by SmithorJones October 19, 2011 Around the House
Make Your Own Laundry Soap

Here’s a frugal idea. Make your own laundry soap! My buddy Terri has been brewing up her own laundry soap lately, and she sent me the recipe to share. As it turns out, the ingredients are but a point and click away – so even if you live where the ingredients are not easily found […]

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by SmithorJones May 30, 2011 JonesGirl
strawberries

We have a small park near our house where we like to walk. In fact, that is where the dogwood was photographed. They have quite a few different things planted and growing around there, and it’s always a treat for me to be around when the ornamental strawberries are showing off. Today was the day. […]

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by SmithorJones May 12, 2011 JonesGirl
Dogwood

I love dogwood flowers. It’s one of the things I look forward to in Spring – right after the daffodils finish blooming, the dogwood and Cecil Brunner roses take over. I imagine the gold miners planted a lot of those roses because some of them are huge. The blackberry bushes are all flourishing this spring […]

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by SmithorJones March 21, 2011 Gold Country
raingauge

We’re having another one of those “Miracle March” kind of springs. It’s always a big relief to get those during the drought years – and word had it that we were technically still in a drought here up until recently. And now, in just a few days we’re racking up rainfall totals up in the […]

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by SmithorJones March 15, 2011 Around the House
Thumbnail image for French Onion Soup

Recently, we tried our hand at making French Onion Soup. Smitty really likes it, and I’d always wanted to try making it – so we figured why not? I learned a couple of things while making it, but for the most part it came out really nice. The next time I make it I’ll do […]

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by SmithorJones January 31, 2011 Around the House
shelving

We live in a fairly small rental. The key words in that sentence being “small” and “rental”.  Not much leeway for making changes with someone else’s property. So, in the interests of making a little more storage space, with the smallest amount of “injury” to the structure, one day recently an idea blossomed in my […]

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by SmithorJones December 10, 2010 Cooking
Thumbnail image for How To Cook Everything

Do you have a favorite cookbook? Want one? How to Cook Everything, Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman. The guy’s a genius. Really. For years I had two cookbooks that were the go-to books in my kitchen. I had NUMEROUS cookbooks – but there were two that […]

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