an oil and vinegar wood furniture polish/cleaner

I recently read about a homemade wood cleaner/polish that can be made with pantry ingredients and thought it would be one small thing that I could accomplish while I’m off work for a bit. It has the benefit of being cheap, very green and is actually good for wood furniture.

We have a lot of wood furniture in our house – antiques and second hand furniture are what we used to furnish it (or, as one friend who helped us move put it, too much old stuff). Some pieces get dried out and occasionally need a little something extra to bring them back to life. This combination seems to do the trick – the vinegar provides a cleaning agent and the oil conditions the wood. Wood furniture with a matte finish cleans beautifully with this; it will fill in tiny scratches, it covers some water stains and helped darken finish that had dried out and lightened. It can be used on other finishes as well, but may need to be buffed off or used more sparingly on glossy finished furniture.

I put it to the ultimate test and used it to try to make the old crackled and dried out church pew that sits on my front porch look good again. There isn’t a lot that can be done for the crackled and baked finish on it, but the oil did darken it up and gave it some protection against drying out again quickly. It looks much better in my opinion (though I can’t do anything about the chew marks on the arm rests that were a puppy teething incident).

The tall hormonal kid’s desk before and after the wood polish – good results

These photos don’t show as much of the transformation as I would like – but the pew looks dramatically better now.

 

Oil & Vinegar Wood Furniture Polish/Cleaner

• 1 part white vinegar
• 3 parts olive oil

Pour oil and vinegar into a jar, seal tight and shake to mix before each use. Apply to furniture using a rag or microfiber cloth.

Linked to GNOWFGLINS, A Pinch of Joy, Frugally Sustainable

slow living update – May 2013

I’m following the example at Slow Living Essentials again this month, and using her categories to summarize my month and list some things I’d like to accomplish. Once again, it doesn’t feel like we did a lot, but once I got started writing, I could see that we really did.

{Nourish}:

We’ve been enjoying lots of local asparagus this month, mostly marinating it in balsamic vinegar and olive oil and grilling it on the barbecue. I also wrote about Butter Tart Mini-Muffins, which I made with great hopes of freezing some for lunch pails, but they were all gone too quickly. We cook our meals at home, but a current MS flare-up has made me tired and we have resorted to a few dinners out and take-out a couple of times. Prepackaged cookies and lunch snacks have been sneaking back into the grocery cart again, but I’m hoping to get back to making more from scratch again soon.

{Prepare}:

We’ve been busy preparing the flower gardens, lawns, and the vegetable garden. That has taken up pretty much every spare minute of time this month – though mostly for the dad and the young lad that we hired to help with the flower gardens. There are so many flower beds here at the farm that we could probably keep him employed into adulthood. Or at least pay for his first car and university.

{Reduce/Reuse/Repurpose/Repair}:

There is an ongoing list of things for the dad to repair around here – he keeps the tractor, lawn mower and cars going and then helps out friends, neighbours and storage customers when a little extra expertise or an extra hand is needed.

The girls took an old unused shelf, painted it and added a few extras to make themselves some more horse stalls to house their toy horses. They’ve already gotten hours of play out of it.

{Green – cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies}:

I made some linen spray with essential oils – just to leave a nice smell behind on the bedding when I make the beds. I’ve also been using cornstarch in place of body powder and would like to try adding a few essential oils and maybe some baking soda to it to make it more like powder.

{Grow}:

The garden is mostly planted with the exception of a few packets of seeds and the raspberry canes. I haven’t been out to look since it was planted, but the dad says that many seeds have already germinated and are poking through. We’re well on our way. We’ve even managed to get the pots around the patio planted with flowers and once we get the flower beds free of weeds and mulched with some wood chips, the place should be looking good. Right about in time for the wedding ceremony for some friends that the dad agreed to have on the grounds.

{Create}:

Nothing to write about here this month.

{Discover}:

I found a new on-line magazine and blog called From Scratch, and have been reading through their first few issues. I wouldn’t call us homesteaders by any stretch, but they also have some articles on gardening and cooking and DIY that are quite interesting.

We’ve also made our way through the first season of Breaking Bad on DVD – I bought it for the dad at Christmas and it’s been addicting enough that I will need to go in search of more.

{Enhance – community}:

The dad started off the season by hosting a skeet shoot and lunch for his local Ducks Unlimited committee members. I love that the high score of the day went to a female investment banker. The local rural guys who are all quite cocky about their shooting prowess didn’t stand a chance.

{Enjoy}:

It was a little quieter around here this month, which was all right with all of us. The girls are getting back on their horses and enjoying some riding lessons from their grandma – and I may even work up the nerve to get on the big horse soon to go for a short walk.

We are enjoying the nice weather when we get it, the dinners in the porch on those nice evenings, and watching the girls chase each other around the yard while having water fights.

Linked to Frugally Sustainable, GNOWFGLINS

slow living update – March 2013

early morning April fools

Happy April Fool’s Day. I was going to write about March going out like a lamb this year (it did – we had beautiful weather this week). However, this morning we woke up to a bit of snow falling. At least this snow won’t stay. It’s above freezing outside and most of the snow melted away this weekend. Things will start to green up shortly, which means that there will soon be a lot more work to do on the weekends. There are a lot of flower gardens here at the farm as well as lawn. Luckily the tall kid learned to mow lawn last year. We’ll keep her busy and out of trouble.

I’m following the example at Slow Living Essentials again this month and using her categories to summarize my month and list some things I’d like to accomplish.

{Nourish}:

Easy meals were the focus of this month – mostly because the time change halfway through kicked our butts and we were all dragging by the end of the day. There was a lot of breakfast for dinner in the evenings. We made up for it on weekends, even trying out pasta making for the first time. The dad tried his hand at homemade lasagna. Now he wants a pasta roller. One small success and it went to his head.

I didn’t write much about food or recipes this month (actually, I didn’t write much this month at all), but I did post about making ginger syrup and homemade gingerale.

{Prepare}:

We are still in the process of emptying out the freezers in order to fill them up again this summer.

{Reduce/Reuse/Repurpose/Repair}:

I’ve got plans for some projects that would fit in here, but they didn’t get accomplished this month. Some closet clean-outs have some sweaters and ripped jeans stacked up in the sewing room waiting to have a few things made out of them. I have an old corner shelf that would make a great stable for the small kid’s horses with a little paint and a few additions. I’m just waiting for warmer weather and for the dad to clean me off a workspace in the woodshop.

We also bought a new (to us) vehicle to shuttle me back and forth to my new job in the city. My old car was ok for driving back and forth to my job in town, but wouldn’t be reliable enough for longer distances each day. We found a vehicle that is in very good shape for being almost 10 years old and should be able to get me through some good snowstorms for several years. We always buy used and the dad keeps the vehicles in reasonable running order. This one is a little bigger than the rest and feels a bit like I am driving a house, but I will be safe and the mileage is the same as my old vehicle.

{Green – cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies}:

I made a hair mask to help tame some of the winter frizz in my hair.

I’ve also made some more of the dishwasher soap – and I forgot that I am supposed to leave the lid off for a few days or everything will clump and harden. I put it all in the food processor, whirred it up and let it sit to dry out again on a cookie sheet on the counter for a day and the problem resolved.

{Grow}:

Nothing is growing here at the moment, except the pile of books that I need to return to the library.

{Create}:

I finally unpacked and set up the sewing room, but haven’t as yet done anything in it. I put a small old oriental rug of the dad’s grandmother down on the floor, scored an unused rolling desk chair from the dad’s shop and am ready to go to work. Soon. I can feel it.

I did finish the pair of socks, finally (which the tall kid tells me are going to be hers) and have started a Lady Kina sweater for myself. It it works out well, I can see making more than one of these.

{Discover}:

I’ve finally got my reading groove back. I finished a couple of books in one night (Before I Go To Sleep and The Glass Castle) and have been working my way through the rest of the pile. I found a couple of Harrowsmith Magazine cookbooks that have been great to read through – I miss that magazine now that it is out of print.

{Enhance – community}:

The hockey season finally wrapped up last weekend, so the dad’s coaching obligation for this year is at an end. His gig as Master of Ceremonies at a local dinner went well, but hopefully we will have a few quiet Saturdays coming up before the next busy season starts.

I went to a Talents of Our Town sale last weekend as well and found a great hand loomed locally made rug for our freezing cold upstairs bathroom floor and bought a new supply of handmade soap from a local island resident that makes great soaps. I also found a local supplier for lye, so I am soon going to try making my own. I just need to get off my lazy behind.

{Enjoy}:

My husband and I just got back from our first weekend away by ourselves in a couple of years. We try to do that every year or two, but I think three years had passed since we last went away. This year we stayed in downtown Toronto at the Royal York and spent a few days walking around downtown and eating way too much.

Linked to Frugally Sustainable, GNOWFGLINS