Never forget to wear your smile

I have jokingly called my home decor Ghetto Chic since I love to find things on the curb and fix them or repurpose them. I have recently decided that I do that because I am sort of apologizing for things that I actually enjoy doing. I have actually tried to go into new furniture stores and the appeal just isnt there for me. Over the weekend I came up with a new name for my decorating taste, Urban Farm Charm. Expect lots of post about this. So many ideas, so little time. I love to find something on the curb and give it a new home and use. This really makes me smile and my home is filled with these smiles. I hope your life is filled with things that make you smile too.


Mr Ladybug and I had a very productive day yesterday. We have wanted to do something with our front porch but wasnt quite sure what.

A few curb finds later and we have a nice sitting area. We painted the chairs periwinkle and covered the seats with indoor/outdoor fabric. The fabric was priced $16 a yard but was marked down to $11 at Hobby Lobby. The table was on the curb as well and had a little rust on it. We bought paint that would cover most surfaces and it covered the glass top pretty well so you cant see some of the rust up underneath of it. We did not attach the seat bottoms back to the chairs. We can now take them in if we think they will get wet. $19 for two chairs and a table really isnt too bad. I know I could have gotten a cheaper fabric but I was so in love with this pattern.

In between painting and upholstering, I had so much fun using a staple gun, we smoked some tilapia and had tacos with mango salsa. It was so yummy! It wasnt one of my $5 meals but came in around $8 for 4 people and I think I can live with that.

Tilapia tacos with mango salsa

2 pounds of tilapia grilled, smoked or baked
Corn tortillas heated up, I stack mine and heat them in a covered dish on the oven at 250 degrees until warm. A microwave would probably work but I dont have one.

Mango salsa
1 mango cubed
1/2 jalapeno seeded and chopped
1/2 cup red onion chopped
3-4 TBS chopped cilantro

Does it get any simpler than that? I dont think so.

I am not a big breakfast person but in my quest for better health I am trying to eat or in this case drink something every morning. This morning it was a blueberry smoothie.

1 cup of blueberries, I used frozen
1/2 banana, this adds some sweetness
3/4 cup greek yogurt
1 TBS chia seeds

Blend and sip.

I am pretty sure that I have mentioned every home should have an aloe vera plant. I saw this cute pot and new I had to grab it for my oldest daughter who does not have one. Imagine my surprise when I seen there were actually two plants in this one pot. I am going to give them some fresh soil and separate them and give the other one someone. Two for the price of one, that makes me smile too!

Time Savers

The two things most of wish we had more of are time and money. Mr Ladybug had to work a little late last night and I was figuring out what I wanted to get done before he got home and I kept adding things to my list and I have no idea how I expected to get them done. I work from home and dont manage to get my to do list completed every day. I really dont know how people get all the things they need to get done and have a job they have to drive to 40 or more hours a week. I am a little spoiled being able to be home like this morning I took Mr Ladybug to work around 6:15 on my way back home three cars in front of me turned into Starbucks for their morning fix. I make Mr Ladybugs morning brew but I usually wait until I get back home to sip my tea.

Even though I do love to cook I do love things that make life easier. We are not big on eating out, not because we think you are evil if you eat out its just terrible expensive and I am sort of cheap. Trust me if I have good coupons and we can all eat pizza from Pizza Hut for less than $10 bucks and have leftovers for tomorrow lunch this momma is all over that.

Imagine my happy face when I see a whole rotisserie chicken for less than $4 and I know I can get three meals out of it.

My 21 year old loves Chipotle. I think if she could afford it she would eat there every day. We always tease her about being in a burrito coma after she eats there. In fact we plan on going there tomorrow because my mom has never eaten there and my daughter thinks thats a travesty. One of the meal I made with the chicken was a chicken rice bowl sort of like Chipotle. Since last night Mr Ladybug was working late and our son has a class that doesnt get out until 6 I made Big Salads. Have you ever seen the episode of Seinfield where they talked about the big salad? Its one of our favorites and big salad is one of our family favorites too. With the remaining carcass and as you can see I left some meat on it I will make a chicken stock and some chicken noodle soup. All of these things allow me to do one of my favorite things and thats get a meal prepared fast and feed 4 people for around $5!

I was at a Walmart store that was a grocery store only. Those things are pretty snazzy. I found a veggie pizza for less than $4 and thought it would be great for our Chipotle loving vegetarian. I came home cut it into four pieces layered it in between parchment paper and put it in freezer bags. I remembered to put the heating instructions on it too. It reheated perfectly. A quick lunch or snack for less than a dollar!

These are just a few ways we save time and money around the urban farm. I hope you found it helpful and as always I am open to any suggestions and ideas you use to save time and money at your house as well.

I loved the quote at the top of this post. I have been trying to be more intentional in my life. When I think of intentional I usually think about with my finances and my relationships but now I will add with my time to my intentional list as well.

Replenishing your garden

The veggies are winding down and the herbs and the flowers and the grass but not my run on sentences! As Mr Ladybug and I were clearing out some garden area over the weekend we were discussing fertilizing the winter bed. We will be planting onions, lettuce, carrots. spinach and they will either lay dormant until spring or will grow very slowly but yield an early crop. We have done this in the past with much success. We just plant, cover with a hoop of plastic and not look at it until late February. On warmer days we will take a peek. Within the next few days we will add rabbit poo, worm castings, worm tea and compost to our beds. We try to keep everything as natural as possible. Next year I would love to try cover crops. There is always something new to try or learn in the garden.

Look at these last peppers from the bed we cleared out. We have banana peppers as you can see some turned red because they were forgotten. We have a chocolate bell pepper which was new and I really loved them. there is a jalapeno or two. The jalapenos are a bit disappointing since we thought we planted some and they ended up being bell peppers and someone keep taking them from our community garden plot. Thats okay we have a different garden plan for next year and I cant wait to share that with you when the time draws close. Anyway with this hodge podge of peppers I plan on making a sweet relish. I might even name it Hodge Podge Pepper Relish.

Mr Ladybug had a regular doctor appt the other day and he was told he needed to make some changes. Nothing terrible, well unless you really like to drink coffee. He needs to limit coffee. We both decided we need to start watch fat, calories, carbs and fun before its too late and we have to take lots of medicines. Not that I am telling people you dont have to take your meds and I know that some people watch their diet like a hawk and still have to take meds. We just feel that we would feel better if we ate better. We aint getting any younger. Mr Ladybug will be the big 50 next year and I follow him 9 months later. Exciting stuff. I am looking forward to being 50 and fabulous.

Just like our garden needs to be fed good things for healthy soil so do we. I can not afford to buy new soil every year for my garden and we only have one body so we need to take care of it.

So lots of new menus items for us and I guess that will give me something to do when I cant garden. This morning I put together a zucchini crusted quiche. It was so yummy and only 325 calories! I even got a little crazy and rode our stationary bike for 15 minutes while it was cooking. I am on a roll today.



Crustless Quiche

1 egg
1 oz cheese
2 TBS chopped red pepper
2 TBS chopped red onion
2 oz steak or any meat of your choice
1 TBS cream or milk will be fine. I just happened to have cream in the fridge
Zucchini sliced with a veggie peeler. Enough to place around sides and bottom of your pan


Preheat over to 350 degrees. Place 6-10 zucchini slices in your pan. I used a disposable pot pie pan. Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour over your crust. Bake for 30 minutes.  This is for one serving. You could multiply the recipe 8 times and make a fill sized pie and just cut it in 8 slices. It would be great to make ahead for a quick morning breakfast. You can use any meat you have. I just happened to have leftover steak I needed to use up. This could easily be a lunch and dinner item as well.