Small changes

Country Home

This picture was the inspiration for making some small but needed changes in my kitchen. I love the clean look of this kitchen with the whites, creams and yellows.

While, I don't necessarily want to change my paint color in my kitchen to freshen it up, I decided to unload the dark and cluttered look above my cabinets. I replaced the colored tins with anything white I could find around the house.
Used my white dishes, an old window and painted my rooster weather vane cream.

These small changes gave my kitchen and my cabinets a whole new look. Next up will be to find a neutral window treatment. Right now, I have a red floral that I have grown tired of.

The Junk Mammas

10 Minute Decorating

The Nesting Place is having a 10 minute decorating party. This our contribution.

Without a mudroom I try to use the back porch for my mudroom. One day last summer I was sweeping out the porch and and remembered I had purchased a bike basket at a garage sale to use as a magazine rack in the backroom, but had failed to ever put it up. So I grabbed a hammer and nails and pounded it up next to my farmhouse bench.

I also added a hook I had laying around and hung up a wicker bike basket from ribbon. The basket holds my items that must go with me in the morning. I use the clothes pin to hold mail that must go to the post office. Today it is holding libary books that need to be retured. That's my ten minute decorating.

The Junk Mammas

Valentines Day

Love Valentines Day! It's such a fun holiday to decorate. We cut hearts out of scrapbook paper to make this garland.

Added ornament hearts to all of my bowls and jars around the house for a extra little touch.

Simple teachers gifts. Took small heart containers I found at Michael's for $1.00 each. Filled them with kisses, chocolate hearts and tied it off with a red themed fabric pin.

Found this cute idea for valentines on The Crafty Crow. Owl valentines, they are cute, fun and were easy for my 4 year old to make for preschool.

Don't have much on it, but I used a pink tree I purchased after Christmas and put it into one of my soup turines with paper shreds. Love when you can decorate with things lying around the house.

The Junk Mammas

Sunday Estate Sale

Estate sales season has began around these parts. Yipeee!!! I hadn't been to an estate sales in months, so I was looking forward to the hunt. I always get anxious waiting in line. Watching as people leave and spying to see what goodies they bought. I was hoping there was some good stuff left for me. Today most items where 50% or reduced, another Yipee.

Some of the treasures I found were vintage valentines, a chalk board, keys, folding measuring tape, map trash can and dictionary. My grand total was 11 bucks. I placed the valentines in floral frogs and displayed them on top of what I loosely call my china cabinet. I think I will use the trash can and chalk board in my son's room. And I was thinking of using the measuring tape as a growth chart for my kids, not sure yet. It's always fun junking!

The Junk Mammas

Soups on!

It's cold here again! Soup sounded like a good choice for dinner. With some good bread,an easy dinner. I am in heaven until I remember that it below zero out side. This recipe is from Cooking Light. And it is good for lunch the next day.

Stuffed Pepper Soup

1/2 pound ground round
2 cups chopped green bell pepper
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (14-ounce) can less-sodium beef broth
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can tomato soup, undiluted
1 1/2 cups hot cooked white rice

Heat a small Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef; cook 3 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add chopped green bell pepper and onion; cook 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in black pepper, less-sodium beef broth, diced tomatoes, and tomato soup; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes.Spoon 1/4 cup hot cooked white rice into each of 6 bowls; top with 1 cup soup.

Yield: 6 servings

CALORIES 219 (30% from fat); FAT 7.2g (sat 2.6g,mono 2.9g,poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 11.7g; CHOLESTEROL 26mg; CALCIUM 39mg; SODIUM 444mg; FIBER 3.2g; IRON 2.7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 27.5g

The Junk Mammas

Taming kid clutter

Wendy over at the Shabby Nest is having a party "Taming Kid Clutter". We wanted to share some solutions we have found to tame the clutter and resume some sort of order in our homes. But the real key is down sizing. Get rid of some toys and really scrutinize what comes in your house. The best tip we have is to rotate toys. Every toy does not need to be in circulation, when you bring the toy back out it's like a new toy again. At our house we never open all the toys from the birthday party or Christmas, we keep them in the package for a rainy day. We of course follow these rules to a "T",we try at least.

In our old house we find small closets or no closets in rooms. We have to be creative in most aspects, to keep our sanity. That inspired my idea for the closet play nook. I have seen many times where people have turned closets into small office spaces, so I decided to try it in my daughters room. Transforming her closet into a extended play area. You can check out the original post here.

Land of Nod has some great storage solutions, the above buckets come in various sizes from them and other retailers. They are great for keeping pencils, scissors and various art supplies in check. The larger ones store trucks and Legos with ease.


Shelving is another great options. They are not just for books anymore. Bins are a great addtion to shelves to add addtional storage for all of the stuff you need to tame.

The Junk Mammas