Treasure Hunt: Vintage Embroidered Pillowcases

This lovely lady is a mixture of quilted pieces
and hand sewn applique...fantastic!

While I love the crisp, clean lines of an all white bedroom, I have a hard time resisting big, bold colors.  One of my favorite blankets is a vibrantly colored vintage quilt given to me by a friend that he no longer wanted but that I completely coveted.  So trying to find an appealing mix of bright colors and sparkling white been a bit of a challenge, but I've come up with one great solution:  vintage embroidered pillowcases and linens.  The cheerful, lovingly executed handiwork combined with soft, good quality cotton appeal to both the crafter and the collector in me.  Vintage cotton, before the days of blends and polyesters, has a wonderful, comfy feeling that I personally feel would be hard to beat in even the highest Egyptian thread counts. 

Vintage Embroidered Pillowcases:  Who Needs Ikea?

Today out at the Sunday flea market in Green Park in Bath I nabbed this matching pair for a measly £5 (about $7.50).  When a basic pair of colored pillowcases at Ikea cost £3, I was pretty pleased.  And also pleased I negotiated £1 off the asking price.....I not only love a bargain...but also love to bargain!

With this particular set I loved that there was plenty of detail and color, but not in a fussy, grandmotherly kind of way.  I also loved the clean but detailed design. 

Something to look for when buying vintage embroidered linens is whether the work is handmade or machine made.  I believe this set is machine made, because of the consistency of the stitching and the way the threads were finished on on the backside. I have other hand-embroidered pillowcases - if you look closely you can see slight inconsistencies in the needlework that show they're handmade.  Knowing something is handmade definitely can add to the charm, but it also can add to the price.  It's good to know the difference so you get what you pay for.

When buying vintage pillowcases do keep an eye out for the size.  Just as people were smaller "back then" so were the pillows.  Some older pillowcases are of a slightly smaller size than our jumbo-sized modern pillows, so watch for that.  Also watch for stains and other unsightly blemishes.  Some can be bleached out, but marks and stains from regular use are likely to be permanent.

 

Ideally, they'll look like these...the pillowcases someone kept in the cupboard, with the good china, for the day when the Queen came to visit.  Which, in most cases, means they're in pristine condition.

Food Features: Experimental Cooking: Southwestern Chili

My mother made all our spaghetti sauce when I was a kid. From scratch. Actually, almost everything in the house was made from scratch, but that's another story. But her spaghetti sauce was more or less ragu style - lots of hearty meat and chopped vegetables, cooked slowly for a long time to make the flavors all blend together.

Thinking in terms of that chunky ragu style, I decided to try my hand at making a homemade Southwestern chili. No recipe, just using what (little) I know of cooking and a whole lot of bravery.

It should be noted that I'm a wuss when it comes to heat. I like spice and like flavors, but I don't like foods that are so hot my lips go numb or I start to sweat. So if you want more hot spiciness, up the pepper quotient.

The basic ingredients were about 1/2 pound of ground (mince) beef 20% fat, 1 yellow onion, 1 yellow pepper and 1 green pepper (or red could be used), 8-10 cherry tomatoes sliced in half, 2 cans of kidney beans, 1 cup corn, 1 can of tomatoes, a bunch of cilantro (coriander), pepper, salt, about 1 tsp each of mild chili pepper and ground chipotle pepper and sour cream for taste. All the vegetables were coarsely chopped - the ideas is for this to be a rustic looking dish, so pretty perfectly chopped tiny bits don't work as well.

Southwestern Chili:  All the ingredients
starting to simmer in the pot

After heating up a big stock pot nice and hot, start browning the meat. Add a couple tablespoons of water as well to keep it from sticking to the pot. You could add oil, but I got the fattier beef so that the only oil in the dish would be the oil from the meat. No need to add any more. When the meat is halfway browned, add the onions. Add salt and pepper to taste, about 1 tsp each.

When those start to soften add the peppers and turn the heat to medium. Add chili powder and chipotle powder. Let those simmer for a couple minutes or so. Then add the corn and kidney beans. I leave the syrup in because it adds more flavor and a little bit of sweetness, but if you don’t like that then you can rinse the beans and add a small amount of water. Then add the tomatoes and coriander and turn the heat to low. Put on a lid and simmer for at least 30 minutes. I let it cook for about 45. The longer you simmer, more flavors will meld. But the longer you simmer, the more the vegetables will turn to mush, so it's a matter of personal taste how long you cook

Serve in a heaping bowl and garnish with sour cream and cilantro.

Isn't that beautiful?

VERDICT: This was FANTASTIC. There was tons of flavor, the textures were great. The coolness of the sour cream and cilantro really contrasted well with the meat, vegetables and spices and gave it a really nice depth. Not really any heat but, like I said, I'm a wuss. There was quite a bit of liquid, I think because the tomatoes I used added extra water, so not quite as thick as a traditional chili con carne. But not really a soup either.

Had I thought about it I would have made some cornbread to go with it, but absolutely not necessarily either.

Definitely a winner. We'll be making this one again.

Favorite Junk: Vintage Putnam "Lightning" Canning Jars

Favorite Junk: Vintage Putnam
"Lightning" Canning Jar

There is something so appealing about well crafted utilitarian items made for the home.  Aesthetically pleasing yet eminently functional, vintage canning jars are so practical in their use, and yet so versatile beyond just jams and pickles, they're an easy thing to fall in love with.  While I've used various Ball jars in the past for sorting bits and pieces in my craft room, my favorites are still the Putnam "Lightning" jars.

I first stumbled upon these jars on eBay and fell in love with them, charmed by their quirkiness and the clean aqua blue color.  I love the bold words "Lightning" that are embossed largely across the front,  The color, a light aqua or blueish bottle green, reminds me of aquamarines, my favorite stone.  Only through sheer willpower did I manage to hold back the obsession at three, but I loved them so much that they joined the small pile of precious possessions that made the trip from the US to the UK.

Made between 1882 and 1960, and called "Lightning" because the latched lid mechanism made them quick to seal, there are a number of variations in size and color.  While I personally love the blue green color best, if you're inclined to buy one of the other vintage colors, be on the lookout for fakes.

They say you can't put lightning in a bottle....but perhaps you can put it in a canning jar.

My "Lightning" jars arranged on a shelf with other
blue green glass and quirky bits

Treasure Hunt: Vintage Kodak Camera Lens

Samples of my junk:  Vintage wooden clock casing and
antique weights that adorn my mantlepiece

I'm a known collector of junk.  And when I say junk, I mean *junk*.  I love the quirky, charming, and often aesthetically pleasing nature of weird and wonderful industrial wares, cast off architectural bits and other pieces of miscellany that would probably go into the garbage bin if it wasn't for me collecting them on shelves. I have many times over been inspired by Sue Whitney and Kai Nassauer's book Junk Market Style and love getting the chance to repurpose, reuse or simply reconnect with something odd and quirky.

Today's boot sale treasure initially was bought to fit that bill.  For a whopping 50 pence (approximately 75 cents U.S.) I purchased a vintage Kodak camera lens.  About an inch in diameter with thick glass lenses, it felt heavy for its diminutive size.  I liked the way it felt and looked and thought it might be a fun addition to my pile of curiosities. 

Today's Treasure:  The Kodak Anastigmat f-6.3/127 mm lens

But as my father used to collect, and has a large collection of, vintage Kodak Brownies and box cameras, I thought I'd take a look on Google to find out more about it and then check on eBay to see if it had any possible value.  Lo and behold, it turned out to be a find!  Made at best guess in the '30s, the lens was for specialized photography, either for professionals or strong amateurs.  This particular one, a f stop 6.3, 127 millimeter lens, seems to be not very common.  A similar one is listed, set into the shutter, on eBay for a whopping $124.99 (£80.50!).  While my little lens is by no means worth that much, it was definitely a bargain of a treasure purchased for only pocket change!

Now the decision will be can my impulse buy make enough on eBay to make parting with it worthwhile or would I rather just keep it on my shelf of junky treasures, another conversation piece?  Tough decisions....

Food Features: Experimental Cooking: Waldorf Mealoaf

I love cheese.  It's a very rare person who doesn't.  So after a recent conversation about cheese with burgers, particularly varying it up with Camembert or blue cheese, I started to wonder how it would fare in a meatloaf.  Meatloaf, the mother of all pot luck meals, was a staple in our household growing up, to some of our joy and others' dismay.  But as an adult I've have fun experimenting with the variations of ingredients that a standard meatloaf can adapt to.  Two favorites included the Mexican meatloaf - salsa mixed in with the meat and a topping of cheddar and sour cream - and one mixed with chopped canned peaches.  That one sounded awful but came out fantastic. 

So in this latest incarnation, I started thinking about Waldorf salads.  Lettuce, apples, walnuts and cheese.  Or at least that's the version I've always made.  So, with that inspiration in mind, I decided to see how a Waldorf meatloaf would fare.

The basic ingredients:  1 pound of ground/mince beef, 3 apples, 1 standard wedge of blue cheese, about 1/2 cup walnuts for inside, another 3/4 for the topping and one egg.  I decided to forgo the usual breadcrumbs as I thought the apples would help to hold the meat together, not to mention the crumbled walnuts, rendering breadcrumbs unnecessary.  Apples were chopped in relatively fine chunks, though not tiny.  The cheese was crumbled with a fork to small bits. The walnuts similarly were broken down, using a mortal and pestle, to small nibs.  You could use a blender, but I wanted them to retain their shape, not turn into a pulverized powder.

Using your hands, everything gets mixed together until the meat takes on an almost smooth consistency.  You no longer can see the "grains" of the ground meat.  Then it's shaped into a loaf on the tray.  I line it with tin foil because I'm lazy and don't want to spend hours after scrubbing the chunks off the pan, but that's optional.

I then ground up some more walnuts, more finely this time, and sprinkled them liberally over the loaf and baked at 220 C/400 F for about 45-50 minutes.
 

THE VERDICT:
I actually couldn't decide whether I liked it or not.  The flavors varied slightly from bite to bite, which was a pleasant surprise, some pieces getting more cheese and others more apple.  The nuts added a nice crunch and toasty flavor, but the blue cheese at times was a little overwhelming for me.  I might like it a tad bit better with a slightly milder cheese that still had a tangy bite, like feta or goat cheese.  My fellow diner quite enjoyed it, though he found the sweetness of the apple slightly odd, which was actually one of my favorite parts.  The loaf had a nice consistency, though, and overall held together well.

We both, however, went back for seconds.  And the leftovers he took home were all devoured.  He said it made a great meatloaf sandwich the next day.  So the verdict I would say is a tempered successful experiment - definitely edible and quite enjoyable, but appeal will vary by personal palate.

We've since talked about making a ground pork meatloaf with apple and sage.  So stay tuned for further experimental meatloaf editions....

Crazy Crafting: Vintage WWII Decoupage Canvas

It seems everyone these days are obsessed with the Keep Calm and Carry On WWII British wartime signs, but I personally love the color and creativity of the victory garden and food economy marketing posters, both from the U.K. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In times of economy, as now, the message behind them is perpetually relevant: don't waste, grow your own food, and be sustainable. Their charm, brightness and quirky, charming artwork were irresistible for this basic decoupage project. 

Technique: Images were resized and printed on a color laser printer. Using Modge Podge decoupage adhesive, soaked in water and affixed to a medium sized artist's canvas.  Polyurethane protective coating finish.

Welcome to Restore - Restyle!

A thought many years in the gestation, welcome to the new Restore - Restyle blog!  This is a place for idea and images, thoughts and creative clutter.  You'll find all sorts of fun bits here, but particularly in the categories of:

Favorite Junk:  What I want, what I have, what I dream of
Food Features:  Tips and tricks and tweaks and creative cooking
Crafty Specials:  Handmade, handcrafted, homespun
Treasure Hunt:  Recent finds and great deals
Repurposed and Renewed:  A new way of looking at old things

As Oscar the Grouch sings, "Anything dirty or dingy or dusty, anything rotten or ragged or rusty, oh, I love trash!".  They say one man's trash is another man's treasure....and at Restore - Restyle, we're on a treasure hunt!

Enjoy!