September Acres

I was trying to think of something quick and fun for an Easter gift (something that wasn't candy, although this is close). I was also thinking of something fun for LM to do that was not terribly expensive. So I came up with colored sugar in a jar. We've all seen the colored sand they have at fairs and festivals - they sell a jar and then you fill it with whatever sand you want. Kids love it. Instead of sand I thought of sugar which can be used later (I love consumable gifts). I save jars whenever I can. These little ones come from mushrooms but you could use anything - even buy some fun shapes if you want. I put about 1/4 cup of sugar in a bowl with 5-6 drops of food coloring and started stirring. The drops kind of turn into clumps so there's some mashing involved too. When it's mixed to a color you like and pour the sugar in the jar. This is the parts the kids love! The pink sugar is actually some colored sugar that I had alot of. I added a cute tag and it's a g...

Summer's coming way too fast!! I know the Northeast is bracing for a spring snowstorm tonight. But here in the desert southwest we're expecting record highs tomorrow. 101 degrees here to be exact. I wish I could say it's an April fool's joke. The good news is that we'll pass these warm (but much more mild) temps on to our friends in New England before you know it. In between watering my flowers and trying to find some shorts that fit I am putting the finishing touches on LM's clothing/toy 'clean sweep'. I think it's safe to put her winter clothes away so I am killing two birds with one stone. I can't wait to show you her newly purged room. I am a couple of bags in already and hope to have more by the time I go to bed tonight. While I want to finish her room, I want to turn in early enough to make some more progress on the book I am reading, 'One Thousand Gifts' by Ann Voskamp . It is a wonderful book- I highly recommend it and I am not...

The Spring planting season is well underway here. I picked up a few things to plant last week and went to work over the weekend. We plant everything in pots as the ground is just too hard and the soil isn't conducive to planting annuals. Palm trees and cactus do fine but not these delicate flowers. LM planted the marigolds and some watermelon seeds (we'll see how those do - I'm expecting some green leaves only as I obviously didn't leave enough room for any melon). The other pot has purple petunias and allysum . You'll notice all the pots have rocks surrounding them. We have a large bunny population and they get hungry. They love our plants. Laying rocks around the perimeter is usually enough to keep them away. I planted everything on Saturday and woke up Sunday morning realizing that I hadn't put the rocks in the pots yet. I thought I would have gone out to flowerless pots but luckily we didn't have any hungry visitors. I love this pot. I can't reme...

I mentioned that my husband & his friend were tiling our kitchen back splash this weekend. Here's a little preview. This is just the start, as you can see. By Sunday afternoon they had gotten all the tile up and sealed. They will grout this Saturday and hopefully finish the same day. I am wondering why we didn't do this sooner. It looks really good and brightens up the kitchen ALOT. The brown wall really sucked the light out of the room. I can't wait to reveal the finished project. Hopefully on Sunday or Monday - please check back!

We had a really Spring-y weekend here. The hubby was tiling the kitchen back splash with a friend which left LM and me with some time on our hands - a rare thing indeed. We bought some plants and seeds and started planting. And painting. This pot had been sitting outside without any flowers since last summer. I loved the patina it was getting sitting out in the element. I stenciled it with our house numbers but the paint ran a bit and didn't look very good - it actually would have looked good for Halloween with the little (big) drips of paint so I took a different route. I spray painted the bottom and then mod- podged the numbers I cut with my Cricut . I wanted to keep some of the patina showing so I left the rim natural. I think it turned out really nice. :) Next, I wanted to do something with this slate. I have had it for years (think 80's) and it was time to be freshened up. So using the same black spray paint/ mod- podged letters technique I made some changes... Lov...

Image from bhg.com Decorating is fun. Sometimes necessary. But let's face it, decorating can do a job on your finances. A big purchase (that rug you're dying to have, for example) can turn your budget upside down. We always try to pay cash for any remodel or renovation project we do. At the most we will stretch it over 1-2 months. Nothing's worse than financing those new silk drapes and deciding 3 months later that you hate them. AND that they haven't been paid for yet. This is not a lecture on finances. It's an idea on how to make your decorating dreams come true without risking your retirement. For most of us a big remodel -kitchen, bath, new floors, etc. will be thought out well in advance and probably saved for over some length of time. But it's the little things that can add up and break the bank without a plan. Something like an impromptu trip to Target or Ikea. I have found that at the beginning of a new season there's a slight possibility that I...

I have tackled my closet in this adventure I like to call spring cleaning. You've heard of it. We all do it. Most years anyway, right? I am following along with the schedule at Simple Mom . I have finished week one - the master closet. She is on week 3 (kids' toys and clothes). I have yet to finish (start?) week 2 (paper clutter!) I know, I am a bit slow. Just give me time! Here's my closet - we have 2 very small closets in our master - this is mine. Quite the mess in this photo. I have had that yellow shoe bag since I was in high school and worked at Pappagallo . Talk about something made to last! I love it though and can't imagine life without a shoe bag. Here's my after. Pardon the poor photo. I took it in the late afternoon when the sun beats in our bedroom door. It doesn't look too different but I filled up a trash bag to take to Goodwill plus had a few things to put in the trash can. The way I stack the shirts up makes for a quick mess so...

It's time to decorate for Easter! To be honest I don't have a ton of Easter decorations (hence the tacky plastic eggs in my pretty jar - but the colors are great!) My mantel gets decorated. I love this little bunny that sits on the edge of the mantle. I need to keep any eye on her though since LM likes to take her down and play with her. Love, love, love these robin's eggs (From Marshalls last year). A cute little birdie is looking for those eggs, I think. My centerpiece for my dining room table. I love the pink and blue together with the Beatrix Potter eggs (Pottery Barn Kids). That's it until we dye our eggs. I love to dye eggs and so does LM so we do it up big around here. I hard boil about a dozen and then usually paint about a dozen or so raw ones after I blow out the yokes - always a fun time. What type of Easter decorating do you do? Do you go all out? Swing into Spring with me at DIY by Design !

Today The Nester is celebrating "National {not really} Take a Risk Day." I think whenever we paint a room we take a risk. Unless you paint a room cream or white (even then it could be a risk) you are taking a risk with color. No amount of sample cans of paint can really prepare you for what your whole room will look like. Most of the time I paint a room I end up liking it. Sometimes right away, sometimes it takes a while. Most of the time I also wish I had gone darker. The only time I haven't is when I painted the accent wall in our bedroom. I love how dark that is. Now I am trying to decide if I should paint the whole room that color - that would be a risk. I also took what I think to be a huge risk painting my hallway blue. Baby blue - Merry-Go-Round from Olympic (Lowes) to be exact. It is actually a bit darker than these photos indicate. Our hallway is very dark so I hesitated (for many years) painting this area anything but white or cream. But I wanted s...

Well, it's the first Monday of spring. We're expecting rain. I guess we're taking this 'April showers' thing seriously and starting early. I've got a busy day planned - basically catching up on LOTS of things since I was gone most of last week. I got quite a bit done over the weekend as hubby was out of town for a hockey tournament. It was a little overcast and cool so I didn't feel guilty about staying inside. I have finished my closet cleaning and will share photos later this week (I know, you are all on the edge of your seats!) The paper clutter, however, is still hanging around. I knew if would be more of a challenge and would take a bit longer. I am aiming to finish by the end of next weekend. One HUGE accomplishment this weekend was finally finishing this book . It's been a long time coming. It was really a good book - I just didn't have time to sit down and make huge progress with it. It was my favorite book of the series. Next weekend there...

We spent part of last week at my sister's house in Park City, Utah. I love her house. Just love it. She has great taste and has decorated her home beautifully. I took the liberty of taking a few pictures while we there and thought I would share. She totally gave me permission! This is her landing at the top of her stairs. It has a built in book case and a nice display area on the top. I happen to know the picture on the wall is still available at World Market (Cost Plus). I'm not sure if you can tell how fabulous the wall color is but it's a wonderful yellow - Emperor by Ralph Lauren (Home Depot). My grandmother painted the painting to the left of the fruit bowl. This is her master bedroom. Very soothing and warm. The pictures above the bed are photos she took on a trip and had framed. A great (& frugal) way to remember your travels. She was lucky that the wall was painted this khaki color when she bought the house. Looking down from the stairs into the f...

I love reading Simple Mom and I love her latest project 'Project: Simplify'. Five weeks, five hot spots. Last week was our closet . As cluttered as I feel my house is sometimes one area that I do spend time on several times a year is my closet. I purge often yet it's still full. It is a relatively small closet but I still like to be able to see things and get to them. I haven't purged in there since before Christmas so it's about time. I'll admit I didn't do it last week but plan on doing it this weekend along with Tsh's 2nd hot spot: paper clutter . That should be my middle name. While my closet will be a 30 minute task the paper clutter could take 30 hours or more. I look forward to sharing my progress here. It's time to start spring cleaning and this seems to be the perfect way to do it. Time will tell...

Some of us think we can't be in the snow without a snow ball fight. I am not one of those people but LM is. She built 'the great wall of snow' and started making snow balls. She takes this stuff seriously. She asked me to name my wall, too. Ever so witty, I came up with the Polar Ice Cap. I got some pretty good throws in if I say so myself. After I got clobbered in the head though I decided a truce was in order. We're looking for a little more snow today for round 2. I know, we're the only people in America hoping for the white stuff. It is still officially winter, right?

This is 'Steve', the snowman LM made as soon as we pulled into my sister's driveway the other day. Small but cute. He melted today. It's gotten warm. So warm we don't get to have a fire in the fireplace. So warm the weatherman called it 'balmy'. So warm the locals are wearing short sleeves. Hold on! These Arizonans came to Utah for the cold. Well, it's still much cooler than it is at home. There is a storm coming through tomorrow with some 'moisture' - 1-2 inches. Better than nothing, I guess. Tomorrow we're headed to the indoor skating rink. The outdoor one is closed for refrigeration servicing or something. Apparently, no one told them we were coming...

Most people are thinking about something like this for Spring Break... Here at September Acres we're headed to this... The thought of 120 degree July days make it very appealing. Looking forward to walks in the snow, hot chocolate by the fire, skiing , and ice skating. No doubt we'll be happy to come home to the 80 degree weather we're leaving. But we'll have those memories come July...

On the days when LM has Brownies I take the girls (and one boy, the leader's son) to the leader's house for their meeting. I usually have 6, this week I only had 5. To get to the car they always walk up to the top of the hill and trail along behind one another along the fence line. It has always reminded my of the Von Trapp's (minus the clothing made out of drapes!)when they are leaving Austria at the end of 'The Sound of Music'. This week I had my phone with me and remembered to snap a shot of them. Climb every mountain, Ford every stream, Follow every rainbow, Till you find your dream.

My husband and his friend N took LM and N's two boys to the Coyotes game this weekend. They spent the night. LM said she liked the boys' weekend. I had big plans. I wanted to read the books I mentioned . I wanted to finish this book . I wanted to go see 'The King's Speech' and use the movie gift certificate my friend gave me. I wanted to clean my office a bit. Big plans. But you know what they say about the best laid plans. I offered to sell Girl Scout cookies for 5 hours on Saturday and 5 hours on Sunday (you read that correctly, a total of 10 hours) so there would be enough parents (there has to be 2) in order to keep the booth open. Keep in mind that LM was at the Coyotes game so I didn't have a child boothing on Sat or Sun. Although I know the leader appreciated it and so did the parents I helped out I think I should have only offered to do it once. But I made a committment to the leader (who is also a friend) and I was going to honor it. Even ...

LM was selling Girl Scout cookies at our local bookstore today after school. She was there for 5 (!) hours so I wanted to take her a sandwich for dinner. The hubby came with me and we spent quite a while in the store just looking around. A rare luxury indeed. I decided to splurge on a couple of books. I usually go to the library but the 2 I got are ones I think I would like to keep. The first book is ' Veganist ' by Kathy Freston . You may have seen her on 'Oprah'. I just love her. She helped Oprah's staff go Vegan for a week. Now, I think it might be hard to go totally Vegan but even if I was halfway there I'd be better off. So I'm going to read more about it and then see what I think. I just read this book and it was enough to make me consider giving up meat, if not dairy and eggs. I also picked up 'One Thousand Gifts' by Ann Voskamp . I am really looking forward to reading this one. I almost bought 'Mr. Sunday's Soups' by Lorraine Wal...

Monica is doing another 'Make your home a haven' week . I love these. It makes me slow down just a bit and take a look around. It makes me realize that lately my home hasn't been the haven I would like it to be. There was the fridge, dishwasher, reverse osmosis situation which made my kitchen a mess as I had tools and flashlights all over the place. Not to mention everything under the kitchen sink was out so people could get to the pipes and stuff. Well, that is all taken care of now and I was finally able to clean up in the kitchen. The one surface that stayed clear during this? The dining room table. No matter what is going on I make sure that surface is clear. It was a blessing during this time so we could eat and do homework there without any worries. I haven't been home much. We have been out of town alot . I have been working and at school alot . I have been running alot of errands. I long to have a day to stay home and really enjoy making my house a home. I thi...

I decided I wanted something for St Patrick's Day on my fireplace. But I didn't want to buy anything. Enter the computer and some paper. I used Word to write the #17 and then printed St Patrick's Day below the numbers. I picked a green I liked and hit print. I printed it out on regular typing paper (how frugal is that??) If you want something to look more polished you could use card stock. I trimmed the paper to 8"X10" and put it in a white frame I have. I really love the way it turned out. It's clean and simple but festive. I used a plate stand to display the frame and voila! St Patrick would like it, I think! I am linking up to Wendy's Frugal Friday . So much fun!

Yesterday when I picked LM up from school I noticed she had on 'new' shoes. I asked her why. She broke her sandals during recess. I didn't really notice what she was wearing on her feet yesterday morning since she left when the delivery man was here. Rest assured, I would have nixed the sandals as it was a bit chilly in the a.m. The nurse provided her with tennis shoes and socks. I was happy that the nurse was able to do that & that I didn't need to be called to bring a new pair. I often complain about the wacky (in my opinion) things the school does but I was thrilled to see them take care of LM when she needed it. When we got home I ask LM for the socks so I could wash them and return them to school this morning. She said, 'oh, I only had them on for a few hours. You don't need to wash them.' Alrighty then. I washed those socks and returned them along with the shoes and a thank you note to the nurse. Oh, and today LM has on boots....