Ins & Outs

I've updated a few things around the house so I thought I would just lump them all together into one shout-out. Here we go..

The cubes and china cabinet have been fall-ified.

There are finally items on our floating bathroom shelves. And since our gray towels turned yellow from our face-wash (?) I'm thinking I might actually bring yellow into the bathroom...

Made a chicken version of Taco Lasagna. Can you even spot it under all that cheese?

And Cody survived his first babysitting experience!

Any plans for the weekend? I'm hosting a pumpkin carving day and I'm super excited about getting crafty & roasting some pumpkin seeds!

A Pet Peeve

This bugs me. Why not just use a piece of tape? Nevertheless, I was told by one of the volunteers at Happy Dragon Thrift that hairspray will remove permanent marker from glassware.

It worked! It took a few applications and allowing some of them to just sit for a few seconds in-between scrubbing. But the whole process was only a minute or two. Phew! All that glassware I thought was ruined still has a chance!

Make-Up Bag Rehab

My make-up bag has seen better days. It's torn, stained from spilled bottles and powders. I have been needing to replace it but I just couldn't find the right size bag. I finally downsized and threw out a lot of samples and nearly empty containers. Speaking of which, anyone watch Shark Tank on Friday? The Spatty  and Spatty Daddy? Not a bad idea! Best wishes to her!

 I stumbled across a pencil pouch in the Target dollar bins that I thought would work nicely to keep my brushes separate from my make-up, so I grabbed that to get me started. A few weeks later I spotted this cute blue clutch at the thrift store for $0.50! 

A $1.50 well spent!

Clearance Couture: Thrifted Head to (Almost) Toe

It's really exciting, at least to me, when I can put together an outfit of all thrift finds. Just proves (to anyone still doubting) that thrift stores have more than the frumpy costume items that immediately come to mind. Or maybe I'm frumpy. 

This second photo is the equivalent to winning the lottery. Both dogs looking at the camera at the same time? Impossible. Thanks for capturing the moment, Katy!

Shoes $4.98 (Target)

Jeans $6 (Happy Dragon Thrift)

Belt $? (street vendor in Mexico 6+ yrs ago!)

Blouse $3 (Happy Dragon Thrift)

The Persimmons are Coming!

I think we're getting close to persimmon time! Originally I thought we had Fuyu persimmons, which stay pumpkin shaped and hard. But now they are starting to stretch and look more like Tabers. Which means they will need to be super soft before they're ready to eat. As well as turn more orange. But some of them are halfway orange! Counts for something, right? 

We had one fall off the tree last week that was really, really soft. And at the time I was still convinced we had Fuyu's, so I though this was a defective one, especially since it wasn't entirely orange. So I let the dogs have it, looking back I should have tried this one myself. But they were just so interested in it. They're cute faces won and they LOVED that persimmon. Usually Tanner will just kick around and hold fallen fruit (avocados) in his mouth, this he actually devoured. The best part is watching Brandi dive in, Tanner completely gives up. Gentle Giant vs Little Squirt. 

Yes, I realize the dogs have worked their way into like every post lately. What can I say? They are kind of my life right now. And Cody too, of course. Brandi slept through the night last night and made it to the backyard for her morning bladder emptying! Woohoo!!

Purple Banana Bread

I don't bake all that often, but when I do its usually banana bread. This time around (which was actually a while back, just re-discovered these pictures!) I had blueberries and blackberries that needed to be used so in they went! The color of the batter was a bit frightening, very gray...

But once baked, the color looked edible again! Do you have a favorite banana bread addition?

A Neighborly Affair

Well, we just can never let the dust settle at our house. Cody and our neighbor rebuilt the fence which divides our yards over the weekend. We are in love with the new fence. Nothing like fresh redwood to warm up a yard. And getting to know your neighbors a little better helps too! And while a 80+ foot long fence is not exactly a thrifty project, doing all the work yourselves sure makes BIG difference! And rent an auger. Worth every penny of the $50 day rental to not have to dig all of those post holes! 

Meanwhile, Brandi is slowly learning to sleep on her own bed (the dark brown one) instead of Tanner's. 

And Tanner is flirting with picking lemons off the low branches of our tree. I've watched him a few times from the back windows of the house, but he always just freezes when I try to catch him on camera.

And I wine toured while Cody cheered the Niners onto a blowout win. So much fun in one weekend!