The Apple Street Cottage

W elcome back to the 'Do It Over' Designers blog hop.  We are a group of bloggers who love to recycle/upcycle/DIY.  I'm happy to host this hop and I hope you'll visit everyone to see what they have to share with you.  Their links will be listed at the end of this post. There wasn't the usual amount of yard-saling (that's a word, right?) this year, but I did manage to catch a couple of them between putting the house on the market, packing, moving, and unpacking.  It was at one of them I found this cookbook stand: It was pretty, but the bracket wasn't attached, the base needed re-gluing and the flower design was a decal.  I decided to give it a makeover.  The first step was to get rid of the finish and decal on the front.  Citristrip took care of that for me.  Once I saw the wood was different colors, I decided to paint it, so I added a little stain to the edges for distressing. I gave it two coats of white spray paint and use some sandpaper to distress the ed

It's safe to say that this summer has been one for the books for a couple of reasons.  First, when it wasn't raining, the humidity was so high I felt like I was living in the tropics.  I did not have to water my gardens at all this summer - that's how much rain we had.  It was so wet that my Lamb's Ear actually started to rot, but in spite of it, there were flowers. The hydrangeas were quite happy. And I harvested a good bit of lavender.  This is just a sample. The zucchini and tomatoes did well and I made plenty of sauce for winter . However, the most interesting part of this summer is the fact that we sold our house!  That's right, we did it.  The market was just right for selling and to be perfectly honest, the stairs were killing my knees.  So we did it.   We decided to rent for a while and see what happens with the housing market and the pandemic.  Let's face it, these are uncertain times so we packed and we moved - just last week! SOOO many boxes - and thi

  In spite of the very wet Summer, my tomatoes did well.  So well in fact, that there is an abundance of them.  Time to make them into a quick sauce - and I do mean quick .  How does 'less than 30 minutes' sound? This is what I started with - garden fresh Roma tomatoes complete with dirt.   Ignore the photo-bombing zucchini. They did well this year too, but that's a post for another day! In addition to your tomatoes, gather these ingredients: Oregano, Basil, Balsamic Vinegar, tomato paste, salt & pepper. You will also need some garlic: Wash and cut your tomatoes. This is a 10 cup bowl: Mince the garlic and saute it in some olive oil.  Add the tomatoes and tomato paste. Add: 2 Tbsp. Balsamic Vinegar 1-2 tsp. Oregano 1-2 tsp. Basil Salt & pepper to taste. I also add some sugar - again, to your taste.   Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes.   Your sauce is done!  In case you're wondering, yes, I do leave the skins on the tomatoes.