bricolagelife

making lavender sugar

there's a special treat i indulge in most afternoons during cold weather. a pot of hot jasmine green tea with lavender sugar. this does not appeal to everyone, but around here it is considered a nectar of the gods.

it's easy to make lavender sugar. you will find the dried flowers at your local health food store or apothecary. mix about one part lavender to five parts white granular sugar in a clean dry jam or honey jar. you can stir gently with a wooden spoon handle or skewer to mix well. or cover tightly and shake. set the sealed jar aside and wait one to three weeks, then pour the contents thru a mesh sifter, shaking the sugar over a bowl and leaving the lavender in the mesh. no need to rub or crush. spoon the scented sugar back into the jar and enjoy as a sweetener in any hot or iced tea. a few lavender buds will inevitably remain in the mixture, but don't fret. lavender is an edible flower (or ingestible herb?), tho pretty bitter all by itself. you may strain your tea after brewing if you find these bits unappetizing. the dried buds do not lose their heady scent during this process, so i store them for reuse in an air-tight container.

in a place where cold weather lingers at least half of the year, small treats become an element of a survival plan. hope you will like this one of mine :)

martha stewart taught me how to wash old postage stamps!

well, not personally. not like we were sitting around at her place chatting, drinking too much coffee and exchanging postage stamp washing techniques for best substitutions in a honey cake kind of way. it was thru one of her publications, which i promptly put aside for future reference and now cannot locate. i cannot even find a link.

but i have a box of old postage stamps i was saving to add to some of my projects and i remembered enough to successfully wash a batch and report back to you.

it's really simple. spread the stamps in a single layer in a shallow bowl or pan and cover with cool water. let them soak ten minutes or so, then use your fingers to gently slide the stamps from their adhesive or the paper (or other stamps) they are stuck to. set them to air dry on a paper towel, then store them in a cool dry place until you use them.

let me warn you, this is a tedious and time consuming task if you have more than ten or twenty stamps to wash. so when i finished my first batch i took a break. it had occurred to me that i should find out if any of these old stamps were valuable. i looked around online and it turns out some of them are. not let's-take-a-trip-around-the-world valuable, but kind of like gluing-money-to-your-furniture-and-art-projects valuable.

now i'm not sure what to do. maybe i should give martha a call...

tea towel curtains

i fell in love with scandinavian linen tea towels almost two years ago at work. my first love was marimekko. i am told the finnish have a word for "marimekko-illness" which afflicts you when you just can't get enough of the design house's addictive products. i've definitely got it. the next was lotta glave these are her bird tea towels that i clipped up with old brass curtain rings in the kitchen window. these are just too good for wiping dishes.

i love the way the colors glow when the light shines thru them... even tho this morning was rather overcast. as i was unpacking new merchandise at work, i spied my other love, almedahls had arrived. i decided it was time for a seasonal change out.

the designer is brit bredstrom. the color combinations are driving me insane, i want to repaint my whole apartment in these shades. yum.

and then there's this sweet kafferepet design by louise fougstedt. so clean and fresh and retro all at once. come to think of it, i've got some beautiful lotta jansdotter tea towels from two springs ago that i love so much... maybe i'll be changing them out every week!

if you want some, too, try here.

vintage glassware give-away

does anyone out there collect these? we found them in a box of old stuff and rather than put them in the donation bag, i thought i'd give them away to someone who loves them. this pair of beer glasses from the fifties has gold and black car themed decorations.

the lone tumbler has gold and turquoise decorations. i believe they all require hand washing. leave me a comment if you are interested in free vintage glassware. i will email you for a shipping address.

(on their way to a new home!!)

happy monday!

custom gift box

i know, i know... this is probably only of interest to me. but, i thought; it's so easy and fun maybe you would want to try it, too.

this is a great way to reuse any small cardboard boxes you may have lying around that didn't make it into the recycling. i seem to save these (just in case) along with the vintage giftwrap and other odd papers i think may come in handy sometime. just open the box, if it is a one-piece like this one, and glue the gift wrap to the surface. remember which side is up as you work this way. i only meant to glue the paper to the box, but ended up collaging instead.

here are some little blurry close-ups of the collages on the sides of the box. nothing fancy. click the images for a pop-up version.

brush cleaner

i just discovered that the trusty (and inexpensive) ceramic ginger grater from my kitchen tools drawer is an excellent brush cleaner! just soap up your dirty brushes and scrub away. works like magic. you can find them in the cookware section of your local asian foods market.