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 abilities and gardening and all it entails is no longer a priority so this is a nice alternative to still get the beauty without the labor. DISCLOSURES Our new wreath makes me smile! (As I write this it's 35% off if you want one!) It's perfect for the front of the trellis Steve installed for me a few months ago and I love the bright colors of the flowers. When people walk in our neighborhood the many brightly colored doors and outdoor decor make people smile as they walk by. I've noticed people seem to be painting their doors a pretty color more. One row of cottages on a street next to us has many new pretty front doors in various colors of the same style door which makes me wonder if they all got together and negotiated a bulk door sale! :) In any event, it looks charming! These new faux blooms make me so happy too -- so full and colorful that they look real and the color is a nice distraction from our utilitarian shoe and mask basket on our step. They are also UV resistant so in our hot AZ sun that's a good thing! Steve just hung this new blooming beauty on the side of our house where I can see it outside our kitchen window when it's open. Similar. We considered whether to put up a hummingbird feeder, but with the intense Arizona heat in the summer Steve was worried the nectar could be not good for the birds if it got too hot/rancid so we hung this faux bloom instead. And I like the bird hanger. Similar. We get a lot of wind here some days, so Steve put a few rocks in the bottom to help the possibly wildly-swinging-plant cause along and that worked! It's a big drought in the Southwest currently, so the palm trees and cactus are looking a little worse for wear right now. Some of the cactus are actually tipping over. That is sad because it takes a very very long time for them to grow large. I also like to use flowers inside our home, and these new flocked floral blankets even make me feel like I'm napping in a garden! They are SO nice, especially for the price. They washed up like a dream and the floral design is raised and "furry" -- not just printed, so that makes them extra cozy. Also, these silk zippered pillowcases are my absolute favorite and the floral patterns are beautiful, no matter which ones I have bought over the years. Great gift too for Mother's Day so your special Mom feels like a Queen! You'll sleep like a dream on these I'd bet -- I do! Steve and I are enjoying our "flowered bed" for our movie nights in front of our TV. BTW, if you missed our free "scientific experiment" of how to measure to buy the right size new TV for your room, go here. Some of our favorite shows we have watched lately on our new TV and really enjoyed are: Kirsten & Joerg -- An adorable German couple who moved to England and they share wonderful videos of both countries as well as recipes and their beautiful DIY home decor renovations. We smile at their interactions as a longtime married couple with distinct personalities -- fun and funny! Steve and I are both of German descent and we are also both longtime Anglophiles as American Episcopalians since the early 80s too so we love watching their videos. We also share their love of inns, however our inn travels have been across the U.S. vs. Europe. Escape to the Country -- Tours of English homes with interesting pix and tidbits about English country life thrown in. Beautiful scenery. Bliss! Dietmar & Nellia -- Oh my, can this senior German couple dance!! So fun to watch them and the looks on the young people's faces watching them is priceless - they love them! Here is the girl in the garden painting hanging above my desk. Steve says it reminds him of me when he met me at age 18. The garden scene in the pix is really pretty in person -- very realistic. I love Glover's floral paintings and have another one that is a total favorite. BTW, if you have a window in a room you can still hang a picture over it. Read on below to find out my little trick! And yes, I love my organizing trolleys. They are not fine furniture, but you just can't beat them for sorting things so it's all SO functional. Just attach some cording or ribbon to the back of the picture and tie a bow at the top. Then hang it on a C-hook that you have installed in the wall behind the curtain. Presto! You can raise or lower the picture by varying the length of the cording. Here's an easy way to make your living room, (or any room), look more spacious and open ... Remove some things. There, I said it. And move the remaining things around. We took out two chairs and a rug that was more old-fashioned in design and we removed some small wall items. Steve carted them all off to Goodwill as we didn't want to mess with trying to resell them and it makes us feel good to donate things that no longer feel right for us in our home because someone else will use and like them most likely. We angled our loveseat in the corner. Doing all that opened up our small living room a lot. Our coffee table we already had and it is purposely glass since the room is small and glass tables help a room feel less cramped. We also added a simple foyer table and fireproof storage carriers. After surviving the CA wildfires in 2007, I learned to have fireproof carriers and keep them as close to the front door as you can. And I wanted a table that sort of floated and was more modern. I like mixing old styles and new. (To a point.) We also added colorful and more modern feeling floral style rugs, (similar), and just one simple succulent arrangement on top the table in our living room. Everything is streamlined really well now in our home and it feels so much more open and "flowy" and yes, "gardeny" too in our living room which is what we were going for. I might repaint the white cube cabinet in our living room one day. Who knows?! It holds Steve's tools and some paint. Steve cut the legs off of it a couple years ago so it would fit next to our coffee bar with a hamper on top for the right height. Oh well, then we moved it again but It's fine! Soon we are going to put the ice maker machine we just bought on top of the cube cabinet. We do not have an ice maker in our freezer and in Arizona in the summer, you need ice! We are looking forward to making iced tea and iced coffee soon and sitting outside in our cabana. New pillow covers added some more flowers! BTW, new pillow covers are one of my favorite dollarwise ways to change out your decor, along with colorful throws and new rugs. How are your pillows and rugs looking lately? Do you need to spruce them up?! Nobody would blame you for spending a little money on new ones since you have been in lock down staring at your same decor for 2+ years now and can probably use a change-out! Our living room is not perfectly balanced due to the gray file holders, but that's okay. It needed function first and the rest just has to be okay and not magazine-worthy and that's fine by us. Things are also blooming again in our at-home Bechen Bistro. (bistro sign) We streamlined all our fave recipes into one binder. But for most dishes we cook we just make it up as we go. Hearty comfort foods are our favorite cook-at-home fare, made from whole fresh ingredients. As Steve says: "Let's save the pretty foo-foo food for when we go back to eating out." I agree. Simple is best when you make 352 days a year worth of your own meals at home which we have done for the past two years. We have had all our groceries delivered, but no take-out, no take-in, no restaurant deliveries. No ready-made deli beans and coleslaw and potato salad. Nada. We have made it all! And NO, we do not have any desire to open a restaurant in the future on the off-chance you might be wondering. :) And thank goodness for Amazon Fresh grocery delivery! They have done a wonderful job with our deliveries. I tried others but it's worth it to me for their efficiency which saves me time and all the produce etc. has been wonderful. Steve is helping lots with our cooking these days since he retired from his full-time career last year. We team it depending on the day. He has really enjoyed learning to expand on his once-small-cooking-repertoire of "college guys cuisine" --- a.k.a. tuna noodle casserole! :) When I complimented him recently on how much he has improved on his "clean up as you go" method, he replied good-naturedly: "Well with a small kitchen you HAVE to do it that way!" I laughed because at one point I suddenly realized he had never learned to clean up as you cook so it was time for this teacher to teach him that skill! And now, he tells me that's how it has to be in a small kitchen, God love him. (Kind of like a reformed smoker who preaches "stop smoking!" to all, right?!) He's laughing as I read this to him and said: "It's all in good fun!" For Steve's recent special occasion dinner, I brought out his favorite color tablecloth: green! He is half Irish so he loves green. I put some little faux succulents on the table for a little garden-y zing. They usually sit on my kitchen window ledge so I just grabbed them for the table. And these are the "copycat" Runza recipe I made in memory of our many years living in Omaha, Nebraska where Runzas are a big deal. Think cold snowy days and nights made easier with a warm homecooked yummy! I just wrapped bread dough I made from scratch (any recipe you like) around sautéed plant sausages, onion, and peppers. I added a bit of shredded plant cheese on top of the "meat" mixture and baked them for about 30 minutes or so. Delish! To go with the Runzas I made potato salad which was a good combo. For Easter, I made two loaves of what I am calling "tea bread." I doubled this vegan muffin recipe, which is wonderfully tasty, and I put lemon and lemon zest in one and topped it with crushed pecans. (Lemons from our own tree!) The other loaf I added vanilla, blueberries, and peaches. Both turned out really nice and I sliced them and Steve wrapped each slice in foil for the freezer. Now when we have coffee or tea as a break in the afternoon we can just pop a slice in the microwave and slice in two again and share. YUM! Thanks to those of you who have emailed me Easter greetings, and blessings to you this Easter. A beautiful song about the true meaning of Easter; this one makes me cry every single time. My favorite book about Christianity that I first read when I was just 21 years old is Mere Christianity and C.S. Lewis is by far still my favorite Christian author. The cross above is from my personal collection. The butterfly was a gift sent to me when I was very ill from author Alexandra Stoddard and her late husband author Peter Brown. The vase under the cross and butterfly says: BLOOM. This is my wish for all of us! Blessings, blooms, and Happy Easter and springtime to you and yours, Kathryn :) P.S. If you need easy DIY home helps, here you go ... My books and eBooks #kathrynbechen #kathrynbechenauthor #authorkathrynbechen #Easter #Christianity #JesusChrist #cookathome #flowers #gardens #decorating #dollarwisedecorating #organizing #dollarwisedecorating #cookathome

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 original book, Small Space Organizing, you have the information/manuscript/tips already as that was not changed inside the new Maximizing Your Small Space package/version. This book focuses on both DIY organizing and decorating tips and ideas, mostly based on my living in 15 small home spaces myself with my husband over our now 41 years of marriage. The book/eBook has no photos, so here are photos of some of our own past small homes to give you some visual examples of some of the ideas I mention in the book. Please note that my tips are applicable/adjustable to any small home space be it a house, condo, or apartment. You use my book to tap your own DIY creativity! There is also a chapter for RVs. And many of the tips and ideas can be used in a larger home as well since even large homes have small spaces within them. You deserve an orderly and beautiful home, whatever its size and wherever you live! Kathryn :) #KathrynBechen #KathrynBechenauthor #AuthorKathrynBechen #Smallspaces #Smallspaceorganizing #Smallspacedecorating #DIYhomeorganizing #DIYhomedecorating #homeorganizing #homedecorating

Have some plain white cabinets in your home that need perking up? Try decals! They are such a fun and dollarwise way to do a little cabinet (or wall) spruce-up. Here's how we used them in our home recently ... DISCLOSURES My best tip for installation is to ask your hubby to install the decals. :) Steve likes to help with home projects of all kinds and he's handier with things like this than I am so I'm all for his help. My job was to research/source Amazon to find what I thought would look good and here they are. They look like watercolor paintings and are really nice quality in person. You can't see them on the cabinets as "decals" at all; they look like they are painted on there. They are substantial in size so that worked well too. Other decals. The first week after Steve put these on, every time he came out of his home office he would comment, "I love those pots; they added so much!" We had the colorful painting from a past vacation, and I bought orchids and topiaries to complement that for additional charm. We are considering changing the cabinet handles too, but we have not gotten to that just yet. Changing handles on a plain white cabinet is another way to make them look more updated and/or "custom." Personally, I like these and these as I think they would look nice with our floor and also look good on our dark oak-ish kitchen and bathroom cabinets as well. Update: I am also still very pleased at how the functionality of our pantry is working too after using it awhile. So much easier than the several small cabinets we once used as mini-pantries before Covid turned all our homes into a grocery store! With my pantry groceries all in one place, just a glance makes it easy to see what I need the next time I place an online grocery order. A thought: Some people set up their pantries with everything still in original boxes and bags and there is nothing wrong with doing it that way as there is more than one way to organize a functional pantry. I personally prefer to use bins I can see through and baskets I can see into easily and here's why: with clear bins I know exactly how many noodles or crackers I have left and with one glance I know when I should order more instead of thinking a box is full of crackers when there are really only two (broken!) crackers left in there that I can't see unless I open the box. I don't like fiddling with things unduly so I prefer the "at a glance" method for my pantry. I don't want to be caught with two broken crackers hidden in a box that I thought was a whole full box of crackers if I want to make a snack tray serendipitously. Also, this clear bin method makes it easier to have a family member take a glance through the pantry, write down what needs to be re-stocked on a magnetic pad you keep on your fridge, and then give you the list to order groceries. Team work! NO! This is our skinny cabinet we also added recently at the end of our kitchen cabs. I first bought this pantry decal and liked how the font looked, but overall it was an epic fail that never stayed on well so finally I tore it off and tossed it and then ... YES! Now this is what I should have bought first! It's very sturdy and Steve bought darker screws to match our bronze sign instead of bright silver glaring at you. Adds just that little touch. Little things add so much to the feeling of home, in my opinion. Maybe you can't afford a $20,000 kitchen remodel, or you just don't want the upheaval of a remodel, but you can do some dollarwise small things to make your current kitchen and home a little cuter and more functional. What can you do to add a little dollarwise charm to your pantry and kitchen? I know you can come up with something! Happy house-love and prettier cabinets, my lovelies, Kathryn :) #kathrynbechen #kathrynbechenauthor #authorkathrynbechen #pantryorganizing #homecooking #cookingathome

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 and/or prettier too. DISCLOSURES BATHROOM BEAUTIES: This new acrylic makeup and toiletries organizer I bought recently is attractive and functional. It holds a lot and streamlines everything into one nice place. It spins. It's easy to clean; just wipe off with a wet cloth and dry. The shelves are adjustable. In other words, I love it! Now, if you don't like looking at your products, or want them in picture-perfect visual order on your counter, then you probably won't like this product. But for me, I wanted the ease of use all at my fingertips, and readily-visible, rather than an Instagram-worthy perfectly-organized products photo, so this was it! SAVE SPACE TIP: I also bought these acrylic tumblers to further organize products within my new bathroom toiletries spinner. They are very attractive and work well to further separate things, or stand tubes etc. up vs. have them lying on a shelf. I also used a couple of other small containers to make corralling small things like my earrings easier. PERSONAL PRODUCTS, NON-TOXIC, THAT I LOVE: (Be sure to check ingredient labels to make sure they work for you, as everyone is different!) I have found Weleda to be wonderful! Made in Germany, (home of generations of my ancestors, back to the 1600s, as far as I have traced), so I love German-engineered products as I know they stand out in quality. (Germans have innovatively invented and discovered lots of amazing things!) I especially like Weleda's sensitive line. Their sensitive calming oil and face cream are so nice and have been very effective for facial dryness and redness in our Arizona dry climate. I also have used Bach Flower Remedies for a long time, developed by German Dr. Edward Bach, and I love those as well. Storage tip below. Also, if you notice the deodorant bottle on my toiletries spinner, that's Lafe's and I use the unscented version and have for many years. I really like it. BUDGET SHOPPING TIP: I shop online a lot at Vitacost for most of my non-toxic toiletries, food, and supplements. They run great sales, often site-wide for every single product, so you might want to sign up for their mailing list to be notified of sales and get the current code to use. Great customer service. Easy return policy, no questions asked if something comes broken -- you call and they refund. Last year I figured out I saved hundreds of dollars on Vitacost's ongoing discounts, and that was just for one year and I have been shopping there for many years. It adds up, and my savvy shopping savings grow our travel/fun fund and our emergency fund! Want to save even more on your Vitacost orders? Enter the Rakuten site first and then click on Vitacost in there for a rebate on top of your Vitacost discount. Recently I got 12% off from Vitacost with 3% off from Rakuten on top of it. 15% off everything I ordered. Yay! Rakuten deposits the rebate into your bank account. Vitacost takes the discount off your cart before you pay. What could be easier?! (Check Vitacost for their Weleda brand products when on sale too; sometimes cheaper than Amazon.) HAPPY HAIRSPRAY: I have also looked for a long time for a new hairspray/gel I could tolerate with my severe fragrance sensitivities and this one by John Masters has done the trick. Not a very strong hold, but better than none and barely just a very faint essential oils smell that evaporates quickly. It's not inexpensive, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do, right?! MAGIC MAKEUP: Allergic or highly sensitive to makeups like I am? I really like Bellephoria and RMS Beauty. I have had excellent online customer service from both companies, repeatedly. RMS "Uncoverup" is my fave and I use it as a coverup and foundation in one, with Bellephoria face powder over it with just a light dusting with a brush. I like RMS Lip2Cheek lip color that doubles as blush too. I like Bellephoria's face powder the best of any face powder I have ever used. (Personally, I found RMS foundation and face powder did not work well with my skin -- was too drying in our Arizona desert climate and for my age 60s skin, but you might like it for your skin and where you live as it's creamy and goes on nicely.) I love these bamboo makeup brushes for applying face powder, especially for the dollarwise price! SMALL STORAGE DRAWERS: I recently moved my Bach Flower bottles to the little drawers in my kitchen I mentioned above. They do roll around a bit, but it's sufficient. You can also buy them as a kit to keep all on hand and keep them organized too. This mini Bach Flower kit and also this one make great try-them-out gifts! We could all use a little "hope & joy" and "clarity of mind" about now, right?! I put them in my water glass and sip throughout the day. If you want to learn more about Bach Flowers, this class I took years ago in person is now available online and it's excellent and easy to learn. WHERE'S MY MASCARA?! On the other side of my bathroom sink is this new makeup drawers holder. I bought it with clear drawers (vs. white opaque ones) purposely so I can see really quick what I need to grab to quickly do makeup. Dandy. I stood drawer towers two next to each other and that worked great. And when I am ready to go on a trip? Easy to just dump each drawer into pockets in my hanging toiletry bag really quickly. The acrylic glass tumbler I mentioned above works great for my makeup brushes. I also bought one of these trimmers for eyebrows and like it so much better than a tweezer that I will never go back. Those red and white lidded containers you see here? Those are salt and pepper shakers that hold my loose powder makeup. It avoids waste, looks cute, and when I travel I just put a piece of masking tape over the holes so the makeup doesn't get all over. But yes, they are plastic, sorry. (I know, landfills and our oceans!) If flying, I'd probably put tape around the top too so the lid would not pop off from air pressure and put it also in a zipper plastic bag for good measure just in case so that I wouldn't be wearing my makeup on my white top later. Yes, I know, sounds a little dramatic, but why chance ruining a white top or several other clothes in your suitcase when you're on your dream vacation! Better yet, I'd buy these with a lid next time. MR. HANDY STRIKES AGAIN! I like to keep as much as possible off my (small) kitchen counters, so I had Steve add two more wire baskets to the front of our pantry. He taped them up and leveled them and then screwed them in. Good idea! Similar baskets I try to make the best use of vertical space that I can, without getting carried away so that it looks too cluttered. We are trying to streamline our small home, after all, and that's an ongoing process. Basket mission accomplished. My pantry sign is similar to this one. So what do you do if you want to ever remove the baskets and there are holes in your cabinet, you ask? Easy. Just fill them in with putty-stuff and spot paint over them white and when dry sand a bit and then a little more white paint and when dry, wipe of a bit with a wet rag so it's all smooth. It'll do because white paint cures a multitude of house sins! :) If you can still see something/don't like it, you can always cover it with a pretty decal. These mini drawers work just great for storing small things in the kitchen, like the Bach Flowers I mentioned above, and I use them in my home office too. And I like these clear/white drawers too which stack and work great for all our food labeling supplies. (Thank you pandemic, for increased cooking supply needs!) These white trays have come in so handy for SO many things in our kitchen. They are sturdy, clean looking, and things don't slide off with the big sides. Nicely priced too. Win! I love them for our Sunday Trays. TERRIFIC TURNTABLES: Clear turntables in small cabinets are just the best! I use mine for supplements inventory storage and for spices. Small short baskets work great for fill-in spaces too. And yes, I like to sort items and label the sorters. (And no, I don't take all these supplements every day.) The clear bins above I've had for awhile and they were from a dollar store as is the white basket. Easy to see through to find things quickly when I cook. REFRESHED REFRIGERATOR: Tired of paper lists on your small counter? I hear you. I wrote in this post about my ideas for keeping your fridge front clutter-free. FILE FOLDER HEAVEN: This is by far my favorite recent file papers organizing bin for my home office. I've tried many! It is sturdy. It has handles. I don't see it on Amazon anymore, but here's a skinnier similar style so you could use two of these. Or here's a similar one the size of mine. The folders don't catch on these when you take them in and out. I also like these plastic file pockets so papers don't fall out, plus you can wipe them off so they don't get so dusty. They last a long time. These hanging file folders hold them nicely and are pretty, but you don't have to use the hanging folders. You could use just the pockets. Be sure to measure the size though before buying as I have found lately that not all "letter" size poly folders fit a letter size file holder. Measure please. And this trolley I bought last year is just so great for organizing my office supplies by category. I love it! It's very lightweight so it's easy to move for us seniors, too. STEVE TAMES THAT BIG SCREEN TV! Have you ever tried to figure out what size new TV you need, gone to Costco and seen 9000 TV screens flashing in all sizes and then said um, yeah, and just left with a headache and no TV? Me too! So when our 13 year old TV bit the dust right before Christmas, I told Steve there had to be a better way for introverts to buy a TV and how could we order a TV online without having to return it if we didn't like the size? So one day my dear husband came in the house from his shed with this non-permanent TV-measuring idea ... He cut cardboards in various sizes, put them on top our cabinet, and then we made an educated guess together on size depending on how it felt in the room! Our "educated guess test" involved both of us sitting in our bed together like when we watch movies together there, and deciding if we thought Downton Abbey would look good on various size screens. Don't laugh; castles need certain size TV screens to show up their best details and period costumes! (Or, you could just visit there in person, I guess, if you want utter clarity on the house-behind-the-TV-show.) At first, I thought I wanted a really big screen because it would show all the beautiful travel scenery and gorgeous details on TV shows, until we did the cardboard test from our bed and I saw how it would seriously overpower the small room with a HUGE black box-thingy right in your face. Um, no. We are so not "go big or go home" people in much of anything, I suddenly remembered, so this 43 inch size TV was big enough for us! So that was the end of our "scientific measuring for a new TV experiment!" BTW, we love this TV. The colors are wonderful, as is the clarity. Now you don't have to go to Costco, in a pandemic, and get yourself totally overwhelmed with buying a new TV, in the right size, right?! We made it easy for you! You're welcome. :) LIGHTNING SALE LOVE! We bought our TV on an Amazon lightning sale. Next came the installation, which Steve also did, God love him, since I don't do cords or anything electrical and Steve likes figuring that stuff out. Trust me, you and I are glad I don't do electrical cords! BTW, Steve was the kid who at age six didn't like the fact that his head felt higher in bed than his feet so in the middle of the night he went all by himself to get a tape measure, pliers, and another tool from his Dad's toolbox and fixed it! Sure enough, his head was one inch higher, according to the measuring tape! True story. He just told this to me recently and I marveled and laughed out loud. At six years old?! I asked him how he knew how to do that and he shrugged and said, "I don't know; I just did." ) No wonder he grew up to be my Mr. Handy! xxoo You see that little charming street scene above of coffee and cake on our new TV? That's my kinda place! I hope you enjoy "Calmed by Nature"! We found these TV screen charmers right when we hooked up the TV and they are so fun and relaxing! JUST SAY NO TO CORDS! Now, I do realize there are some cords in the back of our new TV that you can (kinda) see, but in our case, it just had to be that way as we could not drill into the wall or cut a hole or some such. But Steve covered the cords up the best he could for his picky-about-cords wife, using one of these. Double yay for Steve! PULL IT OUT PLEASE: We have added pull-out-drawers to almost every home we have ever lived in and they are worth every penny, I think. Similar style, but ours are on a track. My back thanks me as it is now so easy to get my new little crockpots out. Speaking of which, we bought two of these just $27+ crockpots recently and they are such a great size for two people. I can make two different main dishes at a time or put potatoes or a veggie in one and a main dish in the other. Love this size! MOONLIGHT OUTSIDE OUR KITCHEN WINDOW ... I hope some of my ideas from our little Arizona home will help you organize your own home, and life, as you see fit. Have fun! Come back soon to see our new-to-us streamlined living room, and a great new way to organize your important paperwork that you'd need to evacuate your home in an emergency. Stay healthy, happy, and enjoy organizing your home! Kathryn :) P.S. My new Maximizing Your Small Space book is now available as an audio if you prefer audio over reading a paperback book or Kindle eBook. #kathrynbechen #kathrynbechenauthor #authorkathrynbechen #homeorganizing #organizingproducts #smallspaces #smallspaceorganizing #decorating #smallspacedecorating

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 everything in our entire home and do a big purge if needed, refresh our decor, and streamline and shred our office paperwork etc. It's still in progress, but here's a sneak peak ... We got rid of some furniture and arranged our living room at an angle which turned out great! Much more room. Rugs to come that I found on a super sale from Wayfair. We already had one in our kitchen so this was a fun find to match. Our style continues to be gardenesque-cottage, but with less of it! We made a space near our front door for shoes, off the floor. We bought new gardenesque curtains for our laundry room after removing the door that was heavy and fell off the track all the time. Mission accomplished! The door was propped up next to the dumpster in case someone else in our 'hood wants it! And of course, a run to Goodwill was in order. Happy month of love, whether you're decluttering or moving or both! (Decluttering help) Kathryn :) #kathrynbechen #kathrynbechenauthor #authorkathrynbechen #decluttering #organizing #decorating #DIY #home #smallspaces #smallhomes

I don't know about you, but after all these intense pandemic-drama past months, I think we could all use a high-end spa day of pampering and relaxing and some new clothes. But if pricey spas aren't in your money-budget or in your time-budget, then never fear, since I'm sharing below today my fave at-home DIY dollarwise ways to pamper yourself and your wardrobe. DISCLOSURES I have used Devita facial products for awhile now. Recently I'm enjoying their Aloe Vera Moisture Cleanser and Perfecting Time Moisturizer. Ordinarily I use very unscented products due to allergies, but I have been able to tolerate their cleanser which has a very mild rose scent. The moisturizer has no scent, (to me anyway), and is wonderful for our Arizona desert air in case you also live in a dry climate. BTW, these two products are much cheaper at Vitacost, which is a dollarwise site for holistic products, foods, and supplements. They have great customer service and run super site-wide sales too. I have been using them for years and I love shopping online there. Loving this makeup mirror which works great with my new eyebrow razor. I have never tried one of these for brows before and it sure beats a tweezer! I will never go back. This new little pedi set works really well in spite of the low price and has many positive reviews on Amazon which is why I bought it. If you don't like the clear case, insert it into a pretty makeup bag which is more pleasant to look at. (Because we are dollarwise Duchesses, after all, my dears, so we like pretty, right? Yes, yes, we do!) If you are cutting your own Covid-times hair, as I am, the Tinkle Haircutter works great for a short pixies, layers, and bangs that look more feather-y soft on the ends than harsh-cut-straight bangs. I've had some trial and error with cutting my pixie during this time, to be sure, but I have found the Tinkle Haircutter to be the absolute best after using this hair scissors which is my favorite. The result ... Okay, so I won't win any "Mrs. America" hairstyle contests, but it's cool in the desert heat and easy to just fluff up with my hands without a hairdryer with a little of this no-fragrance mousse for help. :) The mousse is not inexpensive, but for those of us with fragrance sensitivities and hair cowlicks too, it's a God-send! Side Note: My dear-hearted and well-intentioned hubby Steve tried to cut my hair during Covid and since we both ended up crying, (seriously!), we don't suggest trying spousal haircuts on each other on the off-chance you have considered that. (The perm he tried to give me way back in our college dating days didn't go well either, nor did my trying to cut his thick curly coarse red Irish hair way back then. Amazingly, we still got married in spite of our college-days hair fiascos, and 41 years later, here we are!) :) Back to the hair present: Steve resorted to a hair trimmer for cutting his own hair himself during Covid. Looks good and is cool in 100+ temps. (He said to mention to you that his curly red hair is long gone, so it was not too hard to just shave his head!) :) Ah well, with maturity comes ... resilience and a sense of humor. :) How's your months-of-Covid-culture wardrobe looking these days? I hear you. I have made it my mission to be comfy, yet still look nice at home. I don't succeed every single day but I try and I absolutely love these "day dresses" or loungers or whatever you want to call them. (Ok, nightgowns, but not really.) They are like wearing PJs, but thick enough fabric that you can put on some sandals and a shawl or cape and run errands or such and it looks like it's a dress. One you can't see through. Easy. Did I mention these loungers are knit so they stretch so you can move well while housecleaning and doing laundry? Amen. Thank you, Lord. (And Amazon!) The floral prints are really pretty too. The solid color loungers are lighter fabric so I bought those for bed and they are really nice, and cooler, for sleeping. I also like these jacket cardigans as they are PJ-soft too but cute to cover my now-chubbier arms. Can you relate? I like their 3/4 length sleeve too as you can still wash dishes etc. with that length of sleeve without having to push them up or fiddle with them with wet hands. And this dress was my fave until I found these dresses which are now my current fave, and paired with these knit cardigans/kimonos you have a cute and comfy dollarwise outfit. The cardigans can be tied for a second look in front. Don't be fooled; you can wear these as everyday dresses and cardigans and not just nighties and coverups. I also like fun slippers for around the house. And with these comfy inserts inside that you can cut to fit your size, they'd be great for a wedding dance! :) If I really want to wear "slipper-slippers" then these have great padding for standing in the kitchen for long periods of time. Steve compliments me when I wear these with the floral lounge dresses. Don't like dresses? Latuza on Amazon has nice cool summer pants. Mine fit well and you can't really tell they are (shhhhh!) PJs. They are nice and lightweight for our hot AZ temps. Side note: I shop almost all things on Amazon now as it's easy and efficient and I can find cute dollarwise items that are suitable for my current lifestyle. Read: soft knits. Delivered right to my house and hallelujah; I've found fashion heaven! If you prefer, you can also try before you buy on Amazon too. This may or may not work for you, but for me, I love it. My 10 best dollarwise tips for organizing your wardrobe and your closet: Don't own more clothes than you really wear is the first thing. Sorry to disappoint you with that right out of the gate here, but it's true. A smaller wardrobe makes things easier to find and easier to mix and match outfits from the same color family. Saves you lots of time, and fewer clothes saves you money, too. Bonus: less laundry if you choose colors in the same color families. Think of your wardrobe closet like this: set up your closet like a little boutique with carefully chosen items, NOT like a huge department store filled with racks and racks of clothes so that you feel overwhelmed to shop there due to too many choices. Hanger heaven: these dollarwise hangers are all you need, and in my opinion they are actually preferable because they are lightweight, noise-free, move across the rod easily, and skinny in space-taking. With the shoulder grooves on the top they are great too for hanging tank tops/camis/tank dresses so they don't fall off the hanger. Be sure to buy the ones with shoulder grooves. Put a couple in your luggage for when you travel; they are lightweight and if you forget one in the hotel clos, it's not an expensive loss. Hanger heaven! Trust me on this; I have moved 15 times as an adult and had many varying closets and clothes styles for many varying jobs over the years. These work well so you don't need to buy high-end "designer" hangers. Clear bins and stackable drawers are your wardrobe BFF. Seriously. Not only that, you can take them with you when you move, they are SO dollarwise, and you can move them around and mix and match them to fit most any closet. Forget expensive celebrity-style custom organizers/closets and use these instead, and then fund your IRA or take a trip with the money you saved, my dollarwise lovelies! Keep a plastic basket for anything you need to mend and when it's full, pull out your little sewing machine or if you don't sew, take them to a tailor. Or, you can use one of your stacking drawers too, labeled "Mending." A label maker is your next best closet friend. A big drawer like this works great as a laundry "basket." If you have room in your closet, buy four of them and your laundry will be all sorted! Great for shoes or boots too. Hang your clothes by like items together, (all pants, all dresses etc.), and then by color within each category so it's easy to pull the bottom and matching top and jacket. That also fosters creative outfits too depending on what pieces you choose each time. Have fun with that! Go through your closet about four times a year, or minimum two times, and ask yourself if you will REALLY wear each item again. Will you REALLY wear it?! Come on now. Hello Goodwill! Keep your shoes minimal. I know; I know! Shoes are art. But in reality you only need a couple pair of sandals, two comfy walking shoes, one or two sneakers, one pair boots, two pairs heels maybe, and some cute fancy slippers for no-blisters dancing. If you buy them all in the same color, you could even get by with fewer pairs of shoes. (I love black shoes now. Boring? Maybe. Convenient and dollarwise? Absolutely!) If you buy solid-color dresses, pants, tank tops etc. in various colors, you can add a printed cardigan/coverup and jewelry for some quick and easy easy fashion "cute." When choosing your cardigan pattern/colors, choose prints and colors that can go with a minimum of two dress colors or better yet, three dress colors. That makes it easy to mix and match and you don't have to donate the dress, nor the cardigan, when one piece gets permanently soiled and it only matches one color dress. Okay my "Dollarwise Duchesses" -- that's all for now. Next time you come back here you'll be pampered, rested, and your wardrobe will be decluttered and organized, right? Kathryn :) P.S. Need more dollarwise DIY organizing tips? I have an eBook of dollarwise decorating and organizing tips. Also, my clutter eBook of tips and lots of pix, will help you too! P.S.S. Why do I enjoy being a "Dollarwise Duchess" and write about it? Because it's creative and fun to me to live a pretty and quality lifestyle while also saving money so that I have some financial security/savings and can therefore sleep at night. I love simple living, but with an aesthetic twist to it, rather than living in a blah dull home or environment or wearing blah clothes... hence the "Duchess" part is where my love of "pretty" comes in! I hope you'll join me. #kathrynbechen #kathrynbechenauthor #authorkathrynbechen #dollarwiseduchess #dollarwisedecorating #dollarwiseorganizing #dollarwisewardrobe #budgetorganizing #budgetdecorating #budgetwardrobe

Before I get back to sharing more food-pantry-strategy with you, Steve made our homemade recipe for veggie lasagna the other night and it's so easy and so good that I thought I'd share it with you since it's a bit snowy and super-cold in some areas of the U.S. right now so this will fill your tummy with warm yum! :) DISCLOSURES RECIPE Pre-heat oven to 375. Use a 9x13 cake pan. (We use non-stick but you can also oil a regular pan if you prefer.) Use about 2-3 jars of Marinara sauce. Spread sauce on bottom of pan in thin layer. (About 1/2 jar.) Lay oven-ready lasagna noodles on top of sauce. Spread more sauce on top first layer of noodles. Put chopped frozen or fresh veggies in a layer on top of sauce. We use whatever we have on hand like broccoli, cauliflower rice, shredded carrots, mushrooms, black olives etc. We also salt and sprinkle a little bit of dried onion and garlic mix on top of each layer of veggies. Add another layer of noodles and repeat layers alternating sauce, veggies, noodles until pan is full and end with sauce on top. You can use cheese too if you want but we don't and it's still really good! Cover pan with foil and bake about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Test with knife or fork to make sure noodles are cooked soft before removing from oven. Let set up about 15-30 minutes once out of oven so it cuts into pieces more easily. You can make this up at night, refrigerate it, and pop it into the oven when you get home from work. Will take a little longer to bake since it will be cold, but still works great while you are prepping the rest of your meal. (Or you're taking a hot bath and sipping champagne from a no-break-tumbler while your lasagna bakes!) :) We hope you enjoy! Kathryn DISCLOSURES #kathrynbechen #kathrynbechenauthor #authorkathrynbechen #cookathome #athomecooking #homemadelasagna

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 everyone. That's quite a gift! Some of my favorite ways to celebrate a simpler old-fashioned Christmas: Growing up, my favorite memories of our Midwestern Christmases were of our little white-with-a-cute-steeple rural and small-town churches where we sang Christmas songs, ate homemade cookies, drank homemade hot chocolate, (with a little candy cane in it of course!), put on a Christmas pageant, and took Christmas baked goodies we had made to neighbors and friends. When I was a little girl, we made homemade cinnamon rolls at home, (round bread balls with cinnamon in them about the size of a baseball that we let rise), and then we placed them on a cookie sheet in the shape of a Christmas tree and baked them 'til golden. When cool, we frosted them with green icing and topped the icing with colorful sprinkles. We gave these to neighbors and friends, and they made a nice centerpiece for our own Christmas table too. If you want to try this, you don't have to make homemade bread -- it's fine to use frozen bread dough to keep things easier! We decorated our childhood Christmas tree with simple objects that cost very little. Like paper chains we made and glued together, and garlands we made out of popcorn and cranberries strung on a thread with a needle. (And yes, there was a poked finger or two!) Our childhood tree topper was an angel with a pink feather skirt and a porcelain face and it lasted many years until finally the feathers were worse-for-wear worn off. A good way to create a fun dollarwise Christmas tradition for your kids: choose tree toppers, one for each child, that they can eventually take with them when they leave home and start their own families. Our childhood 4-H club went Christmas caroling to elderly farm homes and it was priceless to see the residents come to their front door. I remember their lit-up faces even now, 55 years or so later. Afterwards we had hot cider with cinnamon sticks and cookies at our 4-H leader's home. As newlyweds living in western Nebraska, Steve and I enjoyed very traditional church services at a sweet little Episcopal church, and a festive night at a beautiful home located along a pretty river, where we were served traditional wassail and sang Christmas songs. It was magical! As a newlywed teacher living in small-town Nebraska, a new teacher friend from the East Coast and I spent an evening making Christmas cookies together at each other's houses -- the goodies were all over the table and counters! We exchanged recipes from our own childhoods and then boxed the cookies up in pretty Christmas-themed-containers and gave them to families from school and church. As young marrieds in our late 20s, Steve and I enjoyed a cozy chili suppers at home on Christmas Eve, candlelight Midnight Mass, and finding wonderful church musical pageants to attend each year in various neighborhood churches when we lived in Omaha, Nebraska. Of course, sledding is free fun once you buy the sled, and growing up Midwesterners, we did our fair share of sledding. (I have never liked snow though, so this was NOT my favorite Christmas activity, I admit!) But if you like snow, sledding is a fun dollarwise Christmas activity to do with your kids on Christmas Day afternoon that they'll likely remember! We have enjoyed all styles of at-home Christmas dinners with new friends we have met along the way as we have moved towns and cities around the U.S., both during childhood and as adults, and most of these dinners have been simple but festive, and many of them yummy potlucks. You don't have to spend a lot on an over-the-top meal; you just need to bring one yummy dish to the potluck and show up with a smile! One Christmas after we bought our Omaha home, I hosted a Christmas tea for my work friends. I bought festive Christmas themed dishes and trays and mugs on sale at a store that was going out of business and used my newlywed-gift lace tablecloth and some big red bows. We had a small tree with presents already underneath set up, so that was the living room "centerpiece." It was simple, but pretty, and we all enjoyed ourselves as I asked them to each to share a favorite personal Christmas memory of their own to get to know each other better. You don't need a big space to celebrate a pretty Christmas either! The above photo was taken in our small Omaha apartment, (1200 SF) where we popped up the leaves on our Duncan Phyfe table that we bought at an antique store, and I covered it with a new white damask sheet and tied bows on the end. All the serving bowls and platters and pitchers and real silver were either collected over the years at thrift stores, antique malls, or were gifts. (The pretty mirror that looks so fancy was a $100 scratch and dent that I covered up the small ding with gold paint and the pix are discount store frames with glossy floral greeting cards inside, but that's another dollarwise decorating story.) That Christmas we invited people who were single, away from family, or couldn't travel back home due to work, and it was quite interesting conversation! Some had just moved into our apartment complex and we barely knew them, but they left as friends. All the food was from Costco so we didn't stress out about making everything homemade since we had about 10 people to feed so this was easier. One Christmas I remember fondly in our 30s was singing carols on Christmas Eve with our church friends who had adopted two small foreign children and had invited us to their home. They were having hard financial times due to a job cutback, so they had just moved into a small rental house after having to sell their large home. Even so, their little Christmas tree was festively decorated, the host played his guitar as we sang, a Jewish friend-of-a friend joined in with us in the living room singing Christmas songs too, their foreign-adopted kids had several sweet gifts under the tree, and the kids' "Aunties & Uncles" from church, (us and others), were lovingly present for these adopted kids. Money was not flowing freely for this family that Christmas, but love was. "And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." --Isaiah 9:6 Wishing you a simple, celebratory, loving, dollarwise Christmas season! Kathryn :) #KathrynBechen #KathrynBechenAuthor #AuthorKathrynBechen #Christmas #SimpleChristmas #CelebrateChristmas #DollarwiseChristmas #Christmasathome #BudgetChristmas

DISCLOSURES 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 half can plus added another whole can, but one can will do.) 1 cup cooked brown rice (I keep this in the freezer at all times.) 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I use this plant-based cheese and like it.) 1/2 container sour cream (I use Kite Hill non-dairy sour cream and like it. Other brands I have not liked at all.) 1/2 to 1 cup salsa (I use mild but you might like more zing!) 1 T. taco seasoning mix (optional) 1 T. dry onion/garlic mix 1 t. salt This makes a BIG batch of filling so the nice part is that you can use just what you need for however many enchiladas you want right now, and freeze the filling in containers for later use. Alternatively, you could fill all the enchilada shells with filling now and put them in a pan in the freezer and then just pop the pan in the oven when ready to eat. You could thaw them out overnight in the fridge, or just put them in the oven frozen and bake them a bit longer. DIRECTIONS TO ASSEMBLE ENCHILADAS: Brush coconut or olive oil on both sides of soft tostada corn shells with pastry brush Spoon and spread out above mixture on each shell Roll up in a roll Place each rolled shell in a 9x13 inch pan with seam down Bake in oven at 350 degrees until cheese melted and beans hot; about 30-45 minutes Or, I put mine in my beloved Crockpot Casserole dish on high for about an hour or so and it worked great and was easy clean up! DIRECTIONS FOR TOPPING TO SERVE: 1 mashed avocado 1/2 container sour cream 1 t. dry onion/garlic mix 1/2 cup salsa 1/4 t. salt Mix all together, spoon over hot enchiladas, and enjoy! Kathryn #kathrynbechen #kathrynbechenauthor #authorkathrynbechen #cookathome #homecooking #cooking #easycooking #enchiladas

I promised to share with you how we transformed our blah utilitarian carport into a pleasant Secret Garden at-home-vacation-getaway, so here it is! I hope it gives you some ideas for transforming your own outdoor space, however you choose to decorate it. DISCLOSURES Our overall goals at the outset of this DIY home project were: FEELING: Create a "feeling" of a peaceful, private, and charming garden/outdoor bistro/romantic B&B-like setting like we have enjoyed during our travels pre-Covid. An "at-home vacation" feeling if you will. We looked back on some of our favorite travel places and then we just let our own creativity flow. FUNCTION: Include a sectioned "bistro" area so we can eat easily out there at a table or work on a laptop, plus make a separate "lounge" area to sit and chat, just like in an indoor living room. Also include attractive "hidden" storage spaces in small awkward crannies throughout the patio area. (Shown below.) PRIVACY: Provide privacy from the street in front of our home, from super-close neighboring homes, and from the empty RV lot right next to our home where snowbirds come in and out during the winter months to stay for varying lengths of time. CONSERVE OUR DESERT & CLIMATE: Use only faux plants so we do not have to water, fertilize, or clip! We have enjoyed gardening at home in the past with real plants but we are now in our mid 60s and we don't want to maintain a real growing garden, but we do want to enjoy one, so this faux garden is it! Today's faux plants look so real. Plus, the U.S. Southwest is experiencing a concerning drought so we do not want to use more than our share of water, and faux plants achieve that too. DOLLARWISE REPURPOSING: Repurpose everything we already had on our patio that was still in good condition and that still fit our overall goal for look and feel. Anything that was still good but did not fit our new look we donated after four years of using them. I don't like to waste, nor overfill landfills with our things that can be repurposed for someone else to enjoy. SHARED MARITAL PROJECT: Work together on this project as a marital team; playing to our individual strengths and skills. In other words, I don't work well with a drill and bolts and Steve enjoys that but he doesn't have much interest in ordering and researching cute home decor online. So we each do what we are good at and then we are both happy and have fun together. ORDER ONLINE: Order everything we bought online and have it delivered to our home. No in-person shopping due to Covid concerns still. BTW, we achieved this! Everything you see below that is new was ordered online, down to the last bolt, and delivered to our home. Most things came from Amazon. I love the efficiency of Amazon ordering. DOLLARWISE BUDGETING: Use some of the funds we have been putting away each month for future travel since we are not traveling due to Covid and have also, surprisingly, both lost interest in traveling much as it's become too complicated. MAKE PEOPLE SMILE: Simply make people smile when they drive by our little cottage-style retirement home and see colorful flowers, white trellis, and pretty wreaths on our doors. I love to drive by homes with cozy charm and curb appeal, so why not make our own home that way?! HOSE-OFF-ABLE: I realize we said we want to conserve water, and we do. But the only way to really clean outdoor patios and furnishings in the desert with all the dust is to hose things off. We figure we can do this once in awhile since we are saving water by not watering real live plants all the time. Steve bought this power washer and really likes it. As you can see, our overall plan was strategic, but not rigid. We came up with our overall idea and then let the creativity flow with ordering goods and it all evolved. We paid cash for everything due to our overall strategic dollarwise lifestyle m.o. and we feel this project was a good investment in our happiness, as well as improving our property too. Okay, here's our tour of our little Secret Garden and our thought process and strategy as we worked through this DIY project. Secret Garden sign. We started with cleaning the space with Steve's new power washer and let everything dry well. That had to be done as our concrete was really dirty under the old rugs even though we hose it off fairly regularly. First thing I got right to was the new rugs. I was hankering for a palm/tropical feeling and these worked great. They do not match exactly but I like them better now that they don't as it further separates the bistro area from the lounge area, yet it's complementary. The rugs also nicely covered a couple stains on the concrete that would not come off, even with power washing. Rug 1. Rug 2. We both like the feeling when we eat at night at an outdoor patio bistro of romantic little white lights, so we were copious with those for this project. (Okay, so maybe we got a little carried away!) Our cabana we bought new four years ago when we bought the house and it has held up great! Since it's not directly in the AZ sun I think that has definitely helped. Similar cabana/gazebo. We already had the chairs for the lounge area and I found new pillow covers to go over the blah brown chair pads. The pillow covers can be removed easily and tossed in the washer if need be, or just hosed off too. We already had the round table so I found a tropical tablecloth with elastic so the wind won't blow it off. These are wonderful! They are fabric, not vinyl, so don't stink like vinyl and look much better too. We had the other chair pillows and the table to the right just got a new tablecloth. Steve uses that table for drinks and to clean our groceries packages during the pandemic. (Pandemics were made for clean freaks!) :) I love our new little olive tree and at night the lights are so twinkly! We had the blue ceramic table. Similar. Steve had repainted the legs last year with spray paint so it is still fine. The "Anna's Corner" flower shop painting is new and is hanging right on the side of our home. It reminds us of our past fun travels wandering in and out of charming little shops etc. around the U.S. Our side door has a step out to the patio/carport. It's a big white ugly thing in my opinion, but necessary to get into and out of our house. :) So we implemented what I call "camouflage decorating" by using a white plastic shade to hide views into the patio from our front street, a hanging planter pots get-up, and floral curtains to hide storage bins that are big and very blue. Mission accomplished. All can just be hosed off, again. We also softened the hard step lines with a wisteria tree, lemon tree, and small lemon tree which also provided more privacy from the street, and some nice color too. The bamboo trellis planter on the right side, with faux greenery, hides the view to the RV lot next door. And thankfully, I can no longer see their ugly bright blue trash cans right when I open our door. (I don't do ugly well, on the off-chance anyone has not noticed here.) :) The sunshades similar to this one Steve installed last year and they have greatly helped with our electric bill as well as provided privacy, plus they prevent debris from blowing so much during AZ winds. (Haboobs, I'm looking at you!) The little bistro table we had and I covered it up with a new tablecloth. Love these tablecloths! We are loving how the lights added romantic charm! The colorful hanging flower baskets were a nice addition too. Our 42nd wedding anniversary is this year so we will be dancing the night away on our new outdoor patio, in our new tropical duds. :) A.k.a. knit comfy-wear. Add comfy slipper-sandals to my new "dress" and what can I say? I've become a semi-retired lady who loves lounging in her cute jammies and slippers at home! And Steve will be comfy in his Hawaii-ish shirt too. Why not dress up at home like you would in Hawaii?! We decided against including a water feature in our new Secret Garden, much as I was hankering for the sound and look of a fountain. I love fountains! Reason we decided not to have one? It will attract birds and birds leave you know. And I don't want to be cleaning up you know, not to mention clean-freak me worrying about getting some disease from a bird. Don't worry; I LOVE birds. From afar when I have a zoom lens on my camera to capture their beauty. That all being said, when I saw this little swan pond water feature and showed it to Steve it was a quick YES! (Steve has told me ever since we were young marrieds the saying "swans mate for life.") The "water effect" in the swan pond is really plastic that's shiny to resemble water but it's really cute in person, especially the mini lily pads. And the faux water looks pretty real! I found lots of flower garlands to bring in some color. But I tried not to go overboard with those so that it looked like a wedding pavilion! Little white lights, I love you! TRUE STORY: Steve told me, nonchalantly, the day after it happened, that he helped a baby bird out of our new (faux) wisteria tree! I'm like: "WHAT?! I thought we we trying not to attract birds!" "He was just learning to fly, so I helped him along a little out of the tree." ME: "You didn't touch it did you?!" (And I'm thinking: And then hug me!) Steve just grinned and said: "He was just trying to find shelter from the storm, like everyone else in the world right now." My husband, and his caring heart of gold, little birds and all. And NO, he didn't touch the little bird, but "shooed it" towards a live tree in the yard beside us. Whew! Evening magic in the Arizona desert! Did I mention maybe we got just a little bit carried away with lights? :) Okay, another fun thing we did was to create this "flower wall" out of several heavy-duty drapes. I was going for a Hawaii feel, what can I say?! Must be because I was born in Honolulu or something. (Before Hawaii even became a state, no less.) After a trying time with putting up the "flower wall" it worked! There's a cable holding it in place at the bottom, done by none other than Steve who came up with that idea when I said we couldn't have it flapping in the wind. He likes a challenge, so cable it was! And then there was another little assembly project for him ... I bought this bar to use not as a bar but to display plants. So, I turned it around to do that, and Steve removed the wine rack that came with it. The top can still be used for food trays if we ever decide to do that. All those plants, as I have mentioned, are faux. I ordered them loose on Amazon and arranged them in the pots by just sticking them in florist foam. I bought two palm-themed wooden screens to hide a walkway to our trashcans where Steve stores his bicycle that he locks up back there. The screens are prettier, to me, than the bike view. :) More camouflage decorating! SIDE NOTE: Steve really secured things as we get strong winds sometimes in AZ as I have mentioned before. As in, our neighbors have had parts of their roofs ripped off and sheds that were in-progress-building have toppled. We have had a storm since we did this project and other than the bar tipping over and having to pick up the plants, everything stayed secure. Yay Steve! Steve bolted the screens down and painted the bright silver bolts brown to camouflage them. The plant stand provides a little privacy from the neighboring RV lot. Faux cactus and succulents weather well on our patio; most of these we have had four years. This little green table similar is so nice and sturdy and hides the plastic basket of shoes underneath so they don't have to come in the house. These faux flowers are so pretty in person! Our drive-by view from the street. Curb appeal with privacy. (This took lots of pre-measuring!) Our white trellis planters are tall. I can no longer find them on Amazon, but here is a similar style that is lower. We hid the step storage with a white roll-up shade and floral curtains. They can both just be washed off with the hose. And Steve attached the shade really well to the step as we didn't want it to flop around. I love romantic-looking wisteria, faux or no! Have I ever mentioned I love the romance of little white lights. :) Dreamy! Our new painting makes me want to walk right into that adorable little flower shop! Similar style painting. I think it's time for me to go have a cold drink in our little Secret Garden, so I am signing off now. I hope you enjoyed our patio makeover tour! Kathryn #KathrynBechen #KathrynBechenAuthor #AuthorKathrynBechen #DIYdecorating #Dollarwisedecorating #Homedecorating #Patiomakeover #Patiodecorating #SecretGarden #Smallspaces #Smallspacedecorating #Fauxgarden #Outdoordecorating #Couplesdecorating

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 different however! Unknowingly at the time, I think it all started with this ... DISCLOSURES I shared here that we loved a silk floral hanging pot we put up recently. It looks so real in person! That pretty purple plant got me thinking that why not turn our carport/patio area into more of a colorful garden? Better yet: A garden that we would not have to water, weed, or fertilize?! In other words: artificial flowers and plants. 100 %. A secret getaway garden with romantic little twinkle lights and lots of silk/faux plants and flowers like you see on charming outdoor bistro patios etc. A bistro table area and a lounge area was sounding good too for our new secret garden getaway. Music and a water feature, here we come! (Clearly I ate a too many CA bistros when I lived there, and we always enjoyed the charming outdoor patios!) So after I pondered this in my head for awhile I said to my hubby Steve ... "You know how we are not traveling or eating out due to the pandemic still?" "Yes." "You know how we have our "travel & fun" fund? He's starting to grin, knowing I was up to something ... "Well, I have an idea." I said. "Yes, honey?" he smiled. "Well, I was thinking we should take some of our travel & fun money we have saved up and create an at-home secret garden getaway on our patio, like a relaxing outdoor at-home vacation! "Does this have anything to do with that movie we watched the other night with the waterfall and palm trees in the backyard in Fiji?" he kidded. I laughed. "Well," I said, "Since we will be working with a narrow carport patio here and not a big backyard, I doubt there will be a big pool like the movie, or a water slide, but I think we can come up with some flowers and little faux palm trees! "Sounds fun!" he said. "What do you have in mind?" And so it began. Now, to give you an idea of what we were starting with, I pulled out the picture of our very narrow carport that was taken the day we bought our (modular) home in 2018. Our "patio carport" has gone through small yearly decor refreshes while we worked on the inside of our home, but nothing like I was thinking of for this makeover in my head, at least. This time, I wanted a secluded secret garden getaway feeling. Key word: secluded. So clearly we had a lot of work to do! BTW, I have now dubbed fixing "aesthetic challenges" as "camouflage decorating." In other words: Find creative ways to hide anything ugly or just utilitarian! Now, to keep this project moving along nicely, I turned to ... Hearty home-cooked food and long tall drinks to feed and water my hubby since he was going to be unpacking and assembling lots of items we ordered on Amazon out on our patio, not to mention that it's already been in the upper 90s here recently. HOT! Since he works hard for me on the handyman part, I do my best to feed him yummy food while he works. This was our other DIY goal due to the pandemic: Order every single thing online. And we have. Sourcing and ordering the goods online was my job! Sure, it's fun to pick new things, but it's not easy. Lots of measuring involved and you can't touch and feel the goods, of course. So you do the best you can. I also decided, for ease of ordering and delivery, to only use Amazon and if I could not find what I wanted on there, then Wayfair. Not surprisingly, that brought some challenges. My favorite cool tall summer drink is seltzer water with natural lemonade. 1/2 of each if you like it sweet. 1/4 lemonade to 3/4 water if you like it not so sweet. LOTS of ice! These new acrylic tumblers I bought so we could enjoy them on the patio in the AZ heat. Work great as they are very tall so hold a lot! This is much healthier than soda and a nice change from plain water now and then. Dollarwise too compared to many other drinks. You can also make ice cubes from the lemonade and just put them in the seltzer water if you wish. This is fun and pretty pink! I shared in an earlier post that we bought an ice maker as our fridge does not have one. Update: Best purchase ever! Steve loves this thing; I think it's kind of like a boy-toy to him since he likes mechanical things. It came with a nice little scoop and he hung it on the side. It's also a self -cleaning device and I am happy about anything that is self-cleaning! I am feeding Steve my "Gourmet Grilled Cheese" sandwiches as he works on assembling patio goods. We make our own bread with an inexpensive bread machine like this and this bread mix. I brush coconut oil on the outside (instead of butter) and it browns just like butter. BTW, expeller-pressed coconut oil does not smell nor taste like coconut. It has NO taste or odor. I used two kinds of plant cheese and very thin apple slices. That's my version of "Gourmet Grilled Cheese." If you try this, be sure to put cheese on both sides of the apples or the bread will slide off when you try to turn these in the pan. Ask me how I figured that out! :) Yum! I also made enchilada casserole since this is one of Steve's fave at-home dishes. I brown plant sausage and season with taco-ish seasonings, then add two cans of drained black beans and then I mix a can of 28 oz. enchilada sauce with a small jar of salsa and pour it over that. Then shredded plant cheese. Then crushed taco shells on top. Cover with foil. That's it! Bake for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees or until cheese melts. You can also use crushed corn chips if you wish. I used to just use salsa, but I like it better with the enchilada sauce mixed with salsa. BTW, for a 9x13 pan of this, I put the mixed sauce into three containers and I only used one container of sauce so you have enough to make two more pans later. Just freeze the sauce 'til you are ready for that. Or, you can make this up and freeze the whole pan and then bake later I would think. Okay, back to the secret garden in-progress ... Like any home project, it always looks worse before it looks better! That's totally normal. I got the "bright idea" to put up a floral drapery "wall" on our cabana like we had done in a past apartment to cover up a window and that had turned out well by using a tight steel cable. I wanted this floral drapery hung up because on the other side of this space is a vacant lot I don't like looking at, to say the least. Plus, I wanted it to feel more like a "room" for the lounge area. The drapes are so pretty in person and really heavy. Steve put a cable in the bottom and tightened it to the cabana poles so it became a "wall" rather than flow-y curtains blowing in the wind! The final result here turned out great, is sturdy, and will be easy to just hose off. He put the drapes back to back so that from outside it looks like flowers too instead of ugly blackout fabric as I want to be considerate of what neighbors might view. However ... At one point the drapery wall was a challenge as the drapes were much heavier than we anticipated so we had to come up with something else other than cable, which Steve did. He does not give up easily when there's a challenge! Plan A, Plan B, Plan C! What worked? A rod! Go figure. DIY home projects require oodles of patience, problem-solving, and ingenuity. Pivot when necessary is our motto, and don't expect everything will go according to plan, because it seldom does. DIY also requires lots of assembly! And lots of tools usually. And more assembly! A snafu: These planters had a STRONG cedar scent and I am highly scent sensitive so Steve had to spray them with non-toxic cleaner, rinse off with the hose, and repeat again and then he set them in the sun for a few days to air out. That worked quite well. xxoo to Steve for that extra work! Arizona sun does lots of wonderful things for me as I air out lots of products outside that have odors when I buy them. Like home goods and clothes. It's called the "bakeout method" or some such thing according to my (many) allergy doctors over the years. Good thing I live where the sun gets to 120 degrees sometimes as that "bakes out" about anything! :) Another online ordering snafu: They sent tan pots instead of white. They came with the planter and I didn't want to bother with a return so I will be camouflaging this tan color with faux plants to draw the eye away from the tan color. Another alternative would be to spray paint them with white paint made for plastic, but we didn't want to go to Home Depot to pick up paint nor deal with the smell, so camouflage decorating it is! New rugs helped camouflage some spots on our concrete that are still stained even after power washing. We work around it and keep the final result in our mind for motivation: Lemonade and snacks on the patio! Rugs also make it possible for us to walk barefoot out there which we can't do on the concrete in the AZ heat. The rugs we ordered I really like, but one of them had to be re-ordered in a complementary pattern rather than exact matching pattern so I just went with it and called it creative! I actually like it. One also had a flaw so we placed it where you can't see it. Did I mention pivoting?! (I'm not into sports but this is starting to sound like I might be a coach!) Steve also had to power wash the new rugs because they smelled like chemicals and I could not tolerate the smell without getting a headache. Even outside. More sun! Whenever we do a DIY home project we first repurpose everything that is still in good condition. We repurpose to keep things out of the trash/landfills, and to save money too. Plus it makes you creative to think of new uses for old things. And for me, it's already been "aired out" so it's one less allergy odor for me to deal with so I can um, breathe! Our bistro table is being transformed with a new tablecloth that won't blow off in the wind as it has elastic around it. Brilliant, whoever thought of that! Later this summer we will paint the table leg and base brown, but it is good enough for now. These white trellises are part of the planter box with the tan pots and two of them were the perfect width in front of Steve's car to create privacy, with most of the secret garden all behind them. Sorry, but I no longer see these planters anywhere for sale online. Vines and plants are currently being placed. See those chains anchoring the sunshades to the ground? They have to stay there due to wind. I am coming up with camouflage plans for those though, trust me, as I don't do ugly well. :) Another snafu of online ordering was the large floral painting I ordered to mount on the outside of our house inside the lounge area was lost in transit so I got a refund, had to choose a new painting, and pay more. The new one will arrive in a week or so. I like it better than the first one, so that worked out! Patience. If the rest of this project goes well we should have all the decorative elements in place within two weeks or so. Soon we will be hanging all the little white lights, adding floral pots, vines, plus adding rocks to the pots, and more. The rugs will eventually be un-rippled. We are looking for something for privacy from the street for our step rungs. So far, nothing is looking good, or the right size, without lots of cutting. Since I hate to have Steve have to do even more work, I'll keep looking! We are getting there with our ultimate goal though: patio privacy, getaway vacation feeling, romantic, and easy to just wash everything off with a hose since in the desert we have lots of everyday dust, wind sometimes, and oh yes: haboobs. Well, I guess they don't call this the Wild West for nothing! I will show you the finished project in a future post. After we take a little at-home vacation that is, and hopefully no havelinas will crash our patio party. :) Unlikely though, since we moved here nearly four years ago only one of them has been seen in our housing area, walking down the street, pretty as you please. Well, they were here first, so maybe we crashed their party. Wishing you a secret garden getaway, wherever you live, if that's what your heart desires! Kathryn #kathrynbechen #kathrynbechenauthor #authorkathrynbechen #secretgardengetaway #patiomakeover #decorating #smallspacedecorating

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 Floral note cards Flower postcards -- I have these and they are beautiful! Custom floral stationery notecards Floral pens Floral USPS stamps FOR THE LADY WHO LIKES TO NAP IN A GARDEN Cozy garden floral blanket/throw Wonderful floral loungers -- I have several of these and love them! If you want to wear it as a lounger around the house, order one size up for looser-flowy comfort. If you want to wear it out for errands etc. as a dress with sandals and jewelry, order your usual size. Floral shawl for many wonderful purposes FOR THE LADY WHO LOVES FLOWER COFFEE TABLE BOOKS The Art of Flowers Georgiana Lane A Year in Flowers FOR THE LADY WHO WANTS HER BATHROOM TO FEEL LIKE A FLOWER GARDEN Floral towels Floral soap pump Floral soaps gift box FOR THE LADY WHO LOVES EARRINGS Encased in glass For the tulip lover Vintage style FOR THE LADY WHO LOVES FLORAL TABLE TREATS Plates Tablecloth Candles FOR THE LADY WHO WANTS TO PLANT HER OWN FLOWER GARDEN Seeds Floral tools with tote In Bloom: Growing, Harvesting, and Arranging Homegrown Flowers All Year Round FOR THE LADY WHO LOVES VISITING GARDENS Book Dress Hat Hat FOR THE LADY WHO WANTS HER APARTMENT/CONDO BALCONY TO FEEL LIKE HER TINY PRIVATE GARDEN Secret Garden sign Garden pillows Floral chair Floral fountain Floral rug I hope you found a gift idea here or two for the favorite flower-loving-lady in your life, Kathryn :) #kathrynbechen #authorkathrynbechen #kathrynbechenauthor #flowers #gardens #giftideas #Moms