Kitchen Lovelies

As the hot weather continues, I am trying to complete some small organization projects in the house where it is cool.
Kitchens get so much use it seems they are always requiring constant cleaning and straightening.

So many gadgets and people using those gadgets really can mess things up. I had all three of my big girls gone last week, so I did some sprucing in the kitchen. Amazing how much cleaner the house was with only three of us here.

I love my cozy kitchen and though it is not modern, it has all I need to feed this family.

I'll share what I have been up to this week. Just the basic things that help keep my kitchen running as smoothly as possible. In two weeks everyone will be back to school and life will be so busy that I want the kitchen dialed in so getting everyone fed in the mornings and making dinners goes as quickly as possible.
For me, organized drawers and pantry help to keep things running smoothly.

Linking to:
Tabletop Tuesday
Tweak it Tuesday

A Bowl Full of Lemons

Coastal Charm

Tip Junkie
BNOTP
At the Picket Fence
SNS146
Homespun Happenings
The Tablescaper

Homemade Vanilla Almond Granola

 I have been wanting to make my own granola for a long while. What was I waiting for? It is wonderful. My girls just love it as cereal and on their yogurt.

Here is a recipe for a basic granola that you can change up with other ingredients like dried fruit or coconut flakes. I "tweaked" this recipe to fit what I had on hand. 

Homemade Vanilla Almond Granola
6 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup chopped nuts of your choice (I used almonds)
1/2 flaked coconut (optional)
1/2 cup sesame seeds
2/3 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

In a large bowl mix oats, nuts, coconut and sesame seeds. In a sauce pan cook oil, honey, brown sugar, water and vanilla over medium heat until well mixed and sugar is dissolved. Pour over oat mixture and mix really well. Pour into two greased 13x9 in. baking pans. Bake at 275 degrees for 50-60 stirring every 15 minutes and until golden brown. Cool, stirring occasionally and store in an air tight container. Prepare to want some every time you come in the kitchen. Enjoy!!

Linking to:
Met Monday                      Tweak it Tuesday
Tabletop Tuesday          Homestead Revival
Gooseberry Patch

A Bowl Full of Lemons

Coastal Charm

Tip Junkie

My Meatless Mondays
Pin It Made It Monday

Sunny Simple Sunday #8

It's time for my Sunday blog link party. Hope you all are having a great summer weekend. We are staying home and kicking back this weekend. Now for the party:

The most viewed link from last week:
Salmon Falls Prims on Decorating Styles. Now does this not warm your heart when you see her dining room?

Another highly viewed post was The Cranky Queen. She is now the queen of estate sales. Look at this enamel top table she snagged. Can you say JEALOUS?

One that stole my heart was The Child's Paper with her yellow cabinet redo. Look how cute is this.

Enjoy a tour of Fort Langley with Second Time Around. So charming.

Okay now for Sunny Simple Sunday. I try to keep it simple so just keep it family friendly cause my kids read my blog. Thanks ever so much for taking the time to join. Love ya'!!

Owl Themed Bedroom on a Budget

I never shared my daughter's room we re-did on a tight budget. She wanted green and orange and she wanted OWLS. I said okay. Sounds good. She first wanted orange walls and I said no way. Could not stand looking at that so she picked this lovely green. 

We picked up a green spread on clearance for $17 at Target. We also used pillows she had and added an orange one. The cute owl pillow was also clearance at Target and the other was from Etsy.

I have to say Target was good to us because I then found this lamp which was perfect on clearance for around $9.

She wanted a shelf for her favorite books and we used one we had in the garage. No money spent.

I took two hideous old pictures and flipped the inside part over and painted with chalk board paint. I then used samples to paint the frames bright. The cute green owl came off of a gift.

Okay, I let her have some orange and bright orange at that in this cupboard. It was just full of shelves before so we took some out and made it a cozy desk area for her.

All her owl collection has been hung up and displayed.

Now some of you will recognize this peg shelf. Remember these? It is from about '91. It was country blue and sitting in the garage. We painted it with the bright orange and I think it came out great. Perfect for her bags.

We got rid of a bulky old desk so she could have her keyboard out all the time. We have a regular piano but she uses this all the time when in her room. I am so proud of her as she earned a piano chair as an incoming freshman in the high school concert band. She is going to be so busy this year. This owl picture was a gift from her aunt and uncle. The old wicker cabinet has seen better days but she needed more space so it works under here.

I think it came out really cute and she loves it so that is what I wanted. Also, with paint and using what we had and a few clearance items, I think we spent less than $100. Can't beat that. Sharing over Brenda's new party at Cozy Little House.

Linking to:
Funky Junk Interiors
Scrappy Saturday
Sunday Blog Love
Seasonal Sundays
Sunday Scoop
Think Pink Sunday
My 1929 Charmer
Thrifty Treasures
DIY Home Sweet Home
By Your Hands
Met Monday

Have a Venus Summer

Summer "Do's and Don'ts," an interview of me by my daughter.

Mom the weather is getting hotter. What beauty tips do you have for summer?

First off, I try to stay moisturized. I use a facial moisturizer with SPF every day and slather my legs and arms with lotion. You know I spend a lot of time outside so sunscreen is a must. Nothing worse than wearing shorts and your legs look dry and scaly. Keep them moisturized. Oh, and shave every day. Hairy legs are not pretty and no one wants to see that. Use a good shave cream like Satin Care Passionista Fruit Shave Gel and a good razor like the Venus Embrace for great control. It also helps to minimize nicks and cuts.

Okay mom what else? How about hair? What ideas do you have to keep your hair pretty in the summer?

Well, the summer sun can be harsh on hair, and I color mine, so I want to protect the color. Use as good a shampoo as you can afford and try not to shampoo too often. I have wavy, curly hair and to keep it soft and curly I now take some conditioner and massage my scalp with my finger tips. I do this thoroughly and moisturize the rest of my hair with the conditioner too. My hair is in much better shape since I started doing this.

Mom have you had any major summer mishaps?

Of course I have. I love to use the self-tanners on my legs, but way back when they first came out it was some strong stuff, and you had to make sure you washed it off the palms of your hands thoroughly. Unfortunately I didn't bother to read the bottle the first time I used it. Oh my legs were tan-looking, but the palms of my hands were so orange. It took days for that to wear off. I kept my hands in my pockets as much as I could.

Okay mom one last final tip.

Polish those toe nails. Sometimes I splurge for a pedicure but often I just do one myself. I give my feet the royal treatment. I soak them in a little Epsom Salt and warm water and then clean them up nicely and apply a pretty polish. I just feel so much better if my toes look nice.

I hope you've enjoyed this bit of mother/daughter beauty time. I am a very basic gal who works in the garden all the time and I like keeping things simple -- clipping my hair into an updo and putting on some light make-up after my post-gardening shower are summer basics that make me feel good. For more shaving tips, check out the Venus page here. 

What's the best beauty tip you have shared with your daughter to prepare her for the summer or share your funniest beauty mishap for a chance to win a $50 Visa gift card!

Rules:

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The Official Rules are available here.

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Be sure to visit the Venus brand feature page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

Have you checked out the Life Well Lived section of BlogHer.com? There are some great tips and expert posts on everything from Looking Your Best to Getting Happy and Getting Organized! 

It's Here IT'S HERE!!!!

Our first egg has arrived. Not charming I know but it is here. There is a long story so brace yourself cause nothing in our house is ever easy. There always has to be some chaos in all events.

Okay so Flower Muffin, the chicken I suspect was ready to start laying by her size, started acting very strange around 5:00 p.m. yesterday. She just was frozen, barely walking and not eating. You can see her there by the waterer. She was frozen there and wobbly. I then decided to isolate her from the others in case she was sick. We put her in the garage in our dog's crate with some water and newspaper. I then made my newly graduated RN daughter dawn some gloves and examine her for an egg being bound. She didn't feel anything but the massaging must have moved things along. I gave Q a bath and took her for a walk and when we came back I saw it laying there. All gross and oozing, but an egg. It was squishy and soft so I tossed it, but it is common for the first egg to be weird. So it has happened.

This girl, Q's chicken, gave us the first egg. Lets hope she gives us some we can eat now. They have oyster shell to help with strong shells but I just put it out so we will see. Q was so funny, she wanted to know could she go to the neighbor's house and tell them we had an egg.

Linking to:
Katherine's Corner
A Delightsome Life
Bunny Hop Wednesday
Home Sweet Home
Vintage Inspiration
Show and Tell Friday

Waiting and Waiting

Yesterday one of our hens started making a clucking sound I had never heard before. So I headed out back to see Henny run in the coop and up into a nesting box. Good girl those fake decoy eggs really worked.

She sat in there so quietly I had to get a picture of her.

Little Miss Chicken momma was so excited. She really wants to gather eggs. She sat waiting. I would not let her get too close to the coop and told her to give Henny her privacy. I did see her peek once into the laying boxes.

So she waited and waited and waited some more. Finally Henny came out of the coop.

So we went to see if maybe we had our first egg. Nope just the decoy eggs were in there. Soon I hope. Very soon. I feel like I am waiting on a baby or something.

Linking to:
Whats It Wednesday
Raising Homemakers
Open House Party
The Mommy Club
Share Your Cup Thursday
Sugar and Spice

How I Keep the Kitchen Cool in the Summer

Now there's an old fashioned hood for you. I love it and it cleans up so nicely with my alcohol and water cleaner. It is a great degreaser. Okay, I am digressing as this is a post about cooking and summer. How I try to keep the kitchen as cool as possible in the summer.

1. Probably the most important rule of cooking in the summer, outside of eating out, is to cook early in the day. The kitchen has time to cool off before the heat of the day. I will cook my meat for supper and sides too and then reheat in the microwave when it is dinner time.

2. Grill baby grill. Fire up that barbecue. It may be a little hot for the cook but it sure keeps the house cooler. I will cook an entire meal outside when I can. Also, cook the meat for two meals at one time. We might say grill burgers but I will have hubby grill some chicken for fajitas or tacos the next night.

3. Use up your leftovers. Then nothing has to be cooked at all that day. Maybe a quick reheat in the microwave is all. Tonight I pulled out leftover spaghetti, two grilled chicken breasts which were turned into a loaded chef's salad and some leftover watermelon. Waa-laa perfect supper for summer.

4. Use your slow cooker. I use it all the time in the summer. You can cook an entire meal in there like my Supper in a Dish. Add a side salad or some fruit salad and you are done. You can find more ideas on my
recipes page.

5. Eat lots of salads. Summer is the perfect time for big, full of good stuff salads like my favorite, taco salad. I cook it all year long but it is perfect for hot days.

6. And lastly, this is a tip I learned from my mother in law. When using your stove, run your overhead vent. It helps to draw up the heat and steam from whatever you may be cooking. I swear this really works. Helps to cut down on the heat

Linking to:
TipJunkie
Coastal Charm
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Wow Us Wed.
Frugally Sustainable
Raising Homemakers
Katherine's Corner
Seasonal Sundays
Thrifty Treasures
The Morris Tribe
BNOTP

Beach Bag Storage Solution

For years, and I am not kidding, I have tried to find a good place to store our summer beach/swim bags. I had them in a closet here or on the door there but no place was ideal. There are often damp things still in the bags. While doing laundry one day I notice that this blank space above the dryer would be perfect.

So I asked hubby if we had a large hook we could hang on this wall space to keep our beach bags hung up on. Lo and behold, there was the perfect hook hanging around the garage, and the perfect storage solution was finally found. Now damp toys or Q's swim vest can dry and I don't have to worry about dampness and they are not taking up valuable space in our closets.

Yesterdays party is still going on right here.

Linking to:
BNOTP
More the Merrier
Lowercase Letters
Pinned It Made It Monday
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Coastal Charm
Wow Us Wed.
Common Ground
Fantabulous Friday

Sunny Simple Sunday

Welcome to Sunny Simple Sunday. Is it hot where you are. Baby it is hot here. Just trying to stay cool as a cucumber.

Now for some highlights from last week.

Okay, is this not darling?

If you haven't already seen what she made this out of you have to go visit My Creatively Vintage Life.

I have been wanting to add more white and black basics in my dining area and am just so drawn to this.

Now you will love this bathroom makeover and it was in a rental too so it shows that accessories sure can make the room. Go take a peak at The Cozy Old Farmhouse.

And because I drool over other people's gardens, Stoney Acres has a garden harvest report. That is a little pumpkin there. I am so jealous as I cannot grow one for the life of me. I have a great vine but no pumpkins. Happens every year.

Have a wonderful weekend and Simple Sunday and now for Sunday's Blog Link Party:

Tomato Herb Quiche

My kitchen counter runneth over with tomatoes. Here is another dish I made early in the day for supper later.

If summer had a taste this would be it.

Tomato Herb Quiche

Pastry Crust

Parmesan and or Italian cheeses

2-3 sliced ripe tomatoes

6 eggs 

3/4 c. heavy cream or milk as desired

1 Tbsp. flour

Fresh herbs chopped. I used basil, parsley and chives from the garden

salt and pepper

Prepare one simple pastry crust and press into bottom of pie or quiche pan.

For the crust I use a simple pastry crust recipe. I love it as you use oil instead of butter so no cutting the butter into the flour. The recipe for the simple pastry crust is here. 

Bake the pie crust at 375 for five minutes. Line the bottom of the pan with a generous sprinkle of the cheese. I used what I had, some Parmesan and Italian mixed. What I had left in the fridge.

Layer the tomatoes on top.

Mix the rest of the ingredients well and pour into crust. Bake at 425 for ten minutes and then turn down to 375 for 20-30 minutes.

When the top is golden and a knife comes out clean, it is done. Eat warm or later cold as we did with a salad. A fresh meatless meal, perfect for summer. Enjoy!

Linking to:
Show and Tell Friday
My Simple Home Life
Sunday Blog Love
SNS 144
MET Monday
Morris Tribe
My Meatless Mondays
A Bowl full of Lemons
It's A Keeper Thursday
Gooseberry Patch
Foodie Friends
Thrifty Treasures

Vintage Drink Carriers

This time of year calls for picnics and camp outs. Long before all the bottled waters and drinks you can purchase nowadays, you had to bring along whatever liquid libation you desired in a container.

I was trying to think the other day what we did when I was a kid for bringing along water and basically we mostly didn't. You looked for a water fountain or drank from someone's hose. If we were heading out on a day trip we would fill up this big white drink dispenser with ice water or lemonade.

By far my favorite is this Tam O' Shanter Jug. How cool it was in plaid with its bright yellow spigot and cap.

Linking to:
Potpourri Friday
The Charm of Home
French Country Cottage
Common Ground
SNS 144
BNOTP

Oriental Pasta Salad

We have been making lots of salads this summer and this went perfect with the barbecued teriyaki chicken we had the other night. A little something different.

Oriental Pasta Salad


Take any noodles you would like but I used bow tie and boil as usual. Now this is for a large bowl as we are a large family so make adjustments.

Add generous amounts of chopped celery, bell pepper, water chestnuts (one can), cilantro, green onions and some chopped cashews. Sesame seeds would be good but I did not have any.

For dressing I used almost a half cup of canola oil and 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar. Add to that teaspoon of sugar and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and toss with salad. Refrigerate for a few hours.

Linking to:
Wow Us Wed.
733 Blog
Share Your Cup Thursday
Brambleberry Cottage
Transformation Thursday
Coastal Charm
Gooseberry Patch\
My 1929 Charmer
Cozy Home Scenes

Vacation with Dove

I was asked if I would be interested in doing a review for the NEW Dove VisibleCare Toning Creme Body Wash and though I have not been on the body wash bandwagon, I thought I would give it a try. My skin has always been dry and sensitive so anything to make it feel better was worth a try. Well, the package with my trial bottle didn't come until the night before our vacation so I packed it to try on our trip.

 Hotels always have the hardest water and I wanted to see if my skin would feel less dried out from using the Dove Body Wash. It contains a mild cleanser, glycerin, stearic acid and Vitamin E. You know what? I forgot to pack my face wash and I have to be careful of what I use or my face gets red and peels. I noticed the body wash had some of the same ingredients as my face wash at home so I thought what the heck. I wasn't going to use the hotel soap on my face. I would be as dry and irritated as could be using that. The Dove worked. It was gentle and I used it all week.

On about the third day as we were driving to Crater Lake my daughter rubbed my arm and said how soft my skin was. I felt it too and she was right. It had made my skin softer. It says it is designed to promote skin's elasticity and strength. I don't know if my skin was any stronger but it sure made it soft and my face looked fine too. You know how it is when you visit family, you want to look your best and thankfully I felt I did. It really held up to the hotel's hard water and made my skin feel very smooth and clean as well as soft.

Would I use this again? Yes, I sure would. The scent is very mild which is important to me as I cannot wear strong smelling lotions or fragrance. It has a warm ylang ylang, delicate wood fragrance that is very mild and pleasant. My daughter is now using it and darn it it is almost gone. She needs to buy her own.
Visit Dove^® VisibleCare^® to get a coupon for $1 off!

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Be sure to visit the Dove^® VisibleCare™ Crème Body Wash brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

What to Do When Your Date Cancels for Saturday Night

Why you goof off with your dining room table of course. Grabbing this and that and toning down the July 4th decor. A few flags still are appropriate as soon we will be doing some back to school decorating. My daughter starts on August 15th. UnAmerican to start school in the dead of summer.

We eat dinners out here so I have been keeping things more simple. I decided to keep a salt and pepper shaker and napkins out here all the time and just add them to my wooden box. Keeps dinner time set up more simplified. I lit my favorite candle and called it good. I think I watched a movie after that.

Linking to:
Wow Us Wed.
A Return to Loveliness

Monday News and a Heartfelt Thank You

Saturday evening we were about to BBQ and hubby popped his head out the door saying that he was called into work. I dropped what I was doing and got him ready to go. Well, I didn't dress him but prepared his lunch for overnight and coffee to help keep him awake.

I told the kids, bbq tomorrow, get and grab for dinner tonight and got some things done around the house. I lit a candle and decided to make the best of the evening off from cooking. I watched a funny movie and blogged a bit.

I also want to thank you all for such sweet comments on my Friday Post. You know how life is. So many things pulling you in different directions and you feel stretched thin. That is where I was and you all just lifted me up and wrapped me in the sweetest words. I was so thankful for such uplifting words and knowing that this too will pass. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family and especially my husband who keeps life in perspective. Love that guy!! 

I just loved this pic of Q. As soon as dinner is done she is ready for her nightly Popsicle. The chickens love it when a bit falls to the ground in the backyard and they get to eat it.

Life is good and when I watch her I am reminded of that.

I wanted to share some favorites from last weeks Sunny Simple Sunday party. This weeks party is still open so you can join here.

The most viewed post from last weeks party was Ravenhill Cottage on Living Gently. This blog is always an inspiration on the simple ways of life and contentment.

One other of the most viewed was Corn in My Coffee Pot on Beating the Heat.

Don't you just love this blanket she is making. I have never seen one like this before. She is also a fellow chicken momma.

Linking to:
Met Monday