frugal fun | fabric fever

Shown above: Amy Butler's Lotus Tree Peony in Sand (future pillows for my sofa) and Joel Dewberry's Chestnut Hill Chestnut Branches in Turquoise (purchased for only $4.19 a yard!)

coming down with a major case of fabric fever... I have been so good for so long suppressing my desire for yards and yards of pretty fabrics. I've mentioned before that I have the longing, but not the talent to turn these fabrics into what I envision (pillows, dish towels, napkins, curtains, you name it). After years of looking, I finally broke down this past January and bought my first sewing machine. My sewing knowledge peaked somewhere around fifth grade Home Ec. But I figured, how hard is it to make a square napkin? And that simple desire was enough for me to rationalize why I need to keep purchasing from fabric.com. But I was good. I denied my desire. That is until I saw fabric.com's 50% off sale email this morning. The sale featured lots of Joel Dewberry designs, one of my favorites. As well as some groovy Heather Bailey prints. How could I turn down these fabrics at only $4.19 a yard??? And I had a 20% off promo code to boot.

As you can see from the variety of prints shown here, I really don't have a rhyme or reason for purchasing each of these fabrics, other than the fact that I just liked each of them. Someway, somehow, they all fall together in my home.

Shown clockwise above: Chocolate Lollipops Polka Dot Stars in Chartreuse by Anna Maria Horner for Free Spirit; Ooh La La Bubbles by Kathy Hall for Andover; Freshcut Pom Pom Mum in Lime/Orchid by Heather Bailey for Free Spirit; and Freshcut Wild Rose in Jade, also by Heather Bailey.

wishlist | dinnerware to chirp about

something to chirp about... I saw this dishware collection, Chirp, by Lenox around a year ago and I still haven't been able to get it out of my head. The watercolor-styled illustrations are elegant, yet full of whimsy. Every time I look at them, I have to summon up my will power and remind myself that I have completely run out of room in my cabinets for dishes. But I can still ponder the notion.

do-it-yourself | twig trellises

Photo credit: Karen Bussolini (as shown on ThisOldHouse.com)

tempting trellises... each summer I test out a different type of trellis designs in my garden. I've used branches and twigs, rope, bamboo, you name it. In the latest issue of This Old House, they featured several different do-it-yourself trellis designs. The above shot of a branch trellis in the pot immediately caught my eye. It would look perfect in my whiskey barrels where I grow my sugar snap peas. What I really liked about the concept is that you use the branch as the entire trellis, rather than using long branches with the side stems removed. This totally cuts out the need to then add twine to create "catch ons" for the plants to grow up. This trellis looks equally beautiful whether clad in the full bloom of a plant or simply by itself.

garden | gorgeous gourds

Shown above: squash from Pineland Farms (including Lumina Pumpkins,

Blue Hubbard, Buttercup, Butternut, and good ol' carving pumpkins).

gorgeous gourds... Though it's a touch earlier to be chatting about winter squash, it's the big news in my garden for this summer. Last year I planted my first squash, Baby Pam Pie Pumkins. Over the course of the summer and into early fall, these divine plants gracefully trailed out across my stone walls and wandered everywhere. Come September, my garden glowed with beautiful orange orbs.

Shown above from my garden last year: Tennessee Dancing Gourd and Baby Pam Pumpkin.

I also fell in love with the wide varities of winter squash that are out there, both for their looks as well as their taste. So when it came time to order my seeds for this year's garden, I went a little overboard. I ordered from FedCo Seeds eight different kinds of winter squash and gourds: Burgess Buttercup, Baby Blue Hubbard, Sweet Meat, Baby Pam Pumpkins, Lumina Pumpkins, Tennessee Dancing Gourds, and two gourd mixes. I'm especially excited about the winter squash because now I have a good excuse to get that root cellar established.

wishlist | hardware from anthropologie

shown above clockwise: My Best China Hook in Blue, $18; Petal Hook, $10;

Climbing Garden Hook in Turquoise, $18; Alphabet Hooks, $12; and Letter Hooks, $16.

hardware to get hooked on... Around once a week I log onto Anthropologie to feast my eyes on their latest additions to their hardware collection. With hooks like these, it makes hanging up the dishtowels much more enjoyable.

Below is some hardware I bought several years ago at the Anthropologie in San Francisco. It was my first foray into that store and I instantly didn't want to leave. I have yet to find the "perfect" spot or piece of furniture for my beloved hardware, but I'm getting closer.

recipe | easy weekend roast chicken

easy weekend roast chicken... try this simple recipe for delicious, fall-off-the-bone roast chicken. The chicken does take 4-5 hours to cook, but it is as easy as placing it in the oven and checking on it hours later. The night before, coat the chicken with your favorite spices. I've done a dry barbecue rub and an Italian rub, both turned out great. The barbecue version is listed below.

Dry Rub:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 T garlic powder

1/2 t onion powder

1 1/2 T of sweet paprika

1 T of cracked black pepper

cayenne pepper to taste (optional, but it gives a nice kick)

One 3-4lb roaster chicken

1 onion

3-4 garlic cloves

The night before, mix the dry rub ingredients in a bowl. Wash and dry chicken. Sprinkle some of the dry rub into the chicken's cavity. Stuff with onion and garlic cloves. Take the remaining dry rub and coat the entire outside of the chicken with it. Place in a sealed plastic bag and put in the refrigerator.

The following day, preheat the oven to 250º. Place chicken onto a roasting pan. Roast on low heat for 4-5 hours, basting occasionally. Serve with your favorite barbecue sauce. I recommend Williams-Sonoma's Kansas City barbecue sauce.

frugal fun | goodwill hunting

goodwill hunting... Business is booming at Goodwill stores across the country. Above are my latest two Goodwill finds, a silver plated pedestal bowl and a set of really groovy 1950s cocktail glasses. The Goodwill has also proven to be a great hunting ground for my ever-growing dinnerware obsession. You never know what you'll find as the stock is ever changing, but I got a great set of bone china tea cups and saucers for just one dollar. After a little Google searching, I discovered that there were collectors out there willing to pay over $25 for the same set. I opted instead to use the set as a holiday gift for my son's kindergarten teacher (after filling the tea cup with cookies and chocolate of course).

wishlist | dandelion wallpaper

dandelions galore... one of my favorite blogs, Print & Pattern, just posted this awesome wallpaper, Dandelion Clocks, from designer Fiona Howard for Sanderson, a UK company. This pattern is also available in fabric. I don't think this is helping me curb my fabric addiction.

do-it-yourself | hide the uglies

hide the uglies... in the most recent issue of ReadyMade magazine they have an article called "Hide the Uglies". This article has been my saviour for my family room wall. There is the most unsightly thermostat plopped dead center of my wall. Because of its placement, there is no good area of the wall left to work with. That is until I read this article. All you need to do is to put something with relatively good depth (like a shadowbox frame) over the eyesore. My perfect fix is a 1930s vintage style clock. Now I don't have to look at that thing anymore and I'll always know what time it is. You have to love beauty with benefits!

Check out ReadyMade magazine. Its motto is "instructions for everyday life". They offer easy-to-do ideas for everything from entertaining to home decor. They also have a great green focus with many articles offering great ideas for repurposing or recycling items you already have around the house. Best of all, they have a great frugal focus so you won't break the bank.

garden | seeding success during the recession

seeding success during the recession... Everyday I hear and read somewhere about the boom of sales for seed companies across the country (Johnny Seed's sales 50% over last year's). As hard as the financial times are right now, it is wonderful to see certain simple, way-of-life items become hip. The turn to home gardening in efforts to save money is just fabulous. Saving money is one great perk of gardening, but to learn how to provide natural, healthy, delicious food for your family is absolutely fantastic.

The shots above are of two of my favorite plants, FedCo's Chilipeño Hot Pepper and Johnny's Sun Gold Cherry Tomato. I'm fortunate enough to have great seed companies like FedCo Seeds, Johnny's Select Seeds, and Pinetree Garden Seeds all within miles from me. I had such amazing success with the two above crops. We're actually still feasting on the jalapeños these many months later (we store them in the freezer). If you are looking for a cherry tomato that is a non-stop producer of tasty, little, orange orbs, then you have to grow the Sun Golds. I gave away pint after pint of these fruits and still had loads leftover for my family. All my friends and family said that this was the tastiest cherry tomato that they have ever had.

This summer I'm going to foray farther into the world of canning and preserving, so hopefully I'll be maxing my crops to the fullest. There's even a rumor that my husband is going to build us a root cellar. A girl can dream...

living | maine maple sunday

celebrating maine maple sunday... Every year, on the fourth Sunday of March, Mainers across the state gather to celebrate the flow of sap from the sugar maple trees with Maine Maple Sunday. The sap buckets in the shots above were taken today as I was driving home from the Pineland farmer's market. Maine Maple Sunday is a great time to head over to a local sugarshack and check out how real maple syrup is made... and of course to indulge in some of that yummy amber liquid.

Did you know that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of maple syrup? My husband is learning that firsthand as he heads into his second year of maple syruping. In just five days, he's collected over 40 gallons of sap. Next week he'll embark on a weekend-long binge of cooking down the sap into that precious gallon.

wishlist | moda wonderland

Moda Wonderland (clockwise from top): Tea Time Sugar, Tweedle Dum Sugar, Metamorphosis Sky, and Rabbit Hole Sugar.

a wonderland of fabric... I was just getting my fabric fix on fabric.com when I came across this line from Moda called Wonderland. Could just be me itching for more signs of Spring, but I love the fanciful nature and overall whimsy of the line. The color palette is also great. My favorite is Metamorphosis with the sky blue butterflies punched with a random chocolate and red butterfly into the pattern.

recipe | king arthur classics

a very tasty blog... Next time you're surfing the web looking to stumble upon some tasty treats, log onto King Arthur Flour's blog. Their latest entry is about my Saturday morning staple, pancakes. Each week I whip out my now-worn copy of The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion cookbook, flip to page three and start making "The Simple But Perfect Pancake". So good!!

Check out some of my other favorite recipes from King Arthur:

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins—by far the BEST muffin I've ever made. I add in a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg to give it a bit of spice.

Now or Later pizza crust—this is actually rising in a bowl right now. Just in time for deep dish pizza tonight. You can make this with or without Semolina flour, but the Semolina gives the crust a great pizzeria crispness to it.

Vermont Whole Wheat Honey Oatmeal Bread—your house will smell divine when this bread is in the oven. I think it is the perfect paring to a good ol' peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Wine Biscuits—next time you are entertaining, make sure you make up a batch of these absolutely delicious crackers. I add cayenne pepper to my batches to give them a little heat, but they are good no matter what you add. The trick is to start with a good wine... and the other trick is to eat them while enjoying a good wine.

frugal fun | grocery savers

try something new, have fun AND save money... Product testing. Sound a tad clinical? Did you know that many of the most well-known brands are looking for you to help test new products? It's a win-win situation. The company sends you the product (I really only focus on food and home cleaning items) and you give it a try, tell the company what you think and you get to keep the product and they usually toss in lots of high-savings coupons for you and your friends.

Want to try the latest and greatest from Kraft and General Mills? Check out www.kraftfirsttaste.com and pssst.generalmills.com. Kraft's site has only been up for a few months, but I have already tested two different products. What's great is that I can send an email to a friend to receive coupons for them to test free products as well... they don't have to sign-up or join to enjoy the reward. General Mills often provides you links to download printable coupons that are often at a higher savings than the everyday coupons you see in the Sunday circular. They've also sent me full boxes of granola bars and such. Kashi also has a great community to join. They've sent along some really good coupons that make eating natural a whole lot more affordable. With all of these sites, it is as simple as filling out a short survey of your thoughts on the product once you've tried it.

wishlist | sun print dishtowels

dishtowels pretty enough to frame... I have a bit of an addiction to dishtowels and this collection from ferm living is calling my name. These great sun print style, botanical prints are made from 100% organic cotton and aren't too, too pricey at $19.00 each.

from my window | spring hopes eternal

spring hopes eternal... This moss peaked out from the snow this weekend, bringing hope that Spring is on its way. I'm still trying to figure out the specific species of moss that this is, but it happily paves the path out to our compost piles. After four solid months of seeing nothing on our ground but snow, it is just so exciting to see some green beginning to sprout up.

recipe | spicy pasta with spinach, tomatoes and almonds

dinner in 20 minutes... spicy pasta with spinach, tomatoes, & almonds One of my favorite pasta dishes to whip up is also one of the simplest. It's become almost a weekly staple at my house, and you can add your own variations to the dish to make it fresh and new each time.

(makes 6-8 servings)

Pasta (ziti and rigatoni are my personal favorites for this particular dish)

1 28oz can of diced tomatoes

1 bag of fresh spinach, stemmed and washed

8 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1/4c of extra virgin olive oil

parmesan cheese, freshly grated

1 cup of slivered almonds

crushed red pepper flakes to taste

Boil a large pot of water for the pasta. Once boiling, add pasta. While the water is heating, toast the almonds in a dry pan until golden, then set aside. In a large saucepan, heat extra virgin olive oil on medium temp. Saute crushed red pepper flakes in oil for one minute. Add in the garlic and saute for two minutes until lightly golden. Add crushed tomatoes and cook for an additional two minutes. Add spinach and cover with a lid for one minute to help cook down the spinach. (One note, the spinach will look absolutely over flowing when you first add into the saucepan, but it quickly reduces in size within a minute). Turn off the cooktop. Add cooked pasta into the saucepan and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Toss once more and plate. Garnish with parmesan.

Variations: during the summer, I sub out the spinach for fresh basil (2 cups). I also tend to use whatever nuts I have in my pantry... walnuts and pinenuts work great too. The nuts add a great meaty texture to the dish, but you can certainly add in grilled chicken, shrimp or scallops.

frugal fun | coupon clipping

my coupon destiny... needless to say, many of us are in the same boat today of trying to save money where ever we can. My family and I already live a pretty simple, frugal life, so when we are met with the challenge to cut costs it can be daunting. We don't have cable to cut out. Or nights out at the restaurants. Or vacations. But the one area where we had to find a way to cut was in my love of love, groceries. Yes, we live simply, but we do indulge in quality food at the supermarket. My weekly market trips averaged $300. I needed to nip that in the bud and fast, but I was sad about sacrificing the one true luxury we had. Then I heard of couponmom.com. I definitely recommend checking out this site if you want to reduce your grocery bills. I know average between $50-$100 a week... more than two-thirds less than I used too! Mind you, saving money at the grocery store does involve A LOT of planning, clipping, and math, but in the end, it is so worth it.

Here are some simple tips:

• Plan your weekly meals around the supermarket circular.

• Clip those coupons... religiously! And when you receive a Sunday paper stock full of lots of useful coupons, run out and grab another paper or two to triple your potential savings. Don't forget about printable coupon sites too like coupons.com and smartsource.com.

• Shop at supermarkets that offer double coupon savings. My local Shaw's doubles coupons with value up to 99¢. In fact today, I got three packs of Trident gum for free because I had a 75¢ coupon for each and they doubled the savings to $1.50. Each coupon more than paid for each single pack of gum.

• Stock up on the big sale items. Often supermarkets lure shoppers in with "loss leads". These are sale items that the markets take a loss on in hopes that they'll get your into the store with them and then you'll buy lots of other products too. Max out your potential savings on these loss leads by pairing them up with coupons.

wishlist | charley harper

iconic design in the hands of toddlers... My must have buy for my three-year-old has got to be Charley Harper's ABC book. As a graphic designer, I can only kneel to the god that Harper is. His affinity for nature, sense of color, bold shapes all equate to a visual feast for the eyes. This is a great board book that can take the wear and tear of any toddler.

garden | onions and apple trees

onions & apple trees... After watching me sow my Boretta Cipollini onion seeds, my five-year-old insisted on planting the seeds from the apple he was snacking on. What do you know? One week later, both the onion seedlings and Jack's apple seed sprouted.

Each summer I grow dozens of Cipollini onions. They are small, flat onions that roast up into the most mouth watering treat. Simply grab a bunch, peel off the skins, toss into a shallow roasting pan. Sprinkle with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, cracked pepper, and fresh thyme and roast at 400º until they carmelize (around thirty minutes). This makes for a perfect side dish... if you don't eat them all before they have a chance to make it to the plate.

garden | 59 seed packets

59 seed packets later... So, what's a girl to do to help pass those long Maine winters? Plant seeds of course. A lot of seeds to be precise. Yes, we have five feet of snow on the ground and you'd have to take me word on it that there is an actual garden under all that. But nothing brightens a dark snowy day like getting a box from FedCo Seeds in the mail. I tend to go a tad overboard in my ordering... but it gives me hope that summer will come.