I *heart* Vitamin Shoppe

I've been shopping Vitamin Shoppe for a couple years now. I've shopped online and at the Fort Collins, CO brick & mortar. I *heart* them. I *heart their products.

This month, they're running a free shipping deal when your order is over $25. Good time for me you to stock up.

I have no affiliation with Vitamin Shoppe. I'm simply a happy customer.

Beans & lentils & inflation- oh my!

I popped over to Life In a Shoe today to be greeted by this post. How timely. I've taken a severe disliking to grocery shopping these days, but I've managed to keep the budget under control & still eat fairly well. Ironies of ironies, we were finishing up a lunch of taco style lentils & rice when I read this post. I added my Cowboy Beans to the list. YUMMY! Go check out the links if you're in need of trimming down the ever-rising grocery budget, too!

Scrappy Shelf

We did our trim in the big room a bit back (I need to blog about the redo, I know). We had several small pieces of moulding left. If you know me, you know I couldn't bear to throw them out. I paid good money for this stuff, and I couldn't just let those dollars go out to the curb.

So I set out on a new venture to save those pieces of wood. Did I mention that same morning (Wednesday morning), I also found out that our staple gun is also a light duty brad gun??? SQUEEE!!!

Here they are after I cut them. 1 piece of rounded moulding, 1 piece of lattice, 1 piece of screen window trim.


Here, I've used wood glue to glue the lattice to the widest part of the rounded trim. Then I used my nifty-now-brad-gun to hold it in place.


Excuse this photo. A bit blurry.


Then using the glue & my nifty-now-brad-gun, I attached the screen trim to the front of the lattice.


Another blurry photo, but I know you get the idea.



A couple coats of brushed on Zissner Bullseye 1-2-3 primer, then a couple coats of Krylon Bright White satin spray. 2 hangers on the back & voila!! A low profile shelf, perfect for small votive, smaller pics & whatever else I can fit.


I've hung it above my bed, and placed a couple things on for show, but this isn't the final decor.



Oooo, that last picture is slanted. Please don't mind that. The shelf is actually straight.

Cabinet Door Up-do, Pt. 2

In an earlier post, I promised to show you what I did with the next door. Remember this old beat up cabinet door?


I did the same as the other door, using drywall mud to fill in any holes from hinges or door knobs. After it was dry, I sanded it smooth.


I used the other side of the door, giving an illusion of being 2 completely different wall hangings. Once again, I taped off the center & used spray chalk board paint. Using a pencil, I drew lines measuring far enough in that the teeth marks would be cut off. Then, I had the Hubba cut the outer edge. This not only made it a little smaller (again, to appear different than my other sign), it also removed any indication that a dog had chewed the royal corners out of it.

I then proceeded to put 3 coats of Glidden eggshell paint in "Soft Suede" on it. The last coat I used a foam brush & sorta sponged it on for a slightly textured look.


I went through my hardware box to see what I had on hand, and decided I'd use these neat little hanging fobs.


I got those babies placed & nailed on.

Then, I proceeded to come up with something to write on it. After a few tries, I decided this was perfect for our household. I'm going to have to re-write it, though. Maybe I'll use a ruler so it's straighter before I hang it, LOL.

Where the dirty clothes gather....

Staging a home is not only hard & tedious work, it isn't cheap. The first shelves I hit when shopping for the house are clearance racks. I thrift weekly these days to find a score. I scour Amazon in hopes they've knocked down the price on a wish item I've placed in my cart. Craigslist has become a hot spot on my web browser. I've always been one of those "think outside the box" gals, but when you're staging a house, it brings on a whole new meaning. And it still doesn't come cheap.

Another project I can call complete is the master bath cabinet. It was a very dingy white, and quite some time back, we had a mutt that thought everything was her own personal chew toy. Including the cabinet doors.



A couple weeks ago on an out of town venture, Hubba found the doors we were looking for. I'd been looking for a bit in town (and online) to no avail. They've been sitting in the master loo, leaning against the wall since. Until yesterday. I gussied up the strength & started the work. First I had to remove the doors & clean up the hinges. I taped off the walls & floor with tape & newsprint paper. I painted. I painted the cabinet base (sink base?). I painted the doors. 2 coats per side. Today I rehung the doors using the same hardware. The hardware was still in darn good shape. I bought a package of those cushion-y things so the doors don't slam shut.

What a difference!!! I am so psyched!!!

Then I ended up with 2 doors. One in perfectly good shape & my wheels started turning. No spinning..... And I decided we were in need of more wall art.....

Here is the dingy door.....


I filled in the holes with some drywall mud. Dry wall mud & I have become thick as thieves these days. No for real. Like lifelong besties.


I sanded the mud after it had dried & set to painting it. I was going for an aged look, so I used some leftover paint from when we redid the downstairs. It's an off-white, kinda cream colour. True Value something or other. True Value & I are besties these days, too. Anyhoo, the name of the colour began with a C, but please don't ask me the rest of the letters, because I can't remember, and I'm not going out to the garage tonight to look. Capital, maybe.

Anyhoo.....


After a base coat of that True Value paint, I went through my craft paints & found a khaki type colour & black. I decided to try it as a glaze. I watered the khaki one down & found a rag. What's the worst that happens? I hate it & have to re-coat it in Capital(?).

I dipped the rag into the paint & started swiping, being sure to go over the wet paint with the dry side.


Then I added a little bit of the black.....


Rinse. Repeat. Except I didn't rinse anything. Just follow along, ok?


Dry time.....


Then I was ready to tape off the outside part of the door for the part I have been dying (or wanting) to try for oh so long. See, about 2 years or so ago, I bought chalkboard paint..... 2 years ago. I finally tried it.....



I will add 2 sawtooth hangers to the back of this for an on-the-cheap wall hanging for the dungeon laundry room.

If you've enjoyed this project, stay tuned to see what I do with this one:



As promised (though it took me awhile), door number 2 can be found here.

Food co-ops, Free "advertising"

I was reading over on Homestead Revival about food co-ops. I left a comment (a shameless plug) about the food co-op I coordinate here in Southern Central Wyoming. Comments are moderated over on Homestead Revival, so after my comment was approved, I noticed I wasn't the only one plugging a local (wherever that might be) co-op. I got to thinking that it would be nice if we had a place that listed several co-ops from around the US (and globe???). So here's your chance. If you're heading up a co-op, I would like to add you to a consolidated list on my blog!!! I know I don't have a ton of readers, but I'm hoping over time, the list of co-ops will grow.


Here's what I need from you if you are the coordinator in this order:


Location (Be as specific as possible. I know of several co-ops in Wyoming alone, and they range from Southern Central, Central, Northeast & Northwest)
Your name (first is fine, as long as you're the only one with that name at the contact information)
Your contact information (phone number &/or email address)
What company(ies) you order from
How often you order
The minimum for each member/family to order each time


Based on these few things, I believe most others can decide if they're interested, and they may get any further information from you when they contact you. Here's an example of how this would read:



Southern Central Wyoming (Carbon County & surrounding areas)
Michaela Leeper
wyo.helpmeet(at gmail dot)com
Azure Standard
We order as often as we can, depending on the committed interest each month
Each family agrees to spend $50 each order

Easy, huh? So leave a comment or contact me at the above email addy & we'll get you added! Remember you have to be the coordinator, as I only want information that is voluntarily given.

What a glorious shopping day!

Even if things did go a bit awry.

Let me tell you- Azure Standard ROCKS!!! The last 6 orders that were loaded onto the truck, the printer died, so there were no invoices. Of course, that's not why they rock..... That stinks, to be quite honest. So when Kyle (fabulous driver) shows up neither of us know how many cases I'm supposed to be getting. Here's the turn of events.....

• I'm sick, have 0 energy, have 2 people coming to help with the drop (1 of them I arranged at the last minute because I knew I couldn't handle it even with *D* there). I arrive 10m early, and he's already there. Um.... it's just he & I...... We (Kyle & I) load the stuff into my truck. He rocks.
• I call *D* to tell her to go ahead & head to my house, he was early, we're done (my kids are at home & they know her, so I wasn't sending her to sit by the curb). Her stuff is sitting on the ground next to my truck, and *M* shows up, so she helps me get the rest of *D's* stuff into the truck. We chat for a couple, I head home.
• Get home
• Get on Azure to print invoices from the drop point manager
• Drop manager refuses to load.....
• And refuses to load.....
• Go back to garage & call Azure
• HAND WRITE 3 people's worth of orders so we can separate them
• Run back in to check something......Drop manager has loaded
• Print previously hand written lists for double checking. Good thing, too, we had a couple things wrong that the lady at Azure missed.
• Realise we're missing a WHOLE BOX of frozen items
• Remember, we had no case count......
• My corn, 2 gals' bison & another gal's roast.....
• Call Azure to let them know. Spend awhile on the phone giving order numbers & lists of items missing. The 3 of us missing items will be credited
• Call Kyle (awesome driver) to let him know what happened & ask him to keep an eye out

Thankfully that ordeal is over, but I was so frustrated. I've been wicked sick for a few days. I was ready to cry BEFORE I left to get the order, and poor *D* was so patient (bless you, *D*, I know you'll be reading this soon). I told her when *I* did the orders it took an hour max..... No seriously, it did. As soon as I have help, the time doubles??? LOL

The good news is, the Boys are happy to have hot dogs in the house again..... and dried papaya..... and organic raisins..... and..... well, here are the pics of the Azure Standard order. Not pictured are the hot dogs, as they were in the freezer. And my corn.... obviously. NO CORN!!!!! *cries* They were also out of the kids' vitamins I ordered & the organic corn chips. I already knew those weren't coming, so I wasn't expecting those. BUT MY CORN *wails in tears again*

25# brown rice, 25# organic cornmeal, 50# raw sugar

1# raw walnuts (*M* & I bought a 2# bag to split, they are in the rubbermaid container), 2 of the 3 bags of organic chips (we opened a bag- YUM!), 5# organic raisins, 1 gallon Biokleen cleaner, 1 gallon rice bran oil & in the jars are organic kelp granules & dried papaya strips.

Then I realised we didn't have any hot dog buns, so off to shopping we go. We stop at the discount grocery store to see what they have..... I bought 5 packages of their baked in-house breads of various kinds. We decided to go with these yummy little dinner rolls they offer & cut the hot dogs in half for mini-dogs.

And came home with all this.....



I also scored some Hansen's sodas for the kids, some organic applesauce cups, and lest you think we are this perfect little TF family..... A little something for Hubba (if I don't buy it he will. Steak sauce is on my to-learn-make-do list though).....


I have yet to put away all the groceries we got today & I'm already drooling over, highlighting & dog-earing this:


Hopefully in a couple days, I will be able to blog good news about corn, vitamins & corn chips.

Typing 101

It helps if you have letters on your keyboard when you start teaching your kids how to type.....



I didn't even realise that the letters were rubbed off until my oldest was like "Uh, Mom? Where's xyz (or whatever letters he was going for)." Oops. Let's try that again!

Those cast iron pans.....

Remember those cast iron pans I found at a thrift shoppe? I FINALLY got around to cleaning them up.....



And I must have done something right, because when I made fried taters tonight, nary a one stuck!!!



They were delicious, by the way ;)

Dass a lotta oats!

For $50 the bag, that's only $1 a pound for ORGANICS!!!

Cast Iron

Found these babies at the thrift shoppe for $5 a piece. Wish me luck cleaning them up!!

QUIT SPENDING OUR MONEY!!!

Last night I was planting seeds. Keenan was watching intently & I was letting him help with the bigger seeds. All of a sudden he says REAL forcefully:

"WE need to QUIT spending our MONEY!!!!!"

So I just look at him & he smiles sweetly & says soft & sweet:

"We can just grow stuff."



I thought it was brill for a 5 year old! Most adults these days can't even comprehend that.