Empty Nesters Handle a Milk Situation

Bill and I are DIENs. Is that a thing? Double. Income. Empty. Nest. All of our friends were DINKs back in the day. 
We were DINKs for about five minutes and we have spent the rest of lives getting past the jealousy over all of the stuff our friends were able to do back then. Well, I'm over it. Bill is not.  

We have a milk crisis. 
Seriously.
Both of us are semi-lactose intolerant. We cannot seem to get through a gallon or a quart of milk without most of it going down the drain. 

 I never drink milk since that unfortunate barfing situation in my elementary school lunch room in front of all my classmates. 
Interestingly enough, Mrs. Harbush never made me drink my milk again after that incident.
I will, however, have the occasional bowl of cereal and for that you need fresh milk.
I mean fresh. None of this it tastes okay but the cap smells weird, fresh. Who smells the cap anyway? 
Gag me. 

We needed a solution for our fresh milk problems and a distant memory from childhood rose the forefront of my mind. 

Powdered milk! 
Could that be the solution to our problems?
Fresh milk on demand. It would be like having a cow but without all the cud chewing. 
Perfect.

We asked ourselves, "Had the technology of powdered milk changed in the course of 40 years?"
It had to have.
We headed to the powdered milk section of our local Kroger. 
They had Nestle Nido Fortificada. 
That sounds good. I don't know what fortificada means but I think it must mean fortify. 
It has calcium, iron, zinc and soy. 
That has to be good, right?

We mixed up a batch and poured it into a quart jar. It was too much and we ended up with more milk down the drain. 
But it tasted good. 
Fresh.
Perfect for my occasional bowl of cereal. 
Now we mix it up and put it in a 8 oz. jar. No waste.

Are you a DIEN with a milk problem? 

Give Nido a try.

Please come back tomorrow for details on a giveaway. You will love it. 
Also, don't forget to visit The Sweet Tea Challenge post over at Thistlewood Farm. Each click of a picture is a vote for that blogger. 
You can vote for my pinwheel but vote with your heart. 
Thanks for reading,
Katie
Linking with,
Between Naps on the Porch  
A Stroll Thru Life
The Scoop 
 

Guest Room Decorated

We are still tweaking the empty nest around here.
When we painted my daughter's room a few years ago, I thought that Rebekah and I chose a color that we both could live with. Rebekah would not be living in the room for very long. She had graduated from college and would be moving out when 
she found a job. 

We chose an olive green called Meadow Trail from Sherwin Williams. 

 She and I purchased a new bedspread that she could take with her. We found a set at Macy's for $20.00. 
It was a steal of a deal.

My plan was to use another bedding set that I had on the bed while she was at college. 

It was a damask in browns and corals from Target.
Target didn't name this bedding. 

At first we didn't have a bed so I set up the room as a office/workroom for me to use for blogging. 
Read about it here. 
It ended up being a drop room. You know what I mean... a room to drop stuff on the table and leave.
We had guests coming so it was finally time 
to get a bed.
I shuffled chandeliers around. Read about it here.

I was tickled to put the bedspread on but I didn't love it. Maybe it was just too heavy for summer. If you have been around my blog a while, you know I love to dress beds for the season.

I thought maybe I needed to repaint and get new bedding.

  
I decided to find a white set hoping I wouldn't have to paint.  My original plan way back when was to have a green room with green toile. 
But I didn't want toile anymore.
In fact, I had a black toile quilt I got at Big Lots for $25. It was a king but it fit. I liked how it hung really low, almost to the ground. 
No. I think I am over toile for a while.
 In case you are thinking of recommending me for an episode of hoarders, you will be happy to note that I did take the toile bedspread and a whole truck load to resale.
I found a lovely full/queen white quilt at T.J. Maxx for $39.00. It also had the nice long draped look I wanted. I picked up a white dust ruffle and pillow cases with a lace edge at Tuesday Morning. I spent $36.00 on those.

I put these on the bed but didn't love it.

My inspiration for what to do came from a night in my sister in law's guest room. I spent the night after going to the Dallas Premiere. Read about it here. 
The walls were a taupey blue-gray. On the bed was a beautiful damask set in Wedgwood Blue.   
The room is gorgeous and so restful.

I wanted to recreate that feeling for my guests.
I had a set in Wedgwood but it was a king.
I tried it on the bed but it didn't fit like the toile spread did.
 I thought I could still use the other pieces from the set to capture the feeling of the 
guest room at my SIL's.

 I pulled out the blue dust ruffle and added that. 

It took a little remaking of the dust ruffle to make 
it fit. 
Cheater alert... (I used my glue gun :/)
Once I added the glammy pillows and my gold edge pillow cases it all came together. 

I made these and not with the glue gun either!

The bolster pillow and the European sham are from a Waterford set I got at Tuesday Morning few years ago. I had it before we got our new bed and didn't love how it looked after the new bed arrived. 

I got this little painting on one of our antiquing weekends. 

 Some of my sweet Robin's Egg Blue things ended up in here.

I love it. 

Katie
Linking with,
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage &

Sat Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Chandelier Shuffle

I love, love chandeliers. My favorite ones are dripping with crystals.

When others were taking down beautiful examples and putting up this...

I was collecting others cast offs. 

I got two nearly identical bronze fixtures for 50 cents each from garage sales.
I put this one over the piano.

This one went up in our two story atrium.

It was pretty good there for a long time until furniture got larger.

As home furnishings got bigger so did chandeliers.
 Our petite 80s fixture just was not cutting it. 

I got this new one for our entry way that was more in proportion to the space and balanced the weight of the new front door.

I love it but my blingy chandelier didn't have a home. It got stuffed into a cabinet and then into a closet loosing crystals with each move. I gathered up as many crystals I could find and put them in my crystal drawer.

I am sure Bill wanted to throw it out so many times.

When Bekah moved I decided the bronze and crystal chandelier would go much better in her room than the one she had. 
I put it up and cleaned it off. I started adding back the crystals that had fallen off when it was shoved in the closet.

Unbelievably I only lost one crystal in the transition.

I think it goes well with Bekah's bedding.

This was Bekah's old chandelier.

It is an Italian rose tole chandelier. It came out of my step mom's house eons ago. 
It was a wonderful chandelier to take Bekah from pre-schooler to young adult.  
But I really thought it would look better in my shabby white room.
It need a good bit of dusting. 
Compressed air did a great job.

There was no way a rag was going to clean inside those roses.
I think that at one point this chandelier had been painted. I could see bits of pink and blue peeping through the white. I tried stripping it down to the original paint colors but it didn't work. It took the paint and the enamel off. 

Read about my shabby room here.

My only reservation about the transition was this ceiling fan.
I really hate ceiling fans but they are a bit of a necessity here in Texas.

I am going with cute!



I took down the fan. I didn't know how, so I just started taking pieces off. Be sure to turn off the breaker.

This is one reason I hate ceiling fans. 

The dust on the top of the blade is so hard to clean! 

 

Let me say I am wild about these changes.   

 I have supplied both rooms with fans so our guests can have some moving air. 
I didn't want you to worry that my guests will be uncomfortable in the Texas heat.

Katie 
Linking with,
French Country Cottage's Feathered Nest Friday 
& Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Special
&Debbie Doo's Newbie Party 
& Sunday's Best Par.tay @ My 1929 Charmer 
& Tuesday's Treasures @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia 
&Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesday!