Weather & Kitchen

It's amazing how busy summer can get! Well, we finally got some rain so the corn looks much happier and hopefully we can get a decent 3rd cut hay. Being a small family farm at least even if we had to buy some feed for our cows, or "the girls" as we call them, it wouldn't be too much. Not like those very intensive farms where they have hundreds of cows. Our vegetable garden didn't suffer too much as we were watering it, so we are starting to get some tomatoes and beans now, so yummy. It is so nice to eat food you grew. My purple coneflowers that started blooming just before we got the rain did not get the prettiest flowers this year as I did not water my flowerbeds. I deliberately planted hardy perennials as I think if conditions are that dry, you should not be wasting water on the flowerbeds. I did have a couple of hanging baskets for a bit of colour, they don't need any where near the amount of water the large flowerbeds would need. Hubby and his father are now in much better moods since the rain, thank goodness!

I haven't been doing too much of interest of late. Yard sale season is over and it's been so insanely hot that I haven't been taking many photos. I am still working on the kitchen. We are not exactly renovating it, just updating it. So I am painting the cabinets as they are those old ones that are just a veneer, not real wood and I took the wallpaper down so I need to patch the plaster before I paint. I am very excited as our new counter top will be put in next week. We, or I should say "I" since my hubby likes to say that it looks just fine the way it is, have decided to go new on the counters, back splash and floors as what is there is in really bad shape. We have that old white with speckles laminate counter top that goes up the wall as the back splash, and it is actually starting to peel of the the front of the counter. And the floor has seen better days, under the cutting board there are all these marks on the floor where knives have been dropped over the years. The floor is also stained in spots as I had the not so bright idea to strip paint of a dresser in there and didn't have a big enough piece of plastic down. So there are pinkish splotches. Once I get the painting done I will go and pick the flooring and back splash as the flooring shouldn't be put in until I am done painting and I intend to get the back splash from the same place. So that is keeping me very busy. I have a lovely cabinet I am planning on putting against the wall when I am done, to increase my storage area. It is a part of hubby's grandmothers dining room set. We have the whole set, but with the china cabinet in the dining room we don't need the smaller cabinet in there too. I intend to keep my baking supplies and things like oats, dried peas & dried beans in glass jars in it.

Poor Thirsty Plants

We have been having a great deal of hot, dry weather. While I do enjoy summer, I find the 30 C + temperatures to be too much for me. The crops really need a good rain too. The corn is starting to get that spikey look when it curls its leaves to conserve water, and second cut hay has not grown much at all since we did first cut because the grass & alfalfa doesn't grow well without rain, it just goes dormant. It is not so dry yet that we are in danger of loosing our crops but the crops certainly are not doing as well as they could with a good rain. Our vegetable garden is loving the heat as some evenings we put the sprinkler on it. The tomato plants are doing so well. I am very glad I have planted hardy perennial plants in the flowerbeds as I have not been watering them at all, and though I am not getting the usually abundance of flowers, the plants are still doing fine. The only things I have watered in my garden are the blackberry bush and the strawberry plants I planted recently because they are not established yet and will die with out the extra water. I have started planting some berries in flowerbeds as I figured why can't they beautiful and functional. I think the strawberry plants will make a nice, and tasty, groundcover. I just wish the temperatures would drop by a few degrees so I can get back out there and do some more weeding. Thankfully this year we planted the vegetable rows far enough apart that we can take the rototiller between to take care of the weeds, but I still weed the rows by hand, and they are starting to look weedy again.

Lackadaisical Blogget

Like the Smokey Cat I have been a very lackadaisical blogget. Life on the farm has been very busy since the birth of our son in December. I am amazed at the joy derived from having a child. Not only has family and life in general kept me busy but I have been trying to decide on exactly what I want to blog about. I have had a lot of posts about thrifting and yardsale, which while I enjoy those activities, I don't feel that I am posting enough about my other interests. I think I would like to just post more about photos, I quite enjoy photography, though I would say my skills are sadly lacking, but I want to make a point of taking more artistic pictures. And I want to post more about country living and getting back to the basics such as gardening and cooking from scratch and my home updating.

I thinks, as long as we are not in for anymore thunderstorms, tomorrow will be a gardening day around the farmstead. We plant our rows of vegetables far enough apart so that we can get between with the rototiller, that really cuts down on the hoeing. Hubby usually does that and then I will go down the rows and weed by hand between all the plants. There is something very satisfying about puttering around the garden and flowerbeds!

30 Day Declutter Update #2

Well, I have slowly been working on the 30 day declutter, with the end of November approaching I still have plenty to do, but I have made some progess. Here is list of the more recent things I have either gotten rid of or have ready to donate:

28-41: Going through my wardrobe I have so far come up with 13 items to give away
42-48: Binder I saved from my college years
49: a watch I only got as we forgot our watches when we went on our honeymoon
50-54: two notebooks and three dou-tangs
55: a make up bag that is too small to be useful to me

So I have found more things that I have not used for a long time and therefore should not be hanging on to. However I still have some work to do to get to 90 items within the next couple of days!

30 Day Declutter: Progress

I decided to participate in the 30 day declutter from a "Thrifty Mrs" blog, you can find a link to her blog over on the right. The goal is to get rid of 90 things in 30 day, so I have until the end of November, however if you are just starting now you could set your time line as 30 days from now. I am a pack rat and definitely need to get rid of some things. So far I have given away/gotten rid of:
1) a tank top
2) a halter top
3) a scort
4) a CD stand
5) a small shelf made from press board (I hate that stuff)
6) a bag of craft stuff (purchased for a friends 4 year old daughter who did not end up coming when my friend came to visit)
7 & 8) two bath gift sets
9) some bubble bath
10) some hotel soaps and lotions
11 & 12) two photo albums that I am not going to use
13) an easel
14) a gift bag (very large that I haven't used)
15) a dry erase calender
16) dry erase markers
17) a coffee tin I decorated for donations
18) a basket
19) styrofoam plates (I hate styrofoam)
20) tin foil baking trays
21) some icing in tubes (I make my own)
22) a book
23) a candle holder
24) old speakers
25) a pillow
26) egg cartons and clementine boxes I saved because I thought they would be useful for crafts
27) a 2 in 1 DVD player VHS, where the DVD part quit

So this is my progress so far. I don't think I am doing too badly, but I am going to need to step it up if I am to get rid of 90 things before the end of November. Hopefully this weekend when I clean the closet I can find some more things to go. It's nice to get rid of these things that I haven't actually used in a very long time.

Aberfoyle Fall Antique Market

After my past few posts focusing on my household redecorating misadventures and organizing plans I thought it was time to post about something fun! Back in September I went to the Aberfoyle Fall Antique Market. It is an antique market that, in the spring and fall has extra vendors. I found some lovely finds, mostly just little things.

I have a love of old fashion mason jars so my first find was the jars below, I picked up 6 at $3 each. I love this style and only actually had one in this style before I found these.

Next I found some necklaces! I think all but the white one are vintage. I paid $5 each for the white, red and green ones and $10 for the blue one. The green and blue ones are my favourites! They are great for dressing up an otherwise casual outfit! I also got a pair of vintage clip on earrings, they are (I think) ceramic roses and very cute but I forgot to get a picture of them.

Next I found the jewery box pictured below. I didn't buy it right away as it was $35 and I wasn't sure I wanted to pay that much for a jewery box, but I just loved it and so went back to get before we left. I just love the picture on the lid and the carving on the box!

My very last find of the day was the best as it was something I have been keeping my eye out for. It is the lovely wooden tray pictured below! I am refinishing an old steamer trunk to use as a coffee table and I wanted a nice tray for the top that way I can set everything in the tray and just lift it when I need in the trunk. It is a gorgeous tray, with tons of detailed carving! I actually found it at a vendor selling books and it wasn't actually for sale but when I asked about it they said I could have it for $10! That was a great deal, though as I got talking to the lovely lady running the booth with her husband I got the impression that she thought the tray was plastic, though after buying it and inspecting it later, it most definitely is wood. There is even carving on the outside edges. Though it does need a cleaning.

All in all it was a fun day out. I went with my mother and my two younger sisters.



November Objectives!

As you know from previous posts my husband and I are expecting our first child in mid-December. And while this is a very exciting time for us I have decided that I should set some objects to complete before the end of November.

Objective 1: Organize Organize Organize
I don't know about you but some how all my closets (not that there are many of those in our old farm house!) and dressers seem and other areas that are not main living spaces seem to multiply clutter! Not only that but, good intentions gone bad! I emptied my dresser as currently much of my wardrobe does not fit, so I could put my maternity clothes away. My mistake was taking everything out of the drawers and dumping it in the laundry basket in the corner (which is now stacked and overflowing!). Probably not the smartest move! My INTENT was to wash everything and line dry it then put away in rubbermaid totes. Ha! Hasn't happened yet! So that is on the "to do" list for this weekend.

We have a large crawl space in the bathroom behind the tub which I use for storage, primarily seasonal decorations and gift wrap. Well I finally got this organized last week! So yay, one thing off the list. Since it's a small area with a slanted ceiling I can't really use those nice closet organizers. So I used rubbermaid totes, which are at least stackable. Now I don't have tons of overflowing cardboard boxes. I also set a limit. I tend to keep little boxes and baskets for hard to warp items, so I only kept what would fit in one bin. I did the same with the wrapping paper. I ended up with a large box of recycling and a grocery bag full of garbage by the end, but it is done!

We only have one closet for clothing in the whole house, it is at the end of the hall and of course has a slanted ceiling so I can not put in any shelving above the bar for hang items. I need to remove all the clothing that doesn't currently fit and I tend to toss items that I haven't found a proper home for in the bottom of the closet so this needs to be cleaned out and organized. I have started by placing all the Christmas gifts I have bought so far in a tote so they are in one spot and not all over the place.

I am also trying to declutter and get rid of things that I don't use. So yesterday I took the CD stand and put all the discs with their booklets into one of those CD books which will fit into a drawer rather than have this large and rather ugly plastic stand taking up space.

Also on my hit list is the dreaded laundry room! Due to the lack of storage in the house this is also one of those sort of "catch all" areas! It's piled with things and I figure since we haven't used most of it in the past year it's time to toss/recycle/donate a great deal of it. There is a counter in there with cupboards that must be cleaned out and I intend to designate one for laundry soap/clothes pins/etc. and use the rest for items we only use seasonally such as canning jars.

Objective 2: Complete Projects!

I have three projects on the go that I need to complete! First and most importantly is our bedroom, we are currently in the room that will be the babys room so I need to get this done ASAP so we can get the babys room all set up. I already painted. Our home was a rental for 20+ years before we bought it so it needs alot of TLC. I have posted about the bedroom I am working on, I have had a couple of set backs making it take longer. First upon ripping up the carpet (after stripping wallpaper and patching cracked plaster!) we found a rather large hole in the floor that had been patched with pressure treated lumber! So we had to rip that out, get some pine and redo that. Then I had to stain it to match the lovely aged pine of the rest of the floor (I haven't posted that yet, I just did that yesterday). And now I have to redo around the chimney since when they did our roof, the front part was done previously, apparently their working loosened the flashing on the side of the chimney they were not working on and so we got water running down inside, it ran down behind the paint and also made some of the mudding compound run. But I have to wait until it rains again before fixing it to ensure that it is indeed fixed. We have been using polymerized tung oil on the floor so I will have to check tonight to see if it will need another coat or not, we have put on about 4 coats so far, and the last one was starting to get the nice glassy finish, but a few areas were still soaking in. Then I can paint the trim and lastly install my lovely new light.

I am also working on refinishing a steamer trunk (the garish red one from a previous post). I am finding cleaning the metal to be a very difficult job. I am going to remove the canvas as we like the natural wood look. Once the metal is cleaned it won't take long to finish.

And lastly I started a quilt. I have all the strips for it cut and started sewing it together but I set it aside as I need to focus on one project at a time to get it done in a timely manner and right now the most important project is the bedroom. I have been working on the trunk when we have put another coat of finish on the floor of the bedroom as obviously I can not work in there at that point. The quilt is the last item on the list since though I did it in shades of green for the baby it does not really need to be done before baby arrives.

Wish me luck on my organizing, decluttering and finishing off projects!

Busy October

My Sally cat

October has been quite busy! We had a lovely Thanksgiving lunch with my husbands family the weekend before Thanksgiving weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at my grandparents the weekend after Thanksgiving. I love family get togethers, I feel like people are always so busy that special occasions are the only time you really get to see them. I did not do much on the actual Thanksgiving weekend, hubby was busy getting corn silage off and I was just exhausted, this pregnancy has had me very tired constantly!

We have been working on the bedroom, I am still trying to find a stain that at least somewhat matches the aged pine to stain the new pine we used to patch the hole. But we have got the tung oil sealer and 3 coast of polymerized tung oil on the rest of the floor, one more coat and that part will be done. Another issue recently came up with the room though. We recently had our roof re-shingled and after that I found water infiltration around the chimney, you could see where it had come down in behind the paint and also caused the mudding compound to run and clump. It turned out that while they had sealed up around where they had been working, their work had caused a gap on the other side which was previously done. So now I can't fix it until I make sure the problem is solved. I am not very happy that I must re-do this section. I am about 8 months pregnant now and I just want our room done so we can get the baby room set up.

My mother in law and sisters in law recently thew me a baby shower which was very nice of them. They put so much effort into it! Above you can see all the baking they did, and they made a diaper cake and hung a clothes line with baby stuff hanging from it. It was very nice of them to go to this effort.

Tomorrow is Halloween. We do not have an outside light to turn on so I try to put out some outdoor lights so our neighbours will know they can stop by. This year I bought one of those large inflatable light up pumpkins so hopefully that will help. I got it for half price because I waited until yesterday to purchase it. It was the last one left, I couldn't believe it, the store already had about 4 aisles of Christmas stuff set up and only had about 1/2 an aisle left of Halloween stuff on clearance, and Halloween isn't even over yet! 

I hope you have a good Halloween!

Nothern Vacation

We went up north to the cabin for the labour day weekend, we just love it up there! Now it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, there is no hydro or running water but It is much better than tenting it. My hubbys parents own the cabin, it is about a 6-7 hour drive. It is so lovely up there, and there are so many lakes. We really enjoy taking the boat out. My favourite type of fishing is trawling. There are also all sorts of coniferous forests. The cabin is on about 80 acres of bush, and there is a small lake that can be accessed by an old trail. We took the 4-wheeler and small boat back there. The cabin is only a few minutes from a small town so you can feel like you are out in the bush but you are not really that far away. Our favourite lake to go to is Moose Lake, it is surrounded by crown lands so there are not a bunch of cottages along it.

Lots n Lots of Canning

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted, things have been very busy! This is one of my favourite times of year when all sorts of local produce is available. I love to do home canning, that way I can use locally grown produce and I know exactly what goes into it. I canned beets, peach salsa, and prepared some peaches for freezing. My husband has been making his homemade pasta sauce. Everything is so much better home made. For example the pasta sauce, if you compare the store bought stuff to what we made they look very different not to mention ours tastes so much better. It isn't really any cheaper to make your own but no preservatives or artificial colours or flavours go in it.

I am hoping we will be able to some more before the end of season. I just love the beets and we really go through the pasta sauces. We have made some more sauce since and I would like to make some vegetable salsa. I don't think I am going to do any pickles as we still have lots of sweet dills left from last year.

Thrifted Courting Creamer

Good Morning! I am having a very productive morning with my lovely cup of earl gray tea before I start work for the day. I hope your week has gotten off to a good start. I am in a very good mood as I am taking some holidays around this coming labour day weekend and hubby and I are going up north to the cabin. So I am in a very good mood!

Last week as I was doing some errands I wandered over to the local thrift stores, I am sure that is a big surprise to you. I live near a small town so there are only two thrift stores. I did not find a whole lot capture my interest, a few books, I really like getting the hardcovers for $2 each. Then I made my way over to the Salvation Army thrift store, that really isn't much of a hike as the two are side by side. Here I found a cute little courting couples creamer container.

I thought it was very cute and would go with the decorating scheme I am planning for our bedroom. I know a creamer container is not usual bedroom decor, but I thought it may look nice on a bedside table with some flowers in it. I have not decided yet what use to put it to in there but it was only $2 and goes with the lamp and vase I have already purchased.

Last weekend at the farmers market where we were getting vegetables for our home canning I saw a vendor that had some flowers, so I told, or "requested" of my wonderful husband to buy me some. Now, I haven't said alot about hubby on here so I will tell you he is a very practical man who loves me dearly, but he never buys me flowers because in his view they are a waste of money as the are already dead when you buy them. That is is very practical side coming out. But there were bunches of 5 roses and they were only $4.50 so I did not feel it was an unreasonable demand, I mean request. They are a lovely creamy dusky purple colour.

I have decided to dry them as I think they will look lovely in a vase. You may notice the door behind them has been . . . decorated in an interesting way. I have not yet gotten to redecorating the kitchen. This is our basement door that someone has wallpapered the 4 panels. I am told this was popular in the '70s and judging by our living with the orange carpet and panelling and the dining room's green carpet I would say that the '70s are the last time anyone did any major redecorating. My mother in law swears by wallpaper and does not understand why I hate it so! But after scraping layer upon layer, some of which had been PAINTED wallpaper off the walls of the 3 bedrooms I can not stand the stuff! The kitchen is actually next on my list to tackle, I will not be doing a complete remodel, just tiling, painting, new hardware, that sort of thing.

Have a good day!

The Unexpected In Redecorating Old Homes!

As mentioned in previous posts I have been working away at redecorating our bedroom. It has been a very long time since any updating has been done so I was busy with stripping wallpaper and patching the plaster. I finally painted the walls and ceiling and pulled up the carpet, which is when I found a rather unpleasant surprise. You see, under MOST of the carpet is lovely old pine floors, however under this carpet I found this!

A great ginormous hole in the floor! Ack! So, this was a bit of a set back. The hole is somewhere around 3 feet by 4 feet! Here is another photo with a chair in it to give some perspective of the size.

As you can see there are some shiny new boards filling the hole now. I browbeat, I mean asked my husband sweetly, to patch it. Before it was patched with pressure treated lumber! Not something you are supposed to use indoors. Now, this lumber isn't perfect, while it is toung and grove the edges are beveled so it will still be slightly different from the existing pine, but it's as close as we could get. I am going to have to stain it to match the existing pine as the existing is aged and the patch is new and so will not come up the same colour if I just use tung oil on the whole thing as I have done in the other rooms. You may also notice that there is a board missing, that is because it is only a partial board so my kind husband, whom I have not nagged at all about this, nope noooo nagging, has to take to a friends to use a table saw to cut it. Thankfully this year we have decided to get a table saw for our 1st wedding anniversary so that will make my projects around here much easier. The edges of the patch are taped as my sister was nice enough to strip the floor for me as I should not be using paint stripper while pregnant. It is very inconvenient not being able to to things myself!

So, once the patch is complete I have to sand the whole floor, stain the patch once I match it to the existing using some scrap pieces, paint the trim and door, so some touch ups to the edges and install the new outlets and light. Hmmm, when I list it out like this it sounds like a lot more left than when I think about it. But compared to what I had to do to start with I feel like I am getting close to completion.

Have a good day!



Thrifting & Antiquing: Bedroom decor and fixes

Well last week I made my way over to the local thrift stores for a peek around. Now lately I have found the pickings to be slim but this time I found several items that I really liked, at prices I was willing to pay. I found another piece for my Avon glassware collection, though with this new piece I am up to two so I don't know that is deserves the term collection yet. They did have other Avon pieces, but they were $3.99 for one glass which I was unwilling to pay. But I did find one at $0.99 which I was willing to pay. I really like the deep red of the Avon glassware and the design.

Ialso found the following print that I thought would be quite pretty if I put it in a nicer frame, so at only $0.49 I thought it was well worth it. I am thinking of hanging this in the bedroom once it is finished.

I am painting the bedroom purple and want to decorate it in a somewhat romantic fashion. So to that end I found the below vase with a courting couple image, this was $2.99, one of my more expensive thrift store finds this trip!

I also found two mugs I rather liked, though at different thrift stores. The one on the left was only $0.25 and I thought the image was so cute! Latter that day I saw another at the antique store with a similar image on it for $6 so I was quite happy with the price I paid. The mug on the left was more pricey at $1, it is a Normen Rockwell image and I thought my grandmother might like is as she has some of the others.

After my thrift I made my way over to Stratford to the Antique Warehouse. And there I found a lovely courting couple lamp for the bedroom that will go nicely with my vase, this lamp was $16, but it works. I did have to buy a lamp shade for it, I am considering adding some fringe to it, what do you think?



Then I found an old iron floor grate and I was so excited! It was perfect as it did not have a lip on it and it is big enough to cover the old stove pipe hole in the floor of what will be the babys room! I did not want to patch the hole as I will never match the old aged pine boards but all the grates I have found that are large enough to cover the 12" diameter hole had a lip, and I did not want to ruin an antique grate. I have been waiting for months and months to come across something that would work so I am one very happy girl! The grate is the perfect width, but it is twice as long as I needed, but that's okay, I will be screwing it to the floor.

The bedroom I am working on is almost done, though I have run across one very large issue, to be covered in a future post, so it has set me back a little. But my hubby has come up with a solution!

Have a good Friday!

Bedroom Redecorating and the Trunk

As excited as I am to get started on that trunk I have not yet started on it as I must finish working on the bedroom. This is the 3rd and final bedroom and it has been a lot of work, stripping many layers of wallpaper, some of which were painted! Then patching the cracks in the old plaster walls. In the bedroom I am working on now we also had to box in the pipe for the woodstove that we had installed last year. It was recommended that we wall it in to it would not get bumped, also it will look a lot nicer. So, while I have completed teh 3 coats of mudding on the rest of the room, it just needs to be sanded before I can paint, I only have one coat done on the newly drywalled area as my husband only just finished it last weekend. I do not enjoy the action of painting, but I love seeing how the colour looks once I get it up on the wall. I actually chose and buy my paint at the begining of the project as it keeps me motivated as I want to see the final product. I am hoping to have all of the mudding complete by the weekend so I can start painting!

Even though I have been busy with working on the bedroom, I have not forgotten about my trunk. My poor husband, he just thinks I bring junk home until I get it finished, then he has to admit that maybe I did not waste my money! I bought some sandpaper to sand down the wood, and I found and ordered some replacement leather handles on e-bay. The one handle is completely gone and the other is ripped and rotted so if I want handles on it I have to replace them. I am thinking about painting the canvas parts creame and giving it an antique look. I got an antiquing kit at at a yardsale for $3. I am still debating what to do with the inside. So far I am leaning towards ripping out the dirty, smelly fabric and cleaning and sanding the wood, I will have to see what kind of shape the wood is in. But I am looking forward to getting started on it!

Yardsale Glass Treasures and Other Finds

On Saturday I went to the Welburn villlage yardsale with my MIL. It was alot of fun and didn't really take much time as it is only a few minutes away and is a very small village. I purchased the following dish:

I believe it is jadeite, I thought is was very cute! It does have some flaws, around the top wavey part it appears that over the years some cracks have formed, and in the bottom of the dish it looks as if there is a manufactures flaw. But for on $1 I thought it was well worth bringing home with me. I also love the cute little feet on it!

I found another bowl that I thought was lovely and it is the same pattern as a bowl I already have.

This is a Waltherglas bowl, made in Germany. My MIL pointed it out to me as she gave me the other bowl I have when she was doing some cleaning and thought I might like this one to go with it. This find was $2.  I love the detail on these bowls, the lovely pink roses! I also find them useful for serving dinner rolls and things like that in when company is over for dinner.

The third item I purchased is actually my favourite!

I have been looking for an old trunk like this for quite a while but usually they are fairly pricey. For $10 this one was too good a deal for me to pass up! It is in kind of rough shape, the leather handles are missing and the leather pieces on top are broke, but that is fine as over all it is still sturdy. I am planning to sand down the wood and paint the rest black so it will go no matter what colour I decide to paint our living room (right now I am thinking a blue gray). I want to use this as our living room table. I think it will work great and with a baby on the way it can double as a toybox.

I was very excited with these items as lately it seems that anything I might be interested in is fairly expensive. When I was in at one of the local thrift stores this week they had a cute little needle point stool and I could not believe how much they were asking for it. They had it prices at $75! All I could think was that this is a thrift store and this item was donated, and it seemed as it they were asking antique store price for it! 

Well I should be off. I have been working on family histories for both sides of my family and have borrowed some more photos from my grandmother that I need to scan so I can return them to her.

I hope you have had a good weekend!