Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

I thought you might like to see a few fall touches I've added to my exterior living areas. We enjoy the porches almost everyday from April to November. This is my front porch. I added some dried grasses to a painted metal pot. It was a silvery tin color until I spray painted it bronze. The bouquet of wheat is actually a plastic kind of material but it feels real. My sister-in-law gave it too me as a gift a few years ago. The "come sit on my porch" sign was a gift from my oldest daughter because she , well, likes to sit on my porch. You must have a fall wreath. This one is actually two wreaths stacked together and connected with a few pieces of floral wire. The bottom one is a berry wreath and the top one is a pre-made leaf wreath. I got them both from Michaels. The gourd came from Michaels too. The lantern was a gift from a student last year. This is the arrangement on my back porch. (I am blessed with two screened porches) I simply placed a small grapevi...

When the weather starts to cool down a bit, I am eager to get into the kitchen and do some baking. This recipe is always my "go-to" cookie recipe for enjoying that fall flavor. Now, I must tell you that these are not healthy in any way. But, they are soooooo good. Just the right amount of chewy goodness. Here's the recipe: 3/4 cup shortening 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup molasses 1 egg 2 cups flour 2 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. salt 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. ground cloves 1 tsp. ground ginger Cream shortening and sugar. Add molasses and egg. Beat well and add dry ingredients. Roll into balls or use a small cookie scoop. Dip into extra sugar. Bake in a 375 degree, pre-heated oven for 7-8 minutes. You can make really large cookies too, just bake them for 12-15 minutes. Enjoy a taste of Autumn. Packaged in a ziploc bag with a little tag, these make a great bake sale contribution. They always sell out whenever I make them for school or church fundraisers.

Last week we looked at cleaning your jewelry . This week we will look at organizing your earrings. You can purchase special earring storage boxes , but I have found a less expensive option. I purchased a storage container for storing scrapbook charms. I got mine at Jo-Anne Fabrics on sale for $1.00. I am able to store quite a few sets of earrings in this box. I first had to go through the messy pile of earrings I had accumulated. Here's what I did: 1. Sort earrings to find matching pairs. 2. Gather like kinds of earring sets together (gold together, silver together, black together, etc.) 3. Decide which earrings you can get rid of. Remember, the more earrings you have, the harder it is to keep track of them. I have a separate box for earrings I no longer wear. Occasionally, I go through them and find a pair that I'm in love with again. 4. Sort earrings into individual spots in the container. If you have more earrings than you have space, you can double up similar types. 5. Ori...

I love to garden but it is difficult to keep track of all of the plant tags that come with my new plants. The tags contain valuable information that I like to refer to. I found a solution for the many plant tags I have accumulated. Because I am a Filer and not a Piler , I looked for a binder to keep them all in. I was able to find everything I needed to make this binder at Office Max. I used a small 3-ring binder with pockets, a set of divider tabs, and a pack of baseball card protector sheets. I labeled the divider tabs with the names of the main gardens I have around my house. Then I simply tucked the tags into the card pockets. I can add new tags and remove tags from plants I no longer have (sad stuff). Extra large tags from bulbs can be tucked into the front pocket of the cover.

I have been resisting the urge to put up my fall decorations because the temperature outside has been in the 90s. Well, this past weekend, the mercury finally dropped to 80 so out came the pumpkins and the leaves. I really like the change of scenery. Here's a few of the changes I've made. I found this metal vase at the thrift store for $2.98. I found the pumpkins at the dollar store last year. This is an arrangement I made for the hearth. I found this cobalt pitcher at the thrift store for $5.00 and used two of the "bush" type of flowers/greenery from Michaels. Here's my mantle which is very difficult to decorate. It is hung very high and I can't put anything that is too tall up there. I found the three matted and framed wildlife pictures at the Salvation Army Store for $.99 each. They are hand painted and custom framed. (talk about a real find) I added a double garland (from Michaels) and a few more dollar store pumpkins. That's it for decora...

I came across this idea purely by accident. I had a plethora of pre -cut felt circles left over from a Vacation Bible School craft. I didn't want to waste them so I was looking for a way to use them. I had traced the pattern from a dinner plate and that's where I got the idea. I decided to use the felt as plate dividers to keep these antique plates from getting damaged. I simply alternated the felt with the plates and stored them in a drawer in my sideboard. To make a nice gift for a friend, I cut circles out of a chocolate brown felt and used a blanket stitch in cream thread to edge them. She loved them and still uses them. The circles will also work for bowls. Larger circles can line non-stick pans to keep them from getting scratched.

This is a little chore that many people don't think about doing. It never occurred to me to do this until I went to one of those in-home jewelry parties. The consultant explained the importance of cleaning your jewelry regularly to keep it well maintained. Hmmm . . . makes sense. I won a party favor that night that helps me keep my jewelry clean. It is a cloth very much like this one . I keep it in my jewelry box and use it to wipe my jewelry off before I store it. If you don't want to purchase a treated cloth, you can use several homemade cleaners. Here are a few: 1. For pearls, simply wipe after each wearing with a soft cloth. Don't ever soak your stands of pearls as it will damage them. 2. For silver, dip a cloth in baking soda and rub the silver. Buff with a clean cloth. 3. For gold, soak the item in a water and ammonia mixture (1:1 ratio) for 1/2 hour. Rinse with warm water and dry with a soft cloth. You can also soak items in a bowl of water with a f...