Whiteley Creek Homestead Bed and Breakfast Brainerd Minnesota

rubber duckies

 
  
Oh, I do so love it when things click so effortlessly. My neighbor had a baby and I wanted to bring a gift over, but I didn't have an overabundance of time to shop... or even to ponder too long. My daughter Heather illustrates children's books, so that was a start... a book is always nice... and a book with ducks that squeak is even better. I wanted to expand upon the theme and there it was! The cutest little Carter's set with ducks stitched onto it! (The duck head is really on the rear of the pants.) FYI, Heather's other books include: Buzz-Buzz Busy Bees (buzzing bees sound effect), Math Fables, Good Night Sweet Butterflies, Speedy Little Race Cars (vrooooming sound of race cars), Ten Tiny Fairies (twinkling lights), Rock It Sock It Number Line, Word PLay ABC (illustrated and written by Heather), and Ten Friends. They are available online at Barnes&Noble, as well as other web sites and various stores. I have copies of each title autographed by Heather for sale, as well.

April 4, 2010

Today's Mileage: 5-mile bike ride  

Total Mileage for April: 11.25 miles 

Bible reading? Yes

 

April 5, 2010

Today's Mileage: 2-mile walk  

Total Mileage for April: 13.25 miles 

Bible reading? Yes

 

April 6, 2010

Today's Mileage: 0  

Total Mileage for April: 13.25 miles 

Bible reading? Yes

 

April 7, 2010

Today's Mileage: 4.25-mile bike ride 

Total Mileage for April: 17.5 miles 

Bible reading? Yes

 

April 8, 2010

Today's Mileage: 4.75-mile bike ride 

Total Mileage for April: 22.25 miles 

Bible reading? Yes

 

 

spring blog cleaning

 

If you have been a frequent visitor to my site, you may have had the same reaction that my youngest daughter Jess had when she recently stopped by for a read. "I almost jumped back from the screen because I was surprised to see flowers. So big and bright and pretty!"  For the past couple days on my blog, I have been "rearranging furniture for a new look, picking up odds and ends strewn about and putting them back where they belong, sweeping away the cobwebs, picking a bouquet of wildflowers for the kitchen table, and throwing open the windows to let some fresh air" into my site. The impetus for the cleaning frenzy was my daughter Lisa's graphic designer eye, and simply... her new eyes peering in and providing "unsolicited" (Lisa's word) suggestions. My blog's spring cleaning is not complete, but please do stop by for a visit.  (Picture is from a Dick & Jane workbook circa 1962.) Note:  I thought it would be helpful to be "at the door to greet you"... just to reassure you that you were indeed at the right blog address. So, for yesterday's post, I moved an older post into that position... one with a photo of me and a bit of an introduction.  

staples ink recycling

Gather together your empty ink cartridges (any brand) and head over to your neighborhood Staples for a heckova deal, but don't tarry. The offer ends the day after tomorrow on Saturday, December 19, 2009.

 
Staples, on a regular basis, offers $3.00 in store credit for each empty ink cartridge with an allowable maximum of ten per month but, with this particularly generous offer, you can earn $6.00 per cartridge for a limited time (November 30, 2009 - December 19, 2009) if you spend $50.00 on HP ink and recycle empty cartridges in the same day. Would you believe that I happened to stop by Staples on November 30 (the 1st day of the offer) to purchase some black ink and even had 10 empty cartirdges with me?!! This is significant because, since it was the final day of November I was able to take advantage of the 10 per month restriction and then turn in 10 more in the month of December. Below is my November recycling summary which shows I earned $30.00 in-store credit for the month of November (10 cartidges x $3.00 ea. = $30.00 x 2 (double offer) = $60.00. This report is received via email after you set up an online account on staples.com. 

 
Here's my reward certificate for the month of November that I received in the mail yesterday...

 
and I still have a $60.00 reward certificate coming yet for the cartridges I recycled this month (December). That's $120.00 I earned with two separate trips to Staples and a minimum purchase of $50.00 of printer ink each time! Now that makes me happy... very happy. You can be happy too...  

 

farmhouse white kitchen cupboards

The big unveiling has finally arrived. The kitchen cupboard painting project is complete. This is the Martha Stewart "Hollyhock Red" paint that covered the original dark walnut stain. I liked the red color, but I have just one small window over the kitchen sink that looks out onto my screened backporch and it was way too dark. Kitchens need to be bright and cheerful, so it's five years later and I started all over.

The cupboards are now what I have dubbed farmhouse white. That's really not the official paint color name because I had Sherwin Williams do a color match. There is no name... just a formula on the paint can.

Peeking out at the top of the photo, notice the rolling pin for a curtain rod. I have a pair of them that the curtains' tabs are tied onto. They carry out the theme of the kitchen's decor... the old silverware hook door handles and measuring cup and cookie cutter drawer pulls. To change things up a bit and add variety, there are wooden knob drawer pulls interspersed throughout. It turned out just as I had envisioned. Now if I could figure out where I could build a walk-in pantry and make room for a table in the middle of the kitchen instead of in a separate dining room, I would truly have a farmhouse kitchen. Hmmmm...  

measuring cups and wooden knobs

Old metal measuring cups in 1/4, 1/3, 1/2. and 1 cup sizes attached to drawers of graduated depths make perfect kitchen cabinet drawer pulls. 

As do wooden knobs... so old fashioned.

... and cookie cutters.

 

kitchen cabinet door hardware

When I decided to do a kitchen cabinet makeover, I wanted the door and drawer hardware to have a fun twist. Silverware hooks seemed to fit the criteria.

 
First I scoured thrift stores, yard sales, and antique stores for old silverware. Spoons and forks were readily available but butter knives... not so much, although I have a few. We found the handles on regular knives too think to bend.

 

Here's how to bend the silverware. We took a short-handled sledge hammer and pounded flat the part of the spoon or fork that enters your mouth... the part that the food sets on. Next, we flipped the piece of silverware over and whacked that side to further flatten it. It isn't necessarty to use a rubber sledge hammer to whack it, but I imagine you could. To get the curve that forms the hook, we manually bent it around a piece of pipe. If it is too stubborn to bend, you can help it along with a hammer. Finally, we drilled a hole where the screw will go. Notice, in the photo of the hooks attached to the cupboard doors, that the bottoms of the hooks are at the same level but the screw holes are not. If you prefer that the holes and the bottoms of the hooks both match up, mark the holes with a pencil after positioning them on your doors to determine where to drill the holes. We predrilled all of the holes beforehand because we didn't have a particular use for them in mind when we made them. Imperfect is good.

 

  
 
 

kitchen cabinet paint and drawer knobs

This old hutch in my dining room was the inspiration for my kitchen cabinets redo. I wanted a farmhouse kitchen cupboard white color, so I took a drawer into Sherwin Williams Paints for a computerized match. 

In addition, I wanted to reproduce the look of the hutch's drawers, so I found some wooden knobs at Menards that came two in a package with screws. Now here is where it gets fun... Look at what Dick came up with to use as a paint drying rack... a garden rake that was missing the handle.  So ingenious.

kitchen cabinets... pre

In an email that I received from my daughter Lisa yesterday, she simply stated, "ok... so i'm getting sort of tired of the stewed prunes picture." Like Lisa, if you have been checking my blog lately, you haven't seen much going on... just the prunes for 9 days. I have been doing things. For starters, I have been painting my kitchen cabinets. Here's a "before" photo. I only had one little corner left that had some of the old color... Martha Stewart Hollyhock Red... that I am painting over top of. It's not that I disliked the red color that covers a dark 1970s stain. The problem is that I only have a single small window over my kitchen sink and, when we added our backporch 13 years ago, I no longer had direct sunlight streaming in. Therefore, I needed to brighten up the kitchen by altering the one thing that would create the most impact... the cabinets.

So I have been painting... with some time out today to bake a batch of iced ginger cookies. It was that kind of day... a chilly autumn cookie baking kinda day.

 

clothesline

 

Oh, how I love to hang laundry outside... especially on these pre-autumn days in Minnesota when the morning and late evening/night are slightly crisp, the daytime shadows are different... longer, and the sumac has changed into its seasonal hues.

stain remover

This 3/4 length sleeve top... I wear a lot... on days that it is not too hot but not too cold either... it's just right, so when I dripped something on it I was sad. I grew more sad as every attempt to remove the spot failed.

 

...until my friend Connie invited me to a Norwex Product Presentation at her house and I won a prize when my name was drawn. It was a tiny bottle of Norwex dishwashing liquid. The label indicated that it could also be used as a "stain remover for clothes. Remember a little goes a long way." With my optimism meter on the low end, but determined that the spot was not going to outsmart me, I decided to give it a try. I squirted a little on the spot, rubbed it in, and the spot began to disappear before my eyes! Yes, it did. It really did! I was as happy as the girl pictured on the front of the Norwex catalog. The dishwashing liquid/stain remover impressed me so much, I went straight to the phone to order a bottle which will be delivered in the next few days... ready and waiting for the next spot that dares to defy me.

  

Note: The wrinkles in my top are because I pulled it out of my soiled laundry hamper to take the photo. After I launder it and toss it in the dryer with my Norwex "porcupine" dryer balls, it will be wrinkle-free. Yes, I know... I should be a Norwex consultant.