Horticulturalists have developed several varieties of white pumpkins ranging from pure white to a cream colour, without a trace of orange anywhere on the skin surface. White shows up in the garden at night — proven by the popularity of moon gardens — where gardeners plant white-flowering plants so that they will create an evening display. White pumpkins will be just as visible in the nighttime where a bit of light focused on a white pumpkin set beside a tree trunk, beneath a shrub, or sitting on a fence or retaining wall will illuminate them. If a light is placed inside a carved white pumpkin, the entire pumpkin, including the carved face, will be illuminated. If more definition of the features is desired, the cut-out openings can be outlined with a black marker to accentuate them.

Because they are so visible, having white pumpkins with scary faces carved in them perched on tree branches or used as the head placed on a Halloween figure, will be a sure hit. All the better if the pumpkin has a few warts and bumps on the surface to mimic scars or wounds that could be highlighted with blood-red paint.

Use white pumpkins as heads of ghosts, created by draping white sheets or tablecloths over suitable forms. If the forms are hung from tree branches and there is no breeze, a fan can be run nearby to blow some air to make the material move.

Of course, white pumpkins have other uses besides creating spooky Halloween sights. They can be used in autumn displays where they will add contrast when combined with orange and yellow pumpkins, either in groupings of various-size pumpkins or in harvest baskets and other displays. Sit a white pumpkin on each step of the stairs leading to the front door — or alternate white and orange pumpkins. Faces and designs drawn on white pumpkins are much more visible than they are on orange pumpkins, so children (of all ages) can enjoy drawing on them. If the pumpkins are protected from rain, erasable marker can be used and the faces can be wiped off and new ones drawn.

A smooth-skinned white pumpkin can be hollowed out and used as a flower vase to hold an autumn floral arrangement or miniature white pumpkins, such as “Baby Boo,” can be incorporated into table displays.

Look for white pumpkins at retail outlets and garden centres this fall. Maybe you’ll use some in an autumn creation or a ghostly Halloween scene.

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“French Charming is a great choice,” says Bev Bell, creative director, Beauti-Tone Paint and Home Products Division, Home Hardware Stores Limited. “It is a perfect balance of blue and grey, making it an incredibly livable colour for any room.” Some of the voters’ responses were, “I can see this colour in any part of my home,” and, “It looks like it will work well with all different colours,” and, “I just love this colour!”

Voters also loved the idea of being asked, not only for their opinion, but to ultimately choose the winner. Voting took place at a national design show in January and online at Home Hardware’s Facebook and Twitter pages during the same period.

“As Canadians, we know what we love,” says Bell. “When we walk into a room and feel immediately grounded, it is usually because the colour makes us comfortable and relaxed.

Some of us prefer cool colours, others warm. The way we perceive colour is rooted deep within us. It’s something we are born with, just like so many of our best qualities.”

You can see in the photo that this colour pairs well with the white window trim. Keep contrast in mind when choosing medium to dark wall colours.

Because French Charming is a blue-grey hue, pulling either colour out in accents, as was done in the photo is a good choice.

In other rooms, like a living room or den, you could use this wall colour with a dark charcoal or black in furniture and/or accessories. Items like black floating wall shelves, for example, would work well. If you have black furniture and find it a bit overwhelming visually, soften it with muted colour furniture throws and toss cushions in a matching or co-ordinating colour to the walls.

French Charming is available exclusively at Home Hardware, Home Building Centre and Home Hardware Building Centre locations.

The post And the winner is… appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

What the paint was used for remains unknown. But what is startling is that it was made earlier than the first previously known use of the paint — 47,000 years earlier.

The mixture was preserved on a small stone flake excavated by Lyn Wadley, of the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, at a site about 40 km (25 miles) north of the port city of Durban.

“Our analyses show that this ochre-based mixture was… a paint medium that could have been applied to a surface or to human skin,” Wadley and a group of co-authors wrote in a paper just published in the academic journal Plos One.

The oldest documented use of milk in a pigment mixture was from Greece around 2,200 years ago. It was a technique used as an art medium up to the Renaissance.

The finding is also significant because it long predates the introduction of domesticated cattle into the region, which took place between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago.

Chemical analysis revealed the milk was not from a domestic cow but a wild bovid, such as a buffalo or an antelope species. So it was probably extracted by killing a wild animal that was lactating.

And its use?

“It may have been used as decorative paint. It could have been used to decorate animal hides. We have not found the evidence for the way that they used it, we just know that they used it,” Wadley said.

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FLOOR MAT

Create works of art for your floor with a canvas drop sheet and paint.

Materials:

• One 5×12-foot canvas drop sheet
• No-Sew Glue
• Painter’s tape
• Beauti-Tone Designer Series Paint in chosen colours
• Beauti-Tone Designer Series Silk in a clear untinted base

Instructions:

Cut the size of carpet you desire from the canvas drop sheet. With an iron, fold under a hem and press. Apply No-Sew Glue under hem and press to secure. With painter’s tape, mark and mask out a design on your carpet. Paint desired colours. Once dry, coat the entire carpet with three coats of Beauti-Tone Designer Series Silk in an untinted clear base to make the carpet stain resistant.

Add your own unique flair with stencils, lettering or free-form art. Co-ordinate your chosen colours with other colours in your room. Add unexpected bursts of colour to your floor mat for added interest. A black border will make the colours pop. Another great twist on this project is to make small floor mats to sit under pet dishes to catch spills and drips. Stencil your pet’s name and paw prints onto their own mat for extra fun.

HALL TREE

Personalize your entryway with a hall tree that’s as much beautiful as functional.

Materials:

• One 4×8-foot panel of 5/8-inch Good One Side (G1S) plywood
• One 1×48-inch hardwood dowel
• One 911-ml container Beauti-Tone cabinet and furniture white base interior acrylic paint
• Approx. six plastic anchors with screws 1-5/8 inches longer than the depth of the anchors

Tools:

• Jigsaw
• Driver drill
• Mitre saw or hand saw
• Drill press (or a clamp and a steady hand)

Instructions:

Begin by tracing the shape you want for your tree on the plywood panel. Next, position some blocks of wood beneath the panel to raise it off your work surface and accommodate the jigsaw blade cutting through the wood. Now, start working around your outline with the jigsaw until you have your tree cut out. You’ll want your tree to sit off the wall a bit, so cut the wood dowel into six 1.0- to 1.5-inch pieces. Then, using a drill press (or a clamp and drill) drill a hole just slightly larger than your screws through the centre of each.

Stand your tree up against the wall you’re going to mount it on and drill pilot holes through to the wall, marking where you’ll need to install your anchors. Once the anchors are in, set each of your screws into the tree so that just a bit of the tip is sticking out the back. Line them up with their respective dowels, and one by one, screw them through the dowel and into the wall anchors. You may want to cover the screw holes with wood roundhead plugs.

Last, apply two coats of Beauti-Tone’s cabinet and furniture paint — it’s self-priming, and cures quickly to a tough finish.

This idea can also work in a child’s room, a playroom or a nursery. Paint the tree in fun colours to brighten up these spaces. Add dowels or hooks to the front of the tree on which to hang additional lightweight items like umbrellas, baseball caps and light jackets. You could even paint a growth chart on the tree trunk to make it multi-functional.

New colours and project ideas are an inspiration for change. Let’s have some fun updating our décor!

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With its streamlined hood, bright-red paint with yellow wheels, chrome trim, and louvred side curtains on the engine bay, the Massey 101 was revolutionary.

Duncan, Massey Harris’s general manager, conceived the machine in 1936. The company’s Wallis tractor designs were becoming dated and with the worst of the Great Depression seemingly over, Duncan rightly believed there would be an appetite for something fresh and eye-catching.

And like his California counterpart, Duncan understood the importance of marrying form and function — and saving money by outsourcing.

With money still tight, Duncan was able to fund a new tractor design by incorporating Chrysler Corporation’s new industrial flathead six-cylinder motor of 201 cubic inches. That would not only save the company the cost of designing its own engine, but Chrysler’s worldwide parts and service network would save Massey Harris money in both parts supply and training service technicians.

And since Chrysler wouldn’t do a short production run just for Massey Harris, the engines, which were used in trucks, came with electric starters — a first for a farm tractor. When used in tractors, the engine was governed to a lower r.p.m., and although that lowered horsepower, it increased engine life and reduced the possibility of engine and drive train damage.

The 101 was introduced in 1938 and offered a four-speed transmission, PTO, muffler and instruments as standard equipment. A lighting system was optional. Twin power was also standard. The twin power feature resulted in the engine being governed to 1,500 r.p.m. when the tractor was being used for drawbar work. When used for belt work the twin-power feature could be engaged to boost r.p.m. to 1,800.

The 101 could be purchased in either standard or row-crop configurations, the latter having adjustable rear wheels, individual rear-wheel brakes, and a combined PTO and implement lift. There was also a single front-wheel option for vegetable growers.

A 217-cubic-inch flathead six option was introduced in 1939 and became standard a year later, as did the Twin Power 101 Super that churned out almost 50 horsepower.

Towards the end of the 101’s production run, the styling was altered with the side curtains on the engine bay being changed to a half-panel design with the engine’s sides exposed. This wartime version also lost the chrome trim on the screened grill.

Equipment made by Massey Harris and sister companies will be featured at the 2013 Threshermen’s Reunion from July 25-28. For more info, visit ag-museum.mb.ca.

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“It started out as a little hobby but it has turned into a little more than we expected it to,” said Hawreluik, who started Hawreluik Racing Company, from Sheho, Sask., in 1992.

The ‘mini-chucks’ form a third category of wagon-pulling equines. At roughly 36 inches high at the withers, they’re considerably smaller than pony chucks — which are about 1,100 pounds and 14.2 hands (58 inches) high — and tiny compared to the thoroughbreds of the Calgary Stampede’s “Half Mile of Hell” fame.

But what they lack in size, they make up for in sheer energy, said Hawreluik, who also races regular-size pony chuckwagons.

“Everything is pretty much the same, it’s just that if they looked in the mirror, they’d be pretty disappointed about their size,” he joked. “They’re a tough little animal and they sure try hard.”

In a typical show, Hawreluik drives them around the ring for a couple of laps, then has an assistant blow a horn to signal the race has started.

When that happens, the ponies hit the collars hard and their hooves disappear in a jaw-dropping blur of furious motion as they wind their way through a figure-8 pattern, just like their larger cousins in regular competition.

“People can’t believe how fast they can run,” said Hawreluik, adding that at the Saturday night demonstration at Horse 3, the teams were so keyed up that they were almost uncontrollable and missed one loop of the course.

The one-quarter-size, miniature chuckwagons he uses are self-made, with a welded steel frame and tongue. The wooden wheels and hubs are the most expensive part, at about $1,200 for a set of four.

He drives the four-up in a mainly biothane harness without britchen, but uses a strap that runs through the collars of the lead team to help keep things together.

Hawreluik likens the nature of his mini-chucks to draft horses and says, “Big Willie,” who makes up half of the lead team, is his “pride and joy.”

“If someone offered me $50,000, I don’t think I would sell him,” said Hawreluik. “On the other hand, that paint and bay on the back — on some days, they have different names.”

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Luckily, bedrooms can be a fairly easy room to update. You can do a quick change with new linens and curtains or go all out with fresh paint as well.

Before you paint

Research colour schemes, linens and accessories that you’ll want in your new room. I’d start with the linens and choose the paint colours once the linen choice has been made. It’s easier to match a paint colour to the linens rather than the other way around.

There are lots of options in linens. If you’re not sure what style or colour palette you want, try doing some online window shopping to see what catches your fancy, and make note of the wall colour in the photos you come across. This may help you when the time comes to shop for paint colours. Check out decorating magazines and books for ideas as well.

Many linen sets come with decorative cushions and shams that aren’t very useful and usually end up on the floor, so spend your decorating budget on items that you’ll actually use. Better to spend a little more on a quality bedspread and bed skirt than a bedding set with a lot of cushions that will just be in the way. Look for quilts that have a reversible pattern to give you a little more versatility.

When shopping for sheets, look for open stock sales and purchase extra flat sheets that can be used to make co-ordinating window coverings, a bed skirt, a duvet cover and even extra pillowcases or to recover a headboard. Flat sheets already have finished edges and hems so they make quick work of a window covering simply by threading the rod through the hem. Use enough fabric width so that the window treatment is full and elegant and put small weights in the bottom hem so that they hang properly. Let the curtains pool on the floor a bit if you don’t want to hem them. If you do have to hem the curtains you can use a no-sew product like hemming tape. All you need is a hot iron.

Making a bed skirt is just as easy. Cut the sheet in lengths required, and at a usable depth, and simply tuck the cut end between the mattress and box spring, exposing the already finished sheet ends. The fabric will stay put unless you’re using something slippery like satin. You can even create box pleats at the corners of the bed by simply folding the length of fabric to create a pleat before you tuck it in between the mattress and box spring. Use a safety pin to secure the pleat if necessary.

If there is any fabric left after these projects, you can use it to cover decorative containers, recover the seat of a vanity chair or make your additional pillowcases. You may even find that the pattern of your sheets is so lovely that you could frame a section of it over a stretcher frame to create your own artwork.

A dated headboard can be brought into the present by covering it in fabric as well. Use a co-ordinating sheet to create a new headboard or to cover the existing one. When I last redid my bedroom I bought two matching duvet covers that were on clearance. One was used on the bed and I took the second one apart and used the decorative top for curtains and the less decorative but cosy fleece bottom layer to cover the headboard. Easy and affordable.

Paint

Once you’ve chosen your linens you can then proceed to shop for a co-ordinating paint colour for the walls. Let the linen colours be your guide and be sure to take the lighting conditions in the room into consideration as well. You may like the look of a dark wall colour in a photo but if you have poor lighting in the bedroom you could be creating a cave-like atmosphere. Also, pay attention to the woodwork. Dark window trim and baseboards might look better with a lighter wall colour. If your trim is already white you can be bold and go with rich wall colour.

Well… time to get started. Let’s plan together for an update. Keep me posted.

Many linen sets come with decorative cushions and shams that aren’t very useful and usually end up on the floor.

The post Time for a change: If you’re thinking of redoing a bedroom, it’s one of the easier areas to update appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Bringing back memories of skating on a snow-covered frozen slough, the skating oval that has brought about family togetherness and recreational pleasure since 2008 continues to gain popularity with it becoming a tradition for some families on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Drawing on an idea from the neighbouring community of Rivers, Midwest recreation director, Bonnie Michaudville, thought it would be a great idea for Hamiota to have one. Over the years, that thought has brought forth excitement of school students and older adults alike.

Michaudville said the oval, located within the Hamiota campground west of the town’s arena, is very popular during school holidays along with weekends with evenings seeing the most use. She added that the oval is used also when tournaments are on at the nearby rink.

“Students find it a grand place for a Valentine’s party, as people can bring hot chocolate, share a fire in the fire pit, and cook hotdogs if that’s their desire,” said Michaudville. “There are no set rules for the skating oval, no charge to use it, and people skate at their own risk.”

Preparation

It all depends on the weather to when the oval officially opens, with the 2012-13 season kicking off at the beginning of December.

“Putting up the lights each year, people really now look forward to the day that my presence is seen on the oval situated along Maple Avenue East,” said Michaudville.

“The skating oval is great for recreational skating at any time of the day. Users don’t have to worry about getting into the rink or going just at public skating time.”

It takes many hands at work to bring the oval to life. Initially, after the first major snowfall, Gary Slimmon prepares the surface by making ridges up the side and packing. Volunteers spend many hours flooding, using approximately 20 loads of water.

Although Leonard Allan and Sylvain Michaudville are the usual icemakers, this season the task fell in the hands of Michaudville and Gary Victor. As the icemaker, Michaudville, likes to colour the oval ice with a little bit of paint from the Sports Complex, and this season the community attraction has a nice “pink” colour to it.

After the outdoor ice is ready, Robin Davison, the facility foreman and his staff will go over it with the Zamboni to smooth it out. The Sports Complex staff and Slimmon oversee the skating oval for the rest of the season.

Year-round activities

Skaters of all ages can also lace up or take a rest in a metal-clad shelter that sits on the western edge of the oval which is used year round, paid for by the Hamiota Municipal Park and erected by the Hamiota Lions Club. The shelter gets moved into the Lions playground for the summer months.

By designing the oval, the campground offers another great family activity in addition to camping, serving up recreational activities for all ages.

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“For less than $50 for an average-size room, you can bring a space to life with “pick-me-up” shades of paint such as reds, oranges, yellows and pinks,” says Alison Goldman, brand manager for AkzoNobel, makers of CIL paint.

According to a 2011 Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) study, more than half of the 1.7 million households surveyed engaged in a painting project for their home that year, ranking painting among the most popular renovation jobs undertaken in Canada.

“It’s evident from these figures that people realize that paint is a simple and inexpensive way to freshen up a home and feel better in their surroundings,” Goldman said.

“While each person’s experience with colour is unique, studies show that in general, certain colours affect people in specific ways,” said Goldman. “The colour green, for example, is popular in home décor because it evokes a sense of serenity. Yellow, red and orange also work well because they are cheerful colours that can inspire feelings of well-being and higher energy.”

To choose a colour that has a “feel-good” effect that works for you, consider what colours you tend to gravitate toward in your home and even in your wardrobe. Then think about your emotional needs. If you have a hectic life then calming, serene colours might be a good choice. If you feel down, fill your home with cheerful, energetic colours like yellow, pink or orange.

Combine grey days and frigid temperatures that tend to keep us indoors, and you have a recipe for the winter blues. This is the perfect time to be a little bold with colour to lift your spirits and update your décor.

You can certainly feel the positive vibes from the colourful room featured in the photograph. A bright colour can reflect light and visual warmth, which is a great asset in the shorter days of winter. Imagine the room in plain white and you can envision how the addition of colour can both inspire and lift your spirits.

If you can’t decide on one colour, then use two or three to give your décor an entirely new look and feel. CIL has an array of interactive colour tools at www.cil.ca to help people visualize colour choices before beginning a project.

The very act of making the decision to change your décor, and then completing a project, can evoke feelings of well-being. A fresh coat of paint in a shade you love can do wonders for both the home and psyche. In those décor changes include items that comfort and soothe, like cosy furniture throws, thick area rugs, soft bed linens, scented candles and window treatments that let the sunshine in to help ward off the gloom. Bring back a sense of warmer days by including fresh flowers, photographs of summer fun, CDs of summer sounds like birdsongs, waves crashing or night crickets (great at bedtime) to your home.

To take advantage of the winter sun you may have to rearrange your furniture. Find the spots in your home where the sunshine floods in during the shorter days so that you can be near that sunbeam while it’s available. Doing this for even short periods can help elevate your mood.

Additional lighting can also help brighten things up. When the sun sets early it’s nice to have a brightly lit room to offset the doldrums. As well, the additional lighting will help highlight your bright, new colours well into the evening.

The post Got the after-holidays blues? appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

One such dilemma is how to decorate a partial wall. Partial walls are common in open-concept homes or can even be the result of a renovation. Whatever the root of the cause, the partial wall can seem somewhat of a conundrum depending upon its location, dimensions and relation to the rest of the room.

The feature photograph addresses this very problem. The partial wall at the bottom of the stairway was no doubt a solid wall at some point. A solid wall at the bottom of the stairs would, no doubt, have resulted in a dark, confined landing to the staircase. As well, the stairwell would have been somewhat disjointed from the rest of the home because of this separation.

Most people would consider removing the wall altogether to open up the space, however, then one has to deal with patching floors and ceilings. Even considering turning the wall into a half-wall would still require ceiling work. So what could you do in this case?

The photograph shows how creating a large opening in the centre of the wall allows light to flow through the wall and provides visual lightness and flow. This idea provides a great solution because not only does it open up the space, it allows the lovely crown moulding and baseboards at the top and bottom of the wall to be retained.

Once the wall is opened up, painting it in a feature colour provides a focus to the space. The large vase of flowers is dramatic, though not necessarily functional if you have pets or kids, as it could easily be toppled. So, another idea is to install a glass panel, whether textured, clear or sandblasted glass, which would provide a lovely detail while making the space more user friendly. You could also forgo the glass and simply hang a painting, stained glass panel or other decorative item inside the wall opening. If you need a place to display a small art collection, install large shelves inside the opening to show it off. If the opening is near a natural light source, you could install glass shelves to display plants. You may even be able to have a custom, vertical fish tank made to fit. Some hanging pendant lights at varying heights or a slim, long chandelier are other ideas.

A partial wall may very well house electrical or plumbing so be cognizant of this before you take a sledge hammer to it. If this is a factor, you may be able to work around it by opening up a smaller section of the wall, like a window opening. This idea will allow wall space for a small desk or table beneath the opening, which can come in handy in an entryway situation.

If a wall can’t be opened, the area could be lightened up by installing a large mirror on both sides of the wall. You could still paint a rich colour on the wall behind the large mirrors as an accent colour.

Partial walls are a great place for unique finishes like brick, stone, textured paint or wood. Because the project covers a small space, you may be able to splurge on something like marble or granite tiles. You could even consider something really unusual like covering it in a faux suede or leather fabric or even textured metal sheeting. Because it’s a small project, you can change it frequently when using non-permanent finishes like wallpaper, paint or fabric.

Something that is currently an obstacle could end up being a real asset to your home. Think about the possibilities for your partial wall dilemma then take the plunge.

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