Cleaning & Treasures

I started my spring cleaning a couple of weeks ago, focusing first on my kitchen cabinets. It's a daunting task to clean any room if you try to do the whole thing at once, so I work on one cabinet a day. This is my reusable containers and kitchen gadgets cabinet, which always ends up disordered with mismatched or missing lids or bottoms. I took everything out, wiped down the shelves, matched everything up, and then put it all back in a workable order.

Ditto with my cabinet of baking and cooking stuff -- these are all things I use a lot, some daily, so I keep them here by the stove instead of in the pantry closet. I also had a ton of expired specialty vinegars and oils my favorite person stored here from her apartment when she went off on her adventures around the world, so it was a good time to get rid of all that stuff.

Cleaning also turns up missing things. Last Christmas I went looking for this old-fashioned pottery cookie stamp that a friend gave me many years ago. At the time I couldn't find it, and made do with cookie cutters instead.

I really treasure this little thing, so I was glad I found it again. I'll have to use it to make some cookies for Valentine's Day.

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Better than Fried

I cut some chives from the kitchen garden to make garlic-chive baked fries for dinner. This is a great side dish for veggie burgers. Click here for the recipe from Taste of Home.com.

Stuff

After finding this Caron one pound skein of lovely peach yarn in my thrifted lot I raided my stash for two cakes of Mandala in Pegasus, which matches it perfectly. For practice and hand therapy I'm going to make another Worth Street Afghan with this free pattern , but this time I'll use the yarn that was recommended for it plus the one pound skein. I'm not quite ready to do the vintage/recycled linen quilt I had planned (still a bit too nervous about the idea), so I'm going to use some color therapy and make a quilt from these thrifted green fat quarters. I considered doing another Yellow Brick road patchwork pattern, but I might go with a split rail fence like this one.

Make It Yourself

As we head into December, here are ten ideas for easy handmade gifts: Cookie Exchange: If you live close to your friends invite them over for a cookie exchange. Basically everyone bakes a set amount of their favorite cookies, and these are exchanged at the gathering by lottery, sharing a little from each batch with everyone, or however you want to do it. You can also exchange recipes, too. My neighbor did this once and it was wonderful. Favorite Recipe Cookbook : For my favorite person I found a copy of my favorite cookbook from a vintage bookseller (yes, I am that old) and went through it making notes on all the recipes I used, how I tweaked them, etc. Ornament: There are probably a million free tutorials on how to make your own holiday ornaments, so do some research online. I like to make hanging pomanders , which smell heavenly and are biodegradable after the holidays. Mug Rugs: If you sew, making up a set of mug rugs is simple and easy; I add these every year to my ...

Rayen

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