The Mobile Home Woman | Our journey from urban homesteading to rural homesteading at Windhaven farm…

Storage Ottoman

Posted on September 6, 2009 by MobymomSeptember 6, 2009

We really needed something to put our feet up when we were sitting around, watching TV. Our couch really needed it. And I looked around but most of them were the wrong scale. I just needed one that was long enough, but kind of slender, not too big for my small living room.

So I had Tim build me one. A couple weeks ago.

And it was sitting and waiting for me to fill er’ up and make a little comfy cover over it.

I was going to buy a big piece of foam for the top, but my gosh, that was expensive! So we had this old body pillow that was just about the same size… just had to cut a little off of it.

And we just laid it on the top. Since I want to be able to get into it now and then… we put our sewing stuff and fabric stash in there, we can’t really staple it down and make it super upholstered and all, but I thought, I can use this fabric I got at a yard sale for 50 cents…. yeah… 50 cents for a couple yards of some pretty neat looking upholstery fabric!

First I wrapped the box on the sides with a roll of cotton quilt batting. I bought this new, because I wanted it to go all the way around nicely and just hadn’t seen anything around that would work right.

Jessy and Maggie helped and we just held it in place with some shipping tape. You won’t see it, so I figured it would be fine. I might try and find the staple gun and tack it down a little snugger…

And I sewed a real simple, box really… measured out the sides and cut the side panels, and stitched them all together and then stitched it to the top. It was really easy.

Now it just kind of snugs down over the ottoman. I want to get a couple little sliding coaster that you tack on the bottom of the box, so it will move easily. And I think once I do that, I’ll probably either stitch some elastic around the bottom, so that it comes in close to the box, or I’ll just have like a little strap on each end that goes underneath and keep the cover in place.

Not sure if I like the pillow top, it’s a little lumpy… hahaha… I guess I’ll have to keep a watch on a sale coupon for a piece of foam, or watch for some spare foam at the garage sale or something like that. It would look a little nicer and I could staple it to the top for a nice non-slip cushion on the lid.

But for right now, it’s lost a little of it’s bare pine redneck look and I think that’s a step in the right direction. And the kitties love it, they think we built it just for them. Both of the girls have been sitting on it all weekend long. Not to mention kids feet have found it much to their liking. Simple little build that works for us!

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Stuffed Green Peppers

Posted on September 6, 2009 by MobymomSeptember 6, 2009

Here is my very simple, stuffed green pepper recipe… using my OWN GARDEN GROWN PEPPERS! (yeah!)

First, get about oh, 6 good sized green peppers and cut their little heads off and scoop out the seeds and clean them nice.

Meanwhile, brown a pound of ground beef, and add a few spices in there that you like… garlic, salt, season salt or whatever you like. We’re fairly simple, a shake of garlic, and a little season salt works good.

Here’s the fun part… add in two cups of cooked rice. You can make it just for the peppers, or if you have left over rice that works fine too. Simple. And add in a small jar of spaghetti sauce. Or your own sauce… yummm….. more local stuff, sounds good to me. (We used our own ketchup! It was good…. ) Heat it all up just to marry everything together good and then let it cool a little bit. Just so you don’t get burned stuffing the peppers and all.

Just spoon stuff that yummy mix into your waiting peppers. Place in a glass dish or a pan or something that has a little high sides to it… helps to support the peppers and also catches any juice and all that.

Pop a piece of foil over the top so they don’t dry out bad and pop in a oven for about an hour, hour and half… 350 degrees. You can do it faster, but you want the peppers to soften and cook yummy and all.

When they are done, I pile on a big dollop of Italian cheese… like a mozzarella blend and heat for another 5-10 minutes for it all to melt and become super yummy. And then serve!!!

Even my green pepper hating children tried them and decided they were okay…. I mean they ate them! Honestly! So an “ok” from a pepper-hater means if you like green peppers, they are super good and yummy! And simple to make! Give them a whirl!

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Too Much Stuff… Again

Posted on September 6, 2009 by MobymomSeptember 6, 2009

Back about 10 years ago, I was the model American citizen, I was all consumer and adding to the whole world system of BUY BUY BUY and Bigger is better all the time.

We had a lovely 3,000 square foot home… (which did not include the 1,000 sq feet of high ceiling basement, or the huge garage space…) and a big yard and a yard guy and a cleaning lady and just tons of stuff.

At some point it all hit me and I started to downsize.

I sold off over $3,000 worth of STUFF on ebay alone. Just stuff. Books, junk, knickknacks, electronics, cds, just all kinds of stuff. It was stunning.

And then my marriage failed… and I lost the house and I was forced to liquidate even more and stop the spending…. (I just didn’t have much money or time to take care of all the stuff) and then finally I moved to the Moby and that is where I am now.

But I’ve noticed… it’s starting to creep back in again. I noticed three or four boxes stashed under my tv table in the living room and a few boxes under my desk and at the foot of my bed and stuff stashed here and there… It’s BACK!!!! AGH!!!!!

I watched this SUPER cool video online… I really want you to go and watch it. It will really make you go Hmmmmmm…

www.storyofstuff.com

stuff-header

Its’ really a very fascinating video and you need to watch the WHOLE thing… it’s really important to understand some of why stuff is SO cheap at Walmart and other big box places. She really nails it on the head. I’ve often wondered… how can a say, small appliance cost only $10 when you can’t even get lunch for 2 at McDonalds for that price… I mean the appliance has technology and engineering in it, research and development, material costs, shipping, distribution, etc etc., and yet it’s less than a meal for 2 at a fast food joint? It’s all to KEEP US CONSUMING… that’s our job. As Americans… our job is to consume. That’s it. Most of us don’t create anything. We don’t craft or create anything that we depend on day to day. We just consume. We are 5% of the world’s population, however we consume over 30% of the world manufacturing and export. We are the reason they have child labor issues in the far east and deforestation in the Congo and just about all the nasty things going on in the middle east. We’re a pretty big contributor to all that. Yeah, lovely.

And then I have stumbled AGAIN over this cool idea… the 100 Thing Challenge. Can you pare down the stuff you have and keep it under 100 things? Can you? Most of us can’t. It would be almost impossible.

The 100 Thing Challenge

I know I probably can’t either.

But I want to keep that in mind and start to really examine the STUFF in my life and start to get it more manageable again. So I’m encouraging you all to take a good look at your stuff too… I’ll be documenting some of my discoveries and efforts here, now and then…. not enough to get boring, but just updates on how it’s going.

I set out two big boxes in my living room. One is trash. One is Goodwill. And I plan to fill them up in the next week. And when they are filled and gotten rid of… (hopefully recycled!) I will begin again.

Most of us don’t have like a week of free time to just take and de-junk and de-clutter and all that. But I find with a lot of things that seem daunting… it’s every day, daily effort on a much smaller scale that reall seems to get it done. Might take a month… maybe two… but it’s better than just ignoring it and hoping it will go away.

We’ll see…. I’m game to try and start working on it.

Are you?

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