Organization, Baby Steps

Our kitchen cabinets are the original to the house, steel mid-Century GE space age things. We have a dream of having the painted at a car place, but not the funds, so they're rusty and imperfect and perfectly suited for the aesthetic of the rest of our home.

Anyway, a few days ago I was unloading the dishwasher for the bazillionth time (really probably the 3rd time that day...how?! why?!) and decided we needed a better system for the utensils.

As with 90% of the population I vowed not to be more frugal this year, so naturally Charlie needed to make a a custom sorter for the drawer, right? The old and icky contact paper needed to go, too, so I thought a nice piece of fabric doubled over would be a better alternative (after all, it could be washed when the time comes). I measured the drawer, marked the size on the fabric and quickly serged the edges together to make it into a large mat.

Not too shabby for a quick project that didn't cost an extra dime to make, huh?

Bough House

We've barely gotten into the spirit of things around here, any decorating was done at M's frequent and urgent request. As C and I talked about what our tree would be this year (the white fake tree is looking tired and jaundiced) we decided to top off a cypress in the backyard. The trees were planted when we thought a nice, dense barrier would be appropriate, but then decided they'd steal all the sunlight from the raised bed gardens.

So now we have a scraggily, funny, and altogether perfectly imperfect Christmas tree that may just get us the Griswold Family title we deserve.

As you deck your halls and ponder why anyone would want to cohabit with a bough of holly (ouch), check out my shop for some goodies that might perfectly suit the hard-to-shop-for geek/gardener/naturalist/mother-in-law in your life! Also, spend $50 or more and get free shipping with the code "freeshipping"!

Crisis averted

If you make and sell things (not even for a living, just because you love making and all the making makes for packed closets) and then have a low sales season (not to mention year) it can be a real downer. Last year I made some changes and I think I sold about 5 prints total. No joke, so to say it was a downer is actually a huge understatement.

Personal crisis might be a better way to describe it.

Anyway, I'm back up from the gutters, have dusted myself off and reopened shop. It's not really ready for a big unveiling or anything, but it's shop-able, and I'll get it all gussied up soon. In the meantime, check it out! I have a few new prints (some of which are not listed yet) and lots of oldies and goodies, plus we're going to list Charlie's skateboards soon, which is the most exciting part of reopening shop for me!

Hippie Holidays!

I'm doing a talk tomorrow at Master Composter training about recycling through the holidays. Actually it will be more like stumbling through a quick presentation. Anyway, my counterpart is doing more gift-y type stuff and I'm doing some table centerpiece ideas.

When I get some non-phone pictures of them I'll walk you through the how-tos, but they really couldn't be easier and 2 of the 3 are 100% kid friendly!

Black Walnut Ink

What does a stay-at-home-mom do between baby wrangling and printing posters for a couple of upcoming shows? Simmer walnuts on the stove to make ink, of course!

Mabel has been helping pile up the walnuts in our yard, which then go into one of my big enamel pots (formerly used for canning), are covered with water, and then the liquid is reduced in half. I also gathered some goldenrod to add to one of the batches to see if I could get a bit of a yellow hue to the ink. I didn't gather enough goldenrod and the plants are at the end end of their season here anyway.

The result is a beautiful warm brown. I've bottled some up to take to the Handmade Market, saved a quart for Charlie to use as a wood stain, and have another batch I'm reducing even further to make it really saturated.

Want to make your own? Follow the instructions over on You Grow Girl! Gayla takes all the guess work out of the process!