Last year I painted a small end table Duck Egg Blue with Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint. Here’s the post. I liked the way it turned out, but I’m now painting my bedroom a new color. Since the bedroom is now Sherwin Williams Aqua Sphere Blue, it clashes with the Duck Egg Blue table. My aqua and my duck are not getting along! Here’s the table…
Annie Sloan’s chalkpaint product is wonderful, but I didn’t want to drive a long distance to get it or pay the $30-$40, so I started looking for recipes to make a chalk-style paint. There are several…some use Plaster of Paris, some baking soda, some grout, and some a powdered form of what makes up Tums! I went the Tums route which means that I used powdered Calcium Carbonate. It was $4. I also needed a white latex paint, and since I didn’t have any at the house, I bought one of the Valspar paint pots for about $3. Perfect for a small job such as mine.
The recipe is simple. Two parts paint to one part Calcium Carbonate, and since the paint pot is 8 oz., I just added 4 oz of Calcium Carbonate. Here’s my paint brew. Unlike some of the other recipes, I learned that this mix stores well. One most important tip…please make sure you have something to stir the mix with. I could not find anything and had to go out and cut a tree limb. I was channeling Paul Bunyon. The consistency of the mix is not as smooth as normal paint.
I brushed the mixture on the table and drawer and let them dry overnight.
When I first asked Mike to “distress” a piece of furniture he almost fainted. He could not imagine. In his eyes, you must “refinish” instead of distress. He’s come along.
He used sandpaper to rub the white off and allow the blue to show through. After that he rubbed a clear paste wax on the table. However, you can use any wax including car wax. Whatever floats your boat. The wax gives the dull chalk finish a nice sheen and smoothness to the touch. In the picture below, the table is almost through.
We finished painting the bedroom last week. It took forever, and Mike still is not happy with the way the paint rolled on the walls, but I’m so over that. Who cares if it is not perfect? Last week, I could not wait to have something “put together” in this room, and I showed you one completed side of the room in an earlier post. It’s here if you haven’t seen it. I’ve now got the other side of the room put together.
I wanted a restful retreat. My high school friend, Linda Godfrey, has a “Restful Retreat” board on her Pinterest page. I think that is a perfect description of what a bedroom should look like. Some of the pictures she pinned to her board were my inspiration…especially when I decided on blue for the walls. Here’s the bed….with its duvet cover and pillows.
Remember the end table that showed up in the picture below?
I am still using the end table, but I didn’t want to keep the color. It’s got a new chalk-style paint finish and a new lamp. Do you like the little turtle? I thought it was appropriate since I’ve been so slow putting this room back together.
Here’s a close up of the little turtle. Mike’s son made it in elementary school. I’ve meant to give it to him, but I haven’t done so yet. I will. One day.
I stepped back a bit to take this picture. I had to be careful or you’d see the last side of the room that is still not put together. Do you recognize the quilt in the picture? If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know it’s the 2013 Mendota Cemetery Quilt. How I love that quilt and the sweet man (and his wife) who gave it to me. Receiving such a gift is one of the wonders in my world.
I’ve got one more side of this room to finish and then I’ll have the whole room done!
Do people up north eat rhubarb? When I lived there, I never heard the word rhubarb, but you can’t rely on my judgement. I’m so influenced by Southern life that when I attended college (as an adult mind you) and the professor asked what the most common religion was in America, I raised my hand and said “Baptist.” (As most of you know, I was wrong.)
Back to rhubarb… I’ve never heard anyone speak about strawberry rhubarb pie anywhere but…..here! Strawberry-rhubarb pie is a prize in Southwest Virginia! My grandmother, like most of her contemporaries living in Mendota at the time, had a rhubarb patch. She warned us, “never eat those leaves.” I have been thinking about her, and I decided to make some strawberry rhubarb jam, but I had difficulty finding rhubarb. I knew I could get it at the Abingdon Farmer’s Market, but the main market is on Saturday; and on Wednesday, I wanted to get started. I finally found it at Food City….just a few of the red rhubarb stalks for $3.53, but I was glad to get them.
Based on this apparent rhubarb shortage, I decided to plant some rhubarb. I got my plants at Lowe’s. My little patch will have four plants. That’s enough for my needs. They seem to like living out by the barn, and I can water and watch over them as I water my blueberries, potatoes, green beans, etc. My stalks are tiny in the picture below, but fully developed rhubarb stalks look like beet-red celery. You can sprinkle sugar on the stalks for a crunchy, tart treat. And…as my grandmother said, “Never eat those leaves,” because...well, they’ll kill ya! They are poisonous.
I worked that comment about my blueberries, potatoes, green beans, etc. so I could, once again, show you the raised beds. Anyone considering gardening should consider raised beds. They are the best! I took this picture about one week ago. How ’bout them taters?” We are abundantly blessed in rural Southwest Virginia. Beyond the garden, you’ll see a line of white flowers…those are my blackberries. Behind the blackberries further up on the ridge, there is a huge patch of raspberries. The only challenge with these berries is the competition with the turkeys. They love berries, too.
Back to strawberry-rhubarb jam…I used the traditional recipe for strawberry jam (minus the lavender) (posted here), but in this case, I first chopped up two cups of rhubarb and then added enough crushed strawberries to make 3 and 3/4 cups of the combined crushed strawberries and the chopped rhubarb mixture.
I love the rich red mixture. Strawberry jam is so sweet and the rhubarb adds a bit of tartness.
For those of you who yet to try food preservation, please try it. Making simple jams is a great way to get started. After making one successful batch, you’ll be hooked. So pretty and a great gift.
And look at this, the cherries are here! They are so happy and cheerful, but I am not sure whether I’ll bother picking them. You are welcome, birds!
When I watch tv shows where a house undergoes a “redo” in a day, I feel like such a loser. I started painting days ago, and while the room is now painted, I haven’t got it back together. This picture was taken on May 22. It’s May 30. No we’re not done.
We just got it painted yesterday which was May 29. We haven’t put the stuff back. Here’s the bed with all the junk on it that I”m using to clean the room. I’ll be sleeping with that Windex.
Have you ever done something and then doubted yourself? Maybe you became unsure? I do that most of the time, but not this time. I love this bedroom now that it’s blue. Before I painted, didn’t want to clean it or enter it. I just ignored it most of the time when it was the horrible cold coffee brown color.
Everything looks so much better with the new paint…these sheers have been there forever, but today, they look fresh to me. I washed them and pulled them out of the dryer and put them on the curtain rod. That curtain rod has an interesting history. It’s really a pipe that Mike got at my True Love’s a few years back for 34 cents per foot. We stuck fenials on the pipe, but I can’t remember where we got them.
I wanted a few things above the bureau. It has a mirror but I don’t like it. The two pictures are from our days with Nortel. Mike worked out of Calgary, Alberta, and Nortel was nice enough to fly me up several times (obviously before we had dogs). We stayed at Banff Springs Lodge and hiked around Lake Louise. The upper picture is the lodge and the bottom picture is Lake Louise. I purchased these prints on that trip. The chalkboard that says “light of the moon” is a reminder of one of Mike’s first observations about Mendota. “It’s so dark…the only light is from the moon!” When I have to spend the night away from here, I’m very aware of the traffic, noise and lights. I prefer to sleep where there are only the stars and the moon to illuminate the way.
Here they are on the wall…Love Love Love this blue.
One project begats another project. See the blue table I did last year pictured below? It was an Annie Sloan project. It’s going to be white in a day or two. I think it will look really pretty against the blue. I also replaced the lamp.
It has been beautiful in our river valley for the past few days. Low humidity…sunshine. Everything is growing.
If you’ve followed my blog, you’ve heard me mention… “Once you’ve got that Poor Valley mud on your boots, you can’t wipe it off.” You’ll always want to come back. Please travel around our area with me and enjoy a few of the pictures I’ve taken in the past 24 hours. As I look at them, I think that it’s true — you can’t wipe the Poor Valley mud off. Or maybe you just won’t want to! The hayfield below….I can show you a picture, but I wish I could share the smell. Quilts…this quilt was won this morning by Darius Hall at today’s Mt. Vernon UMC Homecoming. It was donated by Linda Nunley. Her stitches, love and fabric selections helped raise over $1600 for the Mt. Vernon Cemetery. Thank you Linda. Congratulations Darius.
We were all happy that someone we knew won the quilt. However, Fern Salyer and I were also hoping that Dixie Hall of Franklin, Tennessee (and sometimes Maces Springs) would win as this Memorial Day weekend is Dixie and Tom T.’s birthday weekend. Dixie and Tom always support Mt. Vernon and our quilt sales efforts, and we love them! Maybe next year! I took a picture of Fern as she has something to say to Dixie and Tom….
In southern, rural America…places like where I live…there’s a blur between families and church families. There’s an intimacy in worshiping together as well as living near one another and sharing lives. You should hear our “prayer and praise” list. We gathered yesterday at Mt. Vernon’s picnic shelter to celebrate Emmie’s first birthday …here she is.
While we were having birthday fun, a film crew arrived to work on a documentary. Since our church has ties to the Carter Family, this wasn’t as unusual as you might think. We figured out how we could work, party and film together. We invited them to the birthday party and then to Homecoming on Sunday morning. They accepted, and we so enjoyed them.
Some of the film crew were Scotch Irish, and guess what? So are we!! We compared our light eyes…light skin…discussed sunburns. We discovered that the largest difference was in timing…we arrived across the pond a little sooner (a few generations ago) and our accents are no longer quite the same. I asked this pretty young lady to pose with Dale Jett. They compared accents…here’s how Dale summed it up:
I think the film crew might have gotten some Poor Valley mud on their feet. Dale, Teresa and Oscar sang for them (and us) this morning. I couldn’t get Teresa in the picture from where I was sitting. I was listening….“I’m going where there’s no depression.” Lyrics and sounds that travel across generations.
After church…we went for a drive….you know what we were doing…have you ever got behind someone just barely moving down the road? That was us. We usually say “it’s those Tennessee drivers” but today, it was Mike and me and I was taking pictures. Sorry! It was another opportunity to pick up some more Poor Valley mud. It’s rampant. What do you see below? Do you see lovely small white flowers? If you do, you’re not from around here, and we need to have a lesson! If you live in the Southern Appalachians…in what we call Mendota…Hiltons…or Poor Valley… you don’t really see the flowers on this vine. You see future blackberries! Blackberry cobbler! Blackberries in the freezer! Blackberry jam! It’s going to be a great year for blackberries…they are everywhere! Another rich blessing…another reason to pick up another piece of that Poor Valley mud.
We drove a little further, and Mike said “you’re going to love this” as he spotted the quilt square in the picture below before I did. I do not know these people but I ran right up in their yard and took a picture. A new quilt square! I knew that if the homeowners came out, we’d end up being pals! I love quilt squares, and I am an enthusiastic, crazy for, in love with the idea, a supporter of the Mendota Trail. In fact, I’m certain we’d be best friends!
Thank you for visiting RiverCliff Cottage. Did you get any mud on your boots?
RiverCliff Cottage was built in 1999, and I have tried to have a beautiful clematis most of the years since. It’s 2014, and I may….just may have my clematis. Catch up on my strategy to keep this clematis alive here. Apparently, it’s working!!
Usually after just a few days of blooms, it wilts, but I believe that it’s past that time. I’m telling you people…the City of Bristol, Virginia has some amazing garbage that we call compost. I quit using mulch in the beds around the house and just spread compost. And the results are….
And this…
Seriously, it appears that my soil was too poor for the clematis and this was the cause of the wilt. I’d been using commercially packaged compost, etc. but it did not work. The plant is in the same location where it has always tried to live. The only thing different is that for the past 2-3 years, two inches of Bristol compost has been added. Feeling very happy as we approach Memorial Day. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage.
A few years ago, I stopped working and “took my house back.” The problem is that once I took it back, it ran away! I’m chasing it down AGAIN!
We’re working on the master bedroom. “We” so far is me, but Mike will step in and help soon. I’m trimming it out for Mike to roll on the paint. The room is also a complete mess, because why clean it up at this point?
More trimming…I cannot tell you how dirty this room is. I’m ashamed. Even though it’s cleaned often, when I pull out and move things around, there is dust and dirt showing up everywhere. I have pet spiders! Blinds are dusty and windows will have to be cleaned. I’m hanging my head in shame!
I still like this Thomasville highboy pictured below. I copied my very talented friend, Danea Walters, when I purchased this piece of furniture. That was 20 years ago!! Can you believe it?
You can imagine how shocked — and interested — I was when I saw a similar one painted yellow. I’m not this brave, but it is fun to imagine. I saw this on a blog called “Hi Sugarplum”
For now, however, let’s just focus on getting this room painted a better color. It’s Sherwin Williams Aqua Sphere.
I am not a good painter, but I don’t want to just hate this time spent working in here. I’m finding it a lot easier with Fannie Flagg’s new book which is on CD called “The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion. It’s good!
I’ll keep you updated on our progress. Meanwhile, I’m going to go watch the paint dry!
If you’ve have not yet tried home canning, you are missing out. It’s both rewarding and satisfying to preserve food. I think many of us have an instinct to gather, prepare and store for winter.
Yep–I do wanna jam with you! I made Strawberry-Lavender Jam over the weekend. The lavender added an extra dimension to the taste, and it was very easy to do. I followed the recipe on Ball Real Fruit Pectin (liquid) with the added ingredient of lavender. You need canning supplies and a basic knowledge of home canning to be successful with this recipe. The Ball Blue Book is the very best place to start. You can get all your home canning knowledge right there, and this would be a good first project.
Ingredients:
3 and 3/4 cups of crushed strawberries. I crushed them with a potato masher.
1/4 lemon juice
7 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon of culinary grade lavender
Prepare your waterbath canner, jars and lids. Prepare and measure the above ingredients. Combine crushed strawberries, lemon juice and sugar in an 8 quart saucepan. The depth of saucepan is necessary to keep the mixture from splattering and making a mess or making nasty red polka dots on your stirring arm. Ouch. I used the wrong size in the picture below, but on my next batch, I had corrected this mistake. Aren’t these pretty?
After you’ve got the crushed strawberries, lemon juice and sugar mixed, place the lavender in a tea infuser and drop it into your strawberry mix. If you don’t know what a tea infuser is, I’ve got one pictured below. I’ve been calling it a metal acorn all these years.
Bring your strawberry mixture with the lavender in the tea infuser to a rolling boil that cannot be stirred down over high heat. Stir frequently (like all the time).
Add the Ball RealFruit Liquid Pectin. Return to boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim foam, if necessary. (You may also put 1/2 teaspoon of butter or margarine to reduce foaming.) I recommend using a wooden spoon…I can’t prove this but it is so hot that I’m fearful a plastic spoon would melt.
Remove from heat, remove the tea infuser, and ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rims. Center lids on jars. Apply bands and adjust to fingertip tight.
Place filled jars in canner covered by 1 to 2 inches of water. Place lid on canner, and bring water to a gentle boil. Process ten minutes (some may have to adjust for altitude). Following ten minutes, turn heat off and let stand for five minutes.
Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seals after 24 hours. Mine sealed within five minutes. Each mix made about 14 of these 4 oz. jars of Strawberry Lavender Jam.
Once I observed my jams had sealed and set properly, I began thinking about what I wanted to do with them. Perhaps I should have thought of this first? There’s no way Mike and I will eat 40+ jars of Strawberry Lavender Jam….so I’ll use them as gifts, so I decided to make the jars a little fancier..
After a few minutes searching Pinterest for ideas, I went to the Avery.com website to see what was new, and I found round labels to fit my lids using Kraft paper. I ordered them from Amazon and this morning they arrived. While I’m supposed to be painting the bedroom, I’ve interrupted myself to make labels. Here’s the labels.
I followed the online design on Avery.com, selected Martha Stewart as my style (She is not my style but that was the name of the design –I think she’s an odd bird but in this case, I liked the embellishment) and within about 60 seconds, I had nine labels. Since they are adhesive, I then just stuck them on my jar lids. There is a pucker on the sides which I later learned I can rub out, but I’d already taken this picture. Sorry.
Don’t they look pretty all in a row?
Tips:
Clean the tea infuser fairly quickly after you’ve used it. It’s metal, and there is so much sugar in this mix that it will set up and be very difficult to open. I had to open it while running cold water over it.
Don’t be tempted to double the recipe. Your jam may not set properly.
I have never, ever had any luck with growing Clematis. My Clematis efforts have all resulted in wilt. I’ve tried different locations and different varieties. Same old wilt. About three years ago, I gave up. I dug the plant up and tossed it in the compost bin. It tried to come back, but I treated it like a weed and cut it off or tried to pull it up. Instead of Clematis, I focused my attention on this pink Mandevilla and the efforts were well worth it.
But very near this Mandevilla, there was a Clematis vine that kept peeking out–and getting whacked off. I showed it no mercy. This spring, however, before I had an opportunity to beat it back, the Clematis vine was up taunting me.
The picture above shows a healthy vine, but I’ve seen that sort of thing before. Sorry…I’m not buying it. However, shortly thereafter….a little over a week ago…it finally bloomed here and there. Now, I knew the wilt was not far off.
I posted on the Rivercliff Cottage Facebook page, and my sister, Pat, gave me very specific instructions on how to keep this thing from wilting. Per Pat’s advice, I don’t speak to it, look at it, water it, or pretend that I think it’s going to stay this way. I only mention that I’m planning on cutting it down when I walk by, but I do so in speaking with an Iris. You have to be very careful when dealing with Clematis. They will taunt you with their beauty and when you fall in love, they wilt. So…just for the record…I hate this plant. It helps that I have some Facebook friends that hate it with me….Lisa Griffith confirmed that she hated my Clematis, too. She was joined by Gayle Whitson who suggested I replace it with a satellite dish. Kay Elliott agreed it was hideous! I mentioned this all to the Iris with the Clematis lurking and listening nearby.
Thus far, this is working. Here’s the Clematis today…more blooms and still no wilt.
Quilts…this quilt was won this morning by Darius Hall at today’s Mt. Vernon UMC Homecoming. It was donated by Linda Nunley. Her stitches, love and fabric selections helped raise over $1600 for the Mt. Vernon Cemetery. Thank you Linda. Congratulations Darius. 
Thank you for visiting RiverCliff Cottage. Did you get any mud on your boots?
