Brian's Barn - Reclaiming 100 Year Old Wood

This is Brian's barn. It's over 100 years old.  Brian's taking it down but, he's reclaiming all of the wood and he's selling some of it on Craig's List. I didn't take these first two photos, Brian did. That's his truck

This morning, I met Brian. I'm using part of his barn to build the cabinet for the top of the sideboard in my dining room.

Yep, I took the board with the electric outlet on it. Not sure whether it'll end up in the cabinet or not.

Don't you just LOVE old nails!? There are even some that are SQUARE!  As I removed all of the nails, I couldn't help but think of all of the people who had pounded them in over the last century. The thought of it made me smile. It's fun when my furniture has a "history" even before I build it.

After I finished removing all of the nails, I scrubbed the wood with with a brush using soap and water with ammonia in it because, let's face it, sometimes "patina" is just "dirt".  Then I sprayed it with a little bleach and stood it on my driveway to dry.  The good news is that none of the character that draws me to old barn wood was lost. There's something about century old pine that makes my heart flutter. It could be that I'm a Midwest girl. It could be that I drove a combine in the farm fields of DeKalb county for two summers during college. It's there that I first came to know and love old farm houses and old barns.

Well, I'm off to sketch and taking some measurements. I hope that by tonight, I'll  be able to build the cabinet but I'm still not sure what to do about this outlet...

xo,

S

GARDEN TUTORIAL: Building a Jardin Potager (Kitchen Garden)

Find this on my Pinterest GARDENS & LANDSCAPING board.

I've always grown my own herbs, strawberries, tomatoes, and peppers however,  this year, in an attempt to eat more locally grown, "clean" produce, I decided to put build  a small, raised, "jardin potager" this year. However, given that I live in the suburbs, space is limited.  As a part of my research to find the best way to grow enough produce for a family of 4/5 in a small space, I came across several articles for something called  "square foot gardening". The premise is simple: you grow more produce if you plant in "squares" rather than in "rows" so, that's what I'm doing!

My material list:

• Six Cedar 2"x6"x8' boards (do NOT use treated lumber, the chemicals used to preserve it will leech into your soil and end up in your food!) You only need three if you want a six inch deep box. I want mine to be deep because I want to grow root veggies in part of the box.
• One Box of 3 inch decking screws (because I want to take it apart at the end of the year to store it in the garage and because I don't want them to rust) or nails.
• Three Cedar 1"x2"x8' boards (used for bracing and to hold up the chicken wire)
• Tools: Drill, Square, Level, Screwdriver, Pencil
• Optional: 1"x1" cedar "dividers", chicken wire, landscaper's cloth, a "fancy cold frame top" that I may build if there's time.

I took my sketch, materials list, and tape measure to Home Depot and had them cut the majority of the lumber for me. They cut it at NO CHARGE!

Assembly is pretty easy. Line up the longest pieces of 2x6 parallel to each other. Put the smaller pieces of 2x6 inside of them. Use your square to make sure that that the corners are at 90 degrees, drill holes, and screw  (or nail) the sides together. To make it easier, I made a template out of an index card marking where I wanted to drill the holes so that all of the corners would be the same.

Since I'm stacking my boxes, I made braces which I installed (screwed in from the inside top and bottom) in the middle of each side on the outside of the box. Here's how it looks today:

The extra pieces on the top will become supports for "climbers" like beans and peas.  Since I'm putting this potager on top of my existing patio, I'm going to line it with plastic and landscape cloth. I'll need to drill a hole to allow for some type of drainage.

I'm also looking into a gravity fed "self watering" system made with a piece of PVC and some mesh which I'll discuss next week when we talk about "filling the box" and the type of growing medium that I'm going to use.

In the mean time, there's still time for you to "catch up" before next Friday if you'd like to "garden along".

xo,


S

Rub 'n Buff

I'm putting the finishing touches on the dining room "make over". To be perfectly honest, this project turned out to be I made this project into a much bigger deal than it was originally intended to be.  What started out in my mind as a "spring freshening" which involved  merely painting the walls and changing a couple of pictures has turned into completely changing the style of the room, creating a built in, making a display cabinet for my Ironstone and slip covering the chairs....really!? I just can't seem to help myself!

It's going to take me the rest of this week and probably the weekend to finish. You probably saw a hint of what's going on in the background of my Simple Easter Dinner Table Setting post. I'm afraid that's all you'll see until next week. Sorry!

I did want to show you a fun new finish that I've been creating.  I've been experimenting with Rub 'n Buff on a few of the metal pieces that I'm using in the dining room.

Ever since Marian at Miss Mustard Seed did her post about her love of old brass, I've been feeling much better about mine. I think that I'll keep a bit of brass around as an accent but I did want to give these pieces a bit of "time worn patina" that will be more in keeping with the feel of the new dining room decor.

I got my Rub 'n Buff from Hobby Lobby (don't forget your 40% off coupon). It's wax based and you simply rub it on, let it dry, and buff it with a cloth.  Super simple! I chose Silver Leaf and Black because I'm merely trying to "age" these pieces, not to completely cover the original finish.

I love the way that they came out, don't you? In fact, I decided to rub a little on the lamp that will be on the dresser that I painted last week!

See you Friday!

xo,

S

Simple Easter Dinner Table Setting

The end of a beautiful Easter.

Dinner's over, ham salad is in the making. I'm signing off to enjoy the last couple of hours with my son before he goes back to college.

Until next week, be well. 

xo,

S

My Favorite Hot Cross Buns Recipe

Photo credit: The Pioneer Woman

One of my favorite bloggers and chef extraordinaire, The Pioneer Woman comes through again with what I consider to be THE best Hot Cross Buns recipe EVER.  They take a little over three hours from start to finish but are worth the effort.  The link above contains beautifully photographed, step-by-step directions that are far better than whatever I would show you so, rather than try to duplicate perfection, I'll let you take a look at Rhee's blog.

Here's my version:

Photo credit: Serendipity.

 If you space the rolls out a little more, they will be "prettier" because the sides don't touch. The good news is that they don't taste any different.  *wink*

 Enjoy!

A friend of mine posted this on her FB page today. A beautiful reminder on this glorious day.

Happy Easter!

xo,

 S