Red, White & Blue Decorations

Since the "Derecho of 2012" caused me much drama during the week of the 4th of July, I never got this blog entry posted.  My Independence Day decorating efforts were curtailed as we lost power here at the lake for over 7 days. 


But I wanted to share with you what I did accomplish.But I wanted to share with you the wreaths I made for the 4th of July and put up for all of 1 hour before they had to come back in due to the storms.


This is my front door wreath:

I made this simple wreath by wrapping a straw wreath base (found at Goodwill for $1) with red ribbon (also a post Christmas deal).  Then I covered it with Memorial Day/4th of July holiday garland from a dollar store, added a large bow and two small flags.  I made the bow using a Bowdabra. (This is the only way I can make these great bows.)  Note the wreath hanger - I spray painted a cheap brass door wreath hanger red to match the wreath.


Here is my backdoor wreath - it's basically the same idea and construction:

I also threw this cute little decoration together. I put in on the table outside.

I also have to share my neighbor Rox's creation - her 4th of July tree:

I was with her when we bought this small blue tree at the annual Harbor Hills neighborhood garage sale. She paid $5 for the tree and even got the red and white decorations at another house. 


I kick myself for not buying the tree myself, but it would have been just one more thing to store. Perhaps next year....

Thrifty Serving Pieces

Since we entertain a lot, I keep this basket stocked with plastic utensils and napkins, that I can pull out and put on the table:

This is nothing but a cheap basket from a thrift store that I spray painted white.  (It's been well used - probably needs a new coat of spray paint.)


Last weekend my neighbor Rox had a party with a yellow color scheme.  I thought the yellow plastic utensils would look cute in my basket.  Then I realized she had yellow plates and yellow napkins too.  I was inspired.


After putting it out to the universe that I needed both a square and round basket, look what I found at the Delaware Goodwill for $.75 each - 

The perfect sizes too!

Never underestimate the power of spray paint; it can do wonders.

Look how my 4th of July napkins and plates fit perfectly in the baskets. Now I have a complete set of white serving pieces.

Just a note - I was spray painting before spray painting was cool.  About 100 years ago, when I was a single gal, I had a big 4th of July party in the backyard of my little condo.  I made like 25 of these festive wicker paper plate holders.

I try to get them out every year for Memorial Day and 4th of July. 

I encourage you to try the super easy decorative craft for your next holiday or party. With a can a spray paint, you can coordinate your pieces with any color scheme.  How fun would these be for a tailgate party painted in the colors of your favorite team?

Garden Art

Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011

What started out as a simple comment, "Hey Rox, we can so do this..." after seeing a piece of garden art at the Backwoods Fest last year has turned into somewhat of a small obsession.

These flowers made out of old plates that were stuck to a pole looked super cute and super easy. Thus started an obsession of thrifting and yard sales looking for the coolest yet cheapest plates. A year later -- after buying boxes of "cute" plates, going through many different adhesives, and cajoling Dave to help me engineer the suckers to stick to a pole -- I've succeeded in creating this:








Well this craft project requires way too much input from others to make it work, so I moved on to another type of garden art -- totems. 

It was apparently so inspirational that both of my neighbors created one too:

Bobbie's

Roxanne's

Yard Decorations & Fake Plants

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Last year I was really into gardening. I always did pots of flowers in front of the house:

This year I am not. (I really hate to worry about having to water these things.)  So this year I had a different idea.

First, I wanted to paint the pots green so they stand out and compliment the green shutters.  This literally took about half the summer to complete.

Every year at the Backwoods Fest, I buy Dave a metal fish sculpture that goes into the garden. I had a vision to have the sculpture in a pot with grass so it would look like this:

Instead of spending $7.99 per pot for landscape grass, I bought 5 spiky accent plants for about $1.39.  Great idea I thought -- until it started growing an ear of corn.  Can you see it?

So for the second sculpture, I went to Plan B.  Can you figure it out?

It's filled with 3 fake (read: PLASTIC) fern plants purchased at Michael's for half price.

I'm kind of embarrassed to use fake plants, but it turned out cute and I don't have to worry about watering them.  Sorry, Martha - until I have your staff, it's fake plants for me!

Alicia’s on the Lake

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Sometimes I dream of opening up a restaurant on Buckeye Lake that serves healthy food – not the continuous stream of greasy bar food currently served at various establishments. We’ve even given it a name -- Alicia’s on the Lake.

Well this morning I made a great breakfast and I’ve decided it would be added to the menu of my imaginary restaurant – Cornmeal Waffles with Blueberry Sauce.

The inspiration started with a comment from Dave about the blueberries being “not so sweet”.  So I put them in a saucepan, added about a ½ cup of sugar and some water and let it cook away on the stove.  Since it wasn’t getting as thick as I’d like, I add small slurry of cornstarch.  Then it was perfect.

Then I made the waffles using one of my go-to pantry staples, the Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix. (I love Jiffy mixes.)

Following the recipe on the box, I made them using my no-name brand waffle maker that I’ve had for at least 15 years. Surprisingly it makes pretty good waffles.

Well  I didn’t know they be as good as they were so I ate them before taking a picture.  Sorry!

Adding some bacon and an egg, Dave should be good to go until lunch. Unfortunately I have no inspirational ideas for lunch. Greasy bar food here we come....

Lake House Remodel

Dave LOVES the lake.  He LOVES it so much that if he isn't there, he's thinking about it. So what happens when you combine a man filled with cabin fever due to a long, snowy winter with a contractor who is in need of some work?

DUST!  Lots and lots of dust!!!



What started as a small project to remove ugly brown panelling in the florida room, turned into removal of the dropped ceiling throughout the entire house, installation of many, many canned lights, replacement of the flooring and interior doors, and assorted other small changes.

We've spent the entire month cleaning EVERYTHING, putting stuff away, and rehanging the multitude of bass decorations.  We are still not completely done but we've made great progress.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here is another view:



More pictures to come!!!

Stewart's Christmas

December 25, 2010

My name is Stewart and I have a special Aunt & Uncle who love me very much. Here I am opening the great christmas gift they gave me.

"humm....what's in here?"

"I think I need to get a better look."

"Cool! What flavor are they?"

"Yup, my favorite flavor - salmon & tuna."

"YUMMY!!!!!"

Thank you Uncle Bruce & Aunt Barbara!!!

Holiday Arrangements

December 24, 2010

I think I secretly want to be a florist.  

I collect vases in hopes of having abundant arrangements of fresh flowers on my table everyday. I study arrangements in magazines and on websites with the thoughts of reproducing them in my own home.  

Alas, I've come to the realization that 1.) I just really lack the flower arranging talent and 2.) I live in an area where beautiful flowers are just not available or are prohibitively expensive.

In the spirit of the holidays, I've dug deep into my creative soul and attempted some arrangements based on some inspiration:

Arrangement in Family Circle magazine:

My attempt:

The greenery was purchased from Strader's for $2.99 a bunch.  I think they were cast off trimmings which explains why the branches go in all different directions.  Both vases, the white milk glass and the silver vase, were purchased at a thrift store.  I even made the glitter ball ornaments - won't even go into the process that took!

I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE reading Eddie Ross' blog.  Here is the picture that inspired me:



Here is what I was able to achieve:


I couldn't find a small enough wreath (needed a 12-inch) to fit the cake stand.  The best part of this arrangement was the wreath only cost me $3.99 and the candle was $1.79 on sale at Michaels's.  I had the hurricane for a previous craft project (and was also bought at a thrift store.)

In the end I had fun trying to be creative but I won't be quitting my day job to become a stylist or florist anytime soon!

Herb Harvest

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Since we are nearing the end of summer, it's time to preserve the bounty of my herb garden.

I used to leave racks and baking sheets full of cut herbs all over the house to dry during the week.  This year I've discovered the quickest and easiest way to dry herbs - a Sweda food dehydrator.

Oregano, thyme, rosemary and mint all dry in about 2 hours.  One extra bonus of this process is that the house smells like fresh herbs!

After they are dried, I painstakingly strip the dry leaves from the stems and place in glass jars.  After three weeks of this process, I've just filled a small spice jar.  I now understand why herbs cost so much. 



Bobber Hunting

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Dave and I created a new sport this past weekend - bobber hunting. Although Dave usually picks up one or two stray bobbers each weekend, we actually decided to spend the beautiful afternoon hunting for stray fishing bobbers along the shores of Buckeye Lake.

An example of a stray bobber.

Last weekend I sustained an injury attempting to retrieve one of these stray bobbers.  Dave felt bad and decided to provide me with a retrieval tool:

His best golf ball retriever!

It actually worked well for round bobbers. Not so great however for oblong bobbers as the tended to fall through the sides. Never the less, it was a great help for those instances when we couldn't get close enough to the bank.

We had a very fruitful afternoon netting a total of 7 bobbers:

The days booty!!

If you ever visit our house be sure to check out Dave's growing collection of Buckeye Lake bobbers!!

Labor Day Traditions

Saturday, September 4, 2010

We wait all summer for this one day to pig out on fair food.  Our day begins at 7 am with a trip to McDonald's on our way to Swapper's Day, an annual flea market in Johnstown.  After several hours of looking for bargains, I enjoy a corn dog and fries. (My arteries are hardening as I write this.)

After a mid-afternoon nap (bargaining hunting is very tiring) we make our way to the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival.  Since I LOVE to watch the antique tractor pull, we start there first.  This year I was very excited to see two women participate:

The best part of the Sweet Corn Festival is the food.  In true central Ohio style, all one does at the festival is eat and people watch. And then eat some more.

My two favorite food booths include 1.) the sweet corn and 2.) the homemade doughnuts. 

Corn is $1.25 an ear and we never buy enough.  However the line is so long that we don't go back - there is always the elephant ears, fried bologna sandwiches, tacos in a bag.....

The ultimate is the doughnuts.  

"Oh, what should we get?"

This year we stood in line for over 30 minutes:

Yes, all these people are waiting for doughnuts.

We did secure one dozen - 4 maple-glazed, 4 vanilla-glazed and, my favorite, 4 cinnamon sugar.  Sorry no picture - since they were still warm, Dave decided we need to sample a few.  A half a dozen later, he thought we should have purchased 2 dozen!!! Men....

Boat Drama

Sunday, August 29, 2010

This was the perfect weekend for boating - clear blue sky, sunny, and not too oppressively hot.   There is nothing better than boating across the lake, the wind in your hair and the sun in your face.

However, owning a boat is not as glamorous as one might think. There is a dark side - constant drama.  Look at what happened to this poor guy:

This poor guy in NOT having a good day.

Rumor has it the guy just bought the boat and put it in the water that day.  It didn't even make it across the lake before it began to sink.

So my boat drama for the day involved the process of taking the fishing boat out of the water for some maintenance. 

Step 1: Drive to location of trailer.  Play with the key and lock before realizing the key you have doesn't actually work on the lock. Decide to go back home to find correct key. [Estimated Time Spent = 30 minutes]

Step 2: En route to home, decide you are hungry and make a detour to Subway for lunch.

Step 3: Eat lunch, stop at home, find every extra, random key.  Make second trip to location of trailer. [Estimated Time Spent = 1.5 hours]

Step 4: Yeah - Key works! Drive trailer back home. [Estimated Time Spent = 20 minutes]

Step 5: Do routine maintenance on trailer -- fill tires with air, grease bearings. [Estimated Time Spent = 20 minutes]

Step 6: Divide & Conquer - Dave drives boat to boat ramp. Alicia drives big truck and trailer to boat ramp. No mailboxes were sacrificed.

Step 7: Load Boat on Trailer - that's Dave's job with a some small assistance from me. Then drive home.  [Total Time Spent = An entire afternoon].  

Boat safely loaded on the trailer

The drama isn't over - Dave gets to spend his vacation trying to fix the boat.

So if you are thinking about buying a boat, remember what BOAT stands for -- Break Out Another Thousand. (thanks to Intern for that tidbit!)