Author Archives: Chrissie B.

A Day at the Farmer’s Market!

Good evening!
My sweetie and I had the best kind of day today – we got to spend the day with our friends, Amy and Leif, which we hadn’t seen in almost a year. After finally getting to their place, we had gotten lost a few times, we started our day together by heading out to a lovely little cafe for a delectable breakfast. We spent the morning just catching up, and filling each other in on what has been going on with ourselves since we’ve last seen each other.
 
After breakfast, we headed over to the local farmer’s market. The Lane Country farmers market, completely blows ours in Salem away. It is more the 3 times as large, and it has such a bigger variety of booths, farmers, entertainment, and just more of EVERYTHING to see!!

 
Aren’t Leif and Amy just adorable?? They are so much fun to hang out with, they are so in love, and optimistic that it is just contagious!! I am sure that Jason felt that too!
 
My sweetie and I had so much fun walking around, playing, looking for treasures, and all sorts of lovely things to take pictures of!

 
There was so many delicious looking vegetables! It really gave us so many ideas for our little raised garden that we are planning on building for next Spring’s planting season.

 
Plus the many varieties of fresh, and colorful fruit and berries!!! Oh, makes me want to get a batch of freezer jam going!!

 
There was all kinds of honey, but this one in this little corked jar, was just the cutest!

 
And this artisan bread was hard to resist, and isn’t it just picture perfect? Smelled divine too!!

 
and let’s not forget all of the lovely flowers that the vendors had for sale. They were such a great value. Amy bought a large bouquet, and when she got it home, she was able to split it among 4 vases! Such a great deal, and they add such a personal touch to anyone’s home!
I ended up getting a simple pair of sparkly earrings, that were just too perfect to pass up, some  fresh cucumbers, and a small lavender plant – one of my FAVORITE plants!! I can’t wait to get it potted and watch it grow!! After going to the farmer’s market, Jason, Leif, Amy, and myself all headed across town to visit the Scandinavian Festival. I was able to get a lot of pictures of that too that I will be able to share with you tomorrow!

So, as I go finish my night out with my sweetie…

Have a FABULOUS evening!!  😉

Dream Library Decor!

Good evening!
My Fancy Country Living Room 
Someone has been doing a little brainstorming on her dream library. That someone is me! Being a serious bibliophile I have something like 1200 books scattered throughout my condo right now. Someday, I dream about having them all in one meticulously-fabulously-chic organized library, of my own. Someplace that I can sit and read for hours on end, to my heart’s content, write letters to friends and family, and hang out in the super plush window seat listening to the birds in the trees, and watching the leaves change color in the Fall.
The inspiration for this room is the red sofa, which happens to be my favorite color, and very similar to the actual sofa that my sweetie and I have in our home now. I also LOVE this area rug, it just screams happiness! That is a feeling I definitely want to have in what will be my favorite place in our home, and happiness is exactly what this entire room decor evokes. I can’t wait to just hunker down and get right into a great book!
I would love to hear your thoughts on this room.

Here’s to enjoying the ride!

Welcome!

Welcome to the first posting of My Fancy Farmhouse!!
My Fancy Farmhouse
I am happy to start on this new journey in my life, and I am so very happy to be able to share my journey with you!
Let me start out by just saying that I do not YET have a farmhouse, but this is one of my dreams that my husband and I are working toward!!
We dream about having a little farmhouse with a vegetable garden, a cutting flower garden, an orchard, and maybe some chickens. 
The reason that I have chosen to call this blog My Fancy Farmhouse, is because I am a city girl through-and-through, and well, let’s just say I LOVE the idea of living a more simplified and ultimately a richer quality of life on a farm. However, I don’t generally like getting dirty and the idea of the possibility of having field mice as residents of our home kinda freaks me out – I’m just saying!! So, I have decided that when we do finally see the realization of our dream of getting our little farmhouse, it is going to be chic-est little farmhouse you EVER DID SEE!! 😉
I envision My Fancy Farmhouse as a place where one can get inspired to try something new in country living, decorating, down-home cooking, and green gardening, no matter where they live!
I am a firm believer that even though I currently live in a small condo in the city, with my husband, and two long-hair chihuahuas, I can still create a small Fancy Farmhouse-feel right where I am!!
So, please feel free to share with me your thoughts, comments, and ideas of your own. I would consider that a true priviledge.
Here’s to enjoying the ride!

A Quiet Morning!

I relish quiet mornings.

The house is clean, the girls are happily fed, my sweetie is reading a favored novel while having his morning coffee, and I am quietly just taking it all in.
Observing every nook and cranny of my home and of my life, wondering what’s working and what can be improved upon.
Always tweaking and futzing with the here and the theres.
My aim is not for perfection.
My aim is for balance.
Balance in my home, balance in my career, balance in my relationships, and balance in my life.
Balance is something that sometimes feels like a a daily struggle.
A fight between good and evil.
A fight that I am determined to win.
But here, in the quiet of this morning, the fight is gone, the battle won, and it is in this quiet moment that I have found peace.

~Christina

Wednesday’s Update!

Today is Day 5, no shampoo, no hairbrush, and my hair is still rockin’! Ok, I realize that I am having a moment of SEVERE VANITY, but really when do I EVER have something that I can say looks good on me!?!?!?!? But, do you know the scary thing??? I swam in my overly chlorinated pool last night for a really long time, and NORMALLY that would have left me with poofy frizzed out hair for days, and look at this pic, this is my hair TODAY!!! WOW!!! I am a believer!!! I want to tell every curly girl of this new power that I have discovered! THEY SHOULD HAVE THIS POWER TOO!!! HAHAHA! Ok, that was a little evil, like I want to take over the world laugh, but I digress!! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section, I would be happy to tell you exactly what I am and have been doing to make my hair look the best it may have ever looked!!!

Anyway, today is Wednesday, and I am soooo ready for the weekend!! Jason and I are meeting our family at Beverly Beach to go camping for the weekend! We are going to have soooo much fun! and I am planning on taking A LOT of pictures!! We are having a fun family cookoff on Saturday evening, I can’t wait!! Jason is biting at the but to cook our meal that night, and I can’t wait to taste everyone’s dishes, you see we are all sharing whatever it is that we make, so that should be SOOO MUCH FUN!!!

Anyway, I am going to go spend some undivided time with my sweetie!!! I look forward to hearing from you!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

No Shampoo/No Brush Hair Day 4!

Ok, it is late! I am sooo tired, and I am heading up to bed as soon as I finish this mini post! I promised that I would post some pics of my No Shampoo/No Hair Brush day 4, so here goes!!!

Here it is wet, about 30 minutes after my shower.

Thank you, Sweetie for taking my pics!!! 😉

This is my hair about 5 hours later. I actually got my first complements today!!! YEAH!!! “Have you done something different with your hair? It is looking soooo good!!”, “Your hair is sooo curly, what did you do to make it so curly?”

YEAH!!! That felt good!! 😉

Anyway, I will chat more tomorrow!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Happy Monday!!

How has your day gone today?? Mine has gone pretty well!! I always feel so jazzed when I have gotten the things from my to-do list done for the day, work – check, groceries – check, make dinner at home – check, blog – well, that will be a check, and read some more of my book – check, check!! 😉

I came home after grocery shopping a realized my sweetie has fixed something that has been bugging me since 4 years ago when we moved into this place, and that is, he replaced the house numbers on the front of our place. I always tell you, it is the little things in life that bring you joy!! I am not sure who put them there before us, I am sure it must’ve been the lady who lived here before us, but for some reason the numbers had been painted fingernail polish pink – as in hot pink! They were hard to see, AND they were UGLY!!! I had just been tolerating them there, until I forgot they even existed!! but, my sweetie knew I had hated them and thought it would be a nice surprise, and it was!! HONEY, can you hear the brownie meter going up??? I do!!! 😉

Anyway, I am on chapter two of the book that I am reading, Secrets of Simplicity: Learn to Live Better with Less, has really inspired me to start reading about Henry David Thoreau. He seems like a fascinating man, and I have loved all of his lessons that I have heard so far. You see, it sounds like all of the greats had an oasis of sorts to go to center themselves, and rebalance. Thoreau had Walden Pond, Epicurus had his house and gardens, Buddah had a fig tree, where is your Walden Pond?? Where is mine? Good question. I would LOVE to say it is my home, but I think that right now, it has to be the ocean. I always am able to recoup, and get refreshed there. I am going to make it my mission to create my oasis!

Now for that oasis, what would I take with me??? If you were going to be stranded on a desert island. What would you take with you? What could you not living without? Choose for each of the categories below:

  • Two articles of clothing.
  • One food item.
  • One beverage.
  • One form of entertainment.
  • One piece of technology.

What did you choose???

For me my answers are:

  • Two articles of clothing:  A day dress, & my mom’s pink jammies (who would I be trying to impress???)
  • One food item: grilled chicken (I am guessing there is already pineapple, papaya, and coconut there???)
  • One beverage: iced sweet tea
  • One form of entertainment: my entire family
  • One piece of technology: an i-phone

There is soooo much more that I feel I can’t live without, but this will have to be my chosen basics – for now!!!

On to more frivolous matters, it is day 3 of my no shampoo, no brush hair challenge, and so far so good. My showers in the morning take a lot longer than they used to take, but because I am not spending so much time in front of the mirror painfully brushing out my hair, I think the time to get ready takes me about the same amount of time, so that is good! The front of my hair today looks a little greasy, but it feels soooo soft – not greasy at all, that is surprising to me. AND my hair does seem much curlier than it usually is, although it does appear pretty mousy and dull, which I was told, is expected during the first 2 to 3 weeks, so onward I go!!

I am going camping this weekend, so this should be interesting. Not the camping, I know THAT will be a BLAST, I mean the hair care situation there – I will have to keep you posted!!! 😉

Oh, and it has been two days, and I have not purchased even ONE book!! Now, that is not so impressive you say???? Well maybe not, but books are my one weakness and I found that I was bringing between 10 and 20 books a week, I kid you not!! So, I had to have a come to Jesus meeting with myself and put my priorities in the proper order. AND maybe save some money to go on a big trip that I am taking in January!! I am not going to talk too much about that yet, as I don’t want to put a ken ayina hora, a Jewish hex, on it. I will let you know what is going on as soon as I get some more plans finalized on this!! YEAH!!!

Anyway, it is getting late, have a FABULOUS evening!

Life Inventory Checklist!

I am reading this TERRIFIC book!!! It has been in my house for almost a year, but I just picked it up this morning to read through it. This AMAZING book is called ‘Secrets of Simplicity: Learn to Live Better with Less‘. I got through the entire first chapter, and spent the rest of the day doing the first assignment – GOING THROUGH YOUR ENTIRE WARDROBE!!! Whew!! That is soooo much harder than it sounds. I spent the whole day doing that, and bagged up 6 bags of clothes, shoes, and other miscellaneous things from my closet!! It was difficult, time consuming, and at times, I thought I would quit, HOWEVER now that it is all done, I am sooooo EXCITED, and it is nice to have taken stock of everything that I own (wardrobe-wise!)

A few more things that I am taking from this book right away are:

  1. I will focus on reading the books I have, and not purchase any books within the next 30 days
  2. I will not use shopping as my therapist. If I’ve had a bad day, I will do something to pamper myself like a mani or pedi; and if I had a great day, I will let that great mood continue on to my evening by playing some fun music and dancing with my sweetie!
  3. The most important things in my life, are not things – they are people and experiences!

Here is an excerpt from the book ‘Secrets of Simplicity: Learn to Live Better with Less‘, written by Mary Carlomagno:

Answer the following questions with “Always,” “Sometimes,” or “Never”

  1. Do I make time to exercise?
  2. Is my home life serene?
  3. Do I have downtime?
  4. Do I take time to deal with incoming mail and bills?
  5. Do I have time to volunteer for charity?
  6. Do the significant people in my life receive my attention when they need it?
  7. Do I keep my appointments?
  8. Do I see my friends?
  9. Do I eat regular, healthy meals?
  10. Am I in control of my calendar?
  11. Are my home repairs done in a timely manner?
  12. Is my pantry stocked?
  13. Do I find time to get out and enjoy nature?
  14. Am I getting enough sleep?
  15. Do I take regular vacations?
  16. Do I work less than 10 hours a day?
  17. Is my work fulfilling?

Total up your “Always,” “Sometimes,” or “Never” responses. Place stars by the questions that surprised you, and think about what they reveal. Are your “nevers” standing in the way of your livelihood, your healthy, your ability to ultimately grow? Has “always” become a burden, leaving you without control, without the ability to make a conscious choice? As you review your responses, think about whether they represent a life of your choosing.

I would HIGHLY encourage ANYONE wanting to find balance in a materialistic culture, GO OUT AND PICK UP THIS BOOK!!

On a side note: it is day two of my new NO SHAMPOO, NO HAIR BRUSH routine from the book I finished reading yesterday,  Curly Girl. My hair is looking alright, a little greasy this evening, not itchy, I am still passing the sniff test – my husband says “hmmm..smells good!” Thanks, Baby!! 😉 I promise to get a picture posted tomorrow!!! My pics this morning didn’t turn out!!

Anyway, I am going to head up for bed!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

It Is Official…I am a Curly Girl!

Ok, so on one of my weekly voyages to one of my favorite places, the book store, I KNOW SHOCKING, right?? I picked up this… no, wait – let me go back to the beginning!

Last week, at the bookstore, I was checking out, and my cashier, who was also one of the store’s managers look at me and said, “Have you ever heard of the book ‘Curly Girl‘? You should get it, it will literally change your life FOREVER!” I lied, and told her that of course I knew that book, matter of fact, I already owned it.

I left, with my purchases in hand, and I went straight to the car, where my husband was patiently waiting for me, ready to go home, and the first thing I said to him when I hopped in was, “Does my hair look bad????” Side note: don’t ever do this to your man, he was looking and feeling like he was being set up for trouble!! HAHAHA! Of course he totally saved himself and said the EXACT THING I wanted to hear, “Of course not, Baby, your hair looks FABULOUS!” GOD BLESS THAT MAN!! Well, I knew that wasn’t exactly true, when I had left the house that morning, I was feeling like I was looking pretty cute, but this was something like 15 hours later, and I had been running around like a fiend all day, so I am sure my hair wasn’t “FABULOUS”. Well, I told Jason what the lady had said, and he told me to just put it out of my mind. Sooooooo, I did EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE!!! I fretted and worried about it all week!

You must know that I have had a LOVE/HATE relationship with my hair since I was a little girl! I have always wanted straight, thick, beautiful hair, but what I actually have is baby fine curly/wavy hair that has a mind all it’s own, and frizzy at the mere mention of rain (Living in Oregon, that is a real problem). Matter of fact when I was a teenager my mom used to spiral perm my hair regularly, combine that with a chin length bob haircut, and I always looked like Rosanne Rosannadanna from SNL. NOT PRETTY!!! I came to realize that I actually had curly hair when one year I was determined to change my look, and I was going to grow at that damn perm once and for all, and I shockingly discovered that that wasn’t a perm anymore – THAT WAS ME!!!!

ANYWAY, I picked up that book last night, Curly Girl and read through it in one evening, and thought I would give it a try. To oversimplify the book, I am going to not use shampoo and I am going to stop brushing my hair for the next 2-3 weeks just to see what the natural state of my hair is. I am hoping that it is curlier than it is wavy, and seeing the results from just day one, I am thinking that it is. I will do my best to post a pic for day two tomorrow!!

It is getting late, I am heading off to bed!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Happy Wednesday!

Today has been a very productive day!! Work, a long lunch with one of my favorite girlfriends, more work, home, shower, jammies, chores, dinner, more chores, take a breath to write to you this evening, do some more chores, head upstairs, do a little reading, bed, sleep!! Ok, so obviously not ALL of that has happened yet today!!! 😉

I am excited about tomorrow! After work tomorrow night, my family is coming over for dinner and then we are all going to go swimming!! YEAH!!! I always have SUCH a GOOD TIME swimming with the kiddos!! They have such a MARVELOUS way of making you feel like a kid again!!! GOD BLESS MY LITTLE KIDDOS!

Well, today was weigh-in day, I am not sure if I told you, but I am on Weight Watchers and am doing my darnedest to lose weight! I am following Weight Watchers, am on a 24 week walking plan, and have a personal health coach!! So, all of that combined with the fact that I have such a great support group around me, I am optimistic that I will be able to get healthy ONCE AND FOR ALL!! I will keep you posted of my progress!!!

OH, you know what has really been on my mind today?? It is called the 100 Thing Challenge. I have heard about this a few times over the past 6 months or so, but for some reason the idea just really intrigued me today, and made me start to think, “If I had to limit belongings to just 100 things, what 100 things would I choose?” Well, right off, I think that would be REALLY, REALLY DIFFICULT!!! Second, there are a few things that I would have to group as one thing, right off the bat, like my library, that would have to equal 1 thing, but really I have almost 1,000 books, So with that in mind, here is a stab at my list…

  1. My wedding ring
  2. My mother’s dresser
  3. My library
  4. My bed
  5. My couch
  6. My dining room table that my mom-in-law found for me
  7. My piano
  8. My artwork – can that count as one thing??
  9. My little black antique leather chair
  10. My cornet
  11. My laptop
  12. My i-pod
  13. My Kindle
  14. My tele
  15. My DVD player
  16. My DVD collection
  17. My pink bicycle, Roxy
  18. My grandfather’s art box
  19. My art easel
  20. My costume jewelry collection
  21. My shoe collection
  22. My clothes (OK, you can see where this would get REALLY DIFFICULT!!)
  23. My CD collection
  24. My game collection
  25. My puzzle collection
  26. My decoration collection

Ok, I am going to stop myself here! I think this might actually be an impossible task for someone like me. Sometimes I just get sooo disgusted with myself because I am such a stuff person. Don’t get me wrong people are more important than stuff any ol’ day, but there is something about being surrounded by my things that make me feel some much at home. With that said, I want to leave with a bit from George Carlin talking about stuff. Enjoy!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉