The New Stews

Married on New Years Eve, my husband and I share a wonderful life in a tiny apartment and a small budget, and we LOVE it! We have a passion for food, good healthy yummy food, and it sometimes consumes our weekly budget just buying the food necessary to make the culinary masterpieces that come from the kitchen when my dear husband is cooking. As I sit down with my blueberry bran muffin and french press coffee, I come to the realization that there are few better things in this life than great coffee and great food.

What can I say, a good cup of coffee can bring a smile to my face no matter what the circumstance and throw in some scrumptous homemade goodness, like banana bread, and you have yourself a perfect moment. Coffee is delightful and for those of you who do not share in my love for coffee, you will be glad to hear that Ricky has instilled in me an appreciation for tea as well.

Ricky has taught me many things in the years that we have been dating, and one of them is to always make whatever you can, yourself. He believes that if it is good food from a great restaurant, then he can make it just as good, if not better, himself at home and for cheaper! This belief spills over into every area of his life, and our home has greatly benefited from his frugality, if that is even a word. At first I was hesitant, I just wanted to go to a store and buy whatever we needed on some great sale, but Ricky quickly showed me that it is not always necessary to run out to the store to furnish your home.

That being said, when we moved in we had nothing in the way of home furnishings. We both had been living with our families and therefore had to start from scratch. We got some things generously donated to us but what we did not have, Ricky would not let me buy. He insisted that he could build whatever we needed....And he did.

Example A-our homemade HD Antenna.

I have no idea how this works, or where Ricky came up with the idea, but let me tell you, this wonderful contraption brings us channels 3 through 15 and some spanish channels, channel 45 and 61. It is constructed of tin foil, a 2x4, and some coat hangers. I came home from work our first week in the apartment and my husband was finishing up this project complaining that the ones he bought in the store did not work. I have no complaints, we get to watch tv and protect our minds from being read by the aliens.

Example B-our TV stand

When I mentioned to Ricky that we needed a TV stand, he said not to worry about it, he would go to his parents house and pick something up. Once again, I came home from work and we had a "TV Stand" constructed of a piece of wood and some cinder blocks. Also you might notice the awesome surround sound system that we have running from that big box to the left of our TV, yes the chords run all around our living room and the speakers are sitting on end tables, DVD's and sometimes right on the back of the couch. However, it is functional and funky and it has actually been growing on me, I think I might be sad when the day comes where we invest in an actual piece of furniture.

Example C-our garden

Lastly, we yearn for a garden, for a home with a backyard that can house the fruit, vegetables, and herbs that we would so love to be able to grow. This is not necessarily a "home furnishing" but I will tell you, it does save us some serious money buying fresh herbs from the store, and nothing is as good as home grown produce. So, we have created our own little "garden" on the wall of our balcony. If there is a strong wind, or a violent shaking of the earth, our garden will come tumbling down but I do not forsee that happening in the near future...I hope. We are growing sage, habaneros, a few types of tomatoes, rosemary, and basil thus far. I intend on mentioning our need for plant stands to Ricky and can not wait to see what he comes up with.