Happy Reformation Day!

From Snow White and the Prince. Pictures of Dopey will be forthcoming.

Just a heads up... and no, it's not too early

You might have noticed around this time last year that I had a link on the sidebar to a great website called OrganizedChristmas.com. However, at the time, I didn't have time to explain why I love this site so much. As you might have noticed, I'm not as organized as I'd like to be and websites like this are joy to my heart. I found this website during our first Christmas season as husband and wife and over those few years it's grown and expanded. This site is where I get my Christmas Card list and my Master Gift List and many other very helpful printables for my Christmas organizing binder. Follow this link for fabulous ideas on how to create your own Christmas Organizing Notebook. One of my favorite parts of my binder is a special envelope I keep for Christmas expense receipts (in the budget divider, of course) and another envelope I have just to keep the gift receipts from the store until I give the gift to the intended recipient. I know it's helped me and my household keep our sanity during the joyous holiday season, maybe this can help you too.

Thanks Cait!

Our dear Caitlin took this picture during one of the recent weddings and I just love this shot. We might not all be smiling (ahem, cough, David) but at least we're all looking in the same direction!

Pumpkin Kids

October in the Flock

Sorry, I haven't been posting so much lately~ we've been a little busy lately having a smashing time with Aunt Cait, who just might be the best aunt in the world. We are all so excited to have her with us, especially the kids. They wake up and immediately start talking about what they can do with Auntie Cait today. Last Saturday Cait, Dabney, our friend Yvonne and I went to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch for a girls' day out and had a wonderful time in the gorgeous weather, riding the hayride and picking our pumpkins.







Did I mention that we are loving Aunt Cait being with us? To top it all off, we even have plans to sew together this week! I'm thrilled. It's been so long since I sewed something somewhat unnecessary! (And yes, pictures will be coming shortly of my projects.) Going to JoAnns with my sister for a big sale brought back so many memories of those crazy nights where we'd stay up late picking out our patterns and fabrics and waiting in line at the cutting table. Remember those nights, Mom? Fun stuff. Gotta go revel in my lovely fabrics now.

I Forgot to Show You

I forgot to show you the hardware for the dresser we decided to use! Please excuse the mess on top (I'm still re-arranging contents) and the little feet to the left.


P.S. And yes I did make my own tassel for my dresser, but please don't tell Nester!

Bribery

Did you know that I take (on average) 25 bad pictures for every 1 good picture?

And finally I had to bribe them with chocolate chips (especially the littlest one) to get them to sit still. And that explains the picture below.

The Classic

It's that time again here in Colorado. The time of year that you pour yourself a second cup of coffee just to feel the warmth from the mug and smell the silky deliciousness. The time of year you when check on your sleeping children just to make sure their toes are covered in warm socks. The time of year when you stock up on hot chocolate for the pantry. I even brought in my citrus trees and my blooming standards last week to preserve them from the danger of frost and they are now happy and settled in for the winter in close range to the sunlight. So, when my family turned up exhausted at the end of a long stressful week and with the beginnings of sinus problems, I knew just what to do. I'm not sure how this recipe came to my kitchen, but it is my standard for warmth, comfort and liquid love. This recipe has made it into my 'greatest hits' cookbook, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 lg onion
1 chicken
1 gallon of water
2/3 bunch of celery
1 lb carrots
3 bay leaves
10 peppercorns
1/4 c chicken soup base
1 lb carrots (yes, another one)
1/3 bunch of celery
8 oz egg noodles

In a large stock pot, boil together chicken with roughly chopped onion, roughly chopped carrots, roughly chopped celery (2/3) bay leaves and peppercorns in the gallon of water. Boil 1-2 hours. Remove chicken and set aside to cool. Strain stock through a cheesecloth lined sieve, then add stock back to the pot. If you wish, you can run the broth by the ladle-full through your fat separator . Add soup base and remaining carrots and celery all sliced thin on the mandoline. [These can be expensive but I have a cheap plastic version I got for around $10 at Bed Bath and Beyond years ago. It's fast and it makes you look like a professional.] Take the chicken off the bone and add it back to the pot. Boil the egg noodles separately (Seriously, do this~ otherwise the noodles will absorb all of that wonderful chicken broth and that would be a tragedy) and add to the soup. Wrap yourself in a warm sweater and enjoy!

From Trash to Treasure

Tim and I have been looking for a long dresser for a while, just sort of biding our time until we found a good deal on what we were looking for. Well, that time came this week when a lady on Craigslist was selling an old dresser that she said needed paint. Her asking price~ $15. She had bought it at a garage sale for $20 and she was sacrificing it for $15 just to get it our of her garage. I replied as soon as I could because I knew that the deal would go really fast. Praise God, she emailed me back letting me know that she would let me have it!

It was painted this nasty, brown trying-to-look-like-wood color. I removed the ugliest drawer hardware the 70's ever produced and filled the holes with wood filler. I sanded the life out of it (or should I say, into it) and revealed a nice pine base.

The 60 grit sandpaper in the sander mouse worked wonders for stripping the paint.

After I sanded and sanded and sanded, I stained the pine with red mahogany stain from Minwax. I figured that this shade would be the closest match to our cherry headboard.

I just finished the 3rd coat of clear semi-gloss polyurethane tonight and I think it turned out quite nicely. I haven't replaced the hardware yet; I'm looking for just the right drawer pulls ~I'm thinking something rubbed bronze. I'm pretty satisfied how our $15 dresser looks now, and it will hold our clothes well~ which is why we bought it.

Glider Make-Over

We bought this glider on December 23, 2005. I remember it well because I was 8.5 months pregnant with our first son. He wasn't due for 6 more days so I was glad to have the glider as an early Christmas present. Now this is not an expensive piece of furniture but it definitely serves it's purpose. I assembled the glider as soon as we brought it home (from KMart) ~ I love to assemble things~ and right before we headed out for a Christmas party. Of course, that very night after the party, I went into labor and the next morning delivered our Christmas Eve baby boy. One thing I neglected to think about was how dirty things get around babies~ diapers, spit up, etc. I really should have Scotch-guarded the whole chair.

Fast forward to this week. I've washed the chair pads many times and it really looks pretty bad. It may be "clean" but appeared shabby. And not in the good way. So I decided to recover the chair. I saw really beautiful toile fabrics at JoAnn fabrics for $15- $25/ yard, but I decided on the Walmart version for under $6/ yard. I think it turned out pretty well. And I remembered to use ScotchGuard.

It looks expensive, doesn't it? This whole project cost around $15.

With some extra fabric, I covered this 99 cent Goodwill lampshade (it was still in the original wrapping) and gave it some cool trim. I love how it turned out.