beeswax food wrap project

Hi, folks! Happy Friday. I'm a bit bleary-eyed today, and am home from work with a pitiful little guy (see Instagram photo here) who has pneumonia. He and I spent several hours at the hospital last night. He's resting right now, and hopefully the meds will start taking effect soon. 

In other news, I have a fun, inexpensive, practical quick, and super simple weekend project for you that I made last weekend. That's setting some high expectations, I know, but really - making these is worth a try. It had been on my list for weeks, and I'm so glad I finally made them!

We don't really use paper towels in our house, and use reusable glass food storage containers most of the time. But sometimes a dish of leftovers gets popped into the fridge with plastic wrap on it, which isn't my favourite thing. 

Enter beeswax food wraps. They're intended as a substitute for plastic wrap. Essentially, they're cotton fabric, permeated with beeswax. Although these food wraps shouldn't be used with meat, since they can't be washed in hot water, they're fair game for covering more or less anything else. For particularly sloshy things like soup, I will probably still use a lidded glass dish, but these are great for most other kinds of leftovers.

They're simple to make. I more or less followed these instructions, using a 100% cotton dish towel I found at Frenchy's for 25 cents. Just cut the fabric to the size you'd like (you can easily trim it afterward if needed) and place it on a foil lined baking sheet. Heat your oven to 170. I found that I needed quite a bit more beeswax than pictured in the instructions I linked to, and what worked the very best was a sheet of thin beeswax sandwiched between two pieces of fabric. Place it in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the beeswax has entirely melted and permeated the fabric. Immediately remove the fabric from the foil sheet, and just wave it back and forth for a minute until it cools and firms up. You're all set!

To use, just mold the wrap around the edge of your dish. It takes a minute for your hands to warm the wax, and it's a bit tacky, but try to relax and enjoy it. They can be washed with cool water and dish soap. (Warm or hot water will begin to melt the wax.) 

So far, I'm a huge fan! I'm experimenting with various sizes and shapes to fit our bowls, and am planning to make a few more sizes this weekend.

BeesWrap makes beautiful wraps, which I would love to try. They're a bit on the pricey side, so since I had the materials on hand, I couldn't justify buying them. I'm curious how the texture would be different from the straight beeswax, since they use jojoba oil and resin as well. I'll be they're lovely, and their site and photos are gorgeous. I'll happily accept donations!

Have a lovely weekend. Adam's birthday is on Sunday, and the forecast is exclusively sunny in our neck of the woods! 

frenchy's finds

I've found a few little lovelies at Frenchy's lately. The first bowl is perfection - handmade, such beautiful colours, and the ideal size. It's bigger than a regular eating bowl, but not huge like a mixing bowl. Exactly the size of two bowls that I've used a lot and wound up broken, in fact. I hope this one doesn't meet the same fate. I have steel cut oats soaking in it now for tomorrow's breakfast. The little crocheted table runner is just so cute! And I thought that the little pair of matching (also handmade) bowls would be perfect for the boys. The grand total for all of these was about $3.25. Not too bad at all.

A little bit of Frenchy's, some soapmaking this evening, and I'm on my way out of the doldrums. Yessss.

yellow

Phew! In case you couldn't tell from that last post, I've been feeling a little overwhelmed with everything lately. (Another indicator is a lack of posting here.) Somehow, the spell seems to be breaking. I came across this post last night, and I think that it captures almost exactly why - I've been choosing to take little bits of time here and there for the self-care kinds of things I know will help me overall (and for tackling those nagging little to-dos), which in turn makes everything else seem more manageable. And of course, when things get stressful and busy, those are the first things to get left behind.

Poor Philip hasn't been feeling well yesterday and today. He was up several times in the night, feverish, stuffed up, achy and uncomfortable. (Thomas was up lots too, but because of bad dreams. So we're all a bit sleepy today.) One of the times he was up, Phillip called, "Mama! I need to poop!" We went in to the bathroom, and after a minute, he said "Actually, I don't need to poop. It was just on my overnight to-do list." And he prattled on about all kinds of nonsense. Dragons using small spoons to eat the healthy food tumbling down a waterfall was another topic. He's got a bit of a fever (hence the sleepy gibberish), and I've been using garlic ear drops, in hopes that he'll be able to fight off an infection. But contrary! When  he's really sick, he's very sweet. But when he's a little bit sick, he's something else entirely. (That's not entirely true. He's playing very sweetly with Thomas right now, actually.)

So I'm making a fresh batch of honey lemon tea concentrate to help everyone feel loved  this morning.



I bought these cheery mums at the grocery store 10 days ago, for half price. They're amazing! They haven't faded a bit. They've brightened up these rainy days considerably.

Right now, my mother-in-law's brown bread in the oven (to make toast for the invalid), and I can faintly smell the butter that I used to grease the pans on my hands. It reminds me of making Parker House rolls with Shirley.

The sun is out, clothes are on the line, and things are looking up. Happy Sunday!

thises and thatses

A handful of things:

I feel as though I'm kind of on auto pilot lately. A four day headache is almost gone (thank you, buckwheat pillow - I'm sorry I abandoned you for a few nights - never again!) As has been the case all of this year, work is crazy busy. It's good, and I do love those kiddos - it's just nutters. My caseload will become semi-normal-ish again next year, so for now I'm plugging through. But I'm missing making things. I need to make some soap, bake some bread, and start digging outside. Pronto. Those always help.

Bedtimes. Not fun lately. This big boy bed business seems to be the worst decision, ever. Uuuuugh.

I can NOT stop listening to The Heist by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Fair warning - it is not fit for children's ears or the workplace. But it is incredible. What makes it especially incredible is that it's a... rap album. And I love it. And those words! I NEVER in a million years would have thought that those words would come out of my mouth. So it must be something special. Love, love, love, love love it. (A lot.) I also confess that I have a bit of a crush on Macklemore (Ben Haggerty.) Those perfect teeth! The goofy grin. The selection of perfect words - *swoon*. And the way he says his "ch" and "sh" sounds - dreamy. I first came across them when my brother-in-law did me the great favour of showing me the Thrift Shop video. Then Adam bought the album, and it was all downhill from there.

Happy Thursday!

beach

My favourite place in the world.

Happy Friday morning, peeps! Just popping in with a picture that I took back in February at my favourite place in the world - the beach just down the hill from my parent's house.

camp

I love camps. I love everything about them. You probably know the type of camp I mean: they're tiny, they all have the exact same wonderful smell, and they're filled with a colourful array of old and kitschy, time-worn and well-loved odds and ends. You can, as nearly as I think is possible on this earth, sense the people who have relaxed and spent time together with friends and family. The space feels real. Like all of the important conversations in life happened around the table, the campfire and with tea on the porch. Kids grew up there, with the time and freedom to play and make the very best kinds of memories. And that seems like something to be respected, even as a visitor.

I posted about a particular favourite camp last summer. (Just by looking at the pictures, I can smell the lake.) After a cold, dark, grey April week, visting another camp was a lovely reminder that summer will be here again.

crocus party

As far as cheery flowers go, crocuses must be at the top of everyone's list. (Or maybe I'm the only one who has flower lists in categories like that.) These beauties are scattered all around the yard, and we've been enjoying them this long Easter weekend, in the loveliest warm sunshine. (Today's the exception; it's windy and pouring rain this morning.) March certainly came in like a lion (we had a snow day on March 1) and was out like a lamb yesterday. And today's April showers should be bringing some May flowers.

The boys and I raked and cleaned up the yard this weekend, and we even went to the beach on Friday. It wasn't quite the warmest beach day, but they had a ball. I started a 5k running thing again (this time with the Ease Into 5k app, which I'm enjoying). It's much easier this time around. Mostly because I know I'm not going to die, I think.

I celebrated my 32nd birthday on Saturday, yay! It was a perfect day. The weather was gorgeous, we saw friends at the market, more friends dropped in later on, and we had a little get together for supper and games. The best kind of fun.

Today, I'll be going to pick up my sister who's visiting this week (yay!). I need to get some soap made (hopefully tonight) and I've got a bee in my bonnet to make some beeswax food wraps. (I first saw Bees Wrap's version here, where you can buy them.) It's a beautiful, reusable alternative to plastic wrap, and I can't wait to try making them.

Happy April! Here's a bit more of the crocus party for you.