from scratch magazine

Have you guys ever heard of From Scratch Magazine?

It's a delightful online magazine with everything about homesteading and raising chickens and doing small diy projects around the home.  This month, they have a piece on heirloom vegetables, among other things.

Check it out! I think you'll like it.

photo 7: something cozy

Made a few new beeswax candles in mason jars this week, and specifically made on in an old, stained jar just for myself. I think it gives the bathroom character.

Find the original post here.

twenty five photos of christmas

A few days ago, a friend of mine pinned this (and posted it on facebook).  On the same day (ahem), I realized I haven't been very good about taking and posting photos.  I have a beautiful camera that I love using, but I just haven't used it as much recently, for any number of reasons (can't find a charged battery, too heavy to carry today, etc.)

So, in an effort to improve my skills and post photos to this blog more often, I decided to participate.

Picture 1: something red. 

I'm a couple of days behind, so I'll try and post more soon!

Susannah

carrot fail

Guess carrots aren't my forte. Might need to try again.  They did mature fully and they're a good color, but clearly there's something lacking....

Perhaps I'll try again. Fewer seeds.  And I'll need to do more research (my specialty) to figure out what happened.

carrot update!

 

They're doing so well! Don't you think?  A few more of the seeds germinated than I expected, so the bottle is going to be a bit crowded, I believe. But, oh well.  It's only the first attempt.

 

(In case you missed it, here's the original post on the carrots.)

foundation blanket stitch

Last night, I started a new craft project! I love starting new projects. The problem is 50% of them are left unfinished for ... I'm not telling you how long they stay unfinished for. Drives everyone crazy.  It kind of drives me crazy, too, but I'm okay with it because I'm usually on to the next project.

 

This week? Pillowcase edging!

 

A couple of weeks ago, I found this series of tutorials.  Aren't they darling?  And the blog is so fun to read!

 

I immediately sent the links to my mother, exclaiming how cute they were and lamenting not having a sewing machine. However, I consoled myself by thinking maybe I could talk my sister into sewing a few over her summer break (not that she really has one) and letting me have them to put on the edging.

 

Lo and behold, last night, a surprise box arrived.  I hadn't asked her to do this, but my mother had sewed me a set of pillowcases! They're absolutely adorable.  Blue and green floral print on one side, and green argyle on the other.  So much fun!

 

I dug through my mini-stash (it's small, but only relatively speaking) to find yarn that was the right size.  In the tutorial (from the same series), she recommended regular yarn, but at the weight class one lighter than worsted weight.  After some research, turns out I had some!  I didn't have a blue or green that matched, but this yellow looks cute with it.  (It even got husband color-coordinating approval, after he recovered from the initial shock at the suggestion we should use these "not very manly" pillowcases.)

 

I followed the directions using the smallest darning needle in my set, and this is the result:

 

 

What do you think?

I like it so far. I will finish the edging this week. They're too cute to be left unfinished!

carrots!

Now, you will probably all think I'm silly because of this post, but I don't mind.  I wanted to try an experiment, so I did.  The mister found it difficult to hide his mild contempt at my eccentricity, but he did a splendid job, and I expect you all to appreciate my experiement, as well.

 

It all started when I found this post on Pinterest, which led me to this blog post.

 

Do you see why I was interested?

 

I'm sure many of you know that, at the moment, we live in a teensy studio apartment and space is limited.  My only room for a "garden" is on one particular windowsill in our little 2'x4' "kitchen." Exciting!

 

So, what's a girl to do when she wants to garden but doesn't have space?!  She does it anyway!

 

I followed the ideas/directions in the post, in my own way.  I  picked up a bottle of soda on sale, shared it with the hubby for a few days, chopped off the top with some scissors (yes), left the label on to protect the dirt from too  much sun, and planted carrots! Yes, carrots!

 

Here's what they looked like last week when I was feeling snap-happy with my camera:

 

 

Aren't they cute?! They've germinated and everything!

 

Since then, the little tops are bigger than ever and even have real leaves.  They're 68-day-cycle carrots, so I can't "harvest" for a while, but it's a fun little project/experiment.

 

I threatened to line the other windowsill with bottles of carrots, but that suggestion was vetoed. Guess bigger harvests of veggies will have to continue to wait until I have an actual garden.  C'est la vie. One bottle at a time.

 

Happy Monday!

pincushion mason jar

I've seen these adorable creations all over the internet lately.  Have you?  Well, I decided I needed to have one.  And, as it happens, I had some scrap fabric and some extra batting, and I always have mason jars around. (Yes, I know.)

So! I set to work trying to create one.  Turns out they're pretty easy.  I searched all over the internet for a few good tutorials and decided to gather my favorite parts of each of them into my own tutorial. Here goes!

Supplies:

First, use the lid insert thing to cut out an over-sized circle.  It should be at least an inch bigger all the way around (2 inches if you're measuring diameter). I made mine larger because it was my first one and I was worried it would be too small.

Next, put the batting between the lid and the fabric.

Next, use your handy hot glue gun to start gluing down the sides of the fabric to the underside of the lid.  I pulled it reasonably tight without distorting the fabric.  I also tried to glue everything down as evenly as possible.

Then, I trimmed the leftover fabric to make it as flat as possible.  You could be done after this step if you wanted.

While this could be finished now, I thought maybe it would be nice to wrap up all those loose fabric bit. To the trusty bag of paper!  I cut out a little circle of paper and hot glued it to the bottom.

Add it to your jar with the screw on lid, and voila! A handy jar to keep your pins, notions, sewing bits, buttons, thread, or whatever you please.

lunch bag craft

So.... in cased you  missed it, I tried out some embroidery as a new craft.  After the first project, I was hooked.  But rather than start embroidering anything and everything around me, I figured I would pick out a few small projects to get started and try out my new art form.

About the same time I was brainstorming  projects, I realized I had a serious need of a lunch bag.  Since I've been cooking at home more often and eating more veggies and local produce, that means more lunches brought from home.  I've been using grocery bags or shopping bags or anything around to carry lunches and containers back and forth.

In looking through all my craft supplies and miscellany I have stashed in various hiding places around the apartment, I came across a plain canvas bag.  What luck! A lunch bag! And I didn't have to buy one!

And, to top things off, I could customize it with my new embroidery skills!

Do you like it?

I do!  It's already been used almost every work day since.

canning peaches

It's peach season! And while peaches are cheaper than they are for the entire year, I thought this would be a perfect (and seasonal and local and good-for-us) time to try canning them.

The most helpful tutorial I found online for canning peaches is here.  I'll leave you with a short summary version from my own canning adventures, but it would be a good idea to read the longer version.

Blanche the peaches to easily take the skin off, slice them, and put some lemon juice on them to keep from going brown.

Heat up some water (you won't need as much as you think), and add sugar as you bring it to a boil.  When the water reaches a boil, add the peaches and boil for 5 minutes. Put the lids in a small sauce pan with some water, but make sure the water doesn't boil. You want the sticky stuff on the lid to be sticky, not falling off and ineffective.

With hot jars and hot peaches, load the peaches into the jars.  Use a butter knife to run along the inside of the jar to release air bubbles.  Add juice to the jars if necessary.  Don't leave too much space.

Put the jars back in the canner, fill up until the jars are completely covered and have an extra 1 - 2 inches of water on top, put the lid on, and process for 25 minutes (for sea level locations.)

Voila! Canned peaches!

live simply

Look what my lovely husband got me for my birthday!

I told myself I wasn't allowed to start it until I finished the other project I was working on, but once I started, I was done in just two evenings.

Now to find a way to frame it!