Hand-Made Ornaments: Imperfect Little Perfections

Here are two of my favorite things about Christmas this year, wrapped up into one little idea:

It's chilly out, perhaps like yesterday it just snowed, and I'm snug inside with the thermostat on 65, sitting on the couch and sipping some tea. Christmas is on its way, and it's the first time I'm not going back to my childhood home for the holidays or visiting other folk's parents. This Christmas is uniquely my own and my husband's - this means we will create new memories and traditions, begin to collect our very own cache of holiday decorations, and because our little family is still so new, we get to start from scratch! Since Austin and I share a lifestyle that is all about trying to remain anti-commercial, eco-friendly, healthy, resourceful, and thrifty whenever we can, Christmas to us will be devoid of all the store-bought, plastic junk that most families buy in heaps to fill their homes (the most gross display of this concept can be seen in the 10-foot-tall blow-up snow globes that adorn certain people's lawns). Naturally, I'm steering clear of stuffed snowmen and aluminum tinsel, bold red and green bulb ornaments coated in shiny shellac and glitter, mechanical singing elves, and plastic holly wreaths. Instead, I'm trimming the tree with all sorts of home-made, one-of-a-kind ornaments that are full of character and in years to come will hold special meaning to us.

On my home-made holiday kick, I got my hand on an amazingly easy recipe/craft idea for Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments (not to eat, just to hang) that you form with cookiecutters and dough and then bake in your oven. You can whip these up in a single afternoon. Not only will they smell great while you're baking them, but the decidedly delectable scent of cinnamon will remain on these ornaments for whenever you want to put your nose close to the tree and take a sniff.

Here's how you do it:

You'll need a large amount of cinnamon (depending on how many ornaments you want, could be anywhere from 2/3 cup to 1 1/2 cup, or you could go crazy and make a zillion of them, in which case you'll need more cinnamon). You'll also need an equal amount of applesauce. For both the cinnamon and applesauce, you can get away with buying the cheapest stuff around - they're still going to make awesome ornaments. If you're concerned about the footprints on the environment, buy organic and local. It's up to you. But if you just want to make a ton of these without shelling out a fortune, you can buy bulk cinnamon at your grocer's or get a bunch of jars from a dollar-store or chain pharmacy like Walgreens or Rite-Aid. Remember, you're not eating the ornaments, so as long as the cinnamon and applesauce smell, you're set. You'll also need cookie cutters, in your desired shapes, and some string, twine, or ribbon. Beads are an optional way to adorn the string with some added character. You could also use craft glue and glitter or paint to decorate the finished ornaments, but I personally like the natural, organic look of the dark brown cinnamon.

To make the ornaments, simply mix your applesauce and cinnamon together to form a dough.

It's going to be somewhat sticky, but if it's too sticky, add more spice. Too dry, add more sauce. Then roll out, or hand knead the dough to flatten and cut out shapes with your cookie forms. And don't forget to poke a hole for future hanging - a chopstick or skewer work perfectly. Then place on a cooling rack to air out for 24-hours, or if you want to speed up the process, bake on your lowest oven setting for 1 hour, then flip the cookies over and continue baking for 1 more hour. When dry, string ribbon or twine through the holes and hang the finished ornaments!

Note: Wax or parchment paper, or I've even aluminum foil, to line your baking sheet helps so the ornaments don't stick. Greasing your pan will discolor the ornaments...but if that's all you have and you're going for convenience, go ahead and try that. Just note that placing them directly onto a pan without a buffer can result in your ornaments being ruined when you go to remove them from the pan and they're crusted down. I have made this mistake, and getting them off the pan resulted in them breaking and crumbling.*

*In a recent batch, I sprinkled both sides of the flattened dough with nutmeg before cutting my shapes, similarly to how you might sprinkle a bread dough with flour to prevent sticking. This resulted in a faster drying time and allowed me to skip the parchment paper during baking. But it took away some of the cinnamon smell. It also gave the ornaments a more toasted brown color. I suppose it makes sense to sprinkle the dough with cinnamon, but I haven't tried that.

Holiday Hand-Mades, Lavender Dryer Sachets

Each year, around Christmas-time (which now for all intents and purposes extends to about a week before Thanksgiving, sheesh), when over-stuffed shopping carts are racing wheel to wheel through store isles to get the last Tickle-Me toy or I-nano gizmo just as check-out lines are both expanding and retarding exponentially, I become extra blase' about the glut of consumerism and material greed surrounding it all. I always say to myself, "This year, I'm going to conserve resources, save money, and use my craftiness and creativity to make all my gifts for loved ones." And even with three or four or even five weeks left until the holiday, I never manage to get in gear and actually do it. I might muster up the energy and time to whip up one small hand-made trinket or ornament to give to my mother, but generally I expend all my efforts in other tasks or pursuits. I mean, who isn't busy in December with their regular lives, their everyday chores, their jobs, their long list of prominent stresses? The last time I was completely carefree in spirit and had a surplus of available hours to do arts and crafts around the holidays, I was in the third grade!

But the spirit of Christmas 2008 has gifted me with a very opportune, albeit somewhat disconcerting, change in job-status, i.e. I'm currently unemployed for the month of December*. That translates to a plethora of spare minutes to actually do some mean hand-made making of gifts!

One of my first projects involved sacheting everything in sight! I recently purchased a large quantity of plain, hand-sewn, muslin drawstring bags online at a neat little website called Earthsong Fibers. I hadn't intended to use them for holiday gift-making, but the original intended purpose (to make silica gel sachets to string in mass quantity around our home in a desperate attempt to de-humidify the air) was both impractical and no longer necessary.

Here are the details of the Lavender Dryer Sachets I made:

Materials Needed:
Muslin Drawstring Bags
or 3"X5" Fabric Swatches (to construct your own hand-sewn sacks)
Acrylic Paint and Fine-Detail Paintbrush
Dried Lavender Buds
Sewing Needle
Embroidery or Heavy-Duty Thread

Super Simple Instructions:

1. If using pre-made bags, skip this step. If you are hand-sewing your bags out of fabric you've chosen yourself, sew two pieces wrong-side together along three sides, leaving one side open to stuff with lavender. Turn right-side-out. Simple enough.

2. Place a piece of cardboard or paper inside bag, so paint won't seep through. Paint a simple lavender motif on one
side of the bags. Let dry completely.

3. Scoop or pour lavender buds into the bags, filling almost to the top. Leave just enough room to sew the open side shut.

4. Sew shut, using tight blanket stitch...or any other sturdy stitch, so long as it will keep the lavender from spilling out during repeated dryer cycles.







Throw into dryer with laundry. The sachets will infuse your linens or clothes with a soft scent of lavender every time you use it. Lasts up to ~50 cycles.

















*Not to worry, friends, I begin work first thing come January as a nanny to a delightful eight-month-old, Anna. It's a great career change, and it will provide me with a lot more free time in the future, as well as unburden me from a lot of unnecessary stress. Yay!

Many Things To Be Thankful For

The air outside was crisp and chill, but within our small Portland apartment nothing but warmth was felt this Thanksgiving day. Usually, I mostly dread the coming of this holiday - spending long, awkward hours with blood-family that I normally wouldn't grace with more than a handful of minutes of my time over the phone, the day is often spent being ridiculed or interrogated about vegetarianism, being teased with hunks of roast bird, being chided for taking smaller portions than the rest of my veritably-gluttonous relatives, staring at a television screen which portrays some mindless display of consumerism or aggressive sport, stuffing my face with processed and fatty junk side dishes - to fill a vast void created by my boredom - that I don't even savor and that I know will give me terrible indigestion and constipation because the main ingredient in several of them is either brown sugar or cheese-whiz... The whole thing really disgusts me. My husband, I'm quite positive, will agree that this type of Thanksgiving is exactly the opposite of how we would prefer to "give our thanks."

But this year, being newly married and having lived almost one year in our home, Austin and I made the wonderfully exciting decision to have our own Thanksgiving - a more eco-friendly, local and non-traditional version than our parents' that is based on our liberal values and health-conscious dietary tastes, in which we could create our own traditions, here at our home, with our preferred family of friends. We invited another couple over (they are unmarried) for a potluck-style vegan spread. The day was perfect - informal, festive, fun and delicious! We started everything around noon. I had tossed a few hand-selected dried leaves on the coffee table and plugged in the white stringlights over our kitchen doorway for decoration - nothing too fancy - and set out some wasabi soy-nuts for snack. The guests arrived and brought with them some fine fine (pricey and high quality) Stumptown coffee, because they're employees and can get the stuff for free or discounted, which they ground and brewed immediately. We drank and chatted and were merry in the kitchen for several hours. When we were all sufficiently caffeine-buzzed, we decided to get booze-buzzed by making my new favourite drink called a Bourbon Furnace. It's so simple to make but it's amazingly cozy and yummy on a chilly Fall day. Here's the recipe:

Heat 1 jug (approx. 1 qt.) organic apple cider in a pot on the stove, bringing to a steady gentle simmer. Steep 1 homemade (or store-bought) sachet of mulling spices (cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, anise star, nutmeg, allspice - I bought mine in pre-mixed bulk at Limbo) in the simmering cider for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add a generous pour of Bourbon Whiskey to taste (probably 1-3 shots). Serve hot in a mug or mason jar. Garnish with a little lemon and a cinnamon stick (optional).

So while sipping our beverages and continuing conversation in our intimate little kitchen, we heated up the dinner fare, which included Spicy Thai Green Beans (not vegan due to shrimp sauce), Cooked Kale in Garlic Tahini Sauce, Roasted Veggies and Sticky Rice, Dinner Rolls, and as the main course, Pumpkin Tofu Manicotti. The Manicotti, which I prepared, hmph ha, was a sensation! So moist and flavourful, and surprisingly cheesy even though it contained not a hint of cheese (especially no Cheese-Whiz)! I'm going to add this recipe to my regular repertoire. It can be found here at a blog called Vegan Visitor. All of the food was amazing, and very healthy. Even though it was a hodge-podge of items that weren't planned in accordance with one another, the menu was surprisingly cohesive. And let it be mentioned that it all left the palette very content!

After filling our bellies not too full with good-tasting-but-good-for-you food, what better way to enjoy the company of friends than to play some games, as we did? A few mildly competitive rounds of Wii Boom Blox and a delightfully competitive game of Apples to Apples were just the ticket for the day, coupled with several glasses of the famous Bourbon Furnace.

And through it all, the deeply warm feeling of contentment and appreciation for my lot in life kept showing itself in a broad smile across my face. I have so much to be thankful for - a long detailed list that I will spare you of dear readers. But of those I'm most thankful - a loving and nurturing husband and friend, good health and great food to enjoy, as well as a tranquil and comfortable home - these things are exceptionally wonderful when I can celebrate them my own way rather than having to conform to someone else's traditions or lifestyle. And if you look at it that way, this is exactly what Thanksgiving is all about...sort of. The pilgrims came to America because they wanted to be free of the oppressive and confromist bonds of their mother country, England. They wanted to do things their own way, to rebell agianst the outdated and overbearing ideas of their parent government and church (even though it meant oppressing another group in turn, shame shame on them!, but that's not what I'm focusing on here). So, my Thanksgiving this year was not exactly a rebellion, persay, but in some form it was an expression of the freedom I've attained in growing up and away from parents to pioneer my own way of life with my awesome husband!