DIY Weathered Wood Headboard

As part of our master bedroom makeover, the Texan and I decided that it was way past due that we have an actual headboard.  Our guest bedroom bed has a darned headboard; shouldn’t we?  How fancy of us!  That being said, we aren’t quite fancy enough yet that we want to spend much money on it (ie: any money, at all).  So we turned, yet again, to our scrap wood pile for a few leftover 2×4′s and some dinged-up pine boards (all of which can be acquired for a nominal fee at your local home improvement store).

We started by building the frame; this took a bit of baffled staring at the wall where the headboard was going to figure out the exact dimensions.  We’ve got light switches and window frames to factor in, but really, it boiled down to a personal preference on how we wanted it to look.  We figured out roughly where we wanted the peak of the arch to be, and roughly where we wanted the edges of the arch to be, height-wise.

Our professionally-drawn plans.  Hey, it isn’t on a napkin!

Once we had decided on all that, it was time to build the frame.

We cut the four pieces according to our height (42 1/2″) and width (72″) requirements, then screwed them together with metal straps from the home improvement center.

Next, we cut our 6″ wide pine planks all to length (29″, which is the length from the bottom cross piece of the headboard to the highest point of the arch).  Here’s a little tip: before you assemble these, use an electric sander or even just sandpaper (I used a Dremel) to knock down the corners along the lengths of the boards–even though they sit side-by-side, those edges still tend to be rather sharp….if there is one thing you don’t want your headboard to be, it’s sharp.

Line your boards side-by-side and face-down, and place the frame on top of them. Screw through the frame and into the boards, one screw in each top and bottom. We used 1-5/8″ length screws–long enough to go through the 2×4 and into the boards, but not long enough to go all the way through the boards.

Millie monitors the Texan’s progress.

At this point, the basic headboard is assembled.  But we wanted to get crazy with the top edge and do an arch.  Which is a little tricky.  This, I’m sure, could be done by one person, but it is a lot easier with two, trust me.

You want to start with the headboard laying flat, face up.  You also need a pencil and a long length of twine.

Find the midpoint of the top edge of the headboard (which is where the highest point of the arch will be), then measure straight back a ways (we used an extra board as a straight reference, because the eventual point you are looking for will fall somewhere below the headboard).  The farther back you go, the more gradual of an arch you will wind up making–you’ll have to fiddle with it a bit and figure out what shape arch looks best for what you are doing.  But basically, you just need to have one person pin one end of the string down (this effectively, is the center of the circle that your arch is a part of), and then tie or hold the other end of the string to a pencil, carefully drawing your line by moving the pencil along in an arc at the end of that string.  You’ll have to practice a few times without making a mark to really figure out what works best.  I am sure there is a more precise way of doing this, but I was never any good at math, so this is quite mathy enough, thank you!

You’ll wind up with a pretty legit arch:

You can see I screwed up a few times. (meh.)

It was time for my favorite tool: the Dremel Trio, which is a handy-dandy little multi-function router-thingy (it routs, it sands, it cuts, it slices, it dices!  JK on the last two–I got carried away).  Carefully, I cut along my not-so-painstakingly-done guidelines.  You can see I didn’t make the cleanest cut….

The arch I wound up cutting was wobbly, at best.  But I figured that because I wanted this headboard to be pretty weathered and beat-up looking, having a wobbly top edge wasn’t the worst thing in the world.  I did sand the living daylights out of the top, which took the wobbliness down quite a bit.

Next, it was time to beat the wood up.  I wanted some glaring imperfections, so I gathered a few weapons and took my aggressions out on this poor, innocent headboard.

Some of my favorite distressing techniques/tools include: tapping a nail in little clusters to emulate worm holes, letting a grinder skip across, repeatedly hitting with both ends of a hammer, etc. Distressing wood is fun.

If there are any splintered wood bits from all your abuse, be sure to give those a quick sand.

Time for stain!  I began with a layer of grey stain (Varathane Weathered Grey).

Next, I layered on a basic brown stain (what we had sitting around: Minwax Early American):

I hate the smell of stain.  I cannot think of anything worse than that smell, right next to my head, soaking into my sheets, as I try to sleep.  Ugh.  So, at this point, we left the headboard outside for several days to air out.  I’ve also read that if you scrub white vinegar on it, it helps to neutralize the smell.  So I did this….a few times.  I like to believe it helped.  Honestly, I think it did.

As is typical of most of our projects, there was no rain in the forecast, yet it began to rain, so we had to move the operation into the garage (which ain’t great for photos).  The next step was to do a white-washed effect over the top of the stain.  I used some semi-gloss Behr Swiss Coffee white paint that we had sitting around.  Using a cheap wooden brush (I like the effect the coarse bristles create), I would load it up with paint and then brush most of the paint off into a rag before rubbing and brushing it onto the headboard.

This is what a ‘drybrush’ looks like. You can brush this on for a streaky, wood-grained effect, and you can also use it to smudge areas and create a sort of color haze.  You don’t want there to be any areas of thick paint–if you accidentally get some, use a dry rag to rub it off as much as possible.

Finished white-washing.

Again, we let this sucker sit in the garage for a few days to air out (also, before I started painting, I mixed a tablespoon of vanilla into the gallon of paint, which helps neutralize the paint fumes without affecting the color).

The final embellishment came in the form of metal star ‘nailhead’-looking trim.

My source for these little pretties is one of my best. kept. secrets.  And I’m gonna go ahead and reveal it to you….deep breath: King Architectural Metals (www.kingmetals.com).  This is where I acquire all sorts of metal bits and bobs (wrought iron fence pieces, cast iron star washers, barn stars, etc.) It is pretty much my most favorite, random, wonderful place to shop.

I went ahead and drilled a center hole in each little star (taking care to remove or sand off any resulting sharp spurs).  I then pre-drilled a hole into the headboard where I wanted each star, and then nailed them each into place with a little furniture tack (acquired from the home improvement store).

We finally placed the headboard and secured it to the wall with a couple of screws in the legs.

There you have it!  A nice little addition to our nice little bedroom, if I do say so myself.

DIY UpCycled Vertical Planter

After doing so much renovation work on our house, there’s quite a few bits and pieces sitting around that didn’t get used.  A couple of windows, two sinks (yes, two sinks–don’t ask), and a gable vent.  What’s a gable vent, you ask?

That’s a gable vent.  It’s supposed to vent our attic.  But we thought–eh, no thanks, vents are overrated.  (JUST KIDDING–we wound up using a different vent than this one).  The second it went in the ‘leftovers’ pile, I knew I wanted to plant it–just look at it!!!  It’s begging to be planted.

The first thing I decided to do was remove the flanged edges, because they are a little sharp and added an unnecessary element of mortal danger for a planter.  In my opinion.  They are just spot-welded on in a couple of places and with a flathead screwdriver and hammer, it’s pretty easy to pop those suckers off.  And gloves.  Wear gloves.  Sharp edges.

The edgeless vent looks much cleaner….

….and much less finger-cutty.

At this point, I strung a heavy-duty wire along the upper edge of the backside of the vent (just strung it through the grating), as I intended to hang the finished product.  I neglected to get photos of this step.  FAIL.

The next step was to line the backside of each vent pocket (there is metal grating across the entire backside of the vent).  I decided to use coffee filters.  I wet them and stuck them inside each section along the inside of the grating.  I also neglected to get photos of this step.  Double FAIL.

I then filled each section with potting mix, and selected my plant material.  I decided to go with succulents, as I intended to hang this on a fence and knew I would forget to water it most of the time–so I needed to go with something that would cut me a little slack.  Yay, succulents!

For the ‘stripes’ I chose two different types of sedum, and then as an accent I tucked in some random echeveria and aeonium ‘blossoms’ (at least I think that’s what they are–I am no succulent know-it-all and these were unhelpfully unmarked at the nursery).

That bottom ledge wasn’t very conducive to planting, so I decided to display some seashells on it. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

I should probably tell everyone that I laid this flat for a couple of weeks for the roots to take hold.  I should probably say that.  But I did not.  I am impatient.  I packed those suckers in there and hung it on my fence post-haste.  It’s holding up just fine!  But for best results, you might want to let yours sit and marinate flat for a bit.  I’m just saying.

I love this so much that I think I am going to go to Lowe’s and get me a few more of these vents and hang several along this section of fence.  The expanse of white fence makes me nuts.  I must fill it with randomness and apologize to no one!!!

Butterfly Wreath

It’s about that time of year when I start to fiddle with things on my front porch.  We’re through Easter, on our way towards summer, and I want some seasonal decor that will carry us along till those reds, whites, and blues start popping up.  After considerable consideration on where to go with this springtime spruce up, I decided that I wanted to run with the ‘Farmhouse Red’ of the front door (which is really a saturated orange), and do a decor scheme based on that.  So what to do for an orange-y springtime wreath?  What to do, indeed….

I feel that it is necessary for me to state that I have a bit of a closet butterfly obsession.  I love me some butterflies.  I should also state that I have a plethora of craft butterflies leftover from my floral design days (and when I say ‘plethora’, I mean plethora–ask the Texan….they are everywhere) that I am always trying to figure out what to do with besides sticking an occasional one in a whimsical flower arrangement.  So, well DUH…. butterfly swarm on a wreath.  I’m surprised it took me this long to figure it out.

I started with a wreath form that I actually made myself, from grape and wisteria vine, but any old craft store-type grapevine wreath would work great.

And then, of course, I selected my victims: you know the ones, those craft-store beauties made from painted feathers with wires attached.  I chose to go with a mixture of orange, yellow-orange, and coral, both large and small variety.  Those wires often come in handy, but for this project, I popped them off.

I fired up the glue gun, and began to glue them in a random fashion to the wreath form.  I wanted this to look like a natural cluster swarm, which meant that there was no rhyme or reason to the orientation of each butterfly; some are right side up, some are pointing down, some were glued to the sides and top of the wreath.  Asymmetry is key here.

Additionally, I did not want the whole wreath to be filled up; I felt it would look more natural for part of the grapevine to be showing.

An unexpected bonus of this particular wreath?  The view from the inside of the door:

Love.  It.

Stay tuned for a full disclosure of the rest of our spring porch mini-makeover.

Scarecrow Hawk Deterrent

I have to say, for the record, that every time I go out into the yard, this thing gives me a start.  The dogs spent fifteen minutes barking at her when I first put her out.  The chickens?  They couldn’t care less.

But the lady-scarecrow seems to be doing her job quite nicely; since she has been in the yard, the neighborhood hawks have not.  Coincidence?  Maybe.  But I like to think my well-dressed friend has something to do with it.

We’ve had our flock for about a year now, and in that time, there have been a couple of isolated scares that mainly consist of the girls taking successful cover, and me running and screaming like a psychopath through the yard to spook those crafty hawks off.  But then, all of a sudden, about a month ago, the attempts began to happen frequently–almost once a day.

That’s when I saw this:

The view from our ‘chicken yard’ of our neighbor’s big tree.

Don’t see it?  Let’s look closer:

Well, looky-there.  Those hawks went and built themselves a little penthouse with a view.  Of my chickens.  That dark mass in the tree is a big, fat hawk’s nest.  *&#$*%&!!!!

Immediately, I went online and started researching how I might be able to thwart their efforts without bringing harm to them or to my chickens (hawks are federally protected animals and killing or even hurting them comes with a hefty, hefty fine, at the very least).  I have always admired the red-tailed hawks around here–I find them to be incredible birds and wouldn’t ever dream of harming one–I just wish they’d take their incredible somewhere else at the moment.  So that’s what I was after in my research: hawk deterrent….come on, internet!

The best, most reliable deterrent I found, of course, was to completely pen in your chickens.  This is a no-brainer, and in an ideal world, I would have a big, spacious, fully-enclosed, state-of-the-art free-range yard for my girls, but as I live in the suburbs, I am not allowed to build this sort of structure, and I am not willing to keep them cooped up in a tiny run.  So that’s out.  Beyond the no free-ranging option, the internet was rife with suggestions about small modifications you can make to your chicken yard that may, or may not help deter aerial predators; among these are things like setting out an owl statue (as birds of prey are territorial and will often steer clear of another bird’s property), putting out flags or banners in the chicken’s area that will flap in the breeze, stretching string across the chicken yard with streamers attached (though I feel like this poses a threat to any hawk that gets bold enough to still attack–it seems likely that it could get tangled in string or wire that is implemented like this), and I even read one account of someone having success hanging a disco ball in the chicken yard.  I’m not going to lie, I heavily considered the disco ball.  I might still put up a disco ball.  I think the question is, why wouldn’t I put up a disco ball in my yard???

Ultimately, I found many accounts of scarecrows working.  Theoretically, hawks won’t attack with a person standing in the yard (of course, there are exceptions to this rule, always), in fact, there has never been an attempted chicken-murder while I was in the yard–it always happens when I am inside at my computer (probably on Facebook), and when I hear the chicken alarm call, I go tearing outside usually just in time to see the hawk flying away empty-taloned.  I like to think that my presence in the yard helps.  So the theory is that if you make a scarecrow, and move it around every couple of days in the yard, the hawks will believe it to be a real person.  This was definitely worth a try, in my book.  It would be inexpensive, quick, and hey, it sounded fairly logical.  Game on.

I decided, ultimately, that I would use a mop as the backbone of my scarecrow.  Why?  Because, digging way back into the depths of my childhood memories, I vividly recall the decorative scarecrows my mom used to make at Halloween–always a Mr. & Mrs. Scarecrow, and the Mrs. always had mop hair.  Little did she know it, but my mom had her finger on the pulse of cutting-edge scarecrow-building.

I attached the mop to two 4 foot garden-variety garden stakes.  The first was attached lengthwise, to give the scarecrow appropriate height, and also to have a ‘stake’ end to be able to drive into the ground.  I attached it with two pre-drilled screws along the length of the mop handle.  The second stake would be attached perpendicular to the mop handle, to act as arms.  It was secured with one pre-drilled screw right into the center.  To keep the ‘arms’ from pivoting too much, I then secured the intersection with tightly-wrapped wire:

Next, I took some plastic sheeting (leftover spray-paint tarp) and bunched it up and stapled it to the mop handle in such a way that it would give her a bit of shape–I knew I was going to put her in a dress, so she needed to ‘fill it out’ up top, and then have a bit of petticoat action going on below.  I then arranged her ‘hair’ into two ponytails, securing them with twine.  Finally, it was time to dress her; I selected an old dress, button-up shirt, hat, gloves, and neckerchief.  I stapled the shirt and gloves into place, but everything else seemed to stay put well-enough to leave alone.

This is when I decided that she needed some accessories….I planted a little red hanging bucket with petunias and moss and stapled this to her hand, and at the same moment, decided I wanted her to be holding a bit of her skirt (I like that she looks like she’s dancing, but really, this is purely scientific–the skirt billows more in the breeze like this–more predator-spooking action!).  And finally, I felt like she needed some sparkle (again, to deter hawks), so yes, I gave her some earrings.  What.

The girls approve of my accessory choices.

Is this a fool-proof predator-deterrent method?  Probably not.  But scarecrows have been implemented by farmers to spook birds for thousands of years.  So I’m giving it a go.  As I stated before, it could just be coincidence, but I have not seen a single hawk since putting the lady-scarecrow out.  I move her a bit, every morning when I go to let the girls out (as allegedly, if you leave it in one place, the hawks will get used to it and no longer see it as a threat).

At the very, very least, I get a good laugh from it every time the Texan goes into the yard and has a heart attack because the creepy thing has moved again.  Good times.

Eggshell Peony Easter Wreath

As part of the decor for our upcoming Easter party, I created this sweet little wreath.  It sticks nicely to our ‘rustic with a bit of glitter’ decor theme for the party; a natural twig craft store wreath is a great backdrop for a touch of golden sparkle, don’t you think?

The egg flowers are the only tricky thing about this, but they are actually pretty forgiving to make.

Start with your raw eggs (I wanted five blossoms so I did five eggs), and, using a butter knife, crack them anywhere from about halfway to three quarters of the way up to the pointy end (depending on how tall you want your ‘blossom’, I actually cracked each of my five at different points on the egg–some shorter, some taller.)  Use a knife because you want a controlled crack.

Separate the two ‘halves’ of the eggshell, and catch your egg guts….breakfast!!

It isn’t going to be a perfect, clean break–there is going to be some shattering….don’t worry.  Use the bigger, lower half of the eggshell as the center of your blossom, but save the smaller, upper part to use later on as a petal.

Carefully snap bits of the raw edge of the ‘blossom center’ to shape it and give it sort of an irregular edge (this also allows you to remove some of the shattered pieces and clean it up a bit).  Leave as much of the inner membrane of the egg in tact–this helps strengthen it.  If your shell breaks a bit, don’t worry about it too much.  As long as that inner membrane is still there, it will still work, and the paint will help hold it all together.  As for the ‘tops’ (the pointy ends of the egg), break them in halves and thirds to make some various sized ‘petals’.

Rinse all eggshell pieces and let them dry.

Now, pick your paint colors.  I wanted a peachy pink, and I decided to paint the interior sides of the shells the fully saturated color, while watering down the same color to paint the exterior of the shells.  This gave it a streaky, water-colored look that I found rather pleasing.

Let all bits and pieces thoroughly dry, and then warm up your glue gun.  Choose your center piece and decide how many ‘petals’ you want it to have (two of my blossoms I left petal-less to simulate buds), and then select 3-5 petals for each blossom.  Carefully glue them on one at a time, adhering one tip of the petal to the bottom side of the center eggshell; you’ll have to really gob the glue on there to get the petals to sit at an ‘open’ angle, which requires you to hold it still until the glue is completely set.  It’s pretty easy to hold it still in one hand and navigate through Facebook with the other while you’re waiting.  Trust me.

When you’ve got enough petals on, and they have set completely, glue in your center pom-pom.  I selected these yellow/gold craft store pom-poms because they have little sparkly bits, and the yellow ones looked like pretty decent peony centers.  Also, they kind of remind me of little seed pods or something, so I integrated them into the rest of the wreath. But for now, just glue one into the center of the flower.

Next, I hot-glued the peony blossoms where I wanted them on the wreath form–again, over-glue.  Really get them good and stuck.  I then embellished the wreath with some craft store leaves that I had lightly dusted with gold spray paint, as well as more of the pom-poms in various sizes.

The peachy-pink of the flowers looks especially chipper against the orange of the Farmhouse front door!

That’s it!  Happy Easter everyone!

Trying Natural Egg Dyeing

I’ve been lusting after the gorgeous colors of naturally-dyed Easter eggs for quite some time now; there is something poetically lovely about the gentle colors that result from vegetables and spices.  I must admit, however, that I was overwhelmed when I first started studying recipes.  There are many, many different methods, so I decided to sample a little from here, a little from there.  Primarily, I relied on the recipes from Lakewinds.com, as well as those found at wholefoodsmarket.com.  But, I am a self-professed fiddler, so I did not leave well enough alone.

Before we begin, a few notes….a lot of recipes out there seem to call for letting these mixtures sit and marinate overnight (most times in the fridge) before you even do any egg dyeing.  I didn’t do this.  I’m impatient.  But I can see how this might be a good thing, especially if you plan to do this project with kids–the prep process is tiiiiiiiiiiiiime consuming–not gonna lie.  Let those mixtures get super-saturated.  Can’t hurt.  Another note: some recipes call for straining the solids out of the mixture before dyeing.  I also didn’t do this….this may yield more uniform coloring, with less ‘marbling’ (when there are material particles in there with your eggs, they tend to stick and create a marbled look–which is kind of cool….depends on what you’re going for).  Finally, it seems to me that any vegetable materials seem to work best the more finely they are minced–I ultimately decided to pulverize everything in my mini-Cuiz (food processor).  The more you beat the vegetable up, the more juice comes out.  It’s science.

Notes complete.

Behold the chaos:

Don’t think for one second that I didn’t start fantasizing about cocktails….but there’s something inherently unappetizing about cabbage, beets, turmeric, vinegar, and eggs….what am I saying? I’m sure there’s a cocktail to be found in there, somewhere.

Reds, Pinks, Magentas, Maroons, and Everything in Between:

Beets!  I saw many variations on beet quantity, but after much trial and error, I arrived at the following concoction:

6 tablespoons finely chopped beets

2 cups boiling water

2 teaspoons white vinegar

Toss the beet pulp into your container, pour the boiling water over, add your vinegar, and give it a good stir.  Let it cool off before putting your eggs in.  I know it completely defies logic, but the longer you leave the egg in the mixture, the deeper the color.  Your mind is blown, right?  The beet coloring gets to work pretty quick; you don’t have to leave the egg in long for a lovely, soft pink color.  Also, fyi, brown eggs look pretty great with this coloring on them (the two darkest eggs above are brown eggs, the rest white).

Buttery Yellows:

Turmeric!  This one is so easy and quick and effective.  That stuff stains fast–mind your spills!

3-4 teaspoons turmeric powder

2 cups boiling water

2 teaspoons white vinegar

Mix it all up, and once it’s cooled a bit, drop in your eggs.  If you want light yellow, take your egg out almost immediately.

Shades of Blue:

-To achieve a robin’s egg blue, you use red cabbage.  This is one that takes a long time to get a good saturated color–many recipes recommend letting the eggs steep overnight in the mixture.  I let mine sit for for a few hours and that seemed to achieve a pretty good result (in photo, top left two eggs, and bottom right).

8 tablespoons finely chopped red cabbage

2 cups boiling water

2 teaspoons white vinegar

Same process as usual: combine all ingredients in container, let cool, drop in your eggs and wait until desired color level is achieved.

-To a get the greyish-blue (and sometimes a bit brownish) color, you use blueberries.  This is one that I fiddled around with the size of the chop on–at first, I just smashed the berries each between my fingers, and this resulted in the top right and bottom center eggs–it gave a little brown marble to the eggs that I kind of dig.  On a second batch, I finely processed the berries, and this resulted in the upper center and lower left eggs.  If I had strained either mixture, there probably would have been no speckling or marbling of the colors.

1 cup fresh blueberries (either mashed or finely chopped)

1 cup boiling water

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Mix it all up as per usual, and drop in your eggs when the mixture has cooled.

Orangey, Peachy, Coppery Tones:

Yellow onion skins.

2 generous handfuls of dry onion skins

2 cups water

2 teaspoons white vinegar

The method’s a little different on this one.  In a saucepan, combine the water and the skins until it boils, turn the heat way down and simmer for 20 minutes.  Strain the skins and add the vinegar to the leftover dye mix–once cool, drop in your eggs until desire color is achieved.  The dark coppery egg is one that I completely forgot about and left in for several hours.

Various Shades of Green:

Green is the tricky one.  I fiddled a lot with this and have several different methods to achieve various shades.

-Red onion skins: prepare this mixture exactly like the yellow skins were prepared.  This resulted in the right two eggs in the photo….kind of perhaps, a khaki-ish green?  I would barely classify this as green, but hey, still kind of a cool color.

-Spinach: This resulted in the very, very pale celadon egg in the center of the photo.

1 cup of fresh spinach leaves, finely minced

2 cups boiling water

2 teaspoons white vinegar

Mix all ingredients together, let cool, then submerge egg.  The color takes a long time to come up….be patient.

-Red cabbage and turmeric: mix up your dye as you would for the robin’s egg blue, but add a 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric powder to it.  This method resulted in the top left three eggs: a very vibrant yellow-green.  This look can also be achieved by taking an already dyed robins-egg-blue egg and dropping it in a turmeric dye mixture.

-Blueberry egg dropped in turmeric mixture: this is the bottom, lone egg in the photo.  I thought this was the most ‘green’ of the bunch.  This was achieved by taking an already dyed blueberry egg and dropping it briefly into a turmeric dye mixture.

Lavender/purple was a big flop for me.  I tried the grape juice method mentioned in the Lakewinds.com recipe list and found it to be lacking.  What was also lacking?  Time for me to continue experimenting.  I feel that taking a beet-dyed pink or red egg and dropping it in the red cabbage or blueberry dyes (or visa versa) would produce a pretty good purple.  But I didn’t get around to this, so it’s just my best guess.

All in all, it was pretty fun to do, and the result wasn’t too shabby.  I am, by no means, a professional egg-dyer, so take my methods with a grain of salt.  There is definitely some recipe tweaking left to do!

The house reeks of cabbage and turmeric, but I just can’t complain.

Come on….those are some pretty eggs right there!!!

Chalkboard Plant Markers from Old Gift Cards

Do you ever feel bad about throwing away your old gift cards and club cards?  Is it just me?  Well, so, I didn’t chuck them.  I kept them like a total nutjob because I thought, “These could be used for something.”

I’m a crazy person.

I finally figured out what that something is!  With a coat of chalkboard spray paint, they are magically transformed into mini chalkboards.  Go figure.  Re-purpose a plastic fork (also hit with chalkboard paint to match) as a holder, and use a white grease pencil (more weatherproof than chalk) to mark and decorate it.  It’s that simple.

My trusty grease pencil. Laying on a rug that is shamefully full of dog hair. Look away!

Stick that fork in the ground– it’s done!

Bathtubs and Sugar Scrubs

She was running a couple of weeks behind schedule, but the Birthday Fairy got it done.  She Got.  It.  Done.  After five excruciating years, I finally have my bathtub.

Let’s take a little stroll down memory lane, shall we?

How the master bathroom looked when we bought our house. I don’t even want to talk about what we found in the cabinets.  So I won’t.

The sink side of the master bath after our renovation.

Sadly, the space for the intended tub sat vacant for a couple of years….taunting me mercilessly with what should be.

And finally….FINALLY!  Behold:

My long-awaited, much anticipated, official favorite spot in the house.

Due to some pretty tight space constraints, we wound up choosing a tub that is pretty modern in design (despite heavily considering a clawfoot, and at one point even a metal horse trough), but with that antique-looking faucet, I think it works pretty seamlessly in our ‘modern farmhouse’.  It’s a good, deep soak….existentially deep, which makes up for the fact that it isn’t the longest tub in the world (ah, tiny bathrooms).  But, yes….yes, I think I will keep it.

So in honor of our newest, most cherished family member, I decided to post a lovely little recipe for a homemade sugar scrub (something I have been dying to make, but refused, like a petulant child, to make it to use in the shower).

With so much grapefruit in the yard right now, you know it had to be a bit grapefruit-y:

Fresh Grapefruit, Coconut, Rose Scrub:

–1 cup superfine sugar

–2 tablespoons heated virgin organic coconut oil

–1 tablespoon rose water

–1/4 teaspoon fresh grapefruit zest

Start by zesting your grapefruit.  The ones from my tree are the yellow variety (Oro Blanco), but this would work just as well with Ruby Red or something good and pink.

Next, you want to scoop your hardened coconut oil into a microwave-safe dish.

Microwave it for approx. 30 seconds or until it looks like this:

Now mix your sugar, oil, rosewater, and zest all into a paste–you want it moist, but not soupy.  If it’s too moist, add a bit more sugar to dry it up.  It should look a little something like this:

Find a pretty jar to put it in and fill-er-up.

FYI: not really sure how long this might be good for because of the grapefruit peel. Use your best judgment. If it smells funny or turns wonky colors, don’t use it. To make a version of this that probably lasts a bit longer, substitute a drop or two of grapefruit essential oil in place of the grapefruit zest.

Rub-a-dub-scrub!

Okay, so as I was making this….I got to thinking….this would make a really interesting cocktail.  So, yes….this happened:

See the recipe here.

So I ask you this?  How bad is it, on a scale from one to awesome, that I was mixing cocktails at 10:30 am on a Tuesday?  Just wondering.

An Early Start to Seed-Starting

Shame on me if I don’t seize the opportunities that this temperate Southern California climate bestows.  I know it’s probably painful for some of my frozen-over friends out there watching me start my seeds (outside!) right now, but–how much worse would I be if I wasn’t taking advantage of this???  It’s okay if you need to look away….I understand.

I am always looking for new ways to go about my seed-planting; in previous years I have started them in egg cartons, pots, commercial starting trays, straight in the ground (gasp!), and multiple other methods that have had varying degrees of success and failure.  Lots and lots of failure, people.  This year, the experimentation continues….with toilet paper rolls (in addition to a few traditional seed-starting trays leftover from last year).  Ooooh yeah!  I get real excited when I can re-use something (especially ‘trash’) that I already have.  Especially because, allegedly, you can just pop these suckers into the ground whole, and they will biodegrade.  So, like a hyper chipmunk, I have been scavenging and hoarding TP and paper towel rolls beyond the bounds of proper decorum.  But that is only part of the experiment.  The other?  Starting my seeds in large plastic bins.  I first saw this idea here, and knew immediately that I must have it for my very own!  Not only do the bins help protect the fragile little babies, they make it easy to move all those itty-bitty pots around to your heart’s content.  Too cold at night?  Bring them inside.  Not enough sun?  Move them to a warm spot.  BRILLIANT.

I may have gone a little bit overboard at Baker Creek Heirlooms when I ordered, and those crafty, wonderful people throw in freebies, too:

I make no apologies!!!

Because of this raging mass of seeds, it is extremely important to me to be able to mark them accurately, once they go into their ‘pots’.  But the markers?  They must be cute.  See how I made these weather-resistant seed flags over here.

And so begins this year’s experimentation….(and let it be stated for the record that I’m not claiming that any of this is gonna work!  Let’s find out, shall we?)

After purchasing several clear-ish Rubbermaid storage bins from the HD (Home Depot, that is), it was time to get crackin’.

Miniature greenhouse? Who’da thunk it?

A single bag of my foraged rolls.

The toilet paper roll prep was fairly simple.  Typically, I see this done where you fold the bottom of the roll up to create a little pot, but I wanted to make my rolls go as far as possible, and it seems like that wastes a perfectly good half of a roll.  So I cut mine in half (or in 5ths for the paper towel rolls) instead.

But how then, does one keep the soil inside the roll?  With a tiny square of paper towel, that’s how (1/16th of a single piece of paper towel, to be exact).  Cut (or rip, as I did) your small piece of paper towel and stuff it inside the TP roll so that it pretty neatly fills the inside of the ‘pot’.

With two fingers push the paper towel fragment down to the bottom of the TP roll.

With the bottom of the ‘pot’ sitting on a flat surface, fill it with seed-starting mix and tamp it gently down.

Now plant your seed of choice according to the seed-packet instructions, and line ‘em up military-style inside your bins.  Be sure to mark them as you go!

With a working combination of toilet paper rolls, seed trays, and storage bins…. I haven’t even come close to planting all the varieties I bought.  ARG!!  Back to Home Depot with me.

Weather-Resistant Seed Flags

Here we go again with my pennant/bunting obsession in life!  These are an off-shoot of last year’s Weatherproof Seed Banners made from duct tape.  Don’t get me wrong, those worked great, and there is an endless supply of super cute designer duct tapes available these days–but this year, I decided I wanted something a little less duct-tapey.

The supplies are simple: bamboo skewers, clear packing tape, and some sort of craft paper (I used Martha Stewart’s rolls of craft paper–I have no idea what this stuff is for, Martha–but I am using it for seed flags, a-thankya-very-much).

I love Martha’s craft paper rolls for this because they are kind of water-resistant to begin with, are printed on both sides, and are about the right width for this specific project. But probably any other scrap-booking or craft paper would work just as well.

Start by cutting your chosen paper to whatever length you want your little flag to be–I went with about 1-1/2 to 2 inches long.  Write whatever info you want on it with a permanent marker.

Next, pull out a length of clear packing tape that is slightly longer than your piece of craft paper, and apply it to the front side of the paper making sure to leave about a quarter of an inch overhang on the left side (there will be overhang on ALL sides, but the left side is the important one).

Next, apply another length of tape to the back side, justifying it slightly so that that left overhang of the front piece of tape still has it’s sticky side exposed.  This effectively laminates the piece of craft paper, but leaves a flap of sticky tape on the end that will be affixed to the bamboo ‘flagpole’.  Now trim all edges of the excess tape except that over-hanging left side.

Trim all excess tape and swallowtail the ends by cutting into the craft paper.

Now, take that exposed sticky tab and wrap it around your bamboo skewer and back against the backside of the flag.  For extra insurance, you can cut another little length of tape and just stick it along the backside to hold the flap in place.  Or, if this is all too complicated (and I didn’t articulate well!), don’t leave a left-side flap and just use a separate piece of tape to tape the flag to the pole.  It all looks pretty much the same!

Repeat with multiple colors and patterns of craft paper.

Allow your chickens to check your work.

***Millie Approved***

Mark away!

I must say that I doubt these things would stand up to really serious weather–but they do hold up quite nicely to the gentle watering that goes along with starting seeds.  And they’d make great cocktail stirrers, for the record.  Cheers!