Wolfieisms

Some recent Wolfieisms:
   --"Timing is everything."  This was his comment during our dash to get to the aquarium building at the zoo before the rain hit.

--"This is my third finest hour."  This was his comment when we got  to the aquarium before the rain hit and he was finely viewing his beloved stingray, Dot.

--Wolfie was speaking to a woman at the park. As he bid her adieu, he reached up and tipped an invisible hat to her!!! Swoon!

Something Old, Something New...

 My daughter just got married this Summer in a beautiful, eco-frugal, vintage, DIY wedding. Whew. The wedding day was so much fun, but so was all the preparation.  One of the questions we had to answer was how do you come up with a bouquet that doesn't involve fresh or silk flowers, that can be made ahead of time and has personal meaning?  Our answer was to fashion fabric flowers from clothing that belonged to some of the Bride's Grandmothers.
  We took silk scarves, a fancy nightie, old brooches, feathers  and the jewlery that the Bride wore to prom with the Groom, and turned it into  a vintage chic bouquet.

Some of the flowers were made from a Grandmother's "fancy" nightie that was also worn in the Father of the Bride's "first" wedding!

The bouquet ended up being a really fun project that brought a lot of memories with it.  We learned a lot about making a bouquet.  One of the best tips I learned was to create individual picks for the jewelry and flower combos and then it was a lot easier to arrange the larger bouquet. We also learned that tea staining and coffee staining are cool eco- friendly tips to help blend newer materials with antiques.  Also, you can blow-dry feathers, and they stink when you do so, but not once they dry, thank goodness!

a sad little feather after a brief coffee soak, tea just didn't do it.

Post fluffing with a blow dryer

Much better and stink-free!!

Things I am loving right now...

Flax seeds  Just like that sweet little Granny in the hot sauce commercials-- I put that $^!# on everything!  In my yogurt, oatmeal, bread dough, baked goods, everywhere.  Matt got me a little coffee grinder so I can grind them up and I am a happy flax-grindin' fool.

Cocoa butter I just use this like a big old lip smacker lip gloss.  Only 100 % cocoa butter and it is somewhere around $2.  Awesome.

Skin Deep Database I love that I can easily research the risks associated with cosmetics and toiletries and make a decision whether or not I want to take those risks. Known carcinogens are in so many products it is sickening (literally) and overwhelming. I challenge you to look up a few of the products you buy for your family. If the risk is too great, you can easily find products listed that are safer.

Cleveland Metro parks We use them so much! Whether it is one of the many excellent nature centers, the zoo or just some cool little spot, you will find us there a couple of days a week.  We started going back to one of my favorite childhood haunts, Tinker's creek/ Hemlock creek.

Edgewater, a beach on Lake Erie

At one of the Nature Centers during Super Pollinator Weekend

That's me, kickin' it after a rainstorm in Hemlock creek

Bananagrams We have been playing this game like crazy!  A fun, portable game that is good even with only 2 players. I looooooove word games!

Pick-ur-own So far this summer we have hit local farms for cherries, blackberries, and peaches.  Soon will be raspberries and apples. Last night we had peaches and "cream" (skim milk, stevia and a squirt of light whipped cream,but one of my fave treats anyway!) Tonight was the mother of all calories, peach cobbler with ice cream. Amazeballs.

Actin' a fool  I had a date night the other day which included a margarita. one. Which left us "tipsy" enough (Yes, we have become panty-waists) that we didn't want to drive.  So we tormented a nearby drugstore, taking pics of things that titillated us.  Somehow we did not get kicked out.

Attention: No animals were injured, or even mildly humiliated during filming of this date night. O.k., Maybe just a little.

Grown-upVisitors Yeah, visitors that drink coffee without a straw. That are old enough to drive. It is so nice to get company that can talk to you without needing to be put in time-out for slapping or standing on the table.  It was extra nice to receive such a visitor today AND they came bearing soup, which made for an excellent dinner.  Thanks Mama Jo!

What are you loving right now?

Christmas in July...

 Around these parts, it sure feels like Christmas every July as most of us celebrate birthdays.  My family usually gets together around the fourth to throw our "Birthday Bonanza", where we celebrate all our summer birthdays. This year it was actually on the fourth so we had fireworks too!  This year's  display was ridiculous!  The Grand finale was utterly insane, I don't think they can ever top it.

    For years I have wanted to put bunting up on my porch for summer.  I cringe every time I price them out and never end up buying them.  This year I decided to make something instead.  I came up with a pennant style bunting made from bandanas (I tea-stained the white ones).  Not as good as traditional bunting, but it made me feel festive.

    I also went ahead and tried Martha's firework cookies out.  They looked great, but my royal frosting would not dry! I didn't care for the taste of the icing either, but the cookie was good.  Next time, I will use my usual recipe for royal icing, given to me 20 years ago by my friend Reva.

     We also made Wolfie's birthday cake! His favorite animal at the zoo is a yellow dotted stingray, so the cake is featuring a dotted ray.

 Olivia seemed to like her first parade and fireworks. She was really enjoying herself!

We all enjoyed having my brothers in town, but Wolf and Vlad REALLY enjoyed it!

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!

A slice of my life...

A slice of my life...

:: remembering what a wonderful time we had at Jas and Nate's wedding!

:: telling myself I will eventually get my house back to normal!

:: wearing a super comfy knit t-shirt dress

:: planting zinnias, marigolds, petunias, sweet potato vine, licorice plant, coleus, many types of basil, dill, marjoram, rosemary, lavender, begonias, cherry tomatoes and green peppers.

:: thinking about how much more I love my husband today compared to yesterday, but not as much as I will tomorrow.

:: knowing I am one lucky gal

:: loving having my Mom here visiting!

:: wanting her to feel better :(

:: debating what to do for Father's day.

:: thinking about the socks I started knitting before the wedding and wondering how badly I screwed them up when I picked them up today and did one row on them.

:: giggling over my sons pretending to be anthropomorphic sea creatures and meteorological phenomena, which is wonderfully strange.

:: wondering if I would regularly use an elliptical if I had one, or just hang clothes off it?

:: hanging up my clotheslines finally.  I am seriously tardy!  Also need to get out the solar water fountain.

:: taking everything in stride

:: enjoying time with my family

:: wishing to go soaking in Hemlock creek!

trash-free challenge

My sister-in-luv, Elizabeth, has a great blog, castironconsomme. She is posing a challenge to go trash-free with your eating for a week.  No paper napkins, individually packaged snacks, etc... I am up for the challenge, but I must confess, I am a veteran of trash-free eating out.  For a few years now we have been doing our brand of healthy, frugal, trash-free eating. My husband and I pack our breakfasts and lunches every work day.  When out with the family running errands, I almost always try to pack what amounts to a car picnic.  This prevents hungry kids from making me miserable or bankrupting me with a convenient drive-thru stop.
     We have been using an assortment of silverware, glass storage containers and re-used jars and take-out containers.  We carry our lunches in small easily laundered tote bags I have picked up for a quarter or so at thrift stores and garage sales.  We have cloth napkins that I made a few years ago from a thrifted sheet that just keep going and going and going.  I really like glass for anything that needs microwaved.  Yes, people comment when I nuke up my salsa jar full of home-brewed coffee, but I just smile and take another sip of my piping hot coffee made just the way I like it.  My tall salsa jars make great containers for other drinks and soup too because the lids are really leak-proof.
     Today we went to the Zoo because it is free every Monday. I packed a picnic for 7people and fit it in a very manageable soft-sided cooler that I easily carried throughout the zoo.  Here's what it held, but keep in mind that I REALLY need to go grocery shopping, so I had little to work with:
--  pb and j sammies on home-made wholewheat bread.  I can fit 2 sandwiches into a rectangular plastic to-go box from the local Chinese restaurant.  These are great because each container holds 2 sandwiches and one person uses the lid for their plate and the other person uses the container for a plate.  No need for plates to be packed!
--yogurt parfait made by adding frozen berries to vanilla yogurt.  Everyone got a little glass jar full with a metal spoon, no waste there!
--apples, packed whole and cut with a paring knife when ready to eat.  Apple cores brought home in the glass jars so they could go in the compost bin.
-- Dried cranberries
--Sun tea for the grown ups, apple juice for the kids, brought in salsa jars, naturally.  I poured the kids juice into some cups we got when we went out to eat at Red Robin awhile back.  They serve their kid's drinks in plastic cups with lids, so I always bring them home instead of throwing them out and reuse them many times over.
--Matt brought hot tea in a steel thermos, a STEAL of a deal, as I got it for less than $2 at a local thrift store. It had never been used!  It was exactly like the $25+ ones I had been debating buying.  It ended up being freezing (in the 30's) and rainy today so having a sip of something hot was so wonderful!

     This was a fruit heavy lunch, but I was running out of many staples and worked with what I had in hand.  It worked out though, because you spend the day looking at all the concession stand goodies and having a sweet lunch helped ease the cravings for all the treats they were selling.
     Other easy lunch items that work well for kids on the go are cheese cubes and crackers, sunflower seeds, peanuts, popcorn, grapes, cubed watermelon, fruit leather, edamame, cucumber slices and hard-boiled eggs.
     Thanks Elizabeth for posting your challenge!  Keep up the good work!  And be sure to check out her blog (castironconsomme.blogspot.com/) to see the beautiful and delish stuff she is whipping up!

These are a few of my favorite things...

     It is time to give a shout-out to some of my "old faithfuls"-- stuff I use every day and don't want to live without.  This list is just a quick jot, the first few things that came to mind.

1.  My Farberware Percolator

Life wouldn't be the same without it!  I love her looks, her gurgly sounds and her "perc"-y attitude.  She will hopefully last forever, sitting nearby on my stovetop.

2.  

This soap has been around since 1839, is hypoallergenic (a plus with my extraordinarily fussy skin), biodegradable, has no synthetic detergents,  has no animal by-products and  has never been tested on animals. Almost no packaging to waste. I think it is about $2 a bar.  My family uses it for showering and hair washing.  It lathers like crazy and rinses easily.  We have replaced soap, body wash, and shampoo with one bar.  

3. Spectrum Organics Coconut Oil

Versatile must be it's middle name! Safe enough to eat, this is my go-to beauty product.  I use it as a facial and body moisturizer, lip balm, massage oil, scalp conditioner AND I use this to make my own all-natural deodorant!  I can buy it at the grocery store for less than $10.  I love products that replace several others.  Less packaging is thrown out, especially since this comes in a reusable/recyclable glass jar.

4.

The Handy House Stainless Steel Drinking Straws with Cleaner

My newest find, These are reusable drinking straws.  They work great and the brush lets you get them clean, then run them through the dishwasher for good measure.  I have been searching for a reusable straw for the kids, but Matt was afraid to try the glass straws that I found.  These are perfect!  I heart them a lot!  Another disposable plastic product booted out of my life!

5.  My shredding scissors

When I had a big old shredder, I always let the shredding pile up, then inevitably when I started to shred the heap it would jam over and over again.  I have a "thing" for manual tools.  I love to use human power as much as possible.  These are small (much smaller carbon footprint) and don't jam or need to be replaced because I burned the motor out by constantly jamming it.  I shred things as I read the mail now, so no more heap!

6.  My reel mower

     

Why pay to workout when there is grass to be mown?  It is so quiet you can hear the birds sing while you push along.  No bags to empty, it self mulches which means no fertilizing.  No gas cans to fill, no oil except for the squirt of wd-40 I give it every fall.  Wonderful!

What are your "old-faithfuls"?