Quickie
I’m sure that all of you have perfectly organized, tidy, ordered lives. The sort where you have time to undertake intricate craft projects. The kind that take weeks if not months of dedicated, focused attention and result in achingly beautiful finished objects. You seem like those sorts of folks.
Me? Me, I needed a five minute fix the other day. The sort where explaining it will take longer than making it. So…onto the explanations.
Last fall The Boy and I went to Maine. We spent as much time as possible doing this.
Most marvelous thing ever–beach, fire, ocean-dipped marshmallows–you could not ask for more. Now alas, that’s a hard moment to bring home with you. You can take a picture. You might even put the picture on the wall. But it’s not very tactile. Here’s where the five minute fix comes in.
The wood for those fires (those glorious, marvelous fires) came in plastic packages with handles made of some sort of strapping. Colorful, woven, nylon handles. I squelched my inner minimalist and declared that the handles would be coming home with me. They went in a drawer for a while, but I thought of them the other day when I found myself in need of a bookmark.
Now the edges were ragged and would fray if left unchecked. So first I trimmed them down to be nice and crisp, then I scorched them a bit with a match to keep them from fraying. Then, noticing they were a tiny bit wrinkled from their previous life as handles, and having a whole two minutes left in my five minute window, I hit them with a blast of hot air from my hair dryer to encourage them to lay flat. I hereby declare them bookmarks.
I may (should some of that elusive spare time and that even more elusive motivation hit me at the same moment) embroider the place and date on them in the future. But for now, they serve as a lovely reminder of our trip every time I open my book.
Anybody else putting unorthodox trip souvenirs to good use? Or doing any quick and simple projects?
I’m more cliche. I pick up any and all beach glass (even the sharp stuff) and have a few clear jars full on the bookshelf in my living room.
We’ve got a few jars sorted by color from the same beach. It might be cliché, but it makes for a great decoration, too.
I collect all sorts of things when I can tea towels, original paintings smaller than a mailing label, sea glass, nifty rocks, shells, fossils (if I find them and its legal to keep them), and of course the most wearable type of souvenir – jewelry! Most of mine have a traditional use. Though I have plans to do a small table with a small mosaic of all the rocks I brought back from Greece (since pebble mosaics are traditional in Greece).
Can I just ask: when you say ocean-dipped marshmallows, do you really mean you dip them in the ocean? Are we talking smores roasted marshmallows? I am intrigued. Do tell. Am I missing some marvelous treat? Or did I just read that wrong?
Yup, right on in, then toast them. Makes them salty and delicious (and my assumption is that the fire is killing any nasty bacteria…because if it can survive fire it’s going to kill us all anyways).
I don’t live particulary close to an ocean, but the next time I have the opportunity, I am going to try this. I had never heard of it before. Thanks!
Highly recommend it. We tried it for the first time last year and are looking forward to recreating it!