Labels - Recession style

I am extravagant in many ways.  There is some really very expensive stuff that I like a lot and sometime buy for myself and as gifts.  Generally I would not at all consider myself a cheapskate, but I still have a very thrifty side to me.  I think that comes from my German grandmother.  She was a beautiful woman and she loved pretty things which is why I put her photo in the most pretty frame I could find.  But my grandmother was known to be thrifty and although a generous woman, there were some things she didn't like to pay too much for.

I don't think that the recession is what has caused me to be even more thrify.  I rather have a feeling that it was the overwhelming abundance of the upswing.  It just got to be a little bit too much.  I, at least, noticed this trend towards homemade and homegrown everywhere around me (i.e. on the Internet) quite some time before the recession hit.

But anyway, I have been experimenting with drying herbs and drying them and making oil infusions myself.  I have learned from the bitter past that labeling the jars is essential.  I always think I am going to remember exactly what that is in there, but... not so.  So I came up with a cheap way to quickly label my jars.  I bought a couple of rolls of old adding machine paper for 40 cents a piece.  These I tear up and use as labels.  They are rather narrow, so suit my purpose beautifully.  I store them in an ice cream container that I got while on vacation in Florida.  Nothing special, it just took my fancy.

The glue that I use is home made.  I love that!  How cool is that!  I found this wonderful book in a bookstore.  This is one of the reasons why the Internet will never be enough.  I would never have looked for this book, I hadn't known that something like this existed.  Just found it while browsing.
The Green Guide for artists, by Karen Michel (find out more about her at: www.karenmichel.com) is just a really cool book.  It contains a lot of recipes for artist materials, gesso, glue, paint and stuff and I made one of the glue recipes.  I would really like to make the milk paint!  I mean, who knew!  Milk paint!







But the recipe for the glue that I used is really simple recipe and easy to make:
The ingredients are:
Gum arabic
Glycerin (or honey)
Clove oil (or peppermint, lavender, rosemary, lemon or thyme essential oil - these have good preserving qualities)

1. Mix 1 part Gum arabic with hot water.
2. Combine 5 parts of that mix with one part glycerin (or honey)
3. Add 2 drops of essential oil - I used lavender.

Apply with a paintbrush.  This will last about a year.

I use my finger to wet the paper and stick it on the glass jars that I use.  This is not a very strong glue, but perfect for paper and I like it because it is easy to wash off.  I'm so tired of those labels and packaging that require an army and nuclear devices to get off!

The photos: My German grandmother, Ellý in the most ornate frame I found in Urban outfitters. she would have loved it. The pen and ink I bought in the Bronte museum in Haworth and I use it a lot to write notes.  The other photo: My kitchen is overflowing with jars full of herbs and flowers infusing in oils. It works really well to tie muslin over the top.

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The most boring day

When I was little, Long Friday was the loooongest day.  We were not allowed to play cards or dance and  any sign of a healthy cheerful disposition on that day was pretty much frowned upon.  This was the sad day of Jesus's crucifiction and we all had to suffer, or at least NOT have fun.  Not that my family was that terribly religious,  it just wasn't done in those days. We, the kids,  hated that day because we were soooo booored and also Jesus died!

I guess I still feel that Long Friday can't really be about too much fun because I tend to schedule chores that I have neglected on that day, just as a little punishment.  Although I'm sure my grandparents would have frowned upon me actually DOING something on that day.

So, anyway, today it was the garage that got my attention.  I am a bit of a hoarder and the garage tends to fill up with my treasures and my youngest daughter still has a lot of her teenage stuff in here too.  So today we went through boxes and boxes of books and clothes and stuff and got rid of at least half.  And we didn't really suffer that much.

But speaking about treasures, I am working on this little table that I found in a charity shop.  I knew I HAD to have it as soon as I saw it.  I fell in love even if it was painted in a sewage brown colour that should be banned by law!

It is a funny little thing, this table, it kind of looks like a desk except one can't really sit at it and it has a lot of small drawers (I love that!).  It came with hideous 70's drawer pulls that I'm taking off and I'm stripping it down to it's pine frame.  It was obviously built by an amateur, the dove tails are not very neat.  And it is old, I can tell from the dirt and grime and the look of the thing from the back as well as how it has warped.  I kind of like that.  It's not a really serious antique, but an honest piece of furniture that someone put a lot of work into.  There used to be locks in every drawe and those were expensive in the olden days.  So this was an important piece of furniture for someone.  I just can't believe that someone gave it away.   There is a bit of one leg missing, but I should be able to fix that.

I got a heat gun for my birthday (I dropped a very clear hint to my husband) to make it easy to scrape off all that brown paint and boy does that work a treat.  I work on bits at a time, but I can see how the pine used to be painted to look like a more expensive wood.  They used to do that back in the old days.  I can't save that paint effect so I just marvel at it as I remove it.

It's really hard to tell how old the thing is, but I love the photo of a boy that came with it in one of the drawers.  I'm almost done stripping it and will start to sand it down this weekend.  I'm going to sand it gently by hand (power tools are not always appropriate) and then just wax it and leave it in it's naked state!

The photos: Such a potentially handsome piece.  Hideous 70's handles, one leg is broken and whole thing is twisted, but I love it. I would date it around 1910-1930, undoubtedly homemade. Made of pine, painted to look like hardwood. It has a thick cos of paint, but the shape is nice.  Bought it at the Good Shepheard for 8000kr.