One Drawer Done, A Million to More to Go…

A close second behind being able to paint walls and replace fixtures, being able to custom organize is one of my favorite things about being a homeowner. All through my college and our saving-for-a-house years, I had a hard time buying things to organize with that were specific to the current address.

Beyond a few basic closet baskets and a silverware divider, I really just lived with what I had, buying only the most necessary containers.

Not any more :)

So in addition to my laundry list of “dream house” projects, finding the perfect organizing solutions for every closet, drawer, garage shelf is something I have in the back of my head whenever I’m at Target or the Trifecta (Costco, Lowes, Home Depot- all next door to each other, just 3 miles away…. dangerous, I tell ya…). Organizing gear tends to be spendy, it certainly is with the lovely Container Store, but I figure adding pieces little by little and with a little persistent searching and creativity it doesn’t have to be.

I have two kitchen drawers I have been on the look out for  solutions: my extra-wide silverware /cooking utensil drawer and my same-sized knife /small utensil drawer.

A quick loop through the kitchen storage aisle at Target garnered a pack of drawer compartments in nearly exactly the overall dimensions I needed for the sweet price of $10. My only regret is not finding it sooner.

Perfection:

Added bonus: the little bits of cardboard used in the packaging wedged perfectly in the inch or so gap between the containers and the back of the drawer so they won’t slide around.

Knife / utensil drawer: done.

A Place to Eat

The dining room was one of the first rooms I thought I could tackle since we owned a formal dining table set already. How much really is involved in a dining room anyway?

Riiiiiight.

Here’s how it looked on move-in day:

While separated with partial walls from both the formal living room and the kitchen, the space isn’t all too large and really functions also as a passage through to the back of the house. But it fits a regular sized table and chairs with some extra wiggle room. What more do you really need?

As with every window in the house, these fugly floral-y, pastel-y heavy drapes graced the window. The chandelier was made of brass and dusty thick glass panels. And of course builder-grade white walls. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Honestly, anything I did would have been an improvement.

Early on we changed out the lighting to a brushed nickel and alabaster white fixture that was much more our style. Total score from Costco for something crazy like $60. Even as brand new home owners we knew that was a good deal. Eventually I was brave enough to commit to some new drapes. I got the same as in the living room-a thermal-backed faux silk in navy.

But just like all other rooms in the house, it sat like that for a few months. I had no idea what else to do with the space.

Eventually I painted it the same Navajo Sand as the living room, then realized I already owned the perfect artwork, then realized I already owned the bookcases that would work wonderfully as two mini hutches, then I realized I now had a place to display all my servingware. I was in business and I didn’t even know it.

May I present to you my formal dining room-

 

Left “hutch”- vase and Margo servingware from Crate and Barrel, crystal candlestick holders,  vintage silver plated footed bowl from a thrift store (even came with an awesome golden tarnish), seagrass baskets from Target that hold bud vases, bar tools, pillar candles, etc.

 

Right “hutch”- vintage white and red wine glasses, vintage liquor decanters and mirrored tray (gifted, thrifted, and estate-saled), large popcorn bowl (totally matches my Margo servingware, but subtly says POPCORN in raised letters, total thrift store score- love, love, love it), a matching basket that holds napkins, placemats, and rings.

I originally bought this three-panel beauty to be over-the-headboard art back at our old place. But then we moved into La Casa de Turquoise where a window had become our new over-the-headboard “art”. So my tree art got demoted to the living room. But then George came along and he had other plans……. Wait…. How did I not realize it sooner? Duh. Perfect for the open wall in the dining room.

And then there were the accessories:

A super simple centerpiece- hurricane vase, seashells, chunky white pillar candle. Done.

A little vase arrangement I pieced together from a zillion inspirations out in the blogosphere. Again, it was all just another vague idea in the back of my head, and then there they were- sitting on a thrift store shelf like right next to each other, all three, whispering to me. 

How could anyone else not see how gorgeous they were??

Thrift store serendipity, I’m telling you. It really does exist.

Actual vintage containers (at least I pretend they are :). The squaty decanter is stamped with some winery’s name, the middle one has some monogram looking stamp it it, and the tall one has a grape branch etching.

Here’s to you again Pottery Barn and your crazy ridiculously-priced vases.

  Mine are cooler anyways :) Two ovesized flowers, two oversized leaves, and a left over pussy willow branch from my mantelscape arrangement.

 

Clean, simple,  functional with functional pieces, mix of old and new, mix of formal and casual. Love.it.

Dining room- Done.

Fresh Apricot Scones

 Having already made a batch of apricot jam as well as canned apricots, I still had half my stash of fresh apricots left. What does one do with apricots? I ask my husband. Why not apricot scones? he replies.

How did I not think of that sooner. Such a man of my heart. I love, love, love scones and still have daydreams of the scones from Friday Harbor. Now, I wasn’t kidding myself about how much on my stash one batch of scones would use up, but at least I could get some homemade scones out of the deal.

Some googling revealed recipe after recipe that used dried apricots, but I finally found this one printed on a few different sites so it must be good right? Additionally, the original source is the Washington State Fruit Commission and it is Washington State apricots that I am trying to get rid of baking with. I must say they turned out pretty darn good for a girl who has only made one batch of very mediocre scones years ago.

2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, diced
1 cup diced fresh apricots (I ended up using 5 whole apricots)
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs

Mix dry ingredients (except for 1 tablespoon sugar) together, add in butter until mixture forms a crumble. Add apricots in, mix; then add in milk and eggs. Mix together. (My dough was pretty sticky by this point so I added probably another 3/4 cup flour).

Preheat oven to 450. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough gently about 10 times (I was using a ton of flour again). Place dough on a lightly oiled baking sheet and form into a 3/4 inch high circle. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar then cut into 8 wedges.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes (mine needed the full 15 minutes) or until golden brown.

Mantel 1.0

I have never had a mantel to call my own until we bought our house. The tricky thing about them is that when accessorized well they look so good in a totally effortless way. Like you don’t even think much about how someone laid it out, because it’s “so obviously” simple and easy. I knew better, so I did nothing with ours for several months knowing full well I needed to do some serious research in order not to get ridiculously frustrated, wondering “why does my mantel suck?”

Not to mention the question of the home decor ages: How in the world does one balance clutter with personality? Ugh, a mantel is 100% decorative, 0% utility. Have I told you how much I hate clutter?

I looked for inspiration word-by-word directions (let’s be real) by my favorite bloggers. Layla from The Lettered Cottage has not only done a fabulous job creating an amazing mantel (literally, like a wood mantel “slipcover”), but also redecorates for the seasons. I took a lot of inspiration from her spring mantelscape :

I loved the crisp white with the greenery. I loved the pottery. I love the dark walnut stain. I wanted it.

This girl is amazing.

Here is her recent summer mantelscape:

Love the beachy-ness. Love the flag with starfish stars- wouldn’t something like that look awesome hanging on a front door (scaled down, of course)?

Slowly I developed a vague “mantel wish list”:

A pitcher or chunky, opaque vase
A chunky candle holder or two, maybe a small lantern
A giant starfish or two
Some sort of art that doesn’t break the bank

Pretty quickly I found these gems in a thrift store for maybe two bucks each:

I love thrift store finds the most when they have been ugly-fied by their previous owners and therefore no one else can see their potential. Both the pitcher and the lantern were dusty and dollied up with ugly ribbon things.

A wedge of green floral foam, a few stems of grasses, white orchards, and pussy willows and my pitcher was complete. What’s funny is that after I brought it home, I revisited Layla’s spring mantel post and realized that it is in fact the exact same Martha Stewart white pitcher that she bought a a thrift store too. Why are people tossing such a pretty pitcher?

Another trip a day or two later yielded the antiqued turquoise Ball canning jar. It’s even a fancy Bicentennial jar from 1976. A total treasure for like a dollar.

Another thing I love about thrifting is that it seems so serendipitous all.the.time. I always seem to find exactly what I am looking for when I only have a vague idea of what I want and I always seem to find related things all in the same or trip or two.

As for the lantern, I snipped the ribbon, washed it, unscrewed the candlestick piece and stuck a pillar in it. Didn't even need to spraypaint this baby. I even left the rusty bits for authenticity. Done.

Some seashells and a decorative glass floater from the craft store and my mantel decorations were complete. I probably spent like maybe $25 total.

So here’s to you, Pottery Barn.

And your $40 pitcher.

With your $50 lantern:

I kept the artwork clean and simple. Two walnut-stained, white-matted frames from Target and two black and white 8x10s from our San Juan Islands getaway last month.

Here’s the full-frontal shot with our fifth-time’s-a-charm wall paint color:

I know, I know. More chunky white candles of varying heights and a scattering of seashells could totally be added, but I am going to keep it simple for now.

We love how the paint choice came out. It comes off as a little more grey-blue than grey or grey-green-blue as the paint chip seemed. But I can’t get enough of it. I heart it.

Future projects (besides new flooring :-) include painting out the brass “accent” with high-temp black, an idea picked up from many bloggers also in possession of mid 1990s subdivision homes.

Not sure if I will attempt a fall mantelscape- this one was enough for me for a while. Hopefully, though I can pull something together for the winter season.

A Home for George

A couple of months ago, I inherited the most amazing gift. A huge oil portrait of my great-great-great grandfather, George. He was the ultimate game changer.

Here’s George the first day I huge him in our formal living room:

We had done nothing with that room yet. And you can clearly see how white the walls still were.

Finally, I have been able to add little by little, working in the quite antiqued, quite ornate gold, gold, gold frame into my brushed nickel, light and airy, cool tones, beach-y feel home.

I guess like so many things in life, you know it works when it looks effortless. I have spent hours going back and forth about what to do in this room, which colors, which pillows, which accessories would make George feel welcomed and loved in our so-not gold and ornate home. I took a few photos today of my progress, and in looking at them on the computer my first thought was how pretty straightforward they looked. It’s a learning process, maybe I’ll keep it for awhile, maybe I’ll change it up in a month. For now, I like the layout and I think I’m doing a pretty good job with George.

A large potted palm, a few pillows, one small vase, one picture, one table lamp made of glass (so I didn’t have to make the awful decision between ORB, gold, or brushed nickel). Leaving it at that.

…Though some picture frame molding in crisp white would look divine…. in time, in time.

The wall color is Navajo Sand (Glidden). It’s a very subtle, sandy light tan/beige. With the living room being two stories tall and so open to the dining room, stairwell, and hall way, we decided to do just one color- a color we didn’t want to be changing anytime soon. It is pretty light, but exactly what we wanted.

 
The bay windows have navy thermal drapes and a oil-rubbed bronze tone curtain rod- brushed nickel just would not have worked. That was a hard choice to make in light of George’s gold, gold, gold frame. Although this is and likely will be the only ORB fixture in the house, I think it was a good choice. I am the most matchy-matchy person- at least the style is the exact same :) Drapes from JC Penneys, rod from Target.

That teal carpet is heinous. Yes, yes I know. It’s departing sometime this month we hope! We will be replacing it with some pet-friendly Pergo. Once we do that, we’ll be moving the matching sofa (told ya) in here at it will be complete.

The entry table is on the other side of the room by the front hallway. Another layout I’ve been constantly tweaking. I know, totally silly, but all of this is fresh for me. Trying to make my house a home and feel warm, but avoid overdoing all the cliché candles, vases, bowls, picture frames, doo-dads that cause clutter and chaos.

A basket for library books, extra pillows awaiting their sofa, bowl for keys, bamboo houseplant still going strong after fours years, one picture, and two matchy but still “in-the-background” vases.  Okay, so I didn’t do so well on avoiding said vase or picture frame, but I did limited myself: )

As you can see, all our “wood” is a middle tone, honey oak which photographs so orange-y (yuck). Not my favorite, but I am really not interested in painting all our trim and “woods” white, no matter how “in” it is right now or how perfect it would look with the cool tones we’re picking throughout the house. This poor girl has a zillion more projects higher up on the list, so I won’t even let myself daydream about white baseboards and banisters.

All in all, our current state of living room is far better than what we started with:

 

The previous owner left us a naked lady fountain-light combo. Filled the nook by the front door pretty well. Henious to look at though. Thankfully, our realtor loved it. No joke. She took it off our hands the day we moved in. We think a Christmas tree just might find itself their this winter.

  

The giant blank wall where George hangs out now. Those walls go up light 20 feet. Thank God for gifted 4-foot tall artwork.

Canned Apricots

I still have a load of fresh apricots left from my 26 pound flat. You can only eat so much apricot jam, which I made a batch of yesterday. So it’s on to canning them, but seriously how many canned apricots can one person have? What in the world else can you do with apricots?? Oh my goodness, I bought way too many apricots. The seven pints I canned today used up maybe 5 pounds. I still have like 12 pounds left.

This time I followed a recipe I found in You Can Can by Better Homes and Gardens:

 

I desperately bought this after I foolishly thought I could check out a canning book from the library. Yeah… right. Height of the summer and I thought I could snag a canning book from the library, plucking it right off the shelf all lonely and patiently waiting for me. What was I thinking? :)

I needed a book and I needed one fast. I had fruit sitting at home ripening by the minute. This one has photos of every single recipe and the title helped calm my nerves after realizing 26 pounds is A LOT. Perfect. So even though it’s too new to have high Amazon ratings, I think I did pretty good. I had a hard time using it for jam, since I had to make it hard and go with no/low-sugar jam, which isn’t included in the book. But it made for a good cross- reference.

For canning apricots, I followed the directions for peaches, noting their tables saying that apricots need to be “hot packed” not “raw packed” like peaches. I crossed-referenced with this resource- National Center for Home Food Preservation out of the University of Georgia (definitely bookmark worthy!). Their directions matched, so I felt good to go.

Wash and cut ripe apricots in half or fourths. I ended up using about 5 pounds, which filled exactly the 7 pint jars I had.

Then pour in a large pot along with the syrup you want. I went with something between light and medium. I used 5 cups of water with 2 cups of sugar (Syrup ratios here). Bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, get your canning pot boiling lids and rings sterilized (as you can see my stove top is pretty busy).

Once boiling, begin pouring into sterilized jars, cover with lids and rings (this is called “hot packing”). I learned quickly to fill using both slotted spoon and a ladle in order to control the perfect amount of fruit verses syrup.

Place in canning pot and “process” (boil) according to altitude. I’m just above sea level, so 20 minutes was all I needed for pint-sized jars. Let cool on cooling rack. Check that lids seal.

Important note: These steps are merely my narration of the steps I took. These are not word-for-word directions from a reputable source (like a published book or government website). Please consult those when canning. I come across a couple of other blogs (even one from a very reputable local restaurant) with directions using the “raw packing”, which my sources specifically say not to do (don’t know why, maybe it’s harmless), proving to me not to follow a blog’s sole directions for anything canning related.

Jam Session

Two years ago I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and loved every single page of it. She is a writer living on some acreage with her family and they decide to in-source all their food for a year by growing, raising, and making it themselves, buying it locally or, except for a few exceptions, go without. What an awe-inspiring experiment and a way of life. My husband would never go for it. I suppose neither would our HOA. To dream….

Anyways… One of the things I couldn’t wait to do when we got a house (besides renovate, paint, decorate, etc.) was to grow my own veggie garden and can. Well this spring was like the worst on record, so not much has happened in the veggie garden. I’m still holding out hope for my four tomato plants.

My mom canned a little when I was growing up. Nothing crazy like a full winter’s worth of green beans and pickles, but certain jams, applesauce, and things like pears and peaches. I wanted to at least try that.

Earlier this month she gave me her canner, so now I needed the fruit. I picked up some blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and apricots this weekend. After a detour for some jars, pectin, and extra sugar I was set…..

Until I got home….. and realized just how much I had bought. A “canning flat” of 26 pounds of apricots sounds like a deal until the recipe calls for 3 pounds to make one batch, which is like 5 to 7  jars. Opps.

After a few moments of freaking out, not to mention a sense of overwhelming-ness when every single recipe I consulted said something totally different (the directions that came with the pectin were soooo confusing I refused to use them), here’s what I came up with using the website pickyourown.org:

5 cups of fruit
1 package of no/low-sugar pectin
2 cups Splenda
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon butter

I made three low-sugar batches:
Strawberry-raspberry (3 cups, 1 cup)
Strawberry-raspberry-blueberry (2 cups, 1.5 cup, 1.5 cup)
Apricot

Wash and cut up fruit, then mash up. For the apricots, I ran them through the food processer. Pour in a large pot and bring to a rolling boil, stirring to keep from burning. Add the pectin and stir in. Bring back to a boil, add sugar, Splenda, and butter (this eliminates the foaming that occurs and helps prevent burning). Boil for 1 minute.

Fill sanitized jars and cover with lids and rings. Place in boiling water in a canning pot. Let sit for 5-7 minutes after it has returned to a boil.

Cool on cooling rack, checking the jar lids have sealed and the jam is setting.

This amount, makes anywhere from 5 to 7 8oz. jelly jars of jam so make sure you have enough plus some ready for each batch. I was quite surprised how each batch resulted in different amounts finished jam.

In the end, I think I did alright as a novice without any help. My last batch certainly was faster and more smoothly than my first. My next adventure will be in canning the rest of the apricots, since I still have like 20 pounds left. Stay tuned for that :)

Important note: The above directions are not obviously word-for-word of the directions I used. They can be found here. Please use a trusted source when canning and follow those directions. Because I used a no/low-sugar pectin, I had some freedom in the amount of sugar I did use, something not true with regular pectin, which requires a certain amount of sugar.