Red, White and Blue Gloriously Displayed for Pink Saturday 12/4/10

Welcome to Pink Saturday and a thank you to Beverly of How Sweet the Sound for hosting it. Just click on the logo below to go visit all the participants.

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Do any of you know what it's like to be posting all these scans of photos from the Ethan Allen Treasury of American Home Interiors? I have to scan, edit, PhotoShop them—which I don't do as fastidiously as I wanted for lack of time, and then upload them to Photobucket, which just went through a transition and took me a while to get used to the new version. Can I have a cheer? Please!

These books used to cost $14.95 about 10 years ago, but they were free if you went in and looked around and showed an interest in purchasing something, which I did. But I got such great ideas from them, plus you all know how much I love eye candy. These decorating ideas are timeless. BTW, I don't get a cent from Ethan Allen for promoting their products. I just love their furniture.

Now, there's an aside to this post. My daughter was lamenting to me the other day on the phone about her family room sofa. She bought it as Sofas, Inc. or some inexpensive generic store several years ago and her animals have trashed it. I can barely sit on it because it's so broken down, but she had refused to replace it for the animals to just trash another one. ??? So she was lamenting about the lack of pretty fitted slipcovers. (Trust me, I don't know why frugality is taking over now; it's NOT an issue.) I recommended to her to go to Ethen Allen and look at the quality of their furniture. She got her Rachel Ashwell living room sofa at Layla Grace about 5 years ago and loves it and it looks like good quality, but it doesn't even compare to EA.

Anyway, I told her about the blog posts I'm doing on EA here and recommended she visit one of their stores in the SF Bay Area, where she lives. She mentioned Ikea, which is an inexpensive store, and their sofas are not the best quality. It's more for college students and people just starting out really. Good enough but not great. Now, I've raised this kid and she knows my stuff and my standards on certain things. She mentioned Pottery Barn. I told her that's a couple of steps up from Ikea, but better value can be had at other furniture shops in her area; after all, I lived there and know what the stores are like. So instead of following her mother's advice, she orders a sofa and 2 chairs and the 3 slipcovers from PB. Now, don't get me wrong; it's good but not the best. So much for a mother's recommendation.

As I've said before, I love red in all its value, pink especially. I think this room is stunning.

It's kind of funny but the tulips are what drew me to show you this room. Oh, I do like the room and the furniture, but I prefer skirts on my sofas.

Notice this bedroom has 3 different kinds of stripes on the bedcoverings.

This is a variation on my own sofa I've had for 15 years. The only difference are the pillows. These are "knife-edged" and mine are rounder and softer.

Again, the harlequin rug drew me to this room along with the red walls. Red is just such a commanding color.

Same sofa as the white one 2 photos above but with a different fabric.

This is one of my favorite rooms. I once considered painting my walls yellow, but pink won out many years ago; although, I did paint my bedroom in California yellow once but it was a snap decision brought about by hubby demanding I make up my mind at the paint store quickly. I hated that hue for a couple of years and then painted it another color. Just wasn't exactly like I wanted and got rushed. Never, ever again!!!

Can we say fantastic?! I could live in this bedroom. I love it, more specifically the bed coverings and textiles in the room. I'd love to have the exact same linens for our bed but it's not happening because I know they'd be too expensive and hubby would cry...a LOT...maybe even divorce me. But they are gorgeous!!!!

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How to Acquire Food Storage

Last year at this time I was trying to figure out what would go prettily on a plant shelf in my living room and would be suited for all seasons since I'm just too old and lazy to decorate with the seasons. I'd rather do other things if possible. So I bought a large vase/urn and started painting things pink to put in it. It has branches, cards, watches, ribbons, beautiful things my group has made me or things I've made and a sweet tutu-ed ballerina on the top. Just a froufrou tree in silver and pink and red.

The ballerina is the tree topper but can't be seen very well from down on the floor.

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The snowstorm we had recently is one reason to have food storage. Oh, we also have a generator so if power goes out we'll be fine. But with dried milk we don't even have to worry about anything but fresh salads. We have it all in case of power outage due to snow, ice storms, or anything like that. We're not in a flood zone so not much need to worry about that.

There is no hard way to get food storage; it's all easy. While it looks daunting, it isn't. It can be done. You just have to do it.

What I first started doing is putting the date on the food cans and containers we bought, on the lids we'd put 5/08 or 8/09 or 11/10. But rotate them. I've had to throw out some things because they were so old as to be inedible. Tomatoes are one thing that will deteriorate in a can. I had an explosion in one house because I had not noticed that the can was "rounding" at the top. Tomato sauce all over a certain section of our garage. Not pretty.

On boxes of soap, detergent, fabric softener, I'd put the actual date I purchased it and then when I started using it, I'd put that date to let me know how long it lasted. So if it took me 6 months to use the detergent then I knew I needed 2 boxes, but I'll usually have 3 big boxes on hand. I'm compulsive about it. (There are too many stories from friends about losing jobs and having to live off of food storage or having some of it destroyed in a basement flood. I'm one of those who lost a good part of it in a flood but it didn't take long at all to get it back up to where I needed it.) Buy cans that are on sale but be sure and check the "close date" so they won't be beyond that date before you eat them. I don't ever buy just one can of corn or beans. I buy 8-12 at a time. Just figure out how many cans you'll need for a week or month and multiply that for a year's supply. Don't just depend on pantry items, get freezer items also. I recommend vacuum sealing HIGHLY!!! Foods vacuum sealed in the freezer can last for years with absolutely NO deterioration.

Start collecting soda pop bottles to put water in if you can't get a water storage tank like I have. Just put some aside. Start with a 3 day supply and work up. It's all up to you. Personally, I don't want to risk being without food.

Dried foods also. I have dried carrots, onions, beef jerky, etc. Those work well. You can buy a lot of stuff from LDS canneries. They will sell to anyone! If you have one near you, go and purchase.

Our church recommends the basics for life: wheat, rice, corn, oil, sugar, pinto beans, rolled oats, pasta, potato flakes, apple slices, non-fat dehydrated milk and carrots. Every single one of those items can be stored for 30+ years with no deterioration in food value. Those are the necessities, but I prefer normal food so I have it all stored.

This is a sheet of what we use. I created it as a spread sheet and just put all the items we use on it. We simply went through our cabinets and marked down just about everything in there. Yes, this takes a bit of time but it is well worth it to see where you stand with your food storage. BTW, if anyone would like this inventory, just email me from the address on the sidebar and I'll zap it over to you. That way it's already done for you and you can add or cross off anything that doesn't apply to you. I'd be happy to do it for you. It's 5 pages total. You can just print it off for your own use.
Storage in a bedroom closet with the food storage list hanging on the right side.

Another pantry closet in the laundry room. Some items will go in here soon. I've been rearranging things to make more room for the food.

One shelf is for my painting and cleaning supplies and two shelves will be for food.

We keep the dried carrots, onions, soap, detergents, bleach, etc. out here.


You can store under your bed, but we bought those risers to raise it up enough to put cans under there.

Two bags of potato flakes are under there along with candles, which would melt outside in our summer heat.

Kitchen pantry where I normally keep a good supply on hand.



Candy is essential for periods of stress also, but you can use it to bargain if the need ever arises.

Please understand: we are NOT survivalists, just realists. Hard times are coming. Prices will go up. Food shortages are predicted. You may lose your job or source of income. We just like being prepared. If you do nothing, then you'll suffer the consequences when you could have been prepared. Our church leaders encourage us to be prepared temporally, spiritually and financially. We try to be good Christians by following their advice.
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