Domestic Savvy

It's been a long time since I last wrote, luckily I have very few readers to apologize to ;) So what's new... well the garden is looking great, I just discovered that butternut squash produce very beautiful large yellow flowers. The ducks are just about full size now and that is just in time for the start of my new hobby of furniture restoration. A friend introduced me the the most inspiring site for this; http://betterafter.blogspot.com/. This site showcases furniture, decorations, and rooms that have all been redone and brought back to life. Why do I love this so much? Because it's green, it's cost effective and it's domestically savy! *Photos to come of my "better after" items. My two cents about furniture restoration; Sprucing up something you already own, free furniture, cheap furniture from a yard sale is a great way to recycle and also keep you from buying an unsturdy piece of furniture from a large corporation store which will inevitably break. Thi...

So far, so good with the new garden. With this weather I have had to water them daily. The only issue I have seen so far is that something is eating my lettuce. Once my ducks are bigger they will act as my natural pesticide, but for now I need an alernative. So I found this recipe on www.paystolivegreen.com : Oil Mixture 1 cup cooking oil ( i.e. canola or vegetable ) 1 tablespoon liquid dishwashing soap Use 2 ½ teaspoons of this mixture in 1 cup of water I planted several items that I researched ahead of time, but ended up not worrying so much about the specifics. I read something online that was great advice, it said to plant a few items and see how it goes. Replant the items that grew well next time and switch out the things that didn't go so well with something else. Expect that something won't grow as well as the others and it really alleviates a lot of the stress out of gardening.

Meet the newest additions to my home, Tina and Lucy Loo. Tina, the black one is an Indian Runner and the yellow one is a Pekin duck. The arrived this morning at the post office from a trip from Metzer Farms in California. Because of the fantastic weather we were able to let them roam around outside, and they showed their true foraging skills by eating worms, mosquitoes, ants and pretty much anything else they could find. I am very excited for the time when they are big enough to wander the yard by themselves to free my garden from pests, and limit the amount of mosquitoes that terrorize me on a daily basis. In a few months they will begin to produce eggs, but in the meantime they are providing me with great entertainment! Setup for ducklings is very inexpensive and easy. We used a plastic kiddy pool, but really any container will work as long as the sides are tall enough, even a box would work, a shallow water dish, a shallow food dish, water fowl food or chick food, and a 60-75 watt w...

The other day, when I was cleaning out my shed, I was throwing tons of heavy metal bars on the yard thinking, “what is this” and most importantly “how am I going to get rid of this”?! These pieces were as tall as I was! A friend suggested putting it on craigslist for free as some people sell scrap metal. So then I thought, if others are making money off junk like this, can I do it too? It looks to me like it couldn't be easier to get rid of this stuff! Check out http://www.survivalinsight.com/scrap-metal-for-cash.html for information on what qualifies, how much it’s worth, and ways to find it. Then check out your local yellow pages for scrap metal buyers, if you live in Maine, I’ve already done it for you! http://www.superpages.com/yellowpages/C-Scrap+Metal+Buyers/S-ME/ So take that trash and turn into something useful, like cash!!!

Just because you are trying to save money doesn't mean you can't go out anymore. Check out your local newspaper for coupons to local restaurants, sometimes there are two for one deals or deals if you go mid week. Check your reward cards to see if there are bonus points for dining at specific places. The Best Buy reward credit card now has a dining function where you get up to double the points at certain restaurants. Sign up at http://www.restaurant.com/ because at least once a week they have a deal for anywhere from 30%-80% off their gift certificates. Be sure to read the rules on them though, many have stipulations, like you must spend a certain amount before using it or some you can't use on certain days. The last one I used I ended up getting 80% off and spending only $2 on a $25 gift card. We used it at a fancier restaurant we normally wouldn't have gone because the prices are high and ended up spending as much as we ...

They say, “The best things in life are free”, I don’t know about that, but scoring some free stuff I would normally pay for really floats my boat! So check out http://shopathome.com/ and click on Free Samples . Over the course of a couple hours I scored an abundance of free hair products, such as; shampoo, conditioner, hair repair, and even coupons to pick up some free product from a local salon, also baby products like formula, diapers and baby shampoo and lotion (this I will be passing along), lubricants, lotions, lip gloss, handmade soaps and candles, dog food, dog treats, snacks and energy/nutrition bars. My tip : Any that don’t get straight to the point of asking for your email and mailing address, just avoid or you may end up signing up for a bunch of junk you don’t want. Enjoy your freebies, I know I will!