So, if you know me at all… if you’ve read my blogs for at least a year… you know I don’t “do” Spring Cleaning. If you are so inclined, and haven’t done so already, you can read my sage words on the topic HERE.
Having said THAT… I do help Britta spring clean the gnome house. We are a couple weeks behind schedule, but yesterday we got a crew of wee folk together, and they completely empty the gnome house, so we could do a thorough job. Over the weekend the house will don its spring apparel, but this is our simple, general purpose cleaning and prep we do first.
After removing everything from the house, we give it a good dusting.
Then, 4 times a year, with the changing seasons, we go over the entire wood surface, including the underside of the floors and the supporting branches, with our Olive Oil and Beeswax Wood Finish. The recipe can be found HERE.
We simply break off small pieces and rub them over the surface and let it sit for an hour. We then go through and buff it off. It renews the wood, gives it a lovely scent and beautiful patina.
Finally, it is time to add foliage to the branches. We have a collection of different colors of green roving. We simply take pieces, wrap it around branches, and tuck in the ends. The green will stay up for spring and summer, followed by oranges, reds, golds and browns for autumn, and finally, scatterings of white roving in the crooks of branches for winter snow.
You can see the beautiful sheen of the wood! The gnome house is now clean, fresh and ready for spring. Ah… if only it was so easy to clean my house 🙂
Oh how true… if it were that easy to remove everything and clean up….
I love your gnome home! I wish we could have one, but they are too expensive to buy I find. I think it’s great you and your husband made it yourselves. We live in an apartment for the moment with our 2 kids, but we should be looking for a house this summer. I’ll have to make sure I keep all the wood I can possibly find in our yard when we move and try my hand at it 🙂
P.S. I also really dislike spring cleaning. It feels nice when it’s done, but I find the process excruciating!
That’s truly an impressive tree house. Where did you get it?
Tim and I made it several years ago. The wood came from trimming our trees, and we even made the walnut stain from a neighbor’s black walnuts for the top level. We are very proud of it and fond of all the wee folk that call it home!
I just love thios house! and the new green colors scream spring! I think you should put up a tutorial on how to make the house.I would love to make one for my boys. 🙂
Every year I plan to get to a tutorial, and every year there just doesn’t seem to be enough time. When I do a tutorial, I will have to make one again. We will be making one for the Little Lady, but she won’t be ready for it for another year or so. We probably won’t get to a tutorial before then 🙁
love it!!! and thanks for the reminder…ALL my wood toys at my preschool could use this little freshen up! xx
Adorable! I would have loved to have one of those when I was a kid–I would have spent hours and hours setting it up just right. (Adult me thinks that a large version of this would also make the absolute best cat house ever!)
beautiful! Still holding my breath for that gnome home tutorial (or at least some pattern help maybe?)