theres no place like home

photo's by sarah scruggs

There isn't anything more beautiful to me then the comfortableness of our family farm.

easy peasy stew beef

Please ignore the ugly picture! but no really, i've been doing this alot since it's winter, but Charley used to make this in his dorm room for us in college. You take some beef (the cheap stuff, a rump or tips) and add a packet of ranch dressing seasoning, a packet of italian dressing seasoning, your veggies (usally carrots and onions and those evil nasty things called potatoes). then add two cans of French onion soup and leave it in the crockpot for about 6 hours on low. 

winter cleaning

The kitchen has been an eyesore for a while now and it was time for some "winter cleaning". We've griped and grumbled about not finding things for long enough. I was going to stay up and wait for the siding repairman to come at 8:00am (since we usually go to bed at five am, this was more practical for us). My husband was sweet enough to do the dishes when I came home, so from there I scrubbed the cabinet doors, the sink, stove, dishwasher and microwave. For the pantry, I was tired of our random jars looking like this:

so the old spices were put in these great little jars from world market and the names written on with a white paint marker ( you don't even have to worry about whether you mess up because the paint marker scrapes off):

Next I took the doors off of two of the cabinets and stuck them in the garage for now. I put the screws in a labeled bag in the screw/bolt organizer in the garage. We will put the doors back on when we are through renting, but for now, it helps to open up the space a little. I would have done all three sets of doors on the right side of the kitchen, but for some reason one of the screws is Permanently adhered to the wall. Neither me or my big strong hubby could unscrew it. Then i rearanged the cupboard innards. I took out the mixmatched cups and some of the lesser used items and stored them in our new china cabinet (thanks mom!).

I took our tea and put them in old bell jars and containers that I had from college and then hung the espresso cups from command hooks for more space.
Normal people wouldn't have this next predicament, but since I live with a chef, our kitchen is full of strange instruments and gadgets and things I don't know how to use. Normally they just lay crammed into a cupboard dubbed the "junk cupboard" and the cook gets cranky when he can't find what he needs. The solution was to divide his tools into different categories: strange appliances, pastry tools, pasta tools, and cake decorating tools. I used an old wine box that we'd bought some wine in overseas and voila, instant dividers for his frosting things.

 It holds his gel colors, gum tex, icing tips, rotary cutter and a few more items. His pastry bags and brushes were put into a little basket.

and there she is, the finished kitchen, finally clean and ready to be attacked by the baked master, we'll see how she fairs....and yes that is a whale on my fridge made out of magnetic poetry. Are you into a clean fridge or refrigerator magnets?

She grew up!

My mother in law's baby Corgi Anoosh got so big! she's still a puppy but is about the size she will stay. She came to play with Juneau. Juneau has been pretty possessive with other dogs in the house, especially when it comes to her toys and food. For the most part they play well together. Anoosh likes to herd Juneau around in the yard by nipping her heels and Juneau likes to sit on Anoosh if she's had too much.

oh to covet...

this couch from pottery barn paired with:

this chair from room and board.  would make this lovely room that I photo shopped for your visual pleasure: 

Do I like neutral colors ? why yes how could you tell?? The rug is from overstock.com. The cowhide is from IKEA (although sometimes they have them at this great place called Home Emporiums in Cola). The bookcases are Expedit from IKEA and the curtains are Peyton grommit drapes from Pottery Barn.

my little one

More music to share: PEARL

T-shirts are for sale at this lovely lady's website! : http://www.pearlprojects.org/ . It's pretty simple, you buy a shirt, you support a talented artist, she then in turn can make more pretty music! Here is the store. Two of her songs are available on Itunes.com

Great music in progress

Back these guys!
http://www.theseawolfmutiny.com/

Bummer....

Our poor little house was spanked by the wind last night. A night full of Wfap bwap bap and no power.

stealing ideas

I want to make some of these for the Kitchen!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/evajuliet/3700321097/

organization dream

1.

Funny Bunny and Bright- Scrugger's under $20 shopping guide to Fishs Eddy

The Carnival Umbrella -It's just cute. 

This eggholder is pretty cool, but lets face it- eggs already come with a great carton right? why would you take the trouble to move them to the new one where they can get squashed in the refrigerator. BUT how cool would this pretty be on top of a dresser or in a closet used to organize rings and necklaces? or if you're more into square: try this tray

These Pretty Powder Blue storage containers could be used to hold bobby pins and hair bands in the bathroom...I'm thinking three in a row in a window. (or buttons, or crafting things).

and who doesn't need a funky horsehead to open their beer. (I'm going to have to admit that I just watched Black Beauty on Netflix and cried, I know I'm 23 and a wuss!). 

Baby Scrugg's Room

Nope not ours!!! Our brother and sister in law are expecting a baby girl in January. They've been preparing her little room for months. Mamma Tine isn't much for sissy pinks and pastels, she likes it bold and happy, so she picked a color scheme of teal, lime green, orange, and a splash of yellow. The challenge for the tiny room was to make it as cheerful as possible because as renters, they were not allowed to paint the ugly murky wood trim and the tiny window let's in a pitiful amount of light. 

BEFORE:

Thus began Brainstorming sessions in which I put together in photoshop some ideas for Christine. 


IDEA NUMBER ONE: tapestry from Lebanon, white graphic prints, orange rug, brown crib (we didn't think we were allowed to paint it) Original bookshelf painted white.

 IDEA NUMBER TWO: Christine decided that she wanted to go with the changing table and dresser on the far wall and keep the bed in the room for company. So the tapestry went off the wall onto the bed. We added a mid-century modern dresser which we were currently on the look out for. Opened up those closet doors and added colored poof balls for a "mobile" (you're my hero Martha Stewart!).

 IDEA NUMBER THREE: Then we realized we could paint the crib white and we started finding all of the furniture to be painted white, we scrapped the picture and imagined filling in the space.

I suprised Mamma Tine by painting the room while she was at work. The bed went in, and the new baby stuff...and then later moved back out again.
Mamma tine was so so cool to think of doing this for art: She cut little elephants out of cardstock and pretty paper and glued them on a paper. 


They lacked the area to work on all of their DIY projects, so our garage became "project baby world". As a group effort, the crib was sanded and stained, evaluated, sanded again, primed and then painted. A rocking chair was re-coiled, foamed and painted white. They also painted a small table white  that was once a lovely dino-the -dinosaur-shade-of-purple. 


BEFORE/AFTER on the Crib!


BEFORE/AFTER CHANGING TABLE: