Fall Cooking at Christa's :: Pasta e Fagioli Soup

I thought I'd take a short break from furniture and other projects (to rest my two trigger fingers caused by my love and overuse of my HVLP) and to share some AZ fall. I wish it could be fall all year. Our weather has finally cooled, and we've had some much needed rain. One was a doozy of a storm, with hail that damaged almost everyone's car that was parked outside. I was home, and realized I was parked in the driveway because I had furniture projects going on, so I RAN to the playroom, dumped out a bucket of toys, moved the furniture aside and ran to the car with the bright pink bucket on my head to get the car in without a concussion from the gigantic hail! I pulled the car in before any damage, only to come in to find water POURING in through the dog door! It was unreal.

But after the storm settled, we looked up and saw this:

Hi, God.

 It appeared to begin and end on either side of our cul-de-sac.

 View from the backyard.

That cozy feeling I get every year kicked in.

 I lit up my FAVORITE candle, Creamy Nutmeg...it makes the house smell divine.

And I made soup! I make all kinds of soup when the weather cools down, and I had to share this one with you because it is so delicious.

The ingredients are easy.

 

Brown and chop, and put everything into a pot to simmer.

Oh, man, is it good, especially if you make it the day before.

Here is the recipe. I hope it becomes a regular in your house as it is ours.

Pasta e Fagioli Soup

Linking to:

   

Labeling the Laundry

There has been some confusion in our home regarding where dirty clothes belong.
We centralized our laundry into one unit, thanks to my sweetie.

Rather than having hampers in every room - or dirty clothes on the floor - we switched to the
"bombs away" system, which looks like this:

Then, everything gets sorted into the baskets.

Unfortunately The Little Women had trouble remembering which basket was for what.

My inspiration was a $40 Target basket with a chalkboard plaque to label what goes where.
However, I bought my baskets on clearance, and saved $70+ total  by doing the plaques myself.

I found these round wooden plaques at Michaels for $0.59 each.

Sprayed them with chalkboard paint.

 

Hot glued velcro to the back and to the basket and labeled them...

In a busy house with 3 kids, a husband and a dog, organization keeps me centered.

The girls like 'em and are motivated to keep their colors where they need to be. 

Hallelujah for small miracles. 

Linking to:

 

Project Diaries, Volume 5

Thanks for linking your beautiful projects last week!

Here are a couple of highlights:

Ann Marie at Twice Lovely created the most beautiful dresser using a projector (quick, go to her site to enter her projector giveaway!). I kept looking at the before and after and couldn't believe it was the same dresser!

 

Cassie at Primitive and Proper never fails to come up with the best and most colorful pieces. She is truly an expert in color. I love this turquoise and red dresser! I always jot down the colors she uses, and many of her color choices are added to my sidebar.

If you've been featured, feel free to add the "I wrote a page..." button to your blog.

Okay, it's your turn!

Please remember these simple guidelines ~
* Be a follower and/or subscriber to Stories of a House.
* Add the Project Diaries button to your post, pretty please (second one in the sidebar).
* Please only link up home decor-related projects.
* Add the URL of your post, not your general blog URL.
* Mosey on over to the other blogs and leave some lovely comments!

Executive Desk :: Before and After, and a Question.

 I could have easily had this desk done a week ago, but had so.many.issues. with my sprayer.

This is what happens to certain people with certain personality traits 

who perhaps don't think they need to read manuals on very complex machines.

Before

After

I wasn't sure at first which direction to go with this desk that I picked up at a garage sale.
It was so stately with its' leather inlays, yet it had feminine embellishments and feet.
I decided to go with the finish you see, and hope I chose correctly.
I guess I'll know when it sells or not!

I loved the original hardware, so I only primed, painted black, and poly'd them with spray paint.

The big question for me is always how much distressing do I want,
and once it's painted a solid color, where should I start?

To see the video tutorial on how I distress, it is here. (I'm sorry about the fact that I couldn't steady the camera very well!)

Disclaimer: This technique is best used to distress small areas, like edges.
Large areas show the areas distressed as lighter than the rest of the paint, even after clear coating.
But, I've never had problems with edges.

I usually start with the details and edges, and highlight those first.

 

On bigger panels and tabletops, I do edges, both the inside and outside edge if there is one,

trying very hard not to let the solvent bite too much into the surrounding paint. Again, the smaller the areas to distress, the better. 

 

 I wanted to bring out the leather in-lays, so I distressed around them.
I should also mention that the thinner the layers of paint, the better.

And - keep the denatured alcohol away from the leather.

Yes, I ruined the black leather by being stupid careless and placed the container right on top of it. The protective paper was still on, but it bit right down to the leather. Rather than panicking,
I marched over to my cabinet for some blue tape, taped the gold off,and sprayed the leather back to black.
Phew. You can't even tell the difference.

It's fun to find what lies in drawers.

Just a few tips:

After using the solvent with the 0000 steel wool, there will be steel wool fibers everywhere.

A tack cloth and a pair of gloves are your friends.
You may have to do this step twice, wiping down with a damp cloth in between.

I always grab a bunch for $0.99 at Sherwin Williams because they are ~ $3 each at the big stores.

Also, you may be wondering why I don't just sand through. Well, for one, I like the result of this so much more than sanding alone. Albeit, I do admit it takes more time.

 

And two, on more than one occasion, I have sanded the edge of a painted piece,
and it turned into the runaway latex bandit.

Which means I have to  do this, and start all over. And that makes me grumpy.

We somehow need to find a way to get it inside to stage it for its' debut on Craig (shudder),
but it is so heavy that Kevin needs two guys over here to help. He usually single handedly schleps furniture where I ask without me even noticing any effort involved. This desk is that heavy.

So, my question to you is, how should I price this piece?
Edited to add: the quality of this desk is excellent, it is 100% solid wood, obviously weighs a TON, plus has a glass cover for the top.

Pricing is always the hardest part, because some things sit and some things go like hotcakes, 

and I'm still trying to figure out a rhyme or reason.

Products used:

SW Solo Low VOC in Tricorn black, semi-gloss

See tutorial on distressing here

Topcoat: Varathane, semi-gloss

Linking to:

Sawdust and Paperscraps 

Finding Fabulous

Video Tutorial :: How I Distress Furniture

Well folks, this is my very first video. I really didn't mind talking to myself while nobody was home.

For those who have wondered how I distress a lot of my pieces, I hope it is helpful! 

I'm entertaining myself over the fact that I'm not actually in the video,
but look like a ghost against the black desk towards the end.

Anyway, I added the final finish to this desk today,
and should have pictures up tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

Edited to add: if you are doing large areas of distressing, don't use the solvent. The dullness may be too obvious, even after the clear coat. But, for smaller areas and highlights, knock yourself out!

Until next time my friends,