Category Archives: handmade businesses/bloggers

Kinfolk event: canning the season

October 2, 2013

If you haven’t heard of Kinfolk yet you may want to check them out. They focus on “creating small gatherings and finding new things to make and do”. When I saw they would be having an event in Seattle I pretty quickly signed up. Despite being based in Portland they have just recently started having events in the Seattle area. This particular event was centered around canning and harvesting the season. I have been wanting to do more canning myself so this seemed like a win win.

The event was actually held in Kirkland and taught by Tina of BigSpoon. I had never been to Kirkland before but from googlemaps it didn’t look like it would take too long on the bus. Well maybe normally it wouldn’t but last weekend it was raining, well pouring, all weekend long, including the Saturday evening of my event. My first bus was late, and then my second bus was late, and then not really knowing where I was I got off the bus too early and had to walk a bit farther. Basically I arrived maybe 20 minutes late, not bad considering.

Luckily I hadn’t missed much and jumped right into where they were at in the apple butter making process. After the cold bus ride/walk over the cozy kitchen that smelled of cooking apples was quite a comfort. We learned how to make 2 kinds of apple butter and a mustard (with fresh horseradish)-it was spicy! While we were waiting for the apple butter to cook down we had some snacks, most of which were canned-sticking with the theme.

In addition to the jams we made in class and got to take home we also got a goody bag with some bigspoon jams inside and a few other things! I also managed to find out the girl next to me lives really close to my new place and she kindly agreed to drive me home. Bless her heart for agreeing to give a stranger a ride home because the thought of getting back on the bus from this strange placed seemed less than desirable.

Fall first aid kit

September 12, 2013

Remember that blogger exchange I was telling you about last month? Well I participated again this month and the theme was Fall Survival Kit (based on my recommendation). I decided to take it one step further and do a Fall First Aid Kit.

My package included: bath tea (I’ll be sharing a DIY next week for that)/a neck wrap with lavender/a gift card to Starbucks/a Emergen-C packet for when a cold is coming on/hand made cuticle balm/a couple of emergency chocolates/a band aid button I though would be cute.

I wrapped each item up to look like it belonged in a first aid kit.

I put all the items in small box and added the Fall First Aid Kit cover and a manual explaining how to use each item. So cute!

If you know someone who could use a little pick me up this would make such a cute and unexpected gift in the mail. Mine was well received by the recipient so that makes me happy. I might be taking the next few months off from the exchange but I’ve had so much fun doing it.

A themed package: the world is your oyster

August 20, 2013

Last month I mentioned that I was taking part in a blogger exchange held by Lani of Elle Dee Designs. I have so much fun putting together my packages that I thought I would share the one I mailed out this month.

The theme was The World is your Oyster. I found a fun door stop DIY, I cut and painted some cork coasters, added nautical flags to some cards, found some pretty salts at a local shop (get it sea salt), gathered some heart shaped shells at the beach, and included a chocolate bar because I think in most cases you just can’t go wrong with chocolate. I’ll be sharing the details of a few of these projects this week. Stay tuned.

I also love to carry the theme into the packaging so I made a treasure map of sorts with pictures that match the packaging on each item. The idea is that you follow the map and open each package in the order in appears on the map. I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

Share