Vintage Market Days Finds

Vintage Market Days came to town last weekend and it was amazing!  It was held at the local fair grounds in the livestock barn and the place was filled to the brim with wonderful booths full of vintage goodies, handmade crafts, and all kinds of fun stuff!
If you haven't heard of Vintage Market Days, don't worry, it's a new concept that just got started in 2012.  Two women came up with the concept in Tulsa, OK, and now independent operations have started branching off into surrounding states.  To learn more, click here or to learn more about the Northwest Arkansas events, click here.
The best way I can describe it is like a traveling antique/flea market, but you walk through the booths like a craft fair.  There were all kinds of vintage items, some really pretty furniture, and unique handmade items.  There was also new stuff (I found some really cute shoes for only $12!) like clothes and jewelry.  I have an unyielding love for anything vintage so I was in heaven.  I went after some smaller items and here are some of my favorite finds. 

These dish towels are my favorite!

The lady at this booth was so nice!  These vintage dish towels are screen printed with some cute sayings.  The first one says 'Pass the biscuits, pass the tea, thank you Lord for blessing me.'

The middle one says 'southern as sweet tea.'

And the last one says 'nothing says lovin' like something from the oven.'

 The owner uses real vintage dish towels and I love this one that has a little piece of embroidery on the back.  It was really stained and I didn't think I wanted it until I saw that sweet little mailbox and flowers. How precious!  

 

I also found this vintage cross stitch that was framed.  I have another one in our bedroom that says 'Life is fragile, handle with prayer' and I think they will look great together!

There is something so special about vintage items like this I think.  Maybe it's because I was so close to my great-grandmother and I can just imagine her using these dish towels, or working on that cross stitch.  I just can't help but thinking about the women who used these items.  I think about the hard work they put in making three meals a day for their families.  I think about the little mouths they cleaned off, and the strawberry jam that was cleaned up.  I think about the tired hands that practiced embroidery and then sat back and admired their work.  I feel like it's living history in my home, and I'm proud to give it new life and a longer story to tell.
But, maybe that's just the romantic in me. :)

Kitchen Signs

About a year ago (has it really been that long!) I wrote a blog post about some projects I was completing in my kitchen.  Click here to view that blog post.
One of the projects I did was super cheap, super cute signs for above my kitchen cabinets.  Well, I thought of a couple more I wanted to make and in no time I had them finished and sitting above my cabinets.
All it takes is a $1 document frame from Deals (or any dollar store type place), spray paint, Microsoft Word, the internet, and a printer.
I knew the two sayings I wanted to use, I just had to search for the pictures to add to it.  Here are the finished projects. 

Feed Your Faith, Starve Your Fears

and

It's My Kitchen and I'll Fry If I Want To

This is such a fun, easy project.  The spray painting took the longest, the yellow frame took a few coats to cover the black frame.  I love how cute they turned out and how inexpensive!  Decorating doesn't have to be an expensive endeavor, just get creative and make your own projects to help keep the costs down.  

Maybe in another year I'll think of some new sayings to print out. :)

Ree's Recipes- Part 2

In my last post I shared some of Ree Drummond's (AKA The Pioneer Woman) recipes for sweets.  I've also tried several of her other recipes for side dishes.  I haven't tried anything that hasn't been good. I'm convinced all of her recipes are awesome.  She is definitely worth checking out.

For Christmas I made Soul Sweet Taters.  You will never want to touch another can of sweet potatoes/yams after eating these!  The pecans are optional, I left them off, but I think my husband would have preferred them.  Of course, lots of butter is included, which makes them even better!

Another awesome potato recipe are Ree's Smashed Potatoes.  My husband loves to make these.  We like to make mashed potatoes but they never were just quite right.  Something was always off, no matter how much butter, milk, or salt we put in.  Ree’s recipe calls for bacon and sour cream- of course they are going to taste better!  We’ve made this recipe several times and always add in something different.  She uses green onions (not a fan), so we add in what we have.  Cheese, bell peppers, whatever goes and it is always fantastic!

 

Speaking of my husband, I think his favorite recipe we have tried is the Skillet Cornbread.  I grew up on Jiffy cornbread mix and have always used it to make cornbread muffins.  We had some beans simmering in a Crock pot a couple weeks ago and no Jiffy mix!  Have no fear- I have a recipe for it!  This recipe was a total change for me because you make it in a cast iron skillet.  My husband loved it!  It was amazing, but I like sweet cornbread so next time I think I’ll add some sugar.  (Horrible I know- not at all healthy).   I will warn though, it does not taste the same the next day re-heated.  Keep that in mind. 

A recipe we tried that my husband liked, but I wasn't a fan of were granola bars.  I've never attempted anything like this before and probably won't again.  It is a long process, most of Ree's recipes are easy and quick, this one has numerous steps, and I just wasn't a fan.  I think it's partly because I'm not a huge fan of granola bars in the first place.  But I will say, this is excellent if you are allergic to a certain type of nuts or if you can't find the specific kind of granola bars you like because you can customize them any way you want with different grains, nuts, or berries.  Also, make sure you coat the bottom of your baking sheet VERY well- over half of mine stuck to the pan.  I tried to save as much as I could and my husband ended up eating the remains as cereal. 

I think the recipe of Ree's I have made the most and will forever make is her Perfect French Fries. I remember my mom making homemade fries when I was younger and they were great, but nothing like these, close though (sorry, mom!).  You can pretty much use any type of potatoes (we've tried several kinds and they always turn out great), but you do need to plan ahead.  After peeling and cutting the potatoes (I've just been using a knife but we are about to invest in a potato cutter since I've been making fries so much lately), you let the fries soak in water for at least an hour, but you can even do it overnight.  It helps remove starch so when you go to drain the water it will be really cloudy.  Then you fry them in oil once at a low temperature, then up the temperature and fry them again.  They are AMAZING.  Truly.  And what takes them over the top for my husband is fry sauce- mayonnaise and ketchup mixed together.  Oh goodness- amazing!  Can't say enough about them.  Delicious! 

Like I said before, I have a whole list of her recipes to try.  I think my next big goal is going to be making Easter lunch using recipes from her holiday cookbook.  

I know these last few posts are different than my 'regular' posts but hey, when you find something worth sharing, you should share.  This is after all, Miranda's Great Finds, I never said the great find couldn't be food related. :)

 

Kitchen Projects!

I am so excited about these two new projects that I am telling anyone and everyone about them. We are working on updating our kitchen/dining room (more to come on the other projects).  I haven't really done much to decorate our dining room because honestly, it is the least used room in our home.  I like to decorate my dining room table with fun tablecloths and decorations, but as for the walls or any other decorations, there isn't much in there.  Well, that is about to change.  I have said it before, and I'll say it again, I love vintage items and I have always wanted a vintage drink cart.  I love the look of them but since they are vintage that usually means they are expensive ($60-$250).  About a year ago I almost bought one for $40 (that was a lot cheaper than I had seen), it was a little wobbly, but I thought I could handle it.  I ended up passing on it and I'm glad I did because a couple weeks ago I found one for only $20 (half price!) and it is super sturdy!

It was this horrid blue color 

but we changed that quickly with some spray paint 

and now it is a lovely yellow!

I'm not sure what  I'm going to put on it, we don't drink so it's not going to look like the typical drink carts, but I think I can fancy it up.  Now, I just need to find a picture for one wall and add in a few more decorations.  It's a work in progress, but I have learned to take my time and get items in the colors I really love and to wait to get things I will love for a long time.

The next project I've been working on was so much fun that I didn't want it to end.  We are working on updating our kitchen cabinets, and I started thinking about the decorating possibilities for above our kitchen cabinets.  I measured first and we have about a foot of room between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling. The only issue I have it that we have about an inch difference between the top of the cabinets and where the molding is on the outside of the cabinets; so whatever we sit up there, it 'looses' about an inch of the bottom if it.  I think I can work around that though.  So, of course I went straight to Pinterest to get ideas, and of course I got almost overwhelmed.  There are so many cute ideas but after I found some cute kitchen printables, I narrowed down what I wanted.  I found a lot of framed pictures (with free prints you could download) and canvas prints with kitchen utensils and cute sayings, like a mixer that says 'whip it, whip it good.'  Well, I either didn't like the coloring or didn't want to buy the canvas for $75 (crazy!) so I thought, I can make my own!

All I did was open a word document and the internet.  I started off by searching for utensil silhouettes (fork, spoon, egg beater, spatula, etc) in black (there were a few I had to put in paint and make black).  Then I downloaded a few cute (free) fonts.  I inserted the utensil, centered it, then added my text, and printed.  I did about nine different documents in about 20 minutes.  I then found some document frames at Deal's for only $1.  My husband helped to spray paint those to our kitchen colors (yellow, red, teal, and green).  I inserted the printed documents into the frames and viola! instant cute decor!

On the right is the $75 canvas where I got my idea 

and on the left is my re-imagined creation. 

The printed documents. I kept it simple with just black text

 because I wanted to the frames to have the color 'pop.'  

This one is my favorite because my husband says this all the time.

The collection!

I have a couple ideas of how I'm going to position these above the cabinets.  The great thing about document frames is that you don't have to worry about resizing your printed document, but the bad thing is they don't have easels on the back so you have to get creative.  I loved this project and want to do some more, but I ran out of cute sayings.  Any ideas?

:)
Miranda

Kitchen Organization

My husband and I (like others, hopefully) have the same discussion almost nightly, "What do you want for dinner?" because we don't have anything planned.  We stand there, stomachs growling, with nothing thawed out, and as I always say, "nothing quick and easy" to fix.  We both are guilty of never planning ahead, although we have had good intentions in the past.  We have discussed, over and over, our grocery budget, meal planning, and eating what we have.  I always say we have a house full of food, but nothing to eat.  Anyone with me on this?  It seems like we always buy groceries but don't buy for meals.  So even when we finally do decide what we want, we are missing ingredients or have to try and thaw out super frozen chicken.

Hopefully, this is about to change..... 

Step 1: Take inventory of what we do have.  
Stage one of my plan was completed today and not going to lie, took a lot longer than I thought it would.  But I'm also very OCD about things and probably did more than I needed to.
(Tip: I recommend completing this step the day before trash pick up, not the day of.)
I started with a clipboard and washcloth (to clean as I went- smart huh?)

The freezer was first.  I went through item by item and wrote it down and how many of each we had.  We often buy chicken and ground turkey in bulk packages because it is cheaper and then divide it up and freeze it.  So, I had 3 bags of ground turkey, 4 of fish, etc.  I also organized as I went.  Now all the frozen vegetables are on one shelf, meat is in a pull-out drawer, etc.  I also condensed as I went, we had a huge tub of ice cream that was almost empty, so I emptied it into a small container- takes up a lot less room now (although to be truthful, I really considered just eating it to get it out of the way! :) )

Next, was the refrigerator.  I know everyone probably knows great ways to organize their fridge- do whatever works for you.  We have a pretty good system and we know what works for us.  I did pull those items that get pushed to the back up front so we will see them and eat them (like the canned beets from my grandma).  I didn't write down everything in the fridge because those things like ketchup and mayo are staples and will always be there.  But I did write down things like wing sauce and hot sauce.  I bought these for recipes, only used part of it, and now the rest just sits there and takes up room.

Then I moved on to our pantry cabinet/storage cabinet.  I moved some things around, so hopefully we will see it and be more likely to eat it. We have a storage cabinet in our laundry room with 'back-stocked' supplies.  Like all the ingredients for the deer chili my husband makes and takes to work once a month.  Most of that stuff didn't move because it isn't stuff we use daily or weekly even.

I even did our spice cabinet- we have doubles of a lot of spices.  It will also be handy when I have a recipe that calls for something specific, I can just look at our list instead of digging around. 

Something else I did as I went was add items to our grocery list that I knew we needed.  Like crackers to eat a jar of jalapeno jelly with.
Tip: if you have a smart phone I highly recommend the app 'Any List.'  My husband found it and it is amazing!!  You can create different lists, like a grocery list, and share it with however many people you want.  So, my husband and I share a grocery list- we both can see everything we add to it.  It is nice because if my husband runs to the store and I think of something else we need while he is gone I can add it to the list, and it instantly pops up so he can see it.  I really can't say enough about it- I could write an entire post about it! 

After I had everything written down- several hours later- I almost felt ashamed.  We are very fortunate and have a ton of food.  We have food to last us a long time- we shouldn't complain about having nothing to eat, because we have a lot.  I then typed my lists and separated everything into categories.  This is where my OCD really kicked in.  I have a list for freezer, refrigerator, cabinet, canned goods, soups, extras/back stock, pasta, etc.  The list are all alphabetized too.  NERD ALERT!  Am I right?  Oh, well.  I then posted the signs inside the cabinet door.  My plan is to mark items off as we eat them so 1) we can see what we really do eat, and 2) I will be able to meal plan (step 2).

Step 2: Meal plan around what we already have. 
This will not be happening today.  Organizing and taking inventory took way longer than I thought and wore me out.  Maybe tomorrow...or later tonight.  I really do love to organize- it relaxes me.

Step 3: Freezer Meals/ Weekly Meal Plan
Definitely not today...next week maybe :)