Sweeping a tile or linoleum kitchen floor can be a dust-swirling proposition, particularly if you’ve had a recent baking spree or beachgoers have descended on you with sandy feet. Instead of struggling to suck up every last grain of flour or sand with the vacuum, do a better job with a plain old broom. These […]
How To
How To
How to Use a Digital Camera
Photography blogger Susan Cole Kelly shares her simple tips for using a digital camera. Our friends at Yankee have asked me to write a blog entry about how to use a digital camera. Initially, I was stumped — isn’t that like asking a chef to write a few words about how to use a stove? […]
Old wooden shoe forms make a charming, vintage-looking coatrack. 1. Browse your favorite antiques stores and flea markets for interesting old shoe forms. 2. Determine the wood-panel size you’ll need for the space you’ve got in mind. You might use an old wooden door, for instance, or a shutter, or even an old cutting board. […]
How To
How to Sugar on a Shoestring
Maple sugaring, as Burr Morse will tell you, doesn’t require fancy stainless-steel boilers and gravity-fed tubing–simple firepits and recycled milk jugs work just fine, too. Morse should know: His family claims sugaring roots stretching back nearly two centuries, and today Morse sugars from the same trees his granddad once tapped. Come March, his farm, with […]
Whether you give or receive these holiday gifts from the kitchen, bursting with flavor, the joy will last all winter.
I love poking through antiques shops and flea markets in search of old postcards, fabrics, and lamps–they’re great materials for home-decor projects. Old lamp bases have loads more character than new ones. I try to hang on to a lamp socket’s outer brass or nickel shell, too, and replace just the cord and inner socket.To […]
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Inspired Ideas: Vintage Glow
I love poking through antiques shops and flea markets in search of old postcards, fabrics, and lamps–they’re great materials for home-décor projects. Old lamp bases have loads more character than new ones. I try to hang on to a lamp socket’s outer brass or nickel shell, too, and replace just the cord and inner socket. […]
How To
Make a Night-Light Shade
This kit-based night-light lampshade is my go-to project for the tween crowd. I’ve taught this project at local public schools as a visiting artist and have found that it is most appropriate for eleven- to-thirteen-year-olds. A basic night-light kit (available at craft and lampshade stores or online) includes the half-round-shaped frame, the lightbulb and switch, […]
How To
Crafts: May Basket
The May basket — let’s bring back a small gesture of caring and celebration of this season,” says Jayne Ward, who has enjoyed a lifelong career in the antiques and gift business. This, her third shop, Homeward Designs’ Cottage Style, in Rindge, New Hampshire (603-899-9545), is co-owned with her daughter, Melissa Ward Messer, formerly a […]
How To
Crafts: Easter Table
This decorating idea for your Easter table uses new or vintage materials and your choice of eggs, the symbol of spring. Suggestions include quail eggs, foil-wrapped chocolate eggs, or even egg-shaped soaps. 1. Place a tartlet mold of your choosing (either new or vintage) on each plate. Add a fabric doily or a coaster beneath […]
How To
How to Wash Old Quilts
Useful stuff from 75 years of Yankee: March 1975 A very old quilt must be given kind treatment if it is to be washed. When a quilt is heavy with water, the filler swells, and old, rotted threads will give way. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the strain. One solution is to make two […]
How To
How to Make a Ski Chair
Lincoln Fuller isn’t big on getting rid of stuff. “I have a tough time throwing anything away,” says the Yarmouth, Maine, resident. Take his ski chalet at Sunday River, where Fuller and his family have been coming since 1968. There, four decades of fiberglass skis had built up, most of them finding a home in […]