About Me

Hi! Welcome to my blog and THANKS for reading!!

I'm Celeste, a stay-at-home mom to 3 wonderful children and wife to my ever-supportive husband. We are currently renovating our 1950's home on a budget. I often say that my husband and I have Nordstrom taste and like to pay Walmart prices for it. I decided to call my blog "My Greenbrae Cottage" because that's what I hope it will be someday, a warm, cozy cottage.  I started this blog to chronicle our adventures in updating our home. I enjoy nutrition and healthy cooking; finding the most economical green products for home, self-care and food; home renovating and decorating; Craigslisting; and playing with my children!

I think DIYing is in my blood! Growing up, my parents designed and built two houses. They had million dollar style and a school teacher’s budget. So they spent every minute away from their full-time jobs working on the house. They laid all the marble/tile in the kitchen and every bathroom, stained and hung all of the doors {which totaled 88 doors}, installed all the electrical, flooring, paint, etc, etc.

My favorite most memorable story is when I was 16 and we were just getting ready to move in to our second house…I was your typical 16 year old, spending 8 hours a day on the phone {I guess that equates to 3,000 texts per day?} and couldn’t stand to be without a phone for even one afternoon. {This was pre-historic time the 80’s, cell phones were a foot long and cost $1/minute.} At any rate…we moved into our house before it was “done”…no flooring, no paint, minimal working lights, one bathroom finished, and NO PHONE jacks! Eeeeek! What’s a 16 year old girl to do?
Why, learn how to wire phone jacks and install herself a phone. So that’s what I did. My dad taught me how to wire one jack and I was off…wiring phone jacks all afternoon. And I guess I haven’t stopped since.


Some things you might not know about me:

~I drink 4+ cups of tea a day

~I used to teach middle school math

~My favorite candy bar is Peanut Butter Twix; my favorite icecream is chocolate chip cookie dough

~I love crossword puzzles

~I don't like to read

~I learned to sew from my mom when I was very young and then took 2 full years of it in high school

~I learned to knit from YouTube last year

~I was a competitive gymnast from age 4 through college

~I played high school volleyball

~I love board games

~I still use a flip phone- no smart phones here

~My first car was a white convertible Rabbit

~My best friend from high school is serving our country right now in Iraq

~My family built two houses when I was a kid

~I still have every birthday card I received growing up; and every tooth fairy coin too

~I still have my prom dress and can fit into it

~I still have my wedding dress and CANNOT fit into it

~I know the words to almost every song that has been played on the radio since 1985

~My garage looks like a nuclear bomb hit it

~I was a camp counselor for 6 years; my camp name was "Tigger"

~I love to bargain shop...whether to save $0.50 or $50, I price compare everything I buy; and I know everything is negotiable

~I was blessed with a son and identical twin daughters and feel so LUCKY to be living the life I am