Kitchen Maintenance Pt. 1 - Wood

Taking care of the wood items in around the house (and particularly in the kitchen) is something I've been meaning to do for a long long while and I finally got around to it this past week. I gathered as much of my thirsty wood items up from around the house, but of course after I did this I found so many more things to polish that I'm sure I'll be doing this again soon.

I decided to do a little experimenting with different methods for taking care of unfinished wood and used 3 different finishes.

1. plain mineral oil

2. a wood polish that came with a wooden bowl (ingredients are beeswax and natural oils but it doesn't say which ones)

3. I made my own polish. I wanted to try this because not only do I have some lovely beeswax sitting around smelling good and just asking for something to be made with, but also because I want to use something very simple (and preferably homemade) on Q's wooden toys. I also would like to make some wooden toys for him at some point in the future and would love to have a good quantity of wood polish on hand to finish the toys.

After doing some reading online here is how I made my polish

in a wide mouth jar I melted my beeswax on the stovetop.

Added oil (mineral oil is what I had on hand but walnut oil, jojoba oil and/or coconut oil would all be great and what I plan to use next time).

I used a 4 (parts oil) to 1 (part beeswax) ratio and that worked out really well. You could also add some essential oil for scent but I didn't because my beeswax smelled so yummy.

I was impatient for it to cool once it was all mixed together so I used some of the semi-melted polish on these spoons. I also used it on some of Q's wooden cars but once he saw me playing with them he snatched them away from me.

All of the wood looks so beautiful now that it's all polished up - I have to make sure I do this more often. I think I'll stick to the beeswax polishes only next time, the mineral oil by itself seemed to soak right in and not offer much protection.

Welcome Spring!

I cannot describe just how grateful I am to see the beginning of Spring. It has been a tumultuous winter - losing my Grandpa, moving, and lots of illness and travel in our family as well. Just typing that I want to take a sigh of relief.

There is just something about warm days, budding leaves and sweet daffodils poking through the ground that makes my heart so so happy. I don't remember much of this time last year. Well I do but my world was very very small and sacred and I don't remember doing anything besides looking into my newborns eyes and nursing and changing endless diapers. This year though, I am ready to celebrate spring!

I love all of the symbolism that spring has, new growth/fertility (inshallah!), rebirth and optimism. I'm trying to bring some of those symbols into my house along with the fresh air and sunshine so here's a peak at a few things around our house right now.

Flowers on the kitchen table

wet felted easter eggs (I'll show more of these later)

garden planning (more on this later as well)

and I gave our nature table a springtime makeover

Playsilks made by momma

sweet little bunnies by mamaroots

art by Ruth Elsasser

chick by zooloonaturals

momma and baby fairy by Rjabinnik

Playsilks

We (tie) dyed some playsilks this week. Our nature table needed an overhaul and Q has shown more interest in his playsilks recently. This was my first time dying playsilks and it was SO much easier than dying cotton fabrics! Such an easy and gratifying activity.

Silks were from dharma trading company, I used food coloring to dye and these two tutorials as guides. Dying in jars was very convenient and having them on the stove made it go very quick.

I've got some more playsilks coming (including some BIG ones for canopies or fort building) and some jacquard silk paint so there will be more playsilk fun in the coming months.

Another Rainbow

I'm falling in love with the Waldorf Pedagogy. Our upcoming new year changes will include a nature table in our home. In my daydreaming about our nature table I imagine all sorts of beautiful wooden creatures interspersed with candles and twigs and leaves from our garden. I have long admired Grimm's Spiel Und Holz products, so simple and beautiful. My nephew has their set of nesting elements and I love their ability to be a decoration and an open-ended toy, a fun toy at that! They are made of wood and have non-toxic coloring on them that is beautiful and bright. I want the whole set on my coffee table. I bought the rainbow set above as a Christmas present for Q, all the milestone books tell me my child should be nesting and stacking things, and really they were just so pretty I wanted them myself.

Inspired by Grimm's Spiel Und Holz stuff I set out to find some nesting toys for our house. Looking at gorgeous handmade sets in a number of shops on etsy I stumbled across the shop Clickity Clack. They have a variety of nesting toys that are unfinished and are at a really great price.

I got a few sets of the nesting items for our family and I also got some of their other beautiful unfinished wood items.


How cool is that castle? It could be painted in so many different ways. And it would be especially fun with some dragons


I love this stuff because it's a perfect combination of making your own toys and buying them. I plan on painting ours with some watercolors which are great for painting wood safely and beautifully.

I promise I'll come back and update with pictures once we sand and paint ours but I just had to share now because I just got them in the mail. I'm thinking warm weather would be a nice time to sit outside and sand these down to be nice and soft for a toddler.