For my husband’s birthday this year, all he wanted was for me to make him a Cornhole court. So with help from a friend (a lot of help) we put together his very own bags court. I still have to finish the final step of painting the Patriots logo on the blue box and the Green Bay Packers logo on the green one. This game is super fun and is best played with a beer in your hand.

A few suggestions in construction:
- I used MDF instead of plywood on the top. It’s cheaper, smoother and precut at home improvement stores
- Triple sew the seams of the bags. A lot of pressure is put on the seams during the game. I found myself running upstairs with broken bags during the party fixing them
- If you can’t find corn (which I found at Lowe’s later) I used beans.

I got my cornhole plans from cornholecornhole
You can get free plans from cornhole-game.com

Both site give a history and rules of the game.

We have a lot of weekend guests… A LOT! I personally would rather sleep in a bed rather than an air mattress so I wouldn’t expect any less for my guests. I am on a constant cheap bed hunt. My favorite sources are yard sales and craigslist.com. This bed was a steal! I got the frame from a moving sale for $50 and I got the box spring and mattress for $40 from craigslist. The fun coastal sheets were a good buy from Renys.

I loved grilled petty pan squash. I think it tastes like steak! A sweet steak that is! It’s so easy, slice in half, marinate in olive oil and then throw on the grill for a few mins.

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

(I used organic items and veggies from my organic farm share)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.

Taken from Food Network

I’ve got a whole lotta ferns in our woods. Time to do something with them by putting them in old medicine bottles filled with a little bit of sand and displaying them on the dinning room table as a centerpiece.

I have been pining over the mudrooms in the Pottery Barn magazine for years. I finally have a mudroom of my own that can handle a large piece of furniture but I haven’t won the powerball yet to afford it.
During my yard sale travels this summer I’ve procured 2 wooden pegged coat racks for a $1 each. This along with 3 unfinished shelf hangers from A.C. Moore ($9) and scrap wood leftover from the construction I hacked together this pottery barn inspired mudroom coat shelf in a night. I have to say that I’m pretty damn proud of myself.

In my previous house (with no stairs) I clocked how many steps I took in a single day and it turned out that I walked on average 5 miles a day just in my daily activity. Now on top of that, I’m training for a marathon and my new house has two sets of stairs. So needless to say, I get enough exercise in a day, no need for unnecessary trips up and down stairs. To keep my house organized, I put baskets at the top and bottom of the stair cases and it’s expected that passersby’s grab anything within the basket and take it either up or down with them. It saves mucho time and mucho steps.

Cool ideas to make with shells from the beach. The mussel shell wreath was made using a wire wreath form from a craft store and I hot glued mussel shells I collected from the beach on Chebague Island, ME.

I got a fennel bulb as part of my organic farm share this week. I’ve never had fennel before and I really didn’t know what to do with it. I found this recipe online and figured you can never go wrong with frying something and then smothering it with cheese. It was indeed very yummy.

2 fennel bulbs
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup half-and-half cream
3/4 cup creme fraiche (I couldn’t find any at the local grocery store so I substituted Heavy Cream)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Cut the base off of the fennel bulbs, and cut a cone shape into the base to remove the core. You can see the core because it is whiter than the surrounding green. This is optional, but helps the fennel cook faster. Slice the fennel vertically (upright) into 1/4 inch thick slices.
2. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the fennel, and fry for about 5 minutes. Stir in the half-and-half and creme fraiche until well blended. Transfer to a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.
3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is golden brown and the fennel is tender enough to pierce with a fork.

Taken from allrecipes.com

My family has started this tradition of running the WhistleStop Marathon & Half Marathonevery October. This year it’s my turn to join in. So in between my crafting adventures I’m throwing in a little half marathon training.

Here’s my training schedule.