A Quote I Love

"Calmness and method...are the housekeeper's best friends.  Do one thing at a time.  (There!  I've forgotten my bread in the oven!  I put it into bake while I was writing.  All burnt on the top!  Oh, Dear!)  Where was I?  Oh, one thing at a time!  Don't stop to shed a retrospective tear over old letters in the garret while baking sponge cake, nor hunt for eggs in the barn with the pantry door wide open for the cat to enter in search of a nice dessert.  A housekeeper needs her wits about her."

- Mrs. Mary R.P. Hatch, Daughters of America, 1890 

A Farm Girl?

I'm not exactly one.  More like two weeks of crazy, inspired self sufficiency in which I start ripping out kitchen walls, crafting from someone else's garbage cast offs, and buying chicks by the double baker's dozen to the other two weeks of dragging myself around and having freak-out-I-want-to-shop-for-shoes-in-a-pretty-store days.  

All this and I want my coffee too.  Yeeesh.

*I should put links in to quickly direct you to those particular posts but THIS is one area of life where my organizational skills have completely tanked.  My apologies.  Most days this blog is a choice.  The other one?  Educating my children and actually being mentally and emotionally present more than just having my body in the room so I'm doing my best to choose to BE there.*

Anyhoo....This is a great blog.  They're doing a Farm Girl Friday Blog Fest.  *could NOT get the button to work so here's a boring ol' link.*

I found it through - shocker - an online friend from the homeschooling forum I'm part of.  I'm trying to remember the exact context of the connection - maybe using egg shells.  Or was it that freak out time I cracked an almost ready to hatch CHICK into our cake batter?  "Happy go back to Spain, Auntie Joy" cake.  Ummm....THAT was gross.   And cool.  And really gross.  And became the Science lesson for the day.  And GROSS.  Did I blog about that?  Hmmm...I'm not finding it.

For your viewing pleasure - or really gross/cool side.



This is how I prefer to have my fresh eggs.  You can't say we aren't learning as we go.  We're getting 10-14 eggs a day. 

  

FYI:  Anyone who buys eggs from me, rest easy as the rooster is dead and gone.  (Riley's school lesson was a long one that day.  Practical though.)  No more fertilization even possible.  Whew - that and we now candle every egg we find that didn't come in THAT VERY DAY.  With the flashlight app.  On the iphone.  In the dark bathroom. 

We maybe need to get out more.  Or just realize we're something in between a farm family and an urban one and enjoy the ride. 

Upcycling

I've seen a few projects I've wanted to tackle and due to life - spending $$ on them is not an option so I'm scrounging around and working with what we have. 

I saw feed bags a few months ago and then found a tutorial on them.  Ha....I have bunches of those from our chicken feed.  One day I had a few hours and wrangled the girls into helping me.  (cooerced and bribed more like - they weren't digging this work thing)  It was educational. 

Janelle helped me quite a bit when the instructions just. weren't. making. any. sense. to me.  Natalie Faith was the picture taker extroadinarie and Charlotte Joy just kept grabbing at stuff being right in the middle of it.  Riley took a couple of random pics but was mostly enjoying his time before FRESHMAN year started in full force. 

Usually sewing is something I avoid like the plauge until I have a strike of 'this looks simple enough'.  About a fourth of the way in I remember why I hate sewing.  My girls heard a lot of "FOR THE LOVE...." and "ARE YOU KIDDING ME???"  I'm sure this will train them up in the way they should go. 

Whatever.

Anyhow - here we go.  A project.  In pictures.


Wash bags after cutting them to about 22" with the 'picture' centered how you want it.  *I* wasn't that exacting.  Shocker. 


Dry in sunshine - we had SUNSHINE!!!


Then - start sewing. 

Get excited because you're actually 'crafting'.  Baby's excited too.


And keep sewing.

 
She keeps laughing.  At me?  Hmmmm......

Then - pull it out and say, "WHAT the heck???"


And continue to say "WHhhhhhaaaaatttt?"  At some point, Janelle helped me visualize what the tutorial was trying to explain.  Yeesh - was I confused.

It's beginning to resemble a bag.  Charlotte is helping also known as yanking on mom's hair because it's right there.



Handles were scrounged from old curtain tie backs I wasn't using but couldn't bear to throw away because they were RED.  :)


Oooohhh - (this is inside out by the way....)

TADA!!!!  The big bag. 

And the shortie one - this is what you get when you screw up the first time around and keep wacking off the messed up bottom but want. to. get. it. right. before. you. give. up. entirely.  :)  Handles are brought to you by old car seat straps that we'd had to cut when we were in that accident to prove we weren't going to use the car seat anymore.  Nice and strong, just shorter.  Perfect fit for the short bag.  It's like I'd planned that. 


End result.  :)

One is now the libary book bag and the other is 'all the stuff I have to cart to the car from the house in remembering to take back to people or places.  Very handy. 

Here's the actual tutorial if you want more specific instructions.  Let me know if you get confused.  I'll send Janelle your way to help you. 

Faith

PS:  Yes, they are blue.  I have yellow bags in which I will make up the REAL, going to do a great job on them, bags.  These were practice bags and have worked well for a start up project. 

A Quote I Love

"Let there be a place for every article, and when not in use let every article be in its place."

 - Mrs. Elizabeth Ellet from The Practical Housekeeper 1857