Dutch Door Love

I have always loved dutch doors.
How could you not?
They are so cute and scream cottage cuteness.
I do not live in a cottage...yet, but I do love the feel of them and anything I can do to "cottagefy" my house seems like a step in the right direction.

I spent yesterday afternoon at a little salvage store in Ballard called Ballard Reuse.  It has all the cool stuff pulled out of old homes.  Funky door knobs, leaded windows, old mantles and doors. Lots and lots of doors.

I had originally gone up there to get a door for my panty, but I got sidetracked.  The last time I was there I found a blue dutch door.  I told Joj about it and he said I should have bought it. Ugh, did not expect that response at all so this time around I thought "if they have another one it's coming home with me".  I even made sure to measure my current front door... just in case.

Well, there was another door.  It was the size I needed. It came home with me.

I'm sooo excited.  It's in really great shape (not always the case with the salvaged doors) and now the fun part is picking out what color to paint it.  I have a red door now, which is okay, but I'm ready for a change.  I kept thinking how fun a chambray colored door would be.  A quick instagram search and low and behold I found the perfect inspiration. 

Now I just need the rain to stop (rainiest January on record which is saying something for Seattle) so I can paint and get this baby hung. 
Happy Saturday
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At Last...

Here are the first tomatoes of the season. Despite their name "Early Girl" they seemed to have sure taken their time. I think I'm about 2 weeks from being up to my eyeballs in tomatoes, but that is okay. I can eat them like apples and the small ones like candy. My goal is to have enough to make some homemade sauce with the fruits of my labor (pun intended).

As a new school year looms, I find myself feeling that "fresh start" feeling starting to creep in. Every since I was 2 years old I have had a "first day of school", as a student, teacher and now a mom. For some reason it feels more the start of the year than January first. I'm feeling motivated to purge overflowing closets and refine my organizational systems to help ease our transition back to school.

My mom and I are thinking of trying our hand at a big bulk cooking session. I've done mini versions of bulk cooking and it wasn't that overwhelming and I LOVED having stuff on hand. Since my freezer space is limited I will probably keep things simple again by focusing mostly on prepping main ingredients like ground beef and chicken. I will probably brown up a bunch of ground beef so it is ready for tacos, chili, sloppy joes, etc. as well as cook and shred a bunch of chicken breasts. Of course, a mega batch of meatballs will most likely happen as well. I find that if I at least have a head start on something, I'm more likely to actually cook (at least that is what I keep telling myself)

Happy Sunday Everyone!!
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Inspired

Good Morning,

As evident by the lack of updating, the inspiration around here has been pretty lacking. I think between the insane amount of stuff happening this time of year and being sick (I had a doozy of a cold) there just hasn't been too much going on. In fact, the daily grind was starting to get to be a bit much. However, I'm happy to report I have received the shot in the arm I apparently needed.

Even though I haven't been blogging, my morning ritual includes checking out the other blogs hoping that something will inspire me to get up and get going. The common theme these days was the annual pilgrimage to the big Farm Chicks show in Spokane a couple of weekends ago. While I consider myself a pretty die hard "thrifter" I had never been "junkin'". So when Timi shot me an email about the Funky Junk Sisters show that was just down the hill from in me in good old Puyallup, I thought what the heck. Not only would I get a chance to finally meet Timi and Laura, but I thought I might find a little inspiration along the way.

My mom and I headed down there and we the best time. We hooked up with Timi and Laura who are exactly like I thought they would be, a total hoot, and started shopping. I've been reading their blogs forever and was so glad to finally meet them. (Who knew blogging would hook me up with such great folks) There was so much neat stuff. The folks that do these shows are so creative. How they can took at something and see the beauty in it is really amazing. I found myself just walking around thinking, "wow, how simple, but oh soooo fun". My favorite "trash to treasure" was using old knives as plant markers. Simple, fun and a project that takes 30 seconds which is very important to someone like me with horrible crafter ADD.

Walking around all the displays really made me want to go home, give my house a good cleaning and start looking at what I already had to transform into some kind of treasure. Last weekend while gsaling I found a desk that would be great for Sam's room. After seeing all the cute ideas, I'm totally inspired to finally get it finished. Not only is Sam's room on the top of the "to do" list, I'm inspired to look at the other rooms in my house. I am so craving "light, airy and uncluttered". It will be a big job, but worth it in the end.

Well, the laundry is needing to be put into the dryer. The only drawback to a fun packed weekend is that it is everything piles up and waits for you. Luckily, there isn't anything going on until tonight and the weather is nice and cool. A perfect day to work on the house.

HappyTuesday!!

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Garage Saling

Today is the big Heritage Park garage sale. I'm excited. It can be a pretty big sale and last year I scored my hutch for only 40 bucks. This year I'm not on the look out for anything particular (always dangerous) but I'm sure I will find something. The only draw back to this sale is that a lot of my friends live in this neighborhood and sometimes I feel funny digging through their stuff. It also makes it hard to haggle,on the other hand, sometimes I get the "just take it". I know that when I have a sale, if a friend shows up I tell them to just take what they want. There are a couple of other big sales around here so I'm hoping the hunting is good.
I'll let you know if I find anything good :0)

Target: A love/hate relationship

I used to love Target. My mom and I would always go there on the weekends and browse for hours. We would usually find some great deal and it was a lot of fun. That is no longer the case...

We have a "new" Target that is now part of our local and dying mall. The parking is a mess and I can never find anything and it is ALWAYS crowded. I'm sure it is basically the same as the old target stuff wise, but the layout is soo bad. It is actually stressful to shop there because you feel like you are in a rat maze. However, I do like there little "dollar" section. They do have the cutest things.

This Saturday, Sam's friend is having a birthday. Instead of the bday girl getting a bunch of presents she doesn't need her mom decided to have a gift exchange instead. I think this is a great idea. Since I was at Target the other day I thought I would pick up my gift. Sam isn't really into all the latest and greatest girl toys, so I was kind of stumped as to what to get. Target has a bunch of Valentine's Day cooking stuff so I thought I would do a cooking themed gift. I think everything is cute and I will throw in some cookie mix as well. So for less than 20 bucks I got the following: apron, matching pot holders, sprinkles, silicon baking mat, measuring spoons and cups, spatulas, doilies and tea towels.
I will probably go back and pick up some more stuff. Sam wants to have a Valentine Tea party and this stuff would be perfect for that.

I'm subbing again today and I gotta say, the mornings are tough. I don't see how working moms do it. Every time I sub I end up "talking very loudly" to my kids to get it in gear. I'm sure if this was our daily routine it wouldn't be such a battle, but it still isn't the nicest way to start the day. The upside to subbing of course is the little (and I do mean little) paycheck at the end of the month. I have to start squirreling some money away because in a couple of months, I'm heading back down to AZ for Jenny P's 40th bday. We are planning a repeat of nothing but sun, wine and girl talk by the pool. I can't wait.
Happy Tuesday everyone :0)

Are you worthy??

So with my garage sale pending for Saturday (the ONLY day with raindrops on the five day forecast) I thought it might be fun to share the rules that my mom and I use to determine if a garage sale is worthy for us to stop.

1. Have good signs.
Nice handwriting and easy to read are a must. If your signs are trashy looking it makes us think that your stuff will be too. You also get extra credit for bright colors.
Putting the date and time of the sale are also appreciated. Nothing is worse than trying to track down a sale that was held two weeks ago.
If you don't live off the main drag, put signs at every turn. You want folks to find you right??
2. Curb Appeal
Part of the garage sale dance is the slow the car down to peruse your stuff. Make sure that folks can see what you have before they have to get out of the car. If everything is hiding in your garage, we probably won't stop. At least have a couple of good "teaser" items close to the curb so it makes folks want to see more.
3. Displaying your wares
One of our big no no's is having stuff on the ground especially clothing. We do not want to be crawling around to see what you have. Make sure stuff is either folded nicely (yes, it will get all messed up, but refolding it will give you something to do during the down time) or hanging up.
Clean your stuff. It sounds simple, but no one wants to buy a dirty anything.
Organize by categories. Like stuff with like stuff. Think like a store. We are much more likely to stay and browse if it looks like you put some effort into your displays.
Cover those tables. Stuff just looks nicer when on a table with a tablecloth or sheet.
4. Pricing
Have your stuff clearly marked. Nothing drives me crazy like an unpriced garage sale. Don't ask me what I think it is worth, because it will probably be a lot less then what you want.
Don't tell me how much you paid for it. I don't care. If you are trying to get rich, put your stuff on Craigslist or ebay. It is a garage sale and folks are looking for bargains.
Expect to haggle. I need nothing that I'm buying. The thrill is purely in the hunt and the thrill of that great score.

There you have it. Our "rules". Of course now we must also follow these rules ourselves which means some work between now and Saturday. Today will be spent pulling out more items to sell and start pricing. Most stuff will be $5 or less. I have a couple pieces of furniture. I have a waterfall vanity that I bought about 15 years ago (at a garage sale) from a man to claimed to be Stevie Nicks' uncle. He told me that he use to change her diapers on it. Don't know if it's true or not, but make an interesting story. Will keep you posted on the progress.

Joji survives and some fabu finds

Joji is on his way home from man camp. He called to say he survived (as did his eyebrows) and that he had a good time. I can't wait to hear all about it and as a bonus, I have been promised pictures. When he called on Saturday, I asked how the stuffed jalapenos were and he said HOT. (well, duh, they're jalapenos) He said that they were going to try and figure out a way to "mellow them out". I guess the next time I make them I will need to precook the peppers some how. I think a good par boil might do the trick. Will keep you posted on that one.

On Saturday there were a bunch of garage sales around here. My mom, Akiko and I were very excited. There were a couple of big neighborhood sales that in years past have been full of great deals. Unfortunately the sales that we were excited about turned out to be real duds. I'm so glad my friend Jessica didn't drive down from Lynnwood to go to these stinkers. That being said we found a couple of real gems and got the best deals. Don't you just love when you are at a sale and the person holding it in total "just get it out of here" mode??

Here are a few of my finds:

5 frames for $7.
Three were these wooden white ones and two were little Mary Englebriet ones. I probably would of tried to haggle her down to $5, but her craiglist ad was entitled "Suddenly Single Sale" and she was trying to wrangle 4 rowdy kids during the sale as well. She looked tired, so no haggling.


Apothecary Jar for $2 (don't hate me)

I don't know if you can tell by the picture, but it is really big. I'm not sure what to put in it yet, but for $2 I HAD to buy it. At the same sale I picked up a set of salt and pepper mills (I forgot to get a pic of them) They are your basic wood ones, but I have plans to transform them. Somewhere on some random blog I saw a pic of pepper mills painted the sweetest baby blue with small white polka dots. I found the price tag of almost $50 a bit steep, so when I saw this set for a buck I snatched them up. Now I just need a little paint and I will be all set.

I think my best find of the day came at one of our last stops. The lady running the sale had 3 pieces of pierced work porcelain on a table. There was a footed compote/cake stand, an oval platter and a tall teapot. I asked how much the compote and platter would be. She said $10 for all three. I told her I didn't want all three and she said it was a set. (It really wasn't a real set, they were different makers and styles, but whatever). I told her I didn't want all three and would she take $5 for the compote and platter. She then told me how I would be able to display the "set" and she just couldn't understand why I didn't want all three pieces. I told her those were great ideas, but I just wanted the two pieces and would she take $5. She then huffed, rolled her eyes and then said in a really rude tone, "Gimme your five dollars". If the pieces weren't really good, I would have walked off, but $2.50 a piece for these babies, I'll take a little grumpiness.



So now it is a very quiet Sunday afternoon around here. The M's are losing to the Tribe. I miss the days of decent M's teams. (How sad is that?? Seattle fans are reduced to hope for and be happy with mediocre) Anyway, it is a gorgeous day and I'm off for a little cat nap before dinner.

So lovin' the G'dub

My thrifting mojo seems to have returned. Today I went to the local Goodwill and was doing my usual browse. I was looking for some red transfer ware, but I'm a little OCD and must shop the store in a certain pattern (does anyone else do this, besides my mom?) Anyway, as I perused the linens something caught my eye, some pink chenille. I LOVE chenille!! So on further investigation it turns out to be a quilt and sham set (1 F/Q quit and 2 standard shams). I look a little more closely and see that they are "Simple Shabby Chic for Kids". SCORE!!!!
I have been wanting to redo Sam's room for a good 3 months now and I just haven't had any luck finding the right bedding. I had found some stuff, but it would have required some sewing, the pieces weren't completely right and I was getting a little overwhelmed. So today when I saw this set I snatched it up.
Now truth be told, it isn't exactly what I wanted. The blues are a little more 'aqua-y' than I like, but it was cute, complete and close enough. I have looked at the shabby chic stuff at Target many times and on several occasions come close to breaking down and just buying it, but I could never bring myself to pull the trigger on the $120 price tag. I figured I should really, really love it to justify that kind of money. On the other hand, for $38 close enough works just fine.
When I brought it home to show Sam, she loved it. I think this just might be the shot in the arm to get things going. I also saw a pic in the new BHG that showed some white cabinets with the backs painted pink. It looked great and I'm thinking I might do this with the shelves I got a couple of weeks ago. I love when stuff starts to fall into place.

The Fun in being Frugal

This weekend proved to be a very frugal one. On Thursday, our local market was having a meat sale and ended up spending $65 but saved $67. How can you pass up fresh, boneless, skinless chicken breasts for a $1.86 a pound?? You can't and I bought 20 pounds :0) They also had their really good thick cut bacon for $1.88 a pound, so I stoked up on that too. I also "prepped" the bacon so that even though it is frozen, I can just pullout enough for a meal. The prep is so important in cooking and so worthwhile when I actually take the time to do it. It is like Rachel Ray is always going on about when you come home from the grocery, prep you stuff so that it is ready to go when you are.

Last but not least, one of my favorite frugal pastimes is garage saling. Not a bad way to kill a couple of hours and you never know what you might find. Today I found this cute little memo board. I will probably replace the cork with chalkboard. I have my pantry doors painted right now and I really like them. However, The plan is to rebuild the space and the folding doors will be history. I do however love my chalkboard for that never ending grocery list so this little baby will be perfect.