thimbly things

My self-proclaimed “Kitchen Week” may be over, but I won’t let that stop me from sharing more Kitchen Lovelies with you.  Unless, of course, you beg me to stop. ;)

Here are a few links for your enjoyment:

• Groups on Flickr: Retro Kitchens in Aqua, Pink, and Yellow and The Vintage Kitchen
• Canning 101 on Epicurious (surely it’s not too late in the year to can something?)
•  Anthropologie’s Dish Towels
• Urban Outfitter’s Orange Salt & Pepper Shakers and Vintage-inspired Spice Canisters
• And, let’s be honest, every kitchen needs a Spoon Person :)

Do you have any links to share?  Please do!
I may even be back to share more of my kitchen projects this week, since I have a few stragglers.  Of course, I have a Halloween costume and a quilt block to get done first, so we’ll see…

Happy Monday!

This is a little crocheted granny-square-ish bowl I made to corral all the plastic container lids.  They drive me nuts.  But, alas, they are necessary.  So now they have their own special place, and they are still easy to grab in a hurry.

I’m thinking about embellishing this with a little flower.   I think it needs some bubblegum pink. :)

Also, I’ll probably use fabric stiffener on it to help it maintain its shape.  I’ve never done this before, so does anyone have any experience with it?  Anything I should know?

On the cooking front (you know, what the kitchen is actually intended for… one might suspect that all I do in there is decorate), yesterday I was aching to make something apple-y, and I came across this Apple Crumble Cake recipe.   I added cinnamon and replaced some of the white sugar with brown sugar.  I also used a mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour.  Unfortunately, we baked it a little too long (about 50 minutes), and the cake part was not very moist.  But it was still delicious served with vanilla ice cream.  And it was even better a few hours later when all the syrupy goodness had settled a bit.  Mmmmm.

Nothing like a little spray paint to bring cohesion to the disparate.

I also organized my spice shelf.

And the dishes.

1. Japanese embroidery kitchen, 2. kitchen nook, 3. crisscross applesauce finished, 4. my kitchen sink, 5. kitchen utensils, 6. Our new house - the kitchen, 7. Jazze Chicago retro red kitchen display, 8. Page 10, 9. Lace trimmed tea towels

Since it’s a dreary day in Tulsa, I daren’t take any photos today.  Also, I didn’t finish my daily-kitchen-craft.  So instead, here’s some lovely inspiration for your kitchen, like adding crocheted trim to your towels or fairy-like shelf lighting.  I’m especially loving that organizational board from a Japanese craft book.  At least, I think that’s what it is.  The little crocheted pocket is a fabulous idea that I just might have to use…

There are so many details in some of these pictures–I encourage you to check out the links.

Enjoy!

Last night I whipped this together to keep all our serving pieces organized and tidy.  We rarely use them (the big, fancy-looking silver ones), and that means they’re just in the way of the things we need.

I didn’t follow any tutorials on this, although there are countless patterns for crayon, pencil, silverware, etc. roll-ups available online and in books.  Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts has a nice one, in fact.  But I just made this one up according to the measurements of my largest serving piece.  I only divided it into 4 compartments (though I may add more).

The appliqué was the easiest and fastest part (and my favorite).  I used something like Wonder-Under between the layers and then just stitched inside the design with my sewing machine.  I like that it isn’t precise.  The fabric is from vintage hankies I found a couple years ago in an antique store.

Any new projects in your kitchen?  I’d love to hear about them!

I’m freshening up the kitchen this week.  Would you care to join me?  Each day I’ll be sharing a new kitchen project to spiffy things up.  Today: new curtains.  It’s more of a valance, except it’s not at the top of the window.  So does that make it a cafe curtain?  I have no idea.  But I like it. :)

I was inspired by this bit of chicken scratch, but mine turned out totally different on the larger-scale gingham.  I also added my own design above the pattern.  I’m thinking about adding one more detail…

If you have any kitchen-y projects you’d like to share or any inspiration, please do!  I’d like to post an inspiration round-up sometime this week.

Happy Monday!

This weekend I’ve been very focused on our kitchen.  Which has felt like a hot, tranny mess for sometime now.   Here’s a snippet of something I’ve been working on and a bit of my inspiration.  The book is Vintage Crochet, and it features projects from some of my absolute favorite yarn-lovin’ ladies.   Just so you know, the red gingham project is not a shelf runner. :)

I wanted to mention a few things today, not the least of which is Jake-Jake is now 6 months old!  Right now he is:

• Sitting himself up (and no longer tipping over!)
• Scooting around and crawling a little (he’s particularly good at the downward-facing dog pose)
• Laughing when he gets tickled (the hardest he’s ever laughed)
• Snotty
• More opinionated than ever
• Stinkin’ adorable

Gosh, I love that kid.

So I’ve been meaning to tell you that I’m participating in the Twelve by Twelve virtual quilting bee, hosted by Beki.  I feel honored to be a part of this, especially since there are some really admirable, creative folks involved.  I introduced myself here.

Happy Half-Birthday, Jake-Jake!!! 

1. pears, 2. no vacancy at the tchotchke house, 3. Matroshka garland, 4. Stumpwork, 5. frompaulette, 6. Illustration Friday - Citrus, 7. my new crocheted tea cosy, 8. art quilt - house, 9. Mabel

Happy Friday!

Doesn’t that sound nice and dramatic? :)

So Emily’s crayons were getting a little crazy.  They were chewed, broken, and generally kinda gross.  And hazardous to our newly-mobile Jacob.  And hazardous to our walls.  I mean all it takes is one little bit of overlooked crayon left on the floor, and the living room walls are a pre-pre-K art project.

Somewhere on someone’s blog a long, long time ago, I saw pretty little crayon cakes made by melting crayons in a muffin tin.  So I searched the Internets and found that there are only about a gazillion different directions for this project.  So I’m gonna tell you what I did using the materials I had on hand.

Supplies:

• broken crayons
• mini-muffin tin
• cooking oil
• cooling rack
• oven :)

Directions:

1. Peel paper off crayons (if your child hasn’t already), and break each crayon into about 4 pieces.
2. Separate by color or however you wish into greased muffin tin.  I think it would be fun to experiment with color here, but I separated the Roy G. Bivs, browns, and then all the leftover neutrals (black, white, and greys).  Oh, and don’t overfill the vessels.
3. Heat oven to 275 degrees.  You can probably stick the pan in anytime before the oven is fully heated.
4. Monitor crayons carefully.  Mine took about 12 minutes to melt.
5. Carefully remove and place pan on cooling rack (keep pan as level as possible).
6. After the crayons have hardened, flip over pan and tap on each vessel to release crayons.  I was surprised by how easily they came out.  But I did use something large and metal to “tap” on the pan.
7. Voila!  Go color something.