A few weeks ago, the funniest thing happened while I was preparing to iron on a Saturday night.
I took a skirt off of it’s hanger and mindlessly hung it on a nearby doorknob. A little “clink” sounded when the hanger hit the door. Instantly, my mind was flooded with sweet sounds and memories.
I used to hear that “clink” sound a lot on Saturday night.
My mom would be quietly ironing in the corner of the family room closest to the laundry area. I hear the spritz of the spray starch, the poof of the steam, the fabric being readjusted on the board, and of course, the clink of the hanger either coming or going from the doorknob.
Everyone in general was spread out sort of doing their own thing.
My dad’s chair creaks in his office. He must have sat back to think for a minute about his Sunday school lesson. The chair creaks again as it’s returned to upright position; smooth dark fingers return to typing and clicking away.
I can hear my brother walking back and forth in the hallway, thinking out loud to no one in particular.
There are a number of sounds my sister might have been making. Practicing that offertory one more time, fussing in front of the closet, or moving positions on the couch while she devoured a book.
I really can’t for the life of me remember what I would have been doing. Certainly not paying attention to anyone around me.
I love a good challenge and had been so excited about this particular one… but gold?
Even though it took about forty-seven ideas and nineteen redirections, I’m really happy with what this project has added to my kitchen.
DIY Gilded Canisters (made out of plastic Folgers coffee cans).
I’ve been saving our Folgers coffee containers for months now and turning them into canisters for flour, sugar, etc. They’re perfect! They hold much more than regular canisters and easily fit any measuring cup.
My original idea sounded easy enough: paint three of the cans a vanilla color with gold lids, and make the flour can all gold. Then I wanted to stencil the words on because I love that look.
If only it had been that easy.
The cans covered fairly easy with regular paint, but the lids did not. (I used Martha Stewart’s all-purpose craft paint in gold for those and was not impressed! Smells terrible, high price, took six or seven coats and still doesn’t look covered to me.)
I could not get the stencil to work on the rounded cans and ended up free-handing with a q-tip and the wooden end of a very small paint brush.
Be warned: I am not a skilled DIY-er. And I also cannot handle being detailed and perfectionistic with crafts. They’re supposed to be fun and creative! Hey, using Scotch Blue to help my words be straight was about my limit.
Speaking of Scotch Blue, it began to peel the paint off… grrr. A young man at Michael’s assured me that any craft paint would work on the plastic. He said that if I spray paint it with high gloss afterwards that they would even go through the dishwasher. I seriously doubt this because, as already said, the Scotch Blue peeled some of the paint even after it was glossed. And no, I did not put these through the dishwasher yet because I didn’t want my whole project to wash away!
Honestly, don’t do these the way I did it!
It would have been much better to spray paint. I think.
And while I’m confessing… this project was way more for me than just “gilding something.” It involved semi-making and putting up a shelf; creating a background; stenciling; accessorizing… hopefully, I’ll post more on that next week.
However, I am so happy that I took this challenge.
A huge thank-you to Darlene from Fieldstone Hill Design for coming up with this awesome series.
Have you heard of it? You should check it out here. So fun!
Thanks so much for visiting! Here are some other fun diy’s I’ve been working on:
I started about two hours and fifteen minutes before I wanted to eat dinner. Everyone says it’s really hard to peel and chop. The girls sat across from me coloring on the small counter where they could still see what was happening. Thankfully, the ordeal kept them entertained the whole time.
Peeling wasn’t actually so hard; it took me twelve minutes. And I’m sure I didn’t use the right kind of knife.
Chopping? Took forty-five minutes. Again, not with a good knife or skilled knife-user. I could never get a big enough chunk off to really chop, so it was just a glorified peeling of the whole thing. I would see a little piece sticking out and cut that off. Turn it and find another place sticking out. It got faster as I went, but my first finger was completely numb by the time I was finished. (not recommended for pianists)
But the good news was, it cooked just fine in all of it’s odd shapes and non-chunkiness.
I added three chopped potatoes to the pot and covered it all in water.
After salting it generously, I let it boil for around thirty minutes. It was definitely tender.
So I drained it and threw a stick of butter in to let it melt. (When I say butter, I actually mean Blue Bonnet. Whatever kind of imitation butter that is.)
I warmed up a cup of half-and-half for a minute on 50% power in the microwave. Added that, more salt, pepper, and a little bacon grease.
Then I ate all the bacon that I had cooked as a reward for all my hard work.
After that, you know the drill… mash it, or beat it until it’s nice and fluffy.
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Sophia and Paul loved it.
Hope, Gracie, Mckayla and I tolerated it.
Rutabaga tastes a little bit like turnips to me. (Bleck: turnips are definitely the least favorite properly prepared thing I’ve ever put in my mouth!) However, these really weren’t bad! I passed them up for leftovers this afternoon, but had no problem eating them when they were fresh.
Hope’s reaction cracked me up. (Since it was her idea to buy a rutabaga anyway.) Trying to be polite, when I asked her if she liked it she said, “Well, not nes-arily. I mean it’s not like as bad as asparagus, but it’s not as good as peas and chicken. You know, I mean, like it’s okay. I can eat it.”
If I make it again, I’ll probably add more potatoes. A lot of recipes I looked at said to make the potato/rutabaga ratio equal.
The two recipes I referenced can be found here and here.
This tour especially caught my eye because of all the colors! I had never seen so many shades used so successfully. Here are a few pictures to show you what I mean.
I had thought about sharing a fun home tour from a blogger I admire today, but what I wanted to do yesterday didn’t happen, so I’m going to put that off for later. (i.e. what I wanted to do for yesterday, I’m attempting to do today… or rather last night)
Most of my posts are pre-written (obviously, I don’t have time during the day to just sit down, pound out something worth reading, and then hit “publish”). So I thought it’d be fun to hammer out something personal and unplanned just to see how it goes.
Ready? I’m glad you are, because I’m not!
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I was going to cook a rutabaga tonight for dinner, but was spared by my father-in-law coming to town. Don’t worry, I’m still excited to cook it; today just wasn’t the day, I was trying to accomplish too much and it would have been a disaster.
Why a rutabaga? Well, if you follow me on pinterest, you might have seen that I pinned a rutabaga recipe with a caption something like this, “When your children start reading Winnie the Pooh on their own, you will find yourself buying a rutabaga while you’re at the store (thank you, Rabbit).”
Okay, you know me, my sense of adventure; I’m all for trying a rutabaga. Kind of always wanted to.
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Mckayla was quite difficult to feed today. It seems to me that parenting is not about the one and done’s as it is the consistent exercises. We have worked with her so much and seen a lot of progress, but every now and then she’ll throw something out like she did today, and it feels like the whole day is rearranged to deal with it.
While I was content, but not super happy with where we ended this afternoon, she behaved and ate really well while we were out with Pop tonight, so I was thankful for that.
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I want to do a giveaway here on the blog, but have no idea where to start. Actually, I don’t know what to give. I’m sort of one of those gift-givers that actually ends up giving things that I want (oops!), so I’m trying to decide if my ideas are good ones or just a weird sense of revenge on all those giveaways that I never won.
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Actually, I don’t really enter many giveaways, do you? I’d say I’ve entered way less than ten in my whole “blogging” history. And of course, never won. But that’s okay. Something about seeing 400 comments on a post that normally has 20 just makes me not want to enter. Weird.
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Paul bought me flowers on Mother’s Day. Not like florist flowers, but like plant flowers that you could keep in your house or your yard to be beautiful forever (if you knew which they belonged in). It’s sort of a yearly tradition. He buys me those kinds of flowers, and I kill them. The ones from this year are already looking quite sad. I had put them outside for several days before realizing that they were supposed to be indoors. But I can’t figure out if they need to be repotted or just cared for? There wasn’t any information with them and the website suggested was super unhelpful.
I really want to put them in the car and drive to Lowe’s and say, “Hey, what can I do to make these live?”
But is that worth it? What if I do everything I’m supposed to and they still die? What if they die because I never tried?
There they sit, up on the fridge, hating their life.
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I enjoy blogging. I have about ten ideas every day for new posts. Lately, I’ve been trying to just buckle down and finish some that have been hanging around forever. It’s so hard to push through when you’re writing and a new idea comes or you think, “I wonder if so and so posted anything today? Maybe I should check.” Anyways, some ideas that are in my head right now are either titled or generally about, “The file marked ‘Gospel’,” “Personal Style-Words,” “When choosing between brown and black…” “Mckayla’s vocabulary,” “Ways to entertain your children at doctor’s appointments,” “Pre-potty training Mckayla,” “Potty training: What not to do,” “Chasing Triumph,” “An Older, Wiser Couponer,” and “Make your own jello playdough.”
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I need to go to bed. Maybe next time, I’ll ask you what’s on your mind. Actually that’s another idea I have; a fun, “Ask the Audience” day. Well, I do hope you have a good night, or day, or whatever you’re having while you’re reading this.
small steps, big picture 