Buried Treasure

 

*there is some rust on this super cool folding music dept desk but a little sanding and oiling of the wood and some touching up of the paint will do wonders!

 *omg, i got this vintage mid-mod stool for $6! i would have paid that just for the legs with the brass caps. i'm debating on possibly recovering but the brown is actually better in person than in the pic.

 *i love this little card catalog turned side table with the hairpin legs. i have great plans for this one - painting the wood a high gloss white, giving the brass pulls a good scrubbing but leaving them just as they are and painting the legs white as well but maybe dipping the bottom 1/4 of the legs in a cherry red paint or kelly green. rad.

 *this was the first vintage piece i bought {i think}. it's in great condition with the original glass sliding doors. definitely needs some light sanding, a good cleaning and polishing but maybe a vintage wallpaper for the back panel behind the shelves. hhhmmm...

*a vintage cosco cart on casters - the paint is actually in really good condition except for the rust spot you can see on the bottom shelf but I'm sure it will likely be covered with something - maybe a cool homemade band-aid.


In the past few months, I've been collecting {ok shopping} for vintage pieces that will one day make their new home in the mid-century modern house that I'm patiently searching for. I must find just the right mid-mod to evoke the feeling of cool, vintage, clean, homey, and modern {what a list}, but it's all the things that I think of and want to feel in my new old home.

Anyway, after picking up a few more pieces this weekend around the shabby-chic shops in town, I thought I'd post a listing of my finds. Most are in great shape but certainly need some cleaning and a little work but they are diamonds in the rough for sure. I love digging around for these old finds...they just don't make 'em like this anymore!

images courtesy of me

528 Square Feet...What Was I Thinking?

It was plowing day today - oh what fun! It finally dried up enough here to plow the garden without having a mud cake mess. Nothing like having a good ol' country boy driving a John Deere tractor around your yard tilling half way to China. I love having a garden space where you are forced to wear tall boots to work in it...step into the garden and dirt comes 9" up your leg {I LOVE DIRT}! After the plowing was done, I had the wonderful privilege of hauling 320 lbs. of bagged compost to be spread in the garden along with a good helping of cow manure and chicken poop...it was smelling RIPE in the backyard today!

As you can see in the pic, there is one lonely garlic bed hoping to have some friends soon. I did actually threaten the good ol' country boy to not hit the garlic bed...I've been nursing that garlic for months now and so far so good! I went to {beautiful} Reynolda Gardens yesterday to check on their garlic to do a little comparison. I fully expected to be so disappointed and unworthy when comparing their professionally grown garlic to mine but luck was on my side and looked very similar in size, color, leaves, etc. So all is well in my garlic world.

Anyway, more work on the 528 square foot garden tomorrow - corn and potatoes going in. Earlier this week, Coco planted a small strawberry patch and when I checked on it this morning, a pesky ground squirrel had dug under one of the plants so I had to do a bit of repair work - if it happens again, I guess I'll have to sleep out there for the next two months to make sure those little varmints don't tear it up! Also, we are waiting on pole beans and lima beans to sprout - so exciting! Yep, I'm not joking around here...my goal is to grow 90% of the produce my family eats. On second thought - what was I thinking?!?

P.S. On the agenda for the next several months - weeding, weeding, weeding, and more weeding. Like every day...for real.

image courtesy of me

Let Go of My Egg-o

Hope everyone had a great Easter! After cooking for two days, all of my family got together and we stuffed ourselves like it was our last meal. Mistake. It was so good - a regular ol' southern feast. The weather was kind of yucky today, still wet from the overnight rain so the annual Easter egg hunt took place indoors. The rules were...there were no rules...climb on the furniture, teeter on your tip toes to reach those precious eggs up in the light fixtures, swing from the chandeliers, practice the infamous "figure four" on your siblings, sell your first born...what ever you have to do to find the most eggs. It's all in the spirit of the holiday right...duh.

Anyway, looking forward to an extra long workout at the gym tomorrow {desperately needed, I'm just sayin'}.

image courtesy of me

Gougères Délicieux...aka Cheese Puffs

My copy of The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo arrived and I made the most delectable and scrumptious recipe today. Gougères...these little cheese puffs are as light as a cloud, and wash down so smoothly with a cold pinot grigio {ok a bottle, a bottle of pinot - there, I said it}. I {heart, heart, heart} this book so much - from the photography right down to the soft white stock of the book - il est magnifique!

Want a little mid-day getaway? Check out Rachel's blog for some lovely inspiration...

image courtesy of me

Just For Me?

Coco picked a perfect bunch of daffodils for me today.  Left a nice bare spot in the flower patch but that's beside the point!  I'm so glad to see flowers starting to bloom {smile} and warm weather is just around the corner {smile even bigger}.  Thanks Coco, these posies made my day!

image courtesy of me

I {Heart} DIY

FINALLY!!!...Thank you Lord for letting me finish these projects, AND, they actually aren't half bad. First off, my weapon of a cutting board - this thing has more glue than all of the elementary schools in town put together. It's beautiful, delightfully heavy, and the contrast of the walnut and purple heart woods came out better than I thought. I cannot wait to take out all my vegetable aggressions on this thing. And, it can always double as a self-defense device in a pinch.

Lastly, my little 50's table with hair pin legs - oh, how I love you. I didn't love you when I was making you...um, and cussing at you...but the end result, sweet! Definitely a labor of love as many times as I had to redo cuts on this table but worth it...I guess. OK, yes...worth it!

images courtesy of me

Chop House

So it's been awhile since I've posted about my woodworking journey.  My infamous 50's side table is basically done but I'm waiting on an unusually warm day to put the poly on outside so that I don't kill myself with the fumes inside {then I wouldn't get to enjoy my table so what would be the point}? Finally, I will be able to put the lovely hairpin legs on and {voila!} - it will be done - then I'll post the pic...stay tuned.

My current project is the lovely 2" thick end-grain cutting board crafted from walnut and purpleheart.  My hearing has almost returned from running these hard-a*# boards through the planer - I think everyone in a 30 mile radius heard it.  What?  Did you say something?

I've almost plucked all the splinters from my fingers too - so basically, I can't hear and my fingers are polka-dotted-red from digging around with a needle.  This is so much fun.  Anyway, next class, I'm looking forward to gluing more than 20 strips of the wood and clamping it to form the actual cutting board.  So, let's recap - I can't hear, I have needle marks on my fingers from splinters, and it's likely I will have to peel a gallon of glue off my hands and arms, of course the skin will come with it.  Did I mention this is really, super, some kind of big fun?

It's going to be a beaut when I'm done - I may not be, but my cutting board will...

image courtesy of me

J'aime la petite cuisine de Paris

My new obsession...no not really...well actually yes, I think I may stalk her - Rachel Khoo from The Little Paris Kitchen. Rachel is a professionally trained chef as well as a writer and lives in a teeny tiny flat in Paris. Did I mention she always wears crimson lipstick {I heart her}.

By chance, I caught her show on the Cooking Channel {by way of BBC, where all good shows start} and she's been my DVR's favorite ever since! Mademoiselle Khoo brings quirky English mannerisms right through the tv as garlic is flying around the kitchen and she's crawling on the floor to access her one and only kitchen outlet. Her kitchen is completely amazing to me because it's the size of her arm span - she can pretty much touch wall-to-wall. It's outfitted with a portable 2-burner gas hotplate, a small toaster/convection oven and a sweet little icebox...and let me not forget her vintage white enamel bowl that she simply cannot do without. Parisian magic comes out of that pint size kitchen - it's really unbelievable! Her recipes are all classically French {Julia Child would be so proud} but with a Rachel Khoo twist - AND - they are super easy with few ingredients.

The Little Paris Kitchen cookbook hits shelves in the U.S. at the beginning of February - yes, I've pre-ordered mine and will be waiting impatiently by the door for the mailman on its scheduled delivery date - as a matter of fact, I may go down to the end of my street and wait at my neighbor's house because the mailman starts his route there. Good idea...weird...but good.

Est-ce que tout bruit n'améliore pas en français de toute façon ?

video courtesy of You Tube; Choquettes - The Little Paris Kitchen

Putting the Fun in Fungi

Nothing says party like fugi.  I think this is so FUN {get it?...ok, I'm making myself sick with my stupid puns}.  Anyway, Williams-Sonoma {heart them} sells these logs that are inoculated {love saying that...inoculated} with shitake mushroom spores.  So you can order this log from them for under $30, soak it in water and you can harvest these delicious mushrooms every two to three months, for two to three YEARS {yes people, YEARS}!  It's the gift that keeps on giving.

Do you think they had this in the 60's and 70's....party!  I'm just sayin...

image courtesy of Williams-Sonoma

Doin' A Little Jig

After many weeks, tears, scrapes, bad words and therapy my 50's side table is coming along. This picture is actually from a few weeks ago but it's still relevant being that I've been cutting box joints, or shall I say, fixing the box joints for weeks on the table saw. There is now a light at the end of the tunnel because I'm ready to sand and glue next week...hallelujah! Whoever said woodworking is relaxing is dead wrong...I'm just sayin...

image courtesy of me