Kyle Porter is my favorite person for many reasons. Not only is he a godly leader and great best friend, but he gets me free junk. And I'm not talking Thunder T-shirts.



We found this old door in an alley one snowy day, and rather than steal it or let it lie, Kyle got out and asked the abnormally long-winded man-o-the-house if he would let us have it. The guy turned out to be only a renter, and after 2 minutes of loading the door and 15 minutes of talking to Kyle about his broken shower, the door is mine.

It will become a table with some new wooden legs and a custom piece of glass to top it off. Hello new table, welcome to my home.

Subscriptions

My current magazine subscriptions:

Real Simple
Better Homes & Gardens
Martha Stewart Living

In order to avoid too many hours wasted reading magazines (and the inevitable piles of clutter they eventually create) I limit myself to 3 magazine subscriptions at a time. I loved Domino magazine so much, I would have subscribed 3 times just to have a current issue at work, home, and in my car. I'm still cursing Conde Naste. These are my 3 next best.



I'm pretty much over Real Simple. Their covers are always enticing, but their content has failed to impress me for the last 6 months. I'm trying to find a replacement for when my subscription expires. Any suggestions? I'm thinking about Ready Made- it's so hippie, but I love it.

Also, if you haven't yet, check out Lonny Magazine. It's entirely online so I don't count it as a subscription. An easy way to cheat my own system.

Homemade Granola

Over the last year, I've been really into saving money on anything I can. Last night, Kyle made homemade granola. It's a really cost-effective alternative to store-bought granola. Here's the recipe:

4 cups oats
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil

Mix liquids and solids separately and then mix together.
You're supposed to bake on a cookie sheet at 300 for 10 minutes, then stir/flip and bake 10 minutes on the other side. (We ended up baking for about 15 minutes each side.)

After it came out of the oven, we scraped it off the pan onto aluminum foil to let it dry out. It was wonderful! Here's an approximate price comparison:






Bear Naked Granola sells for $4.84 on their online store.

The cost of supplies for our granola:
Oats- $4
Honey- $4
Vanilla- $3.50
Canola Oil- $3

I won't bore you with the math, but we'll get a lot of granola from what we bought.
Here's the comparison:

Bear Naked Granola ~$1.76 per cup
Homemade Granola ~75 cents per cup

If you're already a fan of the price, you should try the granola.

On Inspiration

I created my own inspiration board about a year ago, but I've recently been reminded of how much I love it. In the spirit of spring fever, I've started adding and taking away from my board, only to add and take away some more. Here's the current product. Tomorrow, it will most likely look different.



Here are some more amazing ideas via Ribbons of Red. http://www.ribbonsofred.com/blog/inspriation-walls/