle, just like mine, he managed to swipe the baking soda when I wasn't looking, and he had the Dust Buster, which I did give to him, because he's not old enough to know that he's not supposed to like vacuuming.

This just made me laugh even more. :)

Now you all know my secrets- I'm not actually 5' 3," I play dumb occasionally, and I don't hover over my kids ever second of every day.

If you give a mouse a cookie... (or a light fixture)

2011-08-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

Since we moved in to our house, I've wanted to replace the light fixture above our kitchen sink. It would be fine if say, it were still 1980, but (thankfully) it's not. My neighbor confirmed for me today that it is in fact the original fixture, only, it was an upgrade, because hers was just a plain white milkglass, and mine was textured. Wooooooo-wheeee! If I were to try to sell it today, the I would describe it as "art-deco" code word for "ugly." (Sorry all of you art-deco lovers out there. I just don't get it.)

Back to the story. I've been wanting to upgrade it to a pendant light, but didn't want to dish out the moo-la for it. Instead, I've been checking the Habitat Re-Store hoping to find one there. This last trip, I found one! One I actually liked too. Only the mounting plate was missing. I figured I cou go next door to Lowes, and pick one up for a couple bucks, so I went ahead and bought it. I thought wrong.

You see, the light fixture manufacturer hates me. This particular pendant light, is hung on the mounting plate from the sides of the canopy, which means that it needs a special mounting plate. Grrr... While waiting (...and waiting...and waiting.....) for someone at Lowes to help me, I happened to notice in the clearance section that there was a light similar to mine, that had the mounting plate that I needed. Not cool man, not cool- having what I need, but attached to something I don't. When Mr. Lowes Helper Guy told me that he didn't have anything like what I needed, and didn't know where I could get one, I showed him the plate attached to the clearance light that I'd found to explain to him that that is what I need. Mr. Lowes Helper Guy then told me that since I only needed the mounting plate, and not the whole fixture, he could mark down the clearance light from the $13.99 that is was priced at, to just a couple bucks, just for me, and that's exactly what he did.

I thought that now I'd be all set to put up my new lamp. How wrong I was. After taking down my old light, I discovered that the old electrical box in my ceiling was no longer completely in the ceiling. It was hanging out past the ceiling by about 3/4 of an inch, which meant that putting up my light had to wait yet another day.

Yesterday, on my way to the gym, I stopped at OSH (my favorite of the three home-improvement stores because I never have to hunt down a Mr. Helper Guy- they (plural) come to me) to pick up an old work box for the ceiling, and then this morning while William took his morning nap, I put it in, and finally got to put up my new light.

This is what is left of the old box. I broke it out with pliers because that's how I roll. There's probably a better way to do it, but I have, at this point, a limited number of tools, so this is how I do it. Don't worry, I wore gloves since there was insulation falling out of the ceiling. Into my sink.

The new box all put in and flush with the ceiling. Imagine that! As you can see, the ceiling still needs some work. The old light fixture had damaged the ceiling, so I patched that already, but now I need to patch around the box and do the whole spray-the-texture-stuff thing to make it all blend in before I paint it. Oh, and I need to get paint. Minor detail.

The new light, all semi-flush like it's supposed to be. Just think how much better it'll look once I finish painting around the canopy? I left the tag on so that I know what kind of light bulb to get, but after I get one, it'll be coming off. Next kitchen project- painting the cabinets. I'm thinking fall would be a good time for that. You know, when it's below 100 degrees?

Oh, how I love thee

2011-08-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

This little shelf started out in the garbage one Saturday morning, only to be put out at a yardsale later that day to see if anyone wanted her. I drove by that particular yardsale, and stopped ONLY because I saw this lonely little shelf leaned up against the house. That's how this shelf ended up coming home with me. I've been excited about this one, but obviously not excited enough to actually take pictures of it and put it up for sale. Maybe I subconsciously wanted to keep it, for no other reason than to just look at the knob on it. I love the knob on it. Tonight was the night however, that I took pictures, and put it up for sale. This is the shelf that is the button to my Etsy Store ( The Shabby Corner) up there on the right. I like it so much, it's there always on my blog. Now for the unveiling-

A Letter of Apology

2011-08-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Vinegar,

I feel that I owe you my deep and sincerest apologies. All these years, I've severely underestimated you. I have to admit, I'd heard others talk about you, and your amazing cleaning abilities, but I secretly thought to myself, "Why would all these companies make cleaning products, if all you had to use was vinegar?" Now I know- those products are for the idiots like me. Countless times, I've reached past you to grab my beloved all-purpose cleaner, only to be left frustrated when it would leave me wanting more. Now I know I should have wrapped my hand around YOUR bottle.

You know I love you. While all the other little kids in Subway would order their Kids Meals by saying, "Mayo and extra cheese, please!" and grabbed the bag of BBQ chips, I was the one saying "oil, and extra vinegar, please!" before eagerly grabbing my favorite blue bag full of salt and vinegar goodness. All my pregnancies, you called my name, and I kept you nearby to comfort me in my time of need.

Through all of that, I still never let you live up to your full potential in my life, and for that, I am truly and deeply sorry. I hope you can forgive me, even after all these years have gone by.

Humbly and apologetically yours,

Hannah

Cheapest Wall "Art" Ever.

2011-07-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

Once again, I kinda forgot that I had a blog when I went to start this project, and didn't take a before picture. Oh well, just imagine a bunch of empty space above our couch. It shouldn't be that hard, if you have just a teensy bit of imagination.

All five of you that follow my pinterest probably saw me pin something similar to this a little while ago. That was actually the same day that I did this little project, but I've been putting off taking pictures of it. All two of them. What are those little things on the wall, you ask? (Hopefully you're just thinking it, and not actually asking out loud, because that would be just a little weird. Not that I don't talk to myself a daily (minutely) basis, but I'm just sayin'....a little weird.)

Those little flower shaped objects are made out of coffee filters, and paper towels....dipped in coffee. Lots of coffee was involved, as was a little cutting, twisting, and taping.

The big splurge on this project was the double stick tape, which I already had, so I guess it wasn't really a splurge. It was a splurge for another project, but I didn't end up using any of it. Oh well, maybe it was fate. The decor gods just knew I was going to want to attach a paper towel to a wall in the near future. Yep, that's it.

New Fruit Bowl

2011-07-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

I live a block away from a Target. Problem with living a block away from a Target is that anytime you need a little something, you can just walk (or drive, who are we kidding) over to Target to pick up whatever you need, and of course a little extra, because it's Target. A week ago I needed to get diapers for a baby, or pickles, or maybe it was a light bulb, who knows, but whatever it was, instead of going straight to the light bulb aisle, I had to go check out the "value section," 'cause I'm all about the values. There, sitting up on the top shelf, was this bowl. Well, not JUST this bowl, there were several of them, but this bowl was lucky enough to get to come home with me and get a makeover. Upon arriving to it's new home, it got a couple coats of chalkboard paint on it, and someday, will get some fruit in it. (Why am I getting flashbacks to lessons about prepositions?) After I talk myself into going to the grocery store, or the farmers market, or somewhere that has fruit, we'll actually get to that last step, but for the moment, all of the fruit is in the freezer, and it would probably get pretty messy if I took all that out to put in my new bowl. First of all, because it's a heck of a lot of fruit, and also, because frozen fruit is always messy when it's thawed out, which is why I make smoothies out of it, and don't ever actually thaw it out. Since this post was supposed to be about my new fruit bowl, and not about my fruit thawing habits, I think it's time for me to stop typing. It's also time to stop typing because my two-year-old is eyeing my big glass of iced coffee, and that would be bad if he decided to partake.

Tour Of Our Bookshelves

2011-07-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I recently moved our living room. The 100+ degree summer temperatures were heating up our old living room, and the air conditioner just wasn't cutting it. Probably has something to do with those vaulted ceilings, or maybe it's the giant windows, or maybe the SINGLE VENT. No, that couldn't be it. Anyways, a few weeks ago I decided that I'd had it up to here with the heat, and moved the living room into the room that we hadn't really done anything with. Our house is an older house, and has what I think is supposed to be a family room, and a den. Our plan was to turn the extra room into a music room someday, but since we can't afford to buy a piano right now, it was just sitting empty. Except for a drum set. The drum set has been moved, by the way. Someday I'll take pictures of that, (the living room, not the drum set,) but you don't want to see it right now, trust me. All 3 Brahm men have been sick this week, so it's pretty much a disaster area in there. I'll only let family see it like this. And single men, 'cause they probably won't notice anyways.

Someone had given us two white bookshelves, and they were sitting in the "I-Don't-Know Room," keeping the drums company. Since the drums moved, I had to figure out what to do with the shelves. After trying about, oh, I don't know, 5 different furniture arrangements over a couple of days, they ended up against one wall, pushed up against each other. For the very first time, I actually put a little bit of *drumroll* effort into "styling" *gasp* the bookshelves, like the cool kids do. *jazz hands* I even have my books facing the wrong way. Cool Kid Click, here I come! ....and now it is time for your guided tour. Keep you hands and arms inside the boat at all times, and watch out for the ducks- they bite.

The big picture.

My little papertowel pom-pom garland thingy. Iced coffee was involved. No, not for drinking, silly. Although, I'm pretty sure I was drinking some at the time too, so never mind.

Hello, my name is Hannah, and I have a problem- I raid my kids' toyboxes for decor fodder. Yep, I did. I wandered the house looking for wood-like things, and then a diaper needed to be changed and I saw the alphabet puzzle on the shelf of the changing table. The one that Noah has NEVER done. So, I took it. *hangs head* ...it gets worse. After changing the diaper, I went back out to the now living room, and found the dog chewing on a train track. A wooden train track. I took it away. And kept it. And then attached the puzzle pieces to it. *shuffles away* Cute though, isn't it?

This is my wedding bouquet. It looked a little less dry at the time. The tiara I wore on our wedding day is sitting on top of them. That is about the same dryness now as it was on our wedding day. Although, it did rain on Wedding Day, so never mind.

Yes, more train tracks, and a porcelain shoe Josh brought back for me from Holland many moons ago when we were dating.

I bought this frame for our first anniversary, and just now put a picture in it. Oh well. More train tracks, a vase from the dollar section at Target, more letters and half a wooden goat.

I really am shameless with the train tracks, aren't I? More letters, an "N" for Noah, and a "W" for William, or as Josh said, "Oh, I thought it said 'now,'"a tea tin, a half-burned candle, and a rooster. I wasn't lying when I said I had a problem.

One of my favorite pictures of Noah from right before his 1st birthday, and the wooden Noah Train, courtesy of Bella and Grandpa.

Pictures of Noah's little life, (yes, we do, in fact, have two kids, but Noah's just been around a lot longer, hence more pictures,) and our wedding album.

And, that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed your tour! (And avoided the ducks)

Chalk boards, cupboard doors, same thing

2011-07-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Today I have a before and after, but only because I managed to find a "before" picture from awhile ago. It's not like I was patient enough to take a picture of the "before" so you really just got lucky on this one.

The point of this picture, is the big empty space on the far wall. I'm not a fan of empty spaces, but that's not the problem. See that shiny rectangle on the left side of the wall? That's a phone jack. The phone jack that wouldn't be a problem if I could put a phone there. You know, if there were a power outlet anywhere remotely close to the phone jack that I could plug said phone in to. I'm telling you, I'm not sure the designers of this house were all there. After oh, 5 months of living here, I came up with a solution. Something had to cover it up, and also lie flat against the wall so that you wouldn't know that something was being covered up and, whatever was put there, would have to span most of the wall since it's not like it would look normal to just put something over the phone jack. If I did that, someone would probably think, "hey, I wonder what that picture is covering up, and try to look under it or something. Here is my solution-

I headed over to the Habitat ReStore and picked up some cupboard doors, put some chalkboard paint on them, drilled some holes to put some twine through, and hung those suckers up. Noah loves to color on them, so he gets to have his pictures hung up in the dining room.

See, no more phone jack! (Or empty wall.)

Once upon a time, my husband got me coffee...

2011-07-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time while riding in the car, I was very very thirsty. I begged and pleaded (ok, so maybe I just mentioned to) my dear husband to pull over and find me liquid. Preferably, cold liquid since the temperature was likely over 100 degrees since this is the central CA valley. In JULY. Anyways, back to my story. My dear husband did indeed pull the car over, and since when he asked me what I wanted I just said "surprise me," it was entirely up to him to decide what I would like best. Well, he knows me well, and returned with a Starbucks Mocha Frappaccino thingy. I think I downed the thing within a minute or so, (except for the couple sips that I saved for him) and then started looking at my empty bottle, and thought about how it must cost them a little more to make a glass bottle than a plastic one...and how that's pretty nice of them, because I, for one, like glass bottles better than plastic bottles- They just feel better. ....and then I thought about how it kinda looked like a giant baby food jar....and how people use baby food jars to store spices in (I promise, there's a point to all this), and how I should do that too, once I start buying baby food for William....and how I had a few big bags of spices that I bought in bulk at Winco, like cinnamon, and cayenne ('cause I use a lot of that to cook with), and ground mustard. At that very moment, right after the ground mustard thought, I knew what I was going to do with my glass bottle- It was going to be a cinnamon shaker.

You see,when my mom made coffee when I was a teenager she'd occasionally sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon on top of the grounds before brewing it. I always make it like that now, and so for the longest time, I've just had a very ugly bottle of ground cinnamon sitting next to my coffee pot, so that Josh, when he makes my coffee for me in the mornings, doesn't have to go looking for it.

I took a hammer and nail and stuck a few holes in the top, and wha-la. Now I have a pretty cinnamon shaker, with the Starbucks logo on the lid, that just so happens to match the logo that's on my Starbucks coffee cup-shaped coffee canister. It all just matches so well!You know you want to try it.... ;)

Magazine rack, done!

2011-07-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

It's finally done! I thought this would be a quick project, and it probably would have been if I wouldn't have had other stuff going on...you know, like kids- and a husband. I did finish it though, and now it's ready for someone to take home and put somewhere. It can be shipped easily, so if anyone wants it, let me know, and I'll be glad to let you take it off of my hands. Can I just say how much I love the fence in our backyard? It's the perfect backround for the pictures of my furniture.

The magazine rack can be found for sale here at The Shabby Corner.

MIA

2011-07-13T12:58:00.000-07:00

My camera charger is missing. This is a very sad thing. I have several new things to post about, but it just wouldn't be the same without pictures. I mean, I can be pretty descriptive, but I'm not sure I can accurately give you the correct mental picture of my projects. I just need to find the camera battery charger. I think it might be floating around in our van from our trip to the zoo, so who knows how long it'll take to find it. Until then, I will be slaving away refinishing a cute little shelf that I picked up at a yard sale a few weeks ago. I'm thinking that butterflies are calling its name. What its name is, I have no idea. Maybe I should ask the butterflies.

Blog posts have moved!

2011-06-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

Since at this point, I've got more people following me here at The Life of a Housewife that I don't know, rather than those that I do know, I've decided to separate my family and parenting type posts from my creative goings on. For those of you that want to know what's going on with our family, all of those updates can be found here, at my new blog, Raising Kidlets.

Mmmm.....Pork

2011-06-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

(photo credit)

This one I didn't change at all, except for to use olive oil instead of vegetable oil. Just something about vegetable oil that I don't trust.

Ingredients

1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 (4 ounce) boneless pork loin chops

Directions

In a large resealable bag, combine lemon juice, oil, garlic, salt, oregano, and pepper. Place chops in bag, seal, and refrigerate 2 hours or overnight. Turn bag frequently to distribute marinade.
Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat. Remove chops from bag, and transfer remaining marinade to a saucepan. Bring marinade to a boil, remove from heat, and set aside.
Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill pork chops for 5 to 7 minutes per side, basting frequently with boiled marinade, until done.

Favorite Grilled Chicken

2011-06-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

(photo credit)

Next up in my little grilling series, is (so far) my favorite grilled chicken recipe. This is one of my favorites to grill, because it just smells SO good while it's grilling. If I wouldn't burn my face off, I'd just position my head over the grill so I could just smell it as strongly and for as long as possible. (Or, at least the 14 minutes that it's cooking.) Here is the original recipe, but as usual, I've made a couple changes to it. Here is my version-

Ingredients

1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons mustard
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 lime, juiced
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 orange juiced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
6 tablespoons olive oil
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions

In a large glass bowl, mix the cider vinegar, mustard, garlic, lime juice, lemon juice, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil. Place chicken in the mixture. Cover, and marinate 8 hours, or overnight.
Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat.
Lightly oil the grill grate. Place chicken on the prepared grill, and cook 6 to 8 minutes per side, until juices run clear. Discard marinade.

Best. Steak. Ever.

2011-06-20T14:16:00.001-07:00

(Photo Credit)

During the summer, we use our grill a lot. By a lot I mean, probably close to 6 days a week. It's miserably hot out, so the thought of heating up the house with the oven makes me want to melt. I thought that since I spend a lot of my time prepping dinners for the grill, I'd share a few of my favorites in my next few blog posts. First up, is the Best. Steak. Ever. Yes, the periods after every word is a must, I promise. I don't ask Noah (my two-year-old) what he wants for dinner unless I know I'm making steak, because it's what he always requests. You'll understand after tasting it.

These directions are for one steak, and only include the prepping part of it. Obviously it's easy to alter if you're doing more than one.

1 ribeye steak, close to 1lb

1 1/2 tsp Lawry's seasoning salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

4 tbls extra virgin olive oil (2 tbls for each side of the steak)

At least an hour before grilling....

-Pierce steak several times with fork or knife.

-Coat steak with 2 tbls olive oil.

-In a small bowl stir together seasoning salt, ground pepper, and cayenne.

-Coat steak with half of the seasoning mixture.

-Let sit at least 15 min

-Turn steak over and repeat all steps.

-If putting into fridge to marinate, remove from fridge an hour before grilling to bring steak temperature down to room temperature.

Happy grilling!

Before and After

2011-06-17T18:33:00.000-07:00

This is the end table I mentioned way back here. I really thought I would have it done before now. Guess I was wrong. Woops. Anyways, it's been painted, received a "something pretty," distressed, and polyurethaned. That's a word, right? Eh, probably not. Here's the after.

This end table/night stand is currently for sale here, and here. Let me know if you're interested!

Pancakes for lunch!

2011-06-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a bad experience with lunch meat, so I was looking for something relatively quick and easy to make for lunch for Noah and me, since lunch meat was out. Pancakes is what I decided on. It's been awhile since I've made them, but I thought I'd share my "go-to" pancake recipe. I've done these with so many different additives....blueberries, of course, chocolate chips, chocolate chips AND peanut butter chips, and last fall I added cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves for fall-like pancakes. I plan on adding pumpkin at some point too, but haven't done that one yet. They're thick and yummy. I don't even bother ordering pancakes in restaurants when I have the option, because these are better. Anyways, here's the recipe, with my changes in italics.

Ingredients

3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 cup all-purpose flour (whole wheat flour)
2 tablespoons white sugar (2 tbls brown sugar)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter, melted
cooking spray (I use butter. Lots of butter. I blame the southerner in me.)

Directions

Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into "soured" milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

I realize the whole vinegar and milk thing sounds disgusting...and looks and smells disgusting, but it all works out in the end. Enjoy!

The blender is my friend

2011-06-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

Recently I discovered a cooking trick, that I thought I'd share. During the summer, we do a whole lotta cooking on the grill, which means a whole lot of marinating. My favorite way to marinate is to do it in a zip lock bag since that equals no cleanup for me after dinner. Since Zip Lock backs don't exactly have a bottom to them, dumping stuff into them is a little bit of a challenge- until I discovered this. Take the blades out of the bottom of your blender, and stick the bag in that. Tada! No more challenge. Just dump, zip, and stick in the fridge.

A small before and after

2011-06-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

This is a little metal tub thingy I found for a few cents at The Salvation Army that needed a little bit of a makeover. I liked it as it was, or really, as they were, since there were 3 of them, but as usual, I thought they could be better. Enter Rustolium's Heirloom White spray paint.

Better, right? Still not done though. Distressing makes everything better.

NOW it's all done. Slightly distressed to bring out the details, and give it a little personality.

Yes....no...maybe?....meh. (A project I'm not sure about.).

2011-05-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

A few days ago a friend mentioned how she liked to make things out of books. I too like that whole concept, but have never really done anything about it. So, off I went to browse Pinterest to find something for future crafty endeavors. Sure enough, I found something, and I knew exactly where I wanted to put it. Problem is, now that it's done, I'm not sure I like it. I know the husband doesn't like it, but I didn't really expect him to. That's fine though - he pretty much lets me do what I want, unless it's antiquing the kitchen cabinets. I think that part of the problem with this project is that I didn't have any hot glue sticks. I have the gun, but no sticks. I even took the oldest boy-child and walked over to Target to see if I could get some there, but couldn't find any. (We did manage to find an orange slushie and potato chips, though.) All of that to say, the way it is, I kinda expect it to fall apart at any moment. At least it won't hurt anyone if it does.

The place I had in mind for this project was above our fireplace. You see, when we bought the house there was dark wood paneling. That was quickly painted over, and now it's a cream color. Problem is, there's a BIG open space between the top of the fireplace and our vaulted ceiling. It needs something. So, now I have a "something." Too bad I'm not sure if I like it.

So, without further adieu, my wreath-

There it is. Meh. I'm not exactly sure why it doesn't quite float my boat. There's nothing really wrong with it, I'm just not all that happy with it. But there it hangs, at least until I find something I like better. It only cost me about $3 so it's not the end of the world if I don't keep it up for long, right?

My dumpster shelf

2011-05-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit

This picture was the inspiration. I came across it while I was wasting time on Pinterest. Funny thing about Pinterest- I waste time on it only to give myself more to do. Anyways, I saw this and loved the whole pallet shelf idea. I don't exactly have plates to put on something like this, but I like the concept. Besides that, I wanted it in my bathroom, and the bathroom would be a funny place to put plates. Just sayin'.

Photo credit

It just so happened that a couple weeks ago I was taking the trash out at church, and lo and behold, a pallet was sitting there right on top of all the trash. It was like it was there waiting for me. The only thing missing was the light shining down on it from the heavens. I believe my exact exclamation at this moment was "Hot dog!" which was when my two-year-old little boy wanted to know where the hot dog was. It rode around in the back of our van for a little while, and then this last week, I decided it was time to take my saw to it....and hammer....and drill....and paintbrush. My plan was for it to replace the picture in our bathroom that really doesn't fit with the rest of the decor. I put the picture there in the first place because the spot looked empty, it sorta matched, and I didn't have anything else.

(This picture is also before my mirror was framed.)

After some cutting in half, and rearranging of my pallet, I had myself a brand new (sort of) shelf.

As usual, I wanted a little "something pretty" on my shelf, but went in a little different direction than usual. Instead of painting something, I decided to use one of my favorite things: burlap. (I'll take burlap over raindrops on roses any day.) As far as the stuff on the shelf, I'm not in love, but it's what I have, so it'll have to do for now. Maybe next week I'll find something I like more....in the dumpster.

I just kinda made up the flowers as I went. I've seen flowers made from burlap before, so I wasn't completely winging it, but I hadn't really found a tutorial of something that I liked, so I just kinda...went with the flow. After I was done making them, I decided that the edges just blended into each other, so I put some dark brown paint on the edges of the "petals" to make them stand out a little more. They're not attached to the shelf permanently, so I can always take them off whenever, like say, after spring/summer and replace them with something else later.

No more icky mirror

2011-04-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

This is my bathroom.

This is the ugly spot on my mirror. I don't know how it got this way, I just know that this is how it was when we bought the house. I got so excited when I found this. That is, until I saw the $250 price tag. No thank you-I'd rather look at my ugly mirror. Then I saw this blog post over at {Show & Tell}. (It's a great blog, and since finding this particular post I've subscribed.) I decided that THIS was how I was going to fix my problem. So, off I went to pick out something to use for my framing. I decided on some door/window casing, because is was the width I wanted, but mostly because it was on clearance. I'm a sucker for clearance.

My mirror is held up with these

Which are big, and ugly, and hard to cover up without some major filing of the casing. My first idea was to attach my mirror to the wall with mirror glue, but the guy at the big home improvement store that we'll call Lowes, told me that if I wanted to keep my face, I shouldn't glue it to the wall. So, after coming home and thinking about it for a little while (there were a few days there when Josh would ask me what I was thinking and I'd answer "the bathroom.") and I went back to the store we'll call Lowes and bought these-

These are also mirror clips, but they are much flatter mirror clips, made even more flat by the filing I did to the little decorative raised part. Don't worry, I didn't file it down paper thin or anything- I just got rid of the point on it so that I wouldn't have to file quite as deep into my casing. I attached these to the wall, and then took out my old honkin' clips. I can't say I was sad to see them go. In fact, I was rather ecstatic.

I patched and painted, and then it was off to use my saw for the very first time. YAY!

This is the maiden miter box voyage. I didn't even know what I miter box was before I set out on this project. I'm pretty sure it was love at first sight. I measured and cut my casing, and then it was time to paint.

I painted the first couple inches of the underside of my casing because you can see some of it reflecting in the mirror.

I did file the casing a little bit where the clips were behind it so that it would sit flat against the mirror, and then I painted the clips the same color as the wall, (Yes, I am that ghetto. Next thing you know I'll be using glue instead of nails.) and then used liquid nails type stuff that said it could be used on mirrors, and...

Tada! The finished product.

Goodbye 1978!

2011-04-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

Meet my bathroom vanity. (Sorry about the shooting pain you're getting in your eyeball from seeing this graphic picture.) I don't even know where to start. It looks like at some point a previous owner tried to refinish them by staining them....only instead of brushing or wiping on the stain like a normal person, they just kinda threw it. Possibly with a spoon. It gets worse. As I was cleaning them I found grooves in the cabinet doors that I didn't know were there. Why? Because they were filled with goo. Not normal goo like Spackle, or caulking, goo like....like the goo you find in the back of your refrigerator. The drawer pulls....oh boy. Hello, 1970! Oh, and there was some sort of green "fun" stuck in them. The hinges...I'm not sure they qualify as hinges anymore.

I decided it was time to do something about this. The only reason I hadn't done anything about it before now was because I didn't know what color I wanted, and I sure don't want to re-paint them any more than I need to. It's a pain to paint cabinets. The day I decided, I went to get my paint, and the next day started painting.

Meet my new vanity. It's SO much better. No more stain spatters, no more goo, and no more 30-year-old drawer pulls with green fun. I love it. My mom had given me the drawer pulls and handles leftover from her kitchen remodel, so I didn't have to pay for those. I even have enough left over for our master bath. Score!

I decided to use handles on the drawers instead of the pulls like were on originally, so I had to patch the hole in the center of the drawer, and then drill new holes for the handles. I learned through that that you need to drill the holes BIGGER than the screws, and also that if the screws are too long and you try to screw them in farther than they're supposed to go, they'll start trying to come out the other side of the handles, and that's bad. (Thankfully I caught that before too much damage was done.) But hey, now I have the 1.25" screws that I need for the other bathroom, 'cause I'm willing to bet the the drawers are the same thickness in the master bathroom as they are in this one.

Someday I'd like to get new counters and faucet, but that day is a long way away.

In my next post, I'll show you all what I did to fix the uh...beauty mark in the mirror for only $12!

A Boring Bench Made Pretty

2011-04-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

Remember the bench that I mentioned here? Well, I finally got the thing finished. It's been sitting in our spare bedroom for a month or so, half done because I just haven't gotten around to finishing it. Partially because I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it. I knew I wanted a "something pretty" on it, but didn't know what. A week or so ago, I decided, so then it was time to get her done.

This isn't a great "before picture," because well, it wasn't supposed to be a "before picture." It was meant to show our out-of-state family what our entryway looks like, but with the magic of the crop tool, it also works for a before picture of our bench.

The personality-less bench.

And now *drum roll please!*

All better. She (I can call it a "she" right?) is now full of personality.

My "something pretty."

Just had to put one in there of my little bench model. :)

She was painted with an "oops paint," the "something pretty" was done with paint I had left over from other projects, then glazed with an acrylic craft paint, sanded down with 60 grit sand paper, and once I get some, will be getting a coat of poly.

While doing this I decided that I really really like refinishing furniture. I like it to the point that's it's my preferred sanity saver when the kids are starting to make me feel a little nutty. So, I decided to open an etsy store and make a little bit of extra money by selling my pieces. I have an end table that I found on Craigslist yesterday waiting to be given a personality, so hopefully before too long, it'll be done and up for sale!

Yummy (really healthy) Muffins

2011-04-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

Two posts in one day....Woo wee!

Anyways, I'm on a weight loss kick to lose the rest of my baby weight, which means I'm doing my very bestest to eat well. It's not the easiest thing to get a decent breakfast around here, so my solution is to make muffins, so that I can just grab one, and be done with the whole breakfast thing. Well, except for my coffee. Gotta have my coffee. These are the muffins I made for the next few days. I'll put my changes in italics...there's a lot of them. Enjoy!

Original recipe from Allrecipe.com

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (1 cup all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (1 cup whole wheat flour)
1 1/4 cups white sugar (1 1/4 cups brown sugar)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups grated carrots
1 apple - peeled, cored, and chopped (1 1/2 apples)
1 cup raisins (golden raisins)
1 egg
2 egg whites
1/2 cup apple butter (1 cup applesauce. Didn't have any apple butter, and didn't want to buy or make any.)
1/4 cup vegetable oil (1/4 applesauce)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts (didn't use any.)
2 tablespoons toasted wheat germ (1/4 cup mixed into muffins instead of on top)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly oil 18 muffin cups, or coat with nonstick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, egg whites, apple butter, oil and vanilla.
In a large bowl, stir together flours, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in carrots, apples and raisins. Stir in apple butter mixture until just moistened. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them about 3/4 full.
In a small bowl, combine walnuts and wheat germ; sprinkle over the muffin tops.
Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and spring back when lightly pressed.

To those with a Winco near you!

2011-04-12T15:21:00.001-07:00

A few days ago I went to Winco to buy the things that don't typically go on sale, like the hotdogs Josh likes, milk, spices, etc. Yes, I know milk goes on sale, but around here there's only one brand of milk. Josh has very sensitive taste buds when it comes to milk.

Anyways, I needed some spices for a new grilled chicken recipe (which I'll share once I've perfected it). I went to the spice aisle to grab the spices I needed, and then headed to the bulk food section. I knew they had spices over there, but wasn't sure exactly which spices they had.

Buying spices in bulk is SO much cheaper than not. The spice I needed, ground mustard, to buy it the normal McCormick way, was $2.63 for a teeny tiny little container. Buying it in the bulk food section, I got about 5 times as much for less than $.50. Woo hoo! I couldn't get rid of that little red-topped container fast enough. While I was over there I got a few other things I knew I was low on. I got a ton of cinnamon, the previously mentioned ground mustard, and a whole bunch of wheat germ, all for about $3. To buy the wheat germ by itself, in a container, is over $6, and I got SO much more for so much less moo-la. So, moral of the story, get your spices in the bulk food section at Winco. SO much cheaper!

Sweet Tea Season

2011-04-08T12:53:00.001-07:00

Here in Central California, Sweet Tea Season comes early. It was 90 degrees here last week....in APRIL! The BEGINNING of April, no less. Back in my neck of the woods (Georgia), it doesn't get hot like that until a little later in the year. Granted, there's a butt-load (we're talkin' bubble butt-load) of humidity that comes with it, but nevermind that. So anyways, back to the topic at hand.

Sweet Tea Season is here. (Did I mention it was only April?) Well, at least for me- no one else around here drinks sweet tea. I am utterly alone in my Southern-ness. Up until last year, I made it like my mom always made it, but then I found a new and improved recipe, if you can call something so simple a recipe. Anyways, I thought I'd share. I know I have some sweet-tea drinkers reading, and if you aren't one of us, maybe you'll decide to be brave and indulge your inner Southerner. So, here it is-

pinch baking soda
cups boiling water
tea bags
1/2-1/3 cup white sugar
cups cool water

DirectionsSprinkle a pinch of baking soda into a 64-ounce, heat-proof, glass pitcher. Pour in boiling water, and add tea bags. Cover, and allow to steep for 15 minutes.
Remove tea bags, and discard; stir in sugar until dissolved. Pour in cool water, then refrigerate until cold.

When I make it, I just boil some water in my tea kettle, and dump some into the pitcher. I don't bother measuring. Same thing with the cool water- I just fill my pitcher to just under half-way full. I say 1/2 to 1/3 sugar 'cause I like variety in my sweetness. The original recipe called for 3/4 cups, and that's just plain jelly-bean-like. Or should I say McDonalds-sweet-tea-like. Same thing, really. Last year I started trying to be just a tad bit healthier in my eating, and drinking, so I started using green tea. I still use regular black tea every once in awhile though, 'cause like I said, I like variety.

Stay away! Or how 'bout not ringing the doorbell.

2011-03-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

Since moving into our house it seems like we get someone knocking on our door almost once a day about something or other. Yesterday it happened twice. I'm a pretty private person so I'm not a huge fan of someone showing up at my door every day, but I can get over that. The bigger problem is that they always ring the door bell at least once, and there is usually one, if not two kids sleeping, which are then no longer sleeping. A few weeks ago one of the blogs I follow, Pretty Handy Girl, did a post about this very problem and made a "No Solicitors" sign which fixed the daily doorbellers. So, I decided that a sign was also (hopefully) the solution to my problem. So, I took the wording from hers and another sign I saw, combined them into something I liked, and used my graphic design skills (that are pretty much lying dormant at this point) to make it all pretty because a plain one is just not gonna do.

Then I headed over to Michaels last night because this week their frames are the same price as the Goodwill and bought a frame (and a few more for another project), and then headed home. Then I realized there was no way to hang the frame on the door. Bummer.

So, while the dear husband was xboxing, I cut a few strips of burlap (oh, my beloved burlap *swoon*) and made a rope out of it, whipped out my trusty drill to drill a few holes through the back of my frame, attached my rope with some wire, and it was all done. I love it. It's very me. Anyways, here is the finished product.

For any of you who want to use my sign, I'm giving you that very option. It's currently an 8x10, so just keep that in mind when buying your frame. I did give a little extra room on the sides so that it could be cropped into a different size for any of the rebels out there.

My trade secrets

2011-03-10T13:28:00.000-08:00

As pretty much all of you already know, my job is to stay home and take care of the house, and Thing 1 and Thing 2. As part of that responsibility, I'm the one that takes care of all the finances and most of the shopping. So, I've decided to share all my tricks of my trade, and hopefully, I'll remember to keep posting when I find good deals on stuff. Here we go-

Shopping Online

Google shopping (New new)

I do the majority of our shopping online. The last several years I think I've done all my Christmas shopping from the couch, with the exception of things I've made for people. When I absolutely HAVE to buy something brand new, the first thing I do is run to Google Shopping. Just go to google and click on the little shopping link at the top and then type in whatever you're looking for, and it'll show you all the different places that have it, how much it is, and how much it will be in total after shipping and tax, if there is shipping and tax in the first place. They recently added a feature where you can see if it's in stock at any regular stores near you, but it's rarely cheaper getting stuff that way.

Amazon.com (New New, New Used, and Used)

Amazon.com typically has the best price on New New stuff. Also, on a lot of items, if you're spending more than $25 you get free shipping. This is one of the first places I go if I need to buy something more expensive, or giant that would be a ridiculous amount to ship somewhere else. There's also the amazon market place where you can get stuff from private people. I've used this to buy books and DVD's for Josh and Noah for Christmas and birthday. You can get SO much more for your money this way. Just make sure you also check ebay for the same item before you do this. You never know where it'll be cheaper.

Walmart.com (New new)

For some reason, walmart.com has much better deals than Walmart in-store. I don't know why, but it's nice to know. Their shipping is free site-to-store, and is usually really inexpensive to have it shipped, to you, if they don't have free shipping already. You just have to resist the I-Need-It-Now urge and wait for it to get to either your local store, or your doorstep. (FYI, they usually get me my things before their estimated delivery date.) I occasionally check the Daily Deals on Walmart.com and Target.com, but usually I don't find anything I need.

Ebay (New New, second hand new, and used)

I've gotten a lot of stuff on ebay over the years. Now you can even buy stuff new, and occasionally get free shipping on things. If you make a point to purchase out of state, you don't have to pay tax either. As an added bonus, instead of going directly to ebay to find something, search for it on Bing first, and if it comes up with a link to ebay, you get 8% cash back on your purchase if you use Buy It Now and pay for it with PayPal. Don't get too hung up on the whole cash back thing though, because a lot of time, if you can have a little bit of patience, you'll get a much better deal through an auction instead of using Buy It Now, even with the cash back. Just remember that you need to factor in shipping costs before you bid. For example, I think it was a the mobile I wanted for William's room - it was an auction with a Buy It Now price. The Buy It Now price was $15 but I just waited a few days and bid on it, and I ended up getting it for $6 including shipping.

How To Bid

There are two general ways people do it. One is to bid the maximum amount you're willing to pay right at the beginning, and the other is to wait until the last few seconds and snipe it. I've done both, but I remember as a teenager I'd do bidding technique number 2 and get all caught up in fighting with someone else on the last minute bidding on a particular auction and completely forget that if I could have a little patience there were several more of what I wanted that would likely be much less expensive. Now I tend to use bidding technique number 1 and just bid as much as I'm willing to pay, and if I don't get it, I just find another one and bid as much as I'm willing to pay all over again. Eventually I'll get something for a good price. Doing it this way keeps away the temptation of the whole bidding wars thing.

Tip: It helps when bidding to use a funky number, like they do in The Price Is Right. I usually bid $x.47 or something like that. Someone has to bid more than you to get it, so if they just bid $x or $x.05, then I still get it.

Overstock.com (New new)

This and Amazon are my favorite places to get big items. Overstock ships everything for $2.95, no matter how big. For example, our giant bean bag that many of you have seen (and those of you who haven't, it's a 6' diameter bean bag filled with memory foam. It's a favorite of everyone who sits upon it.) I got that on Overstock, on sale, with a coupon code on top of the sale, and then the $2.95 shipping. That's the way to do it! :)

Craigslist.com

I'm pretty sure everyone knows what craigslist is. Just remember to always check it for deals before buying new or online, and if you end up buying something, take safety precautions.

Coupon Codes

Any time you see a little box during checkout online for a coupon or promo code, always, always always do a quick Google search to find out if there's a promo code that will save you some moo-la. A lot of times you can get free shipping, and sometimes you can get a certain percentage off. If you can use your percentage off on top of a sale, that's the bomb-diggity. Today I found out about CouponChief.com to find coupon codes, but I haven't really checked it out myself yet. It sounded pretty awesome though. :)

Coupons in General

I just recently started using coupons for grocery shopping. I've wanted to do it for a long time, but I didn't think the store I did our shopping at accepted them. Turns out they accept original coupons, but not printed coupons. Big bummer, but at least they do accept some. Anyways, for couponing, couponmom.com is my favorite that I've found so far. They provide their services nationally, so that's very helpful. You're able to pick the store that you shop at, and then they pair up sales with coupons that are in your Sunday paper, tell you which date they were available and which coupon circular they came in so that you can get the best deals possible.

Brad's Deals

Brad's Deals started when Brad, a poor college student, went to prove to his friends that he could get better deals on things online with coupon codes than they could shopping at regular retail stores. It's now turned into a daily e-mail and website. I've found so many good deals through these e-mails. For example, we bought a queen sized aero bed, with free shipping, for $40. BRAND NEW! I also recently bought some jewelry that I found on one of the e-mails...the original price was $100, it was on clearance, Brads Deals gave a coupon code, and there was free shipping. Grand total: $17. They find deals on magazines, jewelry, shoes, clothing, electronics, household items, you name it, they've probably got a deal for you. I use this a lot for Christmas presents, which means I start a spread sheet in Jan. and then as I see things go on sale/clearance and find a coupon code, I buy it, add what I bought, who it's for, and how much I paid to the spreadsheet so that I can keep track of what I have and not over buy.

NoMoreRack.com

This I just discovered yesterday, and I'm pretty excited about it. Each day, at 12pm EST they come out with 8 really good deals, one per category, like- Children, Home, Men, Women, Accessories, Handbags, Fragrance, and Beauty. I'm not sure if the categories are the same every day or not, since I've only checked for two days now. A few of them were the same though, if not all of them. Shipping is $2 per item. They seem to sell out pretty quickly though, so you have to check as close to noon EST as you can.

FreeSampleFreak.com

This website/daily e-mail makes me happy. I've gotten so much free stuff. Yes, even a few Christmas presents. It makes me so happy to go fill in the boxes on my Christmas present spread sheet and be able to put $0.00 under the cost for the present. Contrary to the title, it's not all sample sized. I've gotten a few full sized bottles of lotion, shampoo, year long magazine subscriptions, cans of juice, energy drinks, cheeze-its, coupon booklets, and the list goes on. Sometimes you do have to pay for shipping though, so you have to be careful. For example today, there was a free personalized 8x10 wrap around canvas that is usually $50, but you had to pay $11 for shipping. While it is an amazing deal, I don't particularly NEED an 8x10 wrap-around canvas print, as much as I would like one, so I had to fight the voice in my head that was saying "but it's such a good deal!" and save myself the $11, because if you're not careful, eventually your good deals will make you go broke.

Restaurant.com

Restaurant.com is a website that allows you to buy vouchers for certain restaurants for much less than the voucher is actually worth. For example, you can get a $10 voucher for $5, and so on. I know a lot of our friends use this website. What our friends probably don't know, is that most of the time, you can get around 80% off the restaurant.com price with a coupon code. (Brads Deals usually has the code.) The moral of the story is, as good of a deal as it is to only pay $10 for a $25 voucher, it's an even better deal to pay $3 for a $25 voucher. Don't ever ever ever buy from restaurant.com before checking to see if there's a promo code available. Personally, I don't buy unless there's an 80% off code and then I stock up until the next 80% off code, but that's just me, because I'm the Queen of Cheap.

Not Online

Except for groceries, most of the rest of my shopping is done at thrift stores. Most of our furniture is from a thrift store. An added bonus for me is that I love painting the furniture if it looks like crap to begin with, so I don't mind if it's not in great condition. Goodwill also gets a lot of items from Target that are new, so keep an eye out for those, but know how much it costs new before you buy. For example, I needed a new stability ball for my work-outs, and there were new ones at Goodwill for $15. That seemed a little high to me, so I left it there and went home to check how much it was new. Turns out that by buying a stability ball new at Target I could get one that was better reviewed and also came with 2 DVD's and a resistance band, for only a few dollars more.

Consignment Stores

Here in Fresno I've gone to The Baby Bump, and also Pip Squeaks. Both of those have ok prices but you can get really good deals if you find stuff on clearance. I try to stock up on winter clothes for the kids in the spring while clothes are on clearance so that I don't have to pay as much later on when everyone else wants winter clothes. Also, check for 3-day consignment sales. There's one called Just Between Friends that goes to a particular area twice a year, and then another one here in Fresno called Uptown Kids that is also twice a year. I'm not sure if Uptown is anywhere else, or just in Fresno. The sales here in Fresno are usually held in the ghetto-est of all ghetto malls (Manchester Center), but if you can get past the tents filled with knock-off shoes and handbags in the main aisles of the mall, you can find some great deals on kids clothes, maternity clothes, strollers, changing tables, etc.

This is already the longest post ever, so I think I'll stop now. I'm always looking for new ways to save moo-la, so leave me a comment if you have any tips. I'll try to keep my very few readers updated when I find new websites and stuff.

And now all of you know how cheap I really am.

Adios!

I think I may be the muffin man...okay, maybe not.

2011-03-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

I recently found a recipe that's been hanging around in my recipe box for awhile, and today I got to try it out because I had a little free time, and some bananas that weren't going to be eaten. So, I got to try my hand at Mocha Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins. When I told Josh that I was going to make them his response was, "Yeah, that sounds like you." I was a little apprehensive about the whole coffee/banana combo, but I'll try just about anything, especially if coffee is involved. Chocolate doesn't hurt either....come to think of it, bananas don't either. So anyways, here's the recipe, courtesy of allrecipes.com-

Mocha Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup margarine
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 egg
3 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules, dissolved in
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Blend butter or margarine, sugar, egg, banana, dissolved coffee, and vanilla in food processor for 2 minutes. Add flour, salt, baking powder, and soda, and blend just until flour disappears. Add chocolate chips and mix in with wooden spoon. Spoon mixture into 15 to 18 paper-lined muffin cups.
Bake for 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

I didn't have enough margarine, so I used half butter and half margarine, didn't have enough white sugar, so I used mostly brown sugar (which I prefer to bake with anyways), and I used a *heaping* tablespoon of coffee (and plan on adding more next time, but I'm somewhat of a coffee fiend and like my coffee excessively strong.) Oh, and I didn't measure the chocolate chips, 'cause I never measure the chocolate chips- I just dump them in until it looks right. I don't have a food processor either, so I just used a mixer. )I promise, I really did follow this recipe closer than I usually do.) And the you go. It's yummy in my tummy. (And Noah's tummy.)

Evolution of a Pop Tart box

2011-01-28T20:28:00.003-08:00

While I'm on the subject of making things out of things you already have, here's another recent project. A very small project.

Here was the problem-

Pretty fire place, pretty picture on top of said fireplace, and ever-growing stack of DVD's, and video games on top of fireplace. Josh is the culpret on this one, but I understand why it happens. You see, we have a place for video games and such, but that place is across the room on a too-full bookcase. It's just not real convenient to walk across the room every time to put stuff away. So, I've been thinking the last few days about a way to solve this problem. Then, as I was getting Noah his breakfast one morning, I saw the oh-so-glorious solution- an empty Poptart box. Yes, I'm a horrible mother- I give my kid poptarts for breakfast occasionally. Untoasted, in fact. Anyways, Pop Tart box + scrapbook paper + a little bit of ribbon=

My little box was then attached to the back of the TV stand so it's out of reach of small brown-eyed children, but still within easy reach of Daddy.

My latest project

2011-01-28T14:26:00.000-08:00

Here at the Brahm home, there's almost always some type of project going on. This is for several reasons. Mostly because I have a hard time not doing anything, but also because for some reason I always think that something around here could be better, I like to work with my hands, learn how to do new things, and make things pretty. Not pretty as in girly-pretty, but pretty as in pleasing to look at.

My latest project, was my microwave stand. Shortly after moving into our house, I found a brand new microwave at Goodwill. We're not talkin' like new, but still has the styrofoam on it new. I really like it, but it's giant....and it was on my counter....shoved into a corner. Well, then my mom came out to stay with us for awhile when I had William, and she decided that this was just not going to work. She then set out to find me something to put it on besides my counter. After she checked Craig's List (yes, I take after my mom in the "being cheap" department), Walmart, and Target, I decided to take her to my favorite place to buy furniture- a local Fresno thrift store, 4 Sisters Thrift. They always have the coolest furniture in there. A lot of it is a little more than what I would pay for something, but not all of it, and they'll let me bargain with them. Anyways, after scouring the store, we found the perfect little table that was well under the budget for Operation Get Microwave Off Counter. Only problem was, the paint on the table was in pretty awful shape, and it was red and green. As much as I love Christmas, in my opinion, red and green should be Christmas, and only Christmas. So, I told my mom I was going to re-paint it. (She also bought me a entryway bench that will also be getting a make-over, but it just hasn't happened yet. That'll be a future blog post.)

This is the "before." I got a little impatient and had already taken the drawer out and painted it before I remembered to take a picture, so you'll just have to imagine there's a barn red drawer in there. Like I said, Christmas.

Like I said, paint was not in great shape. Fine if you want the paint-not-in-great-shape look, but that wasn't what I was going for this time.

I went at it with a wire brush to take off the loose paint, and almost all of it came off.

I put on a coat of primer, and then I decided to use the leftover paint from our dining room and living room since the stand would end up in the dining room, and be seen from the living room. (That part of the house is open.) Besides, I'm all about leftover paint.

See! My pretty grey/green antique-looking paint.

Then it was on to the drawer. I used a pretty cream colored paint that I found way marked down at Ace Hardward because it was a mis-tint. I had picked it up awhile ago because I knew I'd use it for something someday. After getting the cream colored paint on, I painted the branch and birds because I'm all about the details. It's an antique piece of furniture, so we can't have new-looking paint- that's would pretty much be the table equivalent of Joan Rivers, and we can't have that. So, it was on to putting on a glaze to make it look closer to its age. (I had already done that step in the picture. Impatient again. Woops.)

I ran out to the garage and grabbed a few bottles from my acrylic paint stash, mixed and then added water to thin it out.

Appetizing, right? When I was happy with my oh-so-appealing brown with just a tad of yellow, I brushed it onto my drawer and table, and then wiped it off with a paper towel to get the antiquie look that I wanted. With two babies running around, I see that color a lot. (Hehe...I crack myself up. :-D Yes, I'm 12. And a boy.) Let me tell you, those spindle legs are a pain in the neck to get paint on.

See? Pretty. This is the almost finished product. But, like I said, I'm all about the details.

This is what was inside the drawer. Cute, but stained, and not quite cut to the right size, and just didn't match my table's new personality and we don't want a table with multiple personality disorder. Burlap however, matched the personality just perfectly. Have I ever mentioned how much I love burlap? Just in case, I love burlap. I especially love burlap in this instance because I already had some tucked away in my ever-growing fabric stash. Nothin' better than making something new from stuff you already have. Besides, I got to use my nifty rotary cutter to get the perfect fit in the drawer.

I measured the inside of the drawer and cut the burlap out with scissors, but then used the rotary cutter to trim off the little bit of excess at the back of the drawer. I love that thing. Almost as much as I love burlap. Time to put the burlap in. Remember what I said about liking to make things out of stuff I already have? Well, for glue, since I didn't have anything else, I mixed up a quick paste of flour and water.

Anyone who has ever let cookie dough dry in the mixing bowl knows the power of flour and water.

My grand plan was to use my newly aquired rolling pin to press it down in to the drawer. Problem was, it didn't fit.

Fixed that problem. It worked perfectly after a little uh...modification.

All done! See, matching personalities.

Here is the finished product.

And now the reveal....

2010-12-13T17:49:00.000-08:00

Today I finally finished William's room. Down to getting all the baseboards/door frames repainted. I realized yesterday that almost everything in there was done on the cheap, so I'll fill you all in on that as we go. The theme is Paddington Bear, whom I thought everyone had heard of. Apparently not. Paddington is a British storybook character and it was later made into a tv show on BBC. I've never seen the show, but I liked the books when I was a kid.

First is the crib. I managed to get this crib from Walmart on sale (more than $75 off) for $115 including shipping. For those of you who are pregnant and will have to buy a crib, Walmart by far has the best prices, and they have awesome sales.

The whole Paddington Bear theme came to be when I ran across this crib bumper at Goodwill for a whole dollar. I couldn't pass it up. I made the crib blanket and crib skirt to match, bought some sheets at Target, and whalla- crib bedding set.

Next is the mobile. This, I found on ebay. I could only find one anywhere on the internet. I think I paid $3.75 for it. They had a buy it now on there for about $15, but I bid on it instead, and got it WAY cheaper.

And here is the kite and clouds. The perspective is off in this picture, but you get the general idea. I made this to match the kites on the crib bumper. I spend about $2 at Michaels to make this. A couple of dowel rods, 4 sheets of styrofoam, some ribbon out of the discount bin, and some yarn that I found at Goodwill. Oh, and I used some paint to paint the long string onto the wall since I didn't want to use an actual string and cause a choking hazard. It's harder than you would think to paint a string onto a wall...especially when it's textured. The clouds I painted on with some watered down acrylic paint, and a sponge. Oh, the mobile is hanging by a rope I made from leftover ribbon from the kite. Everything matches perfectly.

This is the dresser/changing table. The dresser I found a thrift store, and repainted. It took me awhile to figure out exactly how I wanted it, but I'm happy with how it came out. The changing pad and cover came from a childrens consignment store...the wipe warmer, hamper, and diaper pail I did get new. Wipe warmer and hamper were just the cheapest I could find, and the diaper pail is the same one Noah has which I highly recommend. It's the Diaper Dekor Plus. I has its own refill bags that you're supposed to use, but a tall kitchen trash bag fits it just fine and they're a whole lot cheaper. We're had some pretty nasty diapers put in there, and once that little flap closes, we don't smell anything.

I think that no room is complete unless there is something on the walls. Wall art however, is expensive. Picture books, are not. I found a Paddington picture book online for $8. That's more than I would typically want to pay for a book, but I really wanted pictures for the walls, and just ONE actual Paddington print was at least $30. So, $8 for a whole bunch of pictures was worth it. I have to admit, I felt like I was doing something wrong when I was cutting up that book...

The pictures came out really cute. The picture frames are all from thrift stores, or I already had them, and repainted them to match the room.

These are what I'm using to put diapers in, and hide stuff that isn't so pretty...like noise machines. I got them at Michaels for a few bucks each, but still used a coupon. I painted them, and beat them up (Noah helped with that part) and then made the little kites out of leftover big kite materials to tie them into the room a little more. Josh says the boxes look like they've been sitting in a barn for 20 years. That was the goal. :)

This is one of my favorites. At the beginning of the Paddington books, he has just arrived in London from "Darkest Peru" and he's found by the Brown family sitting in Paddington train station, on his suitcase, with a tag that says "Please look after this bear." I wanted to use the travel part of the story somehow in the room. Making an end table out of an old-style suitcase is how I decided to do that. I found the suitcase in an antique store here in Old Town Clovis, bought some table legs, braces, and spray paint at Lowes, and an endtable was born.

The lamp was another Goodwill find, and the lampshade was on clearance at Ross.

The glider was Noah's and moved into William's room. The name on the wall was kind of an afterthought because I decided this wall was too bare. It's one of my favorite things about the room now. They sell wooden letters at various craft stores, but why would I want to go buy them when I could make them?

I cut the letters out of a big piece of cardboard, from the box the crib came in, and then covered them with burlap. Lots of staples were involved. Then I used the kite yarn from Goodwill to make the hangers, and some macrame cord, which I also had bought at Goodwill to hang the letters from, and to make the little bows at the top.

I found this on ebay. I think it was $1.75. Cute, eh?

The light fixture that was here when we moved in was awful, and I decided that it had to go. So, I ran down to Walmart and found this. It's the cheapest one they had, but it works really well in the room. I put it up all by myself. ;)

Lastly, is the little trike. My grandpa made this many moons ago, and I managed to get my mom to let me have it. It really has nothing to do with Paddington, but it's antique-y looking, and that's just the perfect sized spot for it, so that's its new home.

Hope you've enjoyed the tour. I had a lot of fun making everything, even though it took a heck of a lot of time. Totally worth it. :)

Dressing up a bathroom

2010-12-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

I recently finished working on the first phase of "let's make a presentabe guest bathroom." Phase two, will include repainting the baseboards, which should be done soon, and repainting the cabinets under the sink. Not sure when that will get done. Someday I'll probably decide I want a new shower curtain and bath rug since the ones we have are stained with who-knows-what, but for now, it's what we have.

Here is the before picture-

Yes, that is an automatic hand dryer....and the old-school soap dispenser. I really have no words. I have no idea why that was there in the first place. There are so many strange things about this house that at this point I just kinda go with it. Anyways, both of those little gems had to go. As cool as it is to say that "my house has a hand dryer," I think I'm perfectly content to say "my house USED to have a hand dryer." The hand dryer now resides with our friend Andrew who took it down for me. For some reason he wanted it. Eh, whatever floats his boat. I managed to get the soap thing down, by just taking out a couple screws. I painted, hung a picture er, window, put up some curtains, scraped some grout, put in a new toilet paper holder, and towel bar, caulked around the bathtub, and it looks so much better. Yes, I scraped grout. For some reason someone not in their right mind decided to put down new grout in the tile without taking the old grout out. Therefore, the new grout kept chipping out making the floor look awful. So, I decided that there was no reason for the new grout to be there when the old stuff looked better anyways, so I got down on the floor with a putty knife, and an hour later, we had no new grout. Here is our after picture-

The red thing on the counter is there for Christmas, but in general, this is what it'll look like. I'm thinking there needs to be a picture or something above the toilet. I'll have to go through my stash of pictures in the closet and see if I can find something that works.

No more hand dryer! Instead there's this old window that I picked up at a thrift store. It already had a mirror in it, which I thought was pretty nifty, so I just painted, distressed slightly, and put in our picture of the wild horses on the beach at Cumberland Island. Josh and I went to Cumberland Island for a camping trip with our youth group while we were "dating" and we got this picture. Now I finally have the perfect place to put it. Here's a close up of my window.

I thought the window needed a little somethin', so I put the little curlycue doo-hickies down at the bottom corner. That's my limited painting abilities, right there. So anyways, that's our bathroom until phase 2 is done. Adios!

What, a new post!? ...and a few random references.

2010-12-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile, eh? I'm not sure I've stopped to sit down since we moved last month, hence the lack of blog posts. If only I could post without actually sitting down at the computer....

We're mostly unpacked now, and almost everything has been painted. I still have a second coat of paint to put on part of what has been dubbed the I-Don't-Know Room, the kitchen cabinets need to be painted, and there's another bedroom left to paint. Oh, and touch-ups on the baseboards. A higher priority than all that is getting William's dresser/changing table painted, but I have to wait for Josh to help me bring it inside. Josh is out of town right now, and therefore unable to help me bring it in, so this is the first time in a long time that I've been forced to not do anything during one of Noah's naps.

My latest project has been painting the fireplace, which I just finished about an hour ago. When we moved in....oh boy. It was pretty awful. Just ugly, ugly, ugly. After we made the offer on the house I started looking up ways to paint bricks, and then proceeded to tell Josh that I was going to paint those awful bricks ASAP after we moved in. Josh, being the trusting guy that he is, said, "Ok. What color?" "Well....I'm gonna make them look like brick. Just different." "Uh...ok." Then last week as I was putting on the mortor color he goes, "That seems like a funny color for that." "Well, the bricks aren't going to be red." "Oh, ok." So, without further ado, it's time for "Silly Songs With Larry"- the part of the show where Larry comes out, and sings a silly song.

Before

After

Pretty drastic difference. I showed Josh the "before" picture a few days ago when the fireplace was only half done, and the only thing he had to say was, "Wow. We bought that?" Hehe. :)

So, a little research, about $30 worth of paint, a whole lot of time, and slight artistic ability, and we now have a pretty fireplace. It even makes the wood stove look a little better.

I've also done my first of what will be many caulking jobs, mostly replaced a faucet (I ran into a road block that I haven't gotten a chance to fix yet), and learned how to replace light fixtures, which I'm now a pro at after replacing 5 of them. Still a couple more left, I just have to find a few wall fixtures that I like.

Noah is doing well. I don't think he realizes yet exactly how is world is about to be changed. He knows what a baby is, and when I ask him if he wants one, he says "yes," so we'll see how this goes. At least he doesn't shake his head "no." (He doesn't say "no" yet.)

He's been talking more lately, which has been nice. Maybe we can put off the whole speech therapy thing. We'll see. In the last week or so he's added "help" and "juice" to his vocabulary. It seems like there were a few more, but I don't remember what they are right now. He's also been trying to say a lot more words when I prompt him. Like, this morning, he wanted some of my tea, so I had him say "tea" before he got some. Yes, drinking hot tea at the age of 2. A little weird, but what else is new?

He's also thrilled to have his very own backyard. Every morning he gets up, eats breakfast, and then asks to go outside. Doesn't matter how cold it is...if it's cold out, he finds his coat and hat, we get him all bundled up, and out he goes.

William is...well, making me giant. Every time I go out somewhere it seems like someone is asking me if I'm having twins. It's not my fault my hips are so stinking narrow and all baby has room to do is go out. Two weeks from Wednesday is when he's scheduled to make his appearance. Hopefully we'll have everything ready for him by then. Josh is betting he comes earlier than that, so we'll see. As of last night, my hospital bag is packed, and last week we went and registered at the hospital where we found out that Noah officially will not be able to come and visit me and his new baby brother. *tear* Stupid flu season. I'll have to go a whole 2 days without seeing my favorite oldest child. Oh well, I'm sure Daddy and Grandma will take good care of him.

Well, until next time, goodnight, sleep tight, auf weidersehn to you.....

My beloved Walmart purse

2010-09-30T16:52:00.000-07:00

About 3 years ago I was at Walmart picking something up, and I wandered past the purse section. I saw this purse, and had to have it. It was only $10, so I didn't feel too awful about "having to have it." After using it for the past three years, it was starting to look less like a purse, and more like....well, a purse that someone pulled out of the dumpster. The handle was cracked, and washing the fabric wasn't even going to touch the dirt that encrusted this thing. I loved it though...it's giant, so I can fit all of my boys' stuff in it and still have room for my stuff. So, it was time to give it a new life. Or rather, put it out of its misery, and make a new one just like it....with a little help from the old purse.

So, last night I cut it up and used it as a pattern to make a new one. I didn't quite have enough fabric though, because as I mentioned earlier, it's a little on the large side. So, I decided to use the little bits of fabric left over from other projects quilted together.

I finished making the purse last night....but then lying in bed last night, I thought about how I'd seen April, our pastor's wife, cutting out butterflies from magazines, and I was inspired. So, this morning, I cut out the flowers and butterfly from some leftover fleece, and whalla!

The small goings on at home

2010-03-08T12:06:00.000-08:00

There hasn't been a whole lot happening in the Brahm family the last few days. I got my new dining room table, and I LOVE it. It's so pretty, and sturdy. Our last table was so wobbly it drove me nuts. That one is now out on our patio since I think that's where it was always meant to be. Our new one is counter height and it's fun to watch Noah just walk right under it. :)

My latest idea has been to find a way to make Noah's little play area more fun looking. I finally found a way to do it, so I ordered the stuff I needed online, and then a couple days ago I put everything where it's supposed to be. I'm very happy with the result. I don't think he really cares, but now it looks more "kid-like."

Eh, he'll eventually appreciate it. He's more interested in his

books right now though. That's not a bad problem to have though.

I thought that was an appropriate quote to put there. :)

Playing with his Christmas present from Great-Grammy and Papa.

He saw the camera and started making weird faces at me.

Definitely his father's son. I think this might be

the worst picture of him ever taken.

Yesterday we took him to the little playground near us since it was so nice out. He LOVED going down the slide. Daddy took him up the the top, and he slid down, and Momma caught him. He would grin and squeal as he was going down. It was just about the cutest thing ever. We didn't have a camera with us though, so there aren't any pictures. Next time we'll take the camera with us.

Saturday was the Fresno Walk For Life, so we were out at the park for the first half of the day. Noah was very good considering he didn't get his morning nap, and his afternoon nap was much later than usual. I did get a couple of cute pictures of him there though.

Today I.....

2009-05-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

I finished my tree skirt today! I got this thing for Christmas 2 years ago. I finished the stitching on it last January, and had to wait to get a sewing machine to finish the rest of it. I got a sewing machine for Mother's Day so.....today I finished it. Yay hoo!