Tuesday, June 18, 2019

A satisfying project completed


So a couple of weeks ago I tackled a project I've been thinking about for awhile.  It involves recipes printed from online sources (and a few printed out pages from my personal cookbook).  Storing these recipes has been a source of frustration to me for years, and recently it came to me that I could just get a really large binder and place the recipes in page protectors.  I didn't take a photo of the "before" storage, but trust me, it was not pretty.  Photos of the "after" are sprinkled throughout this post.

For some history:  A long time ago (I just looked back -- aren't blog archives wonderful? -- and it was in 2006) I was trying to find a solution for recipes I'd clipped from magazines, and I went shopping to see what I could find that might work.  I think that what I found was intended to be a planter. It’s galvanized metal, long and narrow, with an embossed ivy design. It held my recipes just fine, and looked neater and decorative at the same time. I put index cards in it for dividing the recipes into categories, and it worked well for quite awhile.

Until, that is, I started finding recipes on the internet and began printing them out.  What I found myself doing was to fold these recipes in half and tuck them into the metal box with my clipped out recipes, which these folded pages soon displaced.  I tried to solve it by putting all crockpot recipes in a file folder, and all gluten free recipes in another folder. and placing those with my cookbooks.  That did help quite a bit, but still my metal box was bristling with those folded papers.  It was annoying to look at and even more annoying to have to unfold various papers whenever I was looking for a recipe, to see what it was.  So when this binder idea came to me, I jumped on it.

I got the thickest binder I could find and a couple packs of page protectors.  Then I began the process of moving all of those recipes out of the box and into their new home.  I hadn't been sure what I would use to decorate the covers -- this is the type of binder with a clear pocket on front, back and spine -- but one day I was making an envelope out of a Gooseberry Patch calendar and realized the artwork was the perfect size for these large binders, with only a little trimming necessary.  I cut another piece of a calendar to decorate the spine.  Voila -- an absolutely beautiful binder with some of my favorite scenes on it!
 This past weekend I had some cooking and baking to do and used several of my printed-off-the-internet recipes.  What a blessing to just turn to the appropriate pages in my binder and use the recipes!  I'm very pleased with how this project turned out and how useful it is.

8 comments:

  1. I love that idea of using the calendar pages for the cover! I think I'll go back through my old calendar(s) and think about freshening up my binders too. I actually think I need to split some into a third binder, and maybe a fourth. My two large ones are really running out of space, and I still have a pile of recipes that I need to put in them. Did you separate your recipes by category? I'm thinking perhaps the calendar pages could make good dividers, too. Hmmmm...maybe a project for when my kids are at camp!

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    1. Great idea! I'll probably end up getting another binder eventually, since I'm not likely to just stop printing recipes, and this one is full.

      I sort of loosely put them in categories -- for example, desserts are together, but cakes and pies may not be separated out. The calendar pages might make nice dividers, though I think maybe the paper might be a bit too thin for that. You could cut file folders in half and glue on the artwork, or use card stock, though.

      True -- this might make a really good project to do when the kids are at camp!

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  2. What a fantastic idea and a super way to use beautiful calendar artwork. I have a hard time throwing old calendars out too!

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    1. Thanks, Debby! I simply *have* to reuse the Gooseberry calendars ... I just can't throw away the gorgeous artwork! Often I have made envelopes and mailers out of them.

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  3. I like your recipe binder. I need to compile all of mine as well. The jumbo mess just kind of happens...huh:)?! I have used my calendar pages to put in notebooks because the pages are always so pretty and I can't ever throw anything away which usually results in another mess, but putting them in the notebooks always seemed like a good reuse of them. I especially love Gooseberry pages though. They just make you want to sit and look.

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    1. Yes, that jumbo mess does just kind of happen! Yes, I think using calendar pages in notebooks is a very good use of them. And I completely agree that the Gooseberry pages just make you want to sit and look. Did you know they offer free desktop wallpapers? I keep one on my desktop all the time, changing them seasonally. Just makes me happy.

      I actually suggested to Gooseberry Patch one time that they consider making some of their artwork into cross stitch charts. I hope they may do that eventually!

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  4. I have a recipe binder, but now I want to pretty it up with old calendar pages - like the one I have this year from Susan Branch. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  5. Oh yes, Susan Branch calendar pages would be perfect for that!

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