The Hand Crafted Kitchen: Week 2 Aprons

The countdown to the holidays has begun! Thanksgiving is this week and Christmas follows (as usual lol) just four weeks behind.

This year I’m focusing the series in the kitchen. What says kitchen more than the Apron?

It doesn’t matter if the kitchen is indoors or out, an apron means business!

Hand Embroidered, My Grandmas Apron

I received a most wonderful gift from my Aunt (Dad’s sister) recently. She sent some wonderful old family photos of my grandparents, aunts and uncles and some of the grandkids (my cousins, me included) But she also included my Grandmas apron. Pristinely white with hand embroidered flowers. Tucked in with the apron were hand tatted lace edged hankies and pillow cases my Grandma had made. Lace making amazes me, it isn’t something I ever picked up. Makes me wish I had.  

Once upon a time all of our kitchens were hand made!

As much as I LOVE my Grandmas apron I would be heart broken if I stained it or tore it somehow. Off to Pinterest to find the apron patterns! I am forever dropping beads and jump rings in my studio. That means umpteen hours on my knees with a flashlight hunting down the little um buggers under the armoire and dressers i use for storage. An apron might could catch those runaway items before they could ever hit the floor!

My kiddo as you know is a potter, she needs one that covers front and back - muddy hands!

I have two patterns tucked away on my boards that fit our needs beautifully.

They can be found here: on my  Pinterest Board

If you don’t sew or just don’t have the time this year, I took a few minutes to poke around and found some wonderful Handmade Aprons available for purchase.

Etsy

Bonnies Sew Crazy on Etsy

Misses Country on Etsy

Linen Sky on Etsy

and on Handmade @ Amazon 

Victoria Eggs on HandMade @Amazon

HardMill on Handmade @Amazon

Oh my I LOVE this apron, perfect for my studio! It’s a bit out of my budget for right now, so I’ll have to save my pennies and wait on it a little bit. 

In the meantime I’m pulling out the sewing machine…….just as soon as I find some suitable material. I haven’t quite decided, duck cloth or ticking or just a heavy cotton…… decisions decisions!

The holidays are about sharing and caring, and I’d like very much to get the word out that hand made is heart made as is the holiday season. 

SO, If you like this post, and I hope you do! Please feel free to share it! Blog about it, Tweet it, Pin it, Instagram it and give it a shout out on FaceBook. Don’t forget to come back each week for another post in this years series: The Hand Crafted Kitchen

Thanks for stoppin by!

We’ll see ya next week!

Week 1: Vanilla = http://magpieapproved.blogspot.com/2015/11/hand-crafted-holidays-2015-hand-crafted.html

Week 2: Aprons = http://magpieapproved.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-hand-crafted-kitchen-week-2-aprons.html

Week 3: Mixing Spoons = http://magpieapproved.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-hand-crafted-kitchen-week-3.html

Week 4 Mixing Bowls = http://magpieapproved.blogspot.com/2015/12/hand-crafted-holidays-2015-week-4.html

Hand Crafted Holidays 2015 : The Hand Crafted Kitchen

A Little bit of a Woven Ribbon Heart

If home is where the heart is, the kitchen is the heart of the home, and hand crafted is heart crafted, it just makes sense that this years Hand Crafted Holiday series be a Hand Crafted Kitchen.

The countdown to the holidays has begun! Thanksgiving is in just three short weeks and Christmas follows (as usual lol) just four weeks behind.

This year I’m starting the series off with Hand Crafted Vanilla Extract. It may seem a bit early but  vanilla extract takes several weeks to make and I wanted to give you ample time should you choose to make it yourself.

If like me you love the smell and taste of real vanilla extract, you can imagine just how deliciously good a made with love batch tastes. We have a family member who makes it every year and mmmmm it’s good!

In the spirit of the holiday season I thought I’d share that home made goodness with you. 

I’ve found recipes and kits, bottling supplies, labels and ways to decorate your bottles so that they’re as unique as you are! And I’ve also found a wonderful new shop on Etsy that sells A Beautifully packaged extract that has been aged for an entire year. 

I found a recipe at Tidy Mom that looked super simple to follow: http://tidymom.net/2012/recipe-for-vanilla/

and another here: http://theimprovkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/12/worth-extra-step.html  and this one also includes Vanilla Sugar, imagine that on some Cinnamon toast, or Cinnamon Rolls! mmmhmmm 

I just got this e-mail from King Arthur Flour with a kit so you don't have to hunt down vanilla beans:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/make-your-own-vanilla-kit

and another kit on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/listing/254560165/

If you prefer to use the recipes above and source the beans yourself, I've found some fun bottles for your finished product:

Apothecary Jars
Available HERE

Brown Glass Jars
on Etsy

You could use the really pretty labels provided with the recipe above but I also found some really Great DIY labels over at http://www.thebudgetdecorator.com/diy-label-projects-and-free-printables/   you might like to try.

DIY Labels found on
Budget Decorator

DIY Labels found on
Budget Decorator

I poked around on Pinterest some more and found some great tutorials on decorating those bottles:

Step by Step Photo Tutorial
found on this BLOG

Bottles Etched Using Martha Stewart Doily Stencils

If after all of this, you'd prefer to purchase your Artisan Vanilla rather than make it I found a cute little shop on Etsy with some wonderfully packaged Vanilla.

Artisan Vanilla Found on Etsy
HERE

LOVE this vintage Vanilla signage found on Etsy
HERE

While I don't have any extract in my shop I do have some Smokey Quartz 

= Jewelry with gorgeous rich and smooth vanilla extract coloring =

Found in my Etsy
HERE

Found in my Etsy
HERE

Found in my Etsy
HERE

The holidays are about sharing and caring, and I’d like very much to get the word out that hand made is heart made as is the holiday season. 

SO, If you like this post, and I hope you do! Please feel free to share it! Blog about it, Tweet it, Pin it, Instagram it and give it a shout out on FaceBook. Don’t forget to come back each week for another post in this years series: The Hand Crafted Kitchen

Thanks for stoppin by!

We'll See ya Next Week!

Week 1: Vanilla = http://magpieapproved.blogspot.com/2015/11/hand-crafted-holidays-2015-hand-crafted.html

Week 2: Aprons = http://magpieapproved.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-hand-crafted-kitchen-week-2-aprons.html

Week 3: Mixing Spoons = http://magpieapproved.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-hand-crafted-kitchen-week-3.html

Week 4 Mixing Bowls = http://magpieapproved.blogspot.com/2015/12/hand-crafted-holidays-2015-week-4.html

Just Keep Swimming!

Along with all the hand made goodness that has been consuming my life for the last couple of months I’ve decided it was time to give myself the gift of a lighter smaller stronger me.

I’ve always been very hands on in the construction of our house. When we started building it was really no different, I was very hands on and adamant about being environmentally conscious with the products we used. Having a big house made it even more so important as it’s a bigger footprint to be responsible for.  I even went so far as to source standing dead timber for our logs. 

Not wanting to use any more chemicals than absolutely necessary I opted for borate treating my sill plates over the arsenic filled pressure treated lumber for the basement. This meant my personally coating each piece of lumber with borate and while I was flipping 16 foot boards so I could coat the other side I tripped over a stack of boards the builder had set behind me. I went down, now maybe I would’ve been able to save myself had I not been holding a 16 foot board but all I could think of at the time was not braining myself with it so I held on. I held on as I felt the pop, I held on as I felt the burn. I held on as I hit the stack of lumber and slid sideways to the ground. 

My knee has never been the same and every time I’ve tried to get back to the gym or start running again my knee would tell me about. I’ve always been all out and gung ho so at first I thought I just needed a little more time to heal. Then I started gaining weight and the extra weight made it ache and I’d try to get back to the gym. Creating my own special downwards spiral. The more I tried, the more it hurt, the more I didn’t try, the more it hurt.

After several false starts - if you’ve been reading my blog for a long time you might even remember reading about some of them. I finally decided I needed this to be about the long term, slow and steady. No more all in or go home. That attitude had me going home and not achieving my goals - I don’t like not achieving goals. If I was going to make this happen I needed to allow myself to go at a slower pace. But going at a slower pace meant I needed some accountability, some one to keep me on track and give me a nudge every so often.

Every night as I drift off to sleep I think of the things I am grateful for. Special blessings of the day, some ordinary, some small, some big, reminders of the many things and people who are the good in my life. Sometimes I release things to the Universe, leave it up to God’s hands if you will. On this night I decided to release it and just do but I could use a little accountability to help me along. The next morning I had an e-mail from Bill Phillips on being over 50 and getting back to the gym, a challenge and a FB group to help keep you accountable. Believe it or not I had to take a couple days to think about it! My own personal GodWink as my friend Chris would say, and “well I just don’t know”…. I asked my son if he might like to be my work out buddy, he was my best  buddy when he was 4.  He and the kiddo had been working out together in the University gym but she graduated and he didn’t want to go alone so he’d been working out in our gym in the basement and hinting he needed someone to help keep him on track too. Make that a double wink.

So! Here we are about 5 or 6 weeks in, my scale hasn’t budged much but my measurements are shrinking, my clothes are fitting looser, my face is slimmer, I have a lot more energy and I’m a lot happier. My knee only hurt until I realized, it was the wrong knee and it was all in my head - just a little psychological self sabotage, a body at rest tends to stay at rest until a greater force comes along to change that.

But, a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Quoting Dori, Just keep swimming!

My 25th anniversary is coming up this next year…. I’m thinking Jamaica sounds like just the place to be for that! 

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming!

Have a great week! Thanks for stoppin’ by!

We’ll see you next time!    I think it’s just about time for our annual Hand Made Holiday Series!