Life on a little urban homestead in the making, showing ideas for self-sufficiency, Permaculture, DIYing, organic gardening, food preservation, Chicken keeping, cookery, crafts, thrifting and more...
Where The Sheep Bells Go We Follow... A Little Inspiration!
I stumbled upon this on YouTube and this kind of thing gives me hope for the future! Tell me what you think? And enjoy! Lots more there on their Channel! Try and watch on a BIG screen if you can!
I had been wanting to clean and declutter the counter in the kitchen for a bit. With four day weekend (took 2 days vacation) it was the perfect time! With the new tea kettle and Keurig being retired it was also a time to look at the function of the area. Our kitchen is not that big, with a built-in dining area. Basically sink with counter on both sides, then range with small counter on one side. That's it! We do have a built in desk that came with the house. I'd love to remove it and replace with a buffet, maybe some day. Anyway here's one of the before shots-
Before- Keurig and Too much stuff
Not too bad
First I took everything off each section, and cleaned the backsplash and counter-
Behind the toaster
Used very hot water, Dawn and Bartender's Friend
Spatters on backsplash-
Crud behind the faucet and sink-
A sponge did not do the job, but Bartender's Friend and a toothbrush did!
All clean! I put back the counter items and the new tea kettle (works great!)-
I took down the command hook
I moved the DIY topiary to the area by the fridge, liked it better there
Two new thrifted items added (see below)
I liked this as is, it's shallow decor and doesn't use up that much space-
Next I cleaned out my big kitchen drawer, before shot-
Vacuumed the drawer, had donations and trash. All organized and easy to find things now! I bagged all the cookie cutters, stacked the strainers and biscuit cutters-
Next I took out the items below the china hutch and stored where they needed to go-
All better!
None of this cost anything! I can't tell you how may articles, posts and Youtube videos tells you to buy all this stuff to do this job. Not needed! I have stored a few of the small decorative items. I may donate or put back. Will let some time pass and see if I miss them...
Roseville mixing bowl
Thrifting Scores X 3-
I hit three thrift stores in 3 days. I just needed to go browse! Last trip I found this Roseville Friendship pattern mixing bow. Not sure how old it is but it's in perfect shape! $15.00, my splurge. I couldn't date it exactly by research, but I love the craftsmanship!!! I saw a few of this size on eBay and Etsy for about $35.00 or so (without shipping) . I did have an odd interaction going out of the thrift store with a woman I didn't know. She came outside the door and said in a loud voice do you have my Roseville Bowl. I didn't know who she was I didn't know if there was going to be a problem and I just said oh I don't know. I went ahead and put it in the backseat of my car and close the door and she said oh yeah that was my Roseville Bowl. Then she walked off. Day was behind her and looked at me and I looked at him and got in the car. I told him what she said and he said oh you know he she works there. She had on a uniform best which I didn't notice. I don't know if she had her eye on it was going to buy it but apparently she had to say something so what can you do? There can be some interesting people in thrift stores sometimes so sometimes playing dumb is best route I guess
It's on my counter for now-
Another trip I scored some really cute holiday decor, $15.00 total-
Wall hanger
Fun winter wood wall decor
2 trees, how cute!
I donated my other large one the Keurig was on, I may mount to the wall, maybe
Basket for our crackers in the cupboard
Fits perfect!
Another trip- this made my laugh so I bought it, $1.00, love the frame! If I ditch the print I could re-use-
For Life curved teapot, new these sell for $35.00, got for $3.00! Great for smaller pots of tea, has a nice silicone seal on the lid, doesn't drip. I found out after buying it they sell all kinds of really cool tea pots, love their designs.
Nice with silicone lid seal, full of biscotti's for winter
I forgot to add this to my last technology update. One of my kids kindly loaned me her CD player/radio when I started working from home last March. I knew I'd be bored to death with nothing to listen to! Before Christmas she wanted it back. I looked around and found this for $45.00 at Target-.
It has FM radio, CD player, wireless to tunes/podcasts off my phone and a head set jack. Works great and it's much smaller!
Using Winter Stores-
It's so satisfying to bring out some of my home stored foods! This one meal I served- homemade Chow Chow, fermented pickles, home grown organic canned peaches, sale bought chicken breasts. These pickles I have to say are the BEST ever!!! Probably since I finally found some local pickling cukes that were freshly harvested. So crunchy! I also bought the chicken, 1/2 off during summer season. Froze, thawed and roasted with Trader Joe's Honey Aleppo Pepper Sauce with honey. Tangy and slightly sweet it was okay, next time I'd use BBQ sauce instead, too bland for me. I served with brown rice-
And for a little entertainment- James Taylor did a tribute to the famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma, whom he had recorded this cover with on Yo-Yo Ma's 2008 album Songs Of Joy & Peace. This video is from when he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Just lovely and a very different take than the original! If you look close you can see actress Anne Hathaway moved to tears!
Listen to this entire song, by Sohyang, a South Korean Singer. Crank up the volume, watch on a larger screen. It starts off soft but really changes. Gorgeous orchestration, arrangement, backdrops and choir. With flawless English and multiple octave range, it made the hair stand on the back of my neck. This was from a classic song contest, but she was already a star when she sang it. No wonder! And she won :)
I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate Google. There are NO words. When you have someone start buying up every smaller company their "customer service" (and your privacy) evaporates. It's their nature. Here's the short version with some helpful info in case something happens to your blog!
I backed up my blog and theme before I went to delete an old junk email account last weekend. After recreating a new blog, because google closed mine, I also had to choose a new URL, or web address. I chose something similar- "The" little homestead in Boise. When you Import your blog it still misses quite a few things- links, photos, etc. so you may want to create a back up word Doc for that. It would save a LOT of time restoring or recreating. You might also document the size of the side bar, etc. if it's not the default. I like mine a bitter narrower. I finally realized I could restore the junk email I deleted and within 1 or 2 minutes my blog reappeared. I disconnected the junk email from it and added my main email. This took me 7 hours!!! And a lot of tears. I did find this fix after I published this-How To Change Blogger Login Email AddressAdditional instructions I figured out- send the invite then log out. Log on with the new email, THEN accept then invite. Then log in with the old email and make the change. It worked! Pretty easy. I also deleted the new-recreated blog.
When you have blogged for several years, and create a following, it's really sad to lose all that. PROTECT YOURSELF FROM GOOGLE, ETC!!! Backup, or archive your stuff. Lesson learned :(
My faux lavender wreath
Faux Lavender Wreath & Crafting W/Thrifted Finds-
I'm getting some spring fever, with 2 inches of snow forecast tonite! We had an inch this morning. I've been loving Provence French Country colors for a while with their famous blues and yellows. I've always loved sunflowers, and I'm going to plant some BIG ones this summer. I have a tendency to put these kinds of things only in my kitchen dining room, so I'm going to spread them out into the living room and our main bedroom. This summer I'm giving our bedroom a fresh, much-needed coat of paint. I'll go with white or cream and use a lot of these kinds of blue/yellow items to brighten it up! I'm going for a rustic, shabby chic bedroom with pops of color. With blue being my fave color and loving lavender (I grow a lot!) I stumbled on to this fun lavender wreath project. It's easy- no glue, and only took me about 15 minutes. I used these 2 components, a fake lavender "bush" and a twig wreath (+wire cutter), total cost about $8.00 with a coupon from Hobby Lobby. I LOVE that place, great prices and very helpful staff. Their lavender is very realistic-
I saw this on Joss and Main for $60.00 and laughed! A jar, pebbles and fake sunflowers. I'll be making one. For a LOT less!
I saw this too at Confessionsofaplateaddict and loved the tin house look for winter decor. You take paper mache houses and spray paint them with "hammered paint", how cool! Also from Hobby Lobby.
My thrifted pile of components-
Recognize the house? Ready to paint and stash for next winter!
My thrifted print I just found, $1.99! Sorry, no no-glare glass :(
The blue/yellow vase will hold a topiary ($2.00) and I found a new French butter dish. It was a steal at .99 cents, since they run about $25.00 new. They work great!
My fave new ceramic teapot (not kettle), got it from eBay for $8.00 great condition! Reminds me of Swedish country style designs -
And Santa's (me) new French tin postcard sign will go up, but where??? Hmmm...
I finally re-habbed my real Birch Yule log that I got for about $3.00 with really ugly 70's-style greenery. I stripped it down, left the candle holders as is. It has nice heavy metal feet underneath. I deconstructed a small swag I'd made and re-used it, nice! I may add something else, we'll see...
My simple winter goodies are out now, with berries from the garden. Soon sunflowers & lavender crafts and decor will emerge from my pile of thrifted supplies! Stay tuned!
For You Baseball Fans!
Dave and I are both baseball fans, so when I bought him the new James Taylor CD Before This World (excellent!) for Christmas we were both thrilled! He has a great new baseball song that he took 10 years to write. It's about the 2004 world series game, won by the Red Socks, the 1st win since 1918. It's called Angels Of Fenway, luckily he did a great music video too! Enjoy!!!
