A Room with a View

Finally.  The spirit moved me today and I finished the pantry re-do here in the cabin.  I guess the arrival of warmer weather is giving me a little more energy.  It was warm enough today that I was also able to have the door to the cabin open for a few hours. That was good and bad.  It made me feel as if I had more space in which to operate, but at one point I had three dogs going in and out.  A bit hairy. 

This is what the pantry looked like when I decided to make it more visually pleasing.  It served its purpose for a summer cabin that a person visited for a week once a year during which you were outside most of the time, but it was getting on my nerves since I was living here full time.

 

I had already started the re-do after I started painting last Thanksgiving.  Can't believe it was that long ago.

Today, I started by moving things off the top shelf--that I thought I'd placed where I wanted them last fall--to make space for the "new" bread box that I found at Goodwill

I'd cleaned it thoroughly several weeks ago but the outside was showing some fingerprints so I used Windex for a final shine.  I can see it's going to be an issue.  Maybe that's why its original owner donated it.

Then I transferred all the spices, teas, emergency candles and matches from the old bread box to the new bread box.



One reason we've kept some of these things in a bread box over the years was to keep the mice out of them when the cabin was closed up for most months of the year.  I haven't seen or heard any sign of mice since I've been living here and, in fact, got rid of the poison wheat my sister had put out.  I can't stand the thought of anything dying the kind of hemorrhagic death that results from the ingestion of this poison and believe if one of the foxes or another animal ate a rodent that had eaten poison wheat, it, too, would die.  I keep meaning to ask my neighbor who is a Buddhist, how she deals with rodents.  I digress.

Next, I had to clean at least the tops of all of the containers, which had become covered with what I call "kitchen gluck," a combination of dust, grease and, in this case, blow-back ash from the wood stove.  It accumulates in a much shorter period of time because I burn wood.  So lots of dish washing.

I had purchased more plate hangers many weeks ago and wanted to hang more of my porcelain plates and saucers.  One was so tiny, even the smallest plate hanger was too big so I had to fashion one to fit by replacing the springs with wire. 

I also spent some time cleaning and polishing some silver pieces I wanted to incorporate into the mix. 

I decanted some vinegars and generally moved things around and tweaked them to make space for this old scale I bought at Goodwill several months ago.

I think it looks interesting with these beautiful tequila bottles I also found at Goodwill.  I'm using them for vinegar and oil.  Good thing I have labels on both sides.  I can turn this one bottle around so the split in the band is in the back.  Does that sort of thing drive you crazy?

I also wanted to use this lamp.  It's always been dark in the kitchen end of the cabin and I have to admit my choice of paint has not helped that situation, but this little lamp, another Goodwill find, really puts out a lot of light.  It was tall enough it had to go on the top shelf. 

 

After I got the lamp up, I could see I needed to paint the cord black.  The little details make all the difference.  So I've been waiting for three coats of paint to dry in order to get it back in place so I could take photos.



I had already incorporated this tiny "mood" lamp.  I thought it was interesting that the reclaimed lumber my Dad used to build these shelves back in 1939 had holes in it that accommodated the cord perfectly even though there was no electricity then and not until about five years ago.

I decided I needed to "fake" a curtain for the window just west of the shelves in case it showed in the photos.  I really dislike sewing.  It is so precise.  I didn't like it when I took home ec in high school and it never got any better, but I've had the fabric since last fall.  At least two months ago I  laundered it in case it shrunk.  Today I got out a little portable ironing board and equally small travel iron, both Goodwill finds, and ironed enough to cover the window.

Right now it's just pinned on and, in fact, I cropped it out of all the photos.  I hope my energy level continues and I'm able to get myself to get my sewing machine out, set it up, load the bobbin, thread the needle and get the curtains for all four windows done next week.  I'm not too bad with straight seams.

So, this is it.

It pleases my eye and is the first thing I see of a morning and the last thing I see at night, so that's important. 

Have you done something recently to improve your outlook?  Teddee

Thriftier Thrifter

In good company with Ireland, Greece, Italy and now France, I'm imposing new austerity measures on myself.  I don't know about them, but I have a real goal, to save up enough to run another electric line into the cabin, making yesterday's thrift outing thriftier than usual.  I had to go to Boulder to get a prescription filled, so used that as an excuse to drop in at the Goodwill for their 50% off sale.  I spent $21.11 but can't show you anything I got for that amount because, for some reason, someone had decided it was a good idea for the baggers to just load everything, unwrapped, into boxes.  When I got to the car I had to unload everything because I didn't have room for the box--I use my car as a second room because of the tiny space I'm living in and right now it is full of bags of bedding that the family uses when everyone comes out and camps out in tents in the meadow.  So, I had all of these breakable things tucked in among the bags and that's where they're going to stay because I'm not going out in this to get them:

There is another cabin straight through this grove of aspens, but it's not even visible for the blowing snow.  This was a Denver Post on-line headline from yesterday, but I think we're just now getting this.  According to NOAA, we're not getting 14 inches of snow, which, apparently, they got or are getting further south around I-70.  I think we're getting less than an inch, but we are getting the winds.  NOAA says 48 mph wind gusts and I'd say that high at least. 

This morning when I was trying to get the fire going, I thought I'd open the cabin door a crack to increase the draft.  Took down the quilt that I hang over the door to keep the wind out and got a face full of snow just through the cracks in the closed door, so decided that wasn't an option. 

This is the "view" from my east window.  The screen is imbedded with snow.  I figured this was the same storm that just dumped on the Pacific Northwest, but maybe it swept in from the plains.

This is a picture of my thermometer outside the north window.  I think it says 19F degrees.

Back to the thrift outing.  After going to the pharmacy I just had to drive out past the Salvation Army where I spent $7.41 for these:

and this:

I think the little mug is cut glass.  It's edges are pretty sharp.  It was $1.30 and had been in the store long enough that it was 50% off.  I thought it would be a nice container for some odd silver spoons I've found at thrift stores over the past months.  The two canisters in that same picture will be used in the pantry for nuts and other small-quantity items.  One was $1.30 and the other $2.45.  The lower picture is of a quite large canister, filled will cookie crumbs right now, that was only $2.45.  I had seen one of these, either in a magazine or on-line, filled with old clothes pins and it looked quite clever.  I just determined this is not too tall to fit in one of the shelves of a cupboard used for cleaning and laundry supplies and there are a bunch of clothes pins, some antique, in a plastic bag out in the wood shed right now just waiting to come back in the cabin.

What bargains did you find on your last shopping outing?  Teddee

Seeking Professional Help

No, I'm not going to counseling about Lola's death although that might not be a bad idea.  Having trouble not dwelling on the details.  I did, however, seek professional help for two other issues this week.  On Wednesday, the electrician from Positive Energy came to address a couple of problems and some possible future work.  He told me the breaker box was switching off for the simple reason that I'm taxing the single line he ran in here five years ago when the goal was to install electricity for a cabin that would only be used a few weeks each summer.  Space heaters were not in those plans.  Neither were microwaves, electric blankets and computers.  He said the situation was not dangerous because the system is so new.  He also pointed out that the reason this single plug-in was working sometimes and not others was that he and my brother-in-law had decided to connect it to the light switch.  Talk about feeling stupid.  I thought I'd been told that light switch had to be on for any of the electrical outlets inside the cabin to work.  The other one was for the porch light.  Somehow I was turning that switch off from time to time without realizing it and because all of the outlets except that one were working, I just figured that switch was in the ON position!  At least that was not the only reason he came out on a very cold and windy day.  It's probably going to be about $700 to add another line, so I don't have to turn the space heaters off any time I want to microwave or use the hot plate, and to move the conduit if I decide to move the cabin door from the west wall to the south wall.  If I decide to throw in wiring for two ceiling lights that would bring the grand total to $1,000 plus the cost of the light fixtures. He wouldn't be able to do any of this until spring when I can move the furniture out on the deck, so I'll be saving like crazy.

Today, the IT guy from Computer Wizz arrived right on time and spent an hour getting the printer communicating properly with the computer.  There seemed to be a number of issues and, despite the fact that I recall entering the ESP 5200 series any number of times since Christmas in my efforts to get the problem fixed, he said I had the wrong printer selected and he seemed to be in a totally different location making this selection than I'd ever been.  I find it frustrating that when fixing computer glitches there seem to be many different paths to the same end.  At any rate, the problem is fixed and the printer is printing fine. 

One of the printing projects that was on hold all these weeks was the printing of the remainder of the labels for the pantry canisters.  And these Avery Print-to-the-Edge Oval Labels (22804) that I purchased at OfficeMax came off the backing sheet very badly this time. 

I'd printed one sheet before I started having printer issues and it seemed fine, but the two that I did today are a mess.  I wonder if it has something to do with the temperatures in the cabin going from almost freezing at night to probably the 80s sometimes when I have the wood stove really cranking?  Just glad they didn't come off and get stuck in the printer!

 
The packaging indicates the labels can be used in both laser and ink jet printers, so I don't think that can be the problem.  I managed, by printing two sheets, to get good labels for each item, but this was a waste.  I also ditched the idea of an ornate border which I had used on the first page of labels I did.  They looked like this.

I got that frame from the Graphics Fairy, which is a wonderful site for free vintage graphics.  If you've never visited and ever need for such graphics, I encourage you to do so at http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com.  Karen, you have the honor of being my first link!  I just figured out how to do this.  I loved the border but found I was having trouble getting it sized and positioned to exactly line up with the edges of these oval labels. I'll use it another time.  I have some transfer paper I've been wanting to try on fabric so will keep this in mind for that.

Half off at Goodwill tomorrow.  When you thrift, do you go looking for something specific:?  Do you stick to a budget?  Teddee

Disappointment and Disaster

I had forgotten that Savers does not put its household and decorative items on sale during its sales, so was extremely disappointed yesterday, after spending more than an hour browsing and filling my cart with some interesting and delightful items, to find that only the clothing (a pair of slacks, a tee and a robe), a pair of boots and a throw were on sale.  Among the interesting and delightful found items, believe it or not, was the pink and gold chamber pot that I was quite sure I had seen at Goodwill several weeks ago, had not purchased and thought I had lost.  So, here it was at Savers.  Was I mistaken?  Had I seen it at Savers, not Goodwill?  But if that were the case, where was it when I visited Savers following that?  If someone had purchased it at Goodwill why had they donated it to Savers almost immediately?  I know.  It was cursed.  An accursed chamber pot.  What would be the results of the curse?  Now that would be the basis for at least a short story....or not.

At first I thought all these delightful items were not on sale simply because the special card that Savers issued last year, that was supposed to get me 50% off a day early, didn't apply to those items yesterday, but the manager confirmed these items would not be on sale today either.  I voiced my disappointment, indicating this was not a true sale and was, in fact, a come-on, and the manager, eyeing my over-loaded card and realizing someone was going to have to re-shelf everything, gave me a 20% off coupon, but I was so disgruntled by that time that I just bade all the decorative items, including the pink and gold chamber pot, a fond farewell and left with my discounted clothing and linen items.  I'll have to remember this the next time Savers has a non-sale sale.

The other day when I was continuing work on the slowly, very slowly progressing pantry project, I got so engrossed that I created a disaster.  For background, you must understand that when you put a pan of dishwater on a wood stove to heat, the water gets hotter, not colder as it would if you had drawn a sink full of hot water and then gone off and left it.  So, I had put a pan of water on the range to heat, put in some dish washing soap and tossed in a few things that needed washing, including a cute little silver plated loving cup I had purchased at a thrift shop many weeks ago.  I forgot that the previous owner of the loving cup had used it as a candle holder and that the loving cup had about a quarter cup of red wax in the bottom.   The day wore on, I was hanging porcelain plates and deciding where, among all of my pretties, I was actually going to situate the necessities.  Here's a sneak preview just to prove the pantry project is real.

Evening finally came and I decided to wash the items waiting in the dishwater...very hot dishwater...almost boiling dishwater, but dim light, very dim light.   I dumped the "water" out of the loving cup and filled the pan with hot liquid red wax.  Realizing what I'd done, I quickly plucked some soup bowls out of the mess, but was left with this:

I had always had success getting melted wax out of candle holders by freezing them, so put the dishpan and its contents in the snow.  This was ineffective.  I had to scrape the wax off everything, ended up with a very sore thumbnail and finally got the last residue off with Goo Gone.  I think there's still some red wax inside the can opener handle that I just couldn't access, so will have to be careful washing anything else with it in the future for fear the wax will melt off in the hot dishwater and onto whatever else is in the water.

To cap it off, the cute little engraved loving cup got so hot that the material used to solder the base to the cup liquified, ran out onto the base and melted a hole in it.

Would I have bought this with this hole in the base?  Probably not, but since I rescued it, now I'm responsible for it.  I wonder if there is a silver "putty" a person could use to fill this hole?  Teddee