Category Archives: Feathered Nest

Feathered Nest, Frugal Finds, Funnies

Fire Sale

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I scored the sisal steal of the century yesterday.

8′ X 10.5′ black bordered 100% sisal rug for…drum roll, please…

$69.99!

At Ross.

{You can buy the one pictured above on amazon.com for $449 or one similar at Pottery Barn for $299 ~ told ya it was a steal!}

I think I spent more than that {like $80, still a steal} at Home Goods for our much smaller one that we’ve had for going on 4 years. These rugs are great for homes with kids and pets. They hide dirt well and massage your feet at the same time!

*****

Training update:

I did {for all intents and purposes} 9 miles this morning. Up at 5:45am {to charge my ipod} and out the door by 6:30! This will be my final long run before the race on December 5th. I will do some shorter runs {3-4 miles} next weekend and some elliptical the week before the run and then……showtime!

Each week I get a little more confident. My friend, Janet, who just completed her first FULL marathon {rockstar status!} introduced me to a term that I thought was hilarious ~ “wogging”: [verb] Not walking, but certainly not jogging!

I’m definitely a “wogger” instead of a runner. So, I guess you could say I’m a wogger AND a blogger!

LOVE it!

Happy Sunday fellow frugalistas {& woggers}!

Fabric {My "Crafty" Side}, Feathered Nest

Crafting Myself Up

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I’m literally cracking myself up lately with my newfound wanna-be crafty side.

I am a regular at JoAnn’s and have gone through more glue sticks than I care to count.

But, it’s been so much fun…and so easy. I’ve just been experimenting…last night I cut up a little burlap bag that my Mom left {sorry Mom!} and made my wreath:

I {just barely} had enough burlap to cover the floral wreath, but we made it. I had the ribbon on a Costco roll that has been going on for eons. I think the rosettes and ribbon all kind of coordinate, right? Then I picked up this glittery tree in the Target $1 section this morning as I think it needed a little more somethin’ somethin’. The clothespin is holding the ornament in place for now, but I’m not sure I like it….

So, there you have it.

Thanks Jen for inspiring me to work with burlap. I love the rustic{ness} of it!

No, I have not hung the wreath on the front door yet! It will go up the weekend after Thanksgiving with the rest of our holiday decor.

Happy Wednesday Flip Floppers!

Fabric {My "Crafty" Side}, Feathered Nest, Fitness, Flashbacks, Food

Bullet Points

I feel like I have LOTS to talk about on this sunny, gorgeous Monday and am overwhelmed with putting together a mile long post, so I will just bullet everything!

* I made shepherd’s pie on Saturday night. So comforting and Fall to me. I used this recipe, but instead of the layer of mashed carrots {random} I sliced some baby carrots, diced red and orange peppers and onions and simmered in beef broth with thyme, salt & pepper before adding some frozen peas at the last minute. I then layered the beef, this veggie mixture and the mashed potatoes. YUM!

* I also made an apple crisp using this recipe. Used the granny smiths and Arkansas black apples from our apple picking adventure weeks back.

* Yesterday my long run was 7 miles. This is the longest I’ve gone…and it was LLLLOOOONNNNGGG. But 13.1 is longer so I will forge ahead! Next week I am shooting for 9…I’m not going to lie, this “race” in less than 3 weeks has me stressed. Along with Thanksgiving and preparing for the holidays, the last thing I want to think about is running 9 miles and then finishing 13.1 the weekend after the long Turkey Day weekend. But I am committed and will get through it. Running, walking or crawling…I will get through it! On a positive note, I am not very sore this morning and haven’t had to ice my knee for weeks now.

* I have a new quick craft that I am in love with. I love a craft that I can bust out and be done with. I’m not a fan of lingering projects hence why I haven’t started sanding and painting my little table! I like instant gratification in the craftiness/DIY department.

Check these out:

Glitter Clothespins

Adorable, huh?

Elmer’s glue, a foam brush, some clothespins and glitter.

Wham! Bam! You’re done!

This year I am going to use them to display our Christmas cards ~ I usually put them in my Santa basket and call it a day, but I think they will certainly add a festive touch around the house. I used a couple pictures from last year to see how they’d look clipped to the chicken wire doors of the secretary…

I love that something as simple and mundane as a wooden clothespin can instantly be turned into a fun, fancy, useful piece!

* This past weekend marked our 2 year anniversary back in So Cal. It’s unbelievable to me that 24 months ago the giant Allied Van Lines truck unloaded our belongings here in the SCV. We were greeted with the Sylmar fire the weekend we moved in which caused our refrigerator delivery to be postponed for a week! Ugh….eating every meal out for a week is TOO much.

But here we are 2 years later. Happy we made the move. Sad we left wonderful friends and family in Nor Cal.

* The kids watched Toy Story 3 like 4 times in a 24 hour period this weekend. Thanks Red Box!

I think that’s it.

Happy Monday!

Feathered Nest, Food, Funnies

Thursday This & That

I think I’ve finally figured out what color I want to paint this:

Happy.

I plan on sanding and painting my little heart out this weekend.

*****

We went to the new cupcake shoppe in town this afternoon, Velvet Cupcakes.

I saved mine and am going to enjoy it in peace and quiet this evening after the kiddos are fast asleep.

I got my old faithful, Vanilla…

*****

Elliott decided to help promote my fundraising efforts.

She made this sign for the front door…

Her words:

“I’m gonna tape this on the door so people can come and see your lamp and buy your roses and you can be a little rich!”

Oh the precious things that come out of their mouths…

{she’s referring to this lamp}

*****

I made TJ’s Thai red curry for dinner this evening.

I just sauteéd some onions, carrots, red & orange peppers, a little potato and some diced chicken tenderloins and then added the sauce and simmered for about 20 minutes. I threw in some frozen peas the last few minutes and served with a mix of basmati & brown rice.

It was fairly authentic and pretty spicy, but I am a curry girl through and through and love a true Thai curry dish every so often. This is a good, quick week night meal that will semi-curb your cravings. We usually get the yellow curry, but I think I like this a bit better since it brings some heat!

*****

Happy Veteran’s Day!

Thank you and God Bless all who have served and are currently serving our country.

Feathered Nest

{F}alloween

Slowly but surely I’m getting the Halloween/Fall cheer spread around the house.

Even trying to keep it simple, it’s still a challenge to get it up!

I DESPISE those spider webs, but think they add so much to the haunted house feel that I put a few up anyway.

{doormat from kohl’s for super cheap}

{little wrought iron stand at the front door…the owl is something that i remember from when i was a young girl. it was always out in our yard and last time we were in san diego, it flew into our car to come and live with us! my mom said she’s had it since before i was born ~ i love, love, love it!}

{cozy couch…this couch was my grandmother’s cousin’s…she is now 101 years old and has passed it along to us. again, i love it. she couldn’t remember when or where she got it, but i know it’s quite old. i adore the shape and the rolled arms}

{this little secretary was a surprise gift from my dad to my mom. he told her that some “wood” was going to be delivered for a project…then this came to the door! again, this piece has been in the family since before i came along. when my mom downsized 10 years ago, i jumped at the chance to adopt it}

{spider webs on the mantel along with sweet birthday wishes from friends & family}

{i won this cute little pumpkin jar at my friend angie’s baby shower like 15 years ago ~ her son is now in high school and a big football star! oh man i feel old…every year i put goodies in it, but am trying to refrain this year. we’ve already gone through a bag of candy corn}

{buffet table runner from target for super cheap after halloween a couple years ago. the little candle lampshade thingy is from bath and body works a million years ago.}

{this fun little cabinet is also from cousin dorothy. i keep all our “fancy” stemware and barware in it}

{these little sconces were from a friend for my birthday like 10 years ago…from costco. i LOVE them! i fill them with different things throughout the year. for elliott’s birthday one year i just filled them with giant colored gumballs and it added some pizzazz to her party. the possibilities are endless with these things and i can’t imagine my walls without them}

{seriously, these are the energizer bunnies of flora! they have been going strong for over a week now. not a brown petal to be found yet. i love the sunflower & coffee bean combo}

{home fragrance burner from the body shop…today i am burning “sweet maple”. i love it, but it makes me want to devour a plate of pancakes}

{busted! as i write this post, a little rascal jumped on the couch where he’s not supposed to be}

*****

That’s about all I’m going to put up this year.

I may or may not have seen a few cobwebs while decorating, but I think if there is ANY month you can get away with them, it’s certainly October, right?!?

Hope you’ve been having fun haunting out your house! The kids love to see what all the neighbors have done as we walk to and from school each day.

I just wish the weather was a little more Fallish!

Have a {wicked} Wednesday!

{It is Wednesday, right?}

XOXO

Feathered Nest

One Man’s Trash….

…is another {wo}man’s treasure!

Today is trash day in our neighborhood.

While walking to school, I spotted a cute little two-drawer table out on the curb with my name on it.

I saw the homeowner getting her little ones ready to walk to school too and after we both got our kindergartners safely off, I put my pride aside and asked, “Was that cute little table out in front of your house for the trash man?”

She said “Yes! Please take it!” and I literally carried the thing home a quarter of a mile.

Jay’s gonna kill me.

I’ve been wanting something this size for our room as a little vanity of sorts.

We have a gorgeous big mirror that I’ve been wanting to put up, but don’t want to put two huge holes in the wall. Now I can just prop the mirror up on this table.

I am seeing some vintage crystal pulls in this little lady’s near future….

not sure what color I will paint her, but I am so excited!

*****

Hope your Friday is full of a good find….or two!

Feathered Nest

Locksmiths, Plumbers & Blog Blingers

Well, yesterday afternoon the family got locked out of the house for the second time.

Damn garage door has a dead bolt AND a turn lock thingy that enables you to open the door from the inside while locking yourself out at the same time!

Fabulous.

The front door was locked as well as the back slider.

Of course.

The kids were in their bathing suits sans shoes and Jay was doing something involving spark plugs on his car and had black hands and no place to wash them. We had NO cell phones, car keys, wallets….nothing.

I went to our neighbor’s and had her take me to the rental agency to get the key. Fortunately I had a copy of the lease in the garage to show some sort of identification. Long story short, the rental people failed to replace the re-keyed keys with the old ones. {we had the place re-keyed earlier in the year and I took TWO new keys to them and well….???????} The second the lady handed me a gold key I knew it wasn’t the right one. The new keys were silver. She said that’s all they had ~ two gold keys! I came home and sure enough it didn’t work.

$80 and 45 minutes later, the locksmith spent literally a minute to pick the lock and we were in.

Anyone know where to get a pick? I could go into business.

*****

Now I am waiting for the plumber on this fine Monday morning.

Toilet in the master bath is leaking.

He’ll be here “between 10:00 and 12:00”.

So I’m here waiting and watching Dora and sipping my coffee with this:

The upside to having the plumber on his way is that I have the place all tidied up!

Bed made. Match Box cars off the floor. Dishes out of the sink. Toilets cleaned. Sinks sparkling.

*****

Did you notice that I now have some tunes on Flip Flop Follies?

I’ve been wanting to add this for awhile, but had NO CLUE how to do so. Something about a “plug-in”. My personal blog blinger, Jay, figured it out and I am SO happy!

The playlist may be a little random because we’re limited to what we can upload here on WordPress…my smart hubby figured out that we can only upload MP3 formatted songs??!!?? so some of my faves are not available in that format.

{If you also use WordPress and know how to upload all songs from your iTunes library, please do fill a sista in! Thanks!}

Happy Monday…I hope your week is free of any service calls!

Feathered Nest

Organizational Therapy

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Retail therapy sounds so much better, but this is what I needed today.

The place was trashed.

Ants.

Pulverized rice crispies on the table from this morning’s breakfast. {could explain the ants}

A million and one sheets of college ruled paper with Elliott’s darling drawings and practiced penmanship.

A dirty pot from last night’s dinner. {again, I wonder why we have ants}

A dishwasher full of dishes that just needed a detergent packet and a turn of the dial to get it started.

Twist up crayons sprawled out looking for their cozy case and the rest of their crayon friends.

Tidbits of yesterday’s outfits littered on the downstairs floor.

Flash cards gone amok.

It was either the elliptical this morning or dealing with our borderline application for the A&E show “Hoarders”!

We’re not hoarders by any means, but the clutter I came eye to eye with this morning reminded me of scenes from this sad, sad obsessive-compulsive behavior.

What happens in these bins, STAYS in these bins!

I realized that Thursdays are great for hurricane cleaning sessions because Friday is trash pick-up and I can throw stuff in these bins, wheel them out to the curb and tomorrow morning the crap is no longer mine to worry about.

I try to recycle and donate 95% of our things, but some days I just need to cleanse and right in the blue or black bin it goes.

No looking back.

No guilt.

Wash my hands of it and wait for the next hurricane to come through ~ NEVER far behind!

I feel SO much better now, though.

Hope your Thursday is fresh, clean and nice & organized!

Family, Feathered Nest, Food

Apricots & Airstreams

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Talk about a random Friday night post…

The Charger/Saints game is on.

Big Blue is heating up to grill some quick cheeseburgers.

I’m throwing some sweet potato fries in the oven and whipping up a fabulous little dipping sauce with an Asian flair:

Mayo

Ketchup

Sesame Oil

Fresh grated ginger

The amounts of these ingredients are sketchy…maybe 2 parts mayo to one part ketchup, a few drops of sesame oil and several strokes of fresh ginger over the grater or microplane?!?

My good friend Nancy told me about this and we’ve been dunking our sweet tater fries in it ever since.

*****

I recently stumbled across these Chesapeake Bay Candles at Target.

I picked up the Apricot Tart & Blueberry Muffin for Fall.

Just lit the apricot tonight and the house smells so homey {yo!} and delish.

*****

Next Summer I want to rent an Airstream and take a little road trip.

Maybe up the California Coast and camp along the way.

The nice thing is that we can bring our boys and save a small fortune on kenneling.

I LOVE this picture:

{Image source}

How cute are those chairs?

I think our SUV could pull this…I’ll have to check with Jay, but wouldn’t that be fun?

A retro, family road trip!

Coming Summer 2011

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