It is that time of the week! Here are some of the things I scouted out this week online.
© 2012 Just Us Four. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Delicious Recipes to Keep my Family of Four Happy and Full
It is that time of the week! Here are some of the things I scouted out this week online.
© 2012 Just Us Four. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Our house doesn’t present too many challenges (despite my usual complaining to the contrary). It has a great open floor plan with very few things that really need “fixing”. I always struggle with decorating our family room mantle though. It presents so many challenges for me.
Challenge 1: The height. One of the things I loved/love most about our house is the 2 story family room. But with the two story family room comes a very tall space to fill above the fireplace.
Challenge 2: The framing. The builders of our house didn’t choose to put in the gorgeous stone above the fireplace but, instead put up moulding that created frames up to the ceiling. It kind of puts an end to hanging anything above the mantle.
Those challenges caused me to quake in fear at the thought of decorating my mantle. Seriously, I would practically break out in hives from the “stress”. When we first moved in, I shoved some bamboo filler into a plain glass vase and it has lived there ever since.
Exciting, right? Yeah, not really. It’s ok…I know.
Inspired by all of the beautiful fall decorations I’ve seen while cruising (and partying) around the web, I decided to take action. Like a lot of my projects, I didn’t really have a plan in mind but knew I wanted to do something.
I carved out about 30 minutes of shopping time on the way home one day and hit my usual trifecta of places
I pretty much went in and grabbed anything that looked like it might work. Then, I went home and “shopped” what I already owned too.
Supplies gathered; I started putting random things on the mantle and giving them a 15 minute grace period. If I still liked it after 15 minutes, it stayed. If not, it went into the reject pile.
My first attempt didn’t feel like it was tall enough OR filled up the mantle quite like I wanted. More changes.
I changed and changed and changed until I was satisfied. I added a taller mirror (already owned) and, even though it isn’t 100% the style I wanted, it fills up the space better.
I also added an additional candle holder and candle thanks to a suggestion by Junior.
I switched out one of the pumpkins for a larger one.
Finally, I was done tweaking (at least for now) and stayed with
And yes, that is the same bamboo that was there before but changed up a little. Oh, and you can see how much of a hurry I was in when trying to get this together (it was a “while dinner cooks project”) because I forgot a tag on one of the pumpkins. Oops!
A few details of some of the items up there for fun:
How is your mantle looking these days? Have a lot of fall decorating happening? My next room to tackle for fall will be the dining room!
Partying at:
The Fall Ya’ll Link Party at The Lettered Cottage
© 2012 Just Us Four. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Did you hear? We are redecorating our bedroom! That means new paint, new art and new a lot of other things. Knowing that Mathlete is indulging me in this because he knows I will try to do it as budget friendly as possible, I’ve been playing around with different things for accents in the room. The first thing I did was frame some scrapbook paper to make “art”. Nothing fancy but it would look good on a dresser or bookcase.
I bought some solid blue and printed green scrapbook paper from Michael’s. Using the frame mat from my Ribba frame, I measured out the paper. I wanted the blue paper to be the large piece so I used the outer edge of the mat as my guide for cutting.
For the green printed paper, I just cut the paper the inner edges of the frame mat.
I put them both together and into the frame.
A quick and easy decorative item for our new bedroom! Total cost: $5.32 ($4.99 frame + $.33 scrapbook paper (2 pieces on sale for $.16 each))
Have you done any quick and easy art lately? Undertaking a major bedroom redo?
© 2012 Just Us Four. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
It is what to cook Wednesday time again! Hope you’ve brought your hungry stomachs along with you for the read.
[Crepes of Wrath], [Point-less Meals], [The Kitchn] |
Sunday: I love pot roast. There is something so comforting and homey about it. One Pot Beef Pot Roast satisfies my craving for comfort food and Mathlete’s desire for less dishes to clean up.
Monday: I’m still on a quest to learn to cook more varied styles of meals so I’ve added Sofrito Chicken Stew to my list.
Tuesday: Stromboli triumphs over pizza for me almost any day. Add in proscuitto and gruyere and I’m the first in line!
Wednesday: We are pretty fortunate to live very close to a lot of farms and reasonabley close to the mountains. That means fall brings lots of apples to our farmers’ markets and store. Apple and Parsnip Soup sounds like the perfect way to put those apples to good use.
[Framed Cooks], [iVillage], [Skinny Taste] |
Thursday: We have pasta just about every Thursday (and sometimes several other days of the week) but rarely does it just have tomato sauce on it! That is going to change this week when we test out the best tomato sauce in the world.
Friday: “Meatless Monday” is being changed up to a Friday this week when we feast on Tuscan Polenta.
Saturday: Pizza night with a twist! Lavash Flatbread pizzas are a great way to change up homemade pizza.
**To keep it honest, I’ll let you know that we won’t actually be cooking for Friday and Saturday but I don’t want to leave you hungry so I’m still sharing two recipes that sound delicious.**
Ok, get to the grocery store and start cooking!
© 2012 Just Us Four. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
[Suddenly Frugal] |
I’m going to preface this by saying that I am under no circumstances a master yard saler. I’ve participated in a few and made a reasonable amount of money but there are a lot of ladies around that are truly amazing when it comes to planning and implementing a yard sale.
Just in case you are thinking of having a sale though, I’ll share some of the things I find important when getting ready for a sale:
1. Pick a date. Then, pick a backup rain date. — Mother nature can be pretty unpredictable so it is a great idea to have a backup date on the calendar. For example, my original yard sale was rescheduled to the rain date because of an impending hurricane. Hurray for rain dates!
2. Get others involved. — This can be done in several ways. The most ideal is to have several people sell at one location. The other option is for each person/family to sell at their own house/location. Obviously, having everyone at one place brings in more traffic to each sale but it comes with the hassle of (potentially) having to haul your stuff somewhere.
3. Advertise. — It helps to advertise in several different ways. I tend to always go with the free routes because I’m cheap.
4. Price your stuff. — Please put a price on your items. It can be something as simple as painters tape with a hand written price or the little pre-printed stickers you buy from the dollar store. It just helps your buyers to know what you are asking for something. A LOT of people will simply walk away if faced with having to inquire about a price.
5. Be willing to negotiate. — Going hand in hand with #4, be willing to negotiate on the prices you’ve set because people will definitely try to bargain with you.
6. Be on time. — On the day of the sale, have your items out and ready for sale at whatever start time you put in the ad. Also, do not stop early even if traffic is dwindling. I usually plan for a 10 minute window on each side of my start and end times.
7. Keep your tables tidy. — Make it easy on your shoppers by keeping your items neat and tidy. This way, everything you have for sale is in plain view. Many yard sale shoppers are attempting to hit as many places as they can in a short span of time. Translation: they aren’t going to dig through a pile of stuff hoping to find an item.
8. Have change. — Your shoppers are going to come with money and (hopefully) want to spend it. A lot of times though they come with larger bills ($10 and $20) when your items are more likely priced at $1 and $5. Make sure you can still accommodate these shoppers by having plenty of change on hand. I usually get the following from the bank on the day before my sale:
9. Be friendly. — Greet everyone that comes up to your sale. If they seem to be searching for something specific, ask if you can help them because you might have it and they just haven’t seen it yet.
10. Extras. — There are several little “extra” things you can do to make your sale a success. We always have bags for shoppers to help them if they purchase multiple items. A few weeks prior to the sale I just start collecting the plastic grocery bags (we usually do cloth so I have to actually remember to do this!). Also, if it is a really hot (or cold) day, I’ll have H come out and give people something to drink.
Hopefully, some of these tips might help if you have a yard sale coming up in the future! If you have any other tips, I’d love to read about them in the comments.
© 2012 Just Us Four. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Our fall weekends all seem to be very similar – filled with fun, friends, food and family. Thankfully, this past weekend, mother nature blessed us with some
[Clay Marra via Picasa] |
We started the weekend with an attempt at getting Hibachi in our hood on Friday night. We walked up to find the place closed and the doors sealed by the dishwasher soap folks. Who knew that getting dishwasher soap back required such heavy handed measures. The power had even been turned off. Talk about a major case of the sads! We headed across the parking lot for Italian instead. The food was tasty but it was kind of a let down after dreams of catching shrimp in the air.
Saturday = early start! My yard sale had been rescheduled for Saturday so I had to get up early and get ready. Considering we were expecting (another) monsoon, I think we got a fair amount of traffic. I even managed to sell enough stuff to make me feel like it was worth my time.
After a futile attempt to get my kids to nap, we headed to the local elementary school for their fall festival.
Then, we made up for our lack of hibachi the night before with sushi!
Ours got eaten so fast I missed out on pictures. [Olle Duijvesteijn via Picasa] |
Most of Sunday was spent with Mathlete’s family. We had brunch and then visited awhile. Once home, I poured myself into a few domestic tasks like making oatmeal for the week
And apple spice bread
Before we knew it, it was bath time for the kids and off to bed everyone went.
Are you like us east coasters and finally got a little sunshine this weekend? Did you manage to squeeze in some playtime? Cook or make anything good?
© 2012 Just Us Four. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Awhile back, I was reading one of my favorite blogs and she had done some linen artwork as a ‘look for less’ post.
Her finished product was gorgeous. I thought that something alongs those lines would be a simple solution for the artwork in our guest room.
Unfortunately, the paper that she was used was sold out. So, I went on the hunt for other neat paper that I could for the project. I ended up purchasing two handcut sheets from Etsy.
On one of my recent shopping trips to the fabric store, I picked up some burlap. I chose it over linen simply because of the price tag. The burlap was 3.99/yard and the linen was $12.99/yard.
I had Mathlete pick up two Ribba frames from Ikea in the 20 x 20 size since that is what best accomodated my paper.
Then, I measured and marked the fabric for my frames.
Because the 20×20 frames have a floating mat, I also had to cut that down because I wanted to use its weight to keep my fabric in place.
Once I had everything cut, I used fabric glue and glued my paper down to each piece of fabric.
I left it there to dry for awhile. I put the fabric into the frames and closed them up.
Now I just need to get Mathlete to hang them in the bedroom (along with about a million other items around the house!) and that room will be almost complete!
© 2012 Just Us Four. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Like how I just created a new word up there? I know you do! Here is another one for you: Shaliz. Look at that one like you do celebrity couples where they smash their two names together to make one ridiculous name. No, I didn’t drink a bottle of wine and (surprisingly) have gotten a decent amount of sleep so I’m not dilirious either. So, what am I talking about? A Halloween spider wreath of course.
On Friday, I had a Craft Date with Liz! See Cra + dat = CraDat. (Sorry but crate would have been too easy and would have ruined my word making up mojo!) Shannah (me!) + Liz = Shaliz. So, now that you’ve been entrusted with a handy, dandy Just Us Four decoder ring (keep it handy, you never know when I might throw out a new word), I can get into the details of our cradat.
Like all good (and bad) things, the idea for this sprung from Pinterest.
[Etsy], [The Speckled Dog], [Tater Tots and Jello], [Indie Fixx] via Pinterest |
…
Sometimes I like to share with you all some of the recipes I post for WTCW in action (like I did here). Today, I am sharing my experience with making Coconut Lentil Soup which was part of last week’s WTCW. As a reminder, here is what the subject soup looked like:
Mango & Tomato |
That picture had the addition of pickled onions which were not part of the soup recipe. Note: You can find the entire recipe as I made it up at the link and I made all the changes to spices she recommended.
First up, I gathered all my ingredients.
I had purchased a fresh chile but it got lost somewhere in the fridge so I had to resort to canned. I was also short on time so I used pre-minced garlic and ginger. Once I had all of my stuff ready, I chopped my onion.
Yum! The onion went into the soup pan and cooked until it was softened. Then, I threw in the chile, ginger and garlic.
All the liquids were added and it simmered for about 30 minutes (only simmered it longer than suggested because I had my hands full feeding the kiddos).
I was planning to share this soup with Junior who just got her wisdom teeth removed. So, I grabbed my immersion blender and put it to work. The end result:
My soup was obviously significantly darker in color and I think part of that was because I used french green lentils (what I had on hand). The pureeing probably made a difference too. The taste was fantastic though. So yummy and satisfying.
© 2012 Just Us Four. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
I get asked a lot how much I stick to the menu I plan each week. Honestly, some weeks we make every single meal. Other weeks, life takes over and a trip out or food ordered in will sneak in at least once. I don’t let those weeks deter me from planning though because, without a plan, I am sure to turn to fast food or take-out much more often!
So, let’s see what is in my plan for the week!
Sunday: I’ve been trying to work in ‘the other white meat’ sometimes to get a little bit of variety from our standard chicken and beef diet. This week, I think I will try Ancho Pork Medallions to meet that goal.
Monday: Commonly referred to as Meatless Monday by so many which makes it the perfect day to try Stuffed Peppers with Quinoa.
Tuesday: Chicken isn’t leaving our diet completely though (we’d starve!) and will make its first appearance this week in a Chicken and Vegetable Bake.
Wednesday: Toddler E absolutely loves chicken apple sausage. When I saw Apple and Sausage Pie, I knew we had to try it!
Thursday: Back to pasta Thursday and this week is made even better by the addition of bacon in Bacon Parmesan Spaghetti.
Friday: Fall is in full swing and so is my soup pot (in some cases my crockpot!). I have it primed and ready for Rice and Pea Soup which I will probably throw some chicken in.
Saturday: Saturday is football day in our house. A Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese seems like an awesome alternative to wings!
Want to take the challenge with me to cook ‘on menu’ for the entire week? Come back in two weeks (come back next week of course for another menu!) and I’ll post exactly what ended up on our table for dinner!
© 2012 Just Us Four. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.