A Closer Look at Ottoman

Thinking of Spring

I just took a look at FLOR's spring line-up. And, while I may never be able to afford to carpet my home with their lovely tiles, I still adore them...oh so much.

What a stunning image. Modern and moody...and some rustic bits mixed in. I love the dark neutrals with all the pops of color.

How nice to think of spring right now when it's currently snowing oh so lightly...brrrrr.

I hope you're enjoying your holiday season. I'm missing my family, but keeping super busy, so it helps.

What have you been up to during these 12 days of Christmas?

 

Merry Christmas!

Just a little note to wish you a Merry Christmas if you celebrate it!

I found these two recently. I have yet to decide if I'm going to keep them or not. I think I adore them, but I'm not sure. They may end up in the shop next year come holiday time or I may not be able to part with them. Either way, they make me smile.

I hope this holiday season is going well for you. We're going to have a quiet Christmas, but life has been hectic, so maybe that's okay.

Merry Christmas!

Simple Storage

We often buy jars of pasta sauce that can be re-used for canning or other uses. So, we use them for drinking glasses and I also have been storing flours, grains, and beans and such.

I also have some upcycled labels laying around...so they work nicely. All I have to do is buy canning jar lids (if I don't keep the original lids...sometimes the sauce smell doesn't go away).

I like to make curried yellow lentils...they cook quickly and so does the quinoa that I pour them over. Mmmm...perfect for a cold day.

Smaller jars work for dried chilies or items like bay leaves. That "lots of legumes" jar is for 14 bean (or however many bean...which is why it's a generic label) soup starter. The cous cous is in a re-used peanut butter jar.

Eventually, I'd like to make more attractive labels for these jars, but this works nicely for now and I'm reusing a lot of items! Oh, and these jars would work great for cleaning supplies like: white vinegar, baking soda, Borax, laundry detergent....The list goes on! What do you re-use jars for?

Have a Merry Christmas!

With Age

Beeswax darkens when it's been heated repeatedly...especially the beeswax that I've been using for my sculptures since I heat it to a rather hot temperature for beeswax. When I get to the bottom of this batch, I'll start over with fresh wax and resin. This cycle will be subtly evident in the pieces themselves...subtly, because the wax on the pieces are in shallow solidified pools. This batch currently looks like the eucalyptus dye that I made...which by the way, is still sitting in my window sill. Apparently, eucalyptus doesn't mold like many dyes while stewing. So, I'm thinking of experimenting with it further...when I have the time.

In other news, I'm still recovering from a nasty cold...it's been over two weeks. I'm now to the *fun* part where I cough until I nearly crack a rib...yeah. So, there's lots of catch-up going on around here. I hope you are faring better these days. I also hope this means that our household won't be sick for Christmas.

I hope your week is treating you well, dear readers!