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Design / Shopping
These items have an ethereal dreamy kind of styling, and I wish with all my heart that one day I might own something this beautiful to display upon open my shelving. I suppose I will have to wait till the kids are grown, and by kids, I mean my monster mash, and by grown I mean…willing to sit still for longer than a half second. *sigh* … a girl can dream can’t she?
Rustic in their design and industrial in their makeup, his pieces have a bit of delicate shine that had me at first gasp! According to the write up on this article and product description (also the place of purchase in case any of you are trying to figure out what to by me for Mother’s Day aside from more tools, hint hint!), Peter Ivy was originally making simplified works for personal use while living in the US, it wasn’t until moving to Japan that he found a connection between his style sensibility as a maker and the culture in Japan. I for one couldn’t be more glad of this… and these items have officially been added to my lust list!
To see other items on my Lust List, click here. For a little Retail Therapy, click here. If you would like to submit product tips or retail stores for consideration, please contact me here with low res images or a link.
Build / Home / Studio
So, it turns out I’m afraid of heights! Who knew? Really afraid of heights… and shaky ladders, and doing tasks on shaky ladders at really high heights…eek! But what an amazing day of accomplishments it was for me, and one I will hopefully repeat often! Well perhaps not the shaky ladder 25-30 feet in the air hanging stucco wire at the apex of an A-Frame roof line…but the volunteering for a day of hard work for a really good cause! The day of the build, it was warm, not hot, and yet I still managed to sunburn my guts out, and my allergies were kicked into overdrive. Yet still, I managed to overcome my fear of heights and do something I never in my life imagined I would do! I am so proud of myself and the gals who were working on this same task alongside me, and our leader Christine! She was the gal with the know-how, who taught us and helped with this monumental job we were taking on. Little did we know how trying and difficult this job would be when we meagerly raised our hands at the beginning of the day. Reality set in quickly. We actually thought that perhaps after lunch that we would be replaced by others and get an easier job that was possibly inside or at least didn’t involve a ladder. I see now that this would have been silly since it would have required the fill-in gals to relearn what we had already figured out and become moderately proficient in. Not to mention, I somehow think there wouldn’t exactly have been an overabundance of volunteers for this particular job… Where to begin…well let’s see…the sign on the project site, made me proud! I know, probably silly, but true nonetheless!
I have to tell you…this neighborhood and the area surrounding it, not to mention the house itself, were absolutely beautiful! Shock and awe, as I suppose I was expecting something a little lesser and not quite so nice. The houses on the street of the project site are pretty amazing. You can see in the images below that the house itself will be something of a master piece when it’s complete. Tiled roof, covered patio, and with all of that stucco wire hung, she is ready for them to spray her down and one step closer to completion! Exciting right?
And here is a bit of a look at our task of finishing off the remaining space on the south side of the house that still needed the stucco wire. The highest part and also the apex of the roof line, which meant that the stucco wire needed to not only be hung and nailed in place, but trimmed into the appropriate shape for this remaining section. It’s not that stucco wire is particularly heavy on it’s own, but let me tell you it puts up quite a fight and with your hands in the air, raised up over your head, the task of pushing it into place and swinging a hammer to nail it down and cut it into the proper shape, while the giant roll of the wire is trying to eat your head and throw you to the ground, is a struggle I simply can’t put into words for you all! You can see the hanging piece below that was our greatest foe.
The two gals below trimming out the vent with the snips, 25 feet in the air and nailing it down while they were at it…no easy task! Aren’t they incredible? I am proud to have worked with these 2 ladies in particular, Bianca and Vivian, because Vivian was fearless, and so she really punched the clock on this project…but Bianca, just like me, is afraid of heights. The 2 of us really had a lot to overcome to even get up on the ladder in the first place, much less move around once we were up there! She was braver than I, and faced her fears head on…so proud… and really gave me the courage to go up there and give it a go, myself. If she hadn’t have done it, I am not so sure I could have. It was that scary! I mean…really, if you didn’t think it was scary for the first part of the day, putting the ladder at a 30 degree angle over the neighbors fence would probably have done the job! Vivian was up there like a champ, not afraid in the slightest bit, but becoming a bit weary after an entire day of climbing up and down the ladder and tackling this project. That alone is enough to make you want to run home crying like a little baby (trust me, I thought about it!) then you factor in having to raise, lower, level the ground, and move that ladder every foot or so, it was truly an exhausting day. And the snipping, snipping, snipping away of the wire was killer on the old arms, I don’t care to revisit that anytime soon!
This wire put up a struggle there is no doubt about it, but in the end we finally beat that sucker into submission and man did it feel amazing to know that we were able to not only conquer our fears but get the job done, and done well! There were moments I wasn’t sure the outcome would be quite as fabulous as it really was, like when we had to place the ladder on the other side of the fence to finish a small section at the top, and it gave me a moment of pause for sure! But we did it, and just look how amazingly we were able to snip and shape that dang wire, perfectly right up against the roof line! Beautiful no?
A job well done, by one and all, but honestly, especially by our small group. We had the toughest job that was likely done on the entire build up to this point, and probably tougher than any job yet to come. We left this day feeling tired, shaky, and absolutely ecstatic to be finished, but nothing quite compared to seeing the job finished and admiring our work, knowing all of the fears we overcame to do it! I have a new appreciation for home building, it’s no joke! And I can’t wait to get back out there, and do it all over again…maybe a job on the ground would be a good place to start (fingers crossed)! If you would like to check out Habitat for Humanity build sites near you, visit their website and poke around a bit. You may even find some women build events…who knows! You will learn a lot and leave exhausted, that I can guarantee!
DIY / Home
My Monster Mash loves to play outside, and loves to dig in the sand. He actually loves to dig in the dirt, but the sand will do for him when he gets tired of splinters and bugs or when I put my foot down and insist that my vegetable garden is not his dirt garden and the digging and drowning of my plants needs to stop! But we have the tiniest yard on the planet (true story) and his sandbox is a rather large variety with an attached table bench combo and coordinating umbrella and stand. This is fabulous for him and not so fabulous for me or the remaining space left in the yard. I will say that having multiple functions combined in one is convenient and it does help with shade since in addition to have the tiniest yard on the planet we also seem to have the hottest yard on the planet with temps in my region reaching near 110 in the summer and a south facing yard with little to no trees. It’s a recipe for sun damaged skin and playtime disaster! So I have decided that I’m ok with having a little yard as long as I can satisfy all of my needs in the tiny space and in this particular instance that means finding a place for my boy’s sandbox to live, that doesn’t take up precious outdoor living space or interfere with my gardening needs. And so, a portion of the grass landing strip must go… A dedication will be made and a home for the sandbox will be created! Which is actually kind of nice since it reduces mowing, watering, and part of the lawn drainage issue this particular yard seems to have! See everyone’s happy…
We dragged the sandbox onto the portion of grass that would be dedicated to it, a while back to “try it out” and see how it would work. It worked beautifully except the grass that wasn’t suffocated by it, got a little out of hand and you can’t exactly weed whack around and under the table portion without moving the sandbox… This was a problem, have you ever tried to move a ginormous sandbox? Not so easy… Besides doing it on a regular basis was not going to be a very viable long term solution so we decided to find something that would solve the problem more permanently without incurring a crazy expense or doing something permanent to a yard that isn’t actually ours.
Our options might have been to raise the grass (dig it out), pavers, mulch or bark, gravel, none of which seemed like they were solutions that worked for our budget, level of dedication we cared to contribute or for a toddler to play easily in and around. Gravel and bark may have kept the grass and weeds at bay, but those are double edged swords with scraped knees and bug problems that tend to arise where bark and gravel are concerned…not to mention a much more expensive solution than we were hoping for.
We emptied out the sandbox by shoveling the sand and the bazillion million toys that were mixed in with it, into some large empty pots I had on hand. I also recovered several measuring spoons and kitchen utensils that I had been wondering about… now I will know where to look next time they go missing!
You can see how out of hand the surrounding grass became and how well the sandbox did away with the grass underneath. Mr. TDC got to work with the weed whacker… One battery charge later we had taken the grass down to a short layer.
Monster Mash can’t pass up an opportunity to get in on the projecting action… like mommy like son! Mr. TDC could quite frankly live a very happy life without any projecting at all, but not us…MM and I, we need a few projects in the works at all times… And boy oh boy does he love to get some use out of his “measure”! He’s just so good at it too, and always lets me know that the item weighs 60 pounds according to his measure.
Off to the store we went to figure out how to finish this project without spending any money. Of course the answer to that is always no… and so we opted for the least expensive route instead. The edging shown in the image below blended best with the existing edging in the yard and came with all of the stakes required and the shortest amount of the edging that was purchasable, since we only needed 8’ of it. I used my Miter Saw to cut it in half down to the 8’ I needed which leaves me 8’ left over for another project in the future!
The directions suggest unrolling and flattening it out. As you can see MM found another use for it in the process since flattening this stuff out was not really going to happen, at least not that I could tell. The perfect racetrack for his racing cars!
Using your shovel you need to make a V shaped small trench. In my yard the soil/clay is usually moist so digging isn’t tough, but there is a high frequency of rock to be found so occasionally you hit a rough patch, literally. This adventure was no exception, every 2 feet a rock would throw a wrench in the plans, but all told this portion took maybe 20 minutes, not bad at all. Like I said, this stuff had no desire to do what it was told, regardless of how much flattening was attempted!
Using the stakes included, you simply pin down the edging and hammer down into place. With the circular nature of this stuff it became easier to force it into a relatively straight line if we staggered the pins back and forth, placing every other pin in the opposite direction… one on the right, one on the left, one on the right, one on the left, you get the picture. This helped keep it from bowing in an arc like it secretly wanted to do. Filling the dirt mud in on either side of the edging is ultimately what kept it straight and upright. All that weight transference and counter pressure stuff, you know!
After pricing out materials to cover this area with, we concluded that since most of the sand in the sandbox ends up outside the box anyhow, that perhaps when you can’t beat em’ you should join em’ and so sand around the box was the best solution for us. This was also hands down the least expensive solution and one that wouldn’t cause a problem with scraped knees or bug infestations like bark has a tendency to do in these parts with our friend the ant. For the sandbox itself, we use Play Sand which is cleaned and carefully packaged to provide a safe and clean sand castle building environment for the kiddos, but for the surrounding area this would begin to add up in cost since a bag of play sand is a bit over $4 per bag. The All Purpose sand however is under $3 per bag and has a more coarse consistency which would help it stay put and was perfect for our needs!
5 bags later we were back in business and while we knew it would settle a ton after the first rain it lives through, and that we would likely need to replenish it then, we were finished for the most part, with this simple little fix! We just poured the bags in a willy nilly kind of pattern and raked it into place. We really needed another bag or 2 to fill in a few areas that were a bit lower to allow for draining in it’s former life as part of our lawn, but since rain was on the horizon for the next day, we figured it could wait and we would save ourselves some time by filling in once we knew how much it would settle and how many total bags we would need! The image below is an update on the sand after the first rain, you can see that the edges nearest the patio settled quite a bit and we will need to fill in there now, but overall this has actually made a huge impact on the yard and how ‘put together’ it seems now. Strange…I didn’t expect that result but there you have it! The total cost of this quick little project was around $25 and with 2 more bags of sand needed to fill in a bit, that puts our grand total at under $30 for this transformation. I have to say the beachy feel it’s given the yard is rather exciting and I can’t wait to show you pictures of how this fits into my plans for the yard as a whole! I have many more projects on my outdoor to do list, and I will share my progress with you along the way. One small step a time and my house will become a home!
Build
Part 2 in the Antique Rubbed Finish series: White with a Turquoise underlayment. This finish uses a rubbed technique just as the Black finish did…the difference between the 2 techniques is that when using an Antique White as your primary color, you can use a 2 tone effect. What I mean by this is that you can paint a base color of your choosing, in this instance I chose Turquoise (and I know you all love Turquoise). You can then paint your white over the top. When you rub with this paint combo your underlayment color will show through giving your furniture a fabulous layered and worn appearance. You can actually layer multiple colors if you like. This tutorial will only focus on one, but know that more is definitely an option.
Before we get started, if you are new to the world of finishing (or painting)…take a moment to visit my post on Tips and Tricks for Painting like a Pro The image above indicates what the finish will look like, differing only in the underlayment color you choose for yourself! You could choose a fabulous green, yellow, a brown or even an orange color. I might stay away from Red underneath a white because you might have a bit of bleed and end up with a pinkish tone (you would have to be VERY careful).
Sand and then Prime your piece well (see tips and tricks), DO NOT skip these steps. They set the stage for a fabulous finish! Consider it the foundation for your home or the base coat for your nail polish. Don’t skimp! Allow your primer to FULLY dry between coats and before you begin your next step. Paint or primer that isn’t fully dry will be problematic later…trust me!
Paint your underlayment color. Give this at least 2 good coats (especially if you are working with MDF) but don’t spend a ton of time on this step. You just need to really ensure proper coverage for the areas you plan to ‘rub’ later. I chose Turquoise, and used a satin finish water based paint. You will see as we continue through our finishing series, that I tend to stick to Satin Finish when I am Antiquing or doing a faux finish.
Let each coat of paint dry adequately before applying the next, but when you think your underlayment is fully dry begin your final coats with your Antique White or white. I applied 3 coats (2 might be fine, you will need to play this by ear and adjust according to your furniture piece) and chose Parchment White by Glidden (very similar to Antique White, maybe a tad less gray).
Now we begin our sanding, just as before with the Black Rubbed finish, so please review the sanding steps we did in that tutorial. The only difference is that if you are doing a 2 tone finish, you can sand off a BIT more if you like (not too much more, but a tad). Caution: Sand carefully as you don’t want to sand right through your underlayment color to the MDF (if you used MDF). If you used wood, then a touch of wood showing through might be fine, but this will be a matter of choice. Again, don’t get crazy on the sanding, this is the single most problematic area people run into with finishes… getting a bit ahead of themselves and over sanding in too many areas. If you are uncertain, stick to the edges, that will be fantastic, and you really don’t need much more showing through than around the edges! If you have sanded off more of the White than I have below, you have gone to far…
Once you have completed your sanding and you are happy with the result, you will need to clean your piece thoroughly. Begin with a vacuum cleaner and soft bristled brush attachment. Follow up with a tacky cloth to remove any remaining debris (you can also use a slightly camp cloth).
Apply 3-4 coats of Minwax Polycrylic (does not yellow as polyurethane does) or Minwax Wipe-On Poly. Note: I always recommend using a Satin Finish protective coat when Faux Finishing so that you your piece looks truly antique. If the piece you are working on was actually aged and had the top coat rubbing away, what are the chances it will have a glossy finish for the protective coat. I will tell you that is not likely nor was high gloss something that was found year ago unless it was a true Japanese lacquered technique applied tirelessly with coat after coat. So…no go on the gloss if you are faux finishing. If you are simply painting and looking for durability…by all means, high gloss away! **If you are going to apply in a non-spray format, consider purchasing a Shur-Line pad to apply this product, brush marks will be an issue. For other finishing tips and tutorials visit my Finishing school
Showcase
I know some of you will be very excited to see the finished product and my brand spankin’ new big girl bed. It’s glorious, if I do say so myself. I lightened it up a tad from the bits and pieces you saw in my Reclaimed Wood Finish Tutorial (found here) and the result is so fabulous! The plans for building this bed for yourself can be found here, and now I will begin on part 2 of this bed, because it’s not quite complete. Can you guess what I will be adding to it? Go ahead, guess…and stay tuned for those plans as well!
I am so excited to have my very own farmhouse style bed, with a bit of a vintage weathered finish… On to the rest of the room now with décor and accessories! Perhaps I may even share my trials and triumphs with my adventures of hanging a flat panel tv. It was no where near simple…
Design / Home
This may be one of the most amazing spaces I have ever seen, if not THE most amazing space. It just happens to be for a kiddo and that makes this even more fabulous, need I say more?
This picture below is from a retail site, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the same amazing gal who designed the space above may have styled the space below. The similarities are too uncanny to go without notice. It only cements my love for this space, every single thing in it, and the design style in general. I find myself coming back to this style, time and time again, and yet when it comes to my own home I rarely achieve such a look. I think it’s time to go white…all out white, with a bit of gray of course, and neutral…and driftwood weathered and fabulous!
I think some white paint, graphic prints on fabric and more of my reclaimed wood stain finish are in order…what do you think?
Plans
This simple table is a stunner with it’s clean lines and slightly coastal feel! This is the perfect little dining or entertaining piece for outside, perhaps with the banquettes or benches, or even configured with a corner unit into a nook like arrangement. Another fabulous addition to our Chesapeake Collection and one that would look equally as fabulous inside or out! Did I mention that this will cost you less than $40 to build? Yep, true story!
Tools
Tape Measure
Sander
Drill
Jig Saw – optional and if you prefer a more angular legs you can use a circular saw or table saw as well and you can actually also use your sander to get the job done if need be!
Kreg Jig® (pocket hole system)
Lumber
2 – 4×4 at 6’ (your store may only sell these in 8’ lengths so you will have extra)
3 – 1×3 at 8’
1 – 1×3 at 6’
2 – 1×4 at 8’
2 – 1×4 at 6’
2 – 1×6 at 8’
1 – 1×6 at 6’
Materials
1 1/4” Pocket Hole Screws – Stainless Steel or Blue Kote if this is for outdoor use
2” Wood Screws or Nails or Finish Nails – galvanized or coated if for outdoor use
Wood Glue – suitable for outdoor use if need be
Sanding Supplies
Finishing Supplies
Cut List
4 – 4×4 at 29 1/4” Legs
2 – 1×4 at 26 1/2” Side Aprons
2 – 1×4 at 51 3/4” Front and Back Aprons
2 – 1×4 at 55 3/4” Interior Table Frame Supports
36 – 1×3 at 9 1/2” Table Top Interior Boards
3 – 1×6 at 49 3/4” Outer and Center Table Top Boards
2 – 1×6 at 35 1/2” Outer Side Table Top Boards
Instructions
Before beginning to build, always check in on my site to make sure you have the most up to date set of plans, I occasionally update and change the plans to make the building process easier or to allow for less expensive purchasing of materials!
Read through the entire set of instructions and all comments before beginning this project. If you print out or save plans, be sure to check in on my site to be sure you have the most up to date set of plans, as I occasionally update things for ease of building or buying. If you are new to building, read through the GETTING STARTED section and other articles found under the BUILD tab in the menu on my site, it has valuable information about how to get started, tools and techniques. If you are unfamiliar with the finishing process, visit my Finishing school for some tips and tricks for painting like a pro and for special finishing practices.
Use glue to secure your joints and Consider Painting or Staining individual sections prior to assembling. This makes the paint application virtually flawless. Coat with a spray on Poly or Wipe on Poly to protect your finish and your piece and it will last for ages. Adhere to all safety standards and guidelines, and be sure you follow safety protocol throughout your build. If you are unsure about whether you are building safely, run a quick online search for the tool or technique you are using, or contact me via email or post to the forum before you move ahead. My contact info can be found in the menu of my site.
Step 1
Cut out Your Legs: Begin with your 4×4 and starting at 3 1/2” from the top of each leg, carve on the inside edges of each leg, at an angle downward so that the bottom of each leg is a full 1” smaller than the top. The outside of each leg will remain straight and only the inside edges will angle. This is optional and for decorative purposes only.
Step 2
Fasten Aprons and Frame Supports in Place: Use your Kreg Jig® set for 3/4” stock and your 1 1/4” pocket hole screws and glue to fasten to the Legs and to fasten the interior frame supports to the side aprons. Set the Aprons in 3/4” from the outside of the legs.
Step 3
Construct the Table Top: Using your Kreg Jig® set for 3/4” stock and your 1 1/4” pocket hole screws and glue, fasten the Boards together as shown below. Space the Interior Table Top Boards 1/4” Apart. To attach to the legs and frame, you can simply use your 2” finish nails or 2” screws to fasten directly to the legs, aprons, and interior supports. Be sure you center the top and place the pocket holes face down when fastening in place. To create an umbrella hole, use a 2” or 2 1/4” hole saw bit or spade bit and create a hole directly in the center of the table. I recommend doing this once the table top has been put together and perhaps even after you have fastened the top in place. It will be easier to do this way.
Finishing Instructions
Fill any Screw, Nail or Pocket Holes, Sand and Finish as Desired. For Finishing Tips and Tricks visit my Finishing School
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**Disclaimer: Some rights reserved. Private use only. Feel Free to link to any of my plans so long as you provide an adequate link back to the appropriate post! Plans from this page are not to be used for commercial purposes or republished without the express written consent of Rayan Turner, The Design Confidential I hope to provide accurate plans, however, I cannot guarantee each plan for accuracy. Not every plan that I post has been built and tested, so you are building at your own risk. It is recommended that you have a clear understanding of how the project works before beginning any project. Please contact me if you find an error or inaccuracy so that I might fix it.
Entertaining / Home
This Fabulous Memorial Day Weekend has me in completely immersed in summertime splendor. Of course no summer season would be complete without the backyard bbq! I am so excited to be having a bit of a small shindig myself this very fine day while my family is visiting and I plan to pull out all the stops and make it larger than life with the small details… it’s always in the details isn’t it?
Meat is most likely a staple, but the side dishes, drinks, and desserts are where the fun begins!
I adore this method of serving a tomato salad. The recipe for this beauty below uses feta but I will be giving this a try with mozzarella in a bit of twist on the Caprese Salad with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and basil! It’s the presentation that seems like it would work well for one of my absolute favorite dishes with thinly sliced mozzarella rounds placed perfectly between layers of the tomato! You have got to love the french fry/potato chip side dish in a fabulous paper wrap and cooked in a healthy way…baked! The recipe for the dish shown below uses amazing Indian Spices, but for today I am thinking something simple like salt pepper and a touch of vinegar might be amazing!
Margaritas and beer are the epitome of a summertime fiesta, but the calories are something many of us could do without…am I right? Enter my girl Betheny and her skinny girl margarita…love it! But let’s not leave out the kiddos…serving traditional lemonade in mason jars on ice is such a fun festive way to bring the party outdoors and really make it special!
Of course if you prefer the Strawberry Daiquiri or Strawberry Margarita to the Standard Margarita, this would be such a fun way to serve it up and you could make some virgin daiquiris for le kids which would be such a wonderful strawberry ice treat! I am fairly certain that just like the paper umbrella, every drink would be that much better with a red and white striped paper straw!
Strawberry Shortcake is another childhood favorite of mine that I have taken into adulthood with complete joy, but this strawberry shortcake popsicle is a splendid way to serve it on a hot day! This adult freezer pop seems like the most exciting and ingenious way to bring a bit of the child like romance of summer to the big kids in my life! Mainly me…
But nothing, oh nothing says summertime fun to me like Smores! Oh how I adore the smore! Did you know there is a National Smores Day? True Story!
I can hardly decide which to make…maybe all of them?
DIY
Do you have a blank wall in your home staring you in the face, begging you to take the reigns and do something about it? Instead of attempting to fill the space with one large object, try several…its' cheaper!
Your local Dollar or 99cent Stores sell frames of 8×10 size and smaller, in a wide variety of styles. Get your photo printer plugged in, and start printing. Once you have a small collection of prints ready for framing go and find several frames of the same style, or in the same color but different styles and in various sizes. If you can't find enough of the same color or same style (or if you like a bit more variety), pick 2 colors and purchase an approximately equal number of both. When you arrange them, try and balance them out equally, so that one color doesn't weigh more heavily in any one area than the other.
Note: If you plan to scatter your frames in an asymmetrical pattern along your wall or if you plan to lay them out in anything that is NOT a perfectly grid-like pattern (or even if a perfect grid is what you desire) – I offer you a strategy: Use a large piece of butcher paper or craft paper, of an approximately equal size to the area of concentration on your wall. Trace the approximate shape of the area in question onto the paper so you have some guidelines. Lay the paper out on your floor and arrange the frames on the paper, inside your guidelines, in any pattern that you like (this allows you to arrange and rearrange, without putting hundreds of tiny holes in your wall). Once you have them arranged on your paper perfectly, trace the outline of each frame with a pencil or pen. Remove the frames from the paper and place on an area of your floor in the approximate same pattern and order.
Tape your paper onto the area of your wall this arrangement will hang. Then begin hammering small nails or picture hanging apparatuses right through the paper in the appropriate area of each traced frame. Once you have all of your nails in place, carefully untape the paper and remove it, leaving the nails in the wall (the paper will rip around the nail heads). Now you are ready to hang those frames, and they should be sitting in relatively the same arrangement you will be placing them on the wall…no guesswork and easy as pie! Scattered throughout this article are a few patterns I drew up, feel free to use them or let them help you get your creative juices flowing for your own arrangements…Be creative, there are no right answers here! This is mainly about proportion and not so much about the arrangement itself. If it feels balanced to you, then that is all that matters!
Home / Shopping
If you live in the Greater Sacramento Area, SMUD’s Shade Tree program should definitely be taken advantage of. If you live outside of Sacramento, check with your local utility provider for a similar program and start digging!
If you visit their website you will find an array of trees to choose from and a phone number to call for an appointment. They will send someone out to evaluate your yard and designate the number of trees you may benefit from adding. You are able to choose from any on their site and they will help you understand which varieties might work best in certain areas of your yard given the sun, water and spacing requirements. Once you have chosen the appropriate number of trees your yard can accommodate, they will schedule a date and time for delivery and provide directions for planting. Make sure you invest in a decent pair of gloves and some ibuprofen because most of these trees require a 4’x4′ hole with a pedestal in the center. The reward for your efforts is great however, and you will have many wonderful years to come with your tree filled backyard.
Some of my personal favorites include the Chinese Pistache tree, used in many shopping center landscapes for their wonderful stature and fabulous fall colors. I love the Eastern Redbud for its oversized heart shaped leaves, and of course the Birch tree. Any variety of Maple will be amazing year round, even when the leaves have gone, and anything in the Redwood or Sequoia family will provide great color and a privacy screen all year long in addition to some noise and wind reduction. Below is a link to their site… Happy Planting! SMUD TREE PROGRAM
Entertaining
Need gift ideas for Christmas? On a budget? WalMart sells these beautiful glass Christmas Tree Jars for around $5. Fill with a favorite – preferably colorful – candy and tie with a beautiful ribbon. This should cost you no more than $9 or $10 dollars, depending on the candy you choose, and whether or not you need to buy the ribbon. This lovely gift will be enjoyed year after year by your recipient, as they pull out their Christmas decor and contemplate the type of candy to fill it with.
WalMart sells peppermint, red and white striped, dinner mint “like” candy in bulk…very inexpensively. For my purposes, I chose a dark green wrappered ‘mint truffle kiss’ by Hershey, a light green wrappered Dove Chocolate candy, and a gold wrappered Lindor Truffle candy, and layered them. The colors are fabulous inside this glass jar and work well with my olive green sheer ribbon, but the cost was significantly higher than if I had used the original dinner mint candy I purchased.
Entertaining
Need another last minute, budget friendly gift idea? Try giving baked goods in a decorative tin. Many of the ingredients in cookies and cakes are everyday baking items… so with the exception of a few extra recipe specific ingredients, you can make something wonderful without breaking the bank.
Materials
I found Christmas themed decorative tin containers at my local WalMart, in many different shapes and sizes. Most of the tins cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 or $3 each. For this particular project I chose a 7.5″ square tin with a snowman design.
I purchased disposable tin baking pans in the same size (7.5″ squares-2 per pack) at my local dollar store, however most grocery and discount stores sell these as well.
Note: make sure that the size of your baking tin matches the size of your decorative tin, since leaving too much space around the edges of your baked goods might result in breakage, especially if this is something that will be mailed.
Instructions
The recipe for gingerbread below will fill 2 – 7.5″ baking tins or a typical 9×13″ cake pan and will be loved by anyone you give this to!
Gingerbread Recipe:
Cook Time: 30-40 minutes (depending on the size of the cake tin, start low and add more time if necessary)
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup butter
- 2/3 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup boiling water
- 2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
- 1 cup molasses
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 can of Fluffy White or Cream Cheese frosting
Sift dry ingredients and spices together. Boil the water, then add shortening and butter to
boiling water; stir until melted; add sugar and molasses; Combine
mixture with dry ingredients, and add the beaten eggs. Beat entire mixture until
gingerbread batter is smooth. Pour gingerbread batter into a greased baking tin. Bake at 350° for 30 to 40
minutes (2 – 7.5″ squares on the center rack in your oven will take approx 30 minutes while a 9×13″ pan will be closer to 35 minutes, note: oven cook times will vary.
Allow to fully cool and care fully remove from cooking tin (the disposable baking tins really come in handy since you will be removing the gingerbread from its pan and placing it in a tin, the flexibility of the baking tin allows for very easy removal) and place in your decorative tin.
If you are mailing this to someone you will want to purchase a can of frosting and transfer it to a small jar for shipping or wrap the frosting can with decorative paper, so that your recipient can apply the frosting upon arrival.
If you aren’t mailing this, feel free to frost the gingerbread once it is in the decorative tin, being careful to mind the edges of the tin. If it’s messy it just won’t look as polished and cute.
You can either give the tin as is or wrap with a ribbon and place a gift tag on top. Either way, your recipient will enjoy the tin’s contents…I guarantee it! Unless of course they hate gingerbread, in which case substitute with your own cake recipe or cookies.
