I'm a such a sucker for roaring fire. I grew up with wood heat, and to this day, if I'm in a house during winter without some sort of heat source to stand next to, my soul feels a bit empty. When we moved into our little prairie house in 2008, it only had a forced-air furnace and that was a serious bummer. Not to mention, the 100-year old house had pathetic insulation and the curtains would actually move when the wind blew. We ...Continue Reading
How to Acid Stain Concrete Floors
I really debated posting this one... The topic of acid staining concrete floors strays a little from my usual subject-matter and seems slightly more suited for a home renovation blog. But I decided to go for it anyway, as I figured a) I have a ton of very thrifty, very handy readers who love frugal, DIY stuff, and b) I honestly just wanted a reference for myself, as I have a bad habit of doing a complex project and then promptly ...Continue Reading
Slow Cooker Hot Chocolate Recipe
It's extremely hard... To convince me to leave my cozy little house on winter evenings. Between the flickering fire, the Christmas tree lights, and my favorite Douglas Fir essential oil wafting from the diffuser, I'm pretty content to be a winter-time hermit. And when you add in a mug of homemade hot chocolate? Forget about it. You'd be hard-pressed to get me to venture out even if Joel Salatin himself was visiting our town (Okay, ...Continue Reading
How to Make Kimchi
"What is that?!" I answered the question no less than 15 times while I had my brightly colored jars of kimchi sitting on the counter fermenting. My answer ("It's spicy Korean sauerkraut...") didn't exactly erase the quizzical look from the faces of the question-askers, but considering most of them are well-acquainted with my weirdness, I doubt anyone lost sleep over it. ;) I'm generally not willing to be very exotic ...Continue Reading
Rustic Homemade Christmas Decorations
I've been a Scrooge for the past 8 years... I have a good reason, though. Remember how we've lived in basically half a house for the past 8 years? Yup. That's why. We could squeeze into the house decently well during most of the year, but adding a Christmas tree plus all the decorations to the mix was the straw that broke the camel's back. I would hold off on putting up my ONE box of decorations until the last minute, and then take ...Continue Reading