What's on tonight's menu?

Well, just take a look at the newly finished chalkboard!

 Yay, I finally got this project underway. It took less than two hours and I think it adds a lot to the kitchen.

 How did I create this lovely space to write the daily menu on? Well, let me tell you.  First, I got out my medium level (two-foot, we have a six-foot, two-foot, eight-inch, and one-inch) and a carpenter’s pencil. Then I drew out what looked to be a good size board and got Colin’s approval. We decided to include the light switches so that we could label which switch is for which light. Then after the penciled in rectangle was acceptable to both Colin and I, I taped it out with blue painter’s tape. 

I then mixed up the chalkboard paint according to Martha Stewart’s recipe of 2 Tablespoon’s non-sanded tile grout to one cup of paint (any color- ours is Valspar Glass Green). Then I rolled on the paint with a mini roller and then hand painted the dog dish tray while the first coat of the wall was drying.

Then I did a second coat. Let that dry and then sanded with 150-grit-sandpaper. Then I rubbed the whole thing down with chalk and wiped that away with a damp cloth. Then the fun began. I only had sidewalk chalk on hand so the writing is really big.

So what’s on the menu? Chocolate coconut cupcakes! 

 

Scary old ladder = great plant stand for the yoga room

I am not sure if I have told you that Colin and I are obsessed with obtaining plants for the yoga room.  It has become quite the oasis in the desert. ( This is only after I turned over care of the plants to Colin since I have a black thumb - before it was a plant graveyard.)

Recently we have run into the not so terrible problem of where to put all of our green babies. But, what better solutions are there than the ones laying around the house? We have this old wooden ladder that I am frankly afraid to use for its intended purpose, but that would make a great plant stand.

So a little paint later we had this beauty.

Reuse, reduce, recycle

I seem to be good at the first and good at the last but not so good about reducing.  Yesterday when I was taking my recycling to the center I found an old headboard and footboard from a crib. My mom thought they would make great trellises and I heartily agreed. So I got rid of one box of recycling in exchange for a new project. I guess I need to go home and find something I can bless someone else with in exchange for my new trellises.

Since I am so bad at taking pictures of my adventures, here is a picture I found of what the crib would have looked like.

via

Now it is just the end pieces which I will paint a deep dark aqua and place in the garden for future vines to use as support. I will most likely use the same color as the garden chairs below. 

My mom also reminded me that it runs in the family to make stuff out of dumpster finds. This table that I repainted was originally made by my great-grandmother who found the washing machine base at the dump.

My sister also has a wonderful design blog. Most of her great stuff is not from the trash but she has redone items that she has gotten at second-hand stores.

Hoosier redo and my inability take before pics

 A while back I was given an old hoosier that needed some TLC.  What is a hoosier? Well, it is a backer's cabinet that originated in the 1800's. In the top there is a bin for flour that comes down into an attached sifter. The counter is made of enamel for rolling out dough and in the bottom there is a pie safe drawer (which is a metal lined drawer with air vents in the top.)

Since we were in the middle of the kitchen remodel it sat in its sorry state loaded down with tools in the dining room.

Yikes what a mess! It was certainly time to get this puppy cleaned up.  I am sad to report that when I get excited about a project I just jump right in and forget all about taking anything resembling a before picture.  So The pic above is the best "before pic" I could find. 

I jumped right in and I glued all the doors back together and re-screwed the drawer rails and then I got to sanding and painting. 

The colors I used are Martha Stewart's Fig and Valspar's Antique White. 

I then lined all the backs of the shelves with New Mexico Wilderness Maps. 

Quiche

Concrete Pics

The colors are a bit off from real life but oh is this getting exciting or what?

Concrete experiments

Hi.  Guess what Colin and I did yesterday? I guess the title gives it away, but we played with concrete. Because we are going to have colored concrete counter tops and because mixing 10 cubic feet of concrete and just going for it seem a bit scary, we decided to make some samples. Stepping stone style. Colin made a mold out of some of the melamine that we had gotten on craigslist and made a mold with four 8" x 8" squares. Then we had an evening of fun mixing our three colors to different strengths. Even more fun was slopping the stuff into the molds. Tonight is the big reveal and I will take some pictures to show you some of our ideas for what we hope the counter tops will look like. That is if the samples even came out close to what we were hoping for. Up next, working on the real molds. Yikes.