Salsa - Round 1

45 pints and 18 quarts of salsa.....just the beginning for us! Gotta love homemade salsa.

Do you cry over spilt milk?

To be honest, I haven't been doing much inside lately. Since painting the exterior of our house, I have been acting like a kid in the candy shop. It seems our house is a big white canvas and I have been trimming windows and spray painting flower pots for fall. Sadly, the rain this week and part of last week, has sent me into a tizzy. So, I am here to show you my ceiling fan 'redo'. It was a very nice old school white and gold fan.

I am picking out colors to paint the living room and I am leaning toward browns. So, I thought I would paint the fan brown and cream. On the globes, I used Mod Podge and food coloring to give them a swirly glass look. The picture really doesn't do it justice, but it gives a very warm glow now, and I love it.

Since I had most every thing on hand, this was a very cheap overhaul. I like cheap. : )

It is raining again today so I am working on a few freezer meals and laundry. This morning as we were getting breakfast around, my little man (17 months) tried to help by grabbing a full gallon of milk from the stool I had 'temporarily' set it on to get my 5 year old a box of cereal down.....

Yep. It exploded on the floor. He cried, as it scared him, but the older kids grabbed the rags and we had it all cleaned up in a jiffy. What a way to start the day! It made me laugh out loud on the way to dropping the girls off at school. Usually it is a glass of milk....not a gallon. (Especially at $4 a gallon!) But, what are ya gonna do!? Hope you have a great day and don't sweat the small stuff. ; )

Love, Emily

Happy Birthday to my Baby Plum!

My sweet little girl is turning 5! Forever I wanted a baby in September. Now, I wonder WHY I would ever had wished for that. She is the youngest in her class, back to school season, fall sports all start and our church festival just wrapped up. Most years, she is honestly lucky if I can remember to pick up supermarket cupcakes or cookies for her to take to school. Well, this year I 'googled' school friendly birthday treats and came up with this...

I would like to share a link or something, but I don't remember the site (it wasn't a blog, just an article) and plus, there were no pictures. But here they are! I took a cardboard juice case container and flipped it upside down. Cut 12 'X' shapes and poked my fingers through them. Wrapped the box in wrapping paper and poked a knife through said holes. Then I just took napkins, wrapped the sugar cones in them and poked them into the hole. I filled the cones with gummi bears and mini marshmallows. Whipped up a batch of rice krispie treats, let it cool for a bit, then rolled 12 balls and spinkled them with sprinkles. Viola! A 'less than messy' ice cream treat and NO frosting or crumbs. (We really like our teachers and TRY to keep treats neat lol...wink wink) I am so happy with the outcome and it was SO quick and easy. Now I just hope they pass the taste test ; )

Happy Birthday to my little Plum!

Love, Emily

Welcome Fall

I really {did} think fall would be a less hectic time for our family. I was SO wrong! This weekend we are neck deep in our church festival and last week we painted our house. Not to mention, school, football and daily occurances. Not much time to blog, but I did want to show you a little before and after of our front door. What a crazy time, hope you are enjoying your 'slow time' ;-)

Love, Emily

Before

After

First Full Week of School Project

Well, three out of four kiddos are off to school fulltime this year. What is a stay at home mom to do with just ONE little man? Hmmmm....I know! I could paint those kitchen cabinets which have been driving me nuts for 5 years.

Please excuse the crap all over the counters....just be happy I remembered to take a 'before' picture!

You can see against the wall I painted a few different colors, so I could 'adjust' to my new colors slowly. After a week, I was set on black. Satin finish. I know the after pictures look glossy, but they really aren't that glossy. I bought a little thing of oil based paint for $8.50, a can of spray paint in 'nickel' for $3.50 and two new cabinet door spring-y thingies to make my cabinets actually close properly for $3.18. I cleaned all the cabinet hardware and spray painted them. Even the screws (frugal vs. cheap?)

My kids thought this was 'really smart'....their father might have a different opinion...

I painted all the doors and trim, reattached all the hardware and that was it! It was very easy. I wish I had done this before. You may notice I left the upper cabinet doors off. I just like it better that way. 'SOMEDAY' when we actually figure out what we want to do with our kitchen, this will all be gone, but for now, I am enjoying my {NEW} kitchen cabinets. And I am also ordering pizza tonight! ;-)

Take Care, Emily