Up-Cycling a Tire into a Hanging Flower Planter
I experienced the joy of a flat tire on a freeway once. Since I was a capable, smart, educated woman I fully intended to help the roadside assistance guys out by getting the spare tire ready while I waited for them to show up. This story does not have the ending I envisioned. While I am capable, smart and educated, I do not have the strength of a grown man to extricate a full-size spare tire out from its cage underneath the bottom of a SUV. Nor do I want those kind of manly man muscles. That would look funny. All this to say, when it comes to projects involving tires, I’m…
How to Clean a Nasty Booster Seat
Here’s my advice to all you new parents out there. Never buy the light pink car seat. Ever. Don’t buy any light-colored car seat. Even if all your hormones scream you want the pretty pink flowery car seat just slowly STEP AWAY. Seriously. Stick with black. You will thank me later. Before you have kids you might make ridiculous statements like “I’m never going to let my kids eat in the car.” Okay…I actually said that. And then I quickly realized the only way to survive a car ride longer than 0.3 seconds is to have plenty of snacks on hand. Okay, I exaggerate. Slightly. On the plus side, if…
Ode to Summer Vacation
Here we are, last weekend of summer vacation. The kids are excited to start Kindergarten and 3rd grade. I’m excited for them. It’s just that the Kindergarten milestone is a doozy on a mama. Especially since his “firsts” are my “lasts.” I don’t even want to think ahead to when my daughter goes to middle school. No sirree. We spent most of July in Oregon learning how to drive a tractor… ….and teaching Grandpa that you really can jump from hay bale to hay bale. Whether or not he thinks you should is a different matter. Those hay bales did conveniently disappear one day… We cooled off at every splash…
Notebook Paper Lunchbox Notes – Free Printable
We are in back-to-school countdown mode around these parts! I always associate the start of school with fall, but in Georgia it is still 95 degrees. Definitely not fall-like weather. Maybe in a couple of months… But whether I think it feels like the start of school or not, it’s still starting! Time to get with the program. Last year I started packing my daughter’s lunch with reusable lunchbox notes. I made these day-of-the-week notes and will keep using them this year. They’ve held up great! (There’s a free printable if you click on the link to that post.) This is my son’s first time in all-day school, so he gets to…
Outdoor Decorating with Farm Junk
My stepmom has put in countless dirty, filthy hours cleaning out old barns and sheds on the family farm. God bless her. There have been piles for Goodwill, piles for scrap metal recycling, piles for burning. Then there’s the pile she’s kept. What’s in it? Old lights, saw blades, tractor seats, mole traps, springs…the usual. Why does she keep these things? Well, she’s the Junk Whisperer. This wall is on the back of the garage. A spot that nobody, but her and my dad are going to see on a regular basis. When I arrived in Oregon this summer, this was simply an empty wall with a flower bed on the…
Back to School Favorites
My kids go back to school in 10 days. My baby will be starting all-day Kindergarten. *wah* Whose the REAL baby now? Now, while I do have mixed emotions about the start of another school year, I am 100% sure that I LOVE new school supplies. I mean, come on, who doesn’t love a new Trapper Keeper? Here are a few of the items my kids will be using on the first day of school. 1. LL Bean Backpacks My daughter’s Wildkin Backpack held up amazingly well for 2 years. I’d actually highly recommend it. However, she has out-grown all things pink in color and the backpack was finally starting to show some wear. She’ll be…
Zucchini Cornbread
I recently posted a blueberry zucchini muffin recipe and made clear my feelings on all things zucchini-related. The muffins were crazy delicious, by the way. You never end up with just ONE zucchini, right? Nothing else in your garden will grow, but you will have 1,000 zucchini. Or your neighbor has 1,000 zucchini and suddenly “gifts” you more zucchini than one family could ever possibly consume. But even I, the zucchini skeptic, was intrigued when I heard about a recipe for Zucchini Cornbread. Intriguing, right? The problem with most cornbread recipes is that the cornbread turns out dry. Theoretically, the zucchini would do a good job at combating this little…
Vintage-Looking Animal Prints – Free Printable
A couple of weeks ago on our trip to Oregon we visited the WildLife Safari in the small town of Winston. The highlight of the Wildlife Safari is actually driving through the safari with your windows down. In some instances the animals were close enough to the driving path for a few really great photo ops. Now, when the ostrich came a little too close and decided to peck the car, the windows were definitely UP for that encounter. Here’s a photo I took of the American Bison. His coat is looking a little sad in the original photo. Here he is all vintage-y and with a little haircut. I’m seriously considering…
Decorating Your Flower Beds
If I’m being honest, I’m perfectly ecstatic to celebrate that one-hour window where a small section of one of my flower beds is completely weed-free. I haven’t even reached the point in my feeble attempts at outdoor beautification to consider decorating my flower beds. Every time I turn around, another weed pops up. Then I give up and drink a…lemonade. Some people are in a different league. They don’t call them Master Gardeners for nothing! They create a custom stone bench and then style it with ceramic frogs and an old pail filled with blooming flowers. Of course, they do. And you know each and every one of those stones in that…
Happy as a Dog in a Field of Cows
I’ve spent the last two and a half weeks happy as this dog playing in the field. No joke! I slept in my old childhood room. It’s much classier these days – no posters on the wall. I soaked up time with my family. How do my nieces and nephews grow so fast? How am I old enough to have nieces and nephews? Stop the madness! I squeezed in as much time as possible with friends. What happens on girls night, stays on girls night. Also, true friends are rare and should be cherished…especially since they have so much dirt on you! Now I’m headed home. I’m happy about that too.…
