Another handsome son

Son Jimmy started Law School this month. This is Jeff, Jimmy and I out front of the law library on campus. He assures me he spends lots and lots of time their studying and I sure hope he does.

My handsome son

My son has been working as an Animal Welfare Officer for about 7 years now. The town he works for has a shortage of officers but they are actively looking to hire more. They have this picture on their homepage and also have this on posters all around town.

My baby is the one with the big smile in the center.

Animal Welfare Officers are not "dog catchers" His daily activities rarely include picking up pets who have just gotten loose from their homes. He spends a lot of time rescuing animals that are abused by their owners.

If you are thinking about getting a pet, check out the wonderful pets that just need a loving home in your local shelter.

And like Bob Barker always said "Have your pets spayed or neutered."

Bedroom after a budget makeover

I chose blue as the main color because I wanted to keep some of the artwork we already had that was mostly blue.

The bedding set is from Ebay for about $50.

The tablecloths were from our old house.

I recovered the small pillows with fabric from my stash.

I copied the wreath from a recent cover of County Living magazine. And since all the silk flowers were left from the wedding pew decorations , the only new cost was $7 for the wreath base.

The sofa table is from the Antique Mall in our town but I don't think it is an antique. It is a nice pine Broyhill piece and was just $32.50.

My mom crocheted the afghan that looks a quilt.

And a dear old friend, Michele, gave me the Longaberger laundry basket in 1989.

My FIL painted 2 of the pictures on the wall and the other one belonged to Jeff's grandfather. They are all favorites of Jeff's so I decorated the room around them. I still want to add some things but am so far really happy with it.

(this little pile on the right that looks like dirty laundry is Theo's bed)

Total spent - about $90 plus some shipping and tax.

bedroom before

I looked around our bedroom a few weeks ago and could hardly stand how "blah" it had become. I decorated it 2 years ago when we had our house up for sale and thought it looked great at the time but since then, I have removed some things and the result was not so great.
I decided it needed a makeover but I had to do it on a very low budget.

Verse for Today

O taste and see that the LORD is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:8

Sunday Salad

Our children all live near by and Sunday is the most likely day for them to have lunch with us. They all like salad but Nina does not like onions, John does not like carrots, Clint does not like tomatoes, Bobby really only likes the lettuce, etc;

Jeff and I eat salad almost every day and I just toss everything together. But when the children are here, I separate everything but put it all into a Tupperware fix and mix bowl. The lettuce goes on the bottom and all the vegetables get put in piles around the edge. The salad in the picture had iceberg and leaf lettuce on the bottom with tomato, celery, carrots, bell pepper, purple onion and cucumbers.

You should see all these young adults with the tongs carefully getting just the vegetables they want, I think they look kind of funny but at least they all eat a big serving of vegetables when they come home.

Rummage sale finds

I have not done much thrift type shopping lately, I have been busy with projects at home and have gotten quite a few things from the newlyweds as they sort their presents and what they already owned. But I had the itch for shopping and stopped at one sale on the way home from work Friday and then got up early to go to one held by bank employees in their bank's parking lot. I spent a total of $6.25.

9 new and/or laundered once kitchen towels - I really like the rooster ones, a quarter each. 2 of them have the crocheted top so they attach to the oven handle and won't fall off
2 Pyrex bowls 50 cents each
candy jar with no lid that I think Jimmy will want .25
3 new billfolds for me - I won't use them all at once but they were brand new and priced low one is Bass and one fake Coach and the other is white faux leather with a cross on the front
Samsonite tote bag .25
expandable rack.25
Betty Crocker Boys & Girlscookbook - just a quarter and clean but the pages are coming loose from the binding

We got to the first sale a little before 7:00 am and the weather was pleasant but by 7:50, it was already hot. And it was time to come home to the A/C and a glass of iced tea.

Fast Food

I really dislike fast food restaurants and rarely eat at them. But sometimes we do need fast meals at home. I did some bulk cooking for the freezer tonight. I made beef taco filling, turkey taco filling, turkey chili with beans and Roma spaghetti sauce. I try to always keep salad ingredients, grated cheddar, chips, crackers, rice and pasta on hand. A meal can be prepared in minutes as long as we have some of my freezer cooking and basic ingredients on hand.
I have been cooking like this for years and my family is very fond of all these entrees. Jimmy and Nina both called today and when I told them what I was cooking, they said they would be over tomorrow to get some for their freezers. I am happy to help them. Jimmy starts law school on Sunday and the newlyweds are still adjusting and have not yet seemed to find a steady routine and I know they will appreciate these meals.
I counted and I think there are 26 containers, most are about a quart size and 10 are pint size.

Craft Room Prettied-Up

First let me say, I know what a luxury it is to have a room dedicated to just my hobbies. I have always done lots of crafts and make-do projects while we were living on a very low budget and raising our children. Now that we are empty nesters and living in a 4 bedroom home, I have a room just for me. It has been very functional but I spent the last few days making it prettier.

I changed out the big long table for a smaller round one we had stored away and added the tablecloth. Jeff and his dad built the shelves for rubber stamps several years ago and they are so nice for keeping the stamps organized and easy to find.

This picture is a little dark but I wanted you to see the best ironing board in the world. The top is wider than a standard board, it has holders on the end for the iron, starch and the clothes being ironed. It also has a shelf underneath for a storage basket. Walmart sells them for about $50. I like it so much that I bought Nina one for a shower gift.

The valance is made of patchwork bandanas from Hobby Lobby. I used to have them in the guest room but when I decided to use red accents in the craft room, they were perfect to move in to there. No sewing, they are just folded over the existing rod.

The sewing desk belong to Jeff's grandparents and the stool belonged my grandmother.

I trash-picked the little black book shelf in Nina's college neighborhood.
The hat box holds glues, the red heart box holds buttons, the lunch box holds notecards and the suitcase on the bottom holds ribbon.

Inside the closet, I try to keep anything not in use in the closet. I really can't stand clutter.

I still want to add some more red accents.

Gift bag storage

I currently have a lot of gift bags on hand right now. Some were bought very cheap on clearance, some are from gifts we have received and the most recent ones are from some of the many gifts the bride and groom received. All the ones I saved are very sturdy and look good as new. From a green point of veiw and from a thrifty point of veiw, it only makes sense to reuse them.
I got this idea from Meridith at http://likemerchantships.blogspot.com/ She used a bracket and says it holds her stash of 50 bags. I did not have a bracket but I did find some large nails in hubby's tool box. The nails were free too!

I hung them in the bottom of my craft closet and the container full of roll wrap sits comfortably in front of them on the floor.
Just an FIY though, if you reuse bags, be sure to remove any to and from tags that might be on them. I once got a Christmas gift in a reused bag from my church secret sister, she had got a gift from her aunt in the same bag and she left the tag on. I had already kind of guessed that she was my secret sister but I knew for sure when I read on the tag "To Cindy, Merry Christmas from Aunt Brenda"

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!

I might should of titled this post "wedding leftovers" Nina used whole coffee beans at her reception. We bought large vases and filled them with coffee beans and then had blue and brown balloons coming out of the top of every one. The reception room was very large but the twenty five arrangements of coffee beans gave just a beautiful scent to the room. Nina bought 60 pounds of beans from a discount coffee seller in Oklahoma City. When we filled the vases, 30 pounds were plenty to fill them all. We thought guests would take center pieces home with them but I guess they were all happy with candy boxes and no one took coffee.
So now we have lots and lots of coffee beans. I don't drink coffee and neither does the bride but my husband does.
He says it is really good coffee too. We don't have a coffee grinder and I did not want to buy one because we won't use coffee beans normally. My Kitchenaid food processor does a good job of grinding them though.
We have been giving beans to all our friends, family and co-workers that like coffee but we have only gotten rid of half of them so far.

The 30 pounds still left.
Fresh ground coffee for Jeff, the in laws and the groom. And some bags for the inlaws if they want to grind more.