The Thrifty Gypsy

Monday, May 20, 2013

Spring!

Thank you all for your kind comments and emails from my last post. I am so very proud my son came to me. I'm glad we have this kind of relationship, I hope that it continues!

Spring is here! We have baseball, horses, swimming and karate! All kinds of busy! But I wouldn't have it any other way. I have been planting some flowers, even though it's not entirely safe to do this before Memorial Day here in Upstate NY. I have planted a few planters and thought I would share!

I also took some pictures of my daughters bedroom I will share tomorrow. Two posts in the same week?!?! My goodness! :)

XOXO

Friday, May 3, 2013

Why I am deleting Pinterest......

I know what your thinking. I go on a six week blog hiatus and come back to boycott something! And while I do have a million things to tell you, like we went to Washington DC and VA while my kids and husband had the flu and how the new mattress has been. I'm rearranging stuff lately like nobody's business. And I'm enjoying this spring weather out in my yard to no end. We are riding and horse show season is starting. However, my reasons for deleting Pinterest are far more important.

A few weeks ago my 12 yr old sons asked me if they could join Pinterest. I thought, sure! It's a lot of fun to have an "online" pin board. They could pin fancy cars, horses and all the other things they are interested in. My boys have safari disabled on their Ipads, but Pinterest DOES allow you to search the web for pins. We discussed this and they weren't using it. Although I think one of them had wandered over to You tube with it a few times. Everything seemed hunky dorey until tonight when one of my sons came in my office with his face beat red and crying. He was confessing that he had seen "bad" pictures on Pinterest. My first thought was that he had gone on the web and wasn't telling the truth. So I asked him "you saw it on Pinterest? or you searched the web". It was on Pinterest mom. Now, I won't paint this picture that he just stumbled upon this without searching. Apparently he put in "sexy girls" in the search box. And when I did it, under "pins" there wasn't much there, but boy when I clicked over to "boards" that is when I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm not talking just naked pictures, I'm talking hard-core pornography. It made me so sad that innocence was lost in an instant. On Pinterest for God's sake....... And he was crying and completely ashamed of himself. But still, I am mad. VERY mad that I let him go on this and this is what happens.

Yes, I understand that I can "report" the pins. But if you saw how many there are... and how many members are doing this. Seems like fighting a losing battle. And I just googled "porn on pinterest" and see this isn't a new problem. Oh how I wish I had done this before. It seemed so G-rated and benign. Little did I know. :( And what I can't stop thinking about is, how can I be a member of Pinteres? With my son seeing I am on there and knowing what he saw? I just can't. Yes, it's fun, and wonderful place to get recipes and etc. But I have lived 39 1/2 yrs without it. And I can certainly live without it now.

Anyway, I posted this tonight to let you know how I was feeling. And maybe to save someone else's children from seeing this garbage on there.

So I guess if you find something I can't live without, email it to me! kritt17@aol.com! :)

XOXO

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Lamp domino.....

Just wondered if anyone else does this? Or am I the only one?

yes there are light sabers in my basket..... no time for cropping when your insane! LOL!

I got a new lamp, which I will post about soon. But it has been in my house for 2 weeks and I hadn't put it out yet. So tonight I thought would be a good time to put it in the family room. I put it on the table and have proceeded to move about 8 other lamps, switched lampshades, finals, you name it!! Now I have lamps everywhere and I don't like them anywhere else. Why do I do this to myself? Tell me I'm not alone! Hopefully I will have this resolved before bed........ However it's 11:30 pm, so it's not looking good!!

STAY TUNED!!!!!!!!

XOXO

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Move over Sandra Lee

There is something to be said for "semi" homemade. She definitely coined a market! Whenever I go somewhere, dinner, visiting a friend and etc. I like to bring something. And I was one of those people who HAD to make something, like move heaven and earth to do it. Aka-stressmyselftothemaxtodoit!

The thought of bringing a box of store bought brownies made me crazy. Honestly though, I have come so far as to do JUST that a few times. I'm getting easier on myself. Part of my "learning how to say no" phase of life. I think I could start a whole blog series with that one. Anyway, a story for another day. ;)

I like to cook, but I also like to not stress myself out. I was going to my sisters house a few weeks ago and I told her I would bring dessert. Of course that weekend was full of swimming, karate, horse riding and etc. You get the idea. So low and behold it's Saturday night and I hadn't even thought of what I was bringing. I love trifles. They are usually pretty to look at. The dish can be found at Walmart or Target for about $6 - $10. I think Pampered Chef has a fancy one that has a cover and all. For much more money of course. They are usually just layering ingredients and fun to scoop out too!

I usually make strawberry shortcake with homemade biscuits (and every blue moon homemade whipped cream!) because it's my dad's FAVORITE dessert. :)

It doesn't take anytime at all to throw together. Sometimes, if the strawberries aren't very sweet, I will cut them up and sprinkle a bit of sugar on them. Then I let them sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. But I didn't do that this time (they were sweet) and it was still delicious.

Ingredients-

2 - packages of store baked biscuits
3- big packages of strawberries
1- 16 oz container of cool whip (I kind of ran out of cool whip, I would do another 8 oz or just get 2 - 16 oz for next time!)

layer them all! :)

Voila! Strawberry Shortcake Trifle!

XOXO

Sunday, March 3, 2013

SPAM war

I am just wondering if I am waging this war alone or is everyone experiencing this?

Do any of you feel like this when you see all the anonymous comments that are SPAM when you open your email?

I'm not talking about this kind of spam either!

I mean THIS kind!!!!!

Then I log into blogger to delete the spam

I "delete all" the comments that are under the SPAM section of the comments.....

And then I realize that there are MORE SPAM comments in the "published" section!

And yes this is what I looked like when I found it there by accident!

I really do not want to put word verification on here. I usually can't read the words in it. When I am trying to use it on blogs I visit I can't get my comment on there! I also really do not want to moderate comments because I will still be dealing with the SPAM (I think?).

I would LOVE to hear what you are doing about this? It is actually keeping me from posting because I am deleting 20-30 spam comments a day!

Help please! :)

I want feel like THIS again when blogging....

XOXO

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Recycled finial

I wanted to share this very easy, very quick project with you. We recently (in the last 2 years) got a Hobby Lobby. After YEARS of hearing my cousins bargains there. She lives in the South. Anyway, it's one of my favorite craft and decor stores. I don't get there too often, but when I do I'm usually in there a LONG time! My poor family knows the deal and usually wants me to go there alone. ;)

I bought an adorable wine stopper there that had a crown on it. Well, I BROKE the cork part off trying to get it out of the wine bottle. It was too cute to throw away. So I thought for a minute and came up with this idea.....

I spray painted one of those plain finials that come on lamps sometimes.

Then I glued the crown to the finial I spray painted black.

Voila! From broken to recycled! Sometimes the littlest things excite me!!!

I think it makes an ADORABLE finial! On my thrift store lamp!

Come join the fun at

WOW Us Wednesday's

Open House Party Thursday's at No Minimalist Here

XOXO

Monday, February 11, 2013

Slipcover secret

Not a great shot but you see it was almost white even though they call it "natural"

I discovered a secret..... I wasn't sure it would work but I figured it was worth a try. I have the Pottery barn basic down filled sofa. It was one of the very few "new" purchases we bought. Many of you know that I am the second (third, fourth and etc) hand queen. Although upholstery pieces can be tough to buy second hand because most have to be reupholstered. A chair is one thing but a sofa is a financial commitment Anyway, I digress..... I hemmed and hawwed on buying this sofa, but the size was perfect. It seems like most sofa's today are G I A N T. I needed something smaller scale and comfortable. In other words, it couldn't swallow up the room. So when I looked and sat on the basic from PB, I knew it would work well. I waited for their winter sale and bought it. I have washed the slipcover at least 3 times and it comes out great. The key is to NOT dry it all the way and put it back on the sofa a TAD damp.

This fall I wanted something a little darker or more "cozy". But the prices of the PB slipcovers are downright ridiculous! I just could not justify the cost of them when I could actually buy a new SOFA for the price on some of the fabrics they had listed. Then I remembered how similar the IKEA Ektorp sofa was to the basic. Sadly, we do not have an IKEA nearby. So of course I jumped on Ebay to find this pretty Idemo Brown slipcover for $79.99. I figured if it didn't fit, I could consign it or sell it again on Ebay. I am SO HAPPY to report that it fits! And at that price point, I could get my sofa it's own wardrobe!

So if you have a PB basic and your wanting a different color, go ahead and get the Ektorp slipcover! You'll be SO happy you did! :)

Here it is "undressed" without the pillows. It fits perfectly!