Why I Homeschool

Posted on May 9, 2013 by karynewsome

I never thought in a million years that I would homeschool my children. I didn't really know anyone who homeschooled. I always pictured homeschooling people as hippies living on a commune, or maybe people living in a religious cult inside a Doomsday bunker. When we joined our church in 2011, I was absolutely shocked to find that in sending our kids to public school we were in the minority!

My new blog…Whole30 Challenge and Weigh-In

Posted on May 8, 2013 by karynewsome

Check out my new blog today, whatever Kary says. I am posting on the SCD diet and the whole30 Challenge!

My new blog…whatever Kary says.

Posted on May 7, 2013 by karynewsome

There are some things I want to blog about, but don’t necessarily think that they fit in here on One Dollar Cottage. So I made a new blog, whatever Kary says. The name means nothing to anyone except for our family! My husband, John, uses that phrase as the answer to any question he wants to avoid answering. “Whatever Kary says,” or if he is feeling especially lazy, just “WKS.”

So without further ado, my first post on WKS.

As a little girl, I had stick straight blonde hair.

I can remember sitting on the floor while my mother sat on the couch and set my hair in pin curls. The next morning she would brush out the pin curls, and before lunch my hair would be as straight as a stick!

In the 80′s I spent hours with hot rollers, my hair dryer and Shaper hairspray to achieve that perfect hair helmet.

Then I had children. Hormones are a funny thing. I now have this…

I have been fighting the curl for over a decade now. I always loved my hair in an angled bob, and would try and force my hair to behave…

But I have given up the fight. As of April 29th, I am now a Curly Girl. Aside from the obvious, this means I am following this book, Curly Girl, by Elaine Massey:

The steps to the curly girl or no-poo method are:
1. Clarify with a sulfate shampoo before beginning.
2. Have your hair trimmed. This will get rid of any damage or split ends.
3. Stop using a brush. It damages your hair whether it is wet or dry. It causes frizz and makes dry hair tangle. Use a wide-toothed comb instead, or even better, use your fingers.
4. Stop shampooing your hair. Using conditioner in place of shampoo will cleanse the hair just as effectively without stripping it of moisture.
5. Give your hair time to adjust. It takes 2-4 weeks for your hair to adjust to the no shampoo. It may even look worse at first.
6. Wash your scalp with conditioner.
7. Distribute conditioner throughout all of your hair and untangle gently.
8. Apply products to your hair. Do it while it is soaking wet if you have curlier hair, but wait five minutes or so if you have medium to wavy curly hair. Put product in your hands and rub them together to emulsify. Then, smooth or rake the product into your hair by sections. A common method is to begin with a leave-in cream or conditioner to decrease frizz and then follow with a gel for hold and definition.
9. Gently scrunch your hair with a t-shirt, paper towels, or a micro-fiber towel to remove excess moisture, as a generic terrycloth towel will make your hair frizzy.
10. Dry your hair. Air drying is the easiest and gentlest way to dry your hair. If you must blow dry your hair use a diffuser to avoid frizz.

Yes, this means that I have not “washed” my hair in almost two weeks. And I have had some rough days. But I can tell a difference in the curl. The front has always been curly, and the back more wavy. Now I am starting to get a lot more definition in the back. I have had a lot of trial and error with product, and I have found I can go three or four days between co-washings, just rewetting it a little in the mornings to calm it down.

I will be posting pictures to track my progress!

Kary

Sometimes I link to:

Monday: Skip to my Lou, Between Naps on the Porch, Jam Hands, Home Stories A-Z, How to Nest for Less, Today’s Creative Blog, Thrifty Décor Chick, Not Just a Housewife, Boogieboard Cottage,Time Warp Wife, Chef In Training, The Ivy Cottage Blog, Holly’s Stamping Addiction, Serendipity and Spice, Homestead Revival

Tuesday: Bowl Full of Lemons, Organize & Decorate Everything, Primitive and Proper, homework, Tilly’s Nest, Elizabeth & Co., Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Project Queen, Sugar Bee Crafts, Time Warp Wife, Coastal Charm, The DIY Dreamer

Wednesday: House of Hepworths, Shabby Creek Cottage, Ivy and Elephants, Someday Crafts, the 36th Avenue, Southern Lovely, seven thirty-three, Semi-Homemade Mom, The Real Housewives of Riverton, lil pink pocket, Stone Gable, No Minimalist Here, A Creative Princess

Thursday: The Coloradolady, Common Ground,Five Days Five Ways , My Romantic Home, Delightful Order, Imparting Grace, My Repurposed Life, Liz Marie Blog, Redoux,

Friday: Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Six Sisters Stuff, Serenity Now, Whipperberry, Nap Time Crafters, Sew Many Ways, Fox Hollow Cottage

Saturday: Positively Splendid

Sunday: Alderberry Hill, Flour Me With Love, Stone Gable, This Gal Cooks, Nifty, Thrifty Things

Weekly Junk Report…May 7, 2013

Posted on May 7, 2013 by karynewsome

I have always loved antiques. My mother has always been a collector, and I used to spend a lot of time when I was growing up in antiques stores. My mother did a great job of teaching me a basic knowledge of furniture and art. The one thing you learn about antiques is that you never stop learning, and you will never know everything about anything! One of our favorite things about buying and selling is coming home with a purchase and researching it. Whether it is cast iron, china, silver, mason jars, Pyrex, Fire King, old books, textiles, lamps…you never know what you are going to find out.

I really had to eat some humble pie last week. My husband is working out of town in Tennessee during the week. Sometimes he goes to the thrift shops up there, and I always look forward to what he brings home at the end of the week. He found some awesome vintage school desks, Fire King, Pyrex…he does a great job, usually. A couple of weeks ago he bought a pair of lamps. I couldn’t believe he bought them. To me, they are hideous.

Well, hubby did his research. Apparently these things are called “Hollywood Regency.” And on eBay they go for hundreds of bucks for a pair. Are you kidding me?? And Kary had to admit that he did not waste his money. But I still don’t like them. They are now here, on eBay.

On a lighter note. I found perhaps my best buy EVER! I love old silver. I always buy random serving pieces at the flea market or thrift store when I find them. A couple of weeks ago I bought 6 pieces of blackened silver from a man at the flea market for $2…

…and then I bought 126 pieces of silver plate from a lady for $20.

Wow! Seemed like a deal. Started looking it all up on my iPad. These some of the patterns in the big pile…

The patterns were mostly “Beloved” from 1940, “Bird of Paradise” from 1923, “Nuart” from 1932, “King Arthur” from 1941, and “Queen Mary” from 1953.

Then I started looking at the serving pieces I bought for $2. The iced tea spoons are “One” from 1913, one of the meat forks is “Adam” from 1917, and the other is “Lorne” from 1878. Awesome, huh? By the way, there is a great website where you can look up silver plate patterns, here. None of the silverplate patterns is worth less than $12 dollars per piece on Replacements, Ltd. Which means I scored over a thousand dollars of silverplate for $20.

But, wait. It gets better. This ladle was one of the six pieces I bought for $6

I took a look at the back…

That says J E Spear. I googled him. Turns out that is the mark of James E. Spear, who worked as a silversmith in his shop on Kings Street in Charleston from 1846-1871. Check out this ladle of his that was auctioned by Christie’s. It went for $1434.00 in 2002.

Woo-hoo!! Best find EVER!

Kary

Sometimes I link to:

Thursday: The Coloradolady, Common Ground,Five Days Five Ways , My Romantic Home, Delightful Order, Imparting Grace, My Repurposed Life, Liz Marie Blog, Redoux,

Friday: Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Six Sisters Stuff, Serenity Now, Whipperberry, Nap Time Crafters, Sew Many Ways, Fox Hollow Cottage

Saturday: Positively Splendid

Sunday: Alderberry Hill, Flour Me With Love, Stone Gable, This Gal Cooks, Nifty, Thrifty Things

Moving Update…May 6, 2013

Posted on May 6, 2013 by karynewsome

Wow! I can’t believe I haven’t posted in so long! We have kind of been at a standstill. As of March 29th, the house has officially been moved!

That is where the house used to be…

And this is where it is now…

Eight of the ten pieces are across the street from our property, waiting to be put in to place. The piece that has the kitchen, screened porch, back hall, back stairs, butlers pantry, and dining room is on our property….

And the gazebo is on our property…Now we are waiting for the house mover to finish a project he is working on, and he will be back to put it all back together. He told us it should be around the first of May, so hopefully we will be getting started on Phase II soon!

Kary

Sometimes I link to:

Thursday: The Coloradolady, Common Ground,Five Days Five Ways , My Romantic Home, Delightful Order, Imparting Grace, My Repurposed Life, Liz Marie Blog, Redoux,

Friday: Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Six Sisters Stuff, Serenity Now, Whipperberry, Nap Time Crafters, Sew Many Ways, Fox Hollow Cottage

Saturday: Positively Splendid

Sunday: Alderberry Hill, Flour Me With Love, Stone Gable, This Gal Cooks, Nifty, Thrifty Things

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday…February 20, 2013

Posted on February 20, 2013 by karynewsome

This is what I am doing this morning. Prepping 10 meals for two households in less than an hour!

This year started off with a bang. On New Year’s Day, we went over to my parents’ house for New Years Day dinner. A few minutes after we got home I got a call from my father. My mother fell down the back stairs and broke her ankle, and had two operations on it last month to stabilize it. My mother is a diabetic, and since diabetics are slow to heal, she was told to keep all weight off of it for 3 months. For some people, this wouldn’t be that huge of a problem. My mother has had both knees replaced. Both of her rotator cuffs have torn, and surgery could not repair them. She had a major back surgery last year. She is tough, but she doesn’t have the physical abilities to get around by herself without being able to use one of her legs!

I am an only child, so I have been trying to be over at my parents’ house as much as possible, and trying to keep up with her housekeeping chores as well as mine. We have church several days a week. I started homeschooling our 11 yo son after the Christmas break, and baseball season is about to start. Our 14 yo son has weightlifting after school every day, plays cello and bass in two orchestras, and has banjo lessons. I have my blog, my antiques booth, and my eBay store. My husband has just started a new job 4 states away, and will only be home for the weekend every two weeks. Oh, yeah…we are also trying to get a 132 year old, three story house moved! Eek!

I don’t like to grab fast food. I don’t want my parents to have to eat fast food. I have made a promise to myself to go primal, or as close as I possibly can. I feel so much better when I do! It isn’t easy when you are cooking for 6 people, and you are the only one who is on a special diet, but I am going to do the best I can! It has been really difficult some days to cook a meal at my parents house, then come home and cook a whole new supper for my own family. I think I have come up with a more manageable solution!

For the last couple of days I have been scouring the internet for slow cooker recipes I can prep and freeze, then throw in the slow cooker. Or my father can throw in their slow cooker. I really love Six Sisters Stuff, and my all time favorite, Southern Plate. This morning I accumulated all of my meat, vegetables, marinade ingredients, and a ton of gallon bags. I separated the meals in to meals for my parents, and meals for me and the boys. We can have the same meals on the same days, and on the weekend I can cook any side items for the meals, and take some to my parents and keep some for us.

This is what I assembled (I linked the recipes I used):
3 one pound bags of cooked ground beef
2 bags of Cornbread Dressing
2 bags of Apricot Chicken
2 bags of Brown Sugar Chicken
2 bags of Teriyaki Pork Chops
4 bags of Sausage and Peppers
2 bags of Buffalo Chicken

I also have a turkey breast, a ham, hamburgers, a pork tenderloin, cube steak, and some flounder. I will use the ground beef I cooked to make Ground Beef Stew, tacos, or spaghetti. I now have an impressive list of meals to choose from, plus some of these meals will make enough for two days!

1. Turkey Breast in one slow cooker, and the cornbread dressing in the other
2. Hamburgers
3. Hot dogs
4. Ground Beef Stew
5. A ham
6. Apricot Chicken
7. Brown Sugar Chicken
8. Buffalo Chicken
9. Pinto beans with the ham bone from #5
10. Teriyaki Pork Chops
11. Pork tenderloin
12. Sausage and peppers over pasta
13. Sausage and pepper sandwiches
14. Flounder
15. Cube Steak and Gravy

Whew! What a weight off of my shoulders! Now each weekend I can plan the meals according to our schedule, shop for and prepare the sides, and everything is going to be much more organized and easy!

Kary

Sometimes I link to:

Thursday: The Coloradolady, Common Ground,Five Days Five Ways , My Romantic Home, Delightful Order, Imparting Grace, My Repurposed Life, Liz Marie Blog, Redoux,

Friday: Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Six Sisters Stuff, Serenity Now, Whipperberry, Nap Time Crafters, Sew Many Ways, Fox Hollow Cottage

Saturday: Positively Splendid

Sunday: Alderberry Hill, Flour Me With Love, Stone Gable, This Gal Cooks, Nifty, Thrifty Things

Weekly Junk Report…February 18, 2013

Posted on February 18, 2013 by karynewsome

So according to my husband, having a house with a butler’s pantry does not mean that I can collect unlimited china and crystal. Seriously?? So the first thing I am going to mention is that I was at the flea market, and there was a guy selling boxes and boxes of stuff out of his truck and trailer. I opened the top of one box, and saw some Old Curiosity Shoppe china, just like my grandmother used to have. I started to open some more of the boxes, all labeled, “mama’s dishes” and the guy stopped me. He offered me all of the boxes, insides unseen, for one price. I gambled. And ended up with only teacups, saucers and two serving plates of the Old Curiosity Shoppe.

The rest of the boxes had some parts from a brass bed, some junky glasses, and a HUGE collection of Fleur de Lis Wheat china…14 teacups, 18 saucers, 13 dinner plates, 13 bread plates, 12 salad plates, 12 berry bowls, 9 soup bowls, a serving platter, a serving bowl, a creamer and a sugar bowl.

FOR SALE:

Yes, I know my place setting isn’t totally Emily Post proper. So, because I love my husband, this 95 piece set of vintage china can belong to any of my Greenville metro readers for 40 bucks, what I estimate it cost me. Let me know if you are interested! There is no way I am going to list this in my eBay shop and have to ship it. No way.

Here are some more of my recent treasures.

A huge stack of vintage Homer Laughlin “Colonial White.”

Yes, more vintage china…see my problem?

More vintage English Ironstone…

And more china…

Isn’t this old Delta airlines plate cute?

These milk glass punch cups match my vintage Westmoreland punch bowl, and I can’t believe I found that vintage Anchor Hocking ball jug for $3!

I just sold these primary Pyrex bowls in my eBay shop…

I am in love with these Fire King mixing bowls with fruit on them…they are hard to find, and I got them for $1 a piece!

These Dundee marmalade jars are actually old with crazing. This is another find I still can’t believe…a vintage Wagner Ware gem pan for $3.50!

This is my $10 desk project…

And my $3 wicker table…

Has anyone ever heard of Termocrisa china? It is an imitation of Fire King that was made in Mexico. It is pretty hard to find. I found a set for four the other day. What do you think?

If you see anything you like, look in my eBay store, or send me a message! Of course, if I tell you how much I paid for it, that means I am keeping it!

Kary

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday…Chicken Stew

Posted on February 13, 2013 by karynewsome

I feel absolutely awful! I have a bad cold, and the only thing I want to eat today is some chicken stew. I didn’t want to get up, but for this stew, I toughed it out. I am reposting this recipe…it looks so bad, no one wants to try it, but it is awesome!

Everyone has that special meal that just makes you feel better. When you are sick, cold, sad, tired or whatever, it fixes anything, or at least makes you forget about it for a little while. Mine is chicken stew. I don’t remember where the original recipe came from, and I have tried to Google the ingredients to find another recipe like it, but no luck.
Now I must tell you, there are no pretty pictures I could make of this stuff. When my husband and I got married in March of 2011, he had never tasted my cooking. You should have seen the suspicious looks he would give some of my dinners! It was hard for me to get him to even try this one, but now almost two years later he requests this probably more than anything else.

First you need some chicken. You can either use about a three pound chicken, or use about two pounds of chicken breasts. I am usually lazy and use one pack of three boneless, skinless breasts. Cover the chicken with water in a soup pot, and cook until it is done. Remove the chicken and let it cool. When it is cool, debone the chicken if necessary, and shred in to bite size pieces.

Measure out a quart of the broth and return to the stock pot. Add one quart of milk. Make sure that you do not add any salt to this! You will see why later.

Bring to a slow boil, stirring frequently. Add one cup of butter. Yep, that is right, two whole sticks. I never said this recipe was Weight Watchers friendly.

Here is where you will really think I have lost it. Crush two sleeves of saltine crackers. Add them to the pot.

Now you can taste it and see what seasoning it needs. Those crackers take care of most of the salt, and I like to add a lot of pepper. When it thickens up, add the chicken.

Try it! I swear it is awesome!

Kary

Chicken Stew
1 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 lb chicken
1 qt. water
1 qt. milk
1 c. butter
2 sleeves Saltine crackers
Salt and pepper

*Sometimes I link up at these parties…

Thursday: The Coloradolady, Common Ground,Five Days Five Ways , My Romantic Home, Delightful Order, Imparting Grace, My Repurposed Life, Liz Marie Blog, Redoux,

Friday: Tatertots & Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Six Sisters Stuff, Serenity Now, Whipperberry, Nap Time Crafters, Sew Many Ways, Fox Hollow Cottage

Saturday: Positively Splendid

Sunday: Alderberry Hill, Flour Me With Love, Stone Gable, This Gal Cooks, Nifty, Thrifty Things

I was featured!

Posted on January 25, 2013 by karynewsome

How exciting! I just found out that I was featured on Gingerly Made on her “Foodie Friday” post!

She featured my Quick and Easy Weeknight Shrimp Scampi.

Thank you, Ginger, for the feature!

Weekly Junk Report…January 24, 2013

Posted on January 24, 2013 by karynewsome

This weather has been keeping me from the flea market for the past month or so, but last weekend was beautiful, and the flea market was PACKED!

I found one of my favorite finds EVER! Do you ever read home decorating magazines and blogs where they have this gorgeous artwork, and they tell the story of how they bought it? “My husband and I were strolling in the flea market in Paris…” or ” we were in this darling market in Istanbul…” Sorry, but things like that just don’t happen to me. Mine are more like, “when I was in Goodwill last Wednesday!”

So, I was at the flea market last weekend, and and my husband and I were going to buy this chair:

I automatically looked around for something to bundle with it, and I saw a beautiful etching. And it is signed, numbered and dated 1925!

And I bought it for $10. Now, for me, that is a lot for flea market art. But I thought it was beautiful, even if it turned out not to be anything. Then I googled it. And I found this one listed on Thistle Fine Art. It is 4/100, and mine is 59/100, but even if it isn’t worth as much as this $495 one, I still made a good buy! This is a close up view:

I go through obsessive periods with my collecting. 1950′s Pyrex casseroles, Fire King china, rolling pins, nail kegs, blue mason jars, Homer Laughlin China, Fire King D-handle coffee mugs, chairs… Right now I am in a cast iron phase. I got sick of my non-stick cookware and Caphalon going bad on me, and have turned back to Grandma’s cast iron. I started doing research on vintage cast iron, and have been using cast iron almost exclusively to cook with. I found a great post on cleaning and restoring rusty cast iron at I Believe I Can Fry and will be trying it soon on some of my acquisitions. Here are my latest purchases:

I love the makers marks on these two: