Olivia Duke, Author at

Home Decor

Thanksgiving Table Decor

November 23, 2020

For the first time in a long time, we are not traveling to visit family this year for the Thanksgiving holiday. While we love seeing our families, it is quite the relief to stay home because traveling with our three children under the age of 5 very much feels like a three-ring circus combined with planes, trains, and automobiles.

Staying home has provided ample time for decorating our for the holidays. For our Thanksgiving Tablescape, I chose a neutral palette with baby boo pumpkins, cool greys, lavender purple, and eucalyptus green with a few succulents added in as well. I plan to reuse the greenery and succulents for other arrangements during other seasons which is also part of my reasoning for buying artificial (budget friendly if it’s reusable) and it’s easy to set it and forget it. I blended the table with a handful of new items and decor pieces repurposed from around the house

For once, my lateness paid off in that Hobby Lobby and the rest of the world had already moved on to Christmas decor by the time I decided what I wanted to buy for our table this year. I was able to snag faux flowers and these white vases for 50-60% off. The dough bowl was something I already had on hand and repurposed to serve as the centerpiece. I used a few of the white pumpkins from our hearth and front entryway fall decor that were still in good shape despite the Georgia heat that continue to linger around this fall.

I’m no flower arranging expert and it took several attempts to get the right amount of filler greenery and hydrangea blooms. A few snips with the metal cutters and some bending and finally ended with some presentable arrangements that weren’t too top heavy or overwhelming for the simple slim vases.

Filling the dough bowl with mini pumpkins proved a much simpler task. I trimmed the excess stems off of the eucalyptus and lined the bottom of the bowl with these pieces and then layered the mini pumpkins and succulents on top.

I also bought these simple cream tan edged charger plates at Hobby Lobby to add to our place settings. The china is vintage James Kent Cameo Peaches and was handed down to me from my grandmother. Since these are not in production anymore and replacements are hard to come by, I use them for only special occasions and while they aren’t particularly valuable in a monetary sense they are very dear to me.

The neutral hues will easily transition into Christmas decor which will be on the table approximately 5 minutes after we cut the turkey. While this holiday won’t be the same for many in the year of social distancing and COVID 19, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We will continue to be grateful for the many blessings that have been bestowed upon us.

Food, Recipes

LOADED POTATO SOUP (INSTAPOT)

November 15, 2020

Cooler temps and changing leaves always have me adding soups and chowders to the weekly dinner menu. Potato soup is always a crowd-pleasing, budget friendly dish that is quick to make and easy to personalize with a variety of toppings and seasonings.

Ingredients

4lbs Russet potatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon minced garlic
4 slices of bacon (cooked and crumbled)*
1/4 cup green onions (chopped)*

1 cup diced onion
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese*
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 10oz can Cream of Chicken soup
* denotes toppings

Yield: Serves 8 Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 30

Instructions

Wash and peel potatoes and then dice into quarter sized pieces for even cooking. Use Russet potatoes–they have the most starch and this will be released in the cooking process and create the rich roux-like base.
In pressure cooker or Instapot, combine all ingredients except for the cream cheese and those listed as toppings.
Stir all ingredients together and close lid. Set the valve to sealing position and select Manual/Pressure Cook. Then use the + to change the cook time to 15 minutes.
Once the pressure cooking is complete, wait 2 minutes and then switch the valve to venting.
Open the lid carefully and stir the potatoes and broth. To create a creamy broth without roux or heavy cream, use a slotted spoon to slightly mush the potatoes or remove 2 cups of the mixture and blend it with a blender until smooth.
Cut the block of cream cheese into cubes and stir in until fully melted. This adds the perfect amount of creamy goodness and thickens the broth to a chowder like consistency.
Let the soup cool and top with cheese, green onions, and crumbled bacon. Enjoy!

The ease of this recipe and the tastiness of a loaded baked potato soup is a dangerous combination in our house–especially comforting in a time that screams feed me all the comfort foods! The addition of toppings was an enormous hit with our toddler crew and they had an awesome time getting to add their own twist to dinner. Give it a try and let me know what type of toppings you prefer to make it your own.

DIY

OMBRE DRESSER DIY

November 8, 2020

What started out as a necessity as a cash strapped college grad moving to a new town for graduate school has become a hobby over the years: upcycling Goodwill furniture finds. I can easily say that every single clothes dresser in our house has been thrifted from a local Goodwill and at this point that is quite a few of them considering we have three kiddos!

I’ve outlined a few steps below of how I select my thrifted pieces and a quick how-to on this colorful dresser which added the perfect pop of color to our youngest daughter’s nursery.

Pick Your Piece

Peruse local thrift stores, flea markets, yard sales, and Goodwills for solid pieces of furniture that are in need of some elbow grease and a little imagination.
Do open drawers, check backing, and inspect legs to ensure the structural integrity of the piece.
Don’t pick laminated furniture or items made from particleboard. These aren’t absolutely off the table, but they can limit what type of modifications can be done based upon the material if not made from real wood.
Be sure to check for water damage especially on laminate/particleboard as this will cause a bubbling effect on the surface of the furniture.
Always opt for real wood constructed pieces. They can withstand the test of time and lend themselves to greater flexibility and creativity in the refinishing process. You can choose to sand down to a natural wood finish and stain or simply sand and repaint.

Prep Your Piece

Assess the work and tools needed:

The effort of this step is very dependent upon what condition your thrifted or existing dresser is in and what finishes you select for the final product.
For the purposes of this “how-to” you can see that the dresser I bought was bland, but in decent condition. These instructions will be for re-painting an old painted dresser.

Sand all painted surfaces:

Remove drawers and hardware.
Use sand paper with a low number and heavier grit to knock off most of the paint and then finish with a higher number, finer grit sand paper.
Quick lesson on sand paper: It is normally categorized into ranges of numbers starting with 20 (extra coarse) up to 600 (super fine). The majority of use on furniture with a normal sander or by hand sanding for the purposes of refinishing furniture is to start with an 80 grit and smooth out with 120-160 grit.
If simply repainting, all of paint does not need to be sanded off, but the surface does need to be lightly sanded and smoothed so that paint will adhere well to the surface.
Patch any holes or deep scratches with wood filler and allow to dry before gently sanding smooth to match the same level as the surface.

Wipe down excess dust

Take a tack cloth (these are better than any other since they are specially formulated to be lint and residue free) and wipe all surfaces that will be painted.
On occasion and in a pinch, I have used a wet wash cloth, but have had to be careful to check for lint and allow time to dry.

Paint Your Piece

For the first time in the history of all of my DIY projects, I did not buy any paint for this project. I used a hodge podge of leftover colors from other projects.
I chose to spray paint the dresser with Rustoleum’s Painter’s Touch 2X in Ivory Bisque. This is also the same color as the top drawer.
On the other drawers, I used Rustoleum’s Painter’s Touch 2X Candy Pink, Sweet Pea, Vintage Blush, and Krylon Colormaster Ballet Slipper Pink.
For first time users of spray paint, spray lightly and multiple coats really are better. Take it from someone who has tried to rush one too many times and has gone a little heavy handed with the spray paint only to have the paint drip and run. This will put you back in the sanding phase of the project—after the paint dries of course.

Replace Hardware and Enjoy

After the several coats of paint have thoroughly dried, it is time to replace the hardware.
Hardware is all about personal aesthetic and chosen functionality. I tend to work on pieces that I am restoring to a specific style and I often try to salvage the existing hardware–especially if it is original to the piece.
I was able to find these gold cylindrical knobs at Hobby Lobby on sale. Here is a similar set on Amazon: Gold Knob Hardware
This hardware has held up beautifully to toddler hands pulling and yanking on drawers. Normally, I stick to Lowe’s or Home Depot for cabinet hardware selections, but Hobby Lobby came through with a fun eclectic selection that matched the playful paint colors I selected for this project.

DIY

Mobile Goat Shed DIY

September 7, 2020

At this point in our marriage, Ben is not phased by the things that come out of my mouth or the thoughts that stir around in my head. When we tackle projects together, Ben, the engineer, is often in Step 1 determining feasibility of the project and I am already at the end goal and working my way back through the steps. I do budgeting and financial analysis for a living so I am often focused on long term strategy while simultaneously monitoring the impact of every day decisions. I spend a lot of time devising the plan and am often looking to the future to identify any roadblocks to success. Our very different ways of thinking about projects can sometimes cause very interesting communication challenges too because we’re not even thinking about the same step of the project at any given point.

In the case of our goats and goat pastures my thinking in reverse of what the end goal would/should look like has saved us some future labor (and $$) which I’m sure Ben will thank me for later. We didn’t want to fence all of the property at once (also fencing can be very expensive) and we still need to cut some trees and clear undergrowth in other areas. We also have a whole section of the property that has major drainage issues and is basically a bog—that will most likely require some grading before we add fencing. We fenced off the middle section of what will become three goat pastures. We plan on rotating our goat herd across multiple pastures so naturally when planning for a goat shed I told Ben I wanted it to be mobile. I envisioned us being able pull it from one field to another as we moved the weed eater crew so that they will always have shelter and we didn’t need to construct three goat shelters—see? I told you Ben would thank me!

Materials

4×4 posts (base)
2×4 boards (frame)
8″ pneumatic heavy duty swivel casters
LP SmartSide Strand Panel Siding 48″ x 96″
SunTuf Polycarbonate Corrugated Roof Panels 26″ x 12 ft
3″ construction screws (starbit head)
2 hitch rings (for towing from location to location)

Build Out Steps(& Missteps)by Ben

Step 1. Determine the size shed you want to build. We made an 8′ x 8′ base with a 6′ tall front sloping down to 4′ in the back. We chose the dimensions mostly to simplify the material selection and the measurements and with a sloped roof to ensure proper water runoff.

Step 2. Cut foundations boards to the correct length. Since we chose an 8’x8′ base, we only had to cut two of the foundation boards. We used 4×4 posts as the foundation. Measure all the boards before cutting, as an 8′ board may be slightly longer than 96″ and a 4×4 is not four inches wide (the board was four inches before it was dried and processed at the lumber mill).

Step 3. We chose to do butt joints instead of miter corners, which made the measuring and cutting much simpler. Place two of the 4x4s parallel to each other, then place the other two boards on the inside. We screwed these together first. You may notice that it is really hard to find screws that long without going into the specialty hardware section and paying a lot for a little. We drilled pilot holes about two inches into the ends of each board that were large enough to fit the entire screw into as well as the driver bit holder. This way we were able to keep the materials list smaller and use what we had on hand.

Step 4. Make angle braces using 2x4s. The screws through the end will not be enough to handle the stress on being pulled and moved, so the foundation needs additional support. You could use 4x4s for the angle, but we always have some scrap 2×4 material, so we doubled up each corner with 2x4s. To make the angle braces, you will need to cut each 2×4 into 45 degree cuts on both ends in opposing slants. If you know what you are doing, you can make the measurements and just make the cuts with a miter saw or a circular saw. If you are like me, the cheater’s way is to lay the 2×4 over the 4×4 foundation and make a mark on the 2×4 using the 4×4 as the guide. This will give you the angle of the cut on both sides and help you from having a mental lapse and cutting the wrong 45 degree on one side–ask me how I know!

Step 5. Attach the angle braces to the 4×4 foundation using screws or nails (I prefer screws, they have a better hold and its harder to whack your thumb with a drill/driver). If you made perfect 45 degree angle cuts on your angle braces, but have a small gap anywhere between the 2×4 and the 4×4, that means your foundation is not completely square. You mostly likely will not end up with a completely square foundation because of the posts, but you should adjust as much as possible to get the structure as square as you can (trust me, I didn’t and regretted it at the end).

Step 6. Attach the wheels to the 4×4 foundation at the corners. If you decide to use swiveling casters like we did, make sure they are free spinning before you flip over the foundation. You may need an extra set of hands to flip over the foundation, it is a bit heavy and a little awkward to handle.

Step 7. Time to make the walls! Start by building out the corner vertical boards. We used 2x4s for this, but you want it be extra solid you could use 4x4s. Again, I took the fast route to make the measurements simple and attached the boards to the outside of the foundation and aligned them with the bottom of the 4×4 supports of the base. This made the cut for the vertical board easier, but made for a small headache later. (for clarification: the boards should have measured to the top of the 4×4 base otherwise you end up with additional inches in depth or width)

Step 8. Attach a header board for the side walls using a 2×4. If everything went according to plan, in our example, this board was 8′ matching the post foundation. After doing the header for the two side walls, measure out the header for the back wall. This should also match the length of the cut foundation board beneath, in our case ~7.5′.

Step 9. Measure out the studs for the side and back walls. You can do a measurement, but the shortcut way is to place the 2×4 on the foundation board and make a mark on the 2×4 and the bottom of the header and that will give you your cut. Space out the studs about every two feet. If you are a better planner than me, you will measure it out to make sure one of the studs will be at seam of the siding. If you are like me, you will have to go back and add a 2×4 later to make the seams stay down.

Step 10. Attach 2x4s from the front header to the back header spacing them about 2 feet apart. You can reduce your spacing and add more boards for a place to adhere the roof material or you can opt to add additional boards to run parallel to the front and back. We opted to add 1x4s to run parallel to the front and back, spacing those about 2 feet apart.

Step 11. Measure the cuts for the siding. I chose to hold up the siding to the framed out walls and draw the template to make the cuts rather than measuring and making sure I had good angles and straight lines. It really help to have an extra set of hands on this one! If you are doing a solo build, you can use some scrap material to hold the siding in place while you draw the template, but from experience on this one, if you can get help, use it.

Step 12. Using a circular saw or a jig saw (circle saw is much faster, but a little less fine of a cut), cut your siding to the lines you drew for your template.

Step 13. Adhere the siding panels to the framed out shed. I used a pneumatic nailer and opted for finishing brads and just used a ton of them. Not the best choice, but it has worked so far. I did not want to use bigger nails or screws as we opted for the thinner OSB panels and I didn’t want to have a big nail or screw head breaking up the vertical line pattern of the siding.

Step 14. Almost there! Attaching the panels was the moment of truth of how well you made your cuts and how square your building is. You if you are like me, then you spend the next twenty minutes thinking about how you are going to do better the next time about making sure things are square. Remember when I said I regretted attaching the vertical corners to the outside of the board, well that’s because I didn’t think about it making the shed about 99″ instead of the 8 foot (96″) that I had planned on. So, if you are like me, you can add decorative 1×4 or 1x6s to the back corners to cover up any gaps in the siding.

Step 15. Attach the roofing material to the roof cross members. You can use regular screws or nails, but it is better to use the screws made for this material that have a small washer with a rubber gasket on the bottom to prevent moisture from getting into the screw holes.

Step 16. Attach the hitch rings to the front foundation board with heavy duty screws of your choice. We chose to place the rings equidistant in the front to optimally distribute the torque when towing the shed from location to location.

Step 17. Finally finished and ready for use (unless your wife wants to paint it and add Craftsman styled trim in which case the Mobile Goat Shed is finished for now)

DIY

Jenny Lind Twin Refurb

August 23, 2020

Jenny Lind beds are making a comeback–a two hundred year revival in the making, but not too much of a surprise considering their history of style at an affordable price point. More commonly, the genre is considered spool-turned or spindle furniture and became one of the first mass produced types of furniture available at the turn of the 19th century. Commonly referred to as “Jenny Lind” this furniture was popularized by the Swedish opera singer Johanna Maria Lind who is claimed to have slept in one of these beds during her American tour with the P.T. Barnum Circus. Don’t be like me and think Jenny Lind was a furniture designer like the Stickley Brothers of the Arts and Crafts Era.

Personally, I love the spindle furniture style and have been fortunate to find some pieces to add to our home. I was given a beautiful Jenny Lind full bed from my mother-in-law that was Ben’s when he was younger that I refreshed and painted when Lily graduated from a toddler bed to a real bed. The curved spindles give the perfect feminine touch for a little girl’s room.

When we decided to move and buy a new house, I knew I wanted the guest room to have twin beds. Luckily, I found two matching twin beds on Facebook marketplace in varying conditions. One bed had normal scuffs and scratches that I knew could be easily covered with paint and the other had been kept in a barn and sustained significant damage that threatened the structural integrity of the bed. Of course like any purchase sight unseen, I did not realize the true condition of the bed until it was time to pick it up. Thankfully, I only paid $40 for the bed in rough condition which is good because it needed more work than most of our normal projects.

Step 1: Structural Repair

For the bed that was damaged, we used a combination of wood glue, tie plates, and corner braces to ensure that the headboard and footboards were structurally secure (think toddlers jumping on the bed as the litmus test here) prior to priming. My joke with Ben was that this bed has more hardware than the tin man! Thankfully, between the location of the hardware and the paint, it does not impact the aesthetic of the bed–you can’t tell between the two which one required the significant amount of work.

Step 2: Sanding and Paint Preparation

After sanding for what felt like hours—lots of hand sanding on those spindles with all the tiny curves and crevices. I opted to use a combination of heavy grit (80) sand paper to knock off the flaking old paint and fine grit 220 sanding blocks to finish to make sure the wood surface was smooth and ready to be painted. The bed that was in relatively good shape needed to be sanded in a similar fashion to knock off a varnish and “rough up” the surface enough for paint to adhere well. I cleaned all the residue and dust from sanding off prior to painting with primer. Although we do have a paint sprayer and that would have expedited the process significantly, I chose to hand paint these two beds (the paint sprayer is still packed somewhere in the garage).

Step 3: Paint

Once the sanding was complete and the gaps in the wood were filled and smoothed down, we primed the beds with Kilz All-Purpose Interior White Primer. I learned from my first experience spray painting a Jenny Lind bed that I needed to use a primer beforehand and a heavier duty paint to withstand the rough and tumble nature of the crew of toddlers that live in our house. Lily’s bed has numerous chips of paint missing and will be going through a re-painting process soon. I chose to use Door and Trim paint in high gloss white for its durable and wipeable finish. Even with the primer it took several coats of paint to cover the wood and hardware. We’re normally a Valspar family or Sherwin Williams paint buyers–not Glidden, but I bought the materials for this project when the COVID-19 pandemic began so I limited myself to what was available at the local Walmart where I also happened to be buying my groceries. This is a latex paint–I would have preferred an oil-based paint. They tend to be thicker, better at filling small imperfections, and naturally more resistant to wear and tear than water-based products like latex. However, this latex paint was quick to use (short drying time), emitted low fumes, and should still remain chip resistant for the long run.

Step 4: Enjoy

Once you’ve got your head and footboards sanded, painted, and dried, they are ready to use hook on bed rails and we cut DIY bed slats from 1×4 lumber. These pieces can be bought in 8′ to 16′ pieces at Lowes (the longer, the cheaper per linear foot) and you can cut to size. Throw your mattress and bedding on and you’re ready to take a well deserved nap!

Farming, Uncategorized

Summer Garden

August 16, 2020

My farming skills have grown rusty since I left Tennessee to attend college well over a decade ago. Thankfully, I have trusty Google to help me refresh my memory and have found that the Farmer’s Almanac we used to buy every year at the local Co-Op is now online! Ben (the engineer) brings a whole new perspective to the table and one that is more technology focused. He really embraces the working smarter not harder philosophy. We planted our first garden last month and immediately Ben researched to find what watering systems we can use that are smart tech enabled. For the short term and considering we planted a very small (and very late) garden, we opted for simple soaker hoses. However, we will dedicate a future post to smart garden tech as we grow our garden and our need to be even more efficient with our time.

Because we moved into our new home well after the beginning of traditional planting season, we decided to till a small plot closest to the house and buy a handful of plants from our nearby Lowe’s Home Improvement. We chose some fail safe (heat resistant) tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and bell peppers. We also planted some pumpkin seeds and enlisted the help of the kiddos to help us shovel some dirt into mounds for the pumpkins. We opted to hill plant pumpkins versus row planting because we had such a short time to plant until we would like to be able to harvest the pumpkins for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Hill planting allows for faster germination, better soil drainage, and space for the vines to spread out. We planted Big Max, Sugar, Jack Be Littles, and Baby Boos (white) pumpkins. Depending on our success this year, we may grow our patch next year to include a few more varieties. I’m already envisioning the #dukecrew battling it out over who can grow the biggest pumpkin.

While little hands did pick very green tomatoes too early (too early for even fried green tomato standards), it has brought us such joy to witness their delight in watching our garden grow. However, it has been an exercise of patience for all involved. I have battled invisible mites and fungi and very visible tomato hornworms shredding the leaves of our plants. After repeated applications of different non-toxic, organic sprays, I finally found neem oil to be the most successful. We have had a very rainy summer so I have had to be diligent in my reapplication to keep the bugs at bay. I am already researching what preventative measures I can take at the end of the season this year (grub and larvae treatment) to minimize my bug and mite issues for spring season.

The day after we first planted, the kids ran to the garden expecting to see fully grown fruit and veggies. While a little disappointed, they have persisted in their hunt for the first sight of new growth so every day they race down to the garden to check on the plants. Holden takes his gardening very seriously—more seriously than I ever did at the age of 4. Most days I ask him if if he wants to go out and ride his scooter and he is quick to inform me that he NEEDS to go check on the garden. He carefully walks each row bending over to pull the leaves back on each plant looking underneath at baby bell peppers and new blooms on the squash and zucchini plants. Some days, I don’t even need to go to the garden since I get a full report from Holden on how everything is growing.

We’re at the point now where some of our plants are covered in blooms and we’re thinking we may be buried in squash and cucumbers by next month. In all my years gardening in my youth, we only ever had summer gardens and never fall or winter gardens so we’re researching now a few things that we would like to plant for the fall. If you’ve had a fall garden send me a message or comment below your favorite veggies to grow in the colder months!

The cutest little gardener with her color coordinated boots and shovel.

Family

Slow and Simple Summer

August 10, 2020

We are still ignoring the lingering boxes in the corners that have yet to be unpacked from our move last month. Let’s be real—I still have boxes I haven’t unpacked since I moved to our first home after finishing graduate school. Everyone has at least one of those boxes right? I’m going to pretend that you are nodding in agreement and proceed to feel no shame about my not so hidden character flaw. While we are still settling in and finding our new normal (as much normal as we can muster during a global pandemic), we have opted to spend this time together with our #dukecrew outside exploring our much bigger yard.

Our soon-to-be farm has 6 acres of mostly cleared land divided by two creeks facing east/west for amazing morning light and evening sunsets. For those of you who know me, I grew up in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee on a 50 acre farm and spent much of my childhood catching crawdads in the creek, climbing fruit trees, and chasing chickens. I can already see Lily, Holden, and Emma playing in the creeks, (gently) harassing the chickens (i.e. toddler love), and herding the goats. But before we can bring home the highly anticipated farm animals and play in the creeks, Ben and I have had to step up our yard work efforts because if there is anything in this world I hate; it’s snakes and poison ivy-and I spotted both in our first week on the farm. We have spent hours upon hours weed-eating the creekbanks and using a machete to cut back heavier undergrowth in preparation for putting up field fences. It’s a good thing we finally upgraded our push mower to a riding mower two years ago because we have mowed several days per week every week since we moved in! The former owner was not exaggerating when he said you may work the land, but the land will work you too. I was sad to leave my gym in Grayson, but it looks like I’ll be getting in my workouts the old fashioned way–brings an original spin to the “farmer’s carry” and “chainsaw row.” We had an unseasonably cool spring and early summer here in Georgia and now the stifling heat and humidity have me counting down the days until fall.

Despite the sweltering temps and hard labor, our toddler crew has followed us through thickets and creeks, team carried fence poles, and picked up stray limbs in the field after thunderstorms. They’ve spent hours building homes for worms, frogs, and lizards that they have caught and have eaten celebratory popsicles on the front steps after planting our first garden. While this summer has not been what any of us have planned and we are very much struggling with social separation and fatigue, we are attempting to make the best of it. They miss their friends terribly and don’t understand why we can’t resume normal pre-quarantine activities, but they have adapted well to the change and embraced our new lifestyle. I know they are excited to grow the farm and bring home animals and I’m looking forward to the herd of goats that will help us with the amount of weed eating and grass cutting!

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