Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

I've found that there are two types of people. Those who make their bed and those who don't. Here are some thoughts and ideas I have on bed-making. 1. Most of us underestimate the amount of time it takes to make our beds. I've timed myself (I really do have a life) and I can make my queen size bed in less than 1 1/2 minutes. Most of us (maybe all of us) have 1 1/2 minutes to spare in the morning. 2. Clothing, books, glasses, etc. tend to get lost in unmade beds. I actually broke my glasses once because I sat on my bed and my glasses were hiding under my quilt. 3. All of those decorator pillows were are encouraged to adorn our beds with are a big deterrent to making our beds. They take more effort, in the long run, but I do love pillows. 4. If you don't like your bed linens you are more likely to not want to make your bed. Who wants to bother with something you don't like? 5. Once your bed is made, your room automatically looks neater and cleaner. You're also mor...

Summer is winding down but the heat index is still in the triple digits here in southeastern Virginia. I'm in the mood for something cool. Here's a recipe for Watermelon Granita that I found in Southern Living several years ago. 4 cups cubed watermelon, seeds removed 2 TBL. lemon juice 1/2 cup sugar (sometimes I use 1/4 cup honey) Blend ingredients in a blender or food processor Pour the mixture into a 8x8 inch pan. Cover and freeze 2 hours or until almost firm. Stir occasionally. Remove from freezer 5 minutes before serving; stir, if necessary. Serve immediately. ** If you accidentally leave it in the freezer too long, let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes. Then cut up the mixture into big chunks and pulse in the blender or food processor. Pour into dessert dishes. Enjoy your cool treat!

A while ago I wandered onto this adorable blog and found an idea to make decorated clothes pins. I love to make cute crafts that can be made quickly (instant gratification) but I also like to make crafts that are useful. So I put on my thinking cap and brainstormed about some ways to use these sweet little clothespins. Here are only a few of the ideas I thought of. I'll post about a few more next month. First, I clipped one of my recipes onto my kitchen cabinet at eye level. It kept my card from getting goop sloppped onto it since I am a messy cook. Next, I gave everyone a different clothespin and had them mark their drinking glass so we don't go through all of our glasses before dinner. You could also label the clothespins with your family members names. This one might not be necessary for everyone, but it is MANDATORY at my house. If I don't want ALL of my food to be eaten by my 18 y.o. son, I have to label that it is to be saved for dinner. This next idea is a typical u...

These are the sweet little starfish I have on the window sill of my downstairs powder room. If you look closely, you'll notice the broken or "nibbled" tip of one of the smaller ones. Nibbled? Yes, nibbled. My 2 year old grandson thought they were cookies and took a bite out of one. Needless to say, he didn't like the "cookies". I'll always keep this little nibbled starfish to remind me of my little hungry grandson. It always makes me smile.

You know what happens. Life happens. It happens in your kitchen. It involves crumbs. Every person in your family uses the silverware drawer and they aren't neat about it. Today is Monday and your motivation is to clean out your silverware drawer. Here's what to do: 1. Take all of the silverware out of the drawer. 2. Sort through it and remove any items that don't belong in that drawer. 3. Remove any dividers you have in the drawer. 4. The easiest way to remove the gunk that remains is to use the vacuum with the nozzle attachment. Suck up all of the crumbs, dust, and who knows what else. 5. Use your "sparkle cleaner" to wipe out the drawer. 6. Replace the dividers. If your divider is cracked or really beat up you might want to splurge and purchase a new one. 7. Replace the silverware, putting like items together. If you have a choice of where to put items, put them in the order you would use them when setting the table. (salad fork, dinner fork...

After I made the Roman shade for my powder room using a mini-blind, I had a TON of leftover slats that I didn't want to throw away. What to do?. . . what to do?. . . I know, I'll make plant labels with them. I simply cut the slats into sections 4-5 inches long. I cut one end at an angle and wrote the name of my plant with a Sharpie marker at the top. I love free stuff!

I finally finished making a window shade for my downstairs powder room. Are they called powder rooms anymore? Anyhoo, the project wasn't difficult. The hardest part for me was just GETTING STARTED! The whole project took me about 1 1/2 hours. The tricky part was perching on a kitchen chair that stood in my bathtub. The tub was too difficult to work around with a ladder or step stool, so I had to resort to the-chair-in-the-tub solution. I got the directions from Jenny at Little Green Notebook . Her directions were really easy to follow. She's very creative, so give her blog a peek. Since I can never leave well enough alone, I added some seashells to the cord pulls. I think they add that little something special. Tomorrow, I'll show you what I did with the leftover slates from the mini-blind I used to make this shade.