Make Your Own Chalkboard Paint II

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Design
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One of the more successful projects around the Root Simple compound was making our own chalkboard paint and using it to label all of the cabinets in our garage workshop. In the past month, inspired by a visit from über-maker Federico Tobon, I’ve taken up the task of pimping out the workshop with a proper workbench and table saw. I’ll blog about Workshop 2.0 when I’m finished with the renovation, but the chalkboard paint hack is worth a repeat mention.

Thanks to the chalkboard paint, when I want to find a tool I can just glance up at the cabinets and know immediately where it is. The recipe I used is:

1 cup latex paint
1 tablespoon cool water
2 tablespoons unsanded grout

Making your own chalkboard paint is a lot cheaper than buying the pre-made stuff. Plus you can use any color of latex paint. The paint has stood up to repeated erasing and re-chalking.

Eric of Garden Fork just did a video where he made a chalkboard/pallet wood frame. In the video he uses an adhesive chalkboard film.

Our workshop/garage is right on the sidewalk and on Halloween it doubles as a candy and (for the adults) cocktail dispensing venue. Should you find yourself in #HaFoSaFo, drop on by. Rumor has it that the adults will be served a Penicilina “enhanced” with MDF dust.

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Saturday Tweets: Halloween Edition

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Saturday Linkages
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Albrecht Dürer. Now available in a new edition, this lavishly illustrated volume draws on the latest research to present an exciting new interpretation of Albrecht Dürer.

The Museum of the American Cocktail

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Events, Fermentation, Food

We get a lot of press releases here at Root Simple. I cast most into Gmail’s purgatorial nether regions but when one came in from the Museum of the American Cocktail (MOTAC) I knew that I had to investigate further.

MOTAC operates out of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum in New Orleans. Luckily for us Angelinos, MOTAC sponsors weekly events in our fair city and is rumored to be opening a San Pedro venue next year.

I’ve attended two free events in downtown LA, one a tasting of the spirits made by a Central Coast distillery, Calwise Spirits, and another tasting of the many offerings of the venerable French distillery Combier which still uses a facility designed by Pierre Eiffel. Note to self: remember to spit out the spirits when you do a tasting of 20 bottles or the next day won’t be all that productive.

If you’re interested in MOTAC’s Los Angeles events you can sign up at the bottom of their page here. As a generalist (to a fault) I have really enjoyed meeting MOTAC’s expert cocktail enthusiasts.

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Stainless Steel Ice Lolly Popsicle Molds Kit

112 Eric of Garden Fork on Glazing, Concrete Anchors and Mouse Traps

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Podcasts


On this episode Eric of Garden Fork returns to the podcast to drop some opinions on window glazing, concrete anchors, mouse traps and Harbor Freight. Our fix-it rap includes:

If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store and on Stitcher. The theme music is by Dr. Frankenstein. Additional music by Rho. A downloadable version of this podcast is here.

Why You Shouldn’t Grow an Avocado From a Pit

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Gardening, Trees

Consider this a brief public service announcement for readers in the tragically narrow avocado growing zone by way of a short review of basic plant biology.

I see a lot of grow-an-avocado-from-a-pit tutorials on the interwebs. It’s a great project for both kids and adults. If you’d like an avocado houseplant, by all means grow one from a pit. If, however, you live somewhere where avocados grow outside (USDA zones 8 through 11) and intend to plant your seedling outside, you should buy a tree from a nursery. Why? Bees love to pollinate avocado flowers. If you plant an avocado seed you’ll get some weird cross between the many different avocado varieties. Odds are it won’t taste good and who wants to water a tree for nine years only to get a bushel of foul avocados?

So to review: if you’d like a houseplant go ahead and plant that pit. If you’d like to keep your hipsters supplied with avocado toast buy a tree from a nursery or learn the art of avocado seedling grafting.

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