Yesterday we popped by our local Habitat For Humanity ReStore for a look around. I LOVE the ReStore. 

It’s way better than a thrift store and there’s always tons of furniture, light fixtures and home stuff. You never know what you’re going to find. Plus, I had a 20% off coupon so I was hoping to find something good.

This Ethan Allen Vanity was $175 and in great shape! Sadly, I don’t have room for it. 

I also thought this table talk pie rack was pretty cool. It holds 14 pies! I can’t even imagine how long it would take to make 14 pies.

But hey, this must be a collectors item because they were asking $150 for it.

If I still had a colonial style house I totally would have bought this dresser. 

There must be a lot of people who love primitive style furniture around here because our ReStore always has primitive wooden items.

There was a really nice and styrdy farmhouse table with 4 chairs {$450}. The price was a little high, but with a coupon it would have been a decent deal. 

I loved this light fixture. But sadly I had nowhere to put it.  

Desk and chair set for $65.

But the deal of the day was this twin bed frame for $10. This store must get a TON of bed frames because they are always a steal!

I ended up going home with two wooden crates {$10 each less the 20% coupon}. I know some people, okay most people {the HH included}, would think they are probably junk. But I’m going to plant them with tulip bulbs in the fall.

I think they’ll look rustic and cool over at Bird Cottage next spring.

Don’t you just love thrifting? I especially love that we all see something different when we walk around this world. 

It would be so boring, if we all liked the same thing.  

I hope you have a great weekend. 

~Mavis

OTHER

The post Great Finds At The ReStore! appeared first on One Hundred Dollars a Month.

While I love trying new recipes, there are some I know are real winners and have gotten rave reviews over the years. 

Here’s my go-to list:

Appetizers

Caprese Skewers or Homemade Salsa and Chips.

Salads

Broccoli Cashew Salad or Carol’s Creamy Grape Salad.

Side Dish

Mustard Potato Salad.

Main Dish 

New England Style Baked Beans, Crock Pot full of grilled Aidell’s Weenies {sliced lengthwise} or a bucket of KFC Chicken.

Dessert

Strawberry Shortcake, Rocky Road Brownies or a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

Those are my favorite summertime recipes, what are some of yours? I’m always up for trying something new, especially if it’s a tried and true winner. 

Hey! It’s going to be 95 degrees here in Maine today. Yikes! 

Stay cool, 

~Mavis

OTHER

The post What Are Your Favorite Summer Recipes? appeared first on One Hundred Dollars a Month.

A big heat wave is headed our way tomorrow with temps in the 90’s so I thought I’d better hop to it and pick some radishes and set out the trolley. 

$2.00 per bunch seemed pretty reasonable to me. We’ll see if we get any takers.

Does anyone know how much fresh chives go for at the grocery store? I keep forgetting to look. I know the local nursery wants $45 {!!} for a rhubarb plant so $10 seemed like a steal to me. 

Then again, maybe rhubarb are like zucchini and it’s something everyone is trying to get rid of? Who knows.

I love my little trolley. I’m going to set it up with buoys and lobster ornaments this weekend.

I hope the garden survives the heatwave. 

The HH said he’s going to get up super early and water before it starts to really warm up. That and watering in the evening is about all we can do.

The carrots and beets are finally starting to get some height.  

The lavender I planted last week seems to be settling in. I hope they do okay with the heat. I transplanted some chive plants and some of the leaves’ stems are starting to turn yellow but hopefully they’ll bounce back in a week or two. 

Starting plants from seed and setting them out in the garden can be tricky sometimes. 

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, is that if you can be patient and allow your seedlings just a little more time than you think they need to pop back and grow some roots in their new soil, everything will usually work out fine.

Bird cottage in the early morning light. If you look closely you can see the Papa bird on the twig and flower pot swag guarding the nest.

The flowers on the benches could use a re-fresh, but I think I’ll wait until after the heatwave passes to add some more color. 

Did I tell you I planted Shasta daisy seedlings in front of the cottage fence? 

I think they’ll look spectacular next summer. And even better…. I won’t have to worry about planting anything else in that spot!! 

Set it and forget it baby.

And one last thing, check out how well the grass has grown in between the parking strip pavers. 

This area turned out much better than expected. And I think the grass pavers look 100 times better than asphalt or gravel.Everything is SO GREEN right now. I hope it lasts!!

Only time will tell. 

I hope you have a great day. Peace Out. 

~Mavis

OTHER

The post The Early Bird Gets The Worm… Or Radishes? appeared first on One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Normally I’m not a big breakfast person. Tea and oatmeal or tea and a slice of toast is all I need. But with all the FRUIT in the house lately, I feel I have to add it to something just for variety sake. 

I mean, you can only eat so many peaches over the sink, handfuls of blueberries or bananas in the car on the way to the Doctor’s office, right? 

Market Basket bran flakes with fruit are my new favorite thing. I think it’s the maltiness of the cereal that I like. 

Is maltiness even a word?

I gave up on raisin bran because there are just too many raisins in the box. It makes me crazy. I don’t know how big those “two scoops of raisins in every box” are but there is just too many raisins!

You know what else is a really good cereal? Kashi organic cinnamon harvest cereal. Plus there always seems to be a $1.00 off peelie on the box. 

Ahhh peelie coupons. Remember those? I get so excited when I see them on a product I actually want to buy.

And the HH’s scrambled eggs. Every time I pull out the eggs for breakfast, HH offers to make them. 

Which we all know is code for “I make them better than you but I don’t want to say that out loud because you are an amazing wife and I don’t want to hurt your feelings”. 

Yep. That’s what it means alright.

Eggs, weenies, pineapple and some fresh chives from the garden. And all I had to do was sit done at the table. That’s my kind of breakfast!

Fruit and bran flakes. 

That’s the food kick I’m on these days. Isn’t it weird how we’ll eat something for weeks, months, years even and then move on to the next thing? 

How about you? Have you been eating anything interesting? 

~Mavis

OTHER

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Get Back To The Basics + Learning to Unplug

It’s crazy how much you can get done when you are unplugged. And I’m loving it. 

Also, I keep reminding myself that I waited all winter for good weather and to be able to walk around in shorts. I don’t want to miss any of it hanging out inside in front of a screen.

Also, the window bird feeders we put up… Have been a HUGE hit! We had 6 customers at once last week.  

And we also have a new resident nestled into the twig and flower pot swag. This is the 2nd mama bird to move in {she built her nest on top of the previous one} and she’s noisy!!

I say hello to her every time I pass by. Seeing her makes my heart happy.

In The Kitchen

Another day another care package for the HH. People really want to make sure he isn’t going hungry. And I think he likes all the care packages too.  

In addition to his weekly delivery of peaches, he also received a box of rations from Katz Deli in NYC.  Pastrami and peaches. Mmm Mmm Good.

I keep hoping some Grater’s ice cream or clotted cream and scones will show up but who knows… Maybe it’s on the way? Anything is possible these days. 

Kitchen Goals For This Year

• Master the pear frangipane tart from Standard Baking Company. 
• Put my Weck jars to use.
• Use two bins of beans {working on it}

Rug Hooking

No new rug hooking projects to report but Lowe’s had a sweet deal on hydrangea plants {$24.98 each} so I picked up a few. Rather than plantain them right away I decided to put them in some old sap buckets and enjoy them on the porch for a bit.

Rug Hooking Goals For This Year

• Finish drawing out all my patterns, making kits, dyeing wool by March 31st. 
• Release 10 new rug hooking patterns/kits.  {4 down 6 to go}
• Hook 27 of the patterns from the “someday I’ll hook these” bin. {6 down 21 to go}

Go New Places – See New Things

All travel plans are currently on hold but hey, remember those 4 rocking chairs I bought off Craig’s List for $90 last fall with the intention of putting them on the deck next door? 

Well it turns out there really wasn’t enough room to move around them comfortably so I put a for sale sign on them and stuck them at the end of the driveway. 

They were gone in a flash and I even made a $5 profit.

Travel Goals For This Year

• Travel someplace {internationally} that I’ve never been before.
• Travel somewhere in Maine {overnight} that I haven’t been before.

Places I’ve Been So Far This Year

• Boston {Birthday getaway}
• NYC {Girls getaway}

Walk And Stretch More

The HH and I have been really good about going for walks lately and on our last outing I scored a new cutlery tray from someone’s free pile.  

The HH thought it was hilarious because we actually went to the store and looked at cutlery trays and they were all crappy pieces of bamboo glued together or were totally overpriced and we went home empty handed. 

And then … We found a free one. I love when that happens.

Walking/Stretching Goals For This Year

• Get into some sort of stretching routine
• Fast walk a 5K, 10K, and Half Marathon 

Garden

The garden is doing really well! So far I have harvested radishes, chives and even a few sugar snap and snow peas. 

I suspect we’ll be harvesting basil, lavender and turnips next. Yee-haw!

Garden Goals For This Year

• Rework the driveway and garden areas {DONE!}
• Go crazy and plant a ridiculous amount of flowers {working on it}
• Step out of my comfort zone and plant some flowers I’ve never planted before {DONE!}

Paint

I took a break from staining the fence last week and finished painting my fourth of July buoys for the fence. Now I just need to hang the buoys and the bunting and the place will be decorated for the fourth. 

Summer! It’s finally here. Fingers crossed the good weather continues.

I hope you have a great Monday, 

~ Mavis

Painting Goals For This Year

• The Van Gogh wall
• The gallery wall down stairs
• The captains wall in the hall
• Trim and walls 

OTHER

The post My Goals For 2026 – Week 26 of 52 appeared first on One Hundred Dollars a Month.

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