a new addition.

Sorry for the silence around here, but we've been busy.  Mostly with work and not fun house stuff, but we have some new projects to share soon.  For now, check out the newest addition to our family:

Meet Hamilton Bonaparte aka Hambone.  He's an 8 week old australian shepherd that we picked up yesterday.  We definitely have our hands full with him!

hairpin leg nightstands.

Since we've been too busy to start any new projects, I'm sharing an old project today.  We searched for months for new nightstands when we first bought the house.  My old one didn't fit with the style of our bedroom and Rich's old one was a few pieces of wood attached to the wall.  We had a really hard time finding tables that were low enough to go with our bed.  We finally decided to build our own.

Don't mind the mess of cords behind mine - I'm still trying to figure out the best way to deal with that.  

Anyways, this project is super simple.  We purchased our hairpin legs online from hairpinlegs.com - we went with the raw steel version.  Then we picked up a pre-made wood top from Lowes and a can of clear matte sealer.  The raw steel version of the legs will rust if left untreated, so we chose to use a clear sealer to keep the original look of the legs.

Spray the legs, following the directions on your particular sealer.

Next, we screwed the legs on to the bottom of the wood tops.  Make sure you either create a template or measure so that all the brackets are evenly spaced from the edge of table. 

Finally, we had to finish the tops of the table.  We were trying to get the nightstands to be as close a match as possible to our bed frame.  We coated the tops with Howard Feed-N-Wax for now.  It made the color of the wood a little richer and provided some protection.  

After living with these for quite a few months, I will say that the Feed-N-Wax might not have been the optimal solution.  It was a convenient solution - we already had the Feed-N-Wax on hand.  Down the line, I think I'll either add a clear coat to these or choose a very light wood stain to provide a better seal. Since the tables are pretty much raw wood, they are a bit difficult to dust.  Other than that, these nightstands have awesome.

happy hour: pimm's cup.

Welcome to a new feature here at my so-called modern life: happy hour.  I've been working on becoming a better moderate drinker (seriously, this is one of my life goals right now) and I like to mix up my drink offerings.  The goal is to post a new drink every Friday... wish me luck!

A few weeks ago, we saw temperatures reach into the high 70's... in March... in New Hampshire.  This is not typical.  I took advantage of the weather and made myself a nice summer drink and enjoyed it on our screened in porch while I took care of some business.

The Pimm's Cup is addictive.  The first time I made it I had some friends over and by the end of the night, everyone was hooked on it and we'd polished off an entire bottle of Pimm's.  These go down easily - mostly because Pimm's is only 25% alcohol.

Pimm's Cup

1.5 oz Pimm's No.1

Ginger Ale

Lemonade (optional)

Lemon and Cucumber slices for garnish

Add the Pimm's to your cup.  Fill almost to the top with ginger ale.  Top with a splash of lemonade (optional).  Garnish with lemon and cucumber slices.

Note: As you might have noticed, I skipped the cucumber slices in the photo above.  Don't be like me.  The first time I made a Pimm's Cup, I skipped the cucumber because I'm not one to put vegetables in my drinks.  But as I made them for 5 other people, I thought I should get a little more legit about it and give it a try.  It's delicious.  I only skipped them here because I was out of cucumbers at the time.

Second Note: I like to add a splash of lemonade to mine, but it's completely optional.  Some people also make their Pimm's Cup with lemonade instead of ginger ale.  I tend to like the carbonation, so I prefer the ginger ale method. 

homemade laundry detergent.

Sorry things have been a bit slow around here... I've been working a lot of overtime at work and we've been away from the house a lot, so not much is getting done around here in terms of projects.

For now, let me quickly tell you about something that has revolutionized our laundry: homemade laundry detergent.

Seriously.  It sounds ridiculous, but it made a huge difference.  Mostly for our wallets.

I followed the directions from yellow brick home.  It's super easy - the hardest part is grating the bar of soap and even that only takes about 5 minutes and gives you a quick arm workout in the process.  Our last batch lasted us months - I think almost 9 months.

I was unable to find all the ingredients locally - I still have a few more spots to check, but I got impatient and purchased the supplies from amazon instead.  It's a $25-$30 investment up front, but the boxes of Borax and Washing Soda will make multiple batches.  I also ordered the two pack of the Fells Naptha soap since it was cheaper that way.

We've seen no downsides to using the detergent.  It's cheaper and lasts longer than store bought alternatives.  It smells really good while you're doing the wash, but the clothes come out unscented (our preference) and combined with the dryer balls we use, it has cut our laundry related bills dramatically.

starburst mirror.

Ah yes, the starburst mirror.  It seems like owning a starburst something (mirror, clock, whatever) is a requirement of owning a mid-century house.  And I'm okay with that.

I've been on the hunt for a good starburst for a while now.  Pretty much since we bought the house - so over a year.  I disliked everything we found in our price range and refused to spend hundreds of dollars on one.

And then this came around.  I saw it on some random blog on Tuesday.  I saw it again Wednesday on Retro Ranch Revamp's blog.  I held strong.  We have some big projects in mind and I didn't want to spend our house budget on decorative items.  By Friday I caved.  It only cost $35!  And I love it!  And I have no willpower.  

If you're interested in it, you can get all the details here.  It's the Wales Circle Mirror from the Martha Stewart Living Collection at Home Depot.