This is a two day festival, with music on Friday night, and family activities and an artist market (where I will be) on Saturday.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Need something to do this weekend?
Come see me this Saturday at the Riverview Landing Fall Festival. I've never been to this festival before, but it looks like fun! I don't know if June is old enough to enjoy the festivities, but hopefully her daddy will bring her by to see me anyhow.
This is a two day festival, with music on Friday night, and family activities and an artist market (where I will be) on Saturday.
Click here for more info on Saturday's festival, or click here for directions.
This is a two day festival, with music on Friday night, and family activities and an artist market (where I will be) on Saturday.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Chicken Kabobs
 |
| After doubling the recipe, I was able to divide it up into three meals (for two adults and a toddler), but the chicken breasts I used were huge. These two bags are ready to go in the freezer. |
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
East Atlanta Strut
The East Atlanta Strut is tomorrow ATL people! I'll have a booth there, so stop by and see me. This will be my first time using my new booth display in an tent. I'm excited to see how it all looks set up.
Click here for more info.
Click here for more info.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
DIY Renovation: Creating a Plan
Plan your work and work your plan. Those are words to live by, or work by at least. The first step in our renovation was creating a floor plan. When my husband and I were searching for a home to buy, the area we were looking in was all old houses. No matter what house we bought, it would need work. We were given the advice to always go for the house with more square feet. When we were deciding between our top two options, we did just that. The first house looked more finished, but was smaller. The house we bought looked like a hot mess, but we bought it anyhow. Both houses actually started out with the same floor plan, since the majority of the houses here were identical when they were built.
My neighborhood was built in the 1940's. The houses were almost all 2 bedroom, 1 bath houses with a living room, dining room, fire place, screen porch, and eat in kitchen. Most of the houses have had additions over the years. Mine has had two. Unfortunately, when those additions were made, the goal seemed to have been to simply make a bigger house. There was no regard to what the additional rooms could be used for, or the traffic flow through the house. The original back porch of the house had been used at the foundation for the first addition, and a new back porch was added next to it. The next owners decided that one bonus room wasn't enough, and used the new porch as a foundation for another addition. They did not add a new porch. The biggest problem was that in order to get from the back of the house to the front of the house, you had to walk in a big U shape through the two bonus rooms, the kitchen, the hallway, and then the living room. If we were leaving from the back door and couldn't remember if we had locked the front door, it was faster just to run around the outside of the house and check than it was to walk back through the inside.
It took my husband and I a long time to agree on a floor plan. We knew we wanted to have a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a new kitchen, but we couldn't agree on where those things should go. I spent hours in front of the computer almost daily drawing every possible layout. Finally, after months of deliberation, we nailed it down.
Please excuse my simplified drawing. I originally only created it for me to be able to work through different floor plans, so while I did draw out where the windows were, I didn't bother to draw any doors.
In addition to the long path from the front of the house to the back, and the kitchen being in the middle (which turned out to be really annoying for a number of reasons), the screen porch had been turned into a bedroom. It didn't have a closet, and you had to either go through the living room or another bedroom to get to it. It wasn't exactly private.
Another major problem was the kitchen layout. Once the toaster oven was on the counter and the canisters were put out, there was no counter space left. Since the original pantry had been sacrificed to add more counter space, the pantry had been moved around the corner into the hall linen closet. The washer and dryer were also crammed in the tiny space, sort of. The wall between the dining room and kitchen had been cut down to a knee wall to open up the space before the last owners bought the house. The space left in the kitchen wasn't wide enough to fit a washer and dryer, so they knocked down the knee wall to make more room. They patched the floor with a scrap piece of plywood. Everything about this room was a mess.
This is the only drawing where there aren't supposed to be doors in every doorway. The wide doorways between the sun room, dining room, hall, and living room are all open.
While I realize that my house isn't perfect, it's about a million times better than where we started. There are a few things that I would do differently if I had to do it all over again, but overall I think it turned out well.
My neighborhood was built in the 1940's. The houses were almost all 2 bedroom, 1 bath houses with a living room, dining room, fire place, screen porch, and eat in kitchen. Most of the houses have had additions over the years. Mine has had two. Unfortunately, when those additions were made, the goal seemed to have been to simply make a bigger house. There was no regard to what the additional rooms could be used for, or the traffic flow through the house. The original back porch of the house had been used at the foundation for the first addition, and a new back porch was added next to it. The next owners decided that one bonus room wasn't enough, and used the new porch as a foundation for another addition. They did not add a new porch. The biggest problem was that in order to get from the back of the house to the front of the house, you had to walk in a big U shape through the two bonus rooms, the kitchen, the hallway, and then the living room. If we were leaving from the back door and couldn't remember if we had locked the front door, it was faster just to run around the outside of the house and check than it was to walk back through the inside.
It took my husband and I a long time to agree on a floor plan. We knew we wanted to have a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a new kitchen, but we couldn't agree on where those things should go. I spent hours in front of the computer almost daily drawing every possible layout. Finally, after months of deliberation, we nailed it down.
This is the original floor plan:
 |
| Click to enlarge |
This was the floor plan when we bought it:
 |
| Click to enlarge |
In addition to the long path from the front of the house to the back, and the kitchen being in the middle (which turned out to be really annoying for a number of reasons), the screen porch had been turned into a bedroom. It didn't have a closet, and you had to either go through the living room or another bedroom to get to it. It wasn't exactly private.
Another major problem was the kitchen layout. Once the toaster oven was on the counter and the canisters were put out, there was no counter space left. Since the original pantry had been sacrificed to add more counter space, the pantry had been moved around the corner into the hall linen closet. The washer and dryer were also crammed in the tiny space, sort of. The wall between the dining room and kitchen had been cut down to a knee wall to open up the space before the last owners bought the house. The space left in the kitchen wasn't wide enough to fit a washer and dryer, so they knocked down the knee wall to make more room. They patched the floor with a scrap piece of plywood. Everything about this room was a mess.
This is what the house looks like today:
 |
| Click to enlarge |
This is the only drawing where there aren't supposed to be doors in every doorway. The wide doorways between the sun room, dining room, hall, and living room are all open.
While I realize that my house isn't perfect, it's about a million times better than where we started. There are a few things that I would do differently if I had to do it all over again, but overall I think it turned out well.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
DIY Dryer Balls
This blog has moved! Click here to view the tutorial.
 |
| Wool Dryer Balls |
 |
| My wool ball sausage, after the first wash cycle |
 |
| The finished dryer ball size compared with my 1 remaining plastic dryer ball and a tennis ball |
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
30 Days of Eating In: Week Five
We made it! 30 days without any take out. It wasn't too bad, but I'm looking forward to some BBQ wings tomorrow night. My husband has been talking about them every day since I started this project.
I managed to stay right under my budget of $400 for the month, which included stocking up on some staple items. I did miss going out for lunch on Saturday afternoons. It's nice to sit at the table as a family every night, but I like getting out of the house sometimes too. I'm curious to see what our food costs will be next month, even though I think take-out is going to be more of a treat for us from now on. I'd like to still keep our budget at $400 while including food I didn't have to cook at home.
Day 29
Breakfast: Peaches and cereal
Lunch: Hot dogs, yogurt, string cheese
Dinner: Leftover Shepherd's pie
Lunch: Hot dogs, yogurt, string cheese
Dinner: Leftover Shepherd's pie
Day 30
Saturday, September 1, 2012
30 Days of Eating In: Week Four
We are in the home stretch! I made a trip to Costco on Day 23 and spent $49 on a a block of cheese, spiral sliced ham, and 10 lbs of chicken breast. I baked the ham and froze what we didn't eat this week in meal-sized portions.
I went to the grocery store on Day 27 and spent $29. That's $78 for the week and $393 for the month. Below is a list of what we ate this week:
Day 22
Breakfast: Bacon and cantaloupe
Lunch: Hot dogs and chips
Dinner: Sausage, peas, and potatoes au gratin
Day 23
Breakfast: Bananas, yogurt
Lunch: Turkey sandwich on Rudi's GF bread and cantaloupe
Dinner: Leftover sausage, peas, and potatoes au gratin
Day 24
Breakfast: Yogurt and cereal
Lunch: Turkey sandwich and cherries
Dinner: Ham and hash brown casserole
Day 25
Breakfast: Cherries and cereal
Lunch: Leftover ham and hash brown casserole
Dinner: Gluten free lasagna*
Day 26
Breakfast: Yogurt and cherries
Lunch: Leftover hash brown casserole and hot dogs
Dinner: Leftover gluten free lasagna
Day 27
Day 28
Breakfast: Peaches and cereal
Lunch: Leftover pork chops primavera