Stone Fruit Blues and The BEST Cobbler Recipe EVAR

I had the misfortune lately to buy some of the ickiest plums ever.  This followed on the heels of buying some of the ickiest cherries ever.  They are both bland and rather sad tasting, and neither B nor I have any intention of eating them fresh.

Rewind a bit.  Last summer my neighbor Fin gave me a recipe for fruit cobbler that is, in my opinion at least (and everyone who I've fed it to), the absolute best cobbler recipe ever in all of the history of ever.  I've tried so many different cobbler recipes.  They *all* call for some type of canned something in some degree of syrup.  I dislike this for a variety of reasons, but mostly because it doesn't leave me any wiggle room and disallows me the ability to rummage through my fridge to see what might need to get used up.  Also, a lot of those recipes call for the batter to be put on bottom, and as it cooks it's supposed to float to the top through the fruit stuff.  Maybe I am just a baking idiot (which I don't believe), but I've always had problems with the batter not rising through the fruit.  I wind up with a burned mess on the bottom with a layer of raw dough adhered to it, and a mess of gooey canned fruit on top.

This recipe calls for ...  *drumroll*... fruit!!  Ha! Imagine that, if you can.  You cut up the fruit you're using, sprinkle it with sugar and allow it to create its own syrup, then season it (if you like) with whatever you like.  It's fantabulous!  CULINARY FREEDOM FROM CANNED GOODS!!! *looks around sheepishly, gets off the chair, and puts away the wrapping paper tube "sword"*

For the fruit:

3 c of fruit chopped/peeled/pitted/whatever as needed, sugared
1 T corn starch
1/2 c water
1T butter
1 T lemon juice
1/4 c brown sugar - give or take as needed, or use white sugar... or both!  Brown sugar is a bit less sweet and adds richness to the over-all flavor.
Spices and other goodies - allspice, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, chopped nuts, raisins, dried cranberries, whatever floats your boat - or none at all if that makes you happy.
Amounts of sugar and spices vary based on the fruit and how much help it needs.  This is where being the cook has benefits:  you get to lick the spoon ;-)

Mix the corn starch, water, brown sugar, fruit, and spices in a pot and cook until it starts to thicken.  Depending on how juicy the fruit is, sometimes I will cook the fruit a little bit to draw some more liquid out before I mix in the corn starch.
Add the butter and lemon juice.  I usually skip the lemon juice.  I haven't discovered any real benefit to using it, other than it can help prevent some fruits from changing colors.

Pour it in an 8x8 pan, or a round cake pan.

This is a mix of plums and bing cherries that were a bit past their prime and an apple to make up the difference.

For the dough:
1/2 c sugar
1/2 t salt
1/4 c soft butter
1 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c milk
* I also throw in a tsp of vanilla, because I like it, and it turns the crust a pretty color.

Mix all of this together until it's smooth.  It will be VERY thick.
Pour over fruit.  I think my friend used the term "pour" loosely.  I end up dropping it with a small spoon to get it to spread evenly.  This is the one aspect of the recipe I find a bit aggravating, but it's totally worth it.  If anyone has a suggestion to make it easier to spread this super crazy thick batter around, I'd love to hear it!

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, until golden and done.

Our Not-So-Paper-Towels and a Bag Line

What I accomplished yesterday... 

When I worked at the sheriff's department, t-shirts were an everyday requirement.  In summer, we had to wear white v-neck t's, and in winter, we had to wear black crew necks.  I have dozens of t-shirts.  Some of them are being kept for grungy work, cleaning days, and sleep shirts, but a lot of them are becoming something new.

I've been saying for a while that I was going to try to cut back on paper product use and disposable stuff.  Cotton is the component of nearly every kitchen towel and rag in existence.  It's not necessarily *the* most absorbent in t-shirt form, because there's not a lot of lift or pile, but I figured they'd make good cleaning rags, napkins, and paper towel substitutes.

The magickal properties of plain white vinegar

I know I've been missing in action lately.  I have a really good excuse!  Really!  

B had knee surgery recently, so I've been trying to take care of him as much as possible lately.  I've learned something about myself during this period of convalescence.  If he is home, I don't get nearly as much done as I usually do (or ought to).  I have a tendency to want to entertain him while he's around.  I know I should get off my butt and do something constructive, but it's just so much more fun to watch TV or movies, or play cards, or aggravate him... I mean, umm... mollycoddle him.  Yeah... 

Anyways, back to the point.  

Vinegar!  It's awesome stuff.  My Gramma used to use it to clean with all the time, but I really didn't know it had quite as many uses as it does.  I use it to clean in the kitchen, especially, because I don't trust the harsher chemical cleaners on counters and tables where I make food.  I also use it on the floors, because apparently waxed hard wood does not really like chemicals all that well.  They make the finish cloudy looking.  Vinegar brightens it right up.  

I recently bought a couple gallons of vinegar from Sam's club.  It came in a cardboard box that had some interesting tips on it.  I was already aware of some of these, but others were new to me.  So, since the whole idea of this blogging gig is to share info and ideas, here they are:

Make-do Monday - T-shirt Tote Bags

For a change, a project I didn't knit or crochet.

I love my chest freezer.  It's awesomesauce.  I can go to Sam's and the commissary once a month (with varying side trips to the grocery in between for the stuff that is just bound and determined to run out at off times), stick everything in my freezer and pantry, then crawl back under my rock for another month.  I actually like living under a rock.  Too much interaction with too many people makes me very cranky.  I get cranky enough all on my own without having the additional help.

Maybe some of you out there are more disciplined than I am, but when I get home from a shopping trip and am divvying up goodies for the freezer, fridge, and pantry, the goal is to get it done and get on with something else. I usually try to at least keep plant matter on one side of the freezer and protein on the other, but it doesn't always work out that way.  Then, when I am rummaging through looking for something in particular for a meal, or hunting for that leftover baggie of spaghetti sauce that I just *know* is in there, stuff gets all shuffled around, jumbled up, and becomes a right mess of frozen edibles all piled haphazardly with no semblance of order.   No, there are no pictures.  I didn't want a record of my slovenly freezer floating around.

I was over reading Dee's blog post about organizing her freezer, and it looked like a no-brainer.  Duh... I'm supposed to be pretty intelligent, so why didn't I think to do this before?  But, all of my baskets are wicker.  I have too many baskets according to some, but I just keep finding things to use them for.  I have a few smaller cardboard boxes floating around from packages and moving, but I could see that becoming a problem eventually, because none of them are that waxed cardboard.

Reading through the comments, I saw that one person uses those cloth shopping totes.  I have fabric.  I can do that!

But, I'm also not feeling motivated to make half a dozen tote bags.

But I have t-shirts and tank tops!

No... I really don't throw out nearly as much as I should.  And this is a perfect example of WHY!

I have a pile of plain white and black t-shirts from my time at the sheriff's office.  I still wear them, occasionally.  I mean, who doesn't ever have a really scrungy job to do and they don't want to mess up any of their good t-shirts by accident, or when I dye my hair, or sometimes as a cleaning rag.  But in all honesty I have too many.  I don't need a dozen white t-shirts.  And the tank tops... well, they haven't fit in quite some time.  I keep saying one day I am going to drop enough weight to finally get into them, but the truth is, I was the smallest I've ever been (high school size) the month I moved to TX.  If they didn't fit then, they're just never going to fit.  And, what's a tank top but a tote bag with an unfinished bottom?

All I did for the tanks was sew the bottom hem together, and the straps became instant handles.  Fabulous!  Took all of a minute, and that included threading the sewing machine.

The t-shirts took a little more time.  I cut the sleeves off, and then enlarged the neck to make a wider mouth for the bag.

Yes, I used black thread on the white t-shirts.  It's ok, my frozen foods won't care.

All the bags wad up nice and small, so I can cram them inside each other when (LOL as if) they're not in use in the freezer.  They can become shopping bags at Sam's, or wherever, and I can chuck them in the washing machine if something happens to leak, bust, or otherwise get messy.  It's not quite as orderly as nice stackable baskets, but this was no additional cost to me.  I had everything I needed right here at the house, and the only thing that I actually paid for at one time or another was the t-shirt itself.  Since said t-shirt is five years old, and had holes worn in it, I'd say that I've already gotten more than my money's worth of wear out of it.  :-)

While it may not *look* all neat and pretty, I can reach in and grab my chicken, veggies, leftovers, pork, fruit, boiling meat, etc. in one grab.  The smaller odds and ends are still just in the baskets that came with the freezer, but they don't ever get any more plentiful than that.  There's also a handy shelf in there that holds my beef, since I try not to cook with too much red meat for B.  My freezer is so much easier to navigate now, and I didn't have to go shopping to get it that way :-)  Happy day!

Now.... how long will this last?

A backlog of Thrifty Thursdays and Make-do Mondays

Even though I've been off the internet for the past two weeks and the housework has slid while we were on our staycation, I couldn't just completely sit still.

I think I have figured out my Gramma's fried apple pie recipe.  The magic is the filling.  The crusts are just biscuit dough, but I have a few kinks to work out before I post that recipe.

I made two rugs for the bathrooms.

I got 80 lbs of this olefin yarn for around $80 after shipping and handling.  Included in the box were also a few random spools of much higher quality yarn.  I got a 10 lb spool of merino lace ($10 for 10 lbs where normally I would pay $20 or so for less than a lb), there was a baby cake of white flannel, and another spool of sea green lace weight yarn that I don't know the fiber type.  It was a helluva deal.  The problem was I couldn't knit with most of it.  Olefin is the stuff carpet is made of.  It's a double thread with tufts of stuff between and twisted.  Knitting with it caused all kinds of bunching, breaks, and other pains in the rear that made it worthless as far as I was concerned.  I was not happy since the mystery box had been billed as a knitting selection.  The spools of lace yarn more than made up for the price, but I didn't have any idea what to do with these spools of crap.  I refused to throw them away.  

One day I decided to try crocheting with them, and viola!  It worked!  

They were both done similar to granny squares.  I am not an accomplished crocheter by any stretch, so they are asymmetrical and a bit lumpy around the edges, but for tromping on, they work just fine.  

B's birthday is coming up, and he likes to fish.  The problem is he doesn't like toting his backpack when he goes fishing, because he has to take it off to get to his tackle.  A regular tackle box would still have to be set down and picked up constantly, because he likes to walk the shore instead of picking a spot and sticking to it.    He mentioned he was going to go buy a satchel.  I jokingly refer to it as a man-purse.  I offered to make him one.  

I think it turned out pretty good.  It's got two lined interior compartments.  I used remnants of skeins I already had here at the house, so I didn't have to buy yarn.  I used scraps for the lining, and the strap is an old belt that the buckle was broken on.  :-)   I carved the fish toggle out of a scrap of cedar that was left over from when B made my desk. 

And yesterday while I was stomping around the kitchen in a horrible mood, I dropped an egg in the box of my Gramma's cast iron cookware.  I was planning to save the refinishing of the cast iron for summer, because I figured the super dry Texas heat would be almost as good as an oven for expanding the iron and allowing grease to soak in.  There wasn't enough room in my oven for all the pieces.  

But.... the egg changed my mind. 

Before scrubbing

The iron was really rusty.  I wasn't sure I was going to be able to save it or not.  It had been in storage for untold years, and Georgia is so damp everything rusts or rots eventually.  It was also super dusty.  The dust had stuck to the seasoned skillets, meaning I had to strip the top of the seasoning off at the very least.

I used straight vinegar and steel wool.  I could've used a solution of vinegar and water, then let them soak in it overnight.  But where was I going to soak them?  And that would've stripped off all the seasoning making me start from scratch on them.  That is not a prospect I was keen on.  I've tried to season fresh cast iron before, and it just sucked.

Before Scrubbing. 

After scrubbing

After Scrubbing

When they were completely dry, I rubbed them with crisco all over.  (inside, outside, bottoms, handles, everything)  Then I put them in the oven at 250 for three hours or so.  After that, I turned the oven off and let them cool slowly as the oven cooled.  

I think they made an amazing recovery.  I haven't cooked with them, yet, so I don't know how they'll taste or if the seasoning is thick enough.  I  may need to do a few more layers before they're as good as Gramma used to keep them, but I am so tickled that they are going to be usable again.  I was worried that they would be delegated to a nail on the wall and a sad tale of how Gramma used to cook in them.  

I made a teddy bear had for Fin's coming arrival.  He's got all kinds of silly cute clothes, but I wanted to give her something for the new baby, and the yarn was just sitting there staring out at me between the slats of my basket begging to be a teddy bear hat.  

And I thought that I would commemorate the amazing organization of my spice cabinet (temporary though it will assuredly be).  Top right = refills in back, bakings/sweets spices up front as well as baking needs (yeast, baking soda, baking powder).  Middle right = all my savory spices, and bottom is breakfast munchies (granola bars, poptart crisps), and the waffle iron that I was absolutely stoked to get off the counter.  Left top has some baking goodies overflow, and the rest of the left side is dedicated to warm drinks (coffee, tea, cocoa) and their fixin's.  I completely reorganized my pantry, too.  I didn't take pictures of that, but it is equally orderly and segmented.  I know this won't last past the end of January, but at least for a while I can find absolutely everything with ease and precision.  

Make your own: Laundry Soap

I snagged this from Rey at The Peasant and the Pea.  So, it's been tried out by someone I personally know and trust.  She got the recipe originally from Tip Nut, I believe.  Anyways, all the  materials cost about $8 (give or take depending on where you shop and what you buy.)  

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

2 quarts of water

4 cups grated bar soap  

4 cups Borax

4 cups Washing Soda *washing NOT baking*

4 gallons of water

A clean 5 gallon bucket with a lid.

That does not say four bars of grated soap.  It says four cups of grated bar soap.  There is a fundamental difference.  It only took me  two and a half bars of Ivory to get my four cups of grated soap.  I grated it with a very fine cheese grater.  

My first question to Rey was:  What the hell is washing soda and where the hell do you find it?  Wal-mart apparently, and possibly the drug store, or you might have to check online.  Wal-mart had it where I live in Central Texas, but they only had Arm & Hammer.  I would've rather had an off label, but such is life.  Borax is also something that you don't always encounter, but at least I knew what that was from my Gramma.  I was also able to find it at Wal-mart.  You usually find both of these ingredients near the Oxy-Clean or other laundry boosters.  

I still have a good portion of each box left, though I am not sure if I have quite enough for a full second batch.  I would say you can get at least one and a half batches out of each box, thus reducing the actual total cost of each batch.  

Heat your 2 quarts of water to a simmer, and slowly --- very slowly --- add in your grated soap.  I was using a rubber spatula to stir, and I used the rubber spatula to scoop up some soap and stir it in.  Once all the first scoop of soap was dissolved, then I got another scoop.  Rey discovered the hard way that if you dump all the soap in at once it melts into a lump, and you have to stir forever to melt it down.  I think the total scoop/stir/melt process only took about 20 minutes.  If that.  

Dump your hot soapy water into your bucket, and add the Borax and Soda.  Stir until it is as dissolved as it is going to get.  The 4 gallons of water I added in 2 quart batches.  The water needs to be hot-ish in order to dissolve everything, so I used my sauce pot and heated it up on the stove while I stirred what was already in the bucket.  Not to boiling, just hotter than tap water.  Stir, stir, stir.  Everything will eventually get mostly dissolved.  Clap the lid on it and put it by your washer.  Use 1/4 c per load.  Stir before each time you use it, because even though we stirred it well, solids will settle.  

I got a stick from the yard for a stirrer after the water got too deep for my spatula, that way I wouldn't have to dedicate a kitchen utensil to the laundry.  

Five gallons of laundry soap for less than $8.  It lasted Rey (who has a family of four) for several months.  She crunched the numbers over on her blog, and the results were about half as much as buying Sun laundry detergent, which is one of the cheapest ones.  You can make it smell prettier by adding essential oils or soap scents (purchasable from most hobby and craft shops) if you like.  

You can use the same recipe, only without the water, for a powdered detergent, but I like liquid for rinsing cleaner.  

Coffee Can Cannisters

I haven't been able to focus on much the past few days, because my head's been so fogged up with this fall cold.  But that doesn't mean I've been completely lazy.

I save things.  Random things, useless things, odd things... I'm a packrat, but I am not in need of reform.

Ok... maybe I am in need of a little reform.  I do save some ridiculous stuff for a ridiculously long time, but I just never really know if it won't come in handy one day!  Like trash  I save trash.

Let me just put in a small advertisement that I sincerely wish they were paying me for.  Cafe Bustelo is awesomesauce.  It's only a few dollars more than regular coffee (i.e. Folgers, Maxwell House) for the 36 oz cans, but it's espresso ground, dark roast coffee with a really rich smooth taste.  It's way cheaper than gourmet coffees, too.  Gourmet flavor, much lower price.  I'm in love.

These can's are sadly empty, but that makes them more useful.

A can of spray paint, some fabric, some string, and I think I can make these coffee cans pretty.  I have lots of them.  Did I mention I'm a packrat?

Today, I only did the big cans.  I want to do the little cans in a different color.  I also have this handy thingy-ma-jig called a Crop-a-dile.

It punches holes, does grommets, snaps, and other stuff I haven't quite figured out, yet.  I bought it a long time ago because I had tons of grommets and snaps left over in my Gramma's goody boxes, but nothing to put them on with.  I haven't used it in ages, but it turned up in a box the other day, and I got an idea. 

Yes, this is the same burgundy fabric as above, but the light in my kitchen washed it out something fierce in the picture. 

I've put grommets all around the edges, and cut an X into the center of a circle of fabric.  The circle is roughly twice the diameter of the cans.  I used my pressure cooker lid to trace the circles out.  The lines of the X need to be slightly smaller than the diameter of the cans.  

I slid the cans through the X bottom first, and slid the fabric up nearly the the rim of the can.   Then I folded the fabric over, threaded some braided hemp twine through, cinched it up, and tied a bow.  

They don't look quite as I anticipated.  Originally, I was going to have the cans sitting in sacks, cinched up around under the lids, but the circles I cut out weren't big enough to come up as high as I liked.  They're dressed up some at least, and it's really easy to change if I decide I don't like it as well as I thought I did.  I'll label the tops once I figure out what I'm going to put in them.  

I think I'm going to use the smaller cans for mine and B's hot teas.  These big ones *might* be big enough for flour, iced tea bags, and rice.  

How long can you love leftovers?

Apparently I can love leftovers for quite a while.

Remember that tomato soup that morphed into something like pizza stew and was going to become something like lasagna?   It didn't.  It became something else.

B was supposed to go to WLC (warrior leadership course or something like that), but he couldn't make weight.  So he's back on a diet.  He uses a coffee cup method.  I used to use Bento Boxes, because they're cute and fun, and I like to play with my food.  His coffee cup method is the same principle of portion control, just less entertaining.

So, I wanted something yummy I could put in a coffee cup and didn't require me to go to the store, because quite frankly we were broke, and payday wasn't until yesterday.  I still have tortillas, the leftover soup, some leftover soup beans, and that sausage-cheese-salsa dip.... hmmmm.

I dumped it all in a pot (except the tortillas), and let it simmer together for a little while.

The initial dumping looked pretty gross.

Yeah... ew.  I was sincerely hoping it would taste better than it looked.  It looked better after it all melted in together.  But the first view was a little off-putting.

Then I took the tortillas and folded them into a lightly oiled muffin tin.  I baked them at 400 until they started to brown on the edges.

I steamed some rice, then layered rice, tortilla cup, soup-stuff, rice, tortilla cup, soup-stuff.  It was good.  I have no idea what to call it.  Coffe cup lasagna?  Heck if I know, but it was most assuredly edible. lol

Make do Mater Soup & Leftover Love

Fin and I have this bad habit of foodstorming.  It's like brainstorming with our bellies.  She usually starts it with "Oh! You know what sounds so good?", and it just snowballs madly.  The other day we were foodstorming early one morning.  We were missing winter and cold weather foods, and the subject of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup came up.

I didn't have any tomato soup, but I had
a big can of diced tomatoes,
a fresh tomato, some
tomato sauce, and some
tomato paste.  To which I added
minced garlic
basil
oregano
salt
pepper
chopped onion

I let it simmer until the onions started to get soft, then I scooped some out into the blender and pureed the chopped tomatoes.

The grilled cheeses were a random assortment of cheeses, because I almost never have yellow cheese in the house (that funky oil based stuff known as American Cheese is communally known as "yellow cheese").  We had mozzarella, pepper jack, provolone, and swiss grilled cheeses.  Totally awesome!

But there was a lot of leftover tomato soup, and Fin and I were foodstorming over dinner.  She suggested cheddar bay biscuits from Red Lobster, so I found a recipe.  It called for Bisquik.  I don't keep such blasphemy in my pantry, but she had some to donate.  She also brought over a big can of tomato soup and another small can of tomato sauce.  We dumped in the bag of leftover meatballs I had in my freezer, and man was that stuff good.  It was like a bowl of pizza.

We've got plans to use these leftovers, add noodles/pasta, and a layer of cheese on top and bake it into a baked spaghetti kind of thing.

I love foodstorming!

You little sew and sew... go sit on it and weave!

Ok, yeah... that's a cheesy ass title.  I can't help it!

 Bryan made me a sewing desk :-D  He isn't too thrilled with it, but it turned out exactly how I hoped it would.  I'm hoping that he will have enough odd scraps of wood eventually to make me some old style vegetable crates to use as drawers.  <3!!  It's got a huge work surface, which is truly awesome when I've got a curtain sized pile of fabric I'm trying to keep straight for sewing.

And an old hutch I was using as a book case has taken a place as a hutch again, which is why he suggested he build me a desk in the first place.  And because I'd hijacked the dining table as my sewing table, because there wasn't anywhere else with a work surface big enough for my projects.

I've got a super-amazing-awesome husband!

I've gotten several projects done since he set it up for me the other day, too.

Remember those polyester scraps of slacks I mentioned that used to be in the trunk turned coffee table?

 I took some of them and ripped the seams out for a crazy quilt pillow.

I've decided that crazy quilting is kind of a pain in the butt, because trying to get all those odd shaped pieces to fit together into the size and shape you want them to eventually be is challenging.  But I love the way it turned out!  Katie helped me lay out the colors, and it is Pup tested and nap approved.

I also sewed a curtain for the window over the stairs.  We hung it up with staples, because it was scary enough with the Pup balancing on the banister to try to reach just for that.  Having someone balancing up there with a power drill and multiple sharp pointy objects to try to hang a curtain rod was just not something I really wanted to contemplate.

They're not really purple and yellow.  That's just the result of the flash.  It's more a country blue and sunshine.  They don't block all the light, so you can still see to go up and down the stairs, but it still blocks some light and cools off the upstairs hall and stairwell a lot.  Katie helped me with this one, too, because I just wasn't sure about combining blue and yellow.  I like it, in spite of the ruffles.  The blue ruffled bit was a round table cloth that I cut in half, then only sewed half the cut edge to the top edge of the sheer yellow fabric.  The other half of the half circle I hemmed and let hang.  I was going to get all fancy, and cut the table cloth into quarters, then try to sew the quarters together into something like a scalloped panel, but I decided that would be more work than necessary and would make the curtains way too long for the small window.

Another staple gun curtain project.  This was a very sheer knit in a sunshiney yellow.  It actually almost perfectly matches a tablecloth I gave Ms. Terri this past summer.  If I had seen this when I gave her the table cloth, I would've given this to her, too, because I'm really not a big fan of pastel or bright colors.  But, it ended up working out great for the bathroom.  It shades, without cutting out all the light.  And when it's cool enough to open the windows, it lets a breeze through, without billowing around and showing you showering to the neighborhood ;-)  It also makes the bathroom a pretty warm sunlight color, even when it's cloudy out.

That's it for my projects so far.  I'm still not done, yet.  B made me a lap loom that I just have to try out with the spools of run yarn I scored.  80 lbs of yarn for under $80.  When you consider that a normal skein costs around $3, and it's usually only a few ounces, you're talking about a MAJOR price score.  I just can't knit with it, because it all wound up being rug yarn.

If you look at the second picture of the desk, up on top of the hutch, you'll see some of the spools of yarn.  Most of them are big, fluffy thick yarns, with lots of loft in various shades of earthy browns and greens.  I've got some that I think are a little obnoxious (mustard yellow with orange flecks???), and some bright gem tones like a cerulean blue, garnet red, and a deep purple that I really love.  I can't complain about the yarn, though.  Included in all that (until now) useless rug yarn were two HUGE skeins of merino lace weight yarn in a really nice spring/mossy green.  *That* in the amounts I have it in, is worth way more than $80.  You're talking about 1200 ft per lb, and each spool weighs several lbs.  I have some lace patterns I've been dying to try out, I just have to find the time!

Maybe I'll be unpacked all the way, one day LOL.  I'd probably make more progress if I quit playing with the sewing machine, huh?

Travel Trunk Table

While I was visiting with Ms. Terri from over at In the Blue House on the Hill, we were talking about crafty things, and I mentioned a foot locker that I have absolutely full of vintage polyester.  Yes... I really do save anything.  These are scraps left over from my step-gramma's clothes-making.  She used to make her own clothes to wear to work, because she had to dress nice, but couldn't afford to go buy expensive clothes.  I was trying out idea for what to do with all that 1970's scariness (because boy some of those patterns and color combinations are *wild*, and polyester really isn't a pleasant feeling fabric.  Kind of scratchy, and plasticy.).

Ms. Terri by-passed the fabric and went straight at the trunk with her train of thought.

It's a pretty awesome trunk.  I love old stuff, because it always has more personality than new stuff.  There are scratches, and dents, and tarnished places that make it more individual than just going to the store and buying something that is just like what everyone else already has.  Old stuff has stories, too.  Even if I can't use it in its current incarnation, I save old stuff until I can figure out a way to give it a new purpose as something else or part of something else.  Trunks are always handy, though.  They're storage with attitude.  You can leave a trunk stuffed full of junk anywhere in the house, and it looks like decoration.  Try that with a cardboard box some time.  It just doesn't have the same appeal.

Anyway... sorry about that.  I kinda got sidetracked.  So where was I?  Visiting Terri... right.

She suggested I turn the trunk into a coffee table.  She even gave me finials for feets!

But you can't have a  cool, banged up old travel trunk with raw feets.  The feets need some character, too.  (these were happily dinged and scratched already, so I didn't feel the need to beat them up).

But they did need staining.

The curtain hangers were stained with the exact same stain.  The finials just seemed to take the stain way better.  I like it!

Then, I got to thinking about the water rings left by cold drinks, the leather-ish (probably vinyl) material covering the trunk, and the particle board underneath.  Some form of water protection would probably be a good idea.  I don't want my table getting all mushy and the top falling in.

So out comes the polyurethane.

In heavy doses!  I must've put 1/4 inch on there.  It drooled down the sides and back some, so I went ahead and polyurethaned the whole lid.. you know, just to keep it from looking too sloppy.  

 I drilled some pilot holes a little smaller than the screws coming out of the finials and screwed them into place.

Then, I got some of the scraps from B's curtain hangers to screw onto the tips of the screws so I won't accidentally cut myself on the tips when I reach into the trunk for something.

And there we go.  A coffee table/trunk :-)  It's awesome!

Please ignore the clutter.  I am still unpacking and organizing, but it's the perfect height for setting drinks and controllers on, and the inside has just enough room for the blankets I had folded on the backs of the couch and love seat, and the two travel pillows that the Pup and B use when they nap in the afternoons.