Refurbished buffet

Here is a recent refinshing project I took on.  I found this buffet at the local thrift store.  It was half off and it spoke to me.  I could see a shadow of its former glory. I had no use for another buffet.  I planned to just sell it when I was done, but I needed to save this piece of furniture. My husband thought I was nuts when I brought it home, but he politely kept it to himself.

I loved the wood grain on the top, the carved details, the art deco handles.  However, as you can see it was in pretty rough shape.  I figured I would have to paint the whole thing, but I was pretty sure I could give it a new life.  I started by peeling of the veneers on the drawers.  As you can see they were not good.  I did this by putting a damp flour sack towel on top of the veneer, and then putting a hot iron on top untill it got nice and steamy.  I then used a putty nive to peel it up.  This took some time and patience, but was pretty easy.  I kept a big bowel of water nearby to re-wet my towel.  Word of warning: this will stain your towel and leave a bunch of residue on your iron.  I have read that the iron will clean up nicely with some steel wool, but I frankly have been to lazy to try and I rarely use my iron for its intended purpose.  So use a towel you don't care about and an old iron if you have one.
Once the veneer was off I used a little wood filler to patch it up and sanded it down a bit. 

Even though I thought I would have to paint the whole thing, I went ahead and started sanding the top, just to see if it was salvageable, and boy am I glad that I did.  I started with 80 grit paper and worked my way up to 220 grit. It sanded down beautifully.  All the water marks and imperfections came out.  So I chose to stain it in a nice dark stain, Moorish Teak, from Zar. Since I already had the sander out, I gave the rest of it a quick sanding to rough it up.  I didn't worry getting it perfect since I was going to use my trusty Zinsser primer

Once the stain was dry, I started taping it off so I could paint the rest of it.  I used my  Zinsser primer so I wouldn't need to sand the entire piece.  Just make sure it is nice and clean.  I primed it and then gave it two coats of Vintage White in satin from Valspar.  I wanted to highlight the carved features of the piece, so I used asphaltum antiquing glaze from Valspar.  This was my first time using this glaze and I read a bunch about the best way to use it.  I opted to slap it on and wipe it off.  I was not a fan of this method on this piece.  It did highlight the carved details, but it also just made it look dirty to me.  It is a bit hard to tell in the picture below, but trust me.

So I repainted the whole piece again.  This time I sparingly used the glaze.  I put a little on the brush then brushed most of it off on a paper towel and then applied it to the detail areas and edges, using a cotton cloth to blend it all.  I was much happier with the results the second time around.

Finally I gave the whole thing, painted and stained surfaces, 3 coats of Varathane water based polyurethane and voila, an amazing piece.  It was hard parting with this piece, but it has already found a good home!

Upcycle a Frame into a MItten Rack

So it is late October, and here in Wisconsin, that means winter snow could be just around the corner, and that means wet, soggy gloves and mittens.  Our house is a beautiful arts and crafts style 90 year old home.  I love it!  I would love it even more if it had a mud room.  Alas,  I just have the side entrance which really just opens into the stairwell.  There is not a lot of room.  We have made good use of the space.  There are hooks for coats and pants and bags and a vertical shoe rack on one of the walls, but there really hasn't been a good place to hang those soggy gloves so they are dry and ready for another day of snowball fights in the morning... until now!

You will need:
Frame
ribbon
screw driver
drill
staple gun

This was so ridiculously easy and took less than an hour.  Probably more like 30 minutes.  I found this frame from at the thrift store for $1.50.  This frame is relatively thick. It sticks out from the wall about 1.5".  If you do this, you'll want to look for one about that thick or thicker, so you will have room to get the clothes pins on and off easily.

First you will want to reomve the wire and the d-rings the wire is wrapped around.  Throw away the wire but hang onto the d-rings and screws.  You will need them later.  I thought about painting this, but there is a lot of natural wood by our side entrance and it matched pretty well.  In truth, I was feeling lazy this day.  If you are feeling more industrious go for it and make it your own

Figure out how many rows of ribbon you want.  I opted for three, one for each person in out family.  Plus it seemed to be about the right spacing. Next flip the frame over and take some ribbon and staple it to the inside part of the frame.  I used inch wide gross grain ribbon because it is what I had laying around the house. This could be super cute with different colors of ribbon.  It would probably work with thinner ribbon as well. Just make sure it is wide enough for your staple to grab onto. You want to put the ribbon in the groove farthest from the back of the frame.  I had to put my staples angled toward the outside of the frame so they would not stick out the front. This meant I had to put my frame against the wall so that there was enough resistance for the staples to go all the way in.  Pull it tight and staple it to the other side. I cut ribbon longer than it needed to be so I would have enough leverage to really pull it tight.  It needs to be tight!  Do this with all your ribbons.

Next you are going to reinstall those d-rings you held on to.  You want to put them so they are on the sides of the frame, at the top but not poking above the top of the frame.  Drill some pilot holes and then screw them back in.

And you are done.  Hang that bad boy on the wall with some picture hangers (make sure to measure and level so it goes on easily), grab some clothes pins and you have a place to dry those gloves.

Empty Frames as Wall Art

After two years in our home we still have lots of empty wall space.  Buying art just doesn't seem to be a priority. Plus finding something both my husband and I agree on can be nearly impossible.  One day while watching TV (Longmire, I think),  I saw that the show's living room had empty frames on the wall as art.  I thought it was a fantastic and ecomnomical idea.  So I set about making it work for my space and convincing my husband that my wacky idea was a good one.  The example I saw on the TV just had three large frames painted three different colors.  My husband was not a fan of the tri-color idea, but he was open to the general concept.

I set about keeping my eyes open for frames at flea markets, garage sales, thrift stores etc.  I found three decent sized frames for $3 each and then raided the frame section at the thrift store during their 1/2 off sale. I ended up with 7 frames of varying sizes and shapes for less that $15.  I really should have taken a picture of them all before painting, but I got so excited to start I forgot.

Now the fun part.  I primed them, I like to use Zinsser 123 primer.  It sticks to just about anything without sanding.  Super helpful for making projects move along faster especially since some of my frames had shiny finishes. And there they are.

Next I painted them using the left over paint from our sun room, tying the color from there into the living room.  If you are going to buy paint for this project, I would consider spray paint.  This would have gone much faster with spray paint, but I wanted to use what I had on hand.  Mine needed two coats of paint.  You could stop here if you wanted, but some of my frames had details that I wanted to highlight so I rubbed them down with Valspar's antiquing glaze.  I have no magic solution for getting this right.  Just rub it on and off until you get the effect that you want.   I like a more subtle effect but you could go crazy with it if you want.  Here is my favorite frame with this treatment

Since these are just going to hang on the wall and not be handled, I didn't bother to put a coat of clear coat on them.

Next was arranging them. I traced each frame onto either wrapping, tissue or office paper and cut them out.  Then I hung  these templates on the wall so that I could move them around and be sure  about their placement.

Once I was sure, I marked on the paper where the hangers on the frame would be so that I could get my nails in the right spot. I nailed through the paper and then pulled the paper from the wall.  This worked phenomenally well.

And here they are on the wall.  One less blank wall staring at me and for less than the cost of one small peice of art.  

Laundry Bags and Catching Up

So it has been awhile since I posted here, and it has been quite a past ten months.  After I recovered from shoulder surgery in October and started PT for my hyper mobility issues, I went back to work.  Then in April I broke my foot putting me on crutches and unable to work or drive for nearly 2 months.  So here I am unemployed for the summer and with ample to time to be making things for and with my son, who is growing up way to fast.  He also out grew that egg allergy!!!!  No more modifying recipes.  I still have a backlog of recipes to share so I will try to add some from time to time. Since I am back to homemaking, for the time being, (I really did enjoy working until that foot put me out of commission) I thought I would start sharing some of the things I am doing. 

One of the things I learned during my hiatus from this blog is to make chores as simple and easy for myself as possible.  I think this is a good way to live whether or not you had to have your shoulder fixed.  Who wants to spend time and energy cleaning that could be spent playing? One of things I did to make things just a tinsy bit easier was replace my large hamper with two small hampers with bags.  This way my husband and I just sort our laundry as we put it in the hamper.  When one is full, I take the bag out, close it, roll it down the stairs, and wash it.  This way I am not carting laundry up and down the stairs for a day.  I do laundry more often but it isn't as big of a job.

I wanted to implement the same thing for my kiddo.  We do have a laundry shoot from his floor to the basement, but his laundry was getting mixed up with the wet dirty towels from the kitchen and cleaning. I had to bend over repeatedly to sort it all out.  Besides, I want to teach him a little about doing the laundry, responsibility, and independence.  He didn't want anything that would take up to much floor space, and it need to have a bag so I could roll it down the stairs. (I broke my foot carrying a laundry basket down the stairs.  Clearly I was scarred.)

Then I stumbled across this tutorial.  This is a fantastic idea:  laundry bags from a towel and men's pants hanger.  Her tutorial says that you can just throw your lights and darks in the wash together.  I can't quite make that leap, I still sort.  I just made two bags one from a dark towel and one from a white towel. I did run a cord through the pockets so I could close them.  They are ridiculously easy and I made two in less than an hour.  I also washed the towels before I sewed them so that I can just throw them in with the wash to prevent them smelling. Right now they are hanging in my sons closet but you could also put them on the back of the door knob or the wall.  I must say he is doing a great job with it, and it has made my life just a bit easier. 

Eggless Breakfast Zucchini Bread

Most zucchini breads are really more like cakes. While they are super tasty, they are perhaps not the best way to start your day.   This zucchini bread incorporates wheat germ and whole wheat flour for some added protein and fiber and a better start to your morning. It is a modification of a recipe from this blog http://foodforahungrysoul.blogspot.com/ . You could bump up the nutritional value even more by adding nuts if you don't have nut allergies like we do in our house.  All that being said it is still yummy.  My little one loves it, especially sliced and toasted with a little butter.  This makes the equivalent of two loaves.  I usually make one full sized loaf and mini loaves or muffins to put in the freezer and eat later.  YUM!

Eggless Breakfast Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups wheat germ
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat Flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup applesauce
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup cooking oil
3 cups (about 3 medium-sized) zucchini, grated

Grease and flour two loaf pans (or equivalent such as mini loaf pans or muffin tins)

In a medium bowl combine wheat germ, both flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a large bowl beat applesauce sugar, vanilla and oil until well combined.  Stir zucchinni into the wet ingredients.  Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients stirring until just combined.  Pour into loaf pans and bake at 350 for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle come out clean.  (About 45 minutes for mini loaf pans, 20 minutes for muffins.)

Happy Breakfasting!

Soon to Come- Zucchini Recipes

Between vacation, the start of school, and a pesky bicep tendon that keeps popping out of place, there hasn't been much activity here for a bit, that will change soon, hopefully.  Our zucchini plants went bananas while we were gone, and we came home to this once it was all harvested.

The biggest one is 2 feet long!!  I gave two big ones away and two "little" ones away.  (These would be large by grocery store standards.)  That left me with 3 large zucchini and one medium one from our CSA.  The big ones were too large to be tasty grilled or stir fried, so I started shredding. I made egg free zucchini "quiche", wheat germ zucchini bread, chocolate chip zucchini bread, and chocolate zucchini bread. I shredded the rest (I ended up with 35 cups of shredded zucchini.) and froze it for future use.  I plan to share these recipes in the coming weeks as I recover from shoulder surgery, to fix that aforementioned bicep tendon. 

I may even have some green tomato recipes as there seem to be a plethora of those on our vines and no hope for them to ripen.

Super Easy Napkins

Before we moved to Wisconsin, we rarely used paper napkins.  I have a stack of cloth napkins, and we used those at every meal. I just washed them with my regular load of towels.  No extra work. No spending money on paper napkins.  No extra trash produced.  For some reason, it just hasn't worked out that way in this house.  It may be that my son is older and uses more than he used to, the nice laundry shoot that goes straight to the basement where my laundry is out of sight and out of mind, or the inconvenient location of our napkin drawer.  We have only been using them at dinner, not all the time.

At any rate I decided to fix this today.  Our 1920's house has a nifty little breakfast nook where we eat breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  This is where most of the paper napkin usage happens. Out went the traditional paper napkin holder and in went a $0.50 garage sale find basket. 

Next, on to making the napkins.  I can't remember where I saw this idea or I would credit them, but I am going to share it here because it is so brilliantly simple.  I found my son's old red and white gingham curtains in the fabric bin, and cut it into rectangles 15.5"x12.25".  (I used one of my store bought napkins as a template.)  I pulled some threads out of all four sides to create fringe and voila- 7 new napkins.  This was so quick and easy.  I will definitely be buying more gingham in assorted colors so we can have a big stack of napkins for the whole week!  This might even make a nice housewarming gift if you make a dozen or so (or more) and put them in a nice basket with a bow.  Just a thought.

When I used up all my gingham, I started looking for other fabric I could use up in my stash.  I found some Curious George fabric. The purpose for which I purchased it has long been forgotten.  I cut it into rectangles, as well, with the intent of doing the same thing to them.  I realized that the fringe was not going to look quite as quaint on the print as it did on the gingham. I was not in the mood to fold over hems and press and pin and miter corners or line up square corners.  I wanted napkins, and I wanted them fast. Low and behold, I found plain red fabric in my bin as well.  I cut the same size rectangles out of the red, put the right sides of my print and my solid together, and sewed the edges with a 3/8" seam allowance, leaving a 4" opening to turn the whole thing right side out.  Before turning it right side out, I trimmed the corners.  Once it was right side out, I gave the edges a quick press, being sure to turn fabric under at the opening, and top stitched around the edges.

My little one was so excited about these napkins.  He kept trying to find a reason to use one.  I may just have to find some other fun fabric for these too.  You can never have enough napkins when you have a little boy!