Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

I've gotten a late start on getting some of my veggies into the garden.  I've already planted potatoes, lettuce, sugar snap peas, and pepper plants.  All that's left is green beans, cucumbers, squash, and cantaloupe.  I wanted to grow the green beans and cucumbers vertically, so that meant that Hubs and I needed to decide on how to do it - and do it on a budget.  Here's what we came up with: First, we bought welded wire (we bought vinyl coated so it will last longer). It was $48.00 for the whole roll and we have some left over for another project.   Then we bought 12 ten foot lengths of electrical conduit tubing ($2.00 a piece). Hubs, pounded them into the ground with a fence post pounder .  That was the most practical thing to use because he had to do it while standing on a ladder.  We set the ladder on pieces of 1x4 for stability and also to keep the garden soil from getting compacted.  Each pol...

I love to walk around my yard in the early summer and visit all of the blooming plants.  One of my favorites is the Clematis vine.  This particular variety blooms every few weeks all summer long.  I don't know what variety it is because I got it from the clearance bin at Walmart.  It was a sad little thing, but with a bit of TLC, it has recovered beautifully. Another one of my favorites is this peony.  Again, I don't know the variety because it was rescued from the clearance pile at Lowe's.  The blooms don't last very long if a good rain storm comes along, but they  are stunning while they last.  I can't help but be reminded that it's not how you start out, but how you finish.  Like these flowers, I want to finish well.  How about you? 

What accessory does every fashionable grandmother carry on Mother's Day?   Take a look for yourself! I had asked that Hubs and Son show me how to shoot our shotgun so I could get rid of chicken-eating critters when they weren't at home.  It was my mother's day gift! I got lots of guidance from two very helpful men.  This was my target - I was aiming for the large coffee can in the middle. I finally got it on the 5th try. I did a little bit of damage. The chickens didn't seem to mind the noise one bit.   Next year, for Mother's Day, I want my own gun. 

I'm not usually a fan of piles.  I prefer to file things away until I need them. But some piles can be an inspiration. . . This pile of skirts and dresses, gleaned from thrift stores and yard sales, is clean and ready to be made into purses, totebags, and aprons.  I'm just waiting for an opportunity to get into my studio and spend the day at my sewing machine.  If you're new to Tidy Brown Wren and wondering what the white dish is all about, then read about my pin cushion holder here.

Saturday was a beautiful day for the annual National Kidney Foundation "Kidney Walk".  I was proud to show off my new kidney by walking in the 5K walk with my donor Cathy! Last year, Cathy did the walk by herself.  In fact, she participated in the walk the day before she donated one of her kidneys to me.  We dragged our hubbies along and had a great time.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't marvel at how selfless Cathy was with her gift, how God has healed my body, and how blessed I truely am. A big Thank you goes out to all of you who sponsored me. Our area raised over $45,000 so far for research and education. Whoot! The National Kidney Foundation still has their walk site set up and will accept donations for this walk until the end of June.

I was surprised by this photo in my camera.  I hadn't taken it.  Hubs confessed to using my camera and sneaking out to capture this beauty.  Our neighbor's horse, Spice, is in the background - another beauty.   Enjoy a beautiful day.

I hope you are able to take advantage of the Monday Motivation schedule to clean through your whole house this year.  It's May so that means it's time to clean out the closets.  Here are the posts from May of 2011 to help you with that task.  Monday Motivation: Working On The Closets Whenever I do a consultation with a new client, I find that nine times out of ten they have messy closets. The rest of their home might be tidy, but their closets are a mess. Why? Because closets are behind doors. I guess you could say "out of sight - out of mind". Where do we start? I recommend starting on your neatest closet. Yes, start on the least messy closet because it will be the easiest and quickest and will give you instant gratification and prompt you to keep going. Here we go: 1. Prepare a clean area near your closet to place items you'll taking out of the closet. This will be your staging area. 2. Gather together these su...

I love turning discarded trash into useful items.  Take, for example, this decorative wheelbarrow.  The metal base was given to me by an older lady when I helped her clean up her backyard (it was hidden behind an old shed).  The wooden part is from a broken rocking chair.  This is what the wheelbarrow looked like just a few days ago.  It had some worn out exterior grade plywood nailed onto the frame.  U.G.L.Y. After I took off all of the old wood (except the handles), this is what  had left. I figured I would just grab some wood from the barn and cut it down to size to replace the old plywood.  But then. . . my son (whom I've trained very well) came home with this. Can you tell it came from someone's roadside resource pile? It even came with teeth marks and some kind of weird, shiny spots.  After I was done using my (I mean Hub's) tools, it looked like this: I salvaged the seat, back, and arms....