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Thursday, September 23, 2021

Fall Chili and Friday Favorites Linky Party 600

Yesterday was the official start of the Fall Season and the weather decided to cooperate.

With a 20 degree dip in temperature and overcast rainy day. Which makes it a perfect opportunity to brew a cup of tea, break out a cozy afghan, and count the minutes until tonight's chili dinner finishes cooking in the Instant Pot.

Why do they call it chili when it's hot?

Let's get this party started! Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!

Dutch Wood Shoes and Friday Favorites 595

I'm in rehearsal for a show (all things being equal given the current health climate.) I'm hard at work breaking in my new character shoes!

This is an immediately slapped shoes on my feet after opening the box photo. You are supposed to wear thick socks which makes them more comfortable.

I quickly learned why the Dutch call clogs klompin.

How to Buy the Correct Size Backpack and Friday Favorites 594

Many parents are buying school supplies before their children start school (a few schools have already started!) It's much easier to tote that stuff back and forth to school, or anywhere really, in a backpack.

I almost always use my old college backpack instead of giant purse to hold our stuff. I almost always end up with a backache and at least one migraine during the trip too. I thought that is just the way it is when wearing backpack and after some research, I realized I couldn't be more wrong!

Once I learned to look for certain strap configurations, where the backpack sits on your back, and the proper size for my height (bigger and tiny small is not always better) I bought a backpack that hasn't given me issues and wrote a guide so you know what to look for too. You can read my comfortable book bag backpack buying guide 7 Tips for Buying a Comfortable Backpack here.

Let's get this party started! Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!

Natural Gardening Hacks and Friday Favorites 589

I spent a good chunk of the week doing plant therapy, although you may call it gardening. I transplanted the sweet fennel that was outgrowing our container garden into the front flowerbeds. Every time I pass them on my way to take Lacey in and out I whisper,"please live" to my transplants.

It worked when I transplanted my golden oregano earlier this summer. I'm hoping the same good vibe strategy works with the fennel. Well, that, and heaps of compost and all natural gardening hacks and techniques.

You can lean how to make plants grow the inexpensive and frugal way by reading my 12 Natural Gardening Tips for Beginners post here.

Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!

Giant Lawn Flamingos and Friday Favorites Week 585

How do you know it is officially summer?

It is after Memorial Day?
The lavender is starting bloom in my garden?
The weather is warm and kids are playing in neighborhood spinklers?

NO!

At my house it isn't officially summer until Divine my metal lawn flamingo takes residence in my garden (much to the chagrin of my husband.)

She's no Frank the Christmas Gargoyle but she's 6 feet tall and I love her.

Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!

Edible Landscaping Groundcover Ideas and Friday Favorites Week 584

Last weekend was a long holiday weekend here in the US and my husband and I spent a chunk of it digging in the dirt. We want to add more color to our front flowerbeds which is largely an oasis of black mulch. Wood mulch isn't a bad thing. Mulching protects the soil from eroding and helps keep moisture in the soil after watering. Wood mulch also breaks down over time and add nutrients to the soil - which a good thing for our clay soil but also a bag thing because we have keep buying heavy bags of mulch. Anything we can do to less the chance of the yearly hefting mulch into the landscaping beds is a good thing in our book.

We didn't have to look any further than our own backyard for a practical zone 6 living groundcover solution: transplant the golden oregano overflowing its pots in the container garden to the front yard. Thyme is another fast growing perianal garden groundcover we could use or mix in with the golden oregano but we don't cook with thyme as often as we do with oregano. We're hopping the yellow in the ground cover will make the lavender blooms pop a bit more.

Please don't die.

Steampunk Dinosaur Decor and Friday Favorites Week 582

I have a bad habit of buying a piece of wall art and not framing it and hanging because I want to paint a wall, rearrange a room, or have some grand project that often gets moved down in priority on my project punch list.

I have bare walls when I could at least have something interesting on them.

I decided it was time to frame and display this piece I bought at the Columbus Art Festival in the before times. Everybody say Hi to Uncle Morty!

Uncle Morty is not the title of the work. I named him Morty, because its a name that brings up the idea of a lovable, life of the party, fun uncle, who miiiiight have a business where he knows a guy and you shouldn't make him mad but probably not because he's always a sweet guy who pulls a quarter out of your ear every time he sees you (maybe.)

Oh and if you are wondering, the friend I went to the Art Festival with when I bought the piece thought I was weird when I bought it and so did my husband when I brought it home.

Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!

DIY Harlequin Jester Costume and Friday Favorites Week 575

Happy April Fool's Day!!!

As a professional jester in the Before Times, I consider April 1st to be My Day. I don't play tricks or jokes on people, I just walk around extra happy and foolish. See?

This costume is my first and probably last quilting project because it took four months to build!

You can read how I made this diamond jester costume here

Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!

Easy DIY Dog Leash Organizer and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 569

My craft room is default the dumping ground for everything we can't store or use in the guest bathroom while we renovation the master bath. It is a hot mess and it is driving me crazy!

As I looked around the room trying to find where I can put more storage, the only space available is on a few walls. Which was a light bulb moment because I had a few things I don't use all of the time but still want easier access than in a closet or drawer. I decided to go with a good ol' coat rack similar to the dog tail dog leash organizer I made by our front door.

You can read my dog leash organizer tutorial here

I use it to organize the embroidery hoops for my sewing and embroidery machines and a few other tools and looks a lot cuter than a nail in the wall.

Time to link up your favorite projects, recipes, and posts!

DIY Dollar Store Valentine's Day Wreath and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 566

February will be here in no time and with it brings Valentine's Day! If you are looking for something a little different for your DIY Valentine's Day decor my glass bead heart wreath is just the thing! It is quick, easy, and best of all inexpensive because everything I used to make it came from the dollar store. Woot.

easy dollar store valentine's day wreath

Slow Christmas Ideas and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 560

Christmas is my favorite time of year because there are so many fun places to go, things to see and performances to do before we get the extended family together for a big, happy celebration on Christmas day!

Except this year. It's a pivot. pivot. Christmas pivot kind of year.

But you know what? I'm enjoying the change.

After opening the last couple of days of our DIY wine Advent calendar, I'm starting to understand the appeal of Advent calendars!

No quick, wolf down dinner, we have to book it out the door and to an event.

No fighting traffic, crowds, or stores because everything is being picked up or delivered to our door (let's give an extra shout and thank you to all postal and delivery drivers. THANK YOU!)

There's the chance to put the holiday things you don't always enjoy aside for something new because it's just the household this year. For us, we're going to start our day with mimosas and end it with either fancy lobster tails or super causal homemade pizza for dinner. We haven't decided yet. Which one would do you think we should have for Christmas dinner?

Marble Look Porcelain Bathroom Tile and Friday Favorites Linky Party 549

After waiting, waiting, and waiting some more I can finally start working on my next big DIY project - remodeling the Owner's Bathroom in my house because the tile finally came in! Isn't it lovely?

porcelain bathroom tile that looks like marble

I fell in love with this tile pattern in marble but didn't want such a soft and slippery tile in a bathroom. After much hunting, I found this porcelain version with a slight texture to hopefully prevent slipping at a local tile shop.

The Condo Blues World Headquarters and Thunderdome has turned into an Obstacle Course with cabinetry and fixtures stored all around the house for the last two months waiting for the tile to clear customs and Covid quarantine. Odd because I thought the thing that would hold up this rennovation would be the cabinetry and not the flooring.

I showed you my project! Let's see your fantastic DIY projects, crafting, recipes, and tutorials!

Friday Favorites Week 547

I sometimes randomly scroll through Facebook Marketplace just to see what there is to see. Yes, I know this can be a dangerous habit if I impulse buy all of the instruments and furniture that tempts me, but sometimes it pays off big. Last weekend the stars aligned perfectly and minutes after a farmer listed tomatoes that didn't sell on the last day of their farm stand I snapped all of them up for a song.

For the rest of the weekend I spent some quality time with my grandmother's canner and tools. Which is a much nicer way to say my kitchen looked like a murder scene from tomato seeds and juice spilled everywhere toward the end of the evening. My husband said not to say murder scene too loud because I had the kitchen window open and the neighbors might call the police.

But I had a plan.

If the police came knocking on my door to investigate, I'd throw them an apron and tell them they are free to search the red pulpy liquid in the big pot on the stove for body parts by ladling it into these warm mason jars.

It didn't happen but it's always good to have a contingency plan (especially if that plan gets you extra help when preserving food.)

I showed you my project! Let's see your fantastic DIY projects, crafting, recipes, and tutorials!

How to Level a Rain Barrel Stand and Friday Favorites Week 546

Last weekend was Labor Day Weekend in the US and I celebrated it by laboring in the front yard. The bricks around the pallet rain barrel stand I build have lately been in a constant state of wrecked no matter how many times my husband or I restack them.

I tried starting a Dilapidated Chic design movement but it didn't take.

8 Reusable Cloth Face Mask Tutorials

When I visited Japan it wasn’t uncommon to see people wearing a simple face mask when out and about because in Japan (and other Asian cultures) when you are sick with the cold or flu. In Japan it is polite to wear a mask when you are sick and out in public so you don’t accidentally pass it on to anyone else around you. That is something I wish we had in American culture (how many times has someone given you their cold because they weren’t wearing a simple face mask?) but I really hate that we have to go through a deadly global pandemic to adopt it.

As of April 7, 2020 the United State Centers for Disease Control (and well as the Governor of Ohio) recommends that everyone wear a cloth face covering when out in public. The idea behind wearing a face mask in public is not what a someone yelled at me for falling for “pandemic panic” or a “false sense of security.” My reply was just as less than kind because I'm battling an allergy related sinus infection that never seems to end and don't want to pass this misery to anyone else (unlikely but I get horror looks when I sneeze with and without the mask.)

Save this post to your Pinterest board for later! Share it with your friends!

The idea is that by wearing even a simple, non medical grade cloth face mask when you are in public is so you may be less likely to unknowingly pass a virus to someone else when you aren’t showing symptoms and don’t know that you are sick. This precaution leaves the medical grade and N95 filtering face masks and respirators to our front line COVID 19 heroes who need to be protected from known viruses in the air around them in a front line setting.

How to Sew a Reusable Cloth Face Mask

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 346

I am trying to knock out as many spray paint projects as I can until it becomes too cold to spray paint. I can't tell you how many clothes I've ruined with paint because I didn't take the time to change into my painting clothes.

There is an answer for that.

It is called an apron.

If you have a sloppy crafting, paint, DIY, or cooking habit you can protect your clothes and buy my This is how I roll apron in my shop LNW Creative Gifts! It features pockets to hold everything that gets lost during a project or recipe and makes a great gift for you or someone you love.