A Thrifty Garden

I was so excited to run across seeds at the dollar store yesterday. I was even more excited that they had seeds for some beautiful flowers that I have always wanted to try and grow.

I bought all these seeds for less than $15.00. The little packets were four for a dollar and the bulbs were a dollar each. I need to go back and buy more. I am having flower seed anxiety.

So hopefully I can get my act together this spring and at least plant some flowers from seed. I have three tiered planting boxes leading down to the basement french doors that I want to plant nothing but flowers in. I have visions of sitting in my front room and gazing out the bay window to see peonies, cosmos, zinnias, and ranunculus. I wanted to be really select about the flower colors, but these seeds were just too good of a deal to pass up. I am afraid my peony bulbs will not be as cheap, but I just have to have them. I cannot wait to go out into the backyard and pick fresh cut flowers to put in the house. Dream come true!

My other hope is to have three growing boxes in the backyard against the fence so that I can plant vegetables, fruit, and herbs. Down by the basement I also want to plant blackberries and raspberries so that they can grow up the wall down there. I hoping I can get some starts from my Sister-in-laws garden. She also has some clematis which she got from our first house we ever lived in together in Provo. So I for-sure want to plant some of that so we can have a little piece of our past her at this house. The only thing that may hold all my plans up is that we also want to put a fence in sometime. We are still debating on when to do it though. So I have to figure out what is top on the list. A fence would be so nice so that we do not have to heard the dog and child as much, but if we spend all are money on that there will not really be anything back there anyways. I really want to get started on planting things too, since it takes a couple of years for everything to mature and get just right. So we will see.

Filet Mignon with Herb-and-Cheese Potatoes

Here is a dinner recipe I tried out this week courtesy of Martha. It turned out really good and was very yummy. Just don't believe Martha when she tells you that if you put olive oil on your baking sheet your fries will not stick. I will be using parchment paper next time. She also forgets to mention what temperature to bake the fries at. We bake ours at about 400 degrees usually. I substituted the cotija cheese which my grocer did not carry for hand grated parmesan cheese, and used sweeter yukon potatoes instead of russet potatoes. Cotija is very similar to parmesan so it work out just fine.

This was an easy recipe with minimal ingredients, but lots of flavor. The butter was amazing on the filet mignon. I will for-sure be making the fries again and would love to serve this meal to dinner guests if I can bring myself to spend the $ bucks $ to do it. Our two filets which were a decent size cost $13.00. Compared to going out it is a good price, but it would be expensive to do for a full dinner party with guests.

Framing the Past

Something inside of me has always been strongly drawn to the past. Growing up I was often told by adults that I had an "old soul". I contribute this to my love for all things with history and a story to tell. If it is old I want it!

Thankfully I have a Grandmother who has not only kept tons of pictures, but the items that go along with the pictures and stories. After acquiring my Great-Grandmothers dining table I knew I would dedicate that room to my family heritage. I have always dreamed of blowing up old black and white pictures and shadow-boxing long forgotten trinkets, and I am finally getting around to it. Right now I am just using what I have as far as frames, pictures, and items are concerned. In the future I hope to take a Saturday and visit with my Grandma again to see what other fun things I can resurrect. A picture of my dining-room set at my Great-Grandmothers house is top on my list of treasures to find.

I took these photos that we have of an ancestor in his produce truck decorated for the Farmington Utah Pioneer Celebration parade in 1914, and simply made copies of them and printed them at home onto photo paper. Then I framed them in this frame adding a map of the Mormon Pioneer exudes that I found and printed from online.

This picture is actually of one of my Grandmas elementary school teachers funny enough. I just could not pass it up with its more than amazing picture booth background. I then added old beads from broken necklaces that I had found at my Grandmas in an old skippy peanut butter jar.

This is a wallet size picture of my Great-Grandma Lund that I included in a frame with a napkin she embroidered ( I still have to confirm that though) I think I have a better one that she actually embroidered her initials on, but until I come across that one this will due. I also placed her sewing thimble along with the box she bought it in and wrote her name on, on the outside of the frame.

This is a picture I loved of Grandpa Lund fixing a fence at his Sister-in-laws house in California with Grandma Lund over seeing the work. The background in this photo is an old cloth seed bag I found in a tool chest my Grandma gave to my husband. It didn't belong to Grandpa Lund I am sure, but I thought it went along with the story in the picture.

Displaying old family photos and items is such an easy way to gain a sense of pride in your family history, and feel closer to those who have come before you. What family treasures have you found or displayed?

I have many more amazing family photos and items that I want to display and I will be sure to share them with you as I work on them.

Testing...123...Testing...

So after my last trip to D.I. I vowed not to go back until I was done with all my pending projects, but how I ended up at my favorite D.I. in Provo this last weekend was not my fault I swear.

We were driving my brother-in-law who babysat for us Friday night back to his apartment at the Y and decided to drive around and help him look for a new car since his has broken down indefinitely. Ryan and him spotted a potential car at a used car dealership right across from D.I. and it was Ryan's brilliant idea to drop me off with Jayna while they went over and checked it out.

So the fact that we ended up bringing another coffee table home was ridiculous, but not surprising. My justification was that I liked it in the state it was in and that if it didn't work size wise it would be a perfect item to consign. I love it in the front room and it is helping me mentally pull this room together. I have two chairs out in the garage that I am planning on painting white and reupholstering in place of the two wood ones that are currently in there. So right now it looks a little mismatched, but like everything else it is getting there.

This is the first time I have run across the problem of a thrift piece smelling of smoke though. After doing some research online I think I am going to simply put a top-coat on it to seal it up again and hope that does the trick. As for now we have a smoking and non-smoking room I guess. I have to still clean the bottom too, hence the garbage bag underneath it.

I have a cute little story about the accessories on the table too. I wanted to decorate it and see just how much I liked it in the room so I was messing around with different groupings on it. Jayna got so into it! She was grabbing toys she had and placing them on the table and putting fake plants in different things. Then she would ask me "Mom, do you love it?" it was hysterical. As someone who always complains about not having shopping and decorating friends it almost brought me to tears. It was my first glimpse at a mother daughter decorating team. She would even sit on the couch with me and look at the table, and then when I went and got a decorating book to reference some ideas she grabbed her coloring book and joined me. I will always remember that moment as long as I live. The first time we decorated a room together.

So you will have to let me know what you think of this table since I am testing it out. Should I paint it? What are your suggestions? There are pictures of the coffee table I had in there previously in this post.

Beauty Night

For activity day this next week we are doing a big "Beauty Night". I got the inspiration and tag line from this clever lady. These are the invitations I made to mail out to the girls. I usually just drop the little reminders off at their houses, but I am trying to make it a big deal for them. I thought they would be excited to get something in the mail too.

We are going to do their makeup, take their pictures, do facial masks, and have treats. I have tons of makeup from my 7 years of being a make-up artist for Macy's and Nordstom, so it is fitting this will be at my house. This party idea and invitations would be fun for any girls birthday party though. So next week I will be working on turning the basement into a day spa for nine 10 and 11 year old girls.

Good grief!

Before and After: Dining-Room Light

I am not too fond of the cheap lights that came with our house. They are just basic cheap contractors lights. There was a dining-room chandelier that was less than exciting, but budget wise I opted to work with it since there are so many other things I rather be spending money on.

I spray-painted it white awhile ago, but it still was not giving me the look I was going for.

So I replaced all the glass covers with new ones purchased at Lowes and then dug up some old beaded garland I had and Ta Da...

I now have a pretty cute light for over my dining-room table. I just have to have the husband swag it so that it is centered and sew a chain cover for it. I will be sure to post pictures after I do so.

Let There Be Light

The new kitchen table light is up and I love it. It now feels like there is suppose to be a table there.

I got the light at Ikea and hope to get the matching chairs that I mentioned before sooner than later. I will also most-likely be replacing the black dresser you see in the background with the refurbished gun cabinet which will be painted in the same grey as the table. So it is getting there.

The Perfect Blue

Awhile back I helped a friend who moved to Virginia pick out colors for her new home. The blue we picked for her living-room and kitchen area was the blue dreams are made of. It is a Benjamin Moore color of course and the name of it is yarmouth blue HC-150.

The color in her kitchen area before was a green which made the honey colored cabinets and floor look golden and stark. Living back east for the first time she also wanted something more historical in color to embrace all the history she saw around her. When she sent me the after pictures I was in love. The color looked so amazing photographed that I could have cared less how it looked in person. I would paint a room in this color just to see it in a picture.

Since this client I have also helped a Sister-in-law paint a guest bedroom in this color and it is still as amazing as the first time I used it.

Both times this color was mixed at Home Depot in Behr Paint.