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Working From The Back Yard In Minnesota

Working From The Back Yard In Minnesota

One year ago today I started working at the Minnesota State Fair. During the two weeks that I worked there the weather was unbearably hot and humid. Luckily this year I am not working at the fair. This year I am able to work in my garage on some projects that I am really excited about. The humidity has finally dropped and so today was a great day to work on the settee I had started last week.

Last time I worked on this I found that under the fabric there was beautiful knotted bamboo on the one side. Fortunately, I discovered today that the bamboo was in great shape on both sides of this piece, so I decided not to recover it in fabric.

My go-to when I paint a piece of furniture is the Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in the color Trophy. I went with this color on the settee piece as well, and as it was drying I started on another project. We all know how exciting it is to watch paint dry, so please take a moment and enjoy this picture of paint drying 🙂

Here’s the back story for you about this next project.

Last week, my friend Alyssa’s mother-in-law had a garage sale. After the sale was over, I received pictures of some of the items that were not sold. Initially, I got a picture of a single chair but what I really needed was four chairs to go around this table that we bought last week.

So I asked if she had any. And she did! Those chairs were what I started working on while the paint on the settee dried. (There are actually four chairs, but I was too lazy to pull them all out into the back yard to take a picture.) Bonus points for honesty.

My plan was to paint the legs of the farm table the same color as the chairs surrounding it. The chair pads also had to be reupholstered, so I went to take them off before painting. I flipped one of the chairs over to find this tag.

I looked up Tell City Chair Company. After some digging, I found these exact chairs on Ebay. They were selling for $229 PER CHAIR!

I almost fell off my chair! 😉

This changed things a little bit. Now I want to keep them as close to original as possible. They are in pristine condition already so it shouldn’t take much! I’ll show you on Saturday what I came up with.

~Wendy

Humidity and Stain

Humidity and Stain

We are in full summer weather mode here in Minnesota. On Saturday the temps reached the mid 90’s with high humidity. Needless to say, I didn’t get much done except for mowing the lawn, sitting in the lake and taking a late afternoon nap because I had too much heat and sun.

After typing that paragraph and re-reading it, that’s not a bad day.  🙂

A strong storm came through later in the day and bringing with it cooler temps and lower humidity.

You know what that meant for my Sunday? Another nap day! Working on my to-do list.

At the top of yesterday’s list was working on the serpentine dresser I purchased recently from an estate sale.

Initially, I thought I would paint the dresser. But the more I looked at it, the more I figured I would continue to hone my skills with staining. I still love how the stair threads turned out.

The first step was to completely clean the dresser. I once again used Murphy Oil Soap and a damp cloth to wipe out the insides and outsides of the entire dresser. Then it sat in the sunshine and warm summer breeze for about 15 minutes to dry.

If I had to guess, I would guess that this dresser has been sitting in an attic or barn loft for several years. It is in great shape except for some cobwebs, dust and a few scratches on the top.

These scratches were easily sanded out. “Easily” being defined here as sanding right to left with the grain for about 45 minutes.

The top didn’t need to be stripped of any polyurethane because it had worn off through the years, if there even was any to begin with.

After sanding down deep enough to remove the scratches, it was time to use a pre-stain wood conditioner from Minwax.

I poured this on pretty generously. You could almost hear the wood give a gentle sigh as it soaked up all of the conditioning goodness.

Once the wood conditioner was applied, I let it sit for about 10 minutes and then used a clean dry cloth to remove any excess. Then the staining commenced.

I choose the same wood stain color as the stair treads. I want to leave the rest of the dresser alone for now. I think accenting the top with a little darker color will update it and pull everything together nicely.

Once the stain has completely dried (which is taking longer than I had hoped on this still humid day) I will apply several coats of polyurethane.

Stay tuned
.

Wendy

Minnesota Weather and Making New Curtains

Minnesota Weather and Making New Curtains

The great thing about Minnesota weather is that if you don’t like it, just wait…it will change.  That is exactly what happened this past weekend.

On Saturday we had record breaking temperatures. Records set in 1896. We hit 55 degrees. 55 degrees at the end of February! Seriously these are temperatures we feel in April.

Fifty five degrees brought beautiful, glorious sunshine all day long.

And then on Sunday, it snowed. Minnesota weather at its finest.

So I would like to jump back to that Saturday and enjoy a few more minutes of the warm brilliant sunshine.

Looking at that picture I realized something.

The window from the picture above has curtain panels that I made.

I started to look around the house and I guess I have made several of the curtains in our home.

For instance, this multi-colored bird valance hangs in the bathroom over the tub and the grey, yellow and turquoise flower patterned panels are hung on the sides of the windows in the bedroom so they do not obstruct the view.

Making pillows and making curtains is not that different. They are squares with sewn edges.

What’s that? You don’t sew?

That’s okay, let me show you a trick.

Let’s take a little closer look at these curtains with all of the glorious sunshine.

The edges of these curtains are not finished. My husband teases me that I change by curtain dĂ©cor so often I don’t have time to sew the edges.

He isn’t too far off.

I love fabric and curtain panels are the easiest way to change the feeling of a room.

All you need is a pair of Pinking Shears. (Scissors with sawtooth blades used for cutting a zigzag pattern to help prevent unraveling.)  You can find them online or at a Joanns Fabric store.

The fabric I like to work with is a cotton poly blend. It is light weight and easy to cut. Typically the width is 60 inches which will make 1 set of 30″  cut curtain panels.

Here are 5 easy steps for making your own curtains:

  1. Measure the length of your window. Add two to three inches for the curtain rod hanger. Add additional inches if you would like the length of the panels to go to the floor.
  2. Purchase a fabric you like
  3. Cut the fabric in half lengthwise using the pinking shears.
  4. Trim the ends of the fabric using the pinking shears.
  5. Attach the curtain ring clips to the curtain rod you have previously hung.

Step back and admire your work.

Things to remember. This finish will not with stand a lot of wear and tear. But it will look good enough until you find the next fabric you love.

Happy Leap Day. See you on Wednesday,

Wendy

THE APPLE DOESN’T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE (32)

Green and Gold Glasses Raised to our Veterans

Green and Gold Glasses Raised to our Veterans

Sometimes I have no idea what to blog about. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I have a list of things I could blog about but I mentally filter those ideas as to what makes it onto the blog and what doesn’t.

That filter has one question.

Would I be interested in reading about this? That’s it. One question.

For instance, today I was going to share about this little Christmas tree that I have set up. But, it’s 61 degrees outside and I’m not feeling it. By the way the average high in Minnesota in November is 41 degrees. Believe me, no one is complaining but it’s not normal. Last year on this date we had 3 inches of snow on the ground.

Wait, where was I going with all of this? Oh yeah, my filter.

Christmas dĂ©cor didn’t make it thru today’s filter.

So I took advantage of the warm fall day and went on a walk with Nikki. Nikki as in Jimmy and Nikki.

When we returned I had a text from my Mom.

She saw on my Instagram account (OldLakeGeorge) that people have commented on the green glasses that are in this picture.

These were given to me by my Mom. And now that I really look at that picture, so was that duck, the lamp and the card catalog. 🙂  My Mom has great taste.

The day that she gave me the glasses and decanter, I was at my parents house and my Mom asked if there were any dish sets I wanted. She has so many beautiful sets of dishes. The set I wanted is a blue and white set that for me represents the many loud and festive family dinners we shared. BUT, she was not quite ready to give them away. That only makes it more special for me knowing those dishes hold great sentimental value for her.

So as we moved on to other things, I spotted these green and gold glasses and decanter in her glass front kitchen cupboard.

I thought they were pretty but I don’t remember seeing them around our house as we were growing up. Reason for that; my Mom had recently purchased them at a garage sale.

So, the text she sent read, “Hey, I just saw the comments about your gold and green glasses I gave you. Did you look up how much they are worth? I got them at a garage sale for probably $10.”

I read the Instagram comments, which I love getting and someone mentioned that they might be Culver green and gold glasses. So I googled Culver green and gold glasses and yep, that’s what I had.

This is a set of 3 double Old Fashioned and 6 Old Fashioned glasses along with a decanter. The pattern is called Valencia. The gold is 22k and I found prices from $10-$20 per glass up to $250 for the decanter and 6 glasses.

Told you my Mom had great taste!

In honor of Veterans Day and green and gold cocktail glasses, let’s raise our glass to all of the Veterans, men and women that have served and are currently serving our country! Thank you!

See you on Friday,

Wendy