dark cherry

I went to our annual Holiday art and craft yesterday and took the two older kiddos. I wasn't sure what I was going to buy, but I have learned over the years that I'm better off shopping for myself when it comes to handmade items because it's so hard to guess other people's personal taste. One of this year's featured artists was local woodworker Ken Nelson. He makes amazing decorative bowls and similar items from gorgeous woods. Many of his pieces were around $200. He had two wooden cooking utensils that were labeled as intended to be used to make stir fry. They were two different ones but I found this one to be quite attractive. Ken said that he made it out of dark cherry wood. I tried not to be an impulsive buyer so walked away and looked at other booths and picked up some locally made fudge, a crocheted flower pin and some bracelets for the kids at a non-profit booth run by college students for an organization that helps fight malaria in developing countries.

After I was done looking around I ended up going back to Ken's booth and bought this gorgeous, handmade cooking utensil. At $25, it was definitely a splurge, but I think that individually handmade items have a certain spirit that mass produced items lack. We broke it in tonight when I sauteed celery and onion for this season's first batch of chili.