The Sunporch Bedroom

I don't believe I've shown you the sunporch master bedroom yet -- other than a hideous "before" picture. So here are a few more hideous "before" pictures to round out the your vision of it's previous horrific-ness -- complete with an ugly, MASSIVELY heavy office desk!

And here's what it looks like now:

The sunporch is my very favorite room at 419 S. Taylor! I have always wanted a window-lined sunporch bedroom. Always! To me, there is nothing better. Never mind that this room was previously the laundry room (as evidenced by the water line for the washer at the head of the bed and the dryer vent outlet at the foot of the bed and the numerous hangers and copious amounts of lint we found throughout when we moved in!).  I prefer this sort of bedroom to any palacial master bedroom in any mansion no matter how impressive!

I am transported to the kind of world I really want to live in when I get to lay there in the dark and watch the full moon shining through the wind-tossed treetops or see the lightning flash in a turbulent sky as the thunder rumbles and the rain beats on the windows. There is something so magical about a gentle breeze flowing in the open back door in the summer or snow falling outside the panoramic windows in the winter. I can't rave about it enough!

I had a vision for this room from the moment I first saw it. Unlike most of my visions, however, I did not see the color of the walls clearly at first. In the end the inspiration stuck like a Mack truck and I painted the walls the same delicious chocolate brown (called "Chocolate Truffle") that I used in my master bathroom in Fayetteville. It is yummy and luxurious and sophistocated. From there I just HAD to add in touches of the rest of our wedding colors: pale pearl pink and white.

The vintage iron bed came from the curb. It was metallic gold but I sprayed it white.

Mark found the quilt (white with tiny embroidered pink flowers) at a garage sale for $2 (actually it had $10 on it but Mark talked the man down to $2 while the wife went into the house to get something -- the poor man is probably STILL in the dog house!). The sheets, pillows (there are two more white bed pillows that are supposed to be behind the brown pillows!), pillow cases, and the white down comforter at the foot of the bed were all FREE!  As were the mattresses.  The bed skirt is just pearl pink fabric with a little sheen to it that I found for $1.99 and just tucked between the mattress and box spring.  Eventually I'll sew it into a proper bed skirt but it's pretty good for now!

I found the two large square brown pillows in the trash behind a furniture store. They couldn't be more perfect.

The wall lamp over the bed was one of two that came from a dumpster (haven't hung the second one yet). They were brass but I sprayed them white -- MUCH better!

The floral hooked rug was free.  It came from one of those mid-afternoon visits to a garage sale where the homeowner was at the point of begging people to take things for FREE!  I took the carpet out of the room.  it currently has just plywood floors but they are a great improvement.  I was planning to put in some laminate flooring that I have (salvaged from a tear-down for free) but the plywood is growing on me.  I don't know what I'll end up doing with the floor -- if anything!

The white wicker chair was found for free and the little bamboo chest beside it was given to us by a neighbor (we have the most wonderful neighbors on Taylor Street)!  The pink fabric on the cushions (just wrapped for now but I'll sew them into proper covers eventually) is fabric that I cut off a vintage box spring.  It has that wonderful vintage mood to it!

I found this dresser beside an apartment building dumpster. It was quite ugly and beaten-up but it had good lines and good hardware so into the back of my minivan it went!

I sprayed the antique gold drawer pulls chrome and painted the drawers white.  Then I covered the sides with anagalyptic (a fancy word for "textured") wallpaper that looks like beadboard and painted it white.  The top surface of the dresser and the front surface behind the drawers are still wood (for now).

I like the two-tone effect of the white drawers against the wood body of the dresser (though I may paint the wood chocolate brown). The dresser hides the sacreligious hole someone made in the sunporch wall/windows when they removed one of the windows (GASP!) to install a window air conditioner unit (now gone) -- see before photo above) and it might also provide a nice, viewable perch for a tv someday (or not). The whole dresser is full of Mark's clothes so, obviously, we needed the storage!

I am planning to make curtains (though I'm sure I will only use them on rare occasions!) out of vintage white candlewick bedspreads -- you know, the kind your grandma had with all the fringe around the edge! -- because they just have the right feel to go with this room!  Also, because large quantities of matching fabric are almost impossible to find for free or cheap, these bedspreads offer a rare opportunity to have matching (or almost matching) multiples in as large a quantity as I want!

My very favorite find for this room is the two pale pink china plates (99 cents for both) with white at the center and a gold leaf pattern border where the two colors intersect.  These plates look simply gorgeous against the chocolate walls!  Now, if only I could find a couple of plate hangers in the dumpster I could hang them up! Just watch -- they'll turn up soon!

Turkey Freesourcefullness

One of my favorite traditions is making turkey soup after Thanksgiving!

After we make turkey sandwiches, turkey tetrazini, and turkey mu shu, I take the poor remaining, naked carcass of the turkey and throw it in a pot of water on the stove. This year we also threw in the remains of a bag of rice, two extra cans of green beans that weren't needed for the green bean casserole, Ruth's can of carrots, Mark's cans of peas and corn, and some salt and pepper. And then we all ate for two days and put a big Tupperware container in the freezer for later. All for FREE (because we had everything on hand).

I just adore that kind of resourcefulness!  I feel all Depression-era-survivor!  It's like my own little victory over the economy.  I can conquer the empty cabinet!  I can feed large numbers of people delicious food on scraps and cleverness!

With 5 kids and a small budget, I pride myself of being able to feed everyone for minimal cost.  Asian stir fry for 7 costs about $6 to make. 

I can feed 12 people large amounts of spaghetti and garlic bread for $13 -- with leftovers!).  This is how Mark's family bonds -- over LOTS of spaghetti!  (This may have something to do with the fact that Mark has three brothers and two sons so "boy quantities" are necessary.  This is a new mentality that I've had to learn after feeding a house full of girls all these years!)

Leftover spahetti sauce, a $1 can of refrigerator biscuits, and some cheese becomes everyone's favorite "biscuit pizza" (just flatten the biscuit dough, add sauce and cheese, and bake)! 

I also love to make butternut squash soup - boil a large butternut squash (usually about $5) until it's easy to peel, cook until it's easy to puree, add garlic, salt, pepper, and a couple of bouillion cubes and voila!  A little sour cream on top makes it especially good!  And it's massively healthy too!

When the cupboard is bare, I often whip up a quiche with a homemake crust using just flour, butter, the dregs of the veggie drawer, 6 eggs, a splash of milk, and the last handful of cheese.

One of Sara-Grace's favorite dishes is Asian peanut noodles (recipe below).  Usually I have everything on hand even when there's not much food in the house -- like when I pull into Enid in the evening and need to conjure up dinner immediately!

Most nights, I make dinner (for 4-5) for less than $10. I am very proud of this ability. But more than that, there is comfort in knowing that it doesn't have to cost a lot to eat well!




Asian Peanut Noodles

1/3 cup peanut butter
4 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoons vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
2 teaspoon powdered ginger
2 sliced scallions

Mix together over low to medium heat.  Serve over spahetti noodles.