Tag Archives: inspiration

Carving Buttons With: Sal Vitale

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A few months ago, I saw some beautiful wood-carved buttons in a local yarn shop in Philly.  Their simple and rustic appearance caught my eye, and I thought that my dad, who is an expert woodworker, could recreate these with his own flare.  I sent him an email with some pictures to see if he’d be interested in this project, and he quickly set to work.

My dad sent me picture updates of his many buttons over the next few weeks.  (Each one took a couple of hours, and he often whittled as he watched a favorite television show.)  I was blown away by his designs and execution.  He began by finding very dry wood, and ultimately decided to use one of my Grandma Elisabeth’s unfinished pine walking sticks from many years ago.  The pine wood in our yard was too wet and sappy, but the maple wood for the oblong buttons worked just fine.

To create the flat pine buttons, my dad used a hand saw to cut the wood about 1/4″ thick.  I love that each button has its own unique shape and thickness — I wouldn’t change it for anything!  He then drilled four holes into the coins to create the buttons.  That fifth hole in the center of each button is actually a natural hole where water once traveled up the tree.

My dad whittled some of the pine coins to create rounded tops.  He cut the maple sticks longways and scooped out part of the center.  These oblong designs revealed two-tone wood when carved away, creating such beautiful buttons!

To finish off his project, my dad sanded the entire surface of each button, as I didn’t want any of the wood to catch on yarn for future projects.  He was sure to use a very light sand paper so that the natural beauty of the wood remained.  Finally, he used wood oil to complete his buttons, which gave them a finished, professional look.

I am so excited about these buttons and the story behind them.  I used one of them last week to finish a scarf I knit.  I’ll be sharing that project next week so that you can see these buttons in action!  I am so happy to have these as part of my knitting collection.  There is so much potential with hand-carved buttons in knitting — shapes, sizes, styles, etc.  What would your ideal button look like?

Reflections in the Kitchen

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Something magical happened yesterday in a Like Water For Chocolate kind of way.  Rather than pass on a specific project or a certain recipe to you all today, I want to share an experience I had in the kitchen.

I set out in the afternoon to make minestrone.  I need something to warm my bones in this cold weather, and it is the first thing that comes to mind.  My family made “minest” a lot when I was a child, and it’s a dish that is incredibly comforting to me.  I call my mom to ask her for the recipe (which is always “a little of this, a little of that” — the Italian way), and when she doesn’t answer her phone, I have a moment of mild internal panic.  My grandmothers have passed away, and my great aunt passed away just two months ago.  Heavily reliant on my family’s matriarchs for culinary wisdom, who else is there to call?

Luckily, my mom calls back only a few minutes later.  She provides me with an outline of possible minestrone ingredients, approximately how much of each goes in, along with when to add the ingredients to the simmering pot.  I’m used to this by now, and find comfort in making it my own as I go.

I always channel members of my family when I am cooking or baking.  When it’s cookies, it’s Grandma Anne or my mom.  When it’s a hearty dinner, it’s Grandma Elisabeth.  When it’s drop-dead-amazing breakfast scones, it’s Grandpa Augie.  This minestrone recipe is Grandma Elisabeth’s.  My mind wanders and I begin thinking of what her house might have smelled like when she was a child.

These moments in the kitchen connect me to those who are no longer with me, and so I continue making these family recipes as often as I can.  Later, when I sit down to transfer my scribbled notes onto a recipe card for my new recipe box, I realize something.  I realize that I am writing down the recipe not for myself, but for others to read many years from now.  I am writing, without meaning to, a set of instructions that are intended for someone else — maybe for a child or a grandchild to mull over when they’re my age.

We have boxes and binders full of recipes from my grandparents, and I love nothing more than to flip through them to see their handwriting, read their stories, and see what types of ingredients they used to cook and bake with.  Grandpa Augie bookmarked his cookbooks with all kinds of pictures, drawings from grandchildren (myself included), party invitations, postcards, and other clippings.  It sometimes feels like he left a scavenger hunt just for me to someday find.

I lift the lid, smell my simmering minestrone after some time has passed, and cry.

Picking Favorites

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Happy Friday, everyone!  Have anything fun planned for this weekend?  Here is my second installment of Picking Favorites to hopefully send you off into your weekend on a relaxed, stress-free note!

As fall really sets in and the weather continues to drop, I can’t help but fantasize about being in the countryside.  When all is said and done, I think it’s where I belong.  I’m googley-eyed over this barn from A Complete Life.  I could walk the property with one of these cups in hand, sipping a warm drink and taking in the beautiful scenery.  (These cups are from PRESERVE, Blake Lively’s new online marketplace.  Each cup is handmade, and no two are the same.)  When I finish my drink, I could settle into a knitting project with some of Rachel Duvall‘s hand-dyed organic indigo fiber.  I can see it all now!

I’m a believer in less is more, and these ceramic bowls from WAGOKORO are dreamy to say the least.  The color palette of these cotton scarves from enhabiten lends itself nicely to fall clothing.  Mustard yellow is such a fantastic color, but it’s always so hard for me to pull off with blonde hair.  And with these whimsical, dreamy red berries from Moods of the Moon, I am reminded that the holidays are around the corner.  I am so excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with Anne’s family and Christmas with mine!  We have a lot to be thankful for, and I am looking forward to the family time.

Who would have thought to use the bottom of a crystal glass to make an elegant cookie mold?  They look like different kinds of snowflakes, and could make a perfect Christmas cookie!  While I can’t find the source of this picture, this baking project is definitely on my list of things to try.  These last two pictures are showing me just how powerful the color green can be, especially this time of year.  Green and white pair so nicely together.  This sweater picture from Old Man Sea evokes the countryside and all-things natural, and Matt and Lentil Purbrick’s living room brings that woody feeling indoors in a relaxed, well-styled way.

Check out my first installment of Picking Favorites here if you missed it, and stay tuned for more favorites to come!

Picking Favorites

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It feels like one of those wrap-yourself-up-in-a-blanket-on-the-couch kind of fall days.  I thought I’d take a few minutes to share some things I’ve been enjoying around the web recently.  For starters, this picture of Paris in autumn from Alesia-Jasmine takes my breath away.  You would think that after many fun trips this summer, I would be itching to hunker down while the seasons change.  Alas, I’ve caught the travel bug yet again.

As the temperatures cool, though, I can begin to turn up the heat in my kitchen again.  Natalie over at Food Fetish has an excellent tutorial on how to make your own beet pasta.  I can’t wait to give this a try.  And that avocado hummus from Jaclyn at Cooking Classy has my heart singing!

The changing seasons means that more layers, shoes, and weather-related accessories begin to show up in your entryway.  Elsie’s mudroom organization project on A Beautiful Mess is a cute, rustic, and indeed organized way to house all kinds of items — right up my alley!  I especially love those clipped photos up top.

While I’m not a die-hard Halloween fan, I can appreciate a good DIY project or themed treat.  Those cute pumpkins with bat wings from Trendenser seem super easy to whip up.  I’d imagine that taping toothpicks to the back of the black construction paper would be a great way to insert the wings into the pumpkin.  Top it off by Sharpie-ing your dinner guests’ names on the pumpkins and you’ll have the perfect alternative place cards for a spooky gathering.

Who isn’t a fan of using one item two different ways?  These ghost cookies from Michelle at Make Me Cake Me are actually made with a tulip cookie cutter turned upside-down!  Genius in my book.

And finally, let’s talk about these mysterious yet amazing-looking dark chocolate zucchini cake waffles.  Jonathan from The Candid Appetite whipped these up.  The second I live in an apartment with a kitchen larger than a shoebox, I am investing in a waffle maker.  For now, we must stick to making pancakes in our cast-iron pan.

The transition from summer to fall is one that I greatly enjoy.  I love the slowly changing wardrobe, the time spent in the kitchen, and bundling up for a good movie or TV show.  It also means I can start looking at yarn again (something I cannot bring myself to do in the heat of summer).  I love this article on why you should knit.  I’ve already got two projects going, plus one I finished in early spring that I’ve yet to share here!

Stay tuned for more posts in my new “Picking Favorites” series.  I am hoping to feature more work from other blogs and websites as a way of sharing my inspirations here on Scissors & Sage.

My New Recipe Box

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Happy Sunday!  Are you all having nice weekends?  Yesterday, I had the pleasure of going to a 90th birthday party for my…well, I don’t know how we’re related.  That’s the thing about big Italian families.  It was a celebration for the books, though, that’s for sure!

For those of you on your computers and on my site directly, you will notice many new changes to the looks of Scissors & Sage.  For you loyal subscribers out there, visit http://www.scissorsandsage.com to see my updates!  I’ve designed a new header logo, a much-needed menu of categories up top, and new social media icons that I coded myself!  Anne snapped some pictures for the updated sidebar and “New Reader?” section.  I hope you all enjoy the new layout!

This week, I thought I’d share my latest love: my recipe box.  Anne gave it to me for my birthday in August, and it was just what I wanted!  I had been eyeballing it on the Rifle Paper Co. website for about six months.  You see, I had a pretty good system for my recipes pre-recipe box — a binder with tabs and plastic sleeves.  But this, this is just on another level.  I stared googly-eyed at it for probably three or four days before starting to transfer recipes.

Some who know me might say that I’m neat or maybe organized.  Others, like my college roommates, might call me compulsively neat AND organized.  Everyone has their way and, needless to say, I like things in their place.

When I started my recipe transfer and looked more closely at the pre-written letterpress tabs the box came with, I started to wish that I could have decided on my own categories.  Where was the salads category?  And what about sides?  Does a quiche go under breakfast or eggs?  And why on EARTH were breads and pastas in the same category?!  As I’ve previously said, and as it’s written in my “New Reader?” section, pasta is its own food group.

I began breathing a little bit more quickly as my eyes darted around trying to put an order to all of this chaos (note: there was literally no actual chaos to be found).  Then it hit me: I could make my own tabs to supplement what the box came with!  I had recently picked up some thin chip board from Paper Source, and it was the perfect material.  I traced an existing divider and then cut it out.  I borrowed Anne’s alphanumeral stamp (the kind that librarians use), and it was finished!

A month or so into using my recipe box, I have to say that it is quite functional.  I use some categories more than others (do you see how big desserts is?) and others not at all (seafood).  The box also came with 24 blank recipe cards that I am really excited to start using.

I am so incredibly happy with how my recipe box turned out.  There are so many family recipes, so many stories, and equally as many happy memories spent in the kitchen and at the dining table.  This is my holy text.