Tasty Tuesday

Today is anther day in Charlottetown.  I'm going to the library and the shops for inspirations!

This week's meal plan:

• Mon-Pasta with spinach, cheese tomato sauce, Chickpeas, salad, jalepeno cheese bread
• Tues-Crispy Salmon, quinoa, cauliflower
• Wed-Homemade Chicken Nuggets , fries BBQ Chicken with Avocado Salsa
• Thurs- Out- Lobster at Inlaws, Chicken Fingers for kids
• Fri- Mac and Cheese BBQ Hake, Leftover Pasta
• Sat- Pizza Mac and Cheese
• Sun- Chili BBQ Hamburgers, Fries

Last year's meal plan:

• Mon-Cajun fish, leftover rice, cabbage
• Tues-Ribollita (Fresh from Vegetarian Slow Cooker pg52)
•  Wed- Salmon, potatoes, carrots
• Thurs- Sweet potato, gouda, green pea pie
• Fri-Frozen Pannebello Pizza
• Sat-Lobster at Inlaws
• Sun-Stirfry  (Vegetarian Family Cookbook pg 148) with Chinese Vegetables, Cabbage, Egg Rolls

:-)

Mornin!

We had a nice weekend. The weather is finally starting to warm up and today there was no frost on the ground, only dew!

DD had a friend over yesterday and they played with DS, too, so I was able to get some outside work done.  I always think, we don't have a lot of "gardening" to do, since most of the plants we have are perennial and they come back by themselves year after year. (I'm still amazed that they do this after the winter!)

However, there is still stuff to do.  In the back yard, we've had a fire pit, that had gotten quite unusable and overgrown with weeds. Also, when we did the back addition, I placed about 30 2x2 patio stones around it.  This was not a good place for them. Here's how the side of it looked last year in June. The patio stones are beneath the wood and the pit is just behind the side of the screened tent

So, I moved the patio stones last week to behind the little round bush beside the old picnic table (with a wooden ladder on it) to the right of the play house.  The pit is just in the middle of the grass behind the patio.

 I also moved the edger stones that were around the pit. They're going to go around the new front garden. Here are the funny spots they left. It seems the pit got full of dirt and so did the spaces around and in between the stones.  It was a neat design, but needed to be flattened down.  

Here's how it looks this morning.  I still need to put a few wheelbarrow loads of top soil on it and some grass seed.

I also worked on cleaning out the raspberries and trying to tame the overgrown honeysuckle plants. Here's a pic from last week, mainly of one honeysuckle plant.  We have two, and I found another piece with roots on it, so I'm now thinking I'll leave them and just use the "cuttings" for the front arbor.

Here's how it looks today.

 In the front, to the right of the cottage is where I put all the plants that were moved from the front garden to make room for the addition in Sep 2010.

Here's how it looks today after I cleaned out all the leaves yesterday.

Oh, and besides all the outdoor stuff, I couldn't wait to start taking apart the wingback chair....

:-)

Friday Thoughts on Fabric

Hi!
Another week with no big projects...

I've been doing some contemplating instead... Mostly about fabrics for this chair. Here it is outside, airing out after I bought it in Charlottetown for $5 at the Restore!  What a bargain!

 Here it is inside with some swatches on the arm.  (Oh, I can't wait to have this room as the living room!)  You can see the swatch on the left is the inspiration for the window treatment. The other swatch is an Ikat-ish fabric, that I think might be too trendy.  And I've got the denim draped over which I also like, but I already did a chair with that for DS.

So, I picked up some new swatches on Tuesday.  The top 2 are in the pic above. The 3rd is from my windows.  You can see I like blues!  But I think I'm going to go with the bottom striped fabric. My original idea was to use blue ticking. I thought I could find it cheap somewhere, but the couple stores I've been to in PEI didn't have it, or it was expensive.

The bottom swatch is actually black stripes which seem a bit updated.  My mom had an old couch with blue ticking that she must've recovered (or had recovered?) in the late 80's.  I think the ticking is summery and cottagey- the feel I'm going for.  I found a wingback chair slipcover from LLBean at Frenchy's last year that has burgandy and green in it so I thought that would work if I want to fall-ify the decor :-).

Anyway, I think that fabric from Fabricville was around $28/yard (or Meter?  I always think they're about the same, but I guess it does make a difference. I just converted it. 6 yards = 5.49 meters) If you have a membership ($20 for one year) you could've saved 40%. Not sure how long that sale is, but I'll need around 6 yards according to this handy chart.  If that's the price, with the discount it's only $16.80 and it'd be around $100 (plus the membership)....

Fashion Fabric Club ships to Canada and their fabric is $8.95/yd. It doesn't say how much it'd cost to ship here, except they do add an extra $7.50 to whatever the shipping is.  Joann's will also ship here. Their Waverly fabric is on sale for $19.95. So, it'd cost $119.70 plus 13.95 shipping to total $133.65.  Plus, all the fabrics would probably be charged tax and maybe duty.

I think I'll wait and double check a couple more fabric stores. There's another one in Charlottetown and also one out by Bedeque which may have some good deals.

Oh, I'm back to reading blogs again and I've discovered my photo's aren't all that great :-(. Oh, well another thing to learn ;-)

:-)

Lockers

Whew! I just went through about 1,000 pictures! I found a bunch of good ones- lots of bad "befores" and pretty "afters".

Today, I'll share a set of three lockers. I bought them at an antique/old stuff store called Coulson's in Summerside in 2010.  They came from some school in New Brunswick (or Nova Scotia?). They are tall and hold lots of stuff. I bought them to go in DS's room.

The yellow color was almost the right shade to go with some stuff in DS's room, but not quite. So, I painted them!  First, I cleaned them and taped off the front so I could try out the paint on the side. I used Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Interior/Exterior Gloss in Navy Blue. It's oil based and super stinky. Be sure to have lots of ventilation, wear a mask, eye goggles, gloves and paintin' clothes.  So far, so good!

 Be sure to do long even sweeps of paint. You can see on the sides how the paint went over on the paper and on the green board and blue bag.

 When I did the front I taped off all the little numbers, silver handle things and even covered up the vents from the back. (This was probably unnecessary, I don't think much paint got inside the lockers.)  Also, to avoid messing up the sides, I taped up paper on them just like I'd done on the front.

All's good, but when I took the tape off the previously painted side, off comes the paint! Oh, the horror!  I learned taping the side wasn't necessary either. I think the overspray could've gone right over it without any weird effects.  Anyway, I tried to spot fix with the spray paint, but that caused the paint to bubble and made it worse.  I've since read that an unclean surface can bubble. I think that may have been the cause.  So, my next solution was to sand off the messed up parts and fix it with a Navy Blue paint pen.  Which I couldn't find when I finally went to Michael's, so I tried mixing regular blue with black. It sorta worked, in that it looked better than the yellow peeking thru, but not all that great.

Here's a pretty picture of the lockers in the formerly-known-as "front room" (now known as the-room- blocked-off-by-plastic, but eventually will be the master bedroom :-)).  I liked the lockers in the front and plan on building wooden lockers/cubbies to go in the front entry way.

 Here are the lockers as they are today in DS's room. 

Here's a peek inside...

And finally, here's some funny graffiti in the middle locker. It's in French and says "Tu as des belles fesses pis une belle P l o t t e I love you". "Plotte" is not a french word. There is a "P" there and then 5 underlines and someone put in the last letters....

:-)

Tasty Tuesday (on Wednesday)

Hi!
I took a "day off" yesterday to go to Charlottetown so I wasn't able to post.  Wednesdays I help out with the breakfast program at school, so it's a nice day for me not to blog. And also to catch up, when I'm not able to do it on Tuesday. ;-)

Today, is busier than usual b/c DS and DD have dentist appointments this afternoon and this evening DS has Scouts. Scouts is usually on Tuesdays in town (Summerside, a 25 min drive away) along with DD's figure skating here in the Valley. In the winter, HH would take DS to Scouts and he'd study at the library. I'd take DD to skating.  Skating ended in March so now I've been taking DS to Scouts and doing my shopping. This saves one 50 min drive to Summerside and back. At first, I missed my trip to town during the day on Tuesday, but it makes sense to make only one trip. And, I always seem to have plenty of time to shop for what we need (rather than browse around for what we may want!).  For meal planning, this means I have to have stuff on hand to make next week's Mon and Tues meals. That's why I usually make pasta or fish because we almost always have those at home or I make something I didn't get around to making the previous week. ;-)

The grocery experiment from last week (shopping without consulting the flyers) yielded about the same result as with the flyers. I spent $147 at one store.  I still bought things not on the list, though, and got a few things to freeze b/c they were on sale.  I think I'll stick with the flyers, but this week I only wrote down 2 things that were on sale that we need.


I'm a bit stuck for what to have on the weekend. I didn't make it to the library yesterday for my magazine inspiration...

This week's meal plan:

• Mon-  Lentil Veggie Balls (Natural Healing April/May 2012) 
• Tues- Haystacks
• Wed-Salmon, leftover potatoes, veg
• Thurs-Chicken Stirfry, Chinese Vegetables, Fried Rice
• Fri-Pizza Leftovers
• Sat-Chili Pizza
• Sun-Frittata (maybe this one without so many mushrooms) Spinach and Cheese

Last Year's meal plan

• Mon-Mac & cheese
• Tues-Haystacks
• Wed-Trout, Carrot Caroway Salad, Quinoa
• Thurs-Beet Curry with Peas (Fresh from Vegetarian Slow Cooker pg87)
• Fri- Egg Burrito
• Sat- Pizza
• Sun-Glazed Halibut (Mix 3T White Miso, 4t honey, 1t oil. Spread over 4 200g fish filets. Broil on parchment) Chinese Vegetables

Monday

Mornin!

It was a nice weekend. Sorta overcast/rainy on Sat and sunny and cool/cold yesterday.  I still haven't caulked around the back room windows, but I did get a bit of yard work done!

(BTW, HH got me a new phone and I am loving the new instant upload!  It makes getting my pictures here so much easier!)

On Friday, while DD was at a friend's house, DS helped take down the old "tree house" deck.  It hadn't been used the past few years as it was getting too old and bouncy.  Below, you can see the deck through the door.

DS took out almost all of the screws by himself with the rechargeable drill.  Now, we can hang both Brazilian hammocks up at the same time!

Another thing I did was move a rose bush in the back yard. When my dad and stepmom bought their trailer last year, it just so happened that this rose bush was right in front of their door! 

 So, it had to be moved. I thought of a few different places for it, but decided to put it by the front corner of their trailer. I dug a new hole, then started to dig up the rose bush. It had a couple long, thick roots coming mostly out of one side.

I was wearing my Isotoner gloves, work gloves, my heavy winter coat, and pink tuque and was able to avoid any prickles from all the thorns.  I dragged it over by the bottom roots and stuck it in the new hole.  I had to make the hole bigger because I hadn't expected the roots to go over so much.

After that, I covered it up with the dirt from the hole, added some potting soil with fertilizer on top and watered it.  I hope it makes it!

 I was also able to transplant a lupin plant from the back of HH's office. There is a wild flower garden that I don't want there anymore since we're going to have our vegetable garden in that area. (The vegetable garden will go about 4 feet in front of HH's office, parallel to the wall.) Here's a pic of the wildflowers. They look like they're sitting on top of the chest of drawers in front of the cedar shingled wall.  .

I'm going to move the plants I can identify as flowers.  

The lupins are the little green patch beside the rose bush. (And pay no attention to the frozen yogurt container in the bush.  HH put it there to seperate some branches :-))

I took a look at the honeysuckle by the raspberries and it looks moveable.  As I was pulling up branches, I discovered one with roots on it! So, that would be good for putting in the front by the arbor (not currently built). Or I may still try to uproot the whole big plant! 

:-)

Window Stuff

This week's project was windows! Specifically, the fabric window treatment and the moulding under the window ledges and around one window.

I'll begin with the fabric.  It was a fun project.  Here is my inspiration picture again:

 And here is the dye I bought in Charlottetown.

As per the instructions, I mixed the dye powder in 2 cups warm water and added that to a bucket of hot water with 5T of salt dissolved.

First, I tried a test piece of fabric.  I dampened it with hot water, rolled it up, and secured it with a rubber band where I wanted the color to stop. I placed it on the side of the bucket with the fabric in the dye up to the rubber band. I kept it in the dye 15 min stirring frequently, then another 20 min (because this was just a test, I didn't leave it in the full 45 min extra).  I took it out, rinsed it and it turned out great!

 So, now onto the real deal.   I rolled up all my damp fabric and secured with rubber bands.

 

Then I placed the fabric in the dye. I'd wrapped the bucket in my bathrobe to keep it warm because I was using the same dye solution as my test.  I also covered it with a plate to keep the heat in.

 After letting it sit 15 min, then 45 min, I undid the rubberbands and saw that the dye had not been absorbed evenly so I took the rubber bands off. I unrolled the fabric and folded it up so the fabric that had been on the inside was now on the outside. Then, I let it sit in the dye another hour.

 Here is the fabric drying on the clothes line. You can see the light blue on the right hand side of the fabrics.

Then, I repeated it all the next day with the darker dye. This time I didn't use rubber bands- I just folded up the fabric loosely. I let it sit 15 min, stirring frequently. Then after 10 min, I unfolded the fabric and refolded it, putting it back in the dye for the instructed 35 min. Here's the fabric after the second dye.  We had great sunny weather this week. It was great for line drying laundry!

My original plan had been to make window valance boxes, but I think I changed my mind. I like to keep in mind that this is a cottage, so when I hung the fabric loosely across the top of the blinds I realized I liked the casual look.  Here is a picture of one window.

 You can see the screws that are holding up the blind. I may get some drapery hooks to hang the fabric on those nails, or maybe I will try to place the fabric to cover them up.

Here is the side back door before the window treatment.

And here it is with the fabric on top.  The fabric over the doors has to be shorter so the door can open.

I like that on each side there are 3 curtain panels: on the right, one above the door and 2 over the windows and on the back, 2 wide panels over the windows and one above the center door. (It's hard to get a picture of the whole room. We've got more than 1/2 of it blocked up for our bedroom.)

Then on the left, there are 3 panels over the windows.  (See our hanging clothes rod? I will be so happy when this is in a proper closet. Right now we only have one closet which is where the washing machine and dryer live.  After all the reno's we will have 6 closets! Including the new laundry closet in the hallway!)

 Now, on to the mouldings.  With all the windows except one, I was able to put drywall on the sides and top so it looks "finished", although I will probably frame them out with moulding later. I cut the ledge on the bottom out of 1x6 pine, but needed something below.  

Restore to the rescue! When I bought moulding to go around the doors, some of it didn't work, but I was able to re-purpose it to go under the windows.  I cut the wood with a 30 degree angle and nailed it up with finish nails.

As it's been so nice outside, I've also been doing outside work and haven't yet caulked.  That will be a good project to do this weekend since it's going to rain. :-)

And finally here is a picture of the lone window that needed extra mouldings.  This is way before we even had the drywall up!

Here it is all moulded up.  Not very exciting, but it's been a long time coming!

Have a great weekend! :-)

Dresser

Here is an oldie, but a goodie! When I was about 12 or so, my parents got me a new bedroom set, which included a double bed, a dresser with mirror and a chest of drawers.  (I remember my oldest younger brother also got a bedroom set and his got refinished first! I could not believe the injustice of it and probably grumped around a lot to show my displeasure! (I have to admit, I was a bit of a brat.) Now, I am much more appreciative ;-) and feel bad that my youngest two brothers never got such nice furniture!) Anyway, the set stayed at my mom's in Lousiana through high school and university. Then after I was married and had kids, we moved down to North Carolina along with my mom and the set came there. And from there, HH put it on a little trailer and hauled it up to PEI.  It stayed in our storage room for years (!!??). When we added on to the cottage, I was finally able to use it again.  HH is currently using the chest of drawers and DD has the bed (both have not been refinished).

Now, onto the project. Since this dresser had been in our storage room so long, it had a bit of a musty smell in the drawers. I tried using vinegar to clean them, but that didn't work so I resorted to diluted bleach. I cleaned inside, outside and all around and still the smell didn't disappear completely. I ended up putting baking soda in the drawers and it's not too bad now.  

Ok, back to the project!  I did this in August, 2011.  First, I sanded the top with my hand sander and finished it with one coat of Walnut Stain.  It was a little can from the Restore which I have since taken to Waste Watch. 

 Here, I've taped all around the edges so there will be nice, clean lines.  I primed the bottom part with Zinsser Bullseye 123 using a brush to get into the grooves and corners and a small foam roller to smooth it all out.

 After the primer dried, I put two coats of light blue paint (from Restore) with the brush and foam roller.

You can see above the top turned out too blotchy so I sanded it again and used Johnson Paste Wax for Fine Wood to protect it. I aged the bottom a bit by ragging on Minwax Wood Finish in Early American, making sure to get in the grooves, and wiping it off with a clean rag. 

 Isn't she pretty?  These pictures were taken in our back living room. Right now the dresser is being stored in our front room addition waiting to go in the entry way when all that work is done.

Cheers! :-)