Easton's Harry Potter Bedroom

Our son Easton has never really had anything special in his bedroom. All the furniture was hand me down from myself and my husband. So we decided as a early birthday present we would re-do his room. 

My son has always loved Harry Potter so we decided this would be a great theme! 

We wanted to paint the room a neutral color but I am not very fond of beige colors so we chose a pale shade of blue.

 We then decided on bunk beds which we purchased from Art Van on sale.  Although the other furniture is still hand me down, we tried to match a paint shade as close as we could to match the bunk beds. 

I found some ideas on Pinterest, but surprisingly there are not as many as I thought there would be. The light switches are really the only thing besides the pictures that i found useful. 

We purchased the sheets, which match Gryffindor colors at Walmart for $15.00/set. We purchased the maroon fleece blankets at Walmart also for $8.88 each. 

The majority of everything else was found on eBay 

Here are some pictures :) 

Flowers 2013

Just a few pictures of some flowers from our house this year :) 

Muskegon Farmers Market

Muskegon's Farmers Market

700 Yuba Street, Muskegon MI, 49442

(231) 722-3251 

I recently attended a field trip the farmer's market with my son's Young Five's Class from Whitehall. 

I knew the farmers market existed, I just had never been before last week.

I was sincerely impressed with all that there was to choose from. 

The Farmers Market is open on Thursday's and Saturdays.

http://www.muskegonfarmersmarket.com/

The Produce was AMAZING! The prices are much better than the local grocery stores! The trip was very well worth it. The one recommendation I have is, if you get a chance to go, go with someone who ussually attends. They will show the best prices, the nicest people and the best produce.

When I first attended, I went with my son's school, the following weekend I went with my husband and inlaws and I found some AMAZING deals!

Not only do they have produce, there are TONS of flower and fall decorations to choose from during the Harvest/ Fall Fest that they have every year. (Make sure to get there early otherwise parking can be a pain)

(Strawberries were super sweat)

These are so AWESOME! I almost bought one just so I could hang it in my kitchen, but then I realized I had NO WHERE to this.

My Mother in law buys peaches and cans them every year!

Thought this would be super neat to buy for bean soup!

Check out the website for more info!

Tie Dye Bags

We celebrated my oldest sons 5th Birthday on the 30th of September this year. One of the presents he received was this super neat tie dye bag.

They come personalized and unpersonalized. This one as you can see is personalized with my son's name and an alien. He absolutely loves it and we even swapped out his backpack for this one today.

Lindsey is just starting her business and so far so good. I thought I would take some time to give her a happy review! 

 

I borrowed some of her images off of her facebook page. To the left is another personalized bag in two shades.

To the right is an example of some of the purses that she has made.

The bags are made from Canvas and are offered in many different colors. She has some bags pre-made that she sells at art fairs but she also personalizes to what you would like and want.

 

Below is a picture of someone wearing one of her purses. 

They are the perfect size for evenings when you are going out and do not want to take your whole purse along, just the necessities.

 

  

Check out Lindsey's facebook page, Tie Dye Bags!

http://www.facebook.com/TieDyefun

Mushrooms on a stump??? What!?

Actually, these are technically called the "Honey Mushroom". They are called this due to the yellow and brown hues. 

Within the last couple of years I have started eating these mushrooms on a regular basis. I did not even really know that they existed until I met my husband. We live in Muskegon, Michigan out by Lake Michigan on 20 acres and there are a ton a old oak stumps out in the woods. 

The first time he took me out mushroom hunting I was extremely skeptical of eating these bad boys. I have only ever ate Morel Mushrooms, as far as I had been told most other fungi could be poisonous. Well to my surprise my husband had been eating them for years along with all of his family and they were by no means poisonous, they are actually delicious! 

They usually start sprouting up around mid September, depending on how much rain we have received. The more rain the better the batch of mushrooms. They grow on old dead oak stumps. 
One thing with these mushrooms, when you cut them at the stem you need to check for bugs, if the mushrooms stem is black or darker brown then you know it has bugs. The stems should be a tanish-brown color.
The scientific name is Armillaria mellea - 


In the above picture is a comparison of some of the sizes, there are some larger versions also that looks similar to large portobellos. 
After we pick the mushrooms we bring them in the house and check the stems one more time for bug infestations. If all is well I fill the sink with water and throw the mushrooms in. I generally let them soak for 2 hours minimum, sometimes as long as overnight if we pick them in the evening. Also, depending on how dirty the mushrooms are, I will switch the water out multiple times and start with fresh. 

After they have soaked for multiple hours we go ahead and throw them in a large pot and turn the heat up to high. Once they start boiling I will start a timer. We boil them for a minimum of ten minutes and sometimes longer depending on the size of the batch we are cooking. You will know when they are done by the color they become (as seen below). 
 
The most important thing when eating any wild mushroom is to cook them until they are completely cooked, without a doubt.

After they are cooked we throw them in a strainer to drain. After the mushrooms have cooled we measure out a cup of mushrooms and pour them on into a freezer bag and freeze just like that. I never buy caned mushrooms anymore, we ALWAYS use these babies in everything from beef roasts to spaghetti. We even love frying them up with onions to throw on steak. They are delicious!

While researching this mushroom online I did find a very useful site. On this site it states that there is a look alike mushroom out there that is known as the "Deadly Galerina" that is indeed poisonous. I am posting the site below. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see a picture of this mushroom so you can compare and differentiate between the two.  
 
Happy Mushroom Hunting! 

"If in doubt, don't put it in your mouth"

http://www.sierrapotomac.org/W_Needham/HoneyMushroom_071120.htm