Painting Clay Pots with Chalk Paint

These little pots were born in my mind the day my husband bought me the little dish garden with all the various plants in there. All dish gardens grow up and demand their own space eventually! These are just plain old clay pots with rub-ons I purchased from the craft store. Such fun and not a lot of money.

Decorative additions to the kitchen makeover

The overall new touches in the kitchen

I had been searching for the perfect chalkboard for this space. I found this wall hanging shelf at a local shop. It was perfect by dimension and has a little box at the bottom where I can store chalk and eraser. It had a clip attached and I found a small chalkboard at JoAnn's that clips on perfectly. I probably need to rub a little stain on the wood frame but this is exactly what I was looking for. I bet this would be simple to make.

The Chalkboard

The old train schedule is from 1968, when I traveled by train to see my boyfriend (now hubby) who was away at college. My girlfriend and I went down for homecomng.

This little drawer matched it and it houses the remote, pens and other useful items.

 I love this little chippy white chair I bought for the desk. I thought about a cushion for it, but for now, it just has a little burlap tie and a small pillow my sister gave me that says "dream" on it.

"simple touches that make me smile"

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Adorable Burlap Stool

Burlap! I'm in love with it!

I store wheat in plastic buckets

One of my favorite places to go browse for fun new things for my house is Home Goods. I've found some really great bargains there. (I do not get paid for mentioning any store in my blog.) On a recent jaunt I spotted this adorable burlap stool with a padded top! The price was $19.99, I swooped it up, wishing they had three of them.

 I purchased this with a thought in mind, actually several thoughts. One, extra seating, especially when the grandkids are visiting. Two, a place to stash my wheat that I can readily access when I need to fill my smaller pantry bin. Three... well I just love burlap!

The photo is a little dark, but as you can see, the bucket fits down inside the stool, but sticks out the top. So I simply added a ruffle to the lid to hide the part of the bucket that is sticking out the top. This has got me thinking though. For any of you that also store wheat, we could easily cover our buckets with burlap. Buy a foam pad for the lid and cover it with burlap and voila! Extra seating and wheat storage dilemma solved.

So maybe you don't store wheat. You can even buy this type of empty bucket at the home improvement store. Think of it, You could store your kids toys, camping gear, tools, you name it. So grab your glue gun and go cover one and come back and tell me where I can see it.

Please let me know about ways you disguise your buckets of wheat. I'm just thrilled with mine. 

just one problem now...i'm staying away from bread for now :(

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6 tips on How to Store Favorite Cookbooks

6 Tips for Storing Favorite Cookbooks

and other books in your kitchen

I have always enjoyed cooking, thus, I have accumulated various and sundry books throughout my near 43 years of marriage along with books on gardening, specialty growing, books about birds and those on herbs. I like to keep them all in a handy location so I am able to easily refer to them.
Tip 1
I prefer to sort my cookbooks by type. The first thing I would aim for is to keep cookbooks I use regularly in a convenient location. For me this includes, my Better Homes and Gardens, Joy of Cooking, my Louisiana cookbooks and some church cookbooks with many family favorites and lastly one I compiled for my grown children that includes all their favorites growing up. each of these books fit neatly in the bottom drawer of my desk in the kitchen.

Tip 2
I have many diet cookbooks, from Weight Watchers mainly. I keep those on a shelf above the desk inside the cabinet. You will want to sort your books accordingly. It simplifies finding the recipe you want when you need it.
Tip 3
I have appliances that came with a cookbook too that I occasionally like to refer to. I own a Cameron cooker and a Vitamix for instance. Most of these are irregular shapes and sizes. I store those a shelf in the same cabinet as my diet books.
Tip 4
If you are a gardener, you might have collected numerous books on different subjects involving gardening. I found a lovely cranberry crate at a local shop and it works perfectly for most of my gardening and birding books.

It fits perfectly on the bottom of this little shelf.

 Tip 5 Some of my garden books were too big to fit in the crate. I love that the doors on my sweet shabby piece in the breakfast room  can house the too tall books. 

With computers now, we have the luxury of storing recipes online or on our home computer. I frequently find myself with my iPad on its prop with a recipe I'm cooking. 
Having all your books handy in the kitchen brings me to 

Tip 6 When you are ready to menu plan, everything is at your fingertips right there in your kitchen or workstation. When your books are organized it makes it easy to plan meals, make your grocery list and go shopping.

Cooking kind of evolves. I didn't learn a lot of lessons from my mother, but I did learn in Home Economics. I must say I observed my mother as she cooked and she was really good at it. I fondly remember coming in on a snowy day to GIANT yeast rolls, to this day I crave them and cave in if a restaurant places that basket on the table. Her cinnamon rolls were divine! She loved to bake and always had fresh bread made along with cakes and cookies and pies.

Here is my mom's well loved book, can't you just feel her love of decades of cooking?

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Easter Mantel and Spring Decor

easter mantel and spring decor

I am finally getting around to sharing my Easter and Spring decor, it will soon be time to take Easter down.

I loved these little grass pots, they screamed spring to me. I propped them in tiers using some old spools

I had been seeing the coffee filter wreaths on Pinterest and wanted to make one. These are very hard to make loose. I'm pleased with the outcome. This is the view of the entire mantel. I love the daisies in the old enamelware tub.

The centerpiece for the breakfast table is relaxed and makes me smile each morning. The napkins are some new ones I picked up at Pier One and could not resist the burlap bird napkin rings.

I love using odd items for napkins. These butterfly drawer pulls made me swoon. A bargain at Hobby Lobby.

This little creamer stays out all year. This cabinet in my breakfast houses very special items that mean a lot to my husband and myself. I love things that tell a story. This little creamer belongs to my 90 year old mother. A neighbor gave it to her when she was a little girl. I cherish it. The little lamb statue was something my husband gave to his grandmother when he was a boy. His mother passed it back to him, it has been well loved, broken, re-glued and rubbed to death. The plate behind was also his grandmothers and the white canisters belong to my mom.

I have had this bunny in a crochet dress forever. This year she lounges inside a gathering basket under the cabinet in the breakfast room.

Pier One had these cute Easter trees bundled in burlap, of course I couldn't resist. I ceramic basket was a Goodwill find.

If you know me you know how I love birds. The ornaments for this tree are so sweet. A fun accent to this years Easter decor.

You know those little dollar bins that Target has at the front of their store? I always find cute little things there. Most of the time for my grandkids. But I simply couldn't resist this cute paper egg for $1. :)

My dining room centerpiece stayed very simple. This is most cheerful, I love it.

 You might recognize this little branch from my Valentine post, yes I just swapped out he galvanized heart ornaments I made and replaced them with cute egg ornaments.

In our family we love this song, "Don't worry, 'bout a thing cause every little thing's gonna be alright". When I saw the cute bee post pins I knew in a moment what I would do with them, love the play on words.

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Make your small laundry bright and pretty

itty bitty laundry

When I purchased my new Samsung front loaders I measured carefully.... or so I thought.

The thing that sticks out of the door that goes in the door jamb to keep the door closed barely brushed the front window of the dryer.... sigh

I promptly taped the door closer flat against the door until I could figure out what to do. 

Options:

Take door off

Send the pair back to the store and choose top loaders

Have a plumber come and shorten the gas pipe that causes the pair to jut out into the room

Order doors two doors that fit the opening.

I decided to order the doors and had them installed to open into the hall. It worked out well.

Here is the set up so far. I need handles for the cabinets and I think I want to get rid of the bases so I can use the top of the machines for folding.

I may try to use them under the white cabinets on the wall under the stairs in there. They provide excellent storage. I just cannot reach into the cabinets above them anymore without a step stool.

 These cabinets make nice storage, but I think different handles would give them a better look?

 The bottles hold my laundry soap.

 The cute metal bide has my swifter stack and the other cubbie holds the dusters.

 This is a utility room. Various floor cleaning tools hang here. aprons, battery storage and electric screw driver stay here. Those little baskets hanging on the wall are used in the summer months to guard our food from bugs when serving outdoors. I think they make cute wall art in the mean time. :)

 I found an old bushel basket like my mother used to use and put extra pool towels in it.

 The colorful bins hold raffia that I use to tie herbs or gifts, the next one holds swim diapers for our "wee guests" pun intended. And the bottoms has string, jute, burlap ribbon that I'm always using for something.

 This sign is so colorful and matched my color scheme completely. Love the thought.

Here is the view walking in. Any suggestions or comments welcome. This is a work in progress.

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