Being Poor, Feeling Blessed

This holiday season we celebrated Yule in our own way, and Willow went to a birthday party for a friend of hers that is 4 years old....Willow is 5 now. This Christmas is very tough. I don't have any income, and we are struggling with house payments. I feel awful for only having one big-(ish) item for Willow. I got her an easy bake oven and an extra pack of whoopie pie mix. That's what she wanted. I got some candy for stocking stuffers and $11 worth of mostly art supplies from the Dollar Tree.

My significant other gave her two angry bird plush toys, one makes sounds, and a couple stocking stuffers. He is spending the holidays in his home country, and I miss him dearly.

I just feel like I wish I could have done more, but I know that family will be giving her gifts on Christmas Eve when we all get together. I also know that Christmas morning Santa will have a bike and helmet waiting at her grandparent's house! I believe it has the Disney character from the movie Brave on it. One of our all time favorites. I just hope she isn't disappointed by what's under our tree.

My heart sinks a little.

When I think about this self pity, I get mad at myself. There are people out there that literally have NOTHING. People are struggling all over the world and I am blessed enough to have this laptop in front one and a warm kitchen to sit in as I type. I have enough food to fill my belly today and tomorrow, and clean water to drink. My eyes tear up, and I am so very thankful for this. Even with all of my problems I know there is a greater power watching over me, and guiding me. I realize my life will always be difficult, but I have more than a lot of people if you think globally.

I am so very blessed...even if we only have a couple presents under our Charlie Brown tree.
(See that HERE).

~Amanda Star~

Our Yule Tree, 2013

We are having an extremely low income holiday season! I wasn't going to live without a tree, so I went outside and pulled a big branch from the burn pile. Chris and I put it in a bucket filled with gravel, strung it with lights, Willow and I decorated it, and I put a silver tree skirt over the bucket portion. Weirdest tree I have ever had! ...but it's ours, and it's fun and colorful. Willow is thoroughly impressed. That's what really matters...her being happy and families doing things together. I know it's totally weird, but it was done with love. The things we do to get through tough times...

When Chris's grandmother passed away, just recently, we inherited this beautiful creation. It's made with all kinds of brooches and other pieces of jewelry. It has lights that actually work (I was surprised) and I am very proud to be displaying something like this in our home. So I guess we are blessed with two non-traditional trees!

I hope your Yule is wonderful, no matter how much money you have. There are always ways to get by...

~Amanda Star~

My Customer Review on Better Homes and Gardens Posies Plaid Comforter Set

This is my review on the Better Homes and Gardens Posies Plaid Comforter Set that I bought at Walmart.

This is a common "in-store" product.

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This bedding set is stunning. We bought it yesterday. I've been thinking about trying it in our bedroom for quite some time. The colors are pretty and embroidery is very romantic. We bought orange sheets to go with it, because my husband really loves orange. I love the color of the bedskirt, and the orange ribbon detail on the comforter and pillow shams.

The downfalls: This morning my husband woke up and said the comforter is very warm. Pretty much, it is too warm for him. He's a warm sleeper. I love it because I am a cold sleeper. He woke up sweating! The material that holds the bedskirt under the mattress is very cheap looking and feeling. It's possible that it could rip while we do "mattress flipping". I've purchased other BH&G bedding sets, and that material in that part of the set was better quality in the other sets. Another MAJOR downfall is that if you do any sitting on the comforter the embroidery does come apart. It's even worse if you have kids that like to sit on the bed with you. My five year old has already loosened up a lot of the threads. Remember, we just bought this set yesterday!

If I were a single woman with no husband, kids, or animals...I would keep it. It's perfect for me. Although, I haven't washed it yet. If I did wash it, it would probably loosen up the embroidery threads pretty bad. It would have to go in a really large machine on a very gentle cycle...or be washed by hand in the tub and line dried.

I'm sad that it's going back. I really think it's beautiful.

Better Homes and Gardens; Posies Plaid Comforter Set

House Progress

We are getting a new kitchen sink, faucet, and countertop installed next week! I'm pretty excited because the kitchen we have is original to the house, minus the primer on the walls. The countertops are stained and the sink is a nasty porcelain sink from hell...which also gets stained very badly. For a while the sink was leaking pretty bad, and the sprayer doesn't work at all. The sink is also only 5 inches deep, and I need a deeper one.

UPDATE: This is the new sink right before it got installed.

Willow's room is STILL not painted, but tomorrow I will be using the cattle prod on the hubby to get him moving along.

UPDATE: Progress has been made on Willow's bedroom. You can see that HERE.

We've been trying to find curtains for our bedroom and living room, but the ones I got for the living room are not working out. I got the crazy idea to try Willow's royal purple sheers in the living room, complete with a swag on top, and it turns out they are really beautiful with the light shining through. I promise I will give them back to Willow when her room is ready. ;)

We are also looking for a bright jewel toned comforter set for our bedroom to go with pictures in ornate gold frames and our buddha statue. We're also considering bamboo shades with pretty colored sheer curtains on top. This old house is a lot of work!

A Great Day

Yesterday was pretty amazing. We did our grocery shopping at Nash's organic grocery store and Sunny Farms. We left the house at 8:30. Willow was such a good girl, so we all had little ice cream cones at Sunny Farms. We also checked out the plants at the Sunny farms nursery, which is one of the places Chris has applied for.

The weather was beautiful. We worked in the front gravel garden pulling weeds. That was hard work for this fibro body, but I am determined to keep myself going. Willow was a good helper and she also set up her angry bird toys on the stepping stones. She's still obsessed with angry birds. It's the one thing she talks about the most. We must have worn her out because she passed out on the couch with her mouth hanging open. 

Her Grams picked her up at about 5pm, and she brought us some tomato and basil plants from her neighbor! Sweet! Chris and I got a hold of some friends and made plans for the night. We were both exhausted, but we didn't want to pass up seeing the fabulous Shelly and the wonderful Denny, and the rest of the crew. We went to the Barhop to hear some "bluegrassy" classic rock. They were amazing, and the dancers were shakin and movin! The banjo player and lead singer always captures me. He has such an amazing voice, and I love the way he plucks that banjo. Then we went to the Junction, and heard Blu Meadows. They were awesome! I had a couple drinks and boogied down, although I knew I would feel some regret in the morning. I was right, but it was fun. I'm so tired and sore, but my head is filled with funky music, flashes of dancing people, and my heart is overflowing with positive energy.

We woke up earlier than we should have since we were out all night, but Chris is doing his shift at Studio Bob in Port Angeles, and he is the featured artist at the gallery for tonight's art walk! His art fits in really well here. It's a better fit than the Red Raven Gallery in Port Townsend, but the Red Raven is still seriously fabulous.

So I'm sitting here at Studio Bob looking out the huge windows at the cars driving by, but mostly watching the people ...the way they walk, who they're walking with, what they're wearing, the way they have their hair, the dogs that they are walking. It's fascinating. I could probably write about it for hours. It would be fun to write little summaries on each single person or group.

In the background I see big boats...one looks like a ferry one looks like a barge or something. There's a bus stop and people standing around. There's a ferry terminal, and a farmer's market across the street. I would love to check out the farmer's market, but I'm broke and it's so warm and cozy here at this spot. There's a lot of little shops here in the downtown. Oh jeez, I'm trying to convince myself to go shopping. It could be fun, and I don't have a little one in tow.

Enough blogging for now. On with the people watching, and maybe some snacking...not on the people, sillies.

Willow's Room

We are still working on Willow's room. We've had a few other things that we are doing, so that doesn't help any. We're also having a little problem with the purple paint not covering well, but we will do the best we can. She might end up with three colors on her walls, instead of the two! A while back we picked up some things for her room from Ross that we were saving for her birthday, but we wanted her input, so she knows what's going on now.

Yesterday we took her out to do some errands, and she gave us a really hard time. I decided to put the work on her room on hold until she turned her behavior around. So yesterday she had to work off the attitude! We cleaned up some weeds in the front garden together, and the painting resumed today.

Here's the two paint colors we're working with. This paint came from a second hand home improvement store. These two cans cost us $2.

UPDATES!

I never did get around to posting pictures of how Willow's room turned out, so here I am over a year later posting an update. I only have a few cell phone pics, but I figured it was better than nothing!

I will include a list of the items we bought and materials we used at the end of this post. 

You should also check out the first BEFORE picture of what the room looked like when we moved in and we were cleaning boxes out of the house! You can find that picture on the very bottom of this post.

~Bamboo shade: Home Depot

~Shiny, pink sheer curtains: Ross

~Five colored standing light fixture: Walmart

~Gold picture frames, plastic, set of 10, all different sizes: Ross

~Bed comforter: Walmart

~Purple sheets and pillow cases: Walmart

~Pink bed skirt: Walmart

~Green fuzzy pillow: Walmart

~Blue fuzzy body pillow: Ross

~Silver curtain rod set: Walmart

~Glass hanging candle holders (not used for candles): Ross

~Pink Angry Bird pillow: Walmart

~Frosted glass vanity light fixture: Home Depot

~AMAZING octopus art print: By the talented Amy Weber. You can find her work on here on Etsy: 

AmyWeberArt

~Orange dresser: Vintage item that came with the house

~Orange and yellow roll-top desk: Vintage furniture that came with the house

Painting materials: 

We used all the usual materials which includes: 

~Drop cloth

~Paint rollers

~Sponge brushes: (better than bristle brushes!)

~Painter's tape: (I cannot express how important it is to use FROG TAPE! The adhesive is much better quality than cheaper brands)

~Exacto knife: (to cut painter's tape if it is not placed correctly, AND in case you try to pull the tape off and the paint is too thick.)

~Damp washcloth: to wipe up boo-boos and spills. 

~*Dap* fast n' final lightweight spackling

~Electric palm sander with fine grit sandpaper

~Lots of elbow grease and hard work

Our Beltaine

It's May 2nd, and about 6:30pm. I'm sitting here in peace. My husband is gone doing errands, and our little Willow is gone for the weekend with her Grams. It is SO peaceful here right now!

My husband and I did not do any ritual yesterday, we usually don't do much. We must be lazy pagans. I always get so caught up in life!

What we did do...was spent time with each other. We mowed the lawn, and tidied up the yard, and made a million plans for the house, garden, and for our future. Today we did more of that, and we got to walk together and hold hands. That was the most beautiful ritual that we could have done in public. It was amazing seeing so many people smile at us. Of course, I noticed one lady give us an annoyed look. That is okay. I have been there myself. I know that not every day is going to feel like this, but while it's happening...I want to savor every moment.

I hope all is well with anyone reading this, and if not, let me know. I will try to spread some love your way.

~Amanda Star~