We’ve Moved!

We’ve moved Handy Man, Crafty Woman to a new home.  Follow the link to our new location, and you can subscribe to the blog there.

See you on the “other side!”

Cute Recipe Storage

I thought I would show how I store my recipes.  Several years ago, I bought one of these recipe baskets at a Longaberger basket show.  I even had to buy the cute “Recipes” tie-on.

I think this was purchased around 1996 or 1997.  These baskets are expensive, but they are sturdy and do hold up very well.  I love the lip on the cover, where you can rest a recipe while you are reading it.

I bought a ton of recipe cards with plastic covers.  I’m a messy cook and baker, stuff gets splashed around.  I do have a few recipe books, but if I like a recipe enough, I’ll write it on a card and put it here into my basket.

Once in a while, I tear recipes out of magazines, and print them from the internet.  Here is my pile of recipes “to be tried.”

I really need to give myself some sort of deadline for trying these recipes before I either write them on a card, or toss them.  I think some of these papers are older than six months.

Until I try the new recipes, I fold them up and store them in front of my recipe cards.  Looks like it’s time to try some of these out!

How do you store your recipes?  Do you have a basket or container? A three ring binder?  Cookbooks? Do you just look up recipes on the internet?

Linking to: The Gypsy’s Corner/My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Getting Ready for Winter

Over the last several days, Handy Man has been working on getting the outdoors ready for winter.  Here, he’s taking apart the table and chair set out on our deck.

He unscrewed all of the pieces for the tables and chairs, so he could put them into the shed more easily.

Here are some other suggestions for getting your home ready for winter, especially if you live in a climate with rough winter weather like we do.

• Clean your gutters and downspouts.  We had new gutters installed with covers to keep leaves out a few years ago, so we don’t have to do this step anymore.  It was well worth it!
• Drain and put away garden hoses.
• Put away or cover air conditioners.
• Replace any exterior light bulbs.
• Check caulking around your doors and windows.
• The last time you mow the lawn for the season, you’ll need to drain your mower of gas and oil.  Click here to read an article that Rob wrote about this last year.
• Clean your dryer vent.  Lots of dryer lint can build up over time; this should actually be done more than once a year.
• Have your heating system cleaned or maintained.  If you have a chimney that gets used, make sure it gets cleaned as well.

Have you done any work to get ready for winter yet?  Unfortunately, at least for us in the Northeast, winter is right around the corner.

Linking to: New Nostalgia

Fun, New Picture Hanging Tool

Have you ever had a hard time hanging pictures on a wall? I always make Handy Man help me, but sometimes we still struggle with placement.

I saw an ad on TV for this product, and I looked it up online.  It looks so helpful!

It’s called “Hang and Level, The Picture Hanging Tool.”  Here’s the site where you can look into more details about the product, as well as videos on how it works: Under the Roof Decorating.

Normally, I wouldn’t write about a product without using it first, but this looks like a great tool.  What a simple solution for such a common problem!  I think we have to buy one and try it.

Handyman: “Huh? Another excuse to go to a hardware store? Suhweeeeet!”

Has anyone else used this product? Tell us about it.  It looks like you can purchase this tool for around $15 at places like Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Ace Hardware.  Note: We are not receiving any compensation for talking about this tool, I just came across it and wanted to share it here.

Tell us about your mishaps with photo hanging!  We’ve dropped photos, hung them in the wrong spot, etc.  I have some blank space in our family room addition that will need photos; and a spot in our stairway where I’d like to hang photos as well.

Simple Halloween Cupcakes

I kept seeing these cute Halloween cupcakes in magazines and around the internet, and I had to make some!  This recipe is from Real Simple magazine.  I modified it, though.  The original recipe called for pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice, and I’m just not a big fan of pumpkin flavor.

Halloween Cupcakes

1 18.5 ounce box of yellow cake mix (plus the ingredients called for in the package directions)
8 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
24 pieces of candy corn

Heat oven to 350. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners. Prepare the cake mix as directed. (To add the pumpkin flavoring: add 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, and substitute a 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree for the water called for in the cake directions).

Divide the batter among the muffin tins and bake until a toothpick inserted into center of a cupcake comes out clean; about 18-22 minutes.  Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

Frosting: Use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese and sugar until creamy. Spread on the cupcakes and top each with a piece of candy corn.

Handy Boy loved these!  Also, I used an extra-moist cake mix.  It really helped to make the cupcakes super-moist and yummy.

Linking to: Tales from Bloggeritaville/Somewhat Simple/Beyond the Picket Fence/Fireflies and Jellybeans/Paisley Passions/Fingerprints on the Fridge/A Little Knick Knack/Tidy Mom/It’s a Hodgepodge Life/Chic on a Shoestring Decorating/Finding Fabulous/a little lovely/Tatertots and Jello/Hoosier Homemade/Between Naps on the Porch/Keeping it Simple/Making the World Cuter/The Girl Creative/All Things Related/Today’s Creative Blog/Lucky Star Lane

Dining Room Buffet Decor

I decided to put some fall decor up on our dining room buffet.  Well, we don’t exactly have a specific dining room any more.  Our buffet is in our family room.

We bought this buffet several years ago in a consignment shop. The plates are vintage Fiesta ware.

I used items that we had around the house.  I also went out and snipped some fall branches.

Handy Man has collected a lot of old glass marbles, and we put them in a glass aqua jar.  I did a post about how we put shells and rocks into glass jars here.

Linking to: Between Naps on the Porch/It’s So Very Cheri/Keeping it Simple/Making the World Cuter/It’s a Blog Party/Cottage Instincts/Under the Table and Dreaming/I Heart Naptime/House of Thrifty Decor/The Girl Creative Party Blog/The DIY Showoff/My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia/New Nostalgia/The Gypsy’s Corner/Lucky Star Lane/It’s So Very Cheri/My Backyard Eden/Organize and Decorate Everything/Blue Cricket Design/Sew Much Ado/seven thirty-three/The Thrifty Home/We are That Family/The Trendy Treehouse/Someday Crafts/The Shabby Chic Cottage/House of Hepworths/Frugal and Fabulous Design/My Romantic Home/The Shabby Nest/Remodelaholic/Funky Junk Interiors

10/10/10

I’ve read a lot of blog posts and news stories about today’s date of 10/10/10.  I know this is off-topic, but here are 10 photos that I took today.  We took a last minute trip to the White Mountains, and here 10 of my photos.

Back to our usual posts this week; I have lots to talk about!

Linking to: It’s a Blog Party

Shed Ramp

I just realized that I forgot to show pictures of the ramp that Rob built for the shed.  Hey, he has to be able to wheel his lawnmower and snow blower in there!

Here’s the beginning; he laid out some boards vertically.  He had to dig into the ground a bit, to sink the boards into the ground.

Here’s the ramp.  Wheeee!

Handy Boy has been riding his bike over the edges of the ramp.  Fun, fun!

For photos of our shed construction, click here:

Platform for the shed

The beginnings of the shed

The shed walls go up

Framing out the roof

More roof work, and windows

Putting shingles on the shed roof

Hanging up trim on the shed

Organizing in the Shed

Shed Doors

Shed Vinyl Siding

Still to come: What’s IN the shed? (Aren’t you curious?) and: Running wiring to the shed.

 

Baked Taco Sandwich

Baked Taco Sandwich

This is an easy dinner to make on a weeknight.  This recipe is from Betty Crocker’s Good and Easy Cookbook.

1 pound of ground beef
1 envelope taco seasoning mix
1 cup Bisquick baking mix
1/3 cup cold water
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream, if desired
shredded lettuce
chopped tomatoes

The original recipe says to use an 8×8 pan, but for some reason I started using a loaf pan.

Grease the loaf pan.  Cook beef as directed on envelope of taco seasoning mix.

Mix baking mix and cold water until smooth; spread in pan.  The dough is very sticky and thick, you can use a small spatula or knife to spread it.

Spread beef mixture over dough.

Heat oven to 450.  Bake covered with foil for 15-20 minutes or until edges are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Immediately sprinkle with cheese.  Let stand 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Place shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes on top.  Serve with sour cream.

Baked Taco Sandwich

1 pound of ground beef
1 envelope taco seasoning mix
1 cup Bisquick baking mix
1/3 cup cold water
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream, if desired
shredded lettuce
chopped tomatoes

Grease the loaf pan.  Cook beef as directed on envelope of taco seasoning mix.

Mix baking mix and cold water until smooth; spread in pan.  The dough is very sticky and thick, you can use a small spatula or knife to spread it.   Spread beef mixture over dough.

Heat oven to 450.  Bake covered with foil for 15-20 minutes or until edges are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Immediately sprinkle with cheese.  Let stand 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Place shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes on top.  Serve with sour cream.

Tales from Bloggeritaville/Fireflies and Jellybeans/Paisley Passions/It’s a Blog Party/Tidy Mom/Baked Taco Sandwich

Fall Table Setting

I keep seeing all sorts of cute table settings on blogs lately, so I thought I’d try to set up a fall-themed setting using our vintage Fiesta Ware. I chose colors of Fiesta that I thought reflected fall.

I’ve been trying to take these pictures for DAYS; it’s been so cloudy that I had a hard time with the lighting.  You can click on each photo for a close-up.

This next photo looks really good in close-up.

This was fun to play with, but I’m not much of a fancy table-setting person, so you won’t see too many of these from me.  I can see doing a cute table set-up with our Christmas dishes, though.

Here’s a close-up of the painting, made by my father.  Check out Don’s Fine Art to see more of his works.

Do you like to set the table with tablecloths and accessories?  I like to do this for special occasions, like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Linking to: Today’s Creative Blog/Crazy Domestic/The Gypsy’s Corner/My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia/Lucky Star Lane/The Pumpkin Patch/House of Grace/Coastal Charm/Blue Cricket Design/Sew Much Ado/We Are That Family/My Backyard Eden/Someday Crafts/seven thirty three/The Thrifty Home/Beyond The Picket Fence/Between Naps on the Porch/The Shabby Nest/Finding Fabulous/It’s a Hodgepodge Life/ A Little Knick Knack/Remodelaholic/Chic on a Shoestring/Just a Girl/Funky Junk Interiors/Tatertots and Jello/Organize & Decorate Everything/Frugal & Fabulous Design/The DIY Showoff/Cottage Instincts

Shed Vinyl Siding (and Giveaway Winner)

Congratulations to the winner of a $30 Home Depot Gift card, commenter #3, Mary J!  I used a “random number generator” that I found online.  Mary, see your email.  🙂 Congratulations!

3
Random numbers generated Oct 3 2010 at 12:5:18

Those things are so cool! I showed it to Handy Boy, and we played with it by entering in ginormous numbers to see what number it would choose.  For our little contest, I just entered in 1-8.

Also, thank you all for the ideas and suggestions for future posts on this site.  I am writing them down.  I did see mudrooms mentioned twice; unfortunately, we don’t have a mudroom in this house!  This house is just a “‘box” with very few details, except for the ones we’ve added.  We have doors that enter right into rooms, which makes cleaning up after the dirt, snow, sand and MUD here in New England a lot of work.  Oh, what I would give for a mud room! However, I can talk about how we work around all that.

Here are photos of the vinyl siding on the shed.  Handy Man has been bugging me to show these.

Remember when the shed was being framed:

Ta daaaaa!  Here it is with vinyl siding.  I helped Handy Man to hold up the ends while he nailed the pieces in with his pneumatic roofing nail gun.

…and here’s the back.  That silver piece is for exhaust for the generator.  Handy Man will be moving our generator into the shed.  More to come on that project.

To see more photos and posts about how Handy Man built this shed, click here.

Linking to: Between Naps on the Porch

 

Happy 1st Blogiversary Giveaway!

NOW is the time you’ve been waiting for…our 1st anniversary giveaway. Let’s get right down to it:

We’re offering a $30 gift card to Home Depot!

Even if you don’t “do” tools or renovations, you can still find things to buy at Home Depot: lamps, holiday decorations, area rugs, drapes and curtains, organizing products, etc!

Here are the rules of the giveaway:

– Open to residents of the United States only.

– Make a comment to this post telling us about a project or idea you’d like to see on our site in the future.

– You must include your email address with your comment! Your email will not show publicly, only we will see it.

– Please follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or let us know if you are already a follower.

– Contest ends at Noon Eastern time on Sunday, October 3rd.  A comment will be chosen randomly.  If we cannot reach you within 24 hours, another number will be chosen.

Ready, set, GO!

**THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!**

House Snooping

Do you ever check out houses while you’re out driving around?  We do it all the time, especially since we moved to our current house, which isn’t too far from the coast. There are some really fancy-shmancy houses right near the coastline.

I just found this house the other day.  It was huge!

Here are some of the views of the water from this house.  Not too shabby, eh?

When we first moved here, Rob was really interested in buying a house really close to the water.  But then we saw the prices some (modest!) houses were going for, even if they were rundown shacks.  Yikes!  We live further inland, but we’re still within easy driving distance to the coast.  We still get the fun of being able to see the ocean whenever we want, without the huge price tag.  We still like to look at all the fancy houses along the shore, and wonder what they cost.  I also wonder what it costs to heat some of those houses during a New England winter!

Do you ever peek at big houses when driving around?  Do you wonder what they look like inside? (I do!!)  If we see a “for sale” sign on a house we’re curious about, we like to snoop around on the real estate web sites, so we can see pictures of the inside.  (Told you I’m nosy!)

BLOG NEWS!

Tomorrow, October 1st, is the first anniversary of our blog!  I really can’t believe that it’s been a year.

In honor our our 1st Blogiversary, we’ll be doing a giveaway that starts TOMORROW!  Be sure to come back and check it out!

A great big THANK YOU to all of our readers over the past year!  We really appreciate all of our readers.

Wordless Tuesday

Hey, I can make up “Wordless Tuesday” if I want, right? 😉

Halloween Countdown Chain

Handy Boy has been hounding me lately, asking “When’s Halloween?!?!” He is 9 and has a better sense of time than younger kids, but a month still seems like ages to him.

I decided to make him a Halloween Countdown chain.  I have made Christmas countdown chains for him in the past, so why not Halloween?  This was very easy to do.  You could also make a countdown chain for a birthday, or a big trip, using different paper.

I used 12×12″ scrapbook paper.  I chose Halloween colors, and cut them into 1 inch wide strips, using my  Making Memories trimmer.  You can buy this trimmer at craft stores.  I LOVE THIS TRIMMER!  I highly recommend it for any kind of scrapbooking or paper crafting.

Here are all of the Halloween colors I used.  Different shades of orange, gray, brown, black, etc.

I stapled all of the rings together.  After, I noticed that some of my scrapbook paper was white on one side, but Handy Boy won’t care.  He’ll take one ring off every night before he goes to bed.

Here it is!  I decided to make enough rings for the rest of September.  Why not?  Handy Boy loved it.  I was going to work on this when he came home from school today, but I couldn’t wait.  😉

Linking to: The Gypsy’s Corner/All Thingz Related/A Silly Little Sparrow/It’s a Blog Party/My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia/Lucky Star Lane/My Backyard Eden/We are That Family/Blue Cricket Design/Someday Crafts/The Thrifty Home/Seven Thirty Three/Tales from Bloggeritaville/somewhat simple/Fireflies and Jellybeans/House of Hepworths/The Shabby Nest/My Romantic Home/Fingerprints on the Fridge/Remodelaholic/Funky Junk Interiors/I Heart Naptime/It’s So Very Cheri/Keeping it Simple/The Girl Creative/Skip to My Lou

The Great Lego Project, Continued…

Handy Boy and I recently decided that we were going to keep working on sorting his Legos.  This is a project that we started in the winter…but we all got SICK for ages and it fell by the wayside.  See this prior post about our start.

We’re sorting by “type” of Lego into different bins.  It’s really, really time consuming because he has about ten billion pieces.  There are also a ton of really tiny “specialty” pieces that I’m not sure what to do with yet.  More photos as the progress continues.  We are just trying to work on it 15 minutes at a time.  We’ll get through it, eventually!

Handy Boy said that it’s much easier to build his creations now that his Legos are at least somewhat sorted.

Handy Man has finished siding the shed!  Photos to come soon.  One project left to do is to run wiring from the garage into the shed: Rob needs a light in there, and the ability to run the generator in the shed. This is going to involve digging a trench through the backyard.

Anyone want to come over for some ditch digging? Ha!  🙂

I’ll have some simple fall crafty projects to show you soon as well.  Hope you are all having a great weekend.

Pantry, Before & After

Here are some photos of our pantry.  It’s actually a hall closet, but when we moved in, we decided we needed a pantry more than a place to hang coats.  I have organized and reorganized it for almost four years now, but I think we finally have it just right.   Here are the “befores.”  It’s hard to get a good photo in a dark hallway, with not much space to maneuver.  You can click on each photo to enlarge it:

We took some of the surplus items and brought them down to the basement, where we have a rack for extra food storage (that’s a post for another time).

We went through everything and tried to put similar items together.  Yet again.

I also purchased two items to help organize; one of those can organizers that has “steps” so you can see which cans you have; and a small lazy susan.

Here are the “After” photos.  Again, I did the best I could with no natural light in the hallway:

See the cute can organizer?  It slides open so you can make it wider.  The can organizer, and the lazy susan organizer on the shelf below were both purchased at Lowe’s.  The brand sticker on them said “Real Organized.”  Each piece was under $12.

Here is the bottom of the closet.  Yes, that is an old-fashioned, metal candy machine.  It is filled with Gobstoppers.  Rob found it at an antique store, and cleaned it out thoroughly and added the candy to it.  He wants to find a stand for it, but for now it gets stashed away in the pantry for a “once in a while” treat.  I’m not a fan of Gobstoppers, but the boys are.  And yes, that basket holds plastic bags.  Shame on me, I know, I shouldn’t use them.  But I’ve been using them to line small trash cans.

Anyone need to organize their pantry?  Whether it is a closet or a shelf in your kitchen, go through it and see what you can organize, so you can find things more easily.  You don’t need to purchase a lot of fancy containers or organizers; clean out and organize first to see what you need before you go shopping for organizers.

Linking to: House of Hepworths/Frugal and Fabulous Design/My Romantic Home/The Shabby Nest/Tidy Mom/Fingerprints on the Fridge/Finding Fabulous/A Little Knick Knack/Beyond the Picket Fence/Just a Girl/A Little Lovely/Under the Table and Dreaming/Between Naps on the Porch/The Girl Creative Party Blog/It’s so Very Cheri/The Shabby Chic Cottage/A Silly Little Sparrow

Easy Fall Decorations

Handy Boy has been anxious to put up our fall and Halloween decorations.  Since the first “official” day of fall is coming up, and it’s been getting cooler outside, I told him that we could. To make things look less cluttered, after I took out our fall decorations, we tucked away some of our “everyday” decorations into storage. Those items will come back out again after New Year’s.

I like to put up small groupings in the kitchen and the living room.  The glass jar is something that we found in an antique store recently.  It’s dark colored glass, with a slight red tint to it.  Rob said that his grandmother used to have a jar just like this.

The shelves in the kitchen.  We bought them ages ago in TJ Maxx.  After Thanksgiving, I put Christmas decorations on them.  Before I put the fall things up, I had displays of other items; but I was never satisfied with how things looked, so I never took a picture of them.  😉

I bought these two scarecrows this year.  Aren’t they cute? I love scarecrows.  I feel like I can leave them up past Halloween and through Thanksgiving.  I purchased these decorations over time at craft fairs, yard sales or on sale at retail stores.

Even Handy Boy decorated his room.  I give him little things to put on top of his dresser.  He is so cute, arranging and re-arranging things.  I found the little “Boo” skeleton and the little scarecrow at Michael’s this year.

So, who is ready for fall?  It got down into the 30s last night here in New England…brrrr!

Linking to: The Pumpkin Patch/Coastal Charm/The Gypsy’s Corner/My Backyard Eden/We are That Family/Someday Crafts/Seven Thirty Three/Somewhat Simple/The Shabby Chic Cottage/Chic on a Shoestring/It’s a Hodgepodge Life/It’s a Blog Party/Funky Junk Interiors/I Heart Naptime/Keeping it Simple/Cottage Instincts/Making the World Cuter/Hooked on Houses/Finding Fabulous/a little lovely/Under the Table and Dreaming/All Things Related

Lucky #13

Today is our 13th Wedding Anniversary. Lucky number 13!

Aren’t we cute? I was 25 and Rob had just turned 26.  I’ll be adding this photo, along with some other photos, to the “About Us” page soon.

Some fun facts about us:

Number of apartments we’ve lived in: 2

Number of homes we’ve lived in: 4 (one was a rental, three were homes we bought.)

Number of times we’ve moved our crap from apartment to house to rental to house: We don’t even want to think about it!

Number of years we have been renovating homes: Over 13, yikes!

Number of bathrooms we have renovated over the years: 5

Number of kitchens we’ve renovated: 3

Number of bedrooms we’ve renovated: 11

Number of wounds we have sustained from renovating projects: Too many to count. Cuts, bruises, many splinters, a few mild (!!) electric shocks.  Thankfully, all were treatable without a trip to the ER.

Number of ceiling fans we have installed: Eleventy-billion. (We like ceiling fans.)

Number of sewer back-ups we have had: One.  And let us never speak of it again.

Most difficult renovation project:

Handy Man:  The kitchen in our second home.  (Crafty Woman: I will post pictures of this sometime!)

Crafty Woman: The upstairs bathroom in our current home. (Pictures to come for this as well.) Everything needed to be torn out, carried down a stairway, and heaved into a dumpster.  In the winter. Then we had to heave all new fixtures INTO the house, and up the stairs.  Think about carrying a toilet and a bathtub up a flight of stairs!  During the project when everything was ripped out, we had to go DOWNstairs to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.  I hated that!  Runner up: Renovating the one and only bathroom we had in our first house.

Easiest renovation project: Uhhhh…we’ll get back to you on that one.

Handy Man’s favorite room reno: The kitchen in our second home, because it was so difficult.  (He said something about it being “rewarding.”)

Crafty Woman’s favorite room reno: The above-mentioned upstairs bathroom in this home.  More relief than rewarding, for me, I think!

Happy Anniversary to my Handy Man!

Linking to: A Silly Little Sparrow

Shed Doors

Here is Rob working on the door framing for the shed.  He is cutting out notches in the trim for the door hinges.

The doors are in, woo woo!!  Now, it’s time to put in the door knobs and locks…

Rob has to put an additional piece between the doors, but at least now the doors can lock.

Next projects: vinyl siding…and running electricity to the shed.