so many uses...

for an empty altoid tin. these were posted on etsy today. the bird one sold w/in 5 minutes of being listed!

gardener's delight (seeds not included)

for the birds(sold)

pocket meditation kit

i intend to follow up the last post with my new goal list for 009...haven't had time to finish up that yet though.

in the meantime, i love this idea:

tea bag holder

i'm always carrying tea bags because most restaurants don't have herbal tea selections. we don't eat out much so the bags get pretty tattered bouncing around in there. this is a perfect solution!

out with the old...

2008 was a so-so year for goals. i feel like i slacked of on so much this year, bored with the mundane. next years goals are more focused and will hopefully bring back the energy and desire to get. it. done. i had my moments but not as many as i should have.

outdoors:
-grow hay and feed for animals (in progress)
-rain cistern
-gutters on barn for rainwater collection
-pasture for goats completed
-chicken tractor for broilers
-bees
-enlarge pond to incorporate fish

household:
-get back to making more basics: bread, yogurt, etc doing
-root cellar
-continue sewing clothes doing
-focus more on preparedness (in progress)
-preserve more food: can tomatoes (sauce and ketchup); put by potatoes, yams, onions, apples, squash and garlic; freeze okra, green beans and blackberries; make lots of jam (cherry, mulberry, peach, blackberry); applesauce; dry tomatoes, apples, onions; attempt to make fruit leathersas much as crops allowed me to
-keep purging possessions (in progress)
-continue to make majority gifts & cards throughout the year (in progress)
-work on budget, get it down slowly chipping away at it

personal:
-be a better person, more respectful, cheerful, caring (i'm trying!!...trying to follow quaker philosophy)
-contribute articles to herbal magazine (at least 3)
-write to 1 friend each month (real life snail mail)
-revive family game night once a week (played more games towards the fall)
-upload photos to snapfish and order prints(2008 done!)

just listed on etsy!

hooty

invasion of the gnomes

from this...

to this....

it's a gnome party!

now available for sale on my etsy shop.

more handmade holiday gifts

now that the kids have opened their gifts, i can post them!

now with syrup and butter...

jaden set up quite a spread this morning for us, complete with silk napkins! she loves the felt food and i gave her the extra set i had.

i sewed up pats of butter and cut out sploshes of maple syrup to dress up the pancakes with...
they look good enough to eat!


as i was sewing the eggs, i recalled i had already made some for one of our friends so i made him pasta instead...fattoria is farm in italian. it was hard getting that linguini into the bag!

so much to do, so little time...

3 days until solstice!

i have all but 1 present under the tree and i am afraid it's not going to arrive by saturday night so i'll have to wrap a picture of the item. grrr. it's my own fault, i ordered a custom made civil war cap for my stepson not realizing it was custom made and could take 6-8 weeks to arrive. it is supposed to arrive next week though so that's not too bad.

now i'm frantically finishing gifts for friends. i'm halfway through the felt food pancake sets. i am making 6 sets of 3 pancakes, 2 pieces of bacon and 2 fried eggs. all i have left is to finish sewing the yolks on the eggs. alnmost done there. i am also contemplating cutting out some dark brown felt 'syrup' splotches and yellow squares down sewn to make butters pats.

next up is the magic 5 game sets. i am halfway done. i have 5 more sets of the wooden disks to sand, paint and seal and 5 sets of dice. matriarchy gave me a great idea to add to the existing magic 5 game set over in the comments on my women not dabbling in normal post last week. thanks matriarchy for the great idea! i went out and purchased wooden cubes and am painting them as matching dice for the sets. the bags are all sewn and the instruction cards for the 2 games are already printed, laminated and in the bag. the painting will take a few hours to complete, including sealing but i still have to sand 2 sets and that's going to take awhile as well.

other than that, i have a few gifts to finish wrapping but aren't needed until we do the traditional family christmas stuff on christmas eve and day so i'm not worried about that. i also need to whip up a couple batches of fudge by monday, make a couple cute gnomes for a friend's son's b-day party on sunday (he's a solstice baby), make a batch of lotion for a gift order for a friend, make some more peppermint bark and assemble about 20 or 30 gift bags, 14 that will be needed for monday and the rest on wed and thur. oh, and package soaps for all those bags and a set to drop off at the library for the staff there.

other than that, i'm done. ha.

we've all been battling something. diarrhea for some, sore throats, headaches and sinus congestion for others. i fall in the other category, most likely because i fell in the some category earlier this week. tis the season.

time to get some shut eye so i can get up, rinse and repeat.

hey kool aid!

i wouldn't waste my time making kool aid to drink but today, we used a bunch of packets i had purchased years ago to do some silk dying.

we played with some 11 x 11 hankies i had purchased from dharma trading and i love the results. i am going to make a bunch for stuffing into eggs for our annual ostara egg hunt for playgroup...

jaden helped me and it took less than an hour from start to finish.

here's how we did it:

put 3 c. white vinegar in a stock pot with about 1/2 full hot water.

add playsilks to be dyed and allow them to sit for 30 minutes.

mix 1 packet per every 3 hankie play silks (3 packets for a 35 x 35) in 2 c. hot water and 2 c. white vinegar.

add playsilks and stir for up to 5 minutes until color is depleted from dye bath and absorbed into silks.

hang to dry.

rinse in cold water.

hang to dry.

play!

tag!

stephany at naturally simple tagged me. Green Meme #2. It was the first time I was tagged, too.

Guidelines:

1) Link back to Green Meme Bloggers. (use image if you like)

2) Link back to whoever tagged you (no need to wait to be tagged!)

3) Include meme number

4) Include these guidelines in your post

5) Tag 3 other green bloggers.

1. Do you use baking soda toothpaste or baking soda shampoo? If not, would you consider it?
i use baking soda for brushing my teeth (and the little ones too) and i use the acv method for hair washing which includes baking soda on my hair. for the little ones, i use the bar of soap for their hair.

2. Do you make any home cleaning products?
i use vinegar and baking soda for most cleaning. for laundry right now, i am not making my own right now but plan on going back to it once my trader joe's detergent is all used up.

3. What is your top green issue at the moment?
using a vehicle more than i want/like to. i have to drive once a week to pick up my older kids from their dad's so i try to combine errands on that day but $10 off day for grocery shopping falls on different day of the week so i have to go out on that day every couple of weeks to grocery shop. also, i'm almost done with my master naturalist course which is on another day of the week.

4. Given unlimited cash, what is on your fantasy green wishlist?
solar and wind power for the house and barns, james wringer washer, green house with natural heating source and solar shower, outdoor kitchen for summer cooking and canning, cisterns for our own water catchment, be totally free of the grid. I too would also have one of these:

5. Have you implemented any new green act/behaviour/product this month?
cooking on the wood burning stove to not use propane/waste energy, buying items such as the catalyst cap for our peacock hand warmers and berkey water filter to eventually use with our own well/cistern water

finally!

i've got my etsy shop up.

simplicity in action

patching jeans with scraps of wool sweaters

snuggling together for warmth

puzzles and games trump tv

regular blogging will now resume...

after several months of limping along, typing without the 3, e, d, f, c keys, it all came to an end today when my new keyboard arrived in the mail.

i finally buckled down and resolved to live without my laptop for 1 week (what the computer repair guy said it would take to get it done). i sent it off with greg to drop off across the street from his office. he brought it back home that night saying it was recommended i buy a keyboard off ebay and then bring it in for them to install.

well, they were going to charge me $50 to do that and being the cheapskate i am, i started researching how to install it myself. finally, i stumbled across dell's manual that gives you step by step instructions on how to do it. basically, you remove the battery, pop off the plate above the keyboard, unscrew 2 screws, unplug it from the mother board, plug in the new one, screw back in, replace plate, put battery back on and presto....i'm back to my 60wpm typing!!!! HAL - A - LU - YAH! 5 minutes of my time. amazing how simple it was.

making up for lost time now! :D

independence days - week 29

since i'm struggling to get the garden in again this year due to my rambunctious toddler, i thought taking the id challenge would be a good moral booster for me. i try to practice this idea anyway during the growing seasons so it's a great reminder of how much i really do even when it feels like i do nothing.

i am now focusing more preparedness & solstice gifts.

1. plant something

2. harvest something:
^eggs
^calendula flowers
^chard
^celery
^carrots
^rutabagas
^sunchokes

3. preserve something:

4. prep something:
^8 dozen cookies into freezer for solstice goody bags

5. cook something:
^rutabagas...they are quite good, better than turnips

6. manage your reserves:
^

7. work on local food systems:

8. reduce waste:
^use canvas bags at grocery store
^re-use egg cartons for our nest run eggs

9. Learned a skill:

our nature table

a bit chaotic but loved by all.

i got this gnome when i was a kid...he is the keeper of the hollow tree home. there are all sorts of treasures hidden inside.

my newest addition...three cedar mushrooms from etsy seller mamakopp. aren't they lovely???

independence days - week 28

since i'm struggling to get the garden in again this year due to my rambunctious toddler, i thought taking the id challenge would be a good moral booster for me. i try to practice this idea anyway during the growing seasons so it's a great reminder of how much i really do even when it feels like i do nothing.

still going!

1. plant something

2. harvest something:
^eggs
^calendula flowers
^chard
^celery
^carrots
^rutabagas
^sunchokes

3. preserve something:

4. prep something:
^quartered potatoes

5. cook something:
^rutabagas...they are quite good, better than turnips

6. manage your reserves:
^more lamp oil stored
^

7. work on local food systems:

8. reduce waste:
^use canvas bags at grocery store
^re-use egg cartons for our nest run eggs

9. Learned a skill:

How do you make Corn Flakes?

this was in a newsletter i get through email. i thought it was interesting...

What you will need:
A large stainless steel, flat bottom frying pan
1 cup of finely ground or medium-fine ground corn meal
¼ cup of granulated sugar or powder sugar
2 fine small sifters (one for corn meal and one for sugar)
1 spray bottle for water

Directions:
Place the frying pan in medium heat. Place some corn meal in the sifter and powder the frying pan with corn meal—as thick or as thin as you would like your corn flakes.

Next, fill out the spray bottle with water and spray the corn meal in the pans until it is well moist, but not running.

Do not stir. You never touch it.

Let it cook slowly until the water is halfway evaporated, and immediately sift sugar to taste on top. If you prefer, you can make it plain. Let it cook until the water dries out and the flakes begin releasing from the bottom of the pan. Don't let it burn. If necessary, scrape the flakes out with a metal spatula.
The flakes will be large. Store in air tight container.
That is it. Enjoy your corn flakes!

independence days - week 27

since i'm struggling to get the garden in again this year due to my rambunctious toddler, i thought taking the id challenge would be a good moral booster for me. i try to practice this idea anyway during the growing seasons so it's a great reminder of how much i really do even when it feels like i do nothing.

over the hump!

1. plant something

2. harvest something:
^eggs
^calendula flowers
^chard
^celery
^carrots
^sweet potatoes (i forgot i had them!)
^3 roosters
^rutabagas
^sunchokes
^zinnia seeds

3. preserve something:

4. prep something:
^started growing eyes on potatoes

5. cook something:
^rutabagas...they are quite good, better than turnips

6. manage your reserves:
^gauze bandages/pads, surgical tape purchased for first aid kit
^rubber hot water bottle (we now have 5...used to keep us warm in bed at night)

7. work on local food systems:

8. reduce waste:
^use canvas bags at grocery store
^re-use egg cartons for our nest run eggs

9. Learned a skill:
^

terrible twos?!