Tuesday, July 17, 2012

a quick little post about a pot rack

Yup, you read that right! You see, I came across an old pot rack in the garage a week or so ago and since we are trying to clean up the garage I immediately pulled it out, took it to the backyard and had a plan. 
 

Five clay pots, some rope twine, dirt and flowers...Voila! Instant cuteness in the form of a new hanging planter on our back porch. I love when things turn out as cute in person as I pictured it in my head. Let me tell ya, it doesn't always happen but I love it when it does!
Have a lovely Tuesday!
And go re-purpose something!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Canning Some Figs

This past 4th of July, we all headed out to my parents house in the hill country for some fun and sun at the river. While we were there a family friend stopped by to say hi and brought us some figs from their fig tree. My grandmother makes some really yummy strawberry fig jam and my husband happens to LOVE it so there was no question at all about what we should do with these fresh-off-the-tree figs. 
I've never made jam before so I was a little unsure about the whole process. It. was. easy! I followed the directions right off of pick-your-own.org's website. 
 I decided to do 3 cups figs and 3 cups strawberries and reduced the sugar to 1-1/4 cups. Not only did it turn out great, it is diet friendly. On our weight watchers diet that my husband and I have been doing for 12 (I really can't remember now!) weeks now it is only 1 point for 3 tablespoons. Yum!
My mom canned some figs too and wanted to pretty up the jars so she came to me! I'm the crafty one in the family so I pulled out some supplies and we had a good time coming up with some simple labels and embellishments for the jars.
The little jar in the front is some balsamic fig jam, made by my mom.


Now our jars look so pretty in the pantry- but even better, if we need a quick little gift for someone, they are all ready to go!





Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Before and After: Kid's Table and Chair

Everyone loves a good before and after! I know I do, don't you? Boy do I have a good one for you. But first, the story behind this little makeover. A few years ago, my sweet husband built this little table for our 2 toddlers. 
A fun little Spring planting project all set up and ready to be done!

The chairs were a nice spicy orange, the legs of the table creamy white... it worked and we loved it. It gave our little ones a place of their own to do projects and be creative and eat lunch and all of that good stuff!
Now, fast forward a few years later after that and our family grew... a. lot. We now have 5 beautiful children with the oldest at 6 and the youngest at 4 months old. They keep us busy to say the very least! We added 2 more chairs to that table but with the way the base was built for stability (it was a drop-leaf top) you couldn't really push chairs in on the sides so they were always hanging out. 
So lo and behold, I put my husband to work again to build a bigger top for the table so all of the chairs could be pushed in. Along with a new table top I knew I wanted to do something different to the chairs. I was reeeeaaallly getting tired of the spicy orange. I like to change things up every now and then and it was time! After going back and forth about what color(s) to paint them and really not being able to settle on anything, I decided to ask a fellow blogger. Amy has a sweet blog named Blissful Blooms (and a cute Etsy Shop to go along with it!) and ever since I found her blog, I have really admired her style, which happens to be a lot like mine! (although she gets to go junkin' way more often than I do...I need to change that!) I was a little nervous to email her, considering I didn't "know" her other than from reading her blog but decided to do it anyways...And I'm glad I did. It so happens Amy had painted some kiddie chairs herself, about a year ago.
http://blissfulblooms.blogspot.com/2011/08/happy-chairs.html

Can I just say I LOVE how her chairs turned out?! So now that I had a plan (and a good one!) I got to work:
 Here are the 4 chairs (the 2 red ones were a first attempt gone badly to stain them instead of paint. Only the original 2 chairs were the orange. We had never got around to doing anything to the 2 unfinished wood chairs.) sanded and cleaned up and ready to get their new paint job!
 Good bye spicy orange chairs....
 We made some good memories but I will not miss you!
Good bye stained red chairs...
Sorry your stain came out blotchy and just wasn't right. We still have the rest of the can of stain and will remember you if we ever use it on another project!
HELLO NEW CHAIRS AND TABLE! OH, HOW I LOVE YOU! My husband did a great job rebuilding the base of the table, reusing the table legs to accommodate a much bigger table top. 
 He sandwiched 2 sheets of plywood together, glued, clamped and later sanded the edges to make a nice thick beefy top. The legs and sides of the table got a nice new paint job using Painters Touch Heirloom White in Satin. 
And the chairs each got new paint, also using Painters Touch spray paint in Satin. The yellow is called Summer Squash and the purple, Lilac.
The green is Leafy Green and the red is called Colonial Red. 
And as we say goodbye to the little table made for these two sweet hearts
I know many memories will be made on our new pint size table and chairs.
Wishing Everyone a Happy Day!