News & Blog

Hello, my lovelies, I hope you are having a beautiful May so far, complete with your favorite flowers! Steve and I have started a new home project recently, so I thought I'd share a sneak peek with you. We are still in the midst of it, but it's coming along! We are doing a DIY dollarwise patio makeover, turning the space into our "Secret Garden Getaway." We have done this in other homes/apartments/condos we have lived in and had great fun with it. This time is a bit differe

Hello my lovelies, DISCLOSURES Flowers make me oh-so-happy so I thought I would share some lovely dollarwise floral gift ideas, especially with Mother's Day coming up in May. FOR THE LADY WHO LIKES PRETTY MUGS Christian floral mugs -- I just bought these and they are SO gorgeous! Large floral mug with gift box How about tea for one in a pretty floral pattern? -- It's fun to curl up in bed with a good book and tea! FOR THE LADY WHO STILL LOVES TO WRITE HANDWRITTEN NOTES Flora

Hello, my lovelies! April brought flowers to our little cottage home -- indoors and out! But here's our secret: they are all faux. Yep, after years of planting real flowers and succulents in other places that we lived, in Arizona it's easier to "grow" faux flowers! They look so real but we don't have to water or weed them or change out the soil or fertilize or ... :) I still love real flowers, of course, but as a "seasoned 60s senior" now, I know my limits of time and

Hello my lovelies! Whether you live in a small home or a large one, the basic reason that some homes look and feel peaceful, calm, cozy, and orderly is because they have less stuff overall + good products to organize the home goods that one wants or needs to have in their home. My favorite recent home organizing (and other) products are below and I am very glad I bought all of them. My hope here is that you might find something here that will make your home more functional a

Hello my lovelies, Saddened by recent world events, I want to share this personal story of a long-forgotten memory from about 40 years ago that came back to me in the middle of the night recently, seemingly out of nowhere. When my husband Steve and I were young marrieds in our 20s living in a tiny town of Nebraska where Steve was working as a junior banker, Steve met a guy through his work, Phil, who invited him to the local Optimist Club, of which Phil was President. They q

Hello my lovelies! Welcome to both my long time readers and my new readers/subscribers. January and February have found me and my husband Steve streamlining our entire little house and systems, because even though we "declutter" our home on an ongoing basis, once a year or so we do a bigger deeper declutter and donate to Goodwill, and we also spruce things up aesthetically. When are you moving to Hawaii? Below is one of the "games" I play with myself to make decluttering and

Hello, my lovelies! Steve and I have been decluttering and re-sprucing up our home since about January 1 and one of the things I got rid of this big declutter session was ALL glass candle holders and faux candles. I love romantic white lighting, but alas, my hand grip isn't what it used to be so I want as little glass in my home as possible after cleaning some broken glass up a couple of times. And I don't want to use real candles as I think they are a fire hazard, nor faux

Hello, my lovelies! With so many people relocating now due to the pandemic, and/or just wanting to make the home you already live in feel less cluttered, more spacious, and more organized, I thought this was a good time for a sale on two of my home eBooks on those topics. Just $1.99 through the end of February. Here you go ... Steve and I have been streamlining our little cottage home since January 1 or so. We do this on a regular basis, but once a year we re-evaluate ever

Hello, my lovelies! My book publisher has recently retitled my Small Space Organizing book/eBook as Maximizing Your Small Space and they also gave it this fun new cover! The Maximizing Your Small Space eBook is now for sale on pre-order. The paperback version is available now for pre-order as well and will release approximately March, 2022. If you like/prefer audio books, it will also be available soon from ChristianAudio.com. PLEASE NOTE: If you've already bought my origi

Hello my lovelies! I've always smiled at this quote: "I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights." --Maya Angelou So, I thought I'd share some nifty organizing products for Christmas decor storage below. BUT HERE'S ANOTHER THOUGHT: Alternatively, you could go super-minimalist-Christmas like we purposely chose to do a couple years ago and now all our Christmas

Hello my lovelies! Does the over-the-top commercial glitz and expense of the Christmas season ever wear on you? Call me Grinch, but sometimes it does me! Steve and I have celebrated many (wonderful) styles of Christmases over our 41 years married, most of them simple and sweet and yes, some of them a bit fancier, but my favorite way to celebrate is to focus on ... Christ's humble birth that resulted in a gently powerful life mission as God and Savior of the world, for everyon

Christmas Greetings, my lovelies! DISCLOSURES When we visited my Grandma at her cozy little farmhouse located on a picturesque river when I was growing up, at Christmas she greeted us with the yummiest homemade molasses cookies, usually warm right out of the oven. This prompted me to go to my cookbook binder this year to find her vintage recipe to share with you. Since I turned 63 this year, this recipe is at least 55 years old. I hope you enjoy it! My Grandma's Molasses Co

Hello, my lovelies! I've come upon some more Good Little Things Lately from all over the world to share with you, and I hope you enjoy them and find them useful as well. BTW, some things would make great dollarwise Christmas gifts too. "I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me into a department store and he asked for my autograph." --Shirley Temple :) DISCLOSURES GOOD THINGS TO ORGANIZE A DESK: I've been doing lots of year-end and 2022 planning the

Hello my lovelies! Soon we'll be celebrating the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday so I thought I'd round up some dollarwise Good Little Things to help us all celebrate ... some require zero cash outlay, and for those that do require a little money, with Amazon Prime's efficient delivery, there's still time to order. I've also included a couple links to some dreamy Thanksgiving locations ... and of course, dreaming is FREE, which makes it even more fun in my dollarwise lifestyl

UPDATED & REPUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 2021 Hello my lovelies! Personally, I still don't believe it's a good idea to travel, with Covid being what it still appears to be according to the news. So let's take a little "armchair travelers" trip together on my blog today, from our own cozy homes, shall we? But first, let me ask you if you've ever considered this ... Is Bed & Breakfast Inn travel for YOU? My husband Steve and I have stayed at nearly 70 bed and breakfast inns in 17 U.S

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Hello from Arizona, my dears! UPDATED POST SEPTEMBER, 2021: This was published awhile back in the spring of I think 2020 or so, (not sure of exact date, sorry), but I have updated and edited it to republish it now. I took most of these pix from the car through my closed window, so that's the reason some are a bit blurry. Please armchair travel along with us, enjoy the trip, and make sure any in-person travel you do is as Covid-safe for you and others as you can manage.

UPDATE: September, 2021: I originally wrote this post pre-pandemic, to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. I thought it would be fun to republish it now for "armchair travel" from home during Covid, when we're all staying home more and/or not traveling in-person at all, which is a good time to plan a future trip! Should you travel in person, please check the latest Covid travel advisories and be safe! Because this was written quite some time ago, and businesses have als

DISCLOSURES Hello, my lovelies! I thought it was time to share some things I've come across lately that made me smile. I'm feeling a little wordy today, so this will be a long post, but hopefully it's filled with useful resources, tips, and pretties that you might use yourself, and also enjoy! If you want to get yourself some tea or "calming" coffee in your favorite cup, (here's my fave cup lately), I'll wait for you! ARIZONA ARMCHAIR TRAVELS PAST & FUTURE Let's do a little

DISCLOSURES Hello, my lovelies! I had half of a can of black beans in the fridge so I decided to make homemade enchiladas. I saw a few recipes online but they seemed overly complicated and since I like SIMPLE, I made up my own version and my hubby and I both enjoyed them so I thought you might too! DIRECTIONS FOR INSIDE FILLING: Mix all of the below together in a large bowl: 1 can refried pinto beans, mashed up with a fork 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (I used my ha