Smitten Kitchen provided the recipe and she was right (natch): these homemade marshmallows are ridiculously springy and buoyant, and the process feels a little like alchemy. I made mine ever-so-slightly pink and went for my favorite, easy-peasy packaging.
I know that I am no longer in the second grade, but I am still an unabashed cheeseball. I love sending out late-winter sugarbombs in the form of valentines.
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Do you remember the great salve disaster of 2009? Well, I am now bravely re-attempting this project based on some of your suggestions and recommendations. These herbs are now covered with oil, and the little pots catch the sunlight just so as they sit in the windowsill. So even if the infused oils are a flop (again), I have been cheered by the process and the fact that I found a terrific local herb store. But still, I’d really like it to work. So fingers crossed, and I will report back.
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I have a new project up at The Washington Post to make this stationery kit. Hopefully it will help me make good on my resolution to write more letters.
As I confessed in the column, I based this project on a great gift that one of my sisters made for me. Her stationery kit was sewn, and this one is paper-based, so the sewing is optional. Is imitation still considered the highest form of flattery? I hope so. You can check it out right here.
I am not one of those well-organized folk who order their calendars a couple months in advance for a seamless transition. I am the person who frantically hits every local stationary store after the year has already flipped over with sad results: they're either already out of new calendars or only have the really ugly ones left.
I recently secured my at-a-week pocket calendar, but have been on the prowl for a wall calendar. Nothing was hitting the spot until I saw this gem, offered by Something’s Hiding In Here. For free! Do you believe it? It's exactly what I was looking for, but didn't even know it:
I printed it out on kraft card stock and now it’s doing its job, ever so stylishly, in the kitchen. If you want to do the same, you can find the link right here. Thanks, universe and Something's Hiding in Here. You can find more of their inspired goods here and a darling video that will make you lust after their loft right here.
I found this vintage grosgrain ribbon at an all-ribbon store in San Francisco (I know, who knew? Certainly not I, until this week). I took one yard and folded it back on itself to make it more rigid. Using a hot glue gun, I glued the two layers together, working a few inches at a time. Once it was doubled over, I folded and re-folded at asymmetrical angles until I liked the arrangement. Then I lifted the folds and glued underneath. Add a decorative button in the center. To finish, cut a circle of felt for the back, glue in place, and glue or sew a pin backing onto the felt.
I found this studded synthetic leather ribbon at Britex to pair with this brooch for a little hit of preppy-meets-punk. Please excuse this very front-on view of, as Jack Donaghy would say, my swimsuit region.
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Stamps made from rolled up corregated cardboard. So cleaver. From Martha Stewart, with more ideas here.
If you have not popped stovetop popcorn in a while, say since childhood, get thee to a heavy bottomed pan. The process is so quick and awesome, I can’t believe that air-popping machines ever gunked up our nation’s pantries.
In a matter of minutes, your kitchen smells like a movie theater and you’re transported to the eight year-old version of yourself, cheering every victorious pop.
When we were kids – before microwave popcorn took hold – we would stove-pop enough kernels to fill our huge yellow mixing bowl, and melt an entire stick of butter to pour over top. When we got down to the bottom, the last pieces of popcorn were like icebergs in a sea of butter, and we would elbow each other out of the way to drag the last squishy pieces through the butter before it completely congealed.
And when you could still rent film projectors at our local library, we would turn our sunken conversation pit (yes, this is actually the name of a room in the barn I grew up in) into a movie theater, with the projector set up at the back. My sisters and friends and I would make little-kid versions of those cigarette girl trays, filled with candy and popcorn, and walk the “aisle”, even though sometimes we only had four customers. I can still hear the sound of the end of the movie, with the end of the reel slap-slap-slapping around the projector and the whir of the motor.
I just read that there’s a new anniversary edition of Gone with the Wind. While it isn’t real film, it sounds like the only reason I need to stovepop a big bowl and marvel at Scarlett and all those dresses.
And if you find yourself having a popcorn epiphany like me, then read this great post by Willi. It may make you realize that, while you never aspired to growing and drying your own popcorn, that is now exactly what you want to do.
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And now:
All this took was a roll of cork at the office supply store, some glue dots, a good pair of scissors to cut out a nice shape, and a steady hand for painting a border (inspired by this post at d*s). Now I feel a little wash of happiness every time I come into the kitchen.
The next zone that will be worked over is on the other side of the doorway. It’s our slush pile of bills, mail, sunglasses, seed packets, you name it. I cannot just cute all of that away, however. I actually need to change some of my lazy behavior in that department. Does anyone have a good system for dealing with the riffraff of everyday life, especially bills? If so, please share. This is an area I am going to work on this year.
In the meantime, I’ll look the other way when I come into the kitchen.
You may have noticed I have a thing for hauling branches and fallen bits of trees inside. This one came home with me on a morning dog walk, and I set up it in a neglected little corner to arch over a doorway. The only other thing to do was hang some simple straw ornaments from Ikea.
And while I’ve been getting antsy to put everything else away, this is one that might linger (or not, I still haven’t decided). The bare, wintry branches are lovely to see when you come into the front hallway.
In this last photo, you might just make out the fuzzy silhouettes of paper decorations I made and hung to create a kind of curtain effect above the stairs. They added a clean, wintry touch and were super quick and satisfying to slice up one evening.
So long, holidays. It’s been nice spending time together.