Archive for the ‘home’ Category
A couple of weeks ago, a small hole turned into a giant tear in my daughter’s sheet. Instead of mending it, I decided to save it to use for other projects. I figured I would use some of it to make summer pj’s for the girls. These past two weeks have been filled with runny noses, and the three boxes of kleenex in the closet ( they were given to us this past summer) had finally run out.
Normally we use hankies, but I just don’t have enough to deal with this kind of onslaught. So what do you do when you have four little noses that have decided they are running a marathon and you need a massive amount of hankies fast?
You take your trusty rotary cutter and cut the torn sheet into strips, then squares.
Then you toss them all in a 25 cent thrift store basket and call it a day. I made each hankie 5" square so it’s perfect for one big nose blow. I only used about half of the sheet and got 160 hankies out of it, so let’s just hope that lasts the day.
On a side note, we took the babe in yesterday as her cough had gotten worse. The doctor said that for lack of a better term he was diagnosing her with bronchitis. She is now on antibiotics, and holding steady.
green, home • Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 • 14 Comments »
Well, instead of this last two weeks being filled with projects around the home, decluttering, and general family merriment, it was spent nursing four sick little ones to health. Unfortunately we have not turned round the corner just yet. My kids haven’t been this ill for years, if ever, for some of them. They are holding up pretty well, but it’s not pretty. Lots of really runny noses, not to mention they all sound like barking seals, with this nasty cough.
These daffodils (20 of them for less than $3) in my blue stripey jug have been cheering me up on the kitchen table. This winter has been dreadfully long and I am so ready for spring. A little bit of sunshine in a jug has really helped.
Now the babe has acquired the lovely cough, so it is off to the doctors again as there is nothing over the counter that you can give to a child so young. This ickiness has caused the boys to miss the last two weeks of their swimming lessons, which is very disappointing to them, not to mention we had a birthday boy in midst of all of this. We will be doing a fun day trip for all as soon as everyone is better, in honour of his birthday.
Here is another little bit of springy goodness, a vintage sheet for my daughter’s bed. Bright orange and yellow flowers have really cheered her room up, and she loves it, just what she needed in the midst of feeling so blah.
Well, my plan is to be back regularly now, but if I don’t show up one day, just know that I want to be here, but other duties call. Hope you all are feeling well, and had a nice restful weekend.
gardening, home, thrift store finds • Monday, March 8th, 2010 • 10 Comments »
Just popping in to let you know about my March projects. So far my time away from the blog has accomplished me absolutely nothing. We have all been struck by a nasty cold and apart from my head feeling like it’s going to explode for the last several days, I’ve got four snotty children, two of whom now have lovely coughs to go along with the nose running.
Ugh, anyway, I have higher plans for the rest of the week provided that recovery is speedy. At least we all came down with it at the same time, way better than it dragging on for a month because everyone gets sick one at a time.
So, first off, Mousy Brown and Rattling On have set up a String-a-Long 2010 challenge. I was so excited as I have been making fabric shopping bags forever, and always loved string bags, but had never made one myself.
I’ve got my yarn and hook ready and as soon as I can think straight without all the pressure in my sinuses, then I’ll be off. I’m using the Econo-Shopper Mesh Bag pattern for my first one, but I have plans to try out several different patterns over the course of the month.
As you can see from my yarn choice, I have opted for a more outlandish colour, just kidding. I can’t seem to get out of my kick of coordinating colours at the moment. I’m trying to have several in the same shades to look nice on a hook by the door, but I do intend to make some more fun coloured bags to have in the car.
Next, my March change for One Small Change. I’ve struggled to come up with what change we should work on, so I think this month it will be a combination of a few small things. We’ve gone to shopping less often, yay, so making some more string bags will help as I need more to hold the larger amount of groceries.
I also want to bring in some air cleansing plants into the house. Ever since I ditched the peace lily I haven’t had any plants that are good at purifying the air, so I want to get a few in the house. Lastly, the winter wind is starting to die down, so I am hopeful that by the end of the month we should be able to go back to line drying our laundry. Our house is too small for me to hang it inside during the winter months, there is literally no room to accommodate all that much laundry so I can’t wait to be able to get it back outside.
As far as February’s change went, it went really well. I did have to get rid of two onions as they were bad, but I am pretty sure that they were already bad when I got them as they were in the middle of a huge bag of onions that I bought and every other onion was fine. We were very careful about eating every last bite of everything that came into the house and had very little waste.
Well, I’m off again for the week. I’m hoping to be back towards the end of the week, but that will depend on how everybody is feeling. I’ll pop in for sure on Friday and let you know what’s going on. I hope everyone is having a great week, I’ll catch up with you guys later.
crochet, gardening, green, home, nature • Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 • 13 Comments »
I’ve been doing this little blog here for a while now and have truly loved it. This past week I have struggled with feeling uninspired and overwhelmed. I’m sure it has to do with being super busy and having a hugely long to do list that is just not getting done. I’m going to take a few days off here in this space and try to get things sorted out at home. I’m hoping this will free up the creative spot in my brain that is being crushed at the moment. I will miss you while I am gone, but I believe I will be able to come back more organized and calm and ready to go.
I plan on popping in next Tuesday and then being back in full force by the end of next week. I just need a little time to take care of my family, my home, the kids schooling and my tired brain. Thank you to everybody who stops by and especially to those who leave comments, I still have a hard time believing why anybody would take the time to come by, but I do appreciate it.
Have a wonderful week and I’ll see you next Tuesday.
family, home • Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 • 23 Comments »
I would love to live in a little stone farmhouse, complete with lush, rolling fields.
With a warm fireplace, big bowls of fruit on a wooden table, and windowsills full of clay pots of flowers.
Look! It’s my bowl.
Where we can sit outside on a blanket, under a tree, surrounded by flowers, eating a picnic.
In a small village with a summer fete.
Where children can run and play safely, there’s a gorgeous church down the lane and maybe even a few cows on the lawn.
Where you can buy fruits, veg, bread, pastries, flowers, even fabric at the market.
Where everywhere I look there are green rolling fields, stone walls and bridges, and sweet animals.
Well, a girl can dream, can’t she?
All images from James Herriot’s Treasury for Children, one of my favourite children’s books.
family, home, nature • Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 • 21 Comments »
A couple of weeks ago, Hubby and I went on a date sans kids (thanks mom!) Though it may not sound extremely romantic, we went to Barnes and Noble and just read quietly for an hour. It was so nice to flip through magazines without having to keep one eye on the kids.
I was flipping through the US Country Living and saw an article about using sweaters to cover items in your home. I loved the vases, but their instructions were vague at best and involved a lot of cutting and hot glue. Sounded kind of messy to me.
I wasn’t really keen on the idea of them being glued together as cleaning the cover and vase if necessary, wouldn’t be very easy. I also wanted to be able to swap out covers to coordinate with whatever was in them, or wherever they were in the house.I knew I could figure out a better way, so I gathered some thrifted sweaters and some empty bottles, and away I went. I am really pleased with how they turned out. I think it’s a really nice way to add some colour and texture to an arrangement.
They are so easy to make, and very quick as well. It’s fun to use different textured and patterned sweaters to create some different looks. Here is a tutorial in case you want to make some of your own.
Hope you guys have a great weekend.
gifts, green, home, sewing, thrift store finds • Saturday, February 6th, 2010 • 14 Comments »
We use washcloths and dishrags instead of paper towels. We use them all the time, and have quite a few. We need them for the dishes, spills, washing up the babe after every meal. For months now, they have been a big pain. They have been juggled from one place to the other not really having a proper home.
When we were visiting Hubby’s grandparents in December, his grandmother had a massive box of magazines ready for recycling. She let me go through them and keep whatever I wanted. I saw this idea in a Good Housekeeping, though they intended it for keeping lingerie in the closet.
I had completely forgotten about this until I ran by the torn out picture the other day. This, I thought, would be perfect to house all of our towels. It needed to be somewhere in reach of the kids (so that they can grab a washcloth), but still not a huge eyesore.
In a perfect world, all of the towels would be neatly stacked somewhere, but let’s face it, that isn’t ideal. I spend all the time to fold them up, and then they just end up in a messy pile anyhow. So now, as soon as they are clean, they go into their new bag and just stay there until needed. No folding necessary.
All you do is find a pretty vintage pillowcase and a wooden embroidery hoop. I already had these in my stash, two vintage pillowcases at 25 cents each, and two wooden embroidery hoops at 25 cents each from my thrift store. I used a 10″ and 12″ hoop. Now, technically this is no sew, unless of course you’re me. Then, because you haven’t loosened the hoop quite enough, when you try and scootch the fabric around, you simultaneously tear two rips into your pillowcase. Then you spend the next 20 minutes hand mending the tears. Normally though, this involves no sewing at all.
If I really wanted to take a lot of time, I could have trimmed the top of the bag to make it even instead of just letting it fold down into the bag, but I kind of like this way better. Then if I ever decide to swap the pillowcase out for another colour or pattern, I haven’t ruined these.
Anyway, you need to put the inner hoop down inside the pillowcase and fold the top down into it. In order for it to lay straight, you need to put more of the front side of the pillowcase down in , than the back. I hope that’s not too confusing. Really, just play around with it and get it to lie like you want it to. Then cut an approx. 6″ length of ribbon (I used twill tape) and fold it in half. You are going to lay the raw edges down on top of the fabric that is folded over the inner ring. Make sure that the raw edges are pointing away from you and that the fold is hanging towards you. Carefully put the outer hoop on top, catching the hanging ribbon, and tighten.
If you are using vintage fabric, especially, be careful not to pull the fabric around too much, otherwise you might indeed end up sewing.
On a completely side note, the other day I really felt like some kind of hot chocolate with a twist. I opened the cupboard that holds all of our tea, coffee, etc. and saw a tub of Nutella staring at me. I wonder… Yes indeed it was delicious. I heated up some milk on the stove, stirred a spoonful of Nutella in, and yum. Yum, Yum, Yum.
The girls both have colds, and I think I’m coming down with one too. I’ve got a nice scratchy throat. I’m hoping it doesn’t last too long.
food, green, home, sewing, thrift store finds • Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 • 19 Comments »
Two days ago, the weather was gorgeous. Well, still a little chilly, but not so cold and windy that we couldn’t play outdoors. I bundled the babe up and took the kids out to play. They all had lots of fun, and I sat on the porch wrapped in a blanket reading a book with a mug of warm milk.
I don’t get outdoors enough in the winter. If it’s not too cold, the kids go outside and play, but me, I’m usually inside trying to get laundry, cooking etc. done while they are out. Boy, it felt really good to be out there. Sitting and reading, which doesn’t happen much during the day, with the sunshine beating down on my face.
I need to get out more. I know it seems kind of silly that some days I don’t even step outside of the house, but some days I don’t. We homeschool, so I don’t have to take the kids somewhere every day, and with the windchill dropping the temperature by 20 degrees most of the winter, it’s not that brilliant for being outside. That wind can be brutal, one of the downsides of winter in Wyoming.
As with the 20 minutes of crafting each day, I am going to try to spend 20 minutes outdoors. I’m not sure if it’ll happen every day, but I’m going to try. I think can do twenty minutes.
Other news around here, our big guy did a great job with getting his tooth pulled. I had such traumatic memories of the dentist when I was a kid, but I shouldn’t have even worried. I love our kid’s dentist, and they do too. They had it out in a matter of minutes and he came bounding out with his tooth in a little tooth shaped container.
Our kiddo has been wearing a night guard as part of a series of nightguards to hopefully avoid full on braces. Today we got the bad news that he will have to wear real braces for a while as the permanent tooth that was growing in behind the baby one will need some work to be pulled forward.
I also found out that my lovely braces will now be on till March 29th. Ugh! They were originally supposed to be off last September, and it has been dragging since then. So, for a little while here, me and my kiddo will both have braces on at the same time. He is really excited at the thought of having blue bands around his brackets. The kids are always disappointed when I refuse to get hot pink ones. I try to explain that that is more for kids, and not mommies.
Good news though, our van is fixed. What we thought was going to be a whole transmission problem was just one little part. The dealer was going to charge us $170 to switch it out. Hubby ordered the part for $35 and switched it himself. Yay! That was a huge relief.
Don’t forget to leave a comment on yesterday’s post for a chance to win some cloth bags. It’s nice to meet some new people.
Hope you guys have a great day. I’ll see you tomorrow.
books, family, home, homeschooling • Friday, January 29th, 2010 • 14 Comments »
In my effort to be more organized, I have been trying to figure out what some of our big problem areas are. One small problem area is bath towels. After bath time, there is always at least one bath towel laying on the floor. None of the kids want to claim it as their own, and we often can’t be sure which child left it there.
In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a massive problem, but it is something that we can fix very easily. I kept my eyes out at the thrift store for some pretty vintage towels for the girls. Now, every child has their own colour of towel, which means that we know exactly whose towel is on the floor.
We could have just bought different coloured towels at the store, but why do that when there are some fantastic vintage ones out there, and at a fraction of the price. I just love these and the girls really like the floral patterns. Besides, they are very good quality towels, they have to be, to be in such good shape after years of use.
So we’ll see how this organizes bath time a bit better. I guess if all else fails, we have prettier towels.
family, green, home, thrift store finds • Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 • 15 Comments »
Normally when I start working on a project, I know where it is going. I really didn’t know what I wanted to do when I started embroidering this fabric. It sat around for a while while I tried to figure out what it was going to be. Then I decided that hey, a girl can never have too many zippered pouches, right?
I use them for lots of things. They are perfect for throwing a chapstick and a couple of dollars in. I used to use one with the babe, for carrying a couple of pacifiers. They’re good to hold coupons, or use for a makeup bag. I even have a bigger one that contains an entire clean outfit for the babe in the diaper bag. They are so versatile, you can make them in any size and I find myself using them all of the time.
Our thrift store sells bags of 3-5 vintage and new zippers for a quarter, so between that and the scraps of fabric to make the bags, they cost pennies. They make fantastic gifts, especially if you make two or three in graduated sizes.
Do you use zippered pouches? What do you put in them?
gifts, green, home, sewing, thrift store finds • Monday, January 25th, 2010 • 14 Comments »
