Dry Brush Blanket Striped Step Stool, Traditional Italian Zucchini in Tomato Sauce, More Harvest!

Dry Brush Blanket Striped Step Stool-
I recently purchased a painted white step stool from Ikea that I decided to do something fun with. They are super heavy duty and great design! There were tons of images online of fun ways people hacked their step stools. If there's no Ikea near you you can buy one on Amazon!

                                                                             

                                                 

I was really afraid of making a mess painting it, so I decided to go for some simple blanket stripes. After reading a few articles about dry brushing I thought that might be a good technique to use on this. It's very forgiving, so if you make a mistake it's pretty simple to dry brush over it. So here's the basics...

Top step

DO NOT ASSEMBLE!  It's much easier to do the paint technique before you put the step stool together. I started with the square to mark where I wanted the stripes with pencil. I had both the top and bottom steps of the step stool. I taped both of them off after measuring. It's hard to see in the photo but the white paint was actually fairly thin on the top and didn't cover very well in the center of the top step.

 Taped off-

Basically after placement of the tape I came back with some French blue acrylic craft paint, 1st coat of paint-

I did have to do two coats for full coverage, then I let dry overnight. I think you can see from the photo that the tape did not seal very well on to the wood and the edges were a little bit rough. Next time I'll use a different brand. I should add this was a no-cost project, except for the stool.

I came back with a very wide putty knife and cleaned up the edges a little bit.  It was a good thing I was going to dry brush over it, which softened the flaws. I came back the next day with a very dry old brush and white acrylic paint. I test drove it on an old paint stick-

When they say dry brush they really mean it! I use very, very little paint. I brushed a tiny bit onto a used paint stick to get an idea of what it would look like. I went over both steps twice and just kept going until I thought it looked good-

Dave and I put it together last night and it is sturdy, very solid wood. I think it came out great and I really like the look! So don't be afraid to dry brush, it's really easy but just use very very little paint! I am going to use a little clear, brush on sealer over the stripes. I love it and may buy the dark wood if we go back. Great for kids, an end table, displays, as a stool. They are very multipurpose!

Traditional Italian Zucchini in Tomato Sauce-
Too much zucchini? Yes, that's me, so what to do? I remembered years ago buying canned Italian zucchini to try. Mushy but good flavor. I looked up recipes online and decided to try this one
Lacuochinasopraffina.com. Pretty simple and you can adjust as needed. It was great served with roasted chicken and topped with a little Romano cheese.

More Harvest!
I think we're in what's traditionally called high summer although it's also getting cooler. We have lots of tomatoes coming in, so I froze some last weekend and we'll be doing more this weekend-

We've harvested most of the ripe tomatoes and peppers. I froze 2 quarts of mixed tomatoes and they are nestled into the freezer. I'm planning on making some pasta sauce this weekend if I have enough ripe one. I will wait another week or two if not. The weather is getting cooler with the low forties forecast in a couple of nights. I'm hoping things will keep ripening before we get our first hard freeze.