‘Around the House’ Category

Keeping Up with the Edwards

Posted on July 29th, 2011 by Tonia 3 Comments

“In [Sarah’s] approach to housekeeping, efficiency was tempered by composure. She knew how to keep a house clean at its vitals, without stuffy cupboards left unaired or parlors sealed off. The house was open, used, full of clues that the family living in it had vivid interests. Books were left on tables, actually being read, not used as parlor props. There would be needlepoint on a rack by a sunny window and a lute in a corner. Esther, singing, might be putting up a hem for Sukey while a boy did his Latin lesson. It was the opposite of the kind of house where things were preserved in mothballs in locked boxes. Its ambiance was of windows flung open, of easy access.”

– Excerpt from Marriage to a Difficult Man, by Elizabeth D. Dodds.

Is there a character in a book or movie that you aspire to be like? I can think of several.

I’ll mostly be doing chores around the house this weekend with this playlist on repeat. But I also hope to find time to read, preferably at the beach with a big floppy hat.

I hope you have a splendid weekend- productive, fun, and rejuvenating.

How to Make Homemade Natural Air Freshener

Posted on June 30th, 2011 by Tonia 31 Comments

Can we talk straight for a second? Sometimes the house can use a little freshening up. Knowimsayin’?

This week, for example, we had a couple sunny days {finally!} after a long stretch {weeks!} of rain and thunderstorms. When it gets sunny around here, it means we’re outside all day long busting our butts to get the gardens weeded and to catch up on the chores and projects that were on hold while it was raining.

We’re in and out with dirty boots to grab water or tools, we scarf down a quick lunch and head right back out without cleaning up, etc. The house gets messy, fast. After a few days like that, it’s time to give it some TLC.

So this afternoon, after sweeping the floors and doing the dishes, I went around the yard and cut some flowers for the table.

And I made some air fresheners as well. This is the simplest little project, and exactly what our house needed to perk it back up. All it takes is a vessel of some sort {I used old Ball jars}, baking soda {the list of uses this substance has is seemingly unending}, and your favorite essential oil.

Fill the vessel {Ball jar} about 1/4 full of baking soda, and add 6-8 drops of the essential oil into it. You can leave the jar open for maximum scent dispersal {but keep out of reach of pets}, or do what I did and punch some holes in the lid with a hammer and nail.

The baking soda absorbs odors, and the essential oil smells delicious and natural. This is much more economical and environmentally friendly than those chemical air fresheners you can buy and plug into an outlet.

Shake the jar gently every few days to revive the scent, and add more oil as needed.

I did a few different scents and placed the jars all around the house. Orange in the kitchen, to energize us. Rose in the bathroom, because it’s calming and feminine and dainty. Rosewood in the living room because it’s the smell of the first home I ever had, when I was a baby in Peru.

Smells can invoke all kinds of emotions and memories. Have you ever had that experience where a certain smell suddenly brings back a forgotten moment to you?

The smell of chainsaw fuel, snow and wood reminds me of my dad. Leather and hay bring back so many special moments spent with my horses growing up.

Apple pie reminds me of a moment when I was little, playing outside in the yard in the autumn, the smell of my mom baking inside wafting through the window, and a feeling of total safety and contentment.

And the smell of dog fur brings back the feeling of freedom and wildness I had on a sparkling winter night under a full moon when I took my Husky and my Springer Spaniel {who thought he was a Husky} out for a nighttime dog-sled run in the woods.

Natural Household Insect Repellent

Posted on June 27th, 2011 by Tonia 13 Comments

It’s that time of year when a seemingly innocent piece of fruit left uncovered on the kitchen counter can create a massive bug frenzy in the house. Fruit flies and ants galore. We’re fighting back in several ways:

1. The fruit bowl on the counter has been temporarily laid-off. All fruit is safely in the refrigerator, until colder weather permits their freedom again.

2. Spraying kitchen surfaces with white vinegar. Scout ants lead their colony to a food source through scented trails. Vinegar destroys that trail. This does not kill the ants, but diminishes their efforts. And it leaves the counters clean and disinfected.

3. Sprinkling cinnamon at bug-entry-points. The french doors that go from our living room out to the back yard let a lot of beautiful sunlight into the house. And ants. But ants can’t stand cinnamon- they do anything to avoid it. Ever since I put a dish of it by the doors, I haven’t seen any ants!

Left to right: borax and sugar, ground cinnamon


4. Baiting them with borax and sugar. The sugar will attract the bugs, and the borax will kill them via dehydration. Mix 1 cup of powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons of borax; place in shallow dishes, and put them where the bugs are {but keep them out of reach of pets and children!}

There’s no need for pesticides and poisons- these methods are doing the trick for us. Although, I do miss my cheerful fruit bowl. Here’s another great household use for borax.

Completely unrelated to bugs: there has been a recent influx of new readers {some of you came over from Becoming Minimalist} and I want to say welcome! Thank you for leaving comments- it has been a lot of fun to click through and visit all of your blogs as well. My morning blog-reading routine is taking a little longer these days, but you all have such interesting things to say! Thank you and welcome.

Summer Solstice

Posted on June 21st, 2011 by Tonia 5 Comments

“Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” -Henry James

Happy Summer Solstice!

The longest day of the year. Midsommer, if you’re Swedish. A day to celebrate the gifts of the season…

Food from the ground.

Flowers, butterflies, sunshine.

Dinner on the porch in the warm evening air.

Lilacs that make the whole house smell heavenly.

Tiny apples starting to grow on the trees.

And the BIGGEST FREAKIN’ POPPIES I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE growing up by the cottage!

Enjoy it! Because it’s all downhill from here, folks! Winter will be upon us again in no time. How are you spending the solstice?