Category Archives: decorating

The Chill Pills Are Working

by Rima Posted on November 27, 2012

Last year, I got a bee in my bonnet about having a perfectly matched Christmas tree. I excommunicated all the tattered and handmade ornaments to a mini tree which I relegated to the sunroom, and informed the family that only the pre-designated red and gold ornaments could be hung on the official Christmas tree.

I then tried to sell the mini tree to my offspring as a very special tree they could decorate in any way they pleased (even though I snuck back during the dead of night to re-arrange their handiwork), but they saw right through the chicanery. One child was so upset that she did not come out of her room for two hours. I recognized the folly of my ways eventually, but not before ruining Christmas Decorating Day and creating traumatic memories that my children will need years of therapy to work through

That’s why last weekend, before we hauled out all the Christmas stuff, the P-Dawg said, “Are you going to do that thing again where you don’t let the kids put up their favorite ornaments?”

“Of course not. I made a mistake last year. They can hang any ornament anywhere and any which way they like.”

When we hauled out the boxes, my daughter approached me and asked very timidly, “Mama, which ornaments are we allowed to put on the tree?”

It was then that the shriveled up husk I call a heart disintegrated altogether.

“There are no restrictions on ornament placement this year,” I told her. I’m sorry I was such a jerk.

Then I sat back and watched them go to town. What’s more, I was able to restrain myself from moving even one single ornament from the branch it was clustered on with three or five of its low hanging friends.

And I’ll let you in on another secret: When I put up the banister garland, I did not loop it around the rungs using a precise, mathematical pattern as I have done in the past. In some places, garland is bunched together and in other places it’s spread out. Also, there is about three feet of garland with malfunctioning lights right in the middle of the whole she-bang, which I’m choosing to pretend does not exist.

As a casual observer you may not even notice this, but for me it’s a personal victory. One which I tend to perseverate on when I wake up in the middle of the night with a sudden urge to re-hang the banister garland, but a victory nevertheless.

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Posted in children, Christmas, decorating, guilt, parenting | 7 Comments

How to Make a Simple Block Print

by Rima Posted on September 6, 2012

Well, it finally happened. I ran out of things to say. At least on the blog, anyway. I am still having thoughts on a regular basis, but lately they just don’t seem worth sharing.

I’m hoping that inspiration will come soon, but in the meantime, here is a step-by-step tutorial of how to make a block print. I learned this technique from my friend Lauren Karrenberg at Lithuanian camp a few summers ago and I always meant to post it. It’s a relatively simple way to create professional looking art, and there’s also something very relaxing and therapeutic about the whole process.

The easiest way to procure the materials you’ll need is by purchasing a block printing starter kit. I got mine for under twenty bucks at Michaels. (You can also purchase the individual implements at most craft and art stores.)

The kit will contain:

A lino block, which is the surface into which you’ll carve your design
A lino handle with cutters, which are the implement you use for carving
Block printing ink
A brayer (the roller you use to spread the ink over your carving)
A shallow tray for ink

I didn’t like the block it came with, though, so I bought a softer one from the same craft store. You will also need good quality paper on which to transfer your design.

First, draw a sketch of the design you want to print on some scrap paper. If you don’t know what to draw, look at some art books for inspiration. The library at Lithuanian camp had a really cool book of traditional Lithuanian folk art from which I got some cool ideas for motifs and stuff. That’s right, I said, “motifs.”

from book — Cool Lithuanian Folk Art Book

My motifs of choice were birds, birds, and more birds.

Now it’s time to begin whittling. Insert a cutting blade into the lino handle and use it to scrape your design onto the surface of the block. The important thing to remember is that the recessed parts of the block (i.e., the parts you scrape away) will not take ink. Only the design on the raised surfaces will end up on the finished product. Also, any lettering that you do must be Leonardo da Vinci style (backwards) so that it reads correctly when you transfer your design onto paper with ink.

Keep scraping until you are satisfied with your design, and don’t be afraid to really attack that lino block. If your grooves aren’t deep enough, ink will bleed into them and your print won’t turn out right.

I’m telling you, there’s something really gratifying about shaving little pieces of rubber off a block. It’s addictive, like Tetris. Just remember, the more you scrape off, the more white space you’ll have on your finished print.

When you are satisfied with the design you’ve carved, transfer it to a piece of regular paper to see how it looks. Do this by squirting a small about of ink (maybe dime sized for a 4×5 block) into your inking tray, rolling the brayer in it until it’s covered in ink, then rolling the brayer over your lino block.

It just needs to be covered with a thin skein of ink, not dripping with it. Then, gently press a piece of paper onto the block and apply careful pressure all the way around to make sure the entire design transfers. There is a special instrument you can use to do this with, but I don’t know what it’s called. I just used my fingers.

transfer — Transfer the design to paper.

Carefully peel it away to see how it turned out.

porele — Not too shabby for a first try.

The ink is water soluble and washes off the block easily. So if you want to make additional cuts into the block before transferring the design onto good paper, just wash the block and make the necessary changes. When you’re satisfied with the design, transfer it onto good quality paper. The best part is that you can make multiple prints.

Be sure to write your name in the bottom right corner, along with the number (for example 1 of 5 or 1/5) of prints you made, which will come in handy when you’re famous.

My second attempt turned out a bit better. I framed it and gave it to a lot of people for Christmas.

And here are some of the designs my friends made.

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Posted in crafting, decorating, writer's block | 2 Comments

The Tao of Decorating

by Rima Posted on January 13, 2012

This January has been a time of creativity and renewal here in the Rama household. After the holidays, I was seized with a deep and immediate desire to re-arrange furniture.

First I organized some bookshelves into a rainbow:

Then I pushed various items of furniture back and forth, back and forth across the family room and re-arranged objets d’art until I was blue in the face.

The family room overhaul necessitated an emergency trip to TJ Maxx for some accent pieces, plus a new KitchenAid ice cream scooper, a bar of oatmeal soap and a special microfiber towel that is supposed to dry your hair in five minutes flat.

It’s not something I’m proud of, but I have a weak spot for fake plants. I feel strongly that fake greenery lends a certain je ne sais quoi to a room’s atmosphere and never dies, but it’s been a sore spot in our marriage from day one. Over the past eleven years, I’ve managed to sneak a fake boxwood garland, several clumps of fake ivy, some fake poinsettias, hyacinths, dogwood, and one fake ficus into the house. But while at TJ Maxx the other day, I limited myself to only one fake item: a plastic yellow pear.

The P-Dawg has thus far tolerated the faux plants because they are so tasteful and unobtrusive, but I wondered if he would draw the line at fruit? I worried, too, for myself. One day it’s a plastic pear on the bookshelf, the next it’s a cornucopia straw hat with the price tag still dangling from the brim.

“Is that a plastic pear up there?” the P-Dawg asked me as we settled in to watch TV the other night.

“Do you like it?” I asked him. “I needed something yellow to offset the new lamp and the blue bird figurines.”

“What lamp?” the P-Dawg asked with a glance around the room. “What blue accent figurines?”

I didn’t let it offend me because I know that a good interior designer often makes nearly imperceptible changes which nevertheless enhance the entire feel of a space.

“Do you notice that the entire feel of this space is different?” I asked my husband.

“That pear is really yellow,” he said.

Later the P-Dawg decided to do some re-decorating of his own. He went ahead and got a bunch of his Japanese prints professionally framed and hung them up all willy-nilly around the house.

We don’t have a good marital track record when it comes to picture hanging, the P-Dawg and I. In fact, I’d say it ranks right up there with “having a baby” on the list of Top Ten Marital Stressors (see also, loading dishwasher, finding a parking space, rinsing out the bathroom sink).

I was standing on a credenza in the office, nudging one of my knickknacks over by a half a millimeter when he came in to inform me that he’d hung up some prints. He asked that instead of taking them down immediately, I should have an open mind.

“Just let them hang there for a couple of days before you make any decisions,” my husband suggested. Then he left the house.

This one is in our formal living room, right above the photos of the kids. I’m still warming up to it, but it sure beats the plastic pear from TJ Maxx.

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Posted in decorating, He's From Mars I'm From Venus, the P-Dawg | 4 Comments

How to Make Lithuanian Easter Eggs

by Rima Posted on April 19, 2011

Today I will show you how to make traditional Lithuanian Easter eggs, or “margučiai” (mar-gu-chei).

But shhhh! Don’t tell the Ukrainians. They think they have some kind of monopoly on this thing.

You probably already have at your disposal all the implements needed to make margučiai, except beeswax. Beeswax is the key ingredient, so you won’t want to skip it. I’ve heard of people using paraffin as a wax substitute, but those people were never seen or heard from again.

I ordered my beeswax from the mighty Internet, but you can also find it at natural food stores, craft stores like Michael’s and Jo-Ann Fabrics, or your local beekeeper.

You never know when you’ll need a pound of beeswax. But for decorating eggs, just a few ounces will do.

Okay! Let us take a few deep, cleansing breaths to find our center.

We are ready to begin.

First, boil some eggs and let them cool.

Next, cut a potato in half and place it on a plate, cut-side down.

Now take a large metal spoon you can do without and bend it at a ninety-degree angle.

(If you are not familiar with ninja mind control, I bet you could also just use your hands.)

Stick the handle of the spoon in the top of the potato, put a few pieces of wax on the spoon, and light a small candle directly underneath it, close enough to the spoon to melt the wax.* Like so:

Next, grab a pencil and stick a sewing pin with a smallish head into the eraser end.

When the wax is completely melted and piping hot (may be smoking just a little bit), you are ready to begin decorating.

Dip the pin head into the hot wax and hold it there for a few seconds. Then take it out and brush it on your hard boiled egg with surgeon-like precision, using careful, measured strokes. You’ll need to re-dip the pin head in the wax for each stroke you want to make on the egg. The hot wax always goes on in a teardrop shape, which lends itself nicely to flower, sun, and vine patterns.

The key is to transfer the hot wax onto the egg quickly, before it cools and hardens on the pin head. And once the wax is on the egg, THERE IS NO GOING BACK.

Why? Because the parts of the egg that are covered in wax will not take color, so even if you try to hide your faux-pas by scratching it off, when the egg is dyed, the mistake will become visible for all the world to see. You’ll probably be run out of town and on your tombstone will be written, “She screwed up a Lithuanian Easter egg and tried to cover it up.”

Shame.

When you feel you have applied a sufficient amount of wax patterns on your egg, dip it in food coloring mixed with hot water and a few tablespoons of vinegar. If you want to go Old Country on your eggs, you can boil all manner of plants and flowers – like red onion peels or beets – to create distinct and vibrant colors. I use Lawry’s food coloring drops.

When you take the egg out of the dye, it should look something like this:

Not too shabby, right?

But, wait! The fun doesn’t end there. You can make multi-colored margučiai using one simple trick I’m about to show you out of the kindness of my heart.

Wait for your beautiful colored egg to dry.

Take it back to your workstation.

Put some more wax on it. Keep your hand steady and make it nice, for Pete’s sake.

Now, dip the egg in another color dye. The wax patterns you put on during the second go-round will take on the color you dipped the egg into the first time.

Dare I say the end result is magical?

Smart. Beautiful. Lithuanian Easter Eggs.

(If you’ve made these before, please add your tips and tricks in the comment section below!)

* You can also use a fondue pot or similar device, which is a better for regulating the temperature of the wax.

Special thanks to Rūta Degutis of the Lithuanian-American Citizens Club of Cleveland, who hosted the workshop where I did my decorating this year. Because if there’s anything I like better than decorating margučiai, it’s decorating margučiai while sipping Lithuanian beer. If you live in the Cleveland area, stop by the Gintaras (Amber) Dining Room on Fridays from 5-8 or Sundays from 11-2 for traditional Lithuanian fare.
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Posted in decorating, food-o-rama, Lithuania, Lithuanian traditions | 32 Comments

Happiness is Running a Vacuum Cleaner

by Rima Posted on December 13, 2010

I’m always a little caught off guard by Christmas when it comes, but not this year. This year I have it marked on my calender and there are a lot of context clues to help me out. Like, for example, on Saturday the P-Dawg and I hosted a legitimate Christmas party where a lot of people came all dressed up. It was very exciting because I had a good excuse to go to town decorating the house and spend the week prior cleaning, and the P-Dawg had a good excuse to set out his bottle of Absinthe.

I like to clean things and put them away. One of my favorite sounds in the world is the sound of crumbs and small plastic toy parts getting sucked up into my vacuum cleaner. In fact, one of the hardest things for me about hosting a party is resisting the compulsion to follow my guests around with my Dyson, which never loses suction. So I’ll admit that some people’s appetizers might have been cleared a little prematurely last Saturday night, but that’s the price you pay when you put your plate down for five seconds chez Rama. All in all, though, I think everyone had a good time.

Another major clue is the fast approaching Lithuanian Saturday school Christmas pageant, during which my friend V and I will be reprising our roles as the emcees, elf Dzingu-Lingu and elf Žvang-Žvang. Our act was such a hit last year that we are Lithuanian Saturday school Christmas pageant legends. Probably everybody wants our autographs, but is too shy to ask and don’t even get me started on why CNN Europe or Lithuanian Dawn has offerred to interview us yet.

V and I are feeling enormous self-imposed pressure to make this year’s pageant even better than the last. And since me descending from the ceiling suspended on an invisible cable in a pair of red tights and elf tunic is out of the question, we struggled a bit at first to come up with something equally creative. I’m dying to tell you our brilliant plan, but it will have to wait because I don’t want to spoil it for the Lithuanians who read my blog. (Special note to Lithuanians: Please don’t get too excited.) So just keep your fingers crossed that we come up with a script by Saturday morning and don’t choke on our lines.

Between decorating and vacuuming and practicing my elf moves and a side of sitting around in my pajamas putting random things in my Amazon shopping cart only to abandon them three hours later, I haven’t been able to focus on writing Posts with a Purpose.. But I miss blogging with regularity even though I’m not sure anyone is even reading this thing anymore. Is anyone reading this thing anymore?

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Posted in Christmas, decorating, My Friend V, OCD tendencies, Uncategorized | 15 Comments