Maturity at it's finest...

Making Home

I've recently come across bloggers that have posted a few of the ways they love making their house homey (see here and here).  I'm loving it.  So I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and share with you some of my favorite things...

Fresh Flowers.
I don't have them around as often as I like, but one of my goals this spring is to make it a habit to browse the discounted flowers when I stop at the store.  The four places I have flowers right now came from one discount bouquet.  If you love having flowers around also, but don't like the price / life span ratio, I would suggest daisies.  They come in several different colors, and they last forever. Change the water every once in a while and trim the stems, you'll have them looking great for weeks.

I love putting my flowers in different kinds of vases. I use drinking glasses, Mason jars, colored glass, et cetera.

in the half bathroom

 in the main bathroom

making the living room pretty

freshening up the mantle 

Mood Music

I love music.  Emphasis on love.  I love the way it fills the empty air with life.  Some of my favorite artists I enjoy lingering in the background are: 

Fourplay

Chris Botti

James Taylor

Candles

For the spring, I plan on swapping out my color candles for white.  I'm a sucker for fall and Christmas colors at according times, but there's something crisp and clean about white candles that I find refreshing and ever so spring-ish.

courtesy of purplehomes.blogspot.com

courtesy of bhg.com

Food

If you know me, you know I like food.  So this isn't really a shocker.  I love to feed people.  This is my way of making you feel comfortable in my home.  So if you're coming over, more than likely I'll have some sort of food. Whether it be cookies or a full meal.

So those are some of my favorite things that make my house comfortable for me, my family, and all who enter... What are your favorite things?

Always Remember...

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth

-Abraham Lincoln

Confessions of a Kitchen Failure

This isn't going to be a how-to blog about the latest thing that was on my dinner plate.

Because to be honest, it was frozen pizza.

I would have taken some great pictures of my dinner last night, but my dinner was not great. 

We have been very thankful through the last couple of years to get free deer meat from my grandparents.  I think free meat is one of the biggest blessings, since it's always the most expensive thing on my grocery list.  We have accumulated ground deer meat, (awesome in chili), and some deer minute steaks from them... 

The minute steaks make me nervous.  I have no idea what to do with them.  My grandpa swears that if you just salt and pepper them and pan fry them, they're next to heaven.  So a while ago I dredged them in a flour, salt, and pepper mixture, then pan fried it.  Ick.  Failure #1.

Come last night.  I  figure everyone has "off" days in the kitchen, no matter what you make. So I pulled up my big girl britches and decided to give it another try.  This time, we tried them with Lawry's Seasoned Salt.  {I'm convinced that Lawry's makes anything taste good. If you don't have any in your pantry, get some}. And we put them on our inside grill.  Failure #2.  No amount of barbecue sauce was helping either.  We tried.

I've come to the conclusion it's not the way I'm making them.  It's the meat.  It's the only logical answer.  To confirm this, I text my mom {her and my dad got real burned out on deer meat early on... my grandpa seems to think that he needs to get a whole deer. every. single. year.} and it went a little something like this:

me: "So this is the second time I've tried the deer minute steaks, and second failure. I think I'm gonna give up.  I know there are starving kids around the world, and I wish I could send them my deer minute steaks, 'cause I'm done"

mom: "Believe me. I understand."

So they will stay in the (very back of the) freezer for now.  Chris and I had a discussion on whether we would rather starve or eat deer minute steaks.  We decided they would probably be handy if push comes to shove.

Then I put a pizza in the oven and life went on.

Sweet As A Rose

When we moved in our house, I noticed there were a few rose bushes around the house.

I'm ashamed to say now that after dogs, planting other bushes, and just plain ol' neglect, there is only one left, but I have taken to caring for it and giving it it's best life.

The beautiful white blooms make me wish it could talk.

Strange.  Let me explain...

As I was talking to a neighbor, she told me that two owners before us was a sweet old lady that lived in our house.  And she had beautiful roses everywhere... I wish I could sit on my front porch with a glass of iced tea and learn everything there is to know about roses from a sweet old lady.  But since I can't, I will settle for enjoying a piece of beauty that she loved and (knowingly or unknowingly) passed on.

Surprised

My husband has been full of surprises these last few days... Mother's Day was Sunday, and my birthday was Wednesday...

My first "Mother's Day" gift from my husband, Chris.  It's a "Baby's First Year" memory book. I'm so excited for October to start filling it out!

This is my birthday gift that was sitting on my dresser that morning with a note that simply said "Happy Birthday Babe. I love you." I've been eyeing this kind of watch for a while, but he picked out this specific one. I love it. 

And this is my birthday dinner.  My man does wonders on the grill.  Complete with my home-grown chives.

Saving Dimes

I hate spending money on cleaning necessities.  Remember my homemade anti-bacterial wipes? I still use them and love them.  Although, on a side note, I would suggest throwing them all in the laundry every once in a while and starting over - if you aren't going through them very them often.  They can start to smell funny after a while in an airtight container.

I know people make their own laundry soap, so a quick "Google" search landed me with countless recipes. They were all basically the same, but I chose a "dry" recipe.  Super easy!

Laundry Detergent:
2 c. finely grated Fels Naptha (or Ivory) soap
1 c. washing (or baking) soda
1 c. Borax

Use 2T. per load.

The Moolah Details:
Borax  - $2.98
Baking soda - $0.48
Ivory (3 bars for $1.07) - $0.36/per bar

Grating the soap was kind of fun... and smelled oh-so fresh.

I already had a container at home, so I didn't have to purchase anything to store it in.  Although a Ziploc bag would work just fine.

So here's the fun part...

Store-bought laundry detergent: $4.98 for 32 loads = $0.16/load
*I have tried the cheaper detergents, and find that the soap just doesn't wash out a lot of times. My clothes go to the dryer with little white specks on them. Not cool.

Homemade laundry detergent (I made 1 1/2 times the recipe):
I used less than 1/4 of the Borax box, but 1/4 is - $0.75
1- 16oz. box baking soda (used most of it) - $0.48
2 bars Ivory soap (one bar = about 1 1/2 c. grated) - $0.72   - Total: $1.95

1 1/2 times the recipe made approximately 4 c. detergent...
4c. laundry soap = 64 T. = 32 loads = $.06 per load




Next on the agenda is homemade dishwasher detergent.
Let me know if you try it!  I'll be making it as soon as my store-bought is gone.

Dishwasher Detergent:
1 c. washing (or baking) soda
1 c. Borax

Use 2T. per load and vinegar for rinse agent if desired.