wit wisdom and food

celebrating shared meals

the fire is so delightful

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Last year was our first year with a fireplace. We loved it. Tom got really good at making fires and we went through a lot of wood. We started out buying boxes at the hardware store and then in bulk from the hardware store. It was fairly convenient but extremely messy. We didn’t want to store the wood outside because it would just be sitting in mud and rain part of the winter. So we stored it in the garage in the old cardboard boxes from previous purchases. We had wood dirt and dust all over the garage. We also had a trail of wood dirt and dust from the garage to the fireplace because we carried it into the house using the boxes.
This year we upped our game. Tom built a stand for our wood. We had our wood delivered. We came up with a better way to get the wood into the house.
When out shopping we searched for just the right thing to hold the wood. I pictured and old wooden crate that would look good on the brick. We found one but it didn’t seem sturdy enough. We decided to check at the hardware store. We walked past the first display made from wooden crates and both commented on how that box would be perfect if they sold it. We walked around the entire store looking for something and then I ogled the Christmas decorations. We went down one last aisle and there they were. The wooden display boxes for sale.
A few weeks ago we finally hung a gallery wall and a chalkboard frame. Tom had a lot of fun leaving messages on the board which I think might have been his inspiration for spray painting this with chalkboard paint.
He painted the inside and the sides with handles red and the larger sides with chalkboard paint. Baby, it’s cold outside is one of our favorite Christmas songs. We sing it as a duet when it comes on. I look forward to fire season every year.

One suggestion if you decided to do a similar project, don’t write on both sides. That box gets heavy and when you set it down you will find chalk all over your clothes.

Do you have a fireplace? What is your favorite part of having a fire?

yes, I can. do you?

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I got a wild hair and decided one day I was going to make jam. I have wanted to can for years. I had most of the canning supplies for months but had done nothing with them. Then I drove 40 minutes to Brentwood for strawberries. I of course bought too many and spent an entire day in the kitchen cutting up strawberries. What I got in return was a lot of strawberry jam. Friday morning I got that same crazy idea and decided to make the drive again. This time I was in search of cucumbers to turn into pickles. I came home with a lot of cucumbers….peaches, zucchini, green beans and enough Ball jars from Target to make Christmas presents for everyone on my list. I hope you all like canned goods.

What was going to be a one day project turned into two.

I have already yielded 9 jars of jalapeño-peach jelly, 12 quarts of pickles and 5 jars of zucchini bread and butter pickles. Add that to the 11 jars of strawberry jam I already have put away I am getting quite a haul. I started the two week process of making 14 day pickles which are delicious and I haven’t had them in years. I may not share these.

I hope I can find time to make it to the farms one more time so I can get some tomatoes and make my own sauce and canned tomatoes. I know I will make it up there to get some apples so I can have homemade applesauce. No applesauce is better than the one my mom made. The only applesauce I like is homemade with lots of cinnamon and chunks of apples in it.

I remember watching my mom do all of this when I was little and it has been fun to try my hand at it. I always seem to talk to her more when I start these projects. How many calls and texts does it take make some new recipes? I think I have made 3 calls, and a handful of texts so far. I don’t know how she did it with us running around the house. I had no one tugging on me and I still had a tough time. There were 3 pots that boiled over and caused me to have to clean the entire stove before I could continue. Recipes that should have taken 20 minutes felt like they took hours. At one point I was hopping around the kitchen because I got molten jelly on my leg when it spilled. My mom must be a superhero. It is really the only reasonable explanation. Maybe not the only reasonable one but it is the one that makes me feel better about my struggles at canning and the fact that the kitchen looks like this when I am done.

Even with the struggles this is one of the most rewarding things I do in the kitchen. The thrill of making dinner is gone the moment I eat it and realize I need to wash the dishes. Baking the cookies at Christmas is fun and a challenge to out do myself each year but once they are shipped what is left. Canning is the kitchen project that just keeps giving. You put all of the hard work in and then you squirrel it away. You can bring it out when you have a craving or need a quick hostess gift. It is like a savings account for your ego. Every time you open your pantry and see the fruit of your labor you can beam with pride that you did that.

The biggest things I learned this weekend:

  • don’t try and do too many recipes in a day
  • you can do a batch of jam in the same amount of time you could bake cookies
  • canning recipes can be vague and you just have to learn as you go and trust yourself
  • jelly is really painful when on your skin
  • clean the kitchen and the dishes as you go
  • the sound of a jar successfully sealing is extremely satisfying
Want to learn more about canning try these great sites
Did you try any new projects this weekend? Do you can? Do you want to try?

next project: china cabinet

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My brand-new-to-me china cabinet is arriving today! My excitement over this is actually hard to contain. When it gets here I plan on filling it with a lot of dishes and then plotting it’s needed makeover.

Forgive my crooked Iphone photo from the thrift store. It was taken in haste so I could get it to Tom before he started playing golf and would be incommunicado for 4 hours. You get the idea though. It is a behemoth and is very brown. I don’t mind brown or wood as a general rule but this just isn’t the look I want. Since it isn’t stamped with a fancy designer name and I got it for an extremely reasonable price I am going to say it isn’t a collector’s piece which is why I intend to paint it. That leads to the questions of how to paint it, what color to paint it…so many ideas. Let’s start with what is going in it.

For newlyweds, how long do you get to be newlyweds, we have a lot of dishes. Our everyday dishes are a collection of Fiestaware which is fine to stay in the cabinets. What needs a home is the china we registered for, Kate Spade Bonnable pattern, a white bone china with a paisley pattern. We have eaten off these maybe twice in a year. Someday I will have a dinner party or host a holiday dinner that will demand this fancy dinnerware.

The largest of our collections is the Villeroy and Boch Design Naif, that belonged to Tom’s mom. The Villeroy and Boch collection includes candlesticks, serving pieces and even a clock. A clock that ticks so loud I have a hard time putting it in any room where I might want it quiet. I love these dishes because all the plates have different designs. Plus they are just cute and make me smile. I am very excited about having them on display and within arms reach so we can use them more often.

Now we have covered what is going in the china cabinet we can move on to how to make it over into a piece worth of thousands of pins. That is the measure of a successful makeover right? Where else do you go when you want inspiration these days? I have found some ideas on Pinterest that have really got my creative juices flowing.

Should it be a neutral with a fun back like this

Or maybe a bright color all over like this

Maybe a bright color with a fun background like this
What about white with some wood

As much as I love color I really think this is the look I want, two great neutrals that won’t take away from the dishes. Plus this looks so classic and clean. I don’t know if my rounded china cabinet will have the same effect as this though.
I can always use some fun tricks and make the back custom and temporary. That really is the perfect solution for someone like me that gets bored with a design rather quickly. If I pick a grey could I paint the coffee bar that color too? oh the possibilities…

what’s your favorite hardware store?

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Three months into the year and I have already made more trips to home improvement stores than I had in the last 5 years. Why is that you never seem to get everything you need when you are doing a project? There always seems to be that second or third trip needed to get it done. Because of this I am getting very acquainted with my local hardware stores and favorites are starting to emerge.

Home Depot has really just become the go to for supplies for most people. They are huge. They have everything. If you go on the weekdays it is a little slower but still busy with contractors. If you go on the weekends brace yourself for a lot of people that have no idea where they want to be. I suggest going early when the experienced home improvement people are shopping. I don’t mind Home Depot. The service is hit or miss. Some of the people they hire are great some not so good. Overall, I try to limit my trips there because it is across town and a little chaotic. They do have the biggest selection so sometime it is just the best option to get it all done in one trip. They really aren’t my first choice though.

If you don’t go to Home Depot you probably head to Lowe’s and never stop improving. For me the jury is still out on how much time or money I will spend at Lowe’s. I do love that they are geared a little more towards the home improvement/DIY’er and their options seem a little different. What I love the most is that on the weekdays this place feels like a ghost town. It felt like I had the store to myself yesterday. There are two with in the same distance of my house. One has amazingly nice friendly people that just seem to want to strike up a conversation. The other has grumpy paint people that only grunt and ask questions in a way that makes you think you are stupid. I won’t be going back to that one. Since these stores are so empty I love to just walk around and get ideas. It is the perfect creative playground for me to come up with the next project. Though I probably shouldn’t go back until I finish the pile of unfinished projects in the garage.

Orchard Supply Hardware, or OSH, is my go to for almost everything. They are about a mile from where we live. In case you don’t live in California Orchard is a smaller chain of hardware stores. They are smaller than Home Depot and bigger than Ace Hardware. I am certain the cashiers are starting to recognize us we are there so often. The man that sold us our circular saw, Andy, was so sweet and even asked us to come back and show him a picture when we were done making the table. I have always had great service at that store. They are a little more expensive. By that I mean if something costs $1 at Home Depot it is probably $1.15 at OSH. It is worth it for the service though.

The fact that I can tell you the name of the cashiers and employees at OSH definitely makes them my first and favorite. If they don’t have it I will head to one of the larger stores but I love my little neighborhood stores. It is nice to go into a place and be welcomed and feel like you can ask the people questions and they will enjoy helping you.

What is your favorite? Are you lucky enough to have one of the little guys to shop at?

our first project- a picnic table

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The first year of marriage is always said to be an interesting time of getting to know each other and working out kinks of how you work together. I think we have done great so far. Even with that being the case taking on building a picnic table together would probably be considered by some as a challenge better left to the second or third year of marriage.

I couldn’t find a picnic table that I liked for our backyard so I figured maybe I could just build my own. That is how this project got started. When I showed Tom the plans for the table he seemed excited about doing it as well. I think he might have initially been humoring me. I didn’t really care though because I could always finish it on my own and it sounded like fun to do it together even though I knew it would be interesting. Interesting because as far as experience goes I have more. Problem is my more isn’t much and mostly consists of watching my dad and helping him at the hardware store on the weekends. As my dad would tell you I am a great assistant. That is why even though I would have been fine building the table myself, I was happy to let Tom cut the wood that I measured.

As it turns out we work really well together. I measure, he cuts was our basic system. It took a few steps to get our rhythm worked out but by the end of day one we were still laughing. By the end of day two we were so proud of ourselves we couldn’t stop telling each other how proud we were of the table. We both went to work the next day showing off pictures of our little table.

We almost got rained out the following weekend but I managed to get the table stained. It is a stain and sealer so it will hold up better outside. The stain is by Olympic in Wedgewood. I love the color but have to admit I picked it partially because the name made me think of fancy china. Not really sure how fancy china connects to picking out a stain color for a picnic table, but there you have my scientific method of paint color choosing. I added the yellow planter box (spray painted of course) to make it a little reminder of our wedding colors and you know the backyard is all about living color fully.

We got the plans off of Ana White’s web site. If you haven’t been to her site you should check it out. She has loads of plans for all kinds of things. Each plan comes with a shopping list which makes it even easier. We used the plans for a Simple Outdoor Dining Table. Since she so nicely sums up how to make the table I am going to leave that part to her. I can however, give you some things we learned and pointers.

1. If this is going to be the first time you use a circular saw I suggest buying or finding some scrap wood and practice cutting straight. We are proud of the table but may be more proud of some of the cuts more than others. Tom got really good after some practice and we wished we had done more before we cut the top of the table. Something else Tom learned is you need to make sure the blade is tightened enough so it doesn’t wobble when you are cutting. If you don’t make it through the board quickly try checking to make sure that the blade is tight.

2. Measure all of your boards before you cut to make sure you are doing it in the right order. You can’t add wood back if you cut too much. If you are using this plan it mentions that the table slats come out of the 12′ boards and the aprons and supports come out of the 8′ boards. That is kind of true. 4 of the 8′ boards will be used for the 64.5″ cuts. The final 8′ board will be used for a 60.5″ cut and a 32.5″ cut. The other 60.5′ and 32.5′ cuts will come out of one of the 12′ boards. Then you can cut the tabletop boards out of the rest of the 12′ board.

3. We went to a lumber yard to get the wood which was nice because the guy that helped us load it picked out straighter boards for us. The boards we saw at Lowes it would have taken us hours to find boards that would have worked.

4. We spent a little more and went with redwood because it is damp here and redwood is resistant to moisture. Pine would work fine and you could probably save $20.

5. Make sure you check to see that things are square after every step. It will pay off in the end when the table is straight and level.

It was a great first project and we had so much fun we are already planning some others great projects. I think Tom has taken a real liking to this handyman thing and I may be blogging as much about his projects as my own this summer.

Have you built anything from Ana White’s website? Do you and your husband or partner work well together?

live color fully

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I have finally accepted the fact that I like a rainbow of colors in every room. I think simple clean rooms look great but they make me feel like I need to be tidy and proper and I just don’t live that way. I like vibrant, playful, happy rooms. I am sure it is why I love Le Creuset, Fiestaware and Kate Spade.


Kate Spade
One of the DIY projects for 2013 is to make the back porch summer ready. You might remember the picture of our barren back porch that I took the weekend we boxed up the Christmas lights. It certainly had potential.
I bringing my love for color to the porch. The best part about this is it is allowing me to embrace my new found love for spray paint. About the same time I admitted that I am addicted to color I realized the wonders of spray paint. I am not sure this is a coincidence. Nor am I sure which came first. It might have been the spray paint aisle that led me to realize I love color.


My current collection of spray paint. I think I own most of the blues rust-oleum makes.

Plain pots I spray painted red for a Christmas project that I was able to repurpose for summer.

Cheap owls I got at Ross. They were LED candle holders. They will hold some citronella candles for us this summer. Have to keep those bugs away.

One of two ceramic owls I got at Ross as well. I have a soft spot for owls and they fit the backyard well.

We have worked on the yard the last two weekends. Coming soon a fun story about power tools and a more complete look at the back patio.

In addition to the backyard color I found some new ways to add color to the blog. I finally found some social media icons in bright colors that I love. If you want to keep on some of the behind the scenes there are lots of ways to follow along. Maybe you have a question you want answered just send along an email. If you love the buttons as much as I do you can find them here.

coffee bar done right

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To all of you that are new to the blog, and there sure are a lot more of you these days, thanks for stopping in. I hope some of you stick around for the fun things that are coming later this year. In case you missed one of my favorite projects from last year here is a little recap.

The project I did in the last year that I am most proud of is the coffee bar. However, when I posted the finished piece in it’s new home I didn’t really give it the time it deserved so today seemed a good day to correct that wrong. You can read about the ridiculous challenges I had refinishing this piece here. It is a fun story and a great example about why you should not paint over the hardware on your cabinets. If you are looking for information on sources you can find those on this post.

The finished project has been in the house for four months and I still look at it everyday with pride. It holds everything we need for coffee, tea and the extra storage is essential in this funny kitchen that was so obviously designed by someone that doesn’t cook. Having a water cooler in the house always seemed odd to me, but it is really one of the greatest ideas we had. The coffee tastes better with this water and I drink more water because it is so conveniently the right temperature.

We have really grown the coffee cup collection since we put the shelf up. You can see more evidence of my love affair with Le Creuset. I guess I could have staged the cubbies to let you believe I have everything here looking like a magazine but that would be so far from the truth and would just feel insincere. Everything in my house is not well put together like some of the other blogs out there. It all has a home and is quite functional which is what I need out of my spaces.

You can also see the evidence of my crush on Fiestaware. I love that Fiestaware and Le Creuset both allow me to mix the colors to make for a bright cheerful kitchen. Then there is the coozie/koozie collection. That is evidence of a lot of punk shows, two years at The Fest in Gainesville, sporting events, gift from friends and even a wedding favor in there. I don’t get as much use out of them these days but like any souvenir they are great memories and it is fun to have a place to show them off and I still collect them. I love this picture because in the background you can see my favorite Gaslight Anthem poster. This poster is the inspiration for the kitchen colors and the blog design.

What project are you most proud of? Put a link in the comments so I can check out your pride and joy.