Anodyne Design » Kitchen

New Napkins and a Flickr Group

Shannon — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:41:26 +0000

I made up a pretty little set of 4 cloth napkins for the shop this week. I love the little carrots on the fabric. I bought it almost a year ago because I thought they were so cute, and only just now found the right project for it. As I mentioned before, I have been making cloth napkins for my own use. I’ve been pretty satisfied with them, and particularly happy about not wasting paper napkins or paper towels, so I thought it would be good to make some for others, too.

While I’m making things, I decided to create a new Flickr group for handmade items for your kitchen (like cloth napkins, but also anything else you’d use in your kitchen), called Handmade Kitchen. Please join and share all the wonderful things you’ve made for your kitchen. You can also share handmade things you’ve purchased for your kitchen, or things you’ve made for someone else’s kitchen. I can’t wait to see all the creative things you’ve been working on!

The Well-Stocked Kitchen: Serving Bowls

Shannon — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:00:00 +0000

I have more kitchen stuff than anyone really needs. Especially someone who isn’t really gourmet or anything. I just love kitchen things–gadgets, appliances, dishes. Although, I don’t necessarily love all of my dishes. As I was washing a beautiful blue serving bowl my mother gave me (the perfect contrasting color for the lemons I keep in it), I thought about how I really didn’t have enough beautiful serving bowls, which I really think you need to have a complete kitchen. Enter Etsy’s ceramic artisans.

There are so many beautiful serving dishes on Etsy, I can’t possibly do them all justice here. But I do want to show you a few of my favorites. Ant’s Pottery has a large collection of beautiful pottery in vibrant, earthy colors (my favorite). Two in particular that caught my eye are the large stoneware bowl with handles (“Is it a platter? A shallow bowl? A serving dish? Yes!”) and the Autumn Landscape Platter. There are also all sorts of beautiful casserole dishes, candle holders, bowls, plates and mugs.

Some of my other favorites come from Phenix Pottery. In the shop right now, they have a pretty casserole dish (and I love casseroles, so casserole dishes have a special place in my heart) with a cute curly-cue handle on the lid. Phenix Pottery also has bowls, pie plates, pitchers, vases, jewelry, and sorts of other functional and beautiful stoneware.

There are so many wonderful pieces in both of these shops, I suggest you take a look for yourself.

Work In Progress

Shannon — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:00:50 +0000

I started a couple projects over the weekend, and it felt good to get back to creating. First, I started to make up a Cozy Kitten pillow, using Amy Butler’s free pattern. I had some soft pink fabric that had been sitting around, waiting for its purpose, and it seemed perfect for this project. I haven’t finished yet, so I’ll let you know if it’s still perfect when I do.

I also bought materials for and started work on a set of cloth napkins. In my family, we’ve always hauled out the cloth napkins for very special occasions, maybe a couple times a year. Any other day we’ll use paper napkins, or worse, paper towels folded in half. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the impact my choices have on the planet. I’ve come to the conclusion that using up multiple paper towels every day just because I lack the fine motor skills necessary to maneuver a fork to my mouth without spilling all over myself is not a very good idea. Enter cloth napkins. I found some very soft ivory cotton, and some pretty fabrics in pink, brown, and green that will make lovely, reusable napkins. Since I plan to finish the edges with fancy bias tape, I also had to pick up I bias tape maker. I’ve been wanting one of those ever since I started playing with bias tape, anyway.

So, 2 projects started and 0 finished. I’ll keep you posted on my progress… Did you start any new projects this weekend?