Ask Mavis: Painting Trim, Canning Mistakes, Chive Seeds and More

It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:

Hi Mavis, Can you please give a tutorial on how to paint trim and baseboards? I’ve painted many walls, but for some reason thinking about painting the white trim makes me so nervous! How do you get the paint to go on smooth without showing brush marks? Do you use a certain type of brush? What type of paint do you recommend? Thank you!

~Julie

I just use regular 1″ chip brushes and Flotrol. Flotrol is the bomb diggety! No seriously. If you’ve never used it, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. I add Flotrol every time I paint with latex or acrylic paints. It’s an additive that helps reduce the appearance of brush marks. And it works so well! It’s also pretty cheap, so I think it’s worth it. If you need a few general tips to get you started, check out my Top 10 Painting Tips for extra tricks and tidbits.

I made some peach preserves and after their “hot” bath, the lids “popped” in like they are suppose to… However, after about a day, some of them popped back out again. Do I give them another hot bath? What should I do?

~Al

Once they’ve had a chance to cool completely, press on the middle of the lid. There should be a partial vacuum in the jar that pulls the lid down tight. If it “pops” when you press down, you didn’t get a vacuum. Also, if the lids pop back out, like they did in your case, also no vacuum.

If some of your lids failed to seal, it might be because there is some debris on the lip of the jar, chips on the lip of the jar, bad lids or insufficient headspace. You need some air between the food and the lid that can expand {forcing out excess} and then contract {forming a vacuum}. If there’s food right up to the lid, the vacuum won’t form. If the jars didn’t seal, it’s not preserved, but it’s not ruined, either. Your preserves will keep refrigerated for a couple of weeks, or can be frozen. You can reprocess the jars, though the quality will decrease a little, so I never do.

So I harvested the flowers from chive plant weeks ago and kept them but now I found I should have waited until they were spent and brown. Is there anyway to salvage the heads or is it a total wash?

Thanks, Nan

The question is, did you get any chive seeds? If so, it doesn’t matter if they are brown and spent. If the flowers produce seeds after blooming, you would shred the heads and crumble the seeds over your plant bed. If you didn’t get any seeds, you can put them in a glass jar with plain vinegar. It becomes a pretty purple chive vinegar!

Hello Mavis, I just wanted to say thanks for your blogs, I am enjoying both and learning lots (and being inspired!) I wanted to encourage YOU to continue having fun and for you to know that you and your hard work blogging are appreciated 🙂 Have an awesome day!

~Amy

Okay, Amy. You just became my favorite reader. Ha. Seriously though, I really appreciate the feedback. Blogging is tedious work; lots of behind the scenes late nights and long hours. It’s awesome to know it’s appreciated!

Help! I need a good lemony recipe STAT. My bestie is having a birthday and she loves all things lemon. I know you have a lemon tree so I’m, turning to you.

~LaDonna

Meyer Lemon Buttermilk Pie. The end! You’ll thank me and she’ll love you!

Have a question for me? Submit them HERE and I’ll try to answer them.
~Mavis