Painting a Vintage Kitchen Cart

 

I've been searching for a vintage kitchen cart / coffee cart for a couple of years. I was looking for something sturdy and rust free. I found this beauty at the Baraboo, Wi city wide sale a few weeks back, for a mere $10.

 

My first step was to scrape off a few layers of cabinet liner from each shelf.

 

 

The next step was to sand the entire piece. I chose a fine grain sand paper, and went to work. You don't need to sand down to the bare metal, but just rough up the surface in order to get the new paint to stick and make sure the surface is smooth in the end. I then wiped down the entire thing to remove all the dust from sanding.

 

 

 

After sanding, I sprayed Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover Primer, making sure to get in the crevices and corners. I placed newspaper on the grass, well away from the house and cars for the primer stage.

I was told by my husband that I over did the primer, and really only needed a light coat, but I like to be thorough! If you do have any rust, give a bit more attention to those areas while sanding and priming.

 

Here is a pic of the primed cart:

 

I chose a light lemony color to match my kitchen. The photo doesn't actually do the final color justice.. my camera is washing out the shade a little. I bought one pint of Glidden Early Morning Sun, and used about 1/4 of the can. I painted the first layer, allowed the cart to dry overnight, then painted a second layer. ( I've heard that 4 hours is enough dry time, but I've done projects in the past where the second layer peeled away the first due to not being cured and dry enough).

 

 I rolled the paint on with a small extra smooth roller, and used a small sponge brush for the corners and details. Try to roll the roller in the same direction with each roll.

 

 Spray paint would have probably been easier, but I wanted to choose the shade and have a satin finish rather than a glossy look. The final surface had some texture because of the roller, it was not totally smooth. If you are looking for a shiny, smooth surface, go with spray paint.

  

 

 

At home! 

 



Vintage Camera Collection

Along the same lines as our last post, here is a glimpse at a few of the cameras in our collection.
The Valiant "620". This cute-as-a-button seafoam green box camera takes 620 film (obvi) and is really clean and seems to be in perfect working order. I will be testing it in the next week or so. I love this little camera so much.. the color, the shape, the entire sweet little thing!

 

Next is the Polaroid SX-70 Alpha 1 ... omg. I almost fell down when I found it at a flea market. I tried not to panic and giggle as I was shoving my wad of cash into the sellers hand before she changed her mind. This beauty is clad in leather, and folds into a flat little rectangle. Sadly, my intitial inspection before purchase was not good enough, and this camera is in need of some refurbishing. I will be shipping her off to be returned to her proper working order and cleaned very soon.

Lastly, a little Konica C35.. a pocket sized 35mm camera (again, obviously!). I am not a 35mm camera kind of chick, but this one was in near perfect condition. I shot a roll and sent it out for developing this afternoon. I actually had fun with this camera, and it's kind of nice to anticipate how my photos will turn out... in this world of instant gratification, it's sort of like a rare gift to have to wait for once.

xoxo, Arbor Lane

Falcon Miniature With 35mm Film

 

Meet my new toy... The Falcon Miniature. This camera is fully mechanical, with no batteries or auto features of any kind. The body is made from Bakelite. As far as I can tell, this model was made in the late '30s/ early '40s and originally used 127 film. I bought it at a yard sale for .20 and figured, what the heck.. might be fun to give it a try.

 

Firstly, I used 35mm film instead of the original 127 film. The cannister didn't quite fit, and dented slightly when I put the cover back on.

 

Secondly, there are two red windows on the back of the camera. These windows were used to advance the film... which would have been awesome if I had used 127 which is paper backed and doesn't allow light to hit the film... but I didn't. So I had to cover the holes. I used several layers of foil and some tape. As you can see, this was not adequate:

 

 

 

Orange streaks through the entire roll.

 

You can also see that I had several double exposures and overlapping pictures, because I had to guess how far to advance after each shot.

 

 

 Turns out that 1 full turn of the knob worked out the best on this particular camera.

I plan to try another roll of film and apply what I learned from this one. Ideally, I'd like to shoot a roll of black and white with this camera. If I can get it right, I think the photos would come out amazing.

 

 

 xoxo, Arbor Lane

Bacon Wrapped Cracker Appetizers, Recipe Trial

 

This past 4th of July weekend, we were invited to several parties and asked to bring something along. I've been wanting to try these bad boys for awhile now.. and oh em gee. They were a huge hit.

Basically, you sprinkle cheese on a Club cracker and wrap it in bacon. The original recipe is from Pioneer Woman Cooks, and you can find it here. If you don't know who the Pioneer Woman is, be prepared to spend the rest of your day reading her site.. it's fantastic, funny, and real.

The only change I made to the original ingredients was to use a finely shredded romano cheese, instead of the grated parm. The shredded cheese worked perfectly fine. I wouldn't recommend using a soft shredded cheese like cheddar or mozzarella, but harder cheeses like parmesan, romano, or asiago would work out o.k. This recipe is a little time intensive, with a long baking time (2 hours), but trust me, they are delicious and flavorful.



I should mention, I've also made her recipe for Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers, which were an even bigger hit with the guys as a football party snack and everyone asks me to make them now.

Enjoy!

xoxo, Arbor Lane

A Cup of Coffee Cake, Recipe Trial.

 

This, my friends, is a cup of coffee cake. In less than 5 minutes, you could have a moist yummy cake with crumble topping. A cake in a mug with a twist. Ah-mazing!

 

 

The genius behind this concoction is brought to us by The New Prudent Baby. Find the full recipe here.

 

 

I made only 2 changes to the original... I added a tbs of finely chopped walnuts to the crumb topping, and I substituted the sour cream for half and half (only because I was totally unable to wait to try this, and I was out of sour cream.) The coffee cake still came out moist, but I will be buying sour cream to make it the proper way.

 

You test for doneness the same way you do any cake, stick a knife in it until it comes out clean.

 

When my guy came home, I put together two more and pretended that it was the first time I made it. That's how good it was.

 

Enjoy!

 

xoxo, Arbor Lane

Melamine

Headed for another little road trip, and just wanted to share a few new items from our Etsy shop before we roll out.

 

 

Melamine!

 

   Melamine and Melmac always remind me of road trips in the camper. The lilac coffee cups are particularly sweet. The top green set is made by Oneida.

   I can imagine having coffee outside in the early a.m. with any of these, smelling of camp fire and listening to the birds sing. Time to unpack the camping gear!

xoxo, Arbor Lane

 

New Lisbon Indian Mounds

 

We took a little drive this weekend, and came across a little site of Indian Mounds.

 

These are the Gee's Slough mounds, and they are located in New Lisbon, Wi on the edge of the Lemonweir River. The site wasn't very well maintained, but it was an interesting side trip.

                                                                                                                                                               As a side note, we made our first sale in the Etsy shop today! One of our Polaroid cameras is headed to New York, NY!

xoxo, Arbor Lane