Good Things List No.90: Use That Fire Pit, Simple Vintage Linen Curtain, Quilted Overnight Bag, Book Reviews and More

A monthly list of good things to see, buy, read and watch: Use your fire pit for regular dinners, make a simple vintage linen cafe curtain, discover a weekender bag that holds all your stuff – with six short book reviews and a kids movie adults like, too.

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October saw us enjoying some pleasant fall evenings in between the return of regular rain which greened everything up again. The newly green grass just highlighted the changing colors that towards the end of the month were bright yellow and red on the hillside out our windows. Each season brings it’s own lovely parts, right? (This is what I remind myself as I layer up against the cold again, lol.)

The most exciting thing about this last month for me has been seeing our long-dreamed-of side kitchen porch come to life (you’ll see a glimpse of it in the bathroom photos below). If you were around for our Farmhouse Remodeling series, then you might remember I planned for this porch with a door at the bottom of the stairs in the kitchen. That door has led to nowhere for the past four (!) years. So, yes, I’m excited. There is a floor framework, posts, beams, and a tar-paper roof so far. Soon there will be a metal roof and cedar decking with steps into the house and out to the yard. Stay tuned for more on this when it’s looking a little more finished.

Now, onto the good things from October!

Good Things List

Regular Dinner Around the Fire Pit

I have no idea why I thought that our fire pit was only for when we had people over, but ever since finishing the area, we’ve only used it when the weather was right and people were visiting. Then on one beautiful, sunny day in the upper 60s when I hadn’t been able to get outside because of work, I asked Brian if we could eat around the fire pit because I was craving the outdoors.

We did, and it was so enjoyable that we ate dinner around the fire every night after that as long as the weather held! I wore a fleece and had a blanket, and between those and the fire it was really pleasant even as the sun set.

I just served whatever was on the menu for that night – soup one night, the baked tacos you see above another night, and pulled pork bowls on a third night. This, too, was liberating – any food works, not just “fire pit food” (roasted hot dogs, etc.).

So take a page from my book and eat around the fire pit if you have one just because. It’s going to be a regular thing for us now, whenever the weather is right!

Vintage Linen Cafe Curtain

I’ve never had a covering for the main bathroom window because privacy wasn’t an issue. Once the porch started going up, I knew I’d need something for privacy if anyone was on the porch, but I knew I didn’t want the whole window covered, especially because the new porch roof made the bathroom a lot darker. So a simple cafe curtain seemed the perfect solution.

(The underside of the roof you can see in these photos will be white beadboard when we’re done, so it will be a tad bit brighter and a lot better looking than the raw wood.)

Years ago I used vintage linens to make cafe curtains in our old house’s remodeled bathrooms, but I simply folded the edges over to make a rod pocket and used tension rods to hold them up. This time I wanted to make the curtain not only a bit more traditional with clips, but also to be able to have the curtain easily open to see outside (I mean, that view…).

Inspired by The Grit and Polish’s cafe curtain and with a beautiful embroidered piece in my stash, I measured, ironed, and sewed one straight line (the edges and bottom are all done for you with a vintage piece!). Since the rod would show but was an inside mount, I spent more on the pieces to make this rod than a basic tension rod or cafe curtain – but not nearly as much as some of the bigger home outlets charge for them. And I love how it turned out!

I purposely didn’t want it to be too full because I wanted it to be pulled back most of the time – and I wanted all the embroidered details to show. I didn’t measure for the clips so it’s a tad too long, but it works. This was one of the simplest DIY’s I’ve done in a long time and it solved a problem beautifully.

Here are the supplies I used to create the cafe curtain rod:

• Inside Mount Brass Rod Brackets
• Round Brass Tube, 36 inches which we cut down to the width of our window after screwing on the rod brackets.
• Brass Cafe Rod Clip Rings. I looked at all the options (which weren’t a lot) and these were the least shiny brass and the best option, even though some of the reviews weren’t positive. After using them I can say that the clip part isn’t the strongest on all the clips – some are and some aren’t. I didn’t need all of them so it wasn’t a big deal and if I did I could always hand sew a few stitches to the clip and linen if needed.

Weekender Bag with Shoe Compartment

I can’t even remember where I first saw this weekender bag, but as soon as I saw the shoe compartment and the reviews that showed it fitting under airline seats, I was sold – especially when I saw the price.

While I haven’t taken it on a plane yet, I did take it for a weekend trip and it held everything I needed and was easy to carry.

I love the zippered shoe section on the bottom of the bag. It can hold three pairs of sandals and shoes as shown or a pair and some toiletries if needed. The inside has pockets all around the side, one of which is big enough to fit a laptop or iPad.

From what I read in the reviews, the fact that it’s squishy allows it to fit in most airline’s personal item limit, so you shouldn’t fill it to capacity, but I’m excited to see how it fits my toiletries and shoes as well as purse items on airplanes so my carryon bag can be for just my clothes.

Here’s the link to the quilted weekender bag (there are other colors and designs, too).

October Books Read

The Pretender, Jo Harkin. This historical fiction is set in the time of Henry VII’s first years on the throne (the beginning of the Tudor’s reign) when many were still fighting the civil war that wanted to see a York on the throne instead. It’s on many best-of lists and right in my normal historical fiction wheelhouse. Unfortunately, it was too long, too crass, and I guess too much fiction for me. The pretender, in this case, was a boy raised in a poor, rural area who in his teens is taken by aristocrats who tell him he’s the legitimate heir of the previous York king, Edward IV, and given education and training to live like a prince. While there is mention of a Lambert Simnel in history – Wikipedia says he was a “pretender to the throne of England. In 1487, his claim to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, threatened the newly established reign of Henry VII (1485–1509)” – there is nothing else really known about him so the author made up a whole lifetime for this person. No one knows if it’s true that he was a royal son hidden to protect him or just an imposter. I did enjoy learning about life in the 1400’s in both rural and royal residences, but it just wasn’t as much a favorite of mine as I read others saying.

If All Else Sails, Emma St. Claire. This was a fun, light rom-com I actually laughed along with, and enjoyed the pretty clever dialog. I don’t always end up liking books like this, but I read about it on another blog and put a hold at the library. I’m glad I did – I liked the characters and thought their ‘issues’ were reasonable (unlike some books that have me rolling my eyes…) and I enjoyed the slow-burn chemistry. It’s closed-door and is billed as a ‘sweet grumpy-sunshine’ trope which I totally can agree with.

Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson, Claire Hoffman. Brian and I listened to this together and we still don’t know what to think about this amazing, flawed person! Her heart always seemed to be in the right place – loving people and wanting them to know Jesus- but her methods! And her leaving husbands! And not seeing her children for years at a time! Sometimes we’d just stop and look at each other with our jaws on the floor – 30,000 people in San Diego Balboa Park? Thousands lined up for healing – and leaving crutches and wheelchairs behind? I looked it up and newspaper reporters at the time took down names and followed up with the healed and found that more than 90% said they had some sort of healing and it was continuing. Wow. She was a trailblazer, a woman who got things done in a time it was hard for women to do that (1920s). She built the largest church in the country, started a new demomination (Foursquare), had the country’s second largest radio station, and saw what television could be for reaching even more people. But it seemed she lost focus as she gained wealth (as we sadly see time and again), cut off people, made poor financial decisions, and created a couple of big scandals (including two divorces and an affair). A fascinating read.

Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry. This author is a regular read for me because I usually enjoy her books, even though I wish they were a little less open door. And I did like this most recent book (released last spring that I had on hold at the library since then – ha!). It was a bit of a departure from her previous works as we learn about the life of an older heiress as she looks back wanting to share her story to two writers who are competing to be the one to write the book. While we do learn about the two writers, most of the book is really about the heiress’s life and the secret she’s hiding. Because I like historical fiction, this was a good thing for me, but I’ve read other people missed more of the connection with the romantic leads like she’s had in other books.

The King’s Pleasure (A Novel of Henry VIII), Alison Weir. So…I’ve read a couple of Alison Weir histories of Henry VIII and his wives and loved them. I thought her writing a novel with all that background would be great. Um, no. It was like a history that she’d just randomly thow in some dialog, lol. Really, lists of places, people, events. If you’ve read historical biographies of King Henry, then you’ve basically read this book, in my opinion. She’s written a number of historical fiction, most noteably a book on each of Henry’s wives, which I haven’t read, so I may give one of them a try to see if I like it better (they’ve gotten good reviews…).

A Jesus Shaped Life: How Diving Deeper Into Theology Can Transform Us and Our World with the Radical Kindness of God, Lisa Harper. I’d never heard of Lisa Harper before I was looking for something to listen to in the mornings on Hoopla and I’m so glad I stumbled on this wonderful book! She basically takes academic-sounding theological concepts of things like the Atonement, the Trinity, and the transcendendence of Christ, and explains them in engaging and practical ways. She encourages us to know them and see how these ideas can help us live transformative lives with God and others. She blew my mind in the first part of the book where she talked about “the Word of God” not being a book we hold in our hand (and sometimes bash people with…) but the ACTUAL person of Jesus. Every time the Word, or Word of God is mentioned in the Bible, there wasn’t a book then – it was Jesus they were talking about. What a different way to think about so many verses I’ve known my whole life. Highly recommended.

Watching

K-Pop Demon Hunters, Netflix. This surprised us with how much we enjoyed this cute and fun movie we watched with our grandson. I can see why it’s been so popular.

Downton Abbey, Theater (but now you can watch on Prime). It was fun to revisit the characters and close out the story, which was the focus of the movie as there was no real plot or mystery like the others.

That’s it for another addition of the Good Things List!

If you’d like to see more of what I’m enjoying, you can check out all the Good Things Lists here. I’d love to know what you think – if you’ve tried any of these or what you’d recommend. Leave a comment below with your thoughts!

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