Repurposed Thursday: A Ragged Little Box

Welcome to Repurposed Thursday!

Last week I showed you how we disassembled/demolished my old upright piano. During that time, an idea came to me for a gift for Ed. Anytime we've visited an antique store or flea market and came across a valet box, he has always spent a little extra time looking at it. He told me once, that when he was a kid, he thought they were just the coolest things. So, looking at the pieces of wood from the piano, I thought that I would make him a large valet box for Christmas. The fact that I had never even attempted to build anything like that didn't even enter my mind. How hard could it be?

I had decided to use one of the side pieces of the piano because it was wide and long, and I could get everything that I needed from one piece of wood. My first obstacle was finding a time when Ed was at work, and the weather cooperated. By that time, it was fall, and this is Missouri...My original plan was to get my son Kyle to come cut the pieces for me. I never could get that coordinated either. Ok, well, I was just going to have to do it myself. Finally, in October, the weather and Ed's work schedule cooperated.  I had watched Ed, for four years, every time he measured twice to cut once. I knew how to do that. I used two out door chairs to lay the wood across, then measured and marked the wood. Piece of cake!

Now to cut them. We have a battery operated skill saw that I had never used in my life...but I had watched Ed do it. The first cut went beautifully! This is going to be great! I'll get all the pieces cut this morning, and I”ll be able to put them together tomorrow morning! There were a few things, however, that I had not considered: The battery, and the age of the wood.  About half way through the second cut, the saw just stopped. Ok, well, I'll just change the battery (we have three). Apparently that one was dead too. I would soon learn, and I later told Ed, we need new batteries! Never mind that I was also trying to cut through one hundred-year-old wood! I also encountered the problem of very old veneer chipping off.

Anyway, I got two pieces cut that day and had to quit because I had no more battery. A few weeks went by as I waited for time to work on it again. Still, I couldn't keep a charge in the batteries long enough to cut anything.  However, this time, David was outside, and I mentioned my problem to him. He offered me the use of his skill saw...a full size electric one. Well, I couldn't very well say no. I needed to finish that box! I said Ok, thanked him and waited for him to bring the saw. It's about three times the size of our little battery operated saw. Have I told you that my hands aren't very big? I could have used three of them that day, but I got it done! Unfortunately, I didn't have as much control over the larger saw, and the cuts were not all that straight.

 I didn't realize how much until I started to put it together. I used deck screws and wood glue, and my cordless drill. Thankfully, it has a great battery. After a few attempts, I finally got the box together. Then I realized that I had put the side pieces on inside out. At that point, I was tired and not about to take it apart. Next came the lid with hinges and tiny screws presenting a whole new challenge, but finally, it was done.

My original plan was to line the box with fabric, and burn his initials on the lid. Well, I didn't have any fabric that I thought would go well with the dark veneer of the box, so I decided to fall back to decoupage and dictionary pages. I also wanted to honor Ed's relationship with the Lord, and his love for scripture, so I overlaid Bible verses over the dictionary pages for the two outer sides of the box (the ones I put on backward. Inside the lid, I overlaid an original poem on the pages. Overlaying is pretty simple, most of the time. I'll explain it in a future post. This one is getting a little long.

Burning his initials presented another challenge because the veneer was thick and I wanted to get to the wood underneath. It took a few hours, and my hand was very tired, but I finally finished. By rhat time, it was about two weeks before Christmas!

All in all, I thought it was pretty pitiful, but Ed loved it! When I tried to apologize for the mistakes in it, he wouldn't hear it. He says it's perfect! I love that man!

See ya tomorrow!

Connie

Makin' Do Tuesday: Rubbing Off and Salt

Welcome to Makin' Do Tuesday! This is where we talk about all the ways we “make do” with what we have. While its true that some people seem to naturally make do, I think we can all train our minds to think like this.

Last week, we had to get some new space heaters because the old ones were making noises like rocks in a can.  Ed picks up the two old heaters and says. “I'm going to take the cords off these because I just might be able to use them for something else. “ Then he says, “See? You're starting to rub off on me!”

A day or so later, we were able to get outside and do some work on the wood Ed got the day he killed the clutch in the truck. A friend from church went with Ed to get the wood off the truck that was still in our other friend's yard.  The wood didn't need to be split, but it did need to be cut in smaller pieces.

The plan was for me to hold one end of the log still so he could cut it. Ok, I have very small hands, and don't really have a lot of strength in them, so this was not working. I could hold my end alright, but I couldn't keep the other end from moving. We needed another set of hands.  Ed looked around and found two little scraps of wood. He screwed them onto one end of a saw horse, just far enough apart to catch those logs between them. Voila! Two sets of hands. We laid one end  of the logs between the blocks of wood, I held the other end, and all the wood was cut in about 20 minutes or so.  So I guess I am rubbing off on him. Good! That means there are two brains coming up with ideas.

 By the way, Ed  made these saw horses from pieces of old fencing my oldest son gave us. He was tearing down the fence for someone else, and needed a way to haul it off. He told us if he could use our truck we could have the wood. Sounded like a good deal to us.

The other thing I wanted to talk about today is something almost everyone keeps in the pantry: Salt. Plain old table salt. We use it to season food,  preserve food, melt ice,  and get rid of slugs (if you like doing that sort of thing), but did you know you can clean with it?

Ed told me that his grandmother used to use salt to clean her cast iron skillets. He said she just dumped some salt in there and scrubbed the pan with a rag. Curious, I had to try it. Wow! It really worked, and it didn't remove the seasoning! I just rinsed the salt out with hot water and dried the pan. Next time I do that, I'll take pictures. I promise!

A while back, I was looking for information on some apothecary bottles that I have. I came across something that said you can use salt to clean them. When I decided to try that on my dirty bottles, I couldn't find the article. (Yeah, I know. That’s what I get for not bookmarking it.) I have found some other articles, but they are kind of vague, so I am experimenting.  Here are some pictures of my bottles.

I chose three of the dirtiest ones and put quite a bit of salt in them.

 Then I added some hot water and let them soak for about a half hour. Then I shook the bottles four about three minutes, or until my arm started getting tired. I let them sit some more and shook some more. Finally, I rinsed them out to see what I had. They are definitely cleaner, especiallly the "Sloan's Linament" bottle in the center. There was black gunk floating in the salt water, when I poured it out..

I refilled them and will let you know how that turns out. I'll do some more research this week and let you know if I learn anything more.

Other internet research showed that there are tons of ways to clean with salt, and even more if you mix them with our old buddy, vinegar!

Here is a link to some more salt info.

Cool huh?

See you tomorrow,
Connie