What is a French Butter Press?

I have wanted a French Butter Press for awhile but many people do not know what it is. And despite having attended lots of pottery and craft shows, I have only found about three or four or five.

Number One I bought for my Mom who refused to use it for about three years until I threatened to take it away from her. She now uses it and loves it!

Number Two was wonderful and colourful and I should have bought it then. Regrets...

Number Three through Five were made by a potter who had absolutely no idea how it functions and was simply weird.

Finally I have found one. It is boringly white. You probably don't know what it is - because they are not very popular. Let me tell you about it and you'll want one too!

This is a French Butter Press:

When you open it up it looks like this:

The inside should be round. Not a tube like the freaky one I saw at a market one time. The idea is to press your butter into the lid like so:

You smooth the butter so it looks nice:

In the lower portion of the bowl, you place cool water and invert your lid with it's butter into it. Based on the principal that water repels oil, the butter sits in it's lid, being cooled by the room temperature water.

TAH DAH! The water should be replaced every week. Another trick is to not get bread crumbs into the butter. Guess we will see how that works out. Oh, and it holds about 1/4 cup of butter, just incase you are wondering that too.

This little baby is replacing a rather ugly butter holder I throw in and out of the fridge now:

Pink Tiles Be Gone!

Why, oh why were pink tiles laid in my kitchen? When I think of kitchen colours, I do not think "PINK." I think green, or blue, or white....but not pink.

To start off with my current project, I must be honest. My apartment is not high-style and seriously needs some TLC which I am not about to give it, as it is, my landlords job. And should I complain since I have relatively inexpensive rent? Perhaps not. But the pink tiles are horrible and I know I can fix that!

Yes, I know there is paint to cover tiles but that would mean I would need to re-grout. The colour white would also clash with my beige walls, which maybe I will one day paint. Odds are however, I won't.

In this project, as with many others, I am using removable book vinyl. I love the stuff. I use it in all sorts of ways. This project also uses a product that simulates steel and is just shelf paper. Combine the two together and voila: a removable steel backsplash!!!

Materials:
Removable Book Vinyl (from Dollarama), at least 4 tubes
Simulated Steel Shelf Paper (at Canadian Tire, about $14 a tube); you will likely need at least 3 tubes
A Ruler and an Exacto Knife
Plenty of Patience if you are not crafty

1. Clean your tiles with soap and water. Clean your work surface. Any small bit of dust will adhere to the sticky side of your vinyl and will make a hideous bump. I used my countertop which has seen better days and I used my Exacto Knife on it too. I don't recommend this.

2. Adhere your book vinyl to your work surface. Be careful not to have bubbles in the vinyl. I suggest adhering the clear vinyl to end of the roll and slowly peel back the paper beneath, pressing down as you unroll.

3. Add silver vinyl overtop of clear vinyl. Why are we doing this? To make the silver removable for when you or I move out. We could avoid this step had the company that makes the silver vinyl removable but of course they haven't (just to make our lives difficult! GEEZ!) Again, work from one edge and slowly peel back the paper. You can only correct your air bubbles a few times before you will lift the silver off your vinyl.

You will get bumps: it is inevitable but don't worry too much
about them, we will fix those later...

4. At this stage you will have a heavy duty silver vinyl for your tiles. Cut and paste as you like. I use my hands to smooth the surface though you may find using a credit card as a squeegie helps. You may have little bumps from bits on your "clean" work surface (mine were bread crumbs). Remove those with your nail.

Measuring twice and cut once, remember! The odd ripple is inevitable.

Curses! A breadcrumb!

There are two styles you can try: A geometric style that I first tried and failed at. While the patterns look neat, it is difficult to cover the pink tiles because of the poor grouting and does tend to draw even more attention to the missing grout. The benefit of this technique is the great way it uses up your scraps.

Okay it really isn't all that bad. Repeatedly measuring your squares
does get trying.

The second (and method I wished I had used first), is covering up all the edges of the tiles with the vinyl creating a very slick appearance. By overlapping your seams, you are creating nearly-seamless look and covers up that awful grout!

Corners are handled much the same way as wallpapering....

Adhere vinyl to area and begin to cut away your corner with an Exacto Knife to
have a shaped edge.

Bubbles? Just like wall paper, use your Exacto Knife to poke a hole in the bubble and smooth to let the air out.

Don't immediately puncture your vinyl bubbles until you have tried placing
the vinyl on the wall. The bubbles may just be from air beneath the clear vinyl/work surface
and will disappear once you lift the material off your work surface.

Enjoy your fancy backsplash! I started this project over a year ago and the first vinyl I laid is still adhered and removes just as easily from the tiles as day one. The corners of the geometric squares are still stuck to the tile, though some (not many) have begun to dog-ear. Frankly, it is better than pink. The surface is great to wipe down messes...I may not even remove mine when I move out because it is just so darn great.

Blueberry Crumble not included...now I just have to fix the caulking....)-: