It All Led to This...

   Do you see the mess above?  Dishes piled high in the sink just waiting to be done.  Someone made a mess and that someone was me.  How did it get this way you ask...well let me show you.

    First I peeled six overripe bananas.  I set the peels aside to help fertilize my rose bushes with and then used the banana to make...

three loaves of banana bread.

Doesn't that look yummy?

    While the oven was still hot, I made a huge chicken enchilada with a white sauce casserole and baked that for dinner later.

   I also had sourdough bread going in the bread maker since this is my husband's favorite bread to make sandwiches with.

   While making a new loaf of bread, I used the heals of several of the older loaves to make some more garlic croutons to use on the many salads that were on the menu plan for the week.

     And just to add to the chaos, I was running back and forth to the laundry room to wash the laundry and then hang things out on the line to dry.

A Fun Morning at the Park with Bradley and Isaiah

Saying Goodbye to Gemma

   Today we had to say goodbye to our Gemma.  She was a very old cat and had been a part of our family for about 19 years.  She was the most patient fur baby we have ever had and put up with the grandsons carrying her around and never scratched them, no matter how hard they may have accidentally "hugged" her.  We will all miss her terribly.


RIP Gemmie...we love you and thank you for all the years of joy, cuddles and letting us all know with your rather loud demands for breakfast when Daddy arrived home from work in the morning.

Some Recent Thrift Store Finds Mid June 2015

The hardback books were $1.49 each and the soft cover Sudoku was .99.  The double feature dvd came in at $2.00, the Financial Peace University Envelope System was .59 and the Fossil wallet was .99.

I actually bought 4 of these canvas storage bins (one of them is already holding the children's board books for my youngest grandson).  They were .49 for the smaller ones and .79 for the larger ones.

I had been on the hunt for a larger Pyrex covered casserole dish and was thrilled to find this really pretty one for $2.99.

   I also found more children's books for my grandsons, school supplies (2 boxes of 24 count #2 pencils for .59 each), a few more movies, some cds, a beautiful Battenburg lace bed skirt for $2.99, and a Calphalon wok for $4.99 that retails for over $100.  Woohoo! 

   

Mid June Garden

Recent Frugal Fashion Finds

Dooney and Bourke brown leather purse



I love yard sale season almost as much as I love thrift store shopping and this time of year I can combine both of them and find some amazing deals!  Every now and then I find a fantastic deal like the Dooney and Bourke brown leather purse that I recently thrifted for $3.99, and yes, it is authentic. :)   Don't you just love when you find something that you have been wanting for a long time but refused to pay retail prices for?  I know I sure do.

Tod's dark brown leather purse (not sure if this one is authentic but I love the style and the leather is buttery soft)

I am a self admitted purse addict, I just can't help myself!  I know my mother is rolling her eyes saying "How many purses do you need?". ;)  And she would be right, but still!  I scored the Tod's purse for $2.99.  Both purses were found at a local thrift store.  Some of the other purses I have found lately were actually from a huge .50 for each item, yard sale that I went to about a month ago.  I found so many wonderful bags there and left a lot of them behind.  However, I did come home with several cross body style purses by Nine West, Sak and a hand tooled leather bag in a deep teal color.  I also found some Summer type purses, wallets, photo holders and a cute little girl's bag that I will be giving to a friend.


Cobalt blue dress

It is wedding season and I was needing a few more more dresses for the 3 weddings that we have coming up.  I found the lovely cobalt blue dress at the thrift store for $3.47 and it was brand new with tags still attached.  I also found another brand new dress there with the most beautiful trumpet type skirt.  It is just so pretty and feminine.


Brand new dress, with tags attached

The dress above was a yard sale find.  A woman who owns a consignment shop was clearing out some of her overstock inventory that she had stored at her house in anticipation of a move.  I paid $5 for this gorgeous dress that she had bought when another formal wear store was going out of business.  I love the color and the fit of it.


LL Bean long winter coat

Now is the time to pick up winter coats and clothing.  If you shop off season, you can find some amazing deals like I did with the wonderfully soft and warm LL Bean coat that even has a hood.  I feel in love with this the minute I saw it.  It was another great score from the lady who owned the consignment store's yard sale.  Since it was the last day of the sale, she only charged me $1 for it.  The tag, from her her store, had it listed for $75, which is a fraction of the cost brand new.  This coat shows absolutely no wear so I don't think whomever was the original owner wore it much at all.  This will rank up there with one of my all time favorite finds.

Do you love to hunt for treasures at yard sales and thrift stores?  If so, now is the time to go.  The thrift stores in our area are filled with so many wonderful things that people have donated due to Spring Cleaning or, in our case, college letting out for the Summer and students donating.  Yard sales are in full swing and every weekend is a new adventure!
Happy hunting and I hope you will find some wonderful buys!

The Blessing of Family!

   My cousin Jeremy Ricker came for a visit with his sweet dog Mya last Friday and stayed with us over the weekend.  We had not seen each other since he was 1 and I was 2 1/2.  We had reconnected through Facebook and had been building a relationship as adults through that vehicle.  When Jeremy arrived here on Friday, we greeted each other with a big hug and it just seemed so easy, relaxed and comfortable.  

   Jeremy fit right in with the rest of us and everyone loved him.  He was even subjected to the full on Bradley treatment.  ;)  I was amazed at how my grandkids took to him so quickly since they usually are a bit weary of strangers.  Maybe it was because we had been talking about "Uncle" Jeremy coming and he also came bearing treats for them.  Smart man that cousin of mine!

   I am the keeper of the family genealogy and Jeremy brought up boxes of documents, pictures, photo albums, scrap books, old family china, a beautiful tapa cloth, an old family bible and our great grandfather's flag that was draped over his coffin and given military honors when he passed away.  We combed through so much of it together and that was just the tip of the iceberg.  I have hours and hours of reading to do and am looking forward to that.  It was fun to share memories of our great grandparents,  grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins and to put some pieces of "puzzles" together. 

   One of the things that really struck me was how we share some of the same quirks and even say some of the same things even though we were raised apart.  The strange thing is that the things that I found him saying like "what doing" to his dog are the same things I say but yet my mother and our grandmother never said those things that I can remember.  We both also stick our foot out from under the covers when we are hot at night and so does one of my sons...there has got to be a genetic component in there somewhere because not many people I know do that either.  We have even lived in the same town in Oregon at different times and he worked for the same company my husband used to.  His brother, Andy, also lived in Chang Mai, Thailand and so did my brother Fritz at one point.  We were not all in contact with each other at that time and it does kind of boggle my mind!

    It hit me while he was here that he is the first cousin that I have ever had come and visit me here in my home.  It was just so special to me to have him here with us.  We are hoping that he will move closer and that we can share many, many more wonderful times together.  What a blessing it is to have him back in my life again...I love you Jeremy and am so happy that we reconnected!