The Apple Street Cottage

  It's October and before you know it, Halloween will be here.  Today I have an easy way to take a dollar store pumpkin and turn it into something fabulous for Halloween, and the best part?  There's no painting involved!  What do you think? Here's what you need: Styrofoam pumpkin from the dollar store Black rose & spider pick Purple flower pick Old pumpkin stems - yes I save them! Spider fabric First, remove the green styrofoam stem from your pumpkin and make the center hole a little larger.  I used a pair of scissors. Next, cut a piece of spider fabric large enough to go around the pumpkin and 'tuck in' at the top. Begin wrapping and tucking your fabric around the pumpkin. Keep going... ....until the entire pumpkin is wrapped. Then, choose a stem to hot glue to the top.  I also added one of the spiders from the black rose pick. Add two purple flowers for some color and black twigs from the black rose pick. Finally, add a black rose because it's Hallowe...

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 dist...

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! ...

  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, y...

 Everyone is transitioning into Fall.  I don't know about you, but, in my world, Fall doesn't arrive until the day after Labor Day.  My birthday is the end of this month and believe me, I always remember the 'Dog Days of Summer' during my birthday parties as a child.  My mother wouldn't even bake a cake because it was so hot!  Don't worry, she'd run out and buy something..... The bottom line?  August is just too early for pumpkins in my world. But enough about that.  The lanterns I'm about to share can be used all Summer and into Fall so let's get started! This is a 'first' for me.  Last summer I decided to try growing birdhouse gourds.  The vines grew great, but the flowers weren't being pollinated.  The problem?  The flowers bloomed in the early evening and all the bees were already tucked in their beds!  I decided to take action and started hand-pollinating with a q-tip.  It worked - far be if from me to have to wake up...