Have a Seat

The Truth: We went six months without chairs for our kitchen table.

The Explanation: We have an awesome little tulip style table that I bought for my first post-college apartment and I had great directors chairs that I used for seating. It was my first place of my own and that set up was my favorite part of my apartment. Future Hubby entered the picture and was less than thrilled about the chairs.

Eventually, we moved in together, to a cute little house with a real dining room. We inherited a vintage dining set from his family, so we sold my chairs and moved the table to the basement. A few years later we move to the lakeshore and back into a much smaller space. The dining set was passed onto other family members and we brought the tulip table back into daily use..... except we now had no chairs.

I continue to be in love with these chairs, and someday, when we have room for a large table again, we will end up buying these.

Photo Credit: Pottery Barn

For now, we were looking for something budget friendly, that wouldn't take up a lot of space.

I bought two of these chairs at Goodwill for $10 total. My grandmother had this style table and chairs in her kitchen (in Maple... not this paint scheme) when I was growing up and I always loved them. They are seriously comfortable chairs. I've spend hundreds, maybe thousands of hours sitting in Grandma's chairs, just like these, so they had a pretty big sentimental pull too.

The Nitty Gritty: These paint on these chairs is UUUGLY! It was also very poorly done in multiple coats. I am a super impatient person and it paid off this time. I ran across automotive spray primer at our home improvement store. It is thicker than regular spray primer and it has very slight texture. My goal was to avoid sanding off the old paint and I thought this might even things out enough to avoid it. I put on 3 very thin coats of automotive primer and then covered it with 4 coats of Krylon gloss Cherry Red. The automotive primer made the paint even without all the sanding. It is not perfect, but for a quick job, I'm quite happy.

Future Hubby brought some polycrylic top coat to help seal it all. It will probably get a good sanding and one more coat of red before I seal it.

The Verdict: Future Hubby is not thrilled about the color. I am. Without the polycrylic they seem to be holding up well, but will do even better with the topcoat. They probably do need a little sanding. There are no ultimate short cuts, sadly. However, there are products that make things a bit easier.

In the end I LOVE these chairs. The solid color highlights the shape of the chair, which is classic farmhouse. I also think of my Grandma every time I sit in them, and about the hours we spent in the kitchen together. I never would have thought such a basic thing would turn my cookie-cutter rented kitchen into the homiest room in our house.

Snow Storm Scramble

We are at the end of a brilliant three day weekend, which means it feels like Sunday, and I’m pretty disappointed that Downton Abbey isn’t on tonight…. because it’s not really Sunday.

Anyway, Saturday was my birthday and Future Hubby took me to Grand Rapids to see the Great Lakes Shipwreck exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum and then out for dinner at HopCat. If you are anywhere near Grand Rapids, MI, go to HopCat, order the ultimate mac and cheese with your favorite add-ins and a local beer. Do it!  So, long story short, there has been threat of a mighty winter storm, so we ate dinner with the early crowd to make it back home before dark . 

Dark came and so did the storm.  Fifty mile-per-hour winds and snow. The winds were so strong they were rattling every window in our old townhouse. It was so loud that Matt ran around our house about 10:30pm stuffing foam insulation into the window tracks to quiet things down enough so we could get to sleep. 

And Sunday it snowed. And today it snowed. Which put a real kink in my usual schedule…that includes buying groceries for the week on Monday morning, meaning things in our pantry are meager at best. What is a girl to do?

Use what you’ve got and make galette! Alana Chernilla (my food hero… everyone needs one and I would recommend her) has a great post about one here. I use the crust recipe in her post and it works beautifully every time. So boogie on over there, read the post and get the crust recipe. I’ll be here waiting….  go on… 

Great, you’re back! So let’s talk about how I made the galette that saved my butt during a dinner crisis during a winter storm. When you last were here, we had almost no rational food in our house. 

So I whipped up a crust, filled it with odds and ends and made this:

You too can make one with what you have on hand!

(Sorry the photos are a bit wonky.. there hasn't been any natural light all day)

First, the crust. 

Mix the flour and salt and cut in HALF of the butter (I did this in my food processor, because I was lazy tonight… you can do it with a pastry cutter or a fork too). 

Gently toss in the rest of the butter. You want it to stay in big lumps (I transferred to a bowl at this stage).

Slowly add water and mix with a fork. 

Carefully put the dough together with your hands. The warmth of your body will help it meld together, but not too much handling, this is a pastry crust. Then pop it into the fridge while you prep your fillers. 

This is the fun part. My formula for these is always cheese + root vegetable + something else. Tonight that looked like this Ricotta (extra from lasagna last night) + Yukon gold potatoes (on sale at the grocery last week) + bacon (6 strips left, looking sad in my freezer). 

Future Hubby said that this was his favorite filling combo ever and I should buy ingredients to make it again on purpose, not because I was desperate. 

Spread your cheese on the bottom leaving about 4 inches around the edge. 

Layer on your root veggie (I added some parmesan cheese on top of the potatoes). If you slice them thin they don't have to be pre-cooked, but if you have leftovers cooked potatoes or yams would be fine.

Sprinkle on your something else (this could be ANYTHING…nuts, veggies, bacon, sausage, chicken… you get the idea, right?).

Fold up the sides and press down to seal it together a bit. 

Put it on a baking stone or sheet and bake at 400 for 30-45 minutes. Make sure that if you are using a baking stone you put a cookie sheet on the next rack down. This crust is FULL OF BUTTER and it will fill your kitchen with smoke if it drips onto the bottom of your oven (and then you will have to clean your oven.. making this the worst dinner ever). Trust me, I know. 

Remove and let cool for about 10 minutes (molten cheese is bad).

Then do a little dance, because you made dinner when there was NOTHING in your house!

Savvy, Stylish Storage

A huge part of the idea of “homesteading” for me is making do with what we have and being content with it. Well, I have to admit, I’ve been pretty unhappy with my coat closet. It’s your typical set up from a rental, a rail for coats and a shelf with way too much space. So I’ve been slowly working on increasing its functionality and making it something I’m not terrified of our guests opening (for fear of the mess  they will see or something falling out on them). I fell in love with the idea of numbered baskets or storage boxes like these to stow our outerwear accessories (gloves, scarves, hat, umbrellas, etc.) and paper products that also live in that closet. 

 Architectural Digest

If you didn’t guess… these are EXPENSIVE. Similar ones at the big box stores were cheaper, in price and construction, but still, I felt like spending equivalent to my weekly grocery bill on baskets or storage boxes was extravagant and hardly fit my  “make do” attitude. Not to mention the store that has my favorite contenders, I’m currently boycotting.  

Having moved recently, we happen to have a plethora of boxes flat stacked in a corner of our basement that for which we paid little to no money. So, with two boxes (that just happened to fit perfect in my closet…. standard size + standard size = success!) some kraft paper from my gift wrapping stash and a sharpie I made my own numbered storage boxes for free. These would not stand up to high traffic areas or children’s rooms.  If you are looking for attractive storage that won’t be abused or used on a daily basis though, this might be your answer. You could cover these with a multitude of gift wrapping papers or fabric and label them in a million ways to suit your style. This is just a simple step by step meant to inspire! I’d love to see what you are using for creative storage at your house!

 Tape the bottom of the box securely and cut the top flaps off the box. An old serrated knife works great for this. 

Cut your paper (or fabric) so that there is 1-2 inches of overhang on the top and bottom. Wrap it around like wrapping a package. When you get to the top, wrap the paper under and tape securely all the way along the top (this area will get the most hand contact and I wanted mine to last a while). 

Next, I printed the labels on regular computer paper (I used Engravers MT font on these). Cover the back of the paper in chalk, lay it on the box and trace the numbers with a pencil. It will transfer onto your paper (or fabric) and you can then trace with a marker (or paint).

Voila! Now I have some awesome (free) storage bins that will hide a multitude of household sins in a stylish way!