Modifying an antique bed
At my mother’s house, much of the furniture is antique. Some pieces are family heirlooms, but most can define their provenance with, “Oh, your dad and I got that at an auction years ago when nobody wanted antiques.” Of course, by being part of our family’s home for the past forty-some years, those things have become family heirlooms too.
One of my parents’ auction finds, an iron bed that I remember from when I was very young, sat upstairs unused and unappreciated. So when it was time for Eleanor to transition from her crib to a big girl bed, I brought the bed to our house. It had been painted cream (by me, circa 1988), so I repainted it white. And I ordered a new mattress and box springs to go in it.
Sounds great, right? Sweet iron bed, lovingly repainted, handed down to the youngest daughter…
It was, until we tried to fit the box springs into the bedframe. Apparently, in the past, twin beds were a few inches wider and a smidge shorter. Even though it was a tight squeeze, we were able to fit the box springs in lengthwise. But the discrepancy in width meant that there was a gap between the box spring and the frame where a little foot could easily get caught and twisted. Clearly, without some modification, this bed was not going to work out. 
Fortunately, I have a clever and resourceful husband. He decided to take advantage of this situation and build a step for Eleanor to use to get into the bed. It is actually a pretty high bed, and, at two, her legs are rather short, so this solution served two purposes.
First, he filled in the gap with a piece of wood that covered the iron frame and the open gap. He attached this to the slats supporting the box springs.
Because of the design of the frame, it didn’t completely fill the space, so he covered that with another, thinner piece of wood wide enough to cover the edge of the bedframe.
Then, to make the step smooth and pretty, he attached a piece of trim.
This was the tricky part. We didn’t want to use nails because the trim isn’t real wood. Unlike nailing trim on a wall, where it would be stable, using it for this purpose meant that it would be rocked repeatedly by little feet. Small nails would eventually lose their grip and nails with a larger head could also work their way loose; either way, nails seemed likely to eventually snag the very feet we were trying to protect. We needed a way to allow for some give as children climb on this step. Solution? Industrial strength velcro. (I told you my husband was clever!)
We attached one side of the velcro to the wooden step and the other to the trim, aligned the pieces, and pressed them together. The velcro allows for some flexibility on the step. However, the connection is strong enough that one of the girls can’t pull the trim off and use it for pole-vaulting. (I checked.)
Now doesn’t that look safer?
Eleanor is a proud, happy and independent girl! I love that we were able to make this old bed child-friendly and that it will now be part of her memory of childhood. It’s a lovely bed with character and history. Not only do we get the intangible benefits of that, the step cost us about an hour and approximately $35–much less than any new bed, especially one this pretty!
Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed
Goodbye First Grade
Today marks the end of first grade for Charlotte. Yay for summer!
This little girl has seen lots of changes since she set off for school last August.
She’s learned a ton of math, read dozens of books, lost a bunch of teeth, made a classroom worth of new friends, and just kept growing in so many ways.
I’m super proud of Charlotte and how well she’s done in first grade. And I can’t wait for all the summer fun ahead with all three girls!
Spontaneous Pinecone Art
We have lots of art supplies in our house. The bottom of a hutch in our kitchen is dedicated to the basics–paper, markers, crayons, stickers, pipe cleaners, glue sticks, craft sticks, and so on. Old lunch boxes on top of our fridge contain small items like buttons and beads. Chalk and paint live in the basement where the girls’ easels are.
Really, though, it doesn’t take much to make a great art project.
Some pinecones and some glitter glue will do the trick.
It took a little concentration, and some extra effort to squeeze the glitter glue, but this activity kept my girls occupied for about 45 minutes.
Even the littlest hands could do it.
The pinecones were lovely, and the girls were proud.
The best thing about this project? It was their idea. They found the supplies, and they made it happen. I just watched.
I think that by making art projects a regular, accessible part of a child’s life, her creativity will be spontaneous and natural. By letting art be a process, my girls can be absorbed by creating for as long as they like. Sure, sometimes we do planned projects, where the goal is to make a certain end product. But more often, the joy of planning their projects or just seeing what unfolds when they combine different media is up to my kids.
My job is just to keep the cabinets and easels well stocked!
Happy 80th Birthday, Mom!
My wonderful mother celebrates her eightieth birthday today! Happy Birthday, Mom!
She started celebrating on Sunday when my brothers and I threw her a surprise birthday party attended by nearly 100 of her friends. She was truly surprised and deeply pleased. She said, “I didn’t know I had this many friends!” The joy on her face was worth every minute we spent planning and preparing.
It was an honor to have so many of her friends come to the party. I was delighted by all the calls and emails I received from people telling me how much they love and appreciate my mom. I was so glad we seized the moment and got my mom’s friends together to celebrate her now, rather than later when she won’t be there to enjoy being the center of attention.
My mom means the world to me. I’m so glad I could be a part of letting her know how much she means to others too. She will cherish her memories of this day, and they will bring her joy every time she remembers this party.
(It’s also nice to know that we can pull off such a surprise–though she’ll probably be a lot more suspicious of the three of us kids from now on out!)
Setting a lovely table
I’ve posted this week about the bridal shower I hosted for my friend Sara. She’s having a more contemporary “couples” shower later this month, so I wanted to host a traditional “ladies luncheon” sort of shower.
To make the occasion extra special, I used my china and silver, both family heirlooms, and my crystal, a wedding gift. I also used cloth napkins. I didn’t have enough of any set of napkins, so I alternated place settings with white and cream colored napkins. The only plasticware I bought was punch cups. (And believe me, I’m on the lookout for a great glass or crystal punchbowl and cup set!) The table looked so beautiful set with china, silver and crystal. I made me want to do more formal entertaining! An added benefit was that I didn’t spend lots of money on disposable items.
If you’re thinking that cleaning up took me forever, don’t! It really wasn’t a big deal. I put all the china in the dishwasher. I handwashed my silver. I don’t know if it’s dishwasher-safe or not, but I didn’t want to take the chance. Using real tableware was worth any extra effort!
For a centerpiece, I played up Sara’s favorite colors of yellow and purple. I planted little purple and little white flowering plants (no idea what they were) in a dozen terra cotta pots with saucers. As a nod to the traditional wedding decorations, I hotglued ribbons with doves holding wedding rings to the pots. I placed all of these on a yellow table runner (a gift from our dear Finnish friends). I loved how it turned out.
I gave the pots to guests as party favors. I really like favors that you can enjoy immediately or that you can keep because they’re not too theme-specific. In this case, guests could remove the hotglued ribbon after the shower, so that the potted plant could be a neutral addition to their home. I planted a dozen pots because I wasn’t sure if anyone who had not RSVP’d would come, and I like to be prepared.
As it turned out, I had extras. I loved having those potted flowers on my table for a few more days! It completely transformed my dining room!
My girls took the remaining plants to their teachers for teacher appreciation week. Since I’m posting on some Frugal Friday sites, I’ll tell you–these dozen pots and plants cost around $30 at Lowes. Not much money, but lots of charm!
Frugal Friday at Life as Mom
Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest
Finer Things Friday at Amy’s Finer Things
Disaster Cake
I recently hosted a bridal shower for my friend Sara. It turned out to be a lovely shower, despite my misadventures in the kitchen.
I really love to bake and decorate cakes. I know there are many, many tasty bakery cakes out there. I’ve happily purchased them at different points in my life for various reasons, and I am delighted to eat them. But if given a choice and the time, I would rather bake from scratch. My decorations may not be even or straight, my frosting might melt a little bit, but there’s love in homemade cakes. I believe my DNA is programmed to bake as a sign of affection.
So, of course, I made a cake for Sara’s shower. It was to be a lovely three-tiered white cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. Was to be, I say.
I made the cake the evening before the shower. Thinking I was being clever, I decided to let the cakes just cool in the pans and remove them in the morning. My logic was that this way, my children would be less likely to spot them and attempt to consume them before I shooed them out of the house. I thought I would have no problem removing them from the pan because I had taken the extra step of lining the pans with waxed paper! Oh, was I wrong!
When I tried to remove the cakes, they stuck. Badly. The lovely golden crusts crumbled. And the insides crumbled.
Now a smarter or less stubborn woman would have assessed the situation and decided these cakes would make a lovely trifle and have left it at that.
Not me. I thought, Well, once I get it iced, it will all hold together just fine. No one will noticed the crumbled edges under the icing, and I’ll just use enough to hold it together. Um, no. That is not how it played out.
The cake literally fell apart on the cake stand. So, I scraped the cake into my largest mixing bowl and stuck it in my freezer–because even if it had fallen apart beyond all recognition, it was still cake and still delicious! Then I swallowed my pride and scurried off to Kroger’s bakery for a pretty, all-in-one-piece cake.
My husband dubbed these unelegant remains “Disaster Cake.” We’ve been eating it for dessert a couple times a week. It’s really fabulous with fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream. In fact, Charlotte said, “Mom, I just love this. Will you make Disaster Cake again sometime?” Alas, I probably will.
This is certainly one of my bedlam kitchen moments, so I’m sharing it at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam’s Tasty Tuesday.
Making the most of recipes gone wrong works for me, so I’m sharing it at We are THAT Family’s Works for Me Wednesday.
