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We recently posted about purchasing half a cow and how nice it was to know where your beef had come from, the convenience of having a large stock of various cuts and the money you can save from buying in bulk. Another great project you can do to reap all of these benefits is growing a kitchen garden. This is something we do each year and I honestly wouldn’t know what to do without it.

Basically a kitchen garden is a garden specifically for eating, flavoring food and some medicinal plants. You can think of it like your grocery store and plant the amounts of different plants you will need to eat fresh and also can for the winter. There will be some food you will use more than others and some you are able to can and others you can’t.

You will first want to think what vegetables and herbs you like to eat and use the most. For our garden this year we will be growing tomatoes, jalapeños, bell peppers, poblano peppers, banana peppers, lettuce, potatoes, onions, corn, pumpkins, watermelons, raspberries and a variety of herbs. We enjoy canning pasta sauce and salsa so we grow a lot of tomatoes, peppers and onions. We also use different herbs in most of our dinner recipes.

Depending on what you choose to plant you will typically start planting in mid March and finish up sometime in May. You will need to put in a little hard work in the beginning to reap the benefits the rest of the year but it will be well worth it.

As soon as our veggies and herbs are ready to harvest we will post some yummy recipes for you to try out! Join us next week when we talk flowers to grow for your home!

–Cristie

It’s spring and we’re getting ready for the first Big Red Barn Sale of the year! Keep looking in the next month or so for details.

Although my sale is a little larger than most garage sales, these organization concepts apply to the largest and smallest sales. Organization is key to a successful sale. I pick up different crates, racks, boxes, and cartons that will hold like type items.

I found the blue pop crates at a big liquidation sale and keep them for every sale. We sell a lot of bottles and pop bottles, and I just refill them from sale to sale. An old bread rack is holding the cast iron. We will sometimes buy items from restaurant supply dealers, and the drinking glass racks are a hot commodity!

The red crates are Coke crates I picked up at a flea market in Alabama. I bought most of what he had and it took up half of my car. They are great for sorting utensils or other items. They’re also nice to use in your car, since they’re very sturdy and they don’t slide around much.

You can buy a lot of different crates at other sales. I save them and use them at sales to group similar items. It might prompt someone to buy more if they see everything together.

We bought the plastic shelving at another sale and it has been great for our sales. It provides a good site line through the shelf from one side to another. Again, we sort out cast iron, wooden decor, candles and holders, baskets, etc. I don’t sort everything to give a little bit of interest. But, the more organized your items are, the more people will buy.

The fruit crates are really handy and add a lot of color and interest. They’re a little harder to find, but again, when you see something you might use down the road, pick it up! I also use cardboard boxes and flats to sort glasses and dishes. I have found, when selling dishes and glass sets, people are more like to buy if they can just pick them up and go.

Hope you have a successful sale! And, hope to see you at the Big Red Barn sale this spring. Follow us on our Facebook page for sale notifications!

Jackie

Hello all! I hope your year has started off well. Once the New Year started I wanted to freshen things up a bit. I decided to start with our bedroom. I did a good deep cleaning, purchased a new comforter and organized the book shelves. I felt it needed something else, a finishing touch. I then decided to tackle the fireplace mantle.

When you decide to make a statement focal point in a room you should start with a blank canvas. This blank canvas was milled from a tree we had to cut down to build our home. We have a second mantle made just the same for the other side. I love that this mantle has a story.

You will then start brainstorming and collecting ideas for your space. I knew I wanted to put several pictures on the mantle so I began to piece together picture frames. You can find frames at garage sale, hobby stores and estate sales. You can also repaint or stain old frames to fit your new decorating scheme.

Once you have all of your frames you can start by putting the bigger frames up first. Then you will want to place your medium and smaller frames in places to break up the skyline. Once you have the frames all settled you can insert a few decorative items. The large canister is a vintage ammunition shell that I purchased at a craft show. I feel like it helps add some height to the mantle.

I’ve always wanted to have a gallery of pictures I just never took the leap to get started. I’m so glad that I did because I think it turned out great and really makes our room feel cozy and finished. I hope you enjoyed this post and that it provided some inspiration for your next project!

-Cristie

Greetings all! I hope you all had a nice Christmas and are planning a very happy New Year. As the year comes to an end it is time to start planning for next year. Each year I like to pick a word that will help to guide and inspire me to live my best life and grow as a person.

Last year my word was give. I tied this word into all aspects of my life the best that I could and I found it to be really helpful to keep me on track with my goals. This year I have decided to use the word balance. With me being a new mom I feel like balance will become very important in my day to day life.

I like to start by putting the word in my planner. At the beginning of each month there is space for me to write a quote relating to my word. Some people like to put up sticky notes with their word around the house or in their car. I think it’s important to place your word where you will see it everyday.

Next I like to create a few goals relating to my word. This year I know it will be important to balance my work life and my home life. I will be making a goal of using my planner religiously to make sure I have enough time to do all of the things I want to do with my new little one! Another goal is to be balancing my personal time. We have four parents and three grandparents for our son to spend time with so I will need to balance the time spent with them. I also need a little time to myself to practice self care.

One I have made my goals I start writing out how I am going to accomplish them and how I can measure my progress. I also create a timeline for each goal. For example, I want to make a goal to start exercising again now that I am postpartum. I will make it a goal for the first quarter of the year to exercise one day a week. In the second quarter two days, third quarter three days and fourth quarter four days. I will make similar timelines for each of my other goals.

As you can see I can use a lot of balance in my life this year. I hope you each can find a word to propel you into 2022 and to reach each of your goals this year!

Happy New Year,

Cristie