The Nifty Foodie's Life

I’ve been in such a funk lately, but don’t judge me too harshly. I’m living in the Louisiana Summer right now. The afternoons went from pleasantly breezy to horribly disgusting. It’s to the point where my car air conditioner JUST balances out the searing heat, but I never feel cold in my car anymore.

Most of the time, I can’t help to think of all the negatives that summer brings. It takes a good awakening to realize that things are, in fact, amazing.

Millie had a 3 inch long coat of fur a week ago (she’s been groomed since). It’s the border collie in the Heinz 57 that she is. She decided to look up at me and just smile in the middle of the summer heat. Sure, she’s probably hot as hell, but she’s still amazingly happy. I love her for that. I need to think like her.

So, I thought of the positives of summer. LSU is out, so traffic is substantially less. The tomatoes are ripening and peppers are finally growing. Snowball stands are open (even though I’m on diet, I will occasionally splurge on my wedding cake snowball). And also, summer parties.

I’m very excited to be having my family over next weekend. We’re throwing a huge party, and I’m going all Hostess with the Mostess with party colors/theme. I know it won’t be as pretty as her parties, but I’m hoping it will impress.

I even found inspiration at Hobby Lobby today. It’s not quite the 4th of July yet, but I can’t help but do some red and (aqua) blue.

Yes, I’m sure you’ve been seeing that color combination everywhere lately. Go ahead, call me a copycat, because I’m going with that color palette.

I love hosting parties with the hubs, and seeing everyone have a great time. Parties also make me super excited about my food blog. I enjoy it when I have quite a few fun recipes to blog about.

So, it’s time for me to get out of this funk. I need to remember that there are some positives to think about and enjoy in this hot, gloomy Summer. However, if I ever forget, I know I’ll have this face to help me remember.

What are some positives that your summer is bringing?

I have been wanting to add some cute, classic centerpieces to our dinner table for quite some time. I was able to do this centerpiece for less than $20. I’m probably going to decorate it for every holiday too. I’m pretty excited!

Don’t hate on the iPhone pic!

This isn’t too fancy, but it’s pretty classic. I purchased two hurricane vases from Ulta, of all places, because they were clearancing out these vases because they were free with fragrance purchases around Christmas. Afterwards, they were both $6.99 to purchase!

Last night, I went to Hobby Lobby to buy some fabric (yep, I’m sewing now..can’t wait to blog about it!) and found these 2 candles for 50% off, as well as the marbles. Total cost? About $9.00…gotta love sales!

I can’t wait to dress these with some Mardi Gras ribbon and beads!

A lot of stores like to take advantage of the holiday season. Prices for decor can be completely outrageous, but it’s classic, beautiful and you feel like you gotta have it for your home.

Well, if they can make it, there is a good chance you can make something similar or almost identical for a FRACTION of the cost!

For example, I came across this wreath and was seriously smitten.

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Really? $79? How about MAKING it for $20?

That’s right folks, $20. I bought a fake pine wreath and sparkly foliage at Michaels for $5, as well as a few boxes of ornaments from Wal-Mart for $15!

Supply List:

• fake pine wreath
• wire cutters
• floral wire
• hot glue gun/glue
• ornaments in different sizes
• ribbon
• fake snowy or sparkly foliage

First, fluff up the wreath. Basically move around the branches to make the wreath look fuller.

Now, hot glue the ornaments to the top part of the ornament. This is to ensure that the ornament ball doesn’t just pop off in the wind or anything like that.

Then, wire the ornaments, 2 or 3 per wire and tie each wire around the back of the wreath and twist until secure.

After you have it situated the way you like it, start hot gluing in foliage randomly on the side of the wreath. Hot glue a bow to the bottom of the wreath and voila! Instant classic ornament wreath.

Here’s a close-up of the ornaments with the sparkly winter foliage that I chose.

I can’t wait to put this bad boy on the door!

About two months ago, the hubs and I talked about how the holidays were going to work. We both value time with our families during the holidays and hated the idea of choosing one or the other, because of distance. We came to a resolution…to host Thanksgiving. My family is from the New Orleans area, which is a good hour away from Baton Rouge, where we currently live. His family lives in the Baton Rouge area. So, Thanksgiving with our families is easy for this year!

Now, the house isn’t exactly company ready, so we have some tasks to do to get ready.

Here’s our house from Halloween.

Since then, the decorations have come down, except for the wreath and a sign that says “Happy Harvest”. Our ongoing project has been painting the house from brick red  to the goldish color it currently is. Our task and goal is to finish repainting the white trim and painting the doors and shutters a dark grey/almost black color.

Our house is also pretty cluttered from doing random fix-it projects around the house. We plan on cleaning it out and making it look like more of a home than a construction zone.

I’m secretly hoping the hubs embraces the idea of decorating the house for Christmas a week BEFORE Thanksgiving so my family can see the house completely festive. I know it’s a little early, but the last time my family saw the house was a little over a year ago when they evacuated here for Hurricane Gustav. Not the brightest of times, I promise you.

Are you taking on any house projects before you host your holiday party?

After the hubs and I got hitched, it didn’t take us too long to realize how much stuff we really had. There were things we had for our kitchen that we ended up being given nicer versions of, so the old stuff had to go! We also had a lot of stuff from our old (parents’) homes that we just had no use for anymore. Boxes upon boxes of stuff were stacked up, and we decided that it was really time for a garage/yard sale.

Thankfully, my husband’s family (his parents and brother’s family) wanted in on the garage sale too. So, we decided to plan a 3 family garage sale. The perfect weekend we thought? Well, of course, living in a college town, we went for the bye weekend, which was this past Saturday.

We really lucked out doing this. Since a lot of people thought on the same page as us, there were garage sales everywhere! So, I think a lot of serious people made it their Saturday morning to hit them all up! We even had a lady tell us at our garage sale that this was her 12th one for the day! Wowsa!

We ended up having 6 completely cramped tables of stuff, condensed to about 1 1/2 within an 8 hour garage sale. We were troopers haha..in actuality, time really flew! About $600 later in sales between the two families, we were done! My husband and I made about $270 of that. Not bad for the stuff we consider JUNK and now, our home is mostly clutter free!

We just purchased this neat-o looking futon to put in our other spare bedroom (aka the hubs’ office) using some of the profits. I think it looks pretty neat, and it would give us another bed, if company came over.

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We’ve also made a vow to NOT clearance shop anymore. Clearance shopping results in clutter, and we don’t need it!

Are you finding yourselves overwhelmed with clutter after the wedding?