Thursday, May 10, 2012

Scratches on Furniture ?

Have scratches on your furniture? Here are some ideas that might be helpful and we have tried all but the maple one time or another and the work.
-For walnut furniture use the meat of walnut. Break the nut in two and rub the scratch with it.
-For mahogany rub the scratch with a dark brown crayon and buff it gently.
-For maple combine equal amounts of iodine, and denatured alcohol. Use a cotton swab and dab scratch. Then wax and buff surface.
Haven't tried the maple so I can't make any guarantees so test a spot first. As for the other two. We have tried them.

Friday, May 4, 2012

I HAVE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO THIS.........

Ok, so when I recommend food or food stuffs to someone and they say to me "is it really that good?" I  will generally follow up with "yes, Look at me I know food" .
However, I really am impressed with a new olive oil that was given to us as a gift. I know what you are saying ----Olive oil really?!?
Yes, it is that good.
This extra virgin olive oil is from Fratelli Carli - Olio Carli.
It so much reminds me of the olive oil that we used around home years ago.
It has that smooth buttery olive taste that is missing in so much of the oils on the market today.
We have used it to cook chicken breast strips for tacos-- which it really enhanced the flavour of the finished meal.
We've used it on salad and (my personal favourite) drizzled of bread.
I can't wait to grill vegetables with this.
The flavour is not over powering, but has that complimentary effect that really good olive oil should have.
And Fratelli Carli even have a great website; www.oliocarli.com, that is worth checking out. I even enjoyed the fact that they answer all kinds of questions about olive oil and it's benefits. They even touch on the fact that there are oils on the market stocked as "olive oil" which are composed of various other oils in addition. Good information to know --- the more informed you are the better off you are to make choices for you and your family.
Did you know that there is a olive museum? Well there is and you can even find info on that on their website.
You can buy their products directly from them online.
I'm sold !

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

A Glass Act !

It is estimated that glass has been around for several thousand years. In fact apparently there is evidence that some form of glass making was going on over 5000 years ago around the area of Mesopotamia. Ok that's interesting, but I will bet that some where close behind the person going "oooohhh shiny".
Glass has always had a fascination for most of us even just as children. I am amused when in the course of a conversation an otherwise unaffected and self-controlled adult will suddenly blurt out "look how the light is shining through that glass". Their eyes all aglow like a child when the Christmas lights come on.
Let's face it it is striking.
When I was a child it was all the rage to add food colouring to water and place clear bottles with this concoction in the widow as coloured glass had become somewhat scarce. It was after all the era of the 60's and white bread, white flour, and white eggs were clearly better, so glass had to follow suit and be clear.
Thankfully, coloured glass has been rediscovered and collections of coloured glass on a window sill make a nice way to catch afternoon light.If at some point a sprig of something is add to one here or there even better!
Here we have brought together some ideas from our own collection of glass. As you can see they don't have to be anything fancy in fact. It's amazing how many convenience store drink bottles come in coloured glass. So be creative, look around and don't count out those thrift stores. They can many times be a good source of interesting glassware.Also a suggestion a piece here and there with facets will add some extra pop to your display as well.
Just have fun with it.
Many of the pieces that we have shown here in both the blue and the green collection are family pieces, however others were things friends were glad to get rid of, and yes still others are "thrift finds".