Furniture Facelift: Two Sidetables & an Ottoman

say no to crack

About a month ago I found a a small ottoman at the swap shop. Aside from the cracked seat, it was in good shape; it even has wheels for ease of moving it around the apartment! I didn't really need it (I don't really need anything from the swap shop), but I knew it would make a great foot rest for the arm chair, and the cats clearly need another object to sit on.


When I brought it home, I promptly put it in my neighbors empty apartment until I could find time to do something to make it slightly less ugly, or at least a little more comfortable. No one wants to sit on a cracked seat. Knowing I needed to give this seat a face lift reminded me that I should finally get around to giving a couple of side tables that I've had for a while a face lift, too. I had planned on painting them, but my apartment doesn't have a lot of space for such activities. Next door they went to wait their turn to be refurbished as well.

Year of the Pie #1: Osgood Pie

So I had to start with the Osgood pie. Believe it or not, when I first flipped through the Pie book to start this venture, it fell open to this pie. For those who don't know, my middle name is Osgood (my paternal Grandmother's maiden name). And for those of you not on the island, Osgood is a well-established family name out here. Seems like a fitting place to start. According to the author, as well as several web sources, there are two origins to the name: either it's the name of the original baker/cook, or a shortened form of "Oh-so-good". 

I've decided to follow each recipe as closely (close being a very loose term, of course) as possible which goes against my better judgement. My better judgement (and baking instincts) kicked in on this one, but not until the end.

Homemade Christmas

The family decided at some point this past year to do homemade christmas, and keep it lowkey. Most of us followed the rules, and most of us waited until the last minute. Mom still hasn't completely finished a few things, but we got to see the assorted makings of said gifts.

Several of the things I made were requests or suggestions, and a few I had to come up with because the recipients were being most unhelpful ("I have no ideas. I just want to get rid of stuff"). I didn't wait until the last minute to get started, but I was definitely finishing at nearly the last mintute.

Without further ado, here are 2010's homemade christmas gifts.

Year of the Pie? Oh, my!

According to Weekend Edition Sunday from January 2nd, pie just might be a trendy food this year - surpassing the ever-popular cupcake. Granted, it was a short story, it still made me happy. I'm a little nervous about the whole trendy "thing" but I loved pie before it was trendy and I will stay true no matter its status.



While I am a huge fan of cupcakes (and have been known to vacation in cities that have shops devoted to the cupcake) I am a much greater fan of pie. I love the entire process, from crust to filling to assembling to enjoying the first slice. Pie for breakfast the next morning can't be beat. A dream of mine is to open a pie shop possibly with my friend R from CO who is a much better pie crafter than I. Perhaps someday.

 

wedding pies!

Prior to that, I plan to steal an idea from friends who were married several years ago; rather than the traditional cake, or the now-trendy cupcake (both of my siblings went with this option so I figure I need to mix things up a bit), they opted for wedding pies. I arrived in Durango late the night before the wedding and helped R finish off the fleet of pies. The variety was enough to satisfy all the guests, and the bride & groom wore aprons to cut their pies. It was fantastic.