Thankful for Home, 27 November 2014

Today will be the largest dinner I've hosted yet: Including my sons and little nephews, we'll have 18 for Thanksgiving!  Two of the nephews don't have enough teeth for turkey, but I'm still roasting 33 pounds for the rest of us (12.5 lbs went through the oven yesterday; the other 20.5 get going in an hour).

This year has the extra-special added element of an overseas visit from my sister Kay's family, who we haven't seen for two years.  And the extra-extra special part of their visit is that now they have Baby C...who I've been longing to meet since his birth 10 months ago!  Kisses over video chat just aren't the same thing as mooshing on plump cheeks in person.  Today will be the first time all five cousins--my two boys, Claire's two boys, and Kay's--will be together.  This Auntie is beside herself anticipating all those fuzzy heads whooping, crawling, or drooling all over her house.  It will also be such a joy to see my Dad with his grandsons inevitably piled all over him.

But on that note, there is also inevitable sadness because my Mom isn't here to see and know her grandchildren.  G is the only one who remembers her--and it's hazy at that, since he was only three and a half years old when she died--and she never got to meet the youngest three boys.  Holidays are full of mixed emotions anyway, especially for this tradition-oriented family.  We did things basically the same way every year, from the location to the food, and it's been a slow grief process to gradually form new traditions.

Some of our traditions have remained, however--like having our big dinner at noon and enjoying leftovers and pie for supper--and since this is Kay's first American Thanksgiving in six years, we're leaning on our traditional growing-up foods, too: Turkey with from-scratch bread stuffing, Boston brown bread, steamed green beans with slivered almonds and sour cream, red garnet yams with butter, mashed potatoes and gravy, jellied cranberry sauce (no whole cranberries allowed; my mom tried to introduce that but there weren't enough takers), and six different pies.

Not that different from many other Americans' Day of Thanks fare, but these particular dishes taste like home to us siblings...and I am so thankful for home--for the loving home I grew up in, for the welcoming home I have now, and for the eternal Home my mom has already gotten to.  In some ways, no matter what the joy or sadness, with my Heavenly Father at my side I'm always home.  Wherever you are today, may you feel welcomed home too.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends.

Pumpkin Gingerbread (Vegan and Low-Fat), 07 November 2014

Good morning!  Z and I are sitting in front of the fire (yay for our new fireplace!) on this lovely fall morning, having just finished a scrummy breakfast.

A couple days ago, Claire--whose oven has quit working and is having baking withdrawals--brought the nephews over and baked pumpkin cookies while I had Auntie time.  Everyone was delighted.  The can of pumpkin she used was one of those double-size ones, so about two cups of leftover puree found its way into my fridge.  Naturally, I needed to use it up.

(I just realized that the last recipe post I wrote was also about leftover pumpkin, haha!)

Add a craving for my mom's acclaimed gingerbread recipe, and I came up with a vegan, low-low-fat, easy result with a lovely moist, spongy texture.  Since this isn't a food blog, I won't entrance you with photographs of every ingredient and 17 pics of the finished product from different angles; I'll just share the recipe.  Okay, and one picture.

P.S.  I also had leftover cream cheese frosting from Claire's cookies, so for you non-vegan peeps, I highly recommend a good schmear over the gingerbread for a sweeter treat.  Or pair it with a slice or two of sharp cheddar cheese for a healthy-feeling breakfast...like I enjoyed this morning!

Pumpkin Gingerbread

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Oil and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

In a large bowl, combine with electric mixer:
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup molasses
1 cup light corn syrup
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups hot* water (about 110 degrees F)

Add:
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. each baking soda, cinnamon, and ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally.  Pour into prepared pans and bake for 50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pans on wire racks, or serve warm if desired.

*If using refrigerated pumpkin, heat water to about 150 degrees F

Thankful, 04 November 2014

Today I am completely humbled and filled with gratefulness.  I have such an easy life.

When my parents were newlywed college students, they were asked to take part in a broad study that looked at employment history and wages and family relationships.  They continued to be interviewed every few years, and when we kids rolled around, we started being interviewed too.  "Here comes the Interview Lady!" someone would announce, and the rest of the day was spent with a nicely-dressed woman with a clipboard and rudimentary laptop, who questioned the eight of us in turn for hours.

This process has continued with us "kids" into adulthood, and today I had my interview.  I was asked about family relationships, about income, about employment history, about my children, my religion, my personality traits, and so-on (it took three hours; this is a serious study!).  The more questions I answered, the humbler I became.  Yeah, my parents and I have made a lot of good choices, but so much of where I am today has absolutely nothing to do with being "good."  My heart breaks for those for whom the answers to these questions are completely different from mine.

"In the last 12 months, have you ever been without a place you could depend on to sleep?"  No.

"In the last 12 months, how often have you felt you were treated more unfairly than other people?"  Never.

"Have you ever been been personally beaten or the victim of any other violent crime?"  No.

"How often have you gone without something you need, because you could not afford it?"  Never.

"Think about your childhood.  Was there ever a period when your family did not have enough to eat?"  No.

"How often do members of your family have calm discussions?  Every day, a few times a week, once or twice a month, several times a year, or Never?"  Every day.

"Other than spankings, how often do members of your family hit each other?"  Never.

"In the last 12 months, were you ever denied employment because of being treated unfairly?"  No.

"Within your day-to-day life, how often do you feel you receive the same respect as other people?  Every day, a few times a week, once or twice a month, several times a year, or Never?"  Every day.

"In the last 12 months, how often were you unfairly stopped, targeted, or questioned by law enforcement?"  Never.

"Have you ever seriously contemplated suicide?"  No.

"In the last 3 months, how many days of work or school did you miss because you were physically or emotionally unable to attend?"  Zero.  (Yes, even SAHMs can miss work by literally not being able to get out of bed.)

"In the last 12 months, how many days of work or school did you miss because you were physically ill?"  Three.  Three days only.

"During the last 3 months, how often did G or Z seem confused, as if in a fog, or unresponsive?"  Never.

"All in all, how would you rate your satisfaction in life?  Very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, somewhat dissatisfied, or very dissatisfied?"  Very satisfied.

My life isn't perfect.  I had an emotionally difficult time answering questions about whether I'd lost anyone close to me in the last four years (Yes, three women); and I answered that my biological mother was 52 years old when she died; and yes, I'd lost a home to a foreclosure.  But I've dealt with those things without ever dealing with discrimination based on my age, gender, ethnicity, or economic status; without ever struggling to buy my children nutritious food; without ever worrying about where we would sleep the next day/week/month.

Why me?  Why do I happen to be a Caucasian in a country where Caucasians are generally treated with respect?  Why did I happen to be born into a family with a continued upward economic trajectory?  Why did I happen to have children born to me without any physical or  mental illnesses?  Why do I happen to be alive in a time and place where women are given at the very least the same legal respect as men?  Why do I happen to even be alive today?

I don't know the "why"s, but I do know this: It's not because of me.  Every single one of those answers could change tomorrow, but that still wouldn't be because of me.

I am so humbled at the gifts God has chosen to give me at this time, and sobered as I contemplate how to share them.  I am so thankful for Today.  Tonight's prayer is that I can be just as thankful tomorrow...whether I'm given the same gifts or not.

Project: Fireplace Transformation

One of the things we loved when we bought our home four years ago was that it had a wood-burning insert in the living room.  Having grown up with a two-story home heated in the winter by a wood-burning stove, I was excited about being able to do that with this house.

Unfortunately, I didn't take into account the fact that 1) no-burn days are rampant; 2) we can't grow or harvest our own firewood like my parents did; 3) this particular stove had a big big flue problem and filled the house with smoke when we tried to light it.  So in the four years we've lived here, we've used the stove about four times.

We repainted the walls/trim before moving in and above is the decor we've had for the last four years, sippy cup not usually included.

This summer, I did a lot of brainstorming.  What if, I mused, we got rid of that rather beastly stove which juts out into our living space?  What if we replaced it with something that turns on with a switch, is efficient, is flat, and isn't limited by burn days?  And what if I painted the brick white to clean up the look of the room?

So I researched gas inserts, efficient heating methods, and many pros and cons of painting brick.  (Turns out that's a topic with heated arguments on both sides, no pun intended.)  Meanwhile, I decided to repaint the wall above the mantel.  In another effort to calm the look of our busy living room, I had decided that it would be lovely to paint white the several walls of cedar planking we have.  Unfortunately, the photos I have don't really showcase the paneling that's above the mantel, but trust me, it's there.

Like my manicure?

I painted that wall at the same time I was doing the media nook in early August, and here's the first incarnation of its redecoration.

If you read my project post about transforming the buffet into an entertainment console, you will have noticed that this Thomas Kinkade rip-off painting always appeared over the buffet.  The painting was actually Jay's first anniversary gift to me and has had a prominent spot every place we've lived.  But when the buffet moved and a tall new-to-us hutch took its place, the painting had to move.  I thought this arrangement was pretty clever, if a little nontraditional.  However, when Mrs. FIL--who is an interior decorator--saw it, she commented, "That painting doesn't really go, does it.  Looks like you're trying to fit something too large in that space."  Hmm.

Back to the fireplace.  At first, Jay didn't even really want to talk about buying a gas insert.  But as I shared with him my findings on efficiency...and discovered a large rebate program in our area...and discovered a contractor offering some manufacturer rebates...and as Jay imagined the ease, beauty, and coziness of fires whenever we wanted them, he got excited and gave me the green light.

So in late September a couple guys came out to remove the beast and install a happy little gas insert!

Check out all that ash on top of the stove!  The flue basically had no draft, which explains why we had trouble keeping a fire going.

This was an exciting part. The two guys huffed and puffed getting that thing out of the house.

Venting hose goes into the chimney.

New insert ready to get hooked up!  Light as a feather compared to the old one.

Et voila!  After a couple hours we had our lovely new fireplace ready to go.  Too bad it was 90 degrees and too hot to run it.

Doesn't that look so much better?

After looking at the fireplace for a couple hours, I decided to pull the trigger: This brick was getting painted.  Not wasting any time, I spent the evening prepping the brick which took a whole lot of elbow grease and a whole lot of water.  You kinda have to wonder how often this brick had been cleaned since it was installed in the late '70s.  It certainly hadn't been cleaned during the last four years...

First I layed dropcloths on all the near surfaces, including the brand new insert.  Why didn't I paint before it was installed, you ask?  Because my paint job would have been destroyed by hauling out the old stove.  In a perfect world, I would have had a day between the old one coming out and the new one going in, but contractors don't really make appointments like that.

Then I scrubbed the whole thing down with a wire brush, dipping it in a mixture of warm water and liquid dish detergent.  I refilled the water bucket after about every two rows of bricks because the water turned so black.

Next, I rinsed down everything with clean water and a cloth.

I rinsed it twice.  And this is the color of the water after just a portion of the second rinse:

Eew.  But having spent a couple hours getting it to this point, I decided the paint would have to make up its own mind to stick regardless of any remaining soot residue.

Next morning after dropping the kids off at school, I taped off the insert and rolled a coat of primer over the brick.

One article I read suggested using masonry primer, but the hardware store I went to didn't carry it, so I just used the regular latex primer I had left over in a can from--ahem--painting our house four years ago.  Waste not want not!  I should have used a roller with 3/4" nap to get into all the nooks and crannies, but I was cheap and decided to use the less expensive 1/2".  That actually ended up being a lot more work though because I had to use a brush to cram primer into the gaps.

No wasting here.  I had not a drop too much of primer to finish the coat. Phew!

After the primer was on, I snuck in a quick bite to eat,

and then rushed to the hardware store to get a 3/4" nap roller for the paint.  No way did I want to do that whole brush thing again.  I grabbed the roller and drove straight from the store to the kids' school; upon my arrival to his classroom Z chided me, "Mom, I'm the last one here!  You're late!"  Yeah yeah.  I'm also covered in primer, kid.

Once back at home, I started the painting.  It took two coats of paint on top of the primer (Behr's "Gallery White" latex interior semigloss, in case your interested, the same as our trim) before it looked really covered.  In fact, after the first coat dried to the touch, it looked like I'd used a flat sheen because so much paint soaked into the porous brick.  It probably could have used a third coat, but I was done with all the cutting-in around edges.  I had also been none too careful painting the brick edges next to the wall, so I touched up those areas too.  (**Note** Mr. Internet gave me some tips on how to avoid getting paint onto the carpet next to the hearth.)

Taadaa!  And the very next day the weather temperature dropped temporarily, so I took advantage of it by opening all the windows and running the insert for four hours to cure its paint.  And even with all the windows open and fans running, our living room still heated up to 80 degrees.  Niiiiice.

First fire.  Yay!!  A month later and we still haven't had a second fire though.  Too darn warm around here.

Now all that was left was to decide on mantel decor.  I thought more about what Mrs. FIL had said about the painting and suddenly inspiration hit.  Remove the frame!  And while browsing at a local home store, I found some lovely green accent pieces, which Mrs. FIL later helped me combine with some I already had at home.

The result?

I love it sooooooooooooooo much!!  It lightens and freshens our entire living room.  And I can't wait for winter weather so that we can have easy, cosy, warm fires every day.

What a transformation, huh?

Before:

And after:

It sure makes me happy!  What do you think about painting brick?  Would you give up the crackle and snap of a wood fire for the convenience and efficiency of a gas insert?

Project: Dresser Turned Media Console, Part 1

My mom loved thrift store furniture finds, which is probably why I do too.  During my final year of college, in which I was preparing a voice recital, taking lots of classes, and preparing to marry Jay, my mom took it upon herself to furnish my apartment from thrift stores.

Ikea would have been a more chic option if we'd had it, but we got things that did the trick.  A looooooooong couch that took up an entire living room wall (and took off some of the doorjamb paint getting in), a swivel chair, a little round table for the kitchen, and a nine-drawer dresser for the one bedroom.

Were these pieces pretty?  No.  But they did the job!  In fact, the dresser has been doing the job for the last 12 years; when we moved out of that apartment into our first house, it became a "buffet" in our living room, storing linens, infrequently-used kitchen utensils, and whatever else we managed to cram in.

A vacuum cleaner salesman commented it looked like I lived in a grandma's house.  Touche.

On special occasions, it became an extension of the kitchen for spreading out food or a platform for decor.

See the corner with the folding chairs and table? That corner was our dining room. The kitchen is on the other side of the buffet wall...and about the same dimensions.

 After kids started arriving, wicker baskets (from Ikea this time) were added underneath to hide toys.

G looks for an escaped toy.

When we bought our current home, it continued to serve a similar function, also standing in our--much larger--living room.

Hidden under a tablecloth for the tea party goodies! Also present is the china cabinet in its '80s brass glory.

And when the kids started school, it housed text books and work sheets, plus card games, linens, and even books.

But over this last year, a few things changed: Namely, I got more thrift store furniture.  The buffet drawers slowly emptied as I found new homes for things, and I began to wonder if this highly functional albeit highly dated piece of furniture had outlived its use.

Meanwhile, here's what our living room's media nook looked like.

This cabinet was purchased new (shock) from Ikea when we needed something lockable to keep electronics safe from little boys.

Works just fine, but check out all that wasted space on the sides!  And then on August 11th at about 3 a.m., inspiration struck.  By 9:00 a.m., Jay was at work, the kids were at school, I had a borrowed Sawzall, and my brilliant idea began to take shape.

First, I unplugged and lugged everything out of the media nook...and then wiped down the walls and prepped for paint.  Because why wouldn't I add painting a few walls to my day's activities?

After getting the first coat of paint on, I started with the dresser.  First, drawers out.

Next, I removed the back, which was thankfully a fairly flimsy piece of plywood stapled on.  The back of a hammer took care of it.

After unscrewing greasy drawer tracks from key spots, I got out the saw and created a sub-woofer home.  This actually took more work than I thought it wood would, and after getting a blade stuck and breaking it getting it unstuck in an attempt to trim off a certain edge, I called it "good enough" and committed to cleaning up the edges when I paint it.  Yes, painting coming in Part 2.  What, you thought I enjoy the finish on this thing?

I found a scrap of sturdy OSB in the garage and cut it to fit across the bottom of the sub-woofer shelf, lending extra support.

I can't remember if at this point I was able to put the second coat of paint on the walls, or if it was time to pick up the boys from school.  I do remember that I skipped my afternoon nap to keep working on my living room project.  I do not remember if I cooked dinner.  I can guarantee that I ate dinner, though.

Jay--who was completely astonished and in awe of this brilliant idea that I'd executed by myself without consulting him first--helped me get the heavy pieces moved around and the electronics plugged back in.  I have a recollection of adjusting speaker heights after the kids had gone to bed, so that suggests that I wasn't finished until after 8:00, but this is what I ended up with:

Pretty nifty, eh?  Look how perfectly it fits in this space!  And check out what I did with three of the removed drawers for under-console storage space.  Jay also happened to think that was brilliant.

In Part 2 of this project, the dresser-turned-buffet-turned-console will get a coat or four of lovely white paint and new drawer pulls.  I'll also rearrange the drawers a bit so that the frames are more contiguous.

So what do you think?  Are there pieces of furniture you've repurposed over the years?

Project: '80s Brass to Millennial Brass

I love furniture.  Especially wood furniture.  Especially wood furniture sold for a steal at thrift stores.  Which explains why in my living room alone I have six large pieces, all bought second hand.  Of these six pieces, one is a china cabinet, one is a chest of drawers, one is a roll-top desk, one is a desk-cabinet, one is a tall hutch, and one is a dresser.

Almost all of this furniture needs updating, however, so this fall I'm hoping to tackle some painting.  In the meantime, here is a quick thing I did in August.

Our china cabinet is a rather magnificent piece with solid brass handles and hinges.

The wedding dress isn't usually there. This was on the occasion of my SIL's wedding.

When I found this at the second-hand store four years ago, I told myself I'd update the look by spray-painting the brass black.  I never got around to it.

Then after copious research this summer and deciding that I like a little of the distressed look, I threw caution to the wind and used steel wool to rub all the 80's lacquer off the brass and let it begin to age naturally.  I may regret it in 10 years.  But then I could get out the spray paint after all.

In the picture above, the left handle still has the yellow-gold lacquer, and the right handle has the steel wool treatment.  It's a subtle difference but it gives an entirely different "air" to the cabinet.

At least, that's what I tell myself.  Check back in several years from now and we'll see what the patina is doing!

Five Minute Update, 14 October 2014

This morning has been full since school drop-off, including a brisk walk with a friend and a rehearsal with another friend for a wedding gig this weekend.  My thought had been to hit the grocery store after rehearsal before having to turn around and pick up the boys from school--you know it's time for a grocery run when you don't have bread, milk, tortillas, or microwave popcorn--but I was having such a good time singing and chatting with my friend that shopping will have to wait.  (I had two microwaved hot dogs--bunless--for lunch.  Don't judge.)

So with the 25 minutes or so I have left, I thought I'd pop in and post some updates!  Yesterday I realized I didn't write a single post in September, which I will attribute to the following reasons:

1. I've been working my bum off during my morning kidless times on home projects (posts about those to follow)
2. those projects and life in general tire me out, so I spend the kids' afternoon video game time napping (don't judge)
3. with G in 4th grade and Z in 1st, post-dinner times are filled with homeschool work
4. by time the boys are in bed, Jay and I want time together, and I'm too brain-dead to write anyway
5. I feel insecure writing about my home improvement projects because I'm not a famous home blogger a la "Young House Love"

But I miss writing and I am pretty excited to share what I've been working on around here.  So check in over the next day or seven as I get this thing updated!  :-)

A Penny Saved Is a Penny Earned, 27 August 2014

Today I had a job that paid $100 an hour!  Read on to find out how (or skip to the very bottom if you're a punchline person).

When Jay and I bought our house in 2010, there were two--count them, two--sliding glass doors in the master bedroom.  One of them looked out onto a wall.

(Don't worry; we painted the walls/ceiling and replaced the carpet and ceiling fan.)  About two years ago, we hired a friend to take out the superfluous door and frame in the space.  He put in the drywall and we left it at that, deciding that someday "soon" we'd hire someone to texture the drywall to match the rest of the room.

Meanwhile, Jay and I stuccoed the exterior wall ourselves after hearing an exorbitant quote for having someone else do it.  This wall, too, lay unpainted.

As you can see, we're not pros at the whole matching stucco thing. Eh. No one sees this wall anyway.

Last month, I decided I was tired of looking at bare drywall every day, so I got a quote from a paint company to texture it.  Not including the painting afterward, they asked for $450.00.  I hemmed and hawed and thought about it but didn't commit.

Now this week, both boys started class, which means that I now have 16--count them, 16!--hours per week while my kids are at school.  On Monday I did a lot of praying and list-making and thinking about those weekly 16 hours, and one of the things I've decided to do is pursue making my home visually and logistically more peaceful.  I have a loooooooooooooooong list of things I'd like to do, from re-landscaping the front yard to painting furniture.

What I don't have, however, is a money tree, and it's funny how all these projects add up when it's $450 here and $450 there.  But what I do have is time.

So, bada bing bada boom, after a little internet research I decided to take on this texturing project myself!

This morning I started by spackling all the shrunken joint compound around the edges and screws.  I also resolved not to stress about making the wall look absolutely seamless, because I knew that would be impossible for me to do.  I just wanted it to be better than it was.

Then I read the back of the spackle bucket and saw that it could take five hours to dry if it was put on thickly...which it was.  So for the next five hours I...

...paid some bills

...checked Facebook (but only for a couple minutes, I promise)

...spackled the cracks around the patched stucco on the exterior side of the wall

...patched a small hole in the drywall of our hallway by a new thermostat

...did the dishes

...ran a load of laundry

...ate lunch

...picked the kids up from school (yup, my four kid-free hours were done, but they cozied up with some video games so I still had unfettered time)

...prepped a make-ahead dinner

...and read from some special books.

Now the mud was finally dry enough to sand it down, so I put together my brand new little toy and made a ridiculous amount of dust all over my bedroom.  But it had a little catching bag thingy!  Why so much dust?!?  Ah well.  Sanders will be sanders.  We'll sleep in the guest bedroom tonight and I'll clean it up tomorrow.

Like my floral drop cloth? :-)

Naturally, I didn't spread drop cloths over the bed and all of Jay's clothes and all my furniture. So much dust...

My next step was going to be to wipe the dust off the wall where I'd be spraying the texture.  But I forgot.  Oops.  Moving right along...

I used pre-mixed spray cans, practicing on a couple cardboard boxes in the back yard until I figured I'd set the spray volume close enough to match my wall.  The texturing itself went really fast and was actually kinda fun!

Not that it looks much different from this distance. There's only supposed to be about 70% coverage.

While it dried, I popped the casserole in the oven and put on my Teacher Hat for some homework with the boys.  There were some tears (not mine), but before a complete breakdown happened, Jay arrived home from work and soothed the troubled waters.  I love Jay.

Then we ate dinner.  I love one-dish meals.

I primed the wall.

Then I primed the exterior wall, which was no fun at all because I really needed a roller with, like, 6-inch nap to actually get into the crazy stucco job--which I didn't have.  So I rolled and then jammed the bristles of a large paint brush into as many of the low spots as I could.  I'll figure out how to paint it tomorrow (yes, I know a sprayer would be ideal, but I don't have one).

The exterior priming took longer than I thought it would, but when I was finished with that I could go back in the house and paint the opposite side.  I love paint!  Notice I didn't say that I love painting; but a flat, rectangular piece of wall that doesn't need any cutting-in is pretty straightforward.

Two coats of paint and voila!  Done!

The perimeter of where the door used to be is still visible, but at least half of it will be obscured by furniture, and in lower lighting the seams really don't glare out.  And you know what?  It's good enough for me!

I added up my labor hours of this texturing deal (minus all the other projects) and it amounted to about four and a half.  Which means that I spent four and a half hours of my time today to save $450.00, which means that I basically earned $450.00, which works out to $100.00 an hour.

Boom, baby!

Now I'd better go make up the guest bed.  Aaaaaand take a couple ibuprofen.  'Night!

Money Matters: Wedding on a Dime

This little post is an appendix of sorts to the piece I wrote, "How to Plan a (Destination) Wedding (on a Dime) in Ten Days."  For those of you who are incredulous that a wedding can be put together in ten days, read that post.  For those of you who are incredulous that a wedding for 41 guests can be put together for $3,500.00--all-inclusive of dress, venue, food, and decor--read on.

My sister Essie and her fiance Benjamin were simultaneously preparing for a wedding and a cross-country move, so they hoped to save as much money as possible on the event.  Here's how we did it, in alphabetical order.

Cake

We didn't do a traditional wedding cake.  Instead, Claire made the most incredible s'mores brownies and stacked them gloriously upon a platter, topping them with a stem of yellow 'mums.  Perfection.

The test run

Chairs, Tables, Utensils

Given that this was a simple mountain wedding, we collected folding chairs and camping chairs, some of which were brought by various guests.  Because we kept the food to fingers-only, we didn't need much in the way of utensils, and most guests were able to hold their plates on their laps, with side-tables and stools distributed throughout the room for setting down drinks.

Clothes

Benjamin didn't wear a tux, and Essie found a dress off the rack needing minimal alterations.

Decor

For the most part, we let the beautiful mountain setting do the decorating for us.  Everything else was accomplished by a few burlap-lined baskets, some sheets and fabric (bought second-hand), and extra cut flowers.  Not including the flowers, this totaled less than $100.00.

Entertainment

We did not hire a band, a DJ, or an MC; entertainment was simply the guests' own cheerful chatter...plus a few toddlers running around.

Favors

With Em's creativity and some smart shopping on the part of her, Claire, and myself, we put together sweet little "s'mores kits" for 51 cents a pop.

The little pine cone was Em's idea. So adorable!

Flowers

Flowers chosen were mostly in-season chrysanthemums and sunflowers.  Our cousin donated her time arranging a bridal bouquet, six corsages, and wrapping ribbon around seven individual sunflowers.  She gave us cut flowers to do further arranging ourselves.  This totaled less than $100.00.

Food for the reception

We served no alcohol; beverages were powdered drinks (who cares when it's hot outside) and off-brand bottles of water; food was simple sandwiches, veggies and hummus, fruit, cookies, and the s'mores brownies.

Food for the overnight guests

Again, we kept it simple with bakery muffins, pb&j, mac 'n' cheese, frozen burritos, string cheese, and trail mix.  We didn't have much time to eat anyway.

Musicians

Our family is fairly musical, so all musicians were in-house.  I even chose sheet music from a public domain site.

Photographer

A friend of Essie's gave her a discounted rate.

Venue

A four-bedroom, 3.5 bath cabin for two nights, hosting 12 wedding guests and the reception; and a neighbor's yard for the ceremony.  This totaled less than $1,000.

Don't be deceived: This place's $300/night didn't include air conditioning, internet, or an iron.