Twice Owned Tuesday Party #1

I am having my first PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Many of you know that I love parties,  I love linking up or just checking out the links.

So….

I decided to have my own and your invited!

WHAT:

Twice Owned Tuesday Party!

WHERE:

Here on HOUSE OF GRACE

WHO:

Anyone who has anything that is twice owned.

I LOVE second hand pieces, whether:

garage/yard sale treasure,

hand me down treat,

dumpster delight

or

Goodwill goody!

WHY:

Because everyone loves to see a great find  and garage sale season is officially HERE!!! Yippy! 

WHEN:

Every Tuesday!

HOW:

  Just link your actual post, not your blog url.

I thought that I would get this party started by showing one of my favorite garage sale finds.

I found this awesome 8 chair, 2 leaf Pottery Barn table. (I only use the extra leaves and chairs when having guests.)

And it was only………$200!!!!!!  Yeah baby!!!!!!!  What a deal, considering a single Pottery Barn chair is about $250.00.

When I found this beauty,  she was a light wood color.  I couldn’t find a good picture of it.  Here is a picture with the table in the background so you get an idea of how it looked.

 

Then, my sweet hubby painted it black for me.   I love it!!!!

 

Here it is at Christmas time.

  

And in the fall.

And at a birthday party.

Here it is with the leaves and chairs.

And at a card party.

I love this table and am so glad that I found it!!!

Now it is your turn, please show me your “Twice Owned” treats!!!!

I can’t wait to read your posts.  I get giddy when I see great deals so please link up!

I will feature my favorites next week, so come back and check them out!

Bonnie:)

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Harvest Grain Blend Shrimp Salad and Mystery Soup

 

Here are a couple more recipes that I made this week.

The first one is one of my favorite and easiest salads.  I brought this to a party this weekend.  I got this recipe from my favorite store, Trader Joes.

Harvest Grain Blend Shrimp Salad

Here are the ingredients.

1 package of the Harvest Grains Blend  mix

1 bag of frozen Fire Roasted Bell Peppers and Onions

1 bottle of Balsamic Vinaigrette

1 package medium cooked Shrimp with tails off (can be omitted or substituted with chicken or pork)

green onions (to taste, I like a lot)

First I make the grains according to package, then I throw the rest in and mix.  That’s IT!!!!

It can be served warm or cold.

Mystery Soup

This next recipe is kind of a made weird made made-up one is really tasty!

When I was shopping at a local Mexican grocery store by my mom’s house, I found this package.  I was not sure what to do with it…..I was thinking soup.

I took the package apart and this is what I found.

Cauliflower

Cabbage

Green Beans

Carrots

Corn

Zucchini

Limes

Celery

Cilantro

Potatoes

A mystery item (not sure what it is)

I just put it all the my food processor and added garlic, salt pepper and homemade chicken broth and cooked it until done.

Yummmmmy!!!!  It turned out great!!!  I would of never of thought to mix those items together and it was great!

I will defiantly be making this again. (Especially because I bought two packages of this, lol.)

Both of these meals were so easy, tasty and healthy!!!!

Have you ever tried anything like this before?

Have a great week and don’t forget to enter my EARTH DAY GIVEAWAY!!!! It ends tomorrow at noon!

Please visit my online Shaklee site.

Linking to these PARTIES!

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The Untouchable Basket

There are very few things the children can't touch in our home. One of the reasons I was drawn to the vintage/farmhouse/cottage style in the first place is because it is so relaxed and family friendly.


There is one piece in our home however, that is totally off limits to everyone but myself. You see that basket under the table below? That would be it.



It's protected at least a little by the table it sits under. I love how it fits snugly. Just right.



The minute I saw it I fell in love with the way the wicker is woven so uniquely. I loved the canvas liner and turned to its side, the charmer even shows off sweet little bows.


I also loved the brushed-on subtle blue stain. It's as if the person creating it knew it was perfect for my home, for this table, for our family room. But they must have missed the part about us having six children.

You see it remains off limits not because it's worth a lot in value. I picked it up for $12 at TJ Maxx. It's untouchable because it could fall apart with the slightest push or tug. It's poorly made is what it is.

I almost didn't buy it because I knew it wouldn't last a week in our house before falling apart into a thousand teensy weensy wicker pieces that would likely get strewn all over the living room.


But I bought it and decided to threaten everyone instead. If anyone touches my precious basket, they owe me $20. $12 to cover the cost and $8 for pain and suffering. It's true... you can ask my children. No one has touched it, and it's been over a year.

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Feature Friday

I want to feature a sweet girl named Jennifer from Our Cottage (in the Desert) this week! 

She is happily married to her wonderful husband of five years and together they are turning on thier1990's home into a cozy, comfy, and stylish cottage.  She loves being frugal while still creating a warm and inviting place to come to. Besides decorating, she loves organizing, cleaning, crafting, working out/fitness, the outdoors, traveling and spending time with her family and friends.  She is such a sweetheart!

I am featuring her today because she bought some Get Clean products from me and wrote about them on her blog!!!  That was really nice of her and this is what she wrote.

Well, we have actually been "GREEN" for quite some time now. Ever since the day we got maried we have recycled pretty religiously and have encouraged others to recycle too! I even bring items home from work and other people's houses to recycle if they do not do it. It is fun and very rewarding! We also use follow a lot of other green and healthy living practices too, such as using CLF light bulbs throughout our entire house (they even make special ones for recessed lighting), had an energy audit done on our home this past Fall, keep our thermostat at 68 degrees in the Winter and 78 degrees in the Summer, put a blanket on our water heater, purchased energy efficient appliances and electronics for our home, use low flow water heads on our faucets, water our lawn in the Spring and Summer every other day or every two days to decrease the amount of water waste and encourage deeper root growth and an overall healthier lawn, and now last but NOT LEAST I am now the PROUD owner of organic cleaning products from Shaklee! My life and home have changed since purchasing these products and as crazy as that sounds, it is true!

I came across the Shaklee products when visiting Bonnie's blog Creating a

House of Grace. She is absolutely brilliant on her cleaning and organizing methods! I feel in love with her blog instantly and got hooked on the Shaklee products after seeing her tutorials and examples of how well they worked for her and her family in their home. I started by purchasing the BasicH2

which is the perfect substitute for your all-purpose cleaners, pledge, window cleaners, degreasers, etc.
and the BasicG (couldn't find a picture of this product) but it works! The Basic G provides disinfecting power like lysol or bleach cleaning products would but without the harmful toxins and chemicals. Basic G can be used on countertops, floors, toilets, sinks, showers and much more.

I also purchased the microfiber cleaning cloths and am getting ready to order some Scour Off and scrubbing pads to use on my stove and sinks. Head on over to

Bonnie's blog to check out her success with Shaklee's Get Clean products and enter her giveaway to win:

"TO ENTER to win $30 GET CLEAN CERTIFICATE to my Shaklee Site, a FREE LIFETIME MEBERSHIP to receive 15% on all products (a $19.95 value and no minimums to maintain membership) and FREE SHIPPING"

If you know me, you know I love to clean and organize and I am very knowledgable in cleaning products and I can truly say that Shaklee's Get Clean products are the BEST products I have EVER used!! No more chalky residue from bleach cleaning agents or sticky feeling from products that leave a little bit of their goo behind. Get Clean products are natural, organic, and concentrated, meaning they clean, get the job done, and leave no trace of harmful chemicals, toxins, or yucky residues behind. Get on the path to creating a healthy home for YOU, YOUR FAMILY, AND OUR PLANET!!

Please go check out her blog to read more about her decorating and life.

Have a great weekend!

Bonnie :)

Please let me know if you ordered products from me and wrote about them.  I will feature you too!

Please check out my online Shaklee site.

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My Favorite Designer

Carrie Raphael has probably been the most influential to me in my own design aesthetic. Her work has appeared time and time again in my favorite magazines, and her images are the ones I go back to for fresh inspiration.

To see more of her work, you can click here to go to her website.

Happy Friday and enjoy swooning...











All images courtesy of countryliving.com

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I’m in Love

Yes I am in love with my wife and have been for a long time.  Well before we were married and well before we even started dating but that’s a whole different story for a different blog.  What I am in love with is a tool.  An “antique” tool at that.  A few weeks ago I bought a couple of Hand Planes because I wanted to learn how to use them.  I am in this whole I want to learn to use hand tools kick.  I am teaching my self to hand cut dovetails.  That is tough.  It’s going to be a while and I know I am going to have to upgrade saws.  I bought a cheap one and there is a reason that it is cheap, but enough about that.  This is what I have fallen in love with

 

 

 

 

 

I have not had much of a chance to really research this particular hand plane.  It has a Stanley blade but I am not sure if that makes it a Stanley or not.  I will be scouring the internets for more information on this tool.  I actually bought this one and a smaller one.  I need to figure out what they are.  I will say that I read enough to figure out how to set the blade and went at the top of my jelly cupboard.  There was a little bit of a lip on the seam of the two boards and I was going to run it through the power planer but this hand plane was just calling out to me Use me Grover, use me.  Who am I to deny the will of the tool.  It knows best.  Well, after some playing and really hoping I didn’t screw my top up I had the seam on both sides leveled and the top looking awesome. 

It was amazing and a very beautiful thing to see those ribbons of wood just coming off the top.  It was almost magically and man did I work up a sweat.  I had like a whole Roy Underhill moment only he uses even older tools. 

I honestly never thought that I would be so infatuated with a hand tool but it was amazing.  I wanted to keep going and keep working the top but I didn’t want to take it down to far. 

I know I have a long way before I become proficient with the tool and have to figure out the sharpening of the blade and what exactly all of it does and the in’s and outs of using hand planes.  It’s exciting and best of all I only spent $25 on the pair of them.  I will get some shots of the smaller plane. 

Let me know about your experiences with hand tools, I’ve been a power tool guy and this is a new journey in woodworking for me.  Hopefully we can learn something together. 

Have a Great Day!

Technorati Tags: Hand tools,Hand Plane,Jelly Cupboard

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10 Simple Steps for a Greener and Healthier Home and what we did with the Kids to Celebrate Earth Day!

1. Start by replacing a bunch of your cleaners (your general spray cleaner, glass cleaner, counter top cleaner, floor and bathroom cleaners) with a natural, nontoxic all-purpose cleaner. You will only need one to do that. Really!


2. Replace your laundry detergent with a natural nontoxic one so the clothes you wear and the sheets you sleep on have no fumes for you to breathe.


3. Go to your bathroom and read the shampoo, makeup and moisturizer labels. Ask yourself, “Do I really need scent in these products?” Take stock of all of your other products and try to replace one a week with a safer, greener choice.


4. Use BPA-free plastic baby bottles and fill them with breast milk or organic formula. Choose powdered formula over canned formula to avoid BPA leaching from the can-lining.

5. Pay attention (without freaking out) to the toys you buy for your kids. Avoid lead paint and soft plastics that contain phthalates.

6. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store and avoid processed food. Even better, choose organic and locally grown meats, dairy, fruits, and vegetables.

7. Try to get the plastic containers out of your kitchen and replace them with glass containers.

8. Make a vow to stop buying bottled water—NOW. Instead, buy a water filter pitcher and keep two in your fridge at all times.


9. For cleaner and healthier air, open your windows once a day when the outside temperature is comfortable.

10. When buying new stuff for your home, focus on green products especially mattresses and carpets.

Information is from greengoeswitheverything.com written by Sloan Barnett, author of 

The kids and I celebrated EARTH DAY by….

• Planting heirloom seed herbs, tomato plants and flower seeds

• Helping daddy plant trees and bushes

 

• Celebrating the animals on Earth by visiting the zoo

• Celebrated the Earth and enjoyed our beautiful planet by  taking a nature walk and visiting a local science center

    


HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!

What did you do to celebrate this year?

Bonnie :)

Don’t forget….

For EARTH DAY, I am giving away a $30  GET CLEAN CERTIFICATE to my Shaklee Site, a FREE LIFETIME MEBERSHIP to receive 15% on all products (a $19.95 value and no minimums to maintain membership)  and FREE SHIPPING.

The giveaway ends on Tuesday, so go check it out!

Also, starting next Tuesday,  I will be hosting a Twice Owned Tuesday Party every week so I can see all of your second hand goodies!  I hope to see you all there.

Please visit my online Shaklee site to go GREEN!

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