Magic Egg Tip

Well, I still haven't had time for crafting (something I'm entirely not happy about...can a girl just get a little "me" time? geez...), but I did have time to take some pictures of something I do when I clean out my fridge.

I learned this trick from a friend's mom (via the friend) for checking eggs to see if they're still good. Eggs are often good beyond their expiration date, but you have to be careful about using them. Here's what you can do to check:

1. Grab a big bowl and fill it with water.

2. GENTLY drop your eggs in the bowl.

If the eggs sink and lay on their side, they're good, fresh eggs you can use freely. (Bad blogger, I didn't get a picture of this.)

If the eggs sink, but stand on end, you need to use them very soon because they're still usable (i.e. - won't make you sick) but on their way out.

See how it's standing up on end? Still good, but I need to use it soon.

If they float, chuck 'em. The sooner the better. They are no longer good and will make you sick.

Bobbing to the top? It's time to egg-xit stage right! ;) Yes, I know that's a lot of eggs gone bad. Overstocked...I won't make that mistake again!

Inspiration Point

These items are inspiration for a new project I'm working on. Can you guess what the pink thing is? I'll be sharing the outcome soon. (Just as soon as my pinched nerve resolves itself and I can do heavy lifting...hehe.) 

What do you find inspiration in?

Happy Saturday!

Hey, hey! I'm finally back on the horse and feeling much better about things. How is everything going with you guys? What are you up to this Saturday?

Just a couple of things (for now...I'm going to be working on the blog and getting a few things sorted out in the coming week or so):

1. The wise and awesome Haley has started a blog! Please go and check her out. :)
http://thedistractedblogger.wordpress.com/

2. Much to my chagrin, pro-football season is starting soon and that means that my husband will be consumed with Redskins football on Sunday afternoons. I was thinking of maybe starting a chat n' craft on the Facebook page for all of those football widows like me out there. Would anyone be interested?

Back soon. Let me know! I'm feeling excited about blogging again so be prepared for a flurry of stuff. :) Thanks for being patient as I dealt with all this. I'm really excited to start slowly making this a fun housewife hang out.

My Followers are Brilliant

So after my "update" last week a couple of you left encouraging words and for that I can't thank you enough. One stuck out:

"I hope the festivities of the holiday helped. I know things like that can help me stop for a moment and take a breath. A few things you can do is make a list of everything you haven't gotten done and play the "what is the worst that can happen" game. Puts things into perspective. Then make a list of all your blessings, including your favorite physical and personal traits. Maybe even have your husband make one too and share together. Hopefully this can give you the little boost you need."


Haley, you are brilliant! I love this idea. If you get or have a blog, girl let me know and I'll feature you. What a simple way to gain some perspective and remind yourself of all the good things! I'm going to do this! I might even share it with y'all. 


The best part for me is the "What is the worst that can happen?" game. I always have a list, but I never look at it from that perspective. 


And to answer you, yes, the holiday weekend helped some. I even got brave and delegated some of the work (trust me when I say it is super hard for me to delegate - am I alone in that?) to The Hubs and thanks to him, I feel back in control of the chore list. He was so awesome to take on more of the chores on his holiday weekend. 


And to anyone else out there feeling overwhelmed...you are not alone, and you helped me remember that I'm not either. We may not be Stepford Wives, but we're darn good ones!

Happy 4th of July!

I hope you and yours have a Happy and Safe Independence Day! :) 

(I found this image at The Graphics Fairy...you should check out her blog!)

An Update of Sorts

So I've been MIA for awhile. I really want to blog. I'm just stuck in a slump.

Let me say this so I am clear. I love that my primary job in life is housewifing. No really. I do love it. Actually the idea of taking on a full time job again any time soon gives me the heebie-jeebies. And lately, with summer vacation the prospect of having to take on a "real" full time job is a real one. My tutoring schedule has been greatly reduced and so has my income. If things don't pick up, me having to work is a real possibility. One I'm not really excited about.

Add to that a serious bout of self-doubt and self-pity on my part and you have the major reason I haven't updated since June 3rd.

I love housewifing, but I'm burned out and depressed. I have this tendency to want everything "just so" and in turn I make everything into a J.O.B. I pretty much do nothing if it's not productive. I feel guilty relaxing and struggle with it. (Those who know me in real life, know I've always been that way. I honestly don't know how to relax.) Even the things I used to do for enjoyment have become a chore. 

I read blogs like Thrifty Decor Chick, The Pioneer Woman and others and they seem so together. It all just seems to elude me. I haven't been keeping all of the balls I'm juggling in the air lately and it has really just shut me down completely. I know it's not right to compare myself to others but I do. All the time.

For awhile, I had everything on a schedule. I was menu planning and cooking. The house was clean and run efficiently. But one thing in my schedule changes and I'm thrown for a loop. For the last couple of months I have struggled to keep it all together. The Hubs helps. He cooks dinner and helps with the dog and the cleaning...when I let him. I tend to be a control freak (though I think I'm getting better about that). Last weekend he even bought me roses and a special dessert and cooked me a wonderful steak dinner. He wants to help, I just don't know what to tell him to do.

I look in the mirror and wonder who the overweight person is looking back at me in that yoga pants and over-sized t-shirt uniform. I haven't had a hair cut since Labor Day (you think I'm kidding). My eyebrows are...let's just not speak of it. And I try. I really do. I just don't understand how some people look so put together all the time and I feel lucky if I get out of the house with my hair in a ponytail and some lip gloss on.

Compounding the problem is that we've outgrown our apartment and it's becoming painfully evident. I have reorganized, ruthlessly purged, gotten a storage unit. We want to move, but The Hubs' project is up in early 2012 so we really didn't want to move and then have to turn around and move again 6 months later. So we signed another lease. I'm not happy about it but it's the best we could do at the moment.

I realize that there are people out there in much worse situations than I am. I am very, very blessed that we are healthy; that I don't have to work, that my husband is as successful as he is and provides well for us (we ain't rich, but we don't want for necessities and entertainment). This is just where I am right now. Stuck and trying to figure things out. So I'm sorry that I haven't blogged. I didn't want it to turn into me whining all the time and being so "woe is me". I'm not even thrilled I divulged this much, but it had to come out.

I do have lots of things, happy, fun things to share with you all. If you're even still reading? I hope so. I've wanted to share about my veggie garden so badly, but the words just wouldn't come. I'm working on it though. Slowly. I just needed some time to get my words back.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I will try my hardest to post again in the next few days and share my garden with you. I've been so excited seeing the veggies pop up. It's been one of the few things making me smile lately. Back soon, promise.

Quick Kitchen Tip

This week our AC has been out completely (they are here now working on it) and so I haven't really wanted to be productive at all. And cooking was out. I was not going to heat up the apartment for dinner for nothin'. So today when the temperature dropped down into the 80's finally and it was tolerable I decided to get busy. Here's a quick tip:

We like to stockpile good deals when we can, but produce is a bit harder. So this week when sweet corn went on sale 10 for $2.00 I stocked up with 12 ears. Since it's just the two of us, I didn't want it to go to waste so I did a little research and discovered that you can blanch it and then vacuum pack it and it's just fine for freezing on the cob. We have a FoodSaver so I knew I wanted to try it. The only problem? No ice. Ice is kind of essential when blanching. We took out the ice bucket and turned off the ice maker on our freezer so we could pile in our stockpile of meat. So I got creative:

Yep, that's right. I used Otter Pops. The best part? When they melted they didn't add to the water level in the bowl and I just stuck em back in the freezer to refreeze when I was done!

Got a cool cooking tip? This housewife wants to know! Either post it in the comments below or email me at thescrappyhousewife(at)gmail(dot)com and I'll share it with the rest of my readers in a special Tips from Commenters post. :) 

My Trip to the Old Lucketts Store Spring Market

Last weekend, The Hubs was gracious enough to schlep me 45 minutes south to the 12th Annual Lucketts Spring Market at The Old Lucketts Store. Let me just tell you, if you live anywhere near Leesburg, Virginia - go. Go now actually. I can wait. It. Was. Awesome. 

This event is annual with many dealers from around the country, but The Old Lucketts Store is open and chock full of goodies every day! If you like anything that's vintage, chic, or quirky you really need to make a trip. On top of the neat stuff in the store, it's also "home" to a really talented (and gracious) blogger The Graphics Fairy aka Karen. I spoke with her briefly and basically gushed over how much I love her blog and all the cool vintage graphics she shares daily for FREE. Check her out here: The Graphics Fairy

For those of you that can't make it to the store or the annual event, I took some pictures with my cell phone and thought I'd share some of the pure awesomeness (is that a word?). I will definitely be going back!

There were a ton of these. More than I would have expected. How cool would this be as decor in your sewing room?

There were also many vintage suitcases. This is just one specimen.

I *loved* these old hardware drawers. Wouldn't they make neat planter boxes or a cool centerpiece filled with flowers or table supplies?

These chenille pumpkins were cute. I can't imagine how much work went into these.

This was actually in the Old Lucketts Store. I am in love with the ruffles on this lampshade.

Another find in the store itself. This is a lamp shade made from pages from an antique book and some clips. Seriously? Srsly.

This was in the "bathroom" of the store. I loved that starburst clock.

Starburst clock detail. Gorg!

You can bet that once I have a larger kitchen, this will find it's way into my home. How awesome would this make meal planning?

Here's part of what I brought home: 

My vintage fabric! Love!

And lastly, presented without comment (no, I did not bring this home):

*Ahem*

Quick Memory Jar

This was a really quick and really cheap idea I had after our vacation to Florida in April. I had spent the day with my best friend and her kids at the beach and wanted some way to save the shells and display them without spending a lot of money or having to dust individual shells every week. Here's what I came up with:

A quick little shell/photo memory jar!

Step 1: Supplies - You'll need the pictures you want to use (I printed mine on regular printer paper), the shells you want to use, a circle cutter of some kind (I used the Fiskars circle template and shape cutter), a small jar, some scrap scrapbook paper, ribbon and some scissors.

Here's the jar I used:

I picked mine up for $1.97 at Wal-mart.

Step 2: Cut out the pictures and your scrap paper to the size you desire.

Here's what you'll have when you're done cutting.

Step 3: Attach your circles inside the jar with a small piece of scrapbooking tape.

Step 4: Add shells and decorate your jar. Here's my final product. I love that I can see pictures from that day and have a small reminder of the fun we had in a decorative way. It literally took me half an hour. So fun!

This post is partying at (links on sidebar):

20 Below Thursday's - Christina's Adventures

Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple

Wicked Awesome Wednesday @ Handy Man, Crafty Woman

Quick Salt and Pepper Set and a Tablescape

So yesterday I showed you how I did a little DIY refurb on my new to me dining room table set and mentioned that yes, I really do set my table this way. My mother always had an impeccable table and to me a table feels naked without some dressing. I thought I'd take a minute today and share what I did to dress out my table. 

First of all, I have an obsession with Williams Sonoma Outlet. Please note I said outlet. They have killer sales and are far more in line with my budget than the regular store. I don't even mind driving  making my husband drive the 45 minutes it takes to get to one. I'm even on their e-mail list and once in awhile they send out 10% off of your purchase coupons. Love that. 

So a look at the tablescape again (click to enlarge):

And a breakdown:

1. Mustard color placemats and napkins were from WS Outlet on steep sale (70% off I think?)

2. Wooden square napkin rings are also from WS Outlet and I got them dirt cheap. I think it was $12.00 for all four.

3. The round woven placemats that make up the "runner" in the middle are from Ikea. You can find them here.

4.The small green plate in the middle was on clearance at Target a few years ago. I loved it's color.

5. The plate holds our C&B butter dish ($4.99) and our salt and pepper set that I got creative with (we'll get to that in a minute). Those salt and pepper grinders are from WS Outlet and were originally marked $19.99 each. That's right, I said each. Um no. When I found them they were in the clearance section for $4.99 each. Ahhh, much better. 

The only problem with grabbing them for our salt and pepper was that they were exactly alike and it wasn't easy to tell which one you grabbed. So, while working on another project, I decided to try my hand at vinyl. I constantly swoon over people with their Silhouette machines, but at a pricey $220 bucks, I can't afford it. Even on blog sales. So, I did a little research and found out that Cricut makes vinyl too. So I grabbed some from JoAnn's in tan and red and fired up my machine. Here's what they look like now:

So cute, right? I used the "From My Kitchen" cartridge for the design. The vinyl worked beautifully! I thought it would be so intimidating and hard, but nope. At $6.99 a roll, it's far more affordable than a new machine right now. (I'd still love one though...drool.)

A Mid-Mod Makeover

A couple of weeks ago, I posted briefly that while walking through our favorite antiques mall my husband and I (well ok, mostly I...) found a gorg mid-century modern dining room set with table, leaf and 6 chairs (SIX!). It was advertised as a Drexel "Dimensions" table and priced at $645 for the set. Yeah, the set. That was insane enough, and I wanted it, but it needed love and honestly, I knew that "love" would consist of at least a few hundred dollars worth of refurb so I inquired about contacting the dealer to work out a better price. He called me back a few days later and I was able to talk him down to $475, again, the set. Seriously? Yes. Here it is the way I found it:

Crappy cell phone pic, sorry. The crazy star ashtray was not included...I'm sure you're heartbroken...

Also, I just know you love the faux tiger print fur...no? Me either. It. Had. To. Go. So in the interest of all things bloggy, I decided to show you how I fixed it up. 

Side note: It -is- marked Drexel. The leaf and table tags match and the chairs are also stamped and they match all the information I could find online about how to recognize a real Drexel. The table is from the Drexel  Declaration line and is marked dated 1961. After some research a friend of mine found the original catalog page for it: 

We haven't found the chairs yet, however. They aren't the same style as the table and while we have the item number, Drexel doesn't even have much information. Still looking.

Anywho, back to my mini-tutorial. I decided I would rather live with it a bit at first before refinishing it and I wanted to do more research into value in case refurb would damage it so I opted for a "clean and recover" plan.

Here's how I recovered the chairs. 

Step 1: Gather your supplies. You'll most likely need a screwdriver, a staple gun, the fabric you're using (upholstery or home dec weight) and perhaps a flashlight for step 2.

Step 2: Find the screws holding the seat on. I zoomed in and used the flash to show you where you'd find them. I used a flashlight when I first started to make sure I wasn't just gouging wood. 

Step 3: Lay your seat cushion on top of your fabric and measure a square with enough fabric to wrap around the seat and be stapled. 

I chose a simple herringbone pattern in two shades of blue, brown and tan. I felt the pattern was masculine but also somewhat period with a modern update and I loved the color combination:

Step 5: Staple in the middle on the side that will be facing the back of the chair. Honestly, I did this because my seats were oddly shaped, I assume if it's a square seat, it wouldn't really matter.

Step 6: I stapled in the middle on the remaining three sides and then began to wrap and pull (gently!) the fabric around the rest of the seat. If you pull too hard you'll end up with an odd looking seat so just tug enough that the fabric is taut, but not too tight. 

When I got to the corners I pinched them together and pulled to make sort of a boxy looking corner. My chairs had a funky angle on the back so I just did the best I could to pull them taut and square them off so they'd fit back in the chair frame OK. It took some practice, but they turned out beautifully. I made sure in the beginning to grab more fabric than I thought I'd need just in case I made some horrible mistake since this was my first time. I didn't end up needing it, but I highly recommend it. Once a staple is in, it's in. I know this because I tried to remove the two layers of fabric stapled on to see if the original felt was still there. The fabric will rip long before that staple will come out.

Step 7: Lay your chair cushion/seat upside down on one of the other chairs (using the same height chair seemed to make it easier and I didn't risk scratching the table or pulling my back out of whack) and replace the screws. You might have to push a little and yes, the screw will go through the fabric on the bottom, but you won't see that. CAUTION: I would not, under any circumstances, use an electric screwdriver. I considered it, but realized the wood in the seat was thinnish and I felt it might pop through if I had serious power behind it. Have any of you had success with that? Everything being antique gave me pause. I didn't want to risk any damage.

Now you're ready to flip your chair over and enjoy!

To clean the table and chairs (which I cleaned while the seats were off) I used 1/4 cup Murphy's Oil Soap in one gallon of water and rang out the microfiber cloth very well before wiping with the grain of the wood gently. I also would caution you not to over clean. Trust me it was hard, but I had to pull back. The last thing you want to do is pull the finish off of an older piece. I consulted a friend who has worked in this area before as well as taking advice from a furniture re-finisher we know personally. Murphy's is the best way to go if you have to clean, but don't be vigorous and make sure you stop if it starts to feel sticky. I was lucky in that my pieces were still finished, but I was still super careful.

Here's what the table and chairs look like now:

Yes,  I keep my table set like that all the time. I have become my mother (a 60s housewife no less), but I'm OK with that. Next up: Brown football helmet. ;) Name that movie...

Here's a good side by side B&A of the chairs:

I am in love with this table. It makes me so stinkin' happy to walk past it and eat at it and have a large enough space to work on when I need to. It's a little large for the space, but not overly so and we're looking for a bigger apartment anyway.

Special note: In case you hadn't noticed, I haven't been around much. I won't go into details, but I thank you for sticking by and being patient. I've got several more posts for the next two weeks and I finally feel back on the horse. :) Stay tuned!

This post parties at:

Hookin' Up with House of Hepworths

Mid Mod Love

Check out my new dining table. ;) The hubs and I stumbled across this beauty this past weekend and while it needs a little love (not too much, but the zebra/tiger faux fur is so gone ASAP)...I was able to negotiate a FANTASTIC price for the table, all six chairs and the leaf. Oh and did I mention it's an original 1961 Drexel? Yeah...I am so stinkin' excited y'all!

We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Blog

Hey guys,

I want to apologize for not being around the last few days. Life swooped in and knocked me on my butt. There are reasons for that, and I might share them at a later date, but for now I'll just say I'm sorry and move forward.

I'll be back tomorrow with Tune in Tuesday - Wednesday Edition as well as announcing our GIVEAWAY!

Thanks for being patient.

Christina aka The Scrappy Housewife

Hey Baby Cakes!

Last Friday, I put together a baby shower gift for some of our dear friends Chris and Jeneane in honor of their first baby. I absolutely love the opportunity to let my creativity shine when creating unique gifts for friends and this baby shower was no exception.

I'm sure we've all seen diaper cakes at showers, but I thought I would do a quick tutorial showing you how to construct the bulk of it (the hardest part) so you can get creative during your decorating too!

First off, gather all your supplies (this is the fun part! Shopping!). I opted for three packages of diapers, 150 in total. I used baby socks, scratch mittens, pacifiers, washcloths and onesies for decoration as well as some travel sized baby supplies. You'll need to make sure you purchase some sort of cake board or foam core to put your cake on and act as the "plate". I just get mine at the party store. I also got shrink wrap designed for baskets at the party store for $6.99. The shrink wrap keeps the diapers clean and protected. You'll need the hair dryer to shrink it.

Next, remove all the packaging from your baby gifts. You'll cut off about a million of these (save the packaging if you're concerned for returns, etc):

Arrange the diapers in whatever shape you'd like for your cake. I went with rectangle because I'd purchased so many diapers this time, but I've also done circle cakes. You just need a large bowl to use as a mold of sorts. Then secure them by wrapping them in ribbon of your choice.

I used a large binder clip to hold the ribbon in place and so I could adjust the diapers as needed.

Once I got things arranged and was satisfied with the shape. I used sticky dots to secure the ribbon permanently.

Remove the binder clip and wrap the diapers with the shrink wrap like you would a present. Use some tape to secure it, but make sure you aren't taping diapers! This takes a little time because the shrink wrap is thin and can tear, and because it's designed for baskets. The first layer is the hardest. After that it's easy sailing!

Once you have it wrapped you're ready to shrink. Put your hair dryer on the hottest setting, and get as close as you can to the wrap without touching it. That's the key. It will melt if you touch it. You just want it to shrink. It'll look like this when you're done:

Repeat with as many other layers as you need. 

Then decorate! I rolled the washcloths and gave them a small band of ribbon so I could stand them upright on the cake, and secured them with sticky dots (on the ribbon) to the shrink wrap. I used clothespins attached with sticky dots to hold the scratch mittens and socks. The onesies were rolled and attached using ribbon and the sticky dots as well. Then I had my DH hold the board so I could slide ribbon underneath and drew it up on all sides to secure the cake to the board (I had already taped it down to the board, but it's better to secure it as many creative ways as possible. Tall  = wobbly.) Lastly I added the travel kit and used some ribbon to tie it all together and include the pacifiers. It was decorated on all sides and ADORABLE. 

This Post is Partying At:

Hookin' Up @ House of Hepworths (You can find the button in my sidebar - Go.Check.Her.Out!)

Tune In Tuesday # 1 - Saving $$$

So this week marks a new feature here at The Scrappy Housewife. I read so many awesome blogs each week (and I'm still behind! Yikes!) and want to spread the blog love. Which brings us to my new weekly feature:

TUNE IN TUESDAY!

Each week I will feature some of my favorite blogs, projects, and ideas from my blog roll. I'm tossing around the idea of having a theme each week for these but we'll see how that goes.

This week, I'd like to share with you some of my favorite savings blogs. Since I became a housewife (read: we went from two incomes to one) I've been hyper-conscious about saving money - not because we're desperate, but because I feel that if I can't make any money, then it's my job to save us money. In my quest to improve our savings and pay off and pay down debt, I've found the following blogs to be helpful (click on the blog name to go there):

Addicted to Saving - Liza gives daily information on couponing, awesome deals and ways to make money for your family. She saves upwards of 90% each week on groceries and no, she's not one of those extreme couponers either.

I Gotta Coupon For That - More couponing insights, store sale/coupon match ups. This one appealed to me because most of the others don't do match ups for our regional grocery stores here in MD.

The Happy Housewife - Oh so many good things here, not just couponing! Lots of things for home management, homeschooling (if you do that, I don't even have kids - ha!), cooking, etc.

Southern Savers - Another couponing dynamo. If you want to live frugal in the south, you need to go here!

Coupon Divas - Another awesome site. I'm learning so much from this one - especially about CVS and how  to get things for FREE.

I really hope you like this new weekly feature. I've already got a list of cool projects from around blogland to share with you next week!

If you know of any great sites that fit with this weeks theme please leave me a comment below! I'm always eager to add to my daily reading. :)

100 Scraps Challenge Is On!

If you're interested and want to participate or just offer encouragement to those of us taking the challenge:

Click Here To Be Taken To The Challenge Site!

You can also find more information under the tab at the top of the page. I'm going to try my best not to spam you guys too much over here because I know some of you don't scrapbook and I want this blog to remain as it is for y'all. I will add highlights from the Challenge here and there and feature some of the participants here too though. Keep an eye out!

Also, coming up this week here at The Scrappy Housewife:

Our First Giveaway!!! (I'm so excited about this!)

A New Weekly Feature!

Stay Tuned. :)

100 Scraps in 100 Days Challenge

I have a confession to make. My name is Christina aka The Scrappy Housewife and I am a Scrapbook Supplies Hoarder. If you've been here since January, you probably remember my Office Decrapification. During that clean up I showed you this little area here:

All of what you see there is scrapbook supplies. See the smaller white containers on the bottom left and mid-right? That's paper. Scrapbook paper. There's more on top of the mid-right bin and middle set of drawers. And I just bought two new stacks two days ago. Yes, really. Wanna know the sad part of all this? I don't scrapbook. 

Well, that's not entirely true. I do scrapbook. I have lots of pictures organized and ready to go in archival bins, labeled, cataloged, scanned, etc, etc. Heck I even have scrapbooks started. You can kinda see my scrapbook shelf on the bookcase in the top right. I do scrapbook. I am a scrapbooker. I. Just. Never. Do.

So here's the deal. I need help. Accountability. A good kick in the pants to finally get a few of these projects done. I am The "Scrappy" Housewife for heaven's sake. I need you.

For those of you who aren't aware, May is National Scrapbooking Month. So I'm issuing the start of a challenge. One scrapbook page a day for 100 days. Oh yes. I could've just done the month, but that would be dare I say, beneath us? We can do 100 pages. How long does one page a day take? 

Don't worry though. I know many of you are probably not scrappers (well, you're -my- scrappers - sounds better than followers, eh? Thanks Jeneane!), and I don't want to spam your feeds with a bunch of stuff you aren't overly interested in. So I created a sister blog. The Scrappy Housewife Scrapbooking Challenge. You can find a link to it at the 100 Scraps in 100 Days tab at the top of The Scrappy Housewife page. 

I really hope you'll join me, if for nothing but to cheer me on as I try to stop spending on scrap stuff and start -using- what I already have (thousands of sheets, people, thousands)! My husband will thank you. My wallet will thank you. My office full of scrap stuff will thank you. 

I'll post the details of the challenge over there later today. And don't worry. I'll still be organizing, sewing, crafting and housewifing over here. Nothing will change. Well, hopefully we'll get bigger and better, but I'll still be sharing my journey as I learn to housewife with the best of them.

Right now, I'm out to work on a few craft projects to share here (yes, really! I finally have a day to myself.) and pick up the last of a really awesome (hopefully...) baby shower project I'm working on. :) 

Happy Friday!

Quick Survey Pretty Please?

Edited: In case it isn't clear: Google Reader is Google Friend Connect. So if you read via Google Reader, please choose Google Friend Connect. Using another reader? Choose RSS feed. Thanks! New to this survey thing, sorry!

I'm trying to plan my first giveaway and was going to wait until I hit 50 followers, but then realized that I only see Google Friends and not those of you who subscribe in other ways. If you would, please take two seconds and reply to my survey below. I would really appreciate it! (Prizes depend on your response! Don't let them down! :) )

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

We Got Featured!

Hey guys!


The Borrowed Abode and I got featured over at Hyphen Interiors for our reality link up parties! 


Kristy said, "What unique link parties!  Here’s to keeping it real!  Good work ladies!  You put a smile on my face."


That's just what I was going for. Thanks Kristy!


Let's return some blog love and run over to her place and check it out, OK?


And you can still enter the Reality Check link up. Don't forget. :) 

Redneck Balcony 101

Since Jane over at The Borrowed Abode announced her Redneck Yard of the Year contest, I've been dare I say excited to get outside and spruce up our balcony area. My dream is that it would be like an outdoor room, but at the moment it is definitely not.

I've loved seeing all of the outdoor spaces people have linked up (and really, I'd kill for a yard, but we don't have one yet). One involving a Shanghai sign no less. You really need to check it out. But before you head over there let me show you my less than stellar out door space.

Let's start by showing you the bird poo on the railing of our third floor apartment. Let's just say I'll never hang a bird feeder there again.

Then, let's take a look at the cool Ikea outdoor furniture we bought last year. We actually really like this furniture. The table folds down and tucks away as you can see here, which is awesome. But let's take a closer look shall we? 

Here's the pretty underside of the cushion:

 And the faded, not so pretty upper:

My favorite part though has to be the stuck on mold on the table top. Last year we made jack-o-lanterns at Halloween and they turned into a science project really quickly. Since they were facing away from us we didn't quite catch it in time. It's cleanable, just really gross. Basically I'm going to have to sand it off and then reseal the table. Joy.

Next is the opposite side of the balcony where I "stored" everything for winter. The white rocker (which is orange in spots thanks to another Halloween craft) was my mother's. The giant black trunk is my husband's. At one point it was his TV stand. Bachelor much? Now it smells like smoke from an apartment fire and thus remains outside. (I really want to get rid of it, but it holds so dang much! Right now it's holding my gardening supplies.)

The next stop on our tour of Balcony de Scrappy is the funniest part. As I walked outside to snap the pictures, the screen door fell off! I'm not kidding. You can even see how I propped it up against the wall to keep our chihuahua from escaping in the picture above. Too funny.

Here is said chihuahua now, trying to figure out why mommy has the broken door propped precariously against the wall. It's nice to know our apartment cooperates with the blog though. ;)

OK so maybe "redneck" isn't the right term for our little space, but it's certainly dysfunctional at the moment. Which is why I would love to win that $25 Home Depot gift card from Jane. It is also partly the reason I'm going to start a special series following my journey to learn to garden (and grow veggies!) on my balcony. I've even started a page especially for it! Stay tuned! 

And don't forget to enter your Reality to my link up party, and your Redneck Yard over at The Borrowed Abode! She's giving away a gift card people! (Sadly, I am not...but I do have a giveaway planned soon. Stay tuned for more details!)