Oh so CORNY!

First of all...Where have you all been???  Oh wait...I am the missing one.  Well let me just say that the last two weeks have been overstuffed.  You know - like an overstuffed burrito, oozing with lots of extras and no room to fit it all in.  But you manage to shove it in and then you can't breathe.  That's my life:  I've been making salsa, freezing corn, camping, going to fall baseball games, soccer practice, Boy Scouts, college classes, family reunions, birthday parties, and oh-did-I-mention that school started?  I am hoping that things will soon slow.down.just.a.little.

Meanwhile, I will share a corny story.  I do not like vegetables.  I do not like them in a box.  I do not like them with a fox.  I do not like them here or there.  I do not like them anywhere. Except for corn, that is.  I love corn, especially fresh corn on the cob.  With gobs of real butter running all the way to my elbows.  Mmmm.  I can taste it now.  But what do you do in the dead of winter when there's absolutely no place to buy fresh corn?  I used to stock up on cans of corn, but there's just no comparison.

So...why not gather the family - the whole family - and freeze 400 ears of corn.

Why am I the only one that looks happy about this? 

Everyone pitched in and shared the work.  There is a special order in getting corn ready to freeze.
First - you send your sister to the farmer to pick up the corn and then send her to another farmer to have it all husked and silked.  It will be a good experience for her, trust me.
Second - you show up at your parents' house with baggies, bowls, knives, pots and corn (of course).
Third -   you tell the young children that their job is to cut the corn...they will be super excited and the other adults in the house will get extremely nervous so they will jump in to help out.
Fourth - You tell your dad that you're waiting for the corn to cool before putting it in the bag.  He will tell you that it's fine, and bag it all for you.

I don't know why more people don't freeze corn every year.  It's very simple - really!

I told you it was a corny story, but you kept reading anyway so don't blame me!

Frugal Finds

Later this month Rodney and I will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.  I can't believe that it has been that long.  And while I consider my husband to be quite frugal, this post is not about him.  When we got married (15 years ago)  we bought a cheap kitchen table set with 4 chairs.  After we moved into our current home, I wanted a bigger kitchen table.  I fell in love with a farmhouse style table.  We found it in the back room of a furniture store on clearance.  I couldn't leave it there.  So we lugged that bad boy home where it landed smack-dab in the middle of our kitchen.  Perfect!  Almost.  The table didn't come with chairs and there were no matching chairs in the back room.  But I didn't care...we would find the perfect chairs eventually.  Meanwhile, we kept the chairs from our old table.  Our new table was meant for 6 chairs, so to fill in the space we added beautiful, brown metal folding chairs (do you hear my sarcasm?).  Afterall, it would only be a little while until we bought new chairs, so we could handle the mismatched chairs until then.  Right?  Well, that was 9 years ago. We grew attached to our metal chairs - OK, not really.  It was never really a priority and we just never found a great deal on kitchen chairs.  Until yesterday, that is.  I was at an auction looking at four beautiful oak chairs.  One of the ladies that works there asked me if I was going to buy those chairs.  I told her I would love to, but I needed 6.  She told me that her granddaughter works at restaurant nearby.  That restaurant just bought brand new chairs and they were selling the old ones for $5 each.  What??? $5 for solid wood chairs?  I called Rodney (because he works right across from the restaurant) and had him go check.  Guess what?  They still had some.  YAY ME!!! Can you see me doing the happy dance? Six chairs for $30 is amazing.  Sidenote:  the oak chairs at the auction sold for $40 each.

Here is my great find.  They are darker than I would like, but they are in great shape.  You can see that they do not quite match my table.

I have some ideas for them, I just haven't made up my mind yet.  I'm still smiling about the fact that I finally have matching chairs.  But here are some of my thoughts:

Maybe I'll paint them white like this,

or this,

or maybe I'll make chair covers,

or perhaps I'll paint them black.

What do you think?  What would you do?  Time will tell. Let's just pray that it's not another 9 years.  As for our 15 year old kitchen chairs, I have plans for them too...I think a car wash is in store!  More on that later!

Wanna see more frugal finds?  Check out the Shabby Nest  every Friday to see some super-sized frugal finds!