Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

I've written about this before here and here , but this is an important thing to do. Get rid of extra stuff! Here's a quick list of my favorite items to get rid of when I help people organize or stage their homes. 1.  Dead plants (or silk plants that look dead) 2.  Old candles that are faded, crooked, or melted. 3.  Old magazines and newspapers - please recycle. 4.  Clothes that no longer fit - please donate 5.  Items that belong to friends or relatives - return them to their rightful owners - you're not a storage facility. 6.  Craft projects that you know you'll never finish - you're a different person than you used to be - donate supplies to a local group who can use them. 7.  CD/DVDs you're no longer using - the local VA center could probably use them. 8.  Baby toys and supplies your children have outgrown.  This one is hard for me because I love baby stuff (but my kids are 19, 25, and 29).  Save a few select...

I'm a little late getting this post out today.  I have a good reason. I left my homework at school.  I wanted to share one of my favorite books in honor of Mother's Day. Blueberries For Sal was written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey.  You might remember that he is the author of another famous book Make Way For Ducklings. He has written and/or illustrated several other books as well. I love to read this book to preschoolers.  It has enough suspense in it to keep the children's attention.  As I read it today, one little girl kept saying "and then what happened?".  She was sitting on the edge of her chair!  It was so cute.  I love this picture of Sal and her mother in the kitchen canning blueberries. I love this old fashioned kitchen. I love that Mother takes little Sal with her to gather blueberries, explaining that they need to preserve them for winter time eating. I love how children will follow any woman's legs around if they ...

One of the things I love about blogging is making so many new friends.  Friends from all over the world.  One of my most faithful readers is a sweet lady named Lottie.  Now, one thing I've learned from Lottie is that it's important to make the most of your time.  She's always doing interesting things and going to interesting places.  When it comes to Spring cleaning/organizing  she's got me beat.  She was so industrious that she was even working in the middle of the night.  I kid you not - in the MIDDLE of the night, so that her hubs wouldn't see all of the excess stuff she was getting rid of.  I tell you, I love this woman.  I want to share an email she sent me (with her permission, of course) to show you how motivated she was to Spring clean.  The first part of the email tells a little bit about her as she responds to my request to have her email address.  She was leaving me all kinds of sweet comments and I wanted to e...

I want to introduce you to the sweetest horse in the whole world.  Her name is Spice. She lives next door to us. She loves apples and carrots. She loves my husband because he feeds her apples and carrots. She waits for him to come home from work. We love Spice.

I must tell you - I'm fickle.  Fickle as a pickle.  Are pickles fickle? Anywho, I'm always changing my mind and changing things up. Here's the evidence: Because I love a deep cherry red, I made red diamond patterned back pillows and red check (Waverly) for throw pillows for our window seat.  I was happy with that look for 4 years.  But then, I got tired of the red and decided to make new pillow covers. I found a different diamond (not sure why I picked a diamond pattern again) fabric and made covers.  I used some green pillows from my son's room for the throw pillows.  Also, notice the wall color is a yellow glaze. Well, being the fickle pickle that I am, I found a beautiful fabric (I should just stay out of the fabric store) and decided to change things up (again). The fabric is bronze with aqua, rusty red, and a dark tan.  Did I say it was beautiful?  It's beautiful.  I covered the throw pillows in an ...

Last week I hosted our church's preschool for a field trip to Ms. Kelly's house. We learned about gardening, plants, chickens and goats. The tire swing was very popular. Everyone enjoyed a picnic in the front yard.  You can see the chicken coop to the left and part of the goat pen to the right. After everyone left, I noticed some evidence of little hands.  I have 3 sets of patio doors all along the back of my house on my deck.  Every window was covered with these. . . No problem.  I've learned a little trick to clean them quickly. First you need these items: 1.  bucket with a few inches of water 2.  Dawn dish detergent 3.  squeegee 4.  window mop 5.  cotton rag First, wet the mop.  Then squirt a small amount of Dawn along the mop.  Squish it with your hand to make the mop sudsy. Run the sudsy mop all over the window. Then taking you squeegee, start at the top of the window.  Squeegee the suds off from left to righ...

I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive to share yesterday's post .  "What will my readers think?" Well, so many of you emailed me and said the sweetest things.  Thank you. When it's all said and done, though, what God thinks is most important to me.  And yesterday He told me that I am. . .                      Yes, I am.  I'm in good hands.