Getting There

Looking forward.

I wrote in my last post that I was feeling good...well that was then, and now, the sleep deprivation that inevitably befalls new mothers has set in...my mind is in a fog much of the time, and my baby girl is keeping me quite busy, which is why I have been absent from this space for so long.

It's more than worth it, of course...just look at that adorable face!

Although I'm mostly happily occupied with the wee one, I do find time now and then to think about my plans for spring and summer. I tried to be realistic and not bite off more than I can chew this year, but I am always trying to learn new skills and find new ways to be self-sufficient. It's just the way we live, now.

I believe I have mentioned that my main gardening project for this year is to grow an herb garden, with a mixture of culinary and medicinal herbs. I'm going to just buy the culinary herbs, since I have limited space and really only room for one plant of each variety. But I wanted to try growing the medicinal plants from seed. So far all I have done is plant some lavendar and yarrow in the window next to our back door. The yarrow came up about two days, and much to my surprise, the lavendar followed about a day later (those are the little green specks in the background).

I was surprised because I had read online that lavender germinates slowly, taking up to 30 days. But these sprouts appeared in about 3-4 days. My seed packet from Horizon Herbs also stated that lavender has a low germination rate--only 5 seeds might sprout out of a pack of 100. So of course I planted the full pack, and now it looks like every single seed sprouted. I guess I'll have a lot of extra plants to give away this year, if even a third of those little sprouts survive.

I meant to plant some chamomile and calendula today, but as it's already getting late it looks like I won't get around to it until tomorrow.

One thing we have firmly planned for this summer is to pick a lot more berries than we did last year. It seemed last summer that we were picking a ridiculous amount, and yet our jam has reached pathetically low levels, and it's only April! We have only 1 jar each of blueberry, grape jelly, strawberry, and apple butter, looking all lonely on the pantry shelf.

And the raspberry and cherry jams have been gone for a while. I finally broke down this past week and bought a jar of raspberry jam at the store. It just didn't feel right! This year I'll be sure to make a lot more jam, and freeze a lot more berries as well, since Jasper adores frozen blueberries for a snack every morning.

I can't wait for the local strawberries to be in season!

Another thing I'm looking forward to is starting to sew my own clothes--when I have the time! I recently purchased the book Sew What! Skirts, and the Homestead Blessings DVD on The Art of Sewing, both of which contain easy to understand instructions on making a long tiered skirt. I love wearing long skirts, and my husband loves it when I wear them too. Besides, I really need new clothes...not only has my regular wardrobe gotten very shabby over the years, as I never wanted to spend money on clothes, but my post-baby body fits into almost nothing in my closet anyway. So a few long skirts with an elastic waist are just what I need. I just have to get the fabric, which means finding time to make it to the fabric store or the thrift store...it's definitely on my to do list.

We're also just about to redecorate our dingy looking livingroom, which is pretty exciting since I have loathed the colour of paint in there since we moved in to this house 5 years ago--but perhaps that merits a post of its own. :)

Well, those are the things on my mind lately...with spring in the air I am itching to do so many things, but of course I have to spend most of my time with the baby...which is not so bad at all!

Baby bibs.

I decided that some of the quilting fabric I bought from Etsy to go into the baby girl quilt I'm making was a little bit too loud to go with the other fabrics. So then I decided to make a few baby bibs. This will be baby #4, and my bib supply is severely diminished. A few fresh, girly looking bibs seemed like a great idea, especially since I am still a beginner to the world of sewing, and I'm still trying to find small, easy projects to work on before I move to the more challenging world of sewing clothing.

I found an easy and free pattern here, and got to work. I used quilting fabric for the front, and plain white flannel for the back.   The fabric is a vintage print I bought for very cheap, the flannel was taken from some old, gently-used cloth diapers, and the snap was free (I traded my grandma some snaps for some hook-and-eyes I had, that she needed.)

This bib is supposed to be "infant sized," which I take it means it's just for the drooling, spit-up stage, not for meals. I think with the fabrics I used it's a bit thin though even for that. When I make more I think I will use a double layer of flannel. Terrycloth would work too, but I don't have any old towels that aren't hideous colours.

Last night after the kids were in bed, Chris and I were sitting having our nightly chat. He was carving a wooden spoon, and I was sewing a snap onto the bib. We had a discussion about how much we both truly enjoy making things. Baby spoons and bibs are two things which are very easy to come by in the stores, but if we were to buy them not only would we spend more money, but we would lose the satisfaction of creating something new with our own hands. It almost seems like magic, to take something that looks like nothing--a rough block of wood, or a square of fabric--and turn it into something. I doubt we will ever tire of this.

I look forward to the day when my sewing skills have improved to the point where I can make clothing for myself and for the children. For now though, I'll practice on bibs. Those curves are actually pretty tricky!

Good things.

I apologize for the lack of posts lately--all I can say is, life has been crazy. The latest manifestation of said craziness is the fact that all three of my children came down with the flu. And then I did too. Not fun. I still feel a little bit like I have been run over by a truck.

But no matter how stressful and crazy and miserable life can get, there is always something good there if you look for it, right? So rather than share the difficulties of the past week, I thought I'd share today some good things that have happened.

On Monday, a package arrived in the mail from someone very special to me, which was a complete surprise. Books! And what lovely books they were...The Little House Cookbook, Little House Paper Dolls, and My Little House Crafts book.

I really love the Little House Cookbook, so much so that I think I'll do a post all about it some time soon. Receiving these books inspired me to start reading Little House in the Big Woods with Owen for his bedtime stories, and we're both really enjoying it!

I also got a scrap of vintage fabric in the mail, which I had found on Etsy for a mere $1.75! A few squares of this are going to go into the quilt for the new baby. If there is enough left over, I plan to make a cute little girly bib.

This might sound silly, but due to it being winter, my lips have been so painfully cracked and chapped. A few days ago I found some Burt's Bees lip balm in the cupboard I had bought before Christmas and then forgot about, so I decided to try it. It's working wonders! My lips are no longer cracked, for the first time in months. What a relief. I wish I had tried this stuff sooner.

Owen was never very much into drawing, but lately he's decided that he likes it and he has been drawing up a storm! He fills at least a dozen papers per day with drawings of trucks, animals, flowers, and cars...it's so wonderful to see my children be creative. Often in the evening, both boys will sit at the diningroom table and do drawings together with coloured pencils. This makes me so happy. The other day, Owen brought me this picture of the two of us:

Can you tell which one is me? ;)

On Friday, my husband arrived home from grocery shopping with some potted flowers for me! Now, wasn't that thoughtful? It's so nice to have real flowers in the house in January.

Lastly, our Etsy shop has done good business this week, which is a blessing we are very thankful for.

When I look at all these things, I see it hasn't been a bad week at all.

As soon as I am fully over this dratted flu, I will be back. Until then! :)

A wee little project, and some thrifty finds.

A kind friend recently gave me a variety of quilting fabric, and the other night I decided to use a few bits to make the mousepad project from Amanda Soule's Handmade Home, which I currently have out from the library.

Although my fabric store didn't have heavy interfacing as the instructions required, leaving the pad rather floppy, I think it worked well. It gave me a chance to practice using the zig zag stitch on my machine, as well as an opportunity to try using fusible interfacing for the first time (and hey, it's much easier than I thought it would be). I like the colourful fabric too--it brightens up our old, tired looking computer desk.

Yesterday I went shopping, intending to find some more fabric for the baby quilt I'm going to make. I couldn't find any (at least, not any on sale) but I did make some nice finds at the thrift store.

The two bedsheets are in great condition--I'm not sure what I'll make with them yet but I couldn't leave that much cute fabric there for the price. The vintage apron (for a mere 99 cents) is a necessity for me now, since I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and my pregnant belly tends to pick up a lot of splatters! And the nightgown pattern is from 1952. Isn't it lovely? In a few years when my as yet unborn babe is a little girl, and my sewing skills have improved, I plan on giving it a try.

It's enjoyable to think about doing crafty things indoors while the weather is so cold outside...in a few months I know I'll be yearing to get into the garden (newborn strapped on) but for now, I'm having a great time thinking about things I'm going to sew.

Goals for the coming year.

Out with the old, in with the new! With 2010 behind us, we're filled with ideas and plans for the new year. First and foremost, before we start up homeschooling again on Monday (we took three weeks off for the holidays) I want to clean this house from top to bottom, and get it organized! A lofty goal, yes, but I'm going to get started just as soon I finish writing this post. Wish me luck! The idea of beginning the new year with a clean, tidy house is very appealing to me.

On a more general note, here are some of our goals for 2011:

• I'm going to continue to improve my sewing skills, quilting specifically. My next project will be a quilt for the baby girl who will be gracing our home some time in late March. And although I'll be busy with a newborn throughout the spring, perhaps in the summer I'd like to try making a wall hanging to decorate our livingroom.
• Chris is planning to learn more about electricity, and wants to build his first experimental generator, since when we do move to the country he would like to get us off-grid if possible.
• Since our tiny backyard vegetable garden was a failure this year, I'm going to change tactics where gardening is concerned, and try growing herbs instead. I plan to grow a variety of culinary herbs, some of which I will preserve for the winter, and medicinal herbs, so that I can try making some herbal teas and salves. I like this plan, not only because I have always wanted to have an herb garden, but because I know that generally speaking, herbs are less fussy to grow than vegetables, and I will after all have a newborn to care for this spring and summer. 
• I want to improve my skills as a homemaker. By this I mean specifically, I want to get better at making our home a cheerful, inviting place. This is something I have never been very good at. The first thing to do in this respect is paint a brighter colour over the drab and depressing grey of our livingroom. We've been talking about doing this since we moved in here 5 years ago, but this time we're really going to do it! I believe that if we are going to live the life of homebodies, we should have a pleasant home in which to do that.
• Chris is going to do our small business taxes for the first time this year. This will be quite a learning experience, I'm sure, especially since most of our sales are in US dollars (through Etsy) but we live in Canada...but I know he can handle it. :)
• This summer I want to expand the food I preserve from just jam, to pickles and canned pears and peaches. If finances allow, I would love also to acquire a pressure canner so that then I can can virtually anything.
• We are both going to try even harder to save money towards our downpayment on a piece of land, regardless of our employment situation. We are already living very frugally, but we will try to tighten our belts even more. Some of the things we plan to do: Buy only secondhand clothes, buy larger quantities of food when there is a good sale, preserve more food for next winter, buy meat in bulk from local sources instead of from the grocery store, and simply follow the old adage: Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. 

I suppose this list isn't very ambitious, but I don't want to overdo things since we'll have a new baby this year. Our main "work" is going to be saving money. I am excited to do some quilting though, and to create my herb garden. (Does anyone have a suggestion for a good Canadian seed catalogue that sells heirloom varieties?)

I feel upbeat about the coming year and all we will accomplish, and I hope my readers feel that way too. Does anyone have any goals for 2011 that they care to share in the comments? Please do...and Happy New Year! :)

(Sorry I have no photo for this post or the last...my camera batteries are dead and I keep forgetting to charge them!)

A Handmade Birthday.

It's hard for me to believe, but Owen's 6th birthday has come and gone. My baby is growing up so quickly! It seems that only yesterday we were welcoming that tiny, red, screaming bundle of happiness into this world, and now he's a big boy who can read and ride his bike and do arithmetic, and who constantly amazes us with the depth of his scientific knowledge.

He wanted a cake this year that looked like a clock that was set to 6 o'clock. This is what I came up with:

Since Owen enjoys white chocolate, I made a white chocolate ganache in lieu of frosting. Alas, I did not make enough, but I think the sprinkles hid my mistake well enough.

Chris and I continued the handmade theme for this occasion. Using fabric I already had, I sewed him a cape, and I bought a piece of brown felt and some elastic and sewed a fake beard, which I think looks pretty darn cute if I may say so myself.

To go with this, Chris made him a sword and shield set. The shield was made from some birch plywood he had, the sword from maple.

I'm glad that he made another smaller pair for Jasper, so the boys could play together. They were delighted with these toys, and set to work playing with them immediately.

What fun it is to create gifts with your own two hands. I'm so glad that Chris and I decided to embark on this journey of becoming more self-reliant and of purchasing less. The emotional satisfaction of self-sufficiency is, to me, a greater reward than the financial one.

The joy of a simple holiday.

I really didn't mean to take such a long break from the blog...I've just been busy. Our Etsy shop has continued to enjoy steady sales, and I've been having a great time sewing gifts and baking Christmas cookies. I have to say, sitting at my cozy sewing nook and making a gift is a lot more fun than fighting my way through crowds at the mall!

This little birdie keeps me company at my sewing corner. Please ignore the dirt on the window. I do. ;)

I hear a lot of people, blogging folks specifically, expressing their desire to simplify their holidays. I can certainly understand this sentiment. Over the past few decades, it seems that the Christmas season has turned from a special time shared with loved ones, to a rather sickening frenzy of commercialism. The flyers that frequently arrive at our doorstep exhorting us to purchase high-definition wide screen tvs and diamond earrings for our loved ones; the displays of festive greenery that go up at the mall the very day after Halloween; the advertisements and sales pitches everywhere we turn, all telling us to BUY BUY BUY...it all gets to be a bit much. No wonder more than a few of us are taking a step back and saying enough is enough. Christmas is not about buying the latest, coolest technology or the biggest diamond or the most gorgeous dress or the most fashionable decorations. At least, it shouldn't be.

Although we're pretty much making all our gifts this year, I know that the kids will receive a lot of generous gifts from other sources, and I feel an urgent need to cleanse the house of excess possessions before the big day. Our house is small and we can't be lax about getting rid of stuff. I feel this way every time the cold winds of December arrive. This is when I enjoy cleaning, even more than in spring time. I have been honestly having a good time the past few days, organizing cupboards and closets, and determining what things will go to Value Village and which will be freecycled. Doing this is not only a practical need, but it helps to bring into focus for me what is really important in our lives and what is not, which seems appropriate at this time of year.

I've been having fun tinkering on our keyboard, playing some old-fashioned Christmas carols.

It's so easy to get carried away at Christmas-time, but I'm really trying hard to make sure we don't make our family Christmas about fancy things and presents, or even about lots of activities. Rather, I want our holidays to be about simple fun, good food, and the love we share. And so far this year, with crafting, baking, music, and not shopping, I'm definitely taking more joy out of the holidays than in previous years.

What simple holiday joy are you enjoying right now?

Advent Calendar.

As I have mentioned before, this year I am trying to introduce some new holiday traditions for our family. I knew one thing I wanted to do was some kind of advent calendar--I did not want to buy those ones at the grocery store with tiny slivers of waxy chocolate in a plastic tray. But I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, until I saw this idea for an advent calendar from Linda at Natural Suburbia, which uses a little fabric bag containing a treat for each day leading up to Christmas.

I already had some dark red fabric I got from my mom in the past, and when I went to my local Fabric Land store I found some Christmas prints for half price! So I was able to make up little bags up for only a few dollars. It was easy and fun, too.  Last night I hung them up in the diningroom on a piece of crimson ribbon (alas, I don't have a charming brick fireplace like Linda does to display my handiwork).

I couldn't get a better picture than that--it was so dark and rainy here today! But you probably get the idea. Now comes the really fun part--filling the bags with treats. I have picked up a few Christmassy things at the dollar store (stickers and the like) and a bit of candy too. I plan on making some of the treats myself. But I don't want to say more because I know my daughter will read this post tomorrow. :)

The kids became pretty excited once I hung this "calendar" up, and I'm pleased that we now have a new tradition to make the Christmas season a little more special. 

Beautiful Baby Vest.

I should have posted about this before, but I forgot to. I'll blame it on pregnancy brain--a convenient excuse to have at times. :)

Back in August I won a giveaway for this beautiful baby vest, knitted out of hand-spun wool by Tonya at Plain and Joyful Living.

Isn't it just gorgeous? And the colours are so soft and dreamy. Of course you can't tell from the picture, but the feel of the vest is very soft as well.

Funnily enough, I had entered the giveaway thinking that if I won I would give the sweater to my sister, who has a baby girl. But when the vest arrived in the mail, I had just found out I was pregnant a few days before. So, it felt to me like a little message that our little one was meant to be. :)

Tonya's blog is one of my favourites. She writes with a wonderful combination of simplicity,  honesty, and optimism about her family's life on their homestead in Vermont, where they grow their own food and work with their hands. She also creates a hand-written newsletter about simple living and homemaking that readers can subscribe to and have mailed to their physical mailboxes. In this day and age, doesn't this seem like a revolutionary idea? I have really enjoyed the past few issues of this charming newsletter--it seems strangely more real to be reading words that were written by hand than that were typed on a screen.

Tonya also has compiled Handmade Holiday list of bloggers who have chosen to make handmade gifts this season, and has a series of posts sharing tutorials and patterns for homemade gifts, which is worth checking out if you're looking for gift ideas. Which reminds me, I need to get to work on my own homemade gifts--time is running out quickly!

In the meantime, I am gazing at this snuggly little vest, sitting next to my computer, and dreaming of the day when it will be filled with a chubby little belly. :) (Which, for those who are curious, will be sometime in late March of next year!)

My first successful sewing project.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I used some quilting scraps that were kindly given me to make a purse for my daughter's best friend for Christmas. I used this tutorial here. It was a lot of fun to make, and if I may say so I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. I'd say this was my first successful sewing project!  Now that I am finally comfortable with my sewing machine, I can't wait to start my next project! This sewing thing is really fun...I wish I had gotten off my duff and figured out how to do it at a much younger age. In fact, there are many things I wish I would have spent my time on when I was younger, rather than watching tv and playing video games...but then that's a topic for another post. At least I'm learning some useful skills now--better late than never. :)

P.S.--Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!