Homemade Apple Pie Filling and Applesauce

HOMEMADE APPLE PIE FILLING   This is an oldie but goodie – I’ve brought it back since fall is here and it’s time to do some canning…   Apples. Apples. AAAppples!!!! I mentioned in a recent post that I was spending hours cutting up apples a neighbor gave us for applesauce and apple pie filling to put in our freezer. Here’s a quick recap in case you are looking at two or three bags of apples and don’t know what to do with them. First I cut up a bunch into cubes with skins on and threw them into sandwich baggies for the freezer. Rather than using lemon juice to keep them from browning, I soaked them in salt water as I cut them up instead. I had read on Pinterest that someone had tried it and it worked so I tried it – besides, it was cheaper and easier. … Read more

Furniture Flipping Blueprint PRO Challenge – Member Spotlight

Furniture Flipping Blueprint PRO Challenge – Member Spotlight In June I started a challenge for my FFB members and we just completed it this month. I gave them 9 challenges along with other additions like scavenger hunts through FFB, “Name that quote”, “First one to answer this question,” etc. I challenged them to try out new products, methods and tools – it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and not reach beyond ourselves. I’m very pleased at the results! They were all good sports and really pushed themselves to experience new things including their interaction with our community. It’s been a fun ride and I’m planning my next set of challenges for after enrollment closes in September. If you’d like to join us on Furniture Flipping Blueprint and Facebook FFB PRO, enrollment is open just a few times a year. To be notified when enrollment opens, hop on my … Read more

Darbi the Guest Master Night Stand – I Got to Keep This One!

A Night Stand Named Darbi Occasionally I get to keep one of my projects. It’s super hard for me to watch my pieces go out the door when I sell them, but I comfort myself when I look down at my hand holding the cash! LOL This one came from a consignment shop we visit every couple of months. I thought it perfectly fit my daughter’s description of a side table she was looking for and the $12 price tag fit the bill too. But of course, “Best laid plans of mice and men,” as it turned out it was too tall. So sad for them, yay for me! It now sits next to our guest master king size bed. Find out more here which bed you can also use in order to have a great night’s sleep.   Here it is before:   White is a Fave of Mine … Read more

Can Furniture Become a Piece of Art?

  #sponsored ART– noun plural noun: arts; plural noun: the arts 1. The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be works produced by human creative skill and imagination. creative activity resulting in the production of paintings, drawings, or sculpture. 2. The various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance.   The 10 Foot Amish Table Had to Go For years we ate as a family of 17 at a 10 foot Amish made oak table with 4 leaves and claw feet. It suited our purpose, but when we went from a huge brood to an empty nest, that table became obsolete. We bought it in Shipshewana, an Amish town in Indiana for half the price anywhere else. Isn’t it funny how a treasure can turn into an albarross when it … Read more

DIY Tomato Cages and Gardening Tips {Love My DIY Home}

DIY Tomato Cages – Save the Maters!

It’s TOMATO GROWING TIME!   We made our own tomato cages …because those tomato cages you buy at Menards are so stinkin’ expensive! We started out with the skinny wire ones that were left in the garden by the previous owners. FAIL. Then we graduated on to the heavy duty ones – but only bought two – $8 each is crazy, don’t you think? In my uber-frugal mind that is a FAIL. When you have 50+ tomato plants there is no way you can justify $400 for cages. No way. We’d already put a grand into our new garden so there was no way we would put out another $400 for cages. If you want to hire mailbox posts, you can check it out here!  So we made our own…out of concrete reinforcing mesh. We cut up a big roll of the mesh and made about 35 of them.   … Read more

A Furniture Artisan and Videographer in the Making – 12 Year Old Isaac

A Furniture Artisan in the Making – 12 Year Old Isaac Does that sound like a title full of hype? It's all true and I'm as amazed as I promise you will be. Just keep reading…   My 12 year old grandson, Isaac, helped me put together a furniture re-design video course for kids, Creative Kids Furniture Art, by demonstrating each step – all by himself – and he did a mighty fine job to boot.   Let's Start at the Very Beginning, a Very Nice Place to Start… We set up my tripod, added my IPhone to record, and I told him what to do and he did it – start to finish.   What did he do? I had a set of matching accent tables that we bought off a FB BST site. I told him how to prep, paint and create art on the top to flip … Read more

Antique Door Hall Tree Part 2 – The Seat

#sponsored The Second Part of My Upcycled Hall Tree Project. First I painted a door for the back drop of my hall tree. See it here: Antique Door Hall Tree Part 1. Now I’m showing you the seat part I’ve attached. It was an antique radio base that I found at an antiques estate sale. The Before   MATERIALS (RED indicates affiliate links for your convenience) Old Fashioned Milk Paint Snow White Old Fashioned Milk Paint Marigold Yellow Old Fashioned Milk Paint Salem Red Scotts Rags General Finishes Gray Gel Stain General Finishes Gel Top Coat – Wipe On Polyvine Wax Finish Flat Varnish Renaissance Innovations Paint Brush   Thinking Outside the Box Since it has a flat back, there are few uses it could be upcycled for – it’s a perfect fit for a hall tree. I cleaned and sanded it, then white washed it with Snow White Old … Read more

Antique Door Hall Tree Part 1 – THE DOOR

#sponsored post   About 4 years ago… We bought several doors at an auction house that had been stripped off a house that was being torn down. The house was over 100 years old and falling apart.   Here is one, How to Upcycle an Antique Door Part One and How to Upcycle an Antique Door Part Two that I upcycled a while ago with spray paint and regular paint, making it into a hall tree that now sits in my entry way. It’s one of my favorite project to date.   Today I show you another project with another door from that house, but upcycled differently – different paint, different techniques, different colors.   THE BEFORE MATERIALS (RED indicates affiliate links for your convenience) Old Fashioned Milk Paint Snow White Old Fashioned Milk Paint Marigold Yellow Old Fashioned Milk Paint Salem Red Scotts Rags Polyvine Wax Finish Flat Varnish Robe … Read more

Carved End Table “Victoria” Turns Blue

A trip to Door County in Wisconsin has often yielded us treasures. Well, treasures to be that is. This one. This carved end table was sitting, as you can see, in a consignment warehouse. This consignment shop appears to be a quaint little shop on the main drag. But if you walk on through to the back, you will discover a huge warehouse full of furniture from days gone by – tossed aside just waiting for someone to see its potential.   I happen to be that person. This one was pretty to begin with. It had a glass top, so I’m guessing that’s hwy it was tossed aside and considered outdated.   BEFORE   Materials List (affiliate links in BOLD for your convenience) Pure & Original Greek Sky Classico CrystaLac’s grain filler and black satin CrystaLac Top Coat, Matte STIX bonding primer CrystaLac Top Coat, Matte Scott’s Rags Krud … Read more

A Shiny New Dresser for our Master

Sponsored Post   Some would correct my title and say I should use the term “chest of drawers” but I’ll stick with how I was raised and use the word “dresser” – since that is what I’ve always heard and said. I still say “pop” instead of “soda” much to the chagrin of my grandsons too. We transplanted from Michigan to Wisconsin but I still proudly carry my roots to this new soil without regret. (No mixed metaphors here) So “dresser” it is. I discovered a new product recently – Retique It. Michele, the owner of Retique It, had mentioned the product a couple of times on our Facebook Forum, Furniture Flipping Forum, so I struck up a conversation with her to find out more. She ended up sending me a whole kit to try out. I looked around my stash of furniture for just the right project on which … Read more

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