Nickie's Visit

I finally got around to processing some long overdue photos tonight.

It feels like only last week that I looked out on this driveway, a driveway just beckoning me to come bite it on a steeply sloped sheet of ice.  Today?

Today is lush, green warmth and blooming flowers.  David found me fuschia!

I really like fuschia.  It's one of those flowers that looks nice from a distance, but up close has the power to blow you away.  If I hadn't believed in flower fairies before I met fuschia, I certainly did after.

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My sister Nickie came for a visit awhile back (2 months ago, yeesh).  It was so awesome to get to spend some real time together!

It was still cold then, but at least the snow was gone.  She and Dave and I walked the property and found some treasures.

 We visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

 And shopped the Westside Market.

 Don't get me wrong, the bakers and butchers and produce sellers are where it's at, but I just love the tile artistry in this old building!

 And we got in a hike at the Hinckley Reservation just down the road from the house.

Nickie and I also hit up the Goodwill and found a $10 cherry tray-top table.

Nickie did all of the stripping while I cut a new lower shelf for the little beauty; then together we worked on painting the legs with white milk paint.  It's not finished yet...with the workshop being my priority for the moment, it stands patiently waiting.

Judging by the speed I'm getting things done around here, it may be done around Christmas.  Fingers crossed that that's an exaggeration!

Dumbbell Table Revisited

I've had a few people ask about this project (a few as in literally 3, but that's way more than I was expecting, so...).

I finally uploaded the SketchUp file to the cloud, and guys, seven people downloaded it!

Seven!!

Or maybe, you know, one person downloaded it seven times, but still!

So I thought I'd do the whole step-by-step thing, just in case those seven people wanted actual instructions.  Or maybe just that one person who is apparently confused enough to download a model seven times.  Just kidding, anyone who can work SketchUp is totally ON it!

Ready?  Here we go.

The Floors, or How To Do Hardwood the Hardest Way Possible

Before we bought our new/old Farmhouse, I spent a good bit of time looking for advice on how to do this whole buy-a-house-and-move thing.  One piece of advice was to put up curtains before you do anything else (for privacy, I'm assuming).  Another tip was to implement a landscape plan before the ground freezes (do it first thing and enjoy mature trees and bushes the rest of your time in that house ==> makes sense).  Other people said you ought to start with a house-wide smudging and spiritual cleansing (...).  For us, though, we determined that the first thing we'd have to make happen was refinishing the upstairs hardwood floors, which includes all four bedrooms and a sizable landing/hallway.

For one thing, the finish had worn away to bare wood in many places in just about every room, not to mention sections of deep gouges and rough sock-catchers scattered liberally throughout.

For another thing,

A Cookbook Stand, part II

I said before that I was making a cookbook stand.  When I walked away from the project at the start of my work hitch, this is where I left things:

 Ok, a couple things here: one, this thing needs a topcoat of some sort; two, isn't there supposed to be a center support across the back of the stand?; three, oh dear, if I continue as planned, this thing won't lie flat when folded; and four, why didn't I pre-finish the pieces before assembly??

A Cookbook Stand, part I

Recently, you know, I had surgery (I still don't know how to say that without it sounding like "darling, I simply had to do something about these wrinkles!"  It was actually a benign nerve sheathe tumor near the base of my neck that they removed, btw).  As I got to the end of my official convalescence (which was about 3 weeks long), I was super antsy.  I'd go to the store and just wander around.  I pulled a lot of daylilies.  I started cooking more.  I started cooking out of cookbooks more.  And what does a cookbook want?

A stand, of course!  

Up High! Down Low! It's Another Cabinet, Yo!

Yes, folks, after months of waiting...and waiting...and putting on hold...and waiting some more...the first set of upper cabinets is in place!

Cabinet: a Love Letter

Awhile back, my mother-in-law Kathy asked if I could do something for her with this little corner of the kitchen:

A Cabinet Tale

I keep thinking to myself that "sometime soon" I'll catch up on the blog and post pics and updates on all we've been doing up here in the cold north.

It doesn't seem to have happened yet.

So while we're waiting for me to get it together, I thought I'd share my current project. "Someday", I'll share all the details, but for now I'll just say I'm so excited about this kitchen cabinet! (It's for my mother-in-law Kathy and grandmother-in-law Gram)

The Cupboard, and Done!

Ta-Daa!

Remember my dream for the mudroom slash boredom project?

The Cupboard, for now

I did say, didn't I, that I'd tell you about the missing piece of the mud room?  Well, today I will tell you Part I of that story.

Despite the implication in the above (blurry) photo, there are actually next to zero progress shots of this piece.  I was in the I've-only-got-so-much-time-plus-this-is-a-weird-piece-of-furniture mindset, and I didn't think anyone would really be that interested in the process anyway, so why take progress shots?

Reclaimed Oak Coat Rack

Have I told you about my favorite store?  It's called The Rusty Bucket, and it's one of the closest places to spend money besides my computer.  With better stuff.

Storage Bench Finished!

Y'all, we finished the bench!

Yes.  It is done.  I did end up ditching the milk paint for this project...

Milk Paint Makes Me Mad

They said it would be clumpy. They did not say there would be a miiillllllllion clumps that would get everywhere.

They said it would take more than one coat. They did not say it would take ten coats and most of the $28 quart of paint for a small project.

They said it would be weird to work with. They did not say it would be tear-your-hair-out, throw-the-whole-project-out-the-window, curse-the-day-you-ever-saw-milk-paint FRUSTRATING to work with.

I still believe in milk paint. The way I believe in astrophysics and French pastry...magnificent in the hands of a master. Nothing but disappointment to someone like me.

Where's my glossy white latex paint bucket?

Building a Storage Bench II

We bought a sheet of 3/4" plywood ages and ages ago in anticipation of building a set of hutches for our beautiful desk.  Alas, I still don't have a stunning design for those hutches, so we've (obviously) never begun the building process on them.  Which means we've had 4 quarters of a 3/4" sheet of plywood sitting leaning against the wall in the office.   for.   months.

So when I began working on our storage bench, I designed the cut plan around those 1/4 sheets of ply (each being 24"x48").  Which means we used a minimum of new-purchase dimensional wood (yea!).  Which means it took three to four times as long to get the pieces cut (boo!).  But it also means that when I looked at how short 3.5" actually is for a storage area, I was able to simply add 1.5" to my boards and make the storage deeper (the pink pieces, see how they're 5" instead of 3.5"?  That's what I'm talking about).

Building a Storage Bench I

So our Mudroom.

I've never had a mudroom before.  Now that we have one, I'm not sure why anyone would ever build a house without one.

So in the interest of maximizing this space (and using my off time productively), we've decided to build a bunch of stuff.  Like this storage bench:

Via ana-white.com, made by Amy Courts who is a fantastic singer/songwriter

The Dumbbell Table Reveal!

Folks, we have a dumbbell table!

It is sturdy, solid, massive, and exactly as I'd hoped it would be.  David is happy with it, which is the best of all.  And it will require its own forklift if we ever decide to move (I exaggerate kind of).

The Circular Saw Told Me Lies

 Today and yesterday we have been living in a snowglobe.

 This morning we woke to 5 degrees out.

Necklace Portrait

I know I don't post very often...do you know why?  It's because I compose post after post after post in my head.  And then I sit down to write...and there's nothing there.  Not only that, there's no pictures to go with that nothing.  When do I take pictures?  When I'm doing a craft.

Ta-daa!  My new necklace portrait storage system.  It is a Heidi Interpretation of Carrie's portrait storage system, so, yes, piracy in action.

Plans, plans, plans

I've been dreaming again.

Dave's Birthday Present

So I just realized, my patient people, that I never did post photos of David's birthday presents...

See the present?

No, the foxglove flowers were a present from David for me.  Quite a gift, too...we actually had hummingbirds come visit us!

But no, this was David's birthday present!

And the very next day, a rotten raccoon jumped on it and knocked it on the ground and broke it.  Mad face.  So in the above photo, you can actually see the notch on the right where we had to re-glue the ceiling and wall of the feeder.

And this was the other half 2/3 of his present:

 I made them based on Ana White's plans, and if you want to hear the story (it's hilarious and more than a little disastrous), you'll have to ask me in person.

 The main thing is, he likes them!  They're very comfortable and great for watching fireworks, lightning bugs, and bonfires, and if you lounge in them in the afternoon, you can easily fall right to sleep in the shade of our beautiful maple.

So I'm hard at work right now (ahem) switching my email address and sorting through the photos on my hard drive.  That's how I came upon these photos and realized they'd never made it onto the blog. Hope you're all doing very well!  I highly recommend bird feeders and sling chairs!  (But if you decide to make your own sling chairs, ask me about them first!  I learned some hard lessons on these! Hard as in nearly-threw-them-in-the-lake-before-it-was-all-over hard.)