Five Things for Friday

Cheers to another Friday!  I hope your week was eventful, productive, enjoyable, and all in all good.

The flower of the week this week is the honeysuckle!  Wow!  What a punch this flower packs!  The sweetly scented flowers are wildly attractive to hummingbirds and other pollinators.

The honeysuckle vines are evergreen and heat tolerant.  As you can see, they are also vigorous growers so if you plant one do so on a sturdy large trellis.  You'll be rewarded with the flowers and sweet scent for weeks!










Today is my son's birthday!  Twenty two years ago today...
I can't help myself!  I always think of this scene when it's his birthday!


We're actually celebrating it tomorrow as we're going out to breakfast, his favorite meal.  Since it's his birthday, he gets to pick where we go.  So, it's off to Village Inn!  Yes, with all the AWESOME breakfast places in town, he picks Village Inn!  *sigh*  At least there won't be a wait.

I'm always on the lookout for new, easy recipes where you don't have to make a visit to the grocery store to buy ingredients.  Here's a casserole recipe I found where you line the bottom of a dish with bread and throw whatever you have leftover in your fridge and bake it for an hour at 425 degrees.  Sounds interesting and I'll definitely be trying it soon!

Are you out of soap yet?  Ever wonder how grocery store soap is made?  Here's a video (WHA! Two videos in one post!?) showing how it's done.  This is NOT how soap is made at Lora's Beauty, a video of that will be forth coming.  Rest assure, however, it involves no Extruder machines!  Lora's Beauty soap is crafted entirely by hand and in small batches using only natural ingredients!  Your skin will know the difference.



 We're in for another rainy weekend so that means more work in my basement studio (also known as the laundry room).  I finished this wonderful cabinet and will share it with you Monday.

Next up on the workbench is this chair I found FREE on the sidewalk.


I've also got an old window I'm going to paint and spray the glass with this mirror paint. Have you ever tried this?

Have a great weekend and check back Monday for my primitive cabinet reveal!  It's awesome!

Things My Neighbors Give Away Part One

I've been wanting to do this post for a while but honestly, it was a little overwhelming; my neighbors give away a lot of stuff!  Then I decided to do it in parts.  Today, Part One of Things My Neighbors Give Away!  Also known as, Things I Pick Up Free on the Sidewalk or Things I've Thrown on the Top of My Car!

First up is my favorite.  I wrote about this dresser's makeover here.

Here's the "before" picture.

After a little work, here's the after.  Yep, this was FREE!

Also up is this great magazine rack Jeff found one day.  It's good to have an extra set of eyes on the street for free furniture!  I don't have a before picture for this one but it was an ugly dark wood surface.

Finally, here's one of my first sidewalk finds.   This beautiful display cabinet we had to snatch from a guy on a bike. He wanted it for a greenhouse/cold frame.  Isn't that so Portland?! Alas, there was no way he was getting it home on his bike so when he left we went in for the kill!  Again, no before picture but it was just a light colored wood finish.

There's plenty more where these came from and I'll show more later, but let's end this post with a picture of Audrey, because she's so darn cute!

Five Things for Friday

Welcome to the end of the week and this week's edition of Five Things for Friday!


The featured flower this week is the Dutch Iris.  Funny thing about this flower, I don't actually remember ever planting it.  These plants grow from a bulb and I must have at one point planted some, or one, as now I've got about 20 in my garden!  They come in  a variety of colors and patterns, mine are white.  Unlike other varieties of irises, the foliage on Dutch irises resemble a grass.

Uncut, they flower for several weeks in the yard, or if you prefer, they make great cut flowers!















Two words; Harem Pants.  Ok, now for some context...

Last Sunday was Mother's Day and we spent a great day with family enjoying the company, food, and nice weather.  The women in the family made a quick trip to the Grand Marketplace in Portland.  It's a fun place to browse for antiques, oddities, and vintage and industrial ware.  I picked up, of all things, a pair of harem pants and aside from the fact that they look completely bazaar, I love them!  This is my first pair and I'll (probably) never wear them out in public but, seriously, THEY ARE SO COMFORTABLE!  In fact, I think they may replace sweat pants for that after-work-still-daylight-and-too-early-for pajamas clothing!

On our way back from the Marketplace, I found this little cabinet FREE on the sidewalk.  It's a little primitive but that's what I was drawn to.  I've got plans for it!  I definitely see it on wheels, maybe in a kitchen for extra storage?

I forgot to mention this last week so I'll add it to this week's Five Things.  Last Thursday we were about a block away from Alberta street in Portland and there seemed to be a small crowd gathering in the street and no cars were moving in either direction.  As we continued to walk on, we quickly saw why.  President Bill Clinton was walking the street doing a meet and greet and stumping for Hillary.  As we got to Alberta, we walked right up to him, shook his hand and talked for a moment.  I didn't have my phone with me to snap a selfie with him (is it technically a selfie if someone else is in the photo?) as I was going to yoga.  Jeff was too busy talking to him to take a photo however he did circle back and took this photo later.  He was quite approachable and many people got pictures.  That was my first and only brush with celebrity if you don't count seeing Carrie Brownstein at Fred Meyer and Fred Armisen shopping on Mississippi Street and in both cases I didn't approach them.


We are huge fans of hot sauce around here!  We've even made our own at times.  Here's a nice write-up listing some of the stand out sauces from this year's NYC Hot Sauce Expo (Seriously, there is such a thing!)  The artwork on some of those labels is amazing!  I see this one getting heavy rotation around here soon!

That's it for this week!  Enjoy your weekend!  After a complete week of nice weather, it's supposed to rain this weekend.  That will give me a good excuse to start working on my new sidewalk find!

Metal Patio Chairs

Remember these chairs I shared a couple weeks ago?

These beauties were another great find FREE on the sidewalk!

The really great thing about them was they needed very little work.

 Obviously, they needed cleaned.  Wow!  The glare is blinding!

 There was a little rust on them that we sanded out.

They also needed a couple cans of primer.  I used Krylon All-Purpose Gray Interior and Exterior Decorator Primer.

Finally, after several cans of Krylon  Cherry Red Interior and Exterior Decorator Paint, they look as good as new!

Not bad for about $12 in spray paint!

I was positive I was going to sell these, then Jeff suggested I bring them on the deck to photograph and, well....I may have to keep these and sell my teak folding chairs.

One way or the other, there will be outdoor chairs in the sale July 29-30!

Five Things for Friday

It looks like we're staring another weekend in the face!  Yay!  Welcome to Friday!

Let's start this post with our featured flower of the week.  How can you live in the rainy Northwest and NOT have a rhododendron in your garden?  I used to hate rhododendrons because everyone had one or two or more.  They were huge plants that people lined up against their house's foundations so they blocked the windows on the house. Then I visited Mexico and Hawaii and I realized everyone didn't have them, at least they didn't have them as big and showy as the ones I grew up with.  It was then that I grew to appreciate them and planted a couple in my garden (not in front of a window, however!).

Speaking of garden, yes we made it to the Plant Sale last weekend!  As I mentioned last week, I had already planted my fill for the year.  That didn't stop me from sneaking in one more plant; a zucchini of course.  Just like with the rhododendron, every NW vegetable garden needs a zucchini!

Naturally, I took my camera and shot a few photos.  As I was doing so, one of the event coordinators asked if I would share my photos with them.  Apparently, their volunteer photographer didn't show and they desperately wanted to add this year's photos to their website.  I was happy to oblige and have since emailed off my first volunteer-non-paying-staff photos!

About 4 years ago my parents moved into a condo building not far from my house.  In the basement of their building people put things they no longer want.  You can pick up some really good stuff there, free of course.  It's kind of funny as multiple times my mom has been visiting friends in the building and will see something in their house that she had placed in the basement.  Basically, the people in the building swap things around among themselves a lot.

Anyway, several weeks ago my mom brought over these stepping stone molds that were in the basement.

Of course I used them!  I actually didn't think I was going to get more than one use out of them, however, I sprayed the mold with a little Pam Cooking Spray before I poured the concrete in them and once they had dried, they LITERALLY (the correct definition of literally) slid right out!

Now I'm going to make more of them, because, well just because I can!  I may even put some in my sale!

Finally, here's a great idea for a warm and nutritional breakfast at work.  Fill a jelly jar 1/3 full with steel cut oats.  Add your favorite toppings (raisins, sesame seeds, honey etc) to 2/3 full.  Then fill the jar with water and let sit in the refrigerator overnight.

The next morning, at work or home, pop the jar in the microwave for a minute and you've got a healthy breakfast! You may need to add a little more water before microwaving but not much.
Easy-peasy!

That's it for this week, have a great weekend and for all those Mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!  I've got another furniture reveal on tap for Monday so stayed tuned to see how these free chairs ended up!

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Farmhouse Table

Remember this dining room set I picked up FREE on the sidewalk?

I finished painting it!

The table painted rather easily however the chairs...they really wanted to chip, so I let them.  After they shed all the paint they wanted to, I sealed them with Varathane Crystal Clear Polyurethane Water-Based Spray.  This will prevent more paint from flaking off.

I used Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint (Farmhouse White)

The top of the table I sanded lightly and finish it with Restor-A-Finish Golden Oak.

For now, we're using the table however I may be selling it at my sale.  

It fits in my dining room a little better than my old table and the price was certainly good!

Five Things for Friday

Welcome to the weekend!  Let's start with this week's featured flower, the rose, because what's a garden without one?  Roses are the staple to every garden everywhere.  Just like the rhododendron is a must have for a Northwest garden and a bougainvillea is found in most tropical gardens, the rose is a universal garden flower.  I'm partial to the orange and old-fashion variety of roses.  Unfortunately I can't remember this one's name.

Last weekend found us at the Gathering of Guilds Show.   The show featured the Creative Metal Arts Guild, the Portland Hand Weavers Guild, Oregon Glass Guild, and the Guild of Oregon Woodworkers.  It was an awesome show and akin to going to a museum for free.  The work presented was truly artistic.

I wasn't planning on getting anything.  I certainly didn't need anything, but none the less, I managed to find this sterling silver ring that I loved!  It was simultaneously beautiful and bad-ass!

Sigh. Every year I do the same thing.  As I mentioned in a prior post, I love going to the nursery.  Every Spring I tell myself to just get a few things; you'll want to go again once Summer comes but you won't have anywhere to plant.  And every Spring I don't listen to myself!  Yes, it happened again.  We've been waiting all month, including 3 really nice weekends, for the Edible Plant Sale tomorrow, yet last weekend we went back to the nursery and bought all the vegetables and fruit plants our little planter boxes could hold!  We got cabbage, brussel sprouts, strawberries, carrots, arugula, shallots, peas, and a blueberry plant.  We're still going to the sale as Jeff managed to not plant every pot he had; those were reserved for hot peppers!

As I prepare for my sale in July, I'm also posting some of the furniture for sale on my website, Lora's Furniture. A lot of this furniture I picked up free on the sidewalk and refurbished (although, not the dining room set shown).  I've added a permanent link to the site on the left. If you're in need of anything and you're local to the Portland area, check it out or you can wait for the sale in July, which now has a firm date, July 29th and 30th.  Yes, this is the weekend of the Oregon Brewers Festival.  Come to town for the festival and swing by my sale!

Here's some personal good news...I've lost 20 lbs since last September!  How did I do it?  Well, hot yoga helped, however I also used this free app, iTrackBites.  It works on the same point system that Weight Watchers does where every food is assigned a number of points and you have so many points a day to use.  The nice part, like Weight Watchers, most fruits and vegetables carry no points so you can eat as many of those as you'd like.  The even better part, unlike Weight Watchers, is it doesn't cost anything!  Just the tracking of what I ate worked good for me as I've never really dieted before.

That's it for this week!  Enjoy the weekend.  I hope to get those free patio chairs I picked up painted as well as the lawn mowed, as you can see in the planter box picture it needs it!