Thrift Store Refurbished Table

One of my favorite things to do is to find old furniture and turn it into something new and useable. This table is not MY thrift store find but rather, our Aunt Judy who found it years ago. She took the time to mend one of the broken sides and router the edge to match. It turned out wonderful! She used it in her home for a while then passed it on to my mother-in-law who had it in her home for years as well.

I was over at Mom's around Thanksgiving and saw that the table was set aside with some other things to be donated. I asked if I could have it, and she happily agreed.

I've been looking for something...a bench, a table, a chair to set at the end of our bed. I have this beautiful white embroidered coverlet that I use on our bed with matching white pillows. When we un-make the bed each night to sleep, I have no other place but the floor to store these pillows till the next morning, which is fine, the carpet in our room is clean enough. The problem comes with the dog. Oliver loves to sleep in our room at night and he's taken quite an interest in the soft over-sized pillows.

They are way too nice, and too WHITE to be used as a dog bed!!! So each night it's this ten minute ordeal of moving all the things off our dresser tops like frames, decorative boxes and miscellaneous items to make room so I can store the pillows off the floor.  Then in the morning when I make the bed, I have to re-arrange all the nick-knacks back to their original place...it's annoying. 

This is why I wanted the piece of furniture at the end of the bed. Somewhere where I would have a designated place for the pillows each night.

The light golden stain was in really nice condition, but unfortunately didn't match our white bed. So we sanded it down and gave it two coats of white paint. I love the way it turned out! It's pretty and functional!

I have to say though, there is someone who's not a fan of the new table....Oliver. Each night he puts his head up on the table and smells at the pillows like "Hey, how about putting these on the floor for me?" ...Time to get a dog bed for our room I think.

Starting Seeds Indoors with Grow Lights

Last week Zach and I set up a system in our sun-room to start many of our vegetable plants. For years I've started seeds in a sunny window, only to have them stem out, pale and leggy, straining for sun light before they even get their second set of leaves. Even if these plants do make it until the frost free date, they often die as they get older because the weight of the mature plant is too much for the leggy beginning to support. Because of this, I've resorted to buying already started plants at nurseries, or planted the seeds that I could, directly in the garden. The problem with this, is that you are limited to grow the varieties that the Nursery decides to sell that year.

This year, we decided that we really wanted to grow some heirloom varieties, in particular tomatoes! Unfortunately, when purchasing nursery started plants you get the basics. Early Girl, Celebrity, and Beefsteak. Occasionally I'll find an heirloom variety or two. Last year I found a Black Cherry Tomato and some Cherokee Purple, but pickings are far and few between, and with our Michigan growing season being what it is, tomatoes are one of those that you really need to start indoors.

So we looked into green houses, and unfortunately, even the inexpensive models were way out of our price range right now. SO the next step was indoor grow lights.

Hydroponic stores are sprouting up all over the place these day. (Ha! No pun intended, ok, maybe it was a little intended) You can get some really cool systems with lights that revolve on a pulley-like track. There are fancy stands and growing medium that make this seem like a gardener's dream! However, once again was the price tag. For the amount of plants that we wanted to start, a full set up would have cost hundreds of dollars! It was so much that it approached the price of some of the inexpensive greenhouses I'd looked into, and I'd rather have a green house.

We came up with this system and it only cost us $60. Much of that price is due to the fact that we had a lot of the materials already. But I think with some creativity, this system could be adapted into a much cheaper solution.

We used two metal shelving units that we had down our basement to hold Christmas stuff, and set them up side by side. This gives us 3 shelves with 3 flats of plants fitting across each shelf, so a total of 9 flats of plants to grow under the lights. We could do more if we were diligent about rotating. We had some fluorescent light fixtures in the barn from my dad's garage, and they span the width of the two shelve unit. We wired the fixtures to the bottom of the shelves, so they would hang over the flats of plants we started. The $60 comes in the price of the grow light bulbs. We found them for $19 each at Bordines Nursery, (Which I think is a Michigan company) and we bought 3. Each fixture has one grow light tube, and one regular fluorescent bulb, which will also emit light, favorable to plants. The brand is Agro Sun, they're cheaper here on Amazon, but I had a gift certificate to Bordines, so it worked out better for us. 

It's working great so far. Our newly planted seeds haven't sprouted yet, but I had some radishes started in a pot months ago and they were so leggy that the area where the radish is supposed to grow (at the dirt line) was more of a long red tube than a plumb bulb. Since we've placed them under the lights the plants have bushed out and are lush green and healthier. Same goes with some herbs I had growing in the kitchen. I'll keep you posted when our heirlooms start sprouting.

Has anyone ever tried those heat pads that are supposed to encourage germination? We've been trying to squeeze out the last drops of propane for the year, and save on our energy bills by keeping the house cool. I think that might be why the seeds are a little slow to start. Let me know if you've tried them and if they've worked well.


(even less if you have any Amazon promo codes)

Sewing Project, Flat Sheet Curtians

I've been on a mission to find curtains for our bedroom. Just plain, white, cotton, curtains. I didn't think this would be a hard venture, but I was wrong, so very wrong. White sheers, now that's something that's easy to find. White with polka dots, stripes, flowers, frogs, miscellaneous embroidered things...everywhere. There's also a bumper crop of curtains that come in every color under the sun except white.

I did finally find some at some of the higher end stores, but I refused to pay sometimes over $80 a panel for plain, white, curtains. For our three bedroom windows that would be $480 not including rods etc.

So I tried the fabric stores. It was still going to be pricey with the amount of fabric I would need, even with a half off coupon. I also wasn't thrilled with the weight of the cotton they had to offer. I considered linen, but again, no white.

Then I found an awesome deal! I found twin, white, flat sheets on sale for $5! The material was horribly stiff for sheets, heavy and kinda rough, I felt bad for the person who had to cuddle up with this material every night in their bed. But the stiffness was great for sheet material. The great thing was that half the work was already done. I used the large hem at the bottom. Hung the curtain rods and measured to the floor molding. To this measurement I added 1 1/2 inches for the rod pocket, and an additional 5 1/2 inches for the ruffle, I double this measurement to create the pocket that folded back on itself, adding 1 inch for the inside hem. I surged the end, folded at 8 inched and sewed straight across for each pocket. Voila, 1 curtain panel. I used one twin sheet for each panel, for a total cost of $30! There was enough material left over to make the pullbacks. I simply folded 8 1/2 inches of fabric in half surged the edge, turned them inside out and ironed them flat. Then I hemmed the ends and sewed a piece of green ribbon in a loop to slip onto the hooks. I starched the heck out of the finished curtains and ironed them crisp. Zach is going to forge us some decorative rods and matching hooks, so for now we have the inexpensive ones that work just fine.

Thrift Store Finds, Step Ladder Bath Stand

I found this old step ladder at a thrift store the other day. To be honest, I almost left it the way it was, I kinda liked the old rustic wood, with years of wear and tear. But somewhere in it's life someone had dripped hot pink paint all down the back, not exactly the shabby sheik I was looking for. 

So I painted it.

Making Recycled Candles

Materials Needed

• burned out candle stubs
• bowl and pot or double boiler
• stove
• wick
• scissors
• mold, store bought or a wax coated cardboard milk jug with small hole for wick to come out
• vegetable oil
• scented oil or wax tart
• concentrated wax coloring (optional)
• cookie sheet or shallow pan with sides
• skewer stick

Ever wonder what to do with all those stubs of wax left by candles that have burned down, or whose wicks are drowned and won't light anymore? A fairly easy project is to make recycled candles.

Tell your friends, family and neighbors to save their candle stubs if you don't have enough on hand, you can also purchase glycerin wax in the form of bricks or pearls at Jo-Anns to supplement what you already have.

Set up a double boiler on the stove. I use a oven safe glass bowl over a pot with about an inch of water. Set to medium heat and add your candle stubs. I try to keep the cinnamon type smells like pumpkin spice, apple cinnamon, etc. separate from the flowery type smells. You don't have to worry about removing the old wicks because all the candle "waste" will sink to the bottom of the bowl and you can skim the liquid wax off the top. Allow all the wax to melt through so that the color is consistent.

I always add a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil to the wax, this helps to minimize shrinking.

You can also add a few drops of scented oil or a scented wax tart. The Yankee tarts are so concentrated, that when added to the wax pot, they will scent several candles.

You can also use concentrated wax coloring to color the wax. I love the site Candlewic they have a great assortment of dyes, molds and other candle making supplies. Remember, like mixing paint, the original color of the candles will effect the overall color. I've added silver, gold or copper crayons and you get a cool metallic stripe.

While the wax is melting, prepare your mold. There are some really beautiful candle molds out there, but you don't have to purchase a store bought mold to make candles. A mold can be anything that will hold hot liquid. A wax coated paper milk jug works great. You can also re-fill old candle jars, mason jars, wine glasses, flower pots etc. The process is slightly different when using a mold that you're not going to extract the finished candle from, I will post about that in the future. Dixie cups make great votive candles. I've been making candles for a long time, and have acquired some store bought molds, that's what I will be using.

Cut your wick about 2 inches longer than the length of your candle mold. Press the wick through the hole, you can use the point of a skewer stick, leaving about 1/2 inch sticking out and tape closed with duct tape.

Draw the wick through the candle and lay over a skewer stick so it sits in the middle.

Set the whole thing in a pan with sides, so if your duct tape leaks it won't pour out all over your counter top.

Ladle the wax into your mold, saving some to fill the shrinkage, and cool completely.

As wax cools, it shrinks, so you will get an indent in the bottom of your candle.

 Trim the wick, re-heat your left over wax in the double boiler and top off the bottom of the candle. Cool again. When the candle is completely cool is should shrink away from the sides enough to slip out easily. For a milk carton or Dixie cup candle, just tear off the paper.  

Thrift Store Finds, Milk Glass Pots

Every winter I get cabin fever and purchase a few houseplants to "Spring" things up a bit. This year I had all the plants balancing on a small nightstand next to our bed, as it is the sunniest spot in the house. After a couple of night time accidents of half asleep adventures to the bathroom, kitchen etc. and knocking plants over in the process, Zach decided to build me a shelf against the sunny window. We had some scrap wood in the garage so he beveled the edge and cut out two wooden brackets. I painted it white. The shelf looked adorable, but now the plants looked somewhat pathetic in their ugly green plastic pots with bits of dirt and dead vegetation stuck to the sides. I thought about buying matching white pots to line the window sill, but after some shopping around I realized that for my little project it would be more than I wanted to spend. I decided to hit the thrift store. We have a brand new Salvation Army just up the street with all sorts of goodies. I found these beautiful candy dishes that look like milk glass for $1.50 each and one was half off! It was a good day at the thrift store.

Cottage Garden Bed

Zach and I gave our bed a fresh spring makeover. We started by sanding down the the stained finish. This gives the wood a tooth and holds the spray paint better. We wiped it down with a damp flannel cloth to collect any sanding dust. Then we gave it 2 coats of Rustoleum spray primer and 2 coats of semi gloss paint. Our new bed reminds me of a white picket fence.