Our week started out with a very exciting trip to the dog park. If you have a dog and haven’t been to the dog park, you don’t know what you’re missing. I love taking Sansa there because she’s cooped up in the house for the majority of the day, every day, and even though she gets to walk every evening, it’s not even remotely close to the freedom she gets to experience at the park. There’s a really great fenced in area and she roams around like a grass sniffing fool. We even played hide and seek a couple of times with her with one of us hiding behind a tree and the other telling her to find “Mom” or “Dad.”  It was a win-win affair because Sansa got to run all of her energy out and the Jeep got a nice window washing with her tongue 😜.

She was a bit tuckered out when we got home. She’s not as energetic as she used to be. She’s become a couch dweller, like a good ole typical American. And speaking of couches, we got our new furniture delivered this week. We had a great experience with Levin’s Furniture and I would highly recommend them. Three guys came on the delivery to bring in our kitchen table, sofa table, couch, oversized chair, and ottoman. The kitchen table has a concrete top and weighs 370 lbs. I know because they told me five times how much it weighs. One guy even warned me that if I need to move it, I better have a couple of guys come move it for me....well that comment got me on my soapbox and I asked, “A couple of guys?” And he said, “Yeah, guys” with his serious face. So of course I had to tell him who he was taking to (😉) and said, “I’m a personal trainer. I won’t try to move it by myself but I don’t need a couple of guys to move it for me.”  To which he replied, “Well, if you really are a personal trainer you probably can move it. But lift with your legs and not your back.”  One of the other guys said, “If she’s a personal trainer, she probably knows that” and I agreed. Thanks for the tip, bud 🙄. So anyway, it’s really heavy and I have no desire to move it, ever, but I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to bust his chops. One of the other delivery men laughed when the first one went outside and said, “Oh, times are a changing. Derek (probably not his name, I can’t remember for sure) better get with it” 😂. 

Aside from that incident, everything went really smoothly. They assembled everything quickly, placed it, and cleaned up all the trash. I love it all so much I’m not even gonna hold a grudge against Derek for his thoughtless comment 😉. It took a whopping 5 seconds after they were gone for Sansa to try it out. 

She also did a quality check on the chair. We have 5 to 7 days to to determine that everything is to our liking. During that time we can swap it out. We’re still in the probationary period but I’m pretty sure it has passed inspection. 

Old table: 

Extremely elegant intermediate table:

New table—that’s very heavy. Did you know it weighs 370 lbs?

We call the slip cover chairs on the ends the king and queen chairs. 🤴🏻👸🏻 Our previous table was counter height, which meant Sansa’s nose could reach it, if she tried. The new table is standard height, a.k.a. even with Sansa’s head, which making begging for food her new favorite pastime. Ok, maybe not “new” but now it’s on a new level..literally. 🙄🐶🍗🍽🐕

We didn’t realize when we picked out this table that there isn’t as much room underneath of it as our old one and therefore, Sansa can’t lay under it as easily. Not that that would’ve been any sort of deciding factor..(most likely 😉). However, that’s one of her fav spots and when I was putting the old set outside on the porch for the new owners to pick up, I caught her laying under it one last time, as if to plead with me to keep it 😂😭. 

Oh well, she’ll find a new spot. Most likely one that has just been vacated by either of us, as is her nature. 

Because I’ve already proven that I take entirely too many pictures of my dog, here’s another to drive the point home. This one cracks me up so I definitely need to share it: a typical morning in this household. Once I get out of bed she moves in and sprawls out. There’s no changing your mind and coming back to bed at that point. Not quite ready to be awake but you need to get up to pee? Don’t do it. You’ll never get back to your warm comfortable spot. Even if you try to push her out of the way and take your covers back she’ll just snuggle closer, put her head on your pillow and breathe in your face. It’s a losing battle. The best option is to just go sleep on the couch at that point. Even then there’s a 50% chance she’ll follow you and lay in the exact wrong spot so you can’t stretch all the way out. Oh well. She’s a bed hog but I love her. 

We want to get another dog at some point in the near-ish future but I’m not 100% ready. This probably should’ve been an undertaking before we got new furniture... 🤔

So you’ve now been updated on all of Sansa’s goings on and that’s the most exciting in this family. Sad, I know. The end of gardening is fast approaching (we still have the pepper plants hanging in there), so we’ll be spending more time working on home improvements over the winter months. I was so proud we sanded the drywall in the basement bathroom two weeks ago....and we haven’t touched it since (considering that was the first work we’ve done in 8 years, I know you’re surprised. I wanted to make a snarky face but I couldn’t find an appropriate emoji).  It’s been a lazy couple of weekends. We’ll get back on track soon though. You ever have a thousand ideas floating around at once, making it hard to prioritize where to start? That’s how I feel lately. The bathroom needs finished but there are more fun things that we could do. Like watching paint dry...that’s more fun than finishing drywall. 

 

I’m excited to work on a new yoga routine for my Friday afternoon class. We’re gonna be fat-blasting machines with the core focused set I’m putting together for November! 💪🏻👊🏻☝🏻

That’s it, guys. Im out of topics so I’m going to wish you all a good night with one last picture that is so cute, you’ll all have pleasant puppy dreams. Who couldn’t love this face?! 

Passion for Repurpose

Omg, I feel like I have a million things to talk about tonight. I’m really excited to share with you guys some ways that I repurpose a few common household objects that are usually thrown away and forgotten about. The thing is, nothing just goes “away.”  It’s in a landfill, taking hundreds or even thousands of years to decompose! Once I started noticing that certain sauces comes in pretty nice jars and that there are lots of crafts you can make with wine corks and bottle caps, it has become harder to toss most things in the trash. I know I showed you before my recycling system with my big bags and that’s where most stuff goes if I decide I can’t use it for something else. I like to make sure I can’t use it, someone else can’t use it, and it’s not recyclable before throwing anything away. Just something to think about. We could all stand to be a little less wasteful!!

These are cute little bins I got from Dollar Tree. I hot glued some magnets on the back and stuck them to the fridge so they can collect my crafting supplies 😊. 

This is my repurposed cork board turned necklace display. Just some push pins strategically placed makes a nice way to hang necklaces so you can see them and they won’t get tangled. 

For earrings I cut a piece of plastic canvas and slid in into a picture frame. Works great for keeping them organized! I hardly ever wear earrings so it also works great for catching the dust and keeping it off my dresser 😉. 

My bracelets go on an old coffee cup tree. They’re easy to get to and easy to see. Ha, I just made a rhyme 😂. 

I store some of my rings on a pretty straw stood up in an empty essential oil bottle. 

All together it makes a pretty cute setup! (If I do say so myself 😉). 

As I was organizing my craft supplies the other day, I took a pic of the colored pencil sorter I made a while back. I cut a large oatmeal container in half and pushed toilet paper rolls in so that they fit snugly. I covered it with some duct tape to make it pretty and then separated my pencils by color. You guys all do that too, right? Right? No, just me? Whatever. 🙄

Lastly, I reuse spice jars when they become empty to store my seasoning mixes. Today was a perfect Fall day for making chili. Since I was mixing spices for a batch I just went ahead and made two more so next time I can just dump one in and go. No need to waste money on the seasoning packets at the store. They’re made of the same spices you most likely already have in your pantry and you get to control the amount of salt you use. I always think they’re too salty. 

While the chili was cooking I mixed up a batch of pumpkin cream cheese muffins that Phil(ip) said are delicious but I’ve been having an attack of the killer allergies and haven’t been able to taste anything for days! 😩 Total bummer. I was hoping when I woke up this morning that my taste would be back because we got some really great coffee in the mail yesterday (Philz Coffee, if you’re curious. I originally bought it because I thought it was funny to give Phil Philz Coffee but now we love it. It ships from CA and costs too much so we don’t get it often but it’s so worth it. Get the Tesora blend if you’re looking for something to knock your socks off 😉).  Anyway, I patiently waited for the kettle to boil and then loving poured the steaming water over those luxurious coffee grounds, first letting it bloom and then adding more a little at a time until the kettle was empty. I should’ve known something was off because the smell was very muted but my senses were clouded by anticipation. I creamed it up and added a little sugar (I know, I know 🙄😕). I took a small sip so I wouldn’t scold my tongue...and I got nothin’. Stupid allergies, I’m so over you. I should’ve just drank it black and saved myself the calories. Blah. 

Anyway, I’m hoping I’ll be able to taste these babies tomorrow!

The only plants still producing in the garden are the peppers. I cut one up for the chili and then chopped the other two for the freezer. That’s what I plan to do with the rest, as soon as they get slightly bigger.  I love my Food Saver system so much! I don’t get paid to say that but I wish I did so if any Food Saver execs are reading this, get ahold of me 😉. Seriously though, super useful for preserving frozen foods but we also use it to reseal chips, brown sugar, and well, pretty much anything that comes in a bag. 

I told you that we froze a ton of tomatoes and planned to can with them..well we did and it worked! No need to blanche them, just run under some warm water to thaw and the skins peel right off. However, beware, the inside is still frozen so peeling an entire bag full of tomato popsicles isn’t exactly fun. The resulting pizza sauce was pretty awesome though! We made a small batch a couple of weeks ago and we’re already have half through it. What can I say? We’re saucy people. The tomatoes to left in the pic below were warmed and the ones in the middle had been skinned and were awaiting coring and chopping. 

We finally had to remove the tomato jungle. It was sad because there were still lots of green ones on the vines but they were just falling and rotting. I wanted to leave some of them but Phil(ip) thinks tomatoes don’t have feelings and cold heartedly started ripping them all out while I was tilling up the fairy garden! 😳 

They were quite a mess. Lesson for next year, figure out a system that is...not this. 

We have one more bed to tear out, Disaster Zone Minor, aka bed 3, and of course, the pepper bed when it finishes. My indoor plants are doing great! This is my beautiful basil, below. 

Coming soon: a hydroponic garden! It’s on the never ending list of projects but it’s pretty high up. We recently resumed work on finishing our basement bathroom drywall that’s been on hold for the last 8 years 😳. I’m just gonna say that sanding drywall sucks and I remember why we haven’t finished it before now. However, I’ll be very pleased when it’s finished so onward we go! Because no project could ever be completed without our trusty supervisor, Sansa had to sneak in and oversee 🙄. Oh well, she washes I guess. The carpet will be gone eventually, too, when we lay tile. 

One last thing I wanted to share: our newest hobby (other than figuring out all the ways not to do things) is making paracord crafts. I really like it, even though the para is short for parachute and we all know I don’t wanna see another one of those anytime soon! 😂 




We even stitched a new band for my watch in a joint effort. Unfortunately it was just a tad too small and I tried pulling on it to loosen it and broke the fastener (another lesson learned 🙄). 

I also created this cute little guy with the help of a YouTube video. You can find how-to’s of anything on YouTube, I swear. I learned how to change the headlight on my car today by watching one. Philip would’ve showed me but I’m a big girl so I wanted to do it myself 😉. 

And here’s a final pic, a goodnight from Sansa-butt (it’s a fitting nickname, trust me).