You're kidding... right?

Kijiji find. I don't even know how to properly introduce this...

Ad text reads as follows:

Date listed: 11-Jun-14
Address: Canada, La Porte, TX 77571, USA

I'm looking for help organizing my business & myself. I've doing a lot of things I would like Meet and show you everything, for you to help out. I personally can't pay you but I'm pretty sure the government will cuz [sic] I am disabled and can get soooo [sic] much from the government.

::sigh::

Do I want this to be a joke? I don't even know at this point...

Beauty Shots of Chairs

Yes, this is actually a blog post celebrating my chairs.

Oh, pffft, don't act like you believe that title is the weirdest concept you've ever read on this blog. (Two words: Zombie Tits. You're welcome.)

 

'Round about a year ago I found myself browsing Kijiji and signed myself up for a refinishing project of an extent that my wee pea brain could not fathom. Looking back it was the $50 price tag for a ten piece solid wood dining set that rattled the sense out of my head, as I clearly had no concept of what I was getting into*...

Slowly, ever so slowly, this dining set—the chairs in particular—has undergone a magical transformation. Sections of wood have become darker with age, creating a patchwork effect of reds and browns to accompany the original tiger stripes I loved so much.

I've tried my best to capture the effects on camera, but the true vibrancy of the wood is lost through a lens.

Thanks to a $50 initial investment, another $375 in supplies, and two and a half months of elbow grease, I've been left with a unique dining set I couldn't love more.

No regrets.

(Okay, there're probably a few, as any refinishing project is an adventure in itself, but they've disappeared—blame the fumes of chemical stripper and polyurethane.)

So yes: beauty shots of chairs.



*For the record: no, I haven't refinished the quarter sized hole in the table's polyurethane coat. The kids haven't picked at it, either (shocker, yes?). The table's stain has lightened--a lovely green swathe down the middle--but there's nothing about this table I'm not willing to live with for the next five or six years, when we're planning our big kitchen reno, invest in a new dining set, and this one will be relegated to the basement. Or I could bite the bullet and refinish the tabletop... (nah...)

Blueberried

Once upon a time I took the kidlets blueberry picking... and we brought home enough blueberries for four households...

Nine litres of berries. NINE LITRES OF BLUEBERRIES FOR FOUR PEOPLE.

Berry picking pro tip: check your recipes before you head out so you have an idea of how many berries you, you know, need.

(Who knew blueberry bread needed only a measly single cup of blueberries?! Learn from my mistakes, yo.)

Berry picking happened four days ago. As of today (day four with berries) we have made:

- two blueberry pies
- two lemon blueberry loaves
- one batch of blueberry jam (that's five 500ml jars)
- blueberry pancakes

And have basically had fresh blueberries as dessert at every freaking meal. Including breakfast.

This is what we're left with:

That's easily three litres of berries... GAH!

I can't prove it, but I think they're breeding in the fridge when we're not looking.

Naturally there are many upsides to our situation. Blueberries tend not to go straight to mush like raspberries or strawberries, we've enjoyed local summer fruit in a variety of ways, and the boys have discovered the, er, other benefit of copious blueberry consumption (I'll be glad when they stop calling me to the washroom, as the event is not as fascinating for me as it is for them, trust).

And the lemon blueberry bread recipe is a new one. Not only new, but a recipe that turned out exactly as pictured online.

Not going to lie: it gave me a thrill. Delicious and pretty. Yum.