Beauty Farming Life

  Got the new shelves up above the utility sink. Forgive the photos, using a backup camera today and I don't like the quality of the photos it takes.  It is what it is, ha. Ikea Gorm shelf hack into wall shelves Well, on a slow and rainy afternoon, I got the shelves up above the utility sink in the mudroom!  I had to think outside the box to come up with something.  I saw these galvanized metal shelf brackets at the local hardware store.  I liked the metal because it looked like the stainless steel of the sink.  But then I needed to find some shelves to put on them.  The obvious choice would just be a regular "shelf" like you find in white, black, wood grain, etc.   Galvanized metal shelf bracket, closeup  Then I remembered Ikea, where we got our Gorm shelving. CLICK HERE to see the posting when we got the shelving units.  They made 'extra' shelves for them in a smaller size.  I wondered if they would work? ...

Utensils in canning jars Recently, we bought some assorted vintage silverware in a service for eight.  They are very cool and we love the randomness of them because the pieces don't match.  Our first thought was of course a drawer, sorting them all by size and use.  But with only four drawers in the entire kitchen, we decided to think 'outside the drawer' so to speak. I looked around at all the assorted canning jars we have, and a light bulb went off.  I decided to use those instead!  So I put all the knives (below) in one with a narrow opening, the large forks and spoons in another larger wide mouth jar, and then salad forks and soup spoons in a smaller, shorter jar (both above). It makes things easily accessible and looks like it belongs.  I think it even has a sense of country charm that we enjoy. Silverware in a canning jar

Montana Jars at Target I saw these jars today at  TARGET  and we think they will be perfect for our larger bulk ingredients.  These are called "Montana Jars" (I love the names of some of these things), and are made by Anchor Hocking.  I need to do some online research and make sure I can't find them cheaper elsewhere, but they look like a pretty good deal.  I'll get several of them, maybe just the large size.  It's holds 2 1/2 gallons and would be perfect for the bulk ingredients like all purpose flour, bread flour, sugar, etc.  I'll let 2nd Man decide what he needs to put in them.  Believe it or not, the ones we have for the few bulk ingredients at home now are bigger than these! Anyway, I'm off to get some of these this evening on the way home.  I love this part of having things done inside...the decorating & planning, phase.

Clothespin Jar We finally did our own 'canning jar' type storage, I took one that we had laying around (a large size) and filled it with clothespins.  We use clothespins for many things other than the obvious.  And trust me, living in the city, we don't use them for THAT since the neighbors would think we lost our minds. They can be used for clipping chip bags closed, in place of twist ties on loaves of bread, or as a quick substitute for paperclips on a stack of paper.  You can use them to clip to a stain on a shirt or piece of clothing so you remember where it is or use one to identify a cord or two behind a TV or computer.  Use another to hold a screw or nail in place while you drive it in (my Dad taught me that one), or to clip photos or papers onto a wire display.  Of course, you can always decorate them with any number of things, paint, glitter, pieces of stuff and make them "your own" style.  Or write on them to make them in...

Image courtesy of the now out of print "Cottage Living Magazine" This is a picture from my collection of decorating ideas that I found as I was cleaning out some stuff.  Pretty neat idea/use for an old coat rack type hanger.  I'm still planning for the Julia Child style pegboard wall I blogged about  HERE  of course, but I could see us finding a place for something like this as well. Just one of my random finds that I saved for future inspiration and I thought I'd share with others.

Have you ever seen these?  If you have an  IKEA  near you, you should check these out.  We love them.  It is called the Kassett storage box system and this size is the "magazine box".  They come packaged just like this, with two together, for $10.  That makes them only $5 each. Yes, they are made of cardboard, but they are surprisingly durable.  They go together very easily, just some folding and then you put these simple little bolt and nut type fasteners through the pre-punched holes, three on each side. The lids come pre-assembled so once the boxes are put together, the lid just fits right on top and they are ready to be used and they have holes on each end, trimmed with metal, to make it easy to lift and carry them.  There is even a little plate where you can put a label to identify the contents.  Sure, they won't hold cast iron pans, but they make for nice, discreet storage of lighter weight things, or stuff you want t...

Refrigerator Dishes Over the last few weeks, I've been searching thrift stores for these old style refrigerator dishes.  We had a couple of small ones, but we thought we needed some more, especially in different sizes, for storing leftovers (whenever we have them, ha) in the fridge.  Glass is so much nicer than plastic, not to mention it's got a great 'retro' look to it. So this is the collection I've found so far.  A few pieces are in the pattern called "hazel atlas crisscross".  It's amazing what you can find once you start looking for something specific.  No telling how many of these I've passed by over the years.  Wouldn't mind having a few more, but this will be a good start. Here they are, we washed them and  put them in the fridge, you know, just to try them out and see how we'd like them, ha. I couldn't resist sharing this find.  It's the same "crisscross pattern", in a one pound glass butter dish.  ...

  Remember when I posted about finding these round metal tins at a discount store?  I was trying to figure out what to put in them.  Well, I  decided to use them to be practical and make them the hidden storage for candles and related accessories. I think it's a great way to be prepared in plain sight .  I'm not quite finished, but the small one has matches of different types and sizes and a couple of lighters as well, and the large one has tea lights, votives, and some small candlesticks.  They make it easy to know right where they are when we need them, for any reason.

Baskets in the Kitchen Recently, we decided to get some more baskets for use in the kitchen.  We had a few, but since they are always handy for baked goods, and occasionally for other uses, we decided we want to try to keep several different styles.  So, o ver the last few weeks, I've been hitting up tag sales and thrift stores on the search.  I've even pulled a couple we had in storage and various locations around the house in town and I've put them all together in one place; the top of the yellow hutch in the kitchen at the farm. I've been trying to get shapes that are useful for the different things he bakes.  A couple of big round ones for round loaves of bread, some long narrow ones for baguettes,  some oval and square ones for biscuits and rolls, and some deep round ones for muffins and scones.  We just throw a dishtowel in the bottom and then fill them with delicious things fresh from the oven.  I decided to keep them all in the kitchen ...

Closet shelves before I promised some pics of the rainy day projects I did last week.  This is one that I'm very happy with how it ultimately came out. On the lower portion, there was already one board on each side of the closet as a support, but no shelf.  I figured that there must have been a shelf over the closet rod once upon a time.  I then found two small strips of wood in the scrap pile, cut them to the same length as the lower ones, painted them white, and screwed them into the wall above the lower ones.  I'll take some white paint and touch up the screw heads.  These closets extend to the full 7 1/2 foot height of the ceilings in the house so I was able to effectively double the space that was already there by putting another set higher up.   I put two shelf boards on each set of supports.  These are 3 foot long boards, 12" deep.  The best part is that since the support boards on the sides were 24" deep, I was able to use two of those...

Open storage With the distinct lack of larger wall mounted cabinets in our kitchen, we decided to use the open portion of the yellow hutch (baskets above!) as the storage for our dishes. This is a service for 8 that we had in storage to sell at a future garage sale.  This was before we bought the farmhouse.  Anyway, the last time I was at the storage unit, I found the box of them and took them all out to the farm.  They will be perfect for use out there. We've never done this before but I think we like it.  It looks good and neatly organized, it shows you everything you have all at once and it will be easy (once we start hosting dinners at the farm of course) to just grab the dishes we need and walk to the table.   Anyway, do any of you have open storage like this? Off to the farm today, to enjoy some truly relaxing time. More later!  Enjoy your day, whatever you are doing!

Look at this great find!  Got this at a garage sale last week and got it out to the farm over the weekend.  It's a bench, painted in a red color with a design of sunflowers.  When I saw it I knew it would be perfect for the farm kitchen. The yellow brings out the yellow from the Nadeau hutch, and red will be an accent color in the kitchen. Here's the best part: Sunflower bench with storage It opens up! As you can see, lots of storage potential. It's so important to find decorative pieces that also combine storage since the house is so small.  I'm thinking this will be a great place for storing some extra kitchen towels and linens.  I think it might even be mouse proof, LOL.  

Last Summer, I blogged about our DIY seed storage bank or vault idea.  Recently, I realized we needed more space for our seeds, not to mention a way to make them more organized.  So  I took that same idea and multiplied it by four.  It was a rainy weekend and this gave me something to do. We love these cans.  They are  Empty Paint Cans . You can buy them just about anywhere they sell paint or, using link above, via Amazon.  They are very inexpensive, these were $3 each.  So for $12, I was able to get four so that I could divide our growing seed collection.  I came up with  Veggies, Herbs, Salad/Greens , and Flowers. Here is a shot inside showing the seed packets and moisture absorber. Rather than repeat the particulars of how I did this part, you can  CLICK HERE for the original post on it.  It's very simple to do and a great way to organize your seeds and protect them.  I put some labels on them, ...

Penny Candy Jars I found these great jars on clearance the other day and one of my local lunch haunts.  I think they call the shape "Penny Candy" jars?   These are a bit smaller than their original counterparts. For us, the better part is that they have screw top lids (the originals have a lid that just sort of sits on top).  Those will keep them sealed tightly and since we aren't at the farm all the time, we won't have to worry about bugs, moths, and mice getting into whatever we put in them. Of course, therein lies the big conundrum.  W e  haven't decided what to put in them yet but we will eventually.  We have many other jars with things like rice and lentils and flours, sugars etc.  These need something special in them I think.  Nuts?  Dried fruit?   Actual Candy? As time goes by, and we are out there more often, we'll run across something we need to put in them that we just can't live without, though I still think cand...

I haven't blogged in awhile about anything cool that I've found for the farm so indulge me why I rattle on about these awesome bottles I found! A while back, I blogged  HERE  about some other great bottles I found to use for milk and juice.  What we were lacking though were bottles for water.    I remember that both of my Grandmothers always kept water in glass bottles in the fridge.  It seemed to be the coldest water ever.  So the other day, I was at my weekly lunch break store, Marshall's Homegoods, and I found these! We LOVE them because they are so retro looking.  They are also made of a nice, heavy glass with tops that easily snap closed, and what is most retro of all... ...they have these indention's to make it easy for your hand to grab them and pick up!  I swear, I think one of the bottles I remember from visiting my Grandparents had the exact same thing. You know we have a fondness for...

Taking stuff to the barn this weekend had us wondering how best to use our storage.  We'll have questions about other types of storage ideas (a few of you have already found some great ideas!) but for this first post about it, we want to ask about storage containers... Loft in barn These are the two lofts in our new barn, one at each end of the building.  They are four feet deep, sixteen feet long and have about six feet clearance above.  They're even big enough to get up there and walk around.  We wanted them so that we could use them for storage of items that wouldn't fit in the house, rarely used items, for example, holiday decorations, extra dishes and supplies, etc. Barn loft So our question is this; does anyone have any advice for storing things in an environment like this?  Obviously we know cardboard is a no-no.  We want something that will keep the things inside as safe as possible from bugs, rodents, etc., and that won't co...

On a rainy day, it was a good time to get some stuff done inside.   So here we have a couple more items to check off the list for this year, yay! Bathroom shelves First up, I tackled shelves in the bathroom.  We had one of those stands that stood behind the toilet but with the bathroom being so small, the stand, even though it's called a space saver, just seemed to take up a lot of space visually, if that makes sense.  So we opted for simple shelves on the wall.  These are the pre-made laminated shelves, 24" x 8" and some metal brackets, simple industrial style.   Now we just need to figure out how to best utilize them.   Craft area shelves Then I put up two shelves in the spot we call (well, "I" call it) the crafting area.  These are 48" x 10".  One thing I've always wanted is a dedicated storage spot for arts and crafts supplies.  There is a sitting area off the bedroom and I figured that was a good spot.  ...

I have a fetish.  Now don't go all 50 Shades of Gray on me, it's a JAR fetish.  I love storage jars because I like being able to see what we have (and how much left).  Recently, I found these great "barrel jars" by Anchor Hocking. Anchor Hocking Barrel Jars with Handles I bought six of them for the farm (they were on sale at HomeGoods).  We filled three of them (well, looking at this photo, maybe "filled" is not 100% accurate, LOL ) with lentils and rice.  The other three are waiting to be filled.  Then I got out the handy dandy label maker and printed up some clear labels.  2nd Man loves the handles because he can pull one off the shelf and carry it quickly to the counter. We are hoping this keeps the bugs out and they are definitely 100% mouse proof so that's good.   It's a (small) part of cleaning up and organizing the mudroom/pantry at the farm. Of course, I only did this one shelf once we got the jars but I'll k...

Since it was still hot and humid outside, it was a good time to do some things inside.  One thing is since I cleaned up all the clutter last year, it was time to start organizing.   One thing we had was a box or two full of random canning jar rings and lids. Recently, I found these large "decorative" Mason jar storage jars. I believe they were most likely made as canisters for the kitchen but I had a different use for them in mind.   Mason Jar storage jars I figured they would make the perfect storage for that mess of lids and rings! Canning jar lids stored in jar Since the lids take up less volume, I used the shorter one...they fit perfectly. Canning jar rings stored in jar The taller one is perfect for the rings.   They also fit perfectly!  Now they can sit on the shelves in the mudroom and look nice while functioning as easy and quick accessibility to canning supplies.   Never hurts to be organized AND pret...

With the cold, wet weather over a few weekends, it was time for me to tackle the barn/workshop.  I went to Home Depot and bought some HDX storage boxes over a couple of weekends so I'd have a variety of sizes. We bought several of each size. We liked these containers because they have an overlapping lid that latches them shut and creates a tight seal.  You can even use tie-wraps to really lock them down and they also stack on top of each other perfectly.   I didn't get any before pictures of the barn itself, but I did have these pictures of the empty loft.   So I got started.  I had a vision of getting it all done in one day but, um, that wasn't going to happen.  I just started with the blank slate of one loft...  And started boxing up and organizing.  We kept the plastic boxes we already had and moved them up.  Then we disposed of anything cardboard and transferred them to the new plastic boxes. ...