A Day at the Auction

It's no secret that we love being frugal! I have to stop and ask myself as I'm writing this "then why was last night your first time at an auction?"

Some of our best friends in the entire world asked us to join them at a local auction last night so we decided to go. We had a blast!!

There is a certain vibe about an auction that I've never experienced before. People walking around scribbling down notes and being secretive about which item has their eye. Tense emotions when someone tries to outbid them and dirty looks from spouses when they have emptied their wallets for an item they wouldn't normally purchase.. just because they were at an auction! I loved it!

I also loved how no one else seemed to want the items I secretly desired to posses. Like these bottles:

I love small vintage bottles. You can read more about that here: ApotheKayla how to care for vintage bottles.

To be honest the tiny glass mixing bowl is probably my favorite out of the bottles we won, my second favorite would have to be the round bottom flask (sitting next to the tiny bowl). 

Most of the bottles we came home with are over sixty years old, some of them are worth more than we paid for everything at the end of the auction. I can't explain my fascination with tiny vintage bottles however, after watching some people quickly bid on a touch tone phone (a plain one, nothing special about it) I don't feel so bad for collecting these bottles!!

There were so many things that I overlooked before the auction, for instance this set of Russian nesting dolls:

We love decorating with "worldly" items, and we have been looking for a complete set of these dolls. Most that we have found only have two or three of the dolls, we had yet to find one with the tiny doll. To my surprise I outbid everyone on these dolls and I still paid less than I would have for the dolls we found before (with only two or three in the set). Did you notice that the littlest doll is carrying a basket of eggs? Love it!

We will definitely be attending more auctions in the future! We left with most of our budgeted auction money still in our pockets and so many amazing treasures!

Have you ever been to an auction, what about an estate auction? Find anything good? Let me know in the comments section below and as always.. Thanks for reading! -The Winters

The Garlic Experiment

I left a few cloves of garlic sitting in the windowsill a few weeks ago..

I noticed they had begun to sprout so after making green tea one day I wrapped the sprouting cloves in the wet tea bags.

Every day when washing dishes I would water the little sprouts and each day they would get a tad bigger!To my surprise they quickly began developing roots and today I decided to transplant them.

I purchased small pots that would sit in the windowsill, filled the bottom 1/3 of the pot with tiny pebbles for drainage, the top 2/3's with soil, and put the growing cloves in the dirt.

I will continue to water them and update you all with their progress, but for now I'm just excited to have had them grow this well!

In the middle pot, with the smurf, I planted a few Zinnia seeds to get them started for Spring!

Chickens, Snow, and Southern weather patterns...

We may only have a few chickens, 2 Hen and 1 Roo, but we like to make sure they are happy, healthy, and safe during extreme weather conditions!

These are the four quick steps we took to ensure they were safe during the snow. The weather man is predicting 6-10 inches.

1.Spread a fresh layer of Hay to keep them warm and busy, scratching through it. We use the deep litter method that Fresh-Eggs-Daily recommended. So far so good, using this method the birds stay warm and toasty inside their coop.(Also we picked a few handfuls of grass, before the snow covered it up, as a tasty treat).

2. Use loose hay to seal up any large gaps in the coop. This will help keep them dry and keep the warm air in. There is a ramp that leads to their outside area so the hole on the floor of the coop leading outside will provide air flow without letting in any snow.

3.Cover the outside areas with metal or wood to give them as much space as possible to move around.

4. Whip up some oatmeal; fresh whole oats, garlic powder, and dried basil from our garden last summer! They love this and look hilarious when they get it on their face! <added bonus!! lol

Weather Extremes: In the south the news can predict several inches of snow and then you end up with a bright sunny day. I don't like to close up the coop until I feel the temperature drop, or cover up their outside area (where they have access to sunlight) until I see the snow falling. This means we have to be dedicated to checking the temps outside (not on the television) in order to keep our girls (and boy) safe.

Please bring in any pets that you can bring in, and stay warm/ safe yourself!

Thanks for reading! -The Winters