Building My Log Cabin One Row at a Time

Here is the basket of yarn leftovers that I've been using in my log cabin blanket.


Here is my log cabin blanket.

If you look closely, you'll discover that there are colors mixed in some of the bands. Look at the yellow section. It starts out dark, then gets lighter and finally finishes out in white. Check out the maroon, beige, multi colored section. Or how about the section I'm currently working on, blue with two rows of multi colored in the middle.

So what's all this funky color combining about? Simple, I really want to see if I can use up all my yarn leftovers so I'm sneaking them in wherever I can. Sometimes it works perfectly, like the blue section I'm working on now. I had just enough multi colored yarn to create two rows in the center. Sometimes I screw up and badly misjudge how much yarn I have/need for a particular section, see the aforementioned yellow section.

In the end though, I like the way its coming together. Along the way something else has happened...

Somebody else is getting hooked on knitting! Rob's been on the waiting list to learn to knit at school. This past week I finally gave in to his begging and tested my knitting skills by teaching him how to knit. Now he can go to the knitting club at school because he already knows how to knit.

A Corn Trick & a Bedwetting Solution - How's That For an Odd Pairing?

As you might have guessed, things didn't go smoothly packing the car last week. In fact, it resulted in a trip to the emergency room for our youngest who tumbled down a hill in the melee almost breaking his hand. After Jim spent hours in the emergency room with Kyle, I gave up. We left Friday morning instead, grateful that Kyle's hand wasn't broken. Things got a lot smoother after that.

I was particularly pleased with the food I made. It was all very simple but a few experimental things worked very well. I cooked corn on the cob in the slow cooker on low with just enough water to cover the bottom of the pot. The results were fabulous, especially since I have no microwave, only a three burner stove and a very small oven to do all my cooking.

We had a lot of company on Saturday so I gave up on the standard burger/dog fare and instead made a baked ziti using Follow Your Heart vegan mozzarella. I served this with the fancy biscuit recipe from How it All Vegan and a vegetable that I can't remember (how sad is that??) For dessert I broke my own rule and tried a new recipe, Chocolate Upside Down Pudding Cake, also from How it All Vegan. (We needed a birthday cake ASAP, I had no choice but to break my own rule!)

This recipe was a big hit served with a scoop of ice cream on top. By itself it had a slightly chalky taste, although no one noticed except for me. I suspect if you incorporated some powdered soymilk into the pudding mixture the result might be creamier tasting. The leftovers of this cake, with a scoop of ice cream, reappeared at almost every meal much to everyone's delight.

I used the leftover biscuits as buns for the veggie burgers I made the next day. I used Isa's recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance. It's always a hit. In fact we eat a lot of the burger mix uncooked while we cook the burgers. Ah, the simple joys of vegan cooking! We served these with homemade oven fries, the aforementioned corn and baked beans.

So now that I've been back to reality for a few days, here's what's going on.

First of all, if you've got a bedwetter on your hands, listen up. This is my second go round with bedwetting and, as near as I can tell, the end result is always a ruined, foul smelling mattress. My frugal solution, in addition to the usual plastic sheet/absorbent pad/etc, has always been to give the bedwetter hand me down mattresses. So for example, this weekend we had to replace the girls mattresses. One was in just horrible shape with springs coming through, the other was ok for a lighter child to sleep on.

The ok one replaced a foul smelling one that was beyond repair (believe me I know, I've even used the carpet steamer on mattresses to give them a little more life). Here's where I accidentally made a frugal discovery. Bunk boards are the supports used in place of box springs in bunk beds. (If your bunk bed has enough support slats no bunk board is needed.) Bunk boards may be the most crappily constructed thing I've ever encountered. Aside from a wooden frame, they are made of cardboard and covered with low quality fabric. A piece of plywood would work just fine and probably be less expensive, but I digress.

When I removed the old mattress, I discovered the stink of it still lingered. The smell was coming from the bunk board. I dragged it outside, ripped off the fabric, removed the cardboard. This left me with just a wood frame, which thankfully didn't smell. Originally, I thought I'd have to recreated the cardboard and fabric cover but then I thought, "WHY??"

I put the naked frame back on the bed, topped it with the mattress and it worked perfectly.

I'm still working on my log cabin blanket. In an effort to use up scraps, or perhaps because I've gone nutty, I've taken to combining colors to finish out a particular patch. I'll post pictures and explain more about this tomorrow.

Finding Peace In the Madness of It All

Earlier I was running around like a loony trying to get ready to go away. Now I'm sitting here sipping a cup of coffee trying to regroup. The reality is, I'm a down to the wire packing up the car kind of a gal. So why am I trying to fight it? I know I'm leaving late and arriving late no matter what I had planned originally. It's part of the joy of living with four kids and many pets.

So I've decided to try and find the joy in the process of packing rather than continuing to run around like a loony trying to meet an arbitrary deadline. Perhaps my newfound inner peace comes from the yoga class that I had to stop and teach this afternoon. It really helped me come to peace with my task.

The food I cook this weekend will evolve from the staples I bring up. I have vowed not to stress over it. We are getting together to enjoy each others company not to be food critics.

I hope you all find peace and joy in your holiday weekend!

Must Focus!!

Has anyone else ever noticed that whenever you're up against a cleaning deadline, something (usually something that breathes) is often working against you? In just over 24 hours I'll be heading to the Adirondacks with the kids, 2 dogs and a car full of stuff. All I want is to leave a clean house behind but I'm starting to think it isn't meant to be.

Aside from a lack of time, Biscuit's got a belly ache complete with diarrhea and farting. Actually, he's always tooting but now it's bad enough to make your eyes water. The pepto hasn't kicked in completely, although it is improving things so I'm on "doggy gotta go now" watch. This means keeping the dog in the same room with me and paying careful attention to his body language. I have to say, it's a little limiting, especially since he runs out of the room whenever I run the vacuum.

BTW, for anyone who's wondering why I don't just give the dog rice instead of pepto, it's because he won't eat rice at all. He just spits it out.

I'd also like to get a meal plan figured out for the weekend since we'll be having quite a bit of company. Must focus...

I Made Pop-Tarts - Sort Of

I guess it all comes down to this, if you hate rolling out pie crusts, why would you want to roll out dough for Pop-Tart like creations? Think of how many opportunities there would be for the dough to stick to the counter. If only I'd thought of this a few hours ago...

I confess, my attempted toaster pastries have been molded into one giant, crumbly, hand pressed toaster tart. It's baking right now. It's going to be a mess but a tasty mess. Being frugal means not throwing it out, it doesn't mean it always has to look pretty. I'm not even going to tell the kids they were supposed to be Pop-Tarts. It's just too embarassing.

So don't despair when your recipe comes out less than picture perfect. Why do you think I rarely take pictures of food? Now go cook something.

I'm in a cooking and cleaning frenzy. Much laundry to do, bread is rising, beans are cooking, pop-tart thingies are toasting away.

Cooking So the Cookie Won't Crumble

I made a delightful batch of oatmeal cookies yesterday. I started with the recipe in Simple Treats for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and changed it to make use of what I had onhand. Here are the changes I made:

subbed granulated sugar for maple syrup (you need to increase the liquid in your recipe if you do this)

subbed whole wheat pastry flour for barley flour

subbed dried currants for raisins

There were no earth shattering substitutions but if you're new to cooking or just rigid in your cooking technique, these changes may seem shocking. The trick is to look at the purpose of each ingredient.

The barley flour binds the cookie together, whole wheat pastry flour will do the same. But the recipe already calls for you to grind up some of the oatmeal into oat flour. Why not just use oat flour in place of the barley flour. The oat flour will not bind things together well. You'll wind up with a very crumbly cookie.

The maple syrup provides sweetness and liquid. Sugar can provide sweetness and soymilk (or other liquid of choice, even water) can make up for the lost liquid.

The raisins provide a texture and a sweetness. Currants can do the same. In fact lots of dried fruits would work in this recipe. Use what you like.

You can do this too! Find a recipe that you have most of the ingredients for and go for it. Tell me how it goes.

BTW, I've finally taken down the Cut the Crap banner, a mere 16 days after the challenge ended. Thanks to Chile for inspiring us all. We're still crap cutting around here but I think its just an integral part of our existance. Once people know you're frugal they tend to deposit their excess stuff with you. This is a mixed blessing. Stuff comes in and we need to make sure that stuff we can't use goes out. I guess that means I have to come to terms with the fact that no one wants to pay for the karate sparring gear that I put on craigslist. Off to the thrift store it must go.

Where Does the Time Go??

The commitments of everyday parenting come to a demanding crescendo this time of year. We're knee deep in it and getting deeper everyday. There's not a lot of time for blogging, or breathing for that matter.

My oldest went to her junior prom last Friday. We drove to the prom and her date's parents drove home so we avoided paying for a limo. I was shocked how many kids actually did rent limos for the occasion. Then again, I probably shouldn't have been shocked when you consider the prom was held at the same place my brother had his wedding. My junior prom was in the high school cafeteria and we still turned out okay.

The dress was a bit pricey ($119) but we'd agreed my daughter had to pay half. All the other expenses were hers, including the $310 hair-do (she got hair extensions sewn in, a very pricey thing indeed!) In her defense, she had the money, she'd always wanted to do this and it will last 2 1/2 months. I don't think she'll be too quick to spend that much on her hair again though. She hated seeing her balance go down so quickly.

My cooking has been so basic it's boring me to tears but no one else seems to notice. My meal plan has been a real life saver. When I'm standing in the kitchen all brain dead and unmotivated, it does the thinking for me.

The book Cheaper & Better that I had mentioned, has some interesting ideas but they need to be veganized and I haven't had the time or energy to give them too much thought. There is a pop tart like recipe that my kids would love. I'm hoping to try it later this week.

Through it all, I continue to knit. It's like a crazy addiction. My mother in law just gave me a bunch of yarn leftovers which I've gleefully been using in my log cabin blanket. I think that was the best mother's day gift of them all, although the crocheted blanket she made ne was very nice too.

Why does knitting make me so happy? I'm not sure but I take it with me everywhere I go. Case and point, Jim had to drop his car off for service and I whipped it out while he was filling out the little envelope.

Now I'm off to a second grade spring concert but out of respect I'll leave the knitting behind, unless I get there early enough to get a row or two in before the singing starts!

The Bike

Wouldn't you know it, the laundry was gently swaying in the breeze and just about dry when the sky suddenly darkened and it started to rain. No sooner had I yanked 3/4 of it off the clothesline, the rain stopped and the sky brightened. Why was Mother Nature trying to toy with me?? I opted to tumble the laundry in the dryer rather than risk another shower. Sometimes practicality has to take priority over frugality.

I'm not getting anywhere on this quilting project and its really annoying me. I can't seem to find the time. It looks like Tuesday will be a good day to try again since I'll be off and alone all day.

Sometimes the promises I make myself drive me nutty. A while back I set myself a goal to not pay full price for anything unless absolutely necessary. Then your son's birthday comes sneaking up on you and you can't find what you're looking for...what then???

I was on a quest for a bike for my very tall son. I didn't want to buy a new one. After all, he's an 8 year old boy. Have you ever seen the way 8 year olds treat their bikes? The ones in my neighborhood don't understand what a kickstand is for. They just let the bike drop to the ground. The thing was, I couldn't find one in the size I needed. So I...looked harder!

I know that sounds snotty but its true. I expanded my search. I checked online tag sale sites, I checked craigslist, I was about to check ebay locally when the perfect bike popped up on craigslist for $20. So now it sits in my parents garage waiting for my son's birthday to arrive.

Now if I could just think of an idea for my other son's birthday which is coming up in July...

Frugal Overdrive!

Since the living room was emptied for the rug to be installed, I've had a bit of trouble putting stuff back in. It looked so nice empty. Its been a good opportunity to do a little unexpected craft culling. I've begun the tedious task of sorting through two boxes of buttons that I acquired a while back. Some are broken, some are hideous and there's an awful lot of linty ickiness in the boxes. My goal is to get it down to one box of useable, useful buttons. It could take a while though, I keep getting disgusted and walking away from the project.


My log cabin blanket is coming along. I know you're not supposed to do the same yarn on all four sides but its my project and I wanted to finish up this little ball of yarn so a big raspberry to anyone who doesn't like it! I've got quite a collection of little yarn balls that will become part of this project.

I just took Cheaper & Better Homemade Alternatives to Storebought Goods out of the library. I haven't had a chance to really look at it yet but I've heard good things about it.

I'm off to get the day started! Bread to make, laundry to wash & hang, dinner to get started. There's no room for unfrugality (is that even a word??) right now since we've begun the project of replacing our worn out deck. The cost of the supplies is enough to give me heartburn. Between that and the cost of gas, we've got to keep our expenses super low as we try to sock some money away for the two months that I don't work. Time to kick into Frugal Overdrive!

A Tale of Two Tapiocas

I wanted to make a dessert to bring on a visit yesterday but its hard to cook when your entire living room is in your kitchen. I needed fast and easy with ingredients that I could actually get to.

At first I thought a pudding pie, but then there's always a risk that the pudding won't set enough. You wind up with a tasty but unappealing looking mess. Individual custard cups with crust on the bottom and pudding on top would have been nice but they wouldn't transport very well.

Finally it clicked, make pudding and a crumbly crust that could be sprinkled on top of the pudding at serving time! I could even reach the tapioca that I wanted to use!

I used the recipe on the back of the box adjusting it to make it vegan. I made two batches, one vanilla and one chocolate. I subbed soymilk for milk, 1 Tbs ground flax seed for egg and 3 Tbs cocoa powder plus 3 Tbs canola oil for the 3 squares of baker's chocolate (that was not to make it vegan, it was because I didn't have baker's chocolate in the house).

Ground flaxseed may not be the best choice esthetically because it does show in the vanilla, however, it looks a lot like shredded vanilla bean. No one complained about it and I would used it again.

Now for the crumbly crust. I took my inspiration from an apple crisp recipe and the crust in Company Pudding recipe in The More With Less Cookbook. It's a combination of oatmeal, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and canola oil. I had to make it twice though, since I burned the first batch to cinders. (I got distracted when the rug installers finally arrived and didn't hear the oven timer going off.)

Would you believe I even started to burn the second batch? There was just too much going on as we tried to move furniture back into place and rehang pictures on the wall. (If you're wondering why the pictures had to be rehung, the installers asked me to take them down so they didn't knock them off the wall when they used the kicker to stretch the rug into place.) Fortunately, I caught it in time to rescue most of it.

As fate would have it, the vanilla version was a bit watery so I was pleased with my decision. Topped with the crumbly topping, it was hardly noticeable and it tasted very good. The chocolate set up beautifully. Personally, I thought the topping tasted better on the vanilla than the chocolate but people enjoyed it on both.

Here's What's New Today

I should be emptying furniture out of the living room but I've snuck away to write a quick post.

I finally started cuttting some of the jeans into squares, rectangles actually, for my latest quilt. I opted for rectangles because I had quite a few pairs of Jim's jeans that had completely worn out front of the legs while the back was pristine. This allowed me to cut larger pieces hence the rectangles. I'll salvage squares from the fronts of the legs. The finished quilt will be a mix of the squares and rectangles. I'll post pictures as it begins to come together. Right now its just a pile of fabric.

I've got two knitting projects going right now. One is a scarf which seems goofy in light of the warmer temperatures. The other is a log cabin blanket. I need to finish the scarf because I want to use the leftovers in the log cabin blanket. I also need to set aside some money to buy Mason-Dixon Knitting because I can only renew it one more time!!

We're still living off food from this weekend. Lunch today was sliced baked seitan with guacamole on homemade bread. YUM! Later today I'll be making some desserty thing and a breakfasty thing, although I'm not sure what. I need to see what dried fruit I still have before deciding. I can't wait until we get a little further into the growing season.

Speaking of the growing season, check out this brief article at Mother Earth News on perennial salad greens. How great is that? Salad greens that just appear in early spring year after year.

Now I'm off to empty that living room!

I Need a Weekend to Recover From My Weekend!

Spring has officially sprung in the Hudson Valley. Just step outside and you'll hear the whir of lawnmowers, weed trimmers and the like. Signs for garage sales are springing up like early daffodils along the roadways.

This weekend we found ourselves dealing with our spring fever in an odd ADD sort of a way. We jumped from one project to the next in a way that not only defied logic but should also have prevented success. Instead, we thrived and managed to get a huge amount done.

Here's a peek at how the weekend went. We'll jump back to Thursday evening to start things, since that's when the lower element in the oven caught fire. That's when we learned that you could cook pizza on a cast iron griddle if you use a cookie sheet as a lid. Cast iron pans with the lines on the bottom work really well when covered too. Creativity is clearly born out of necessity around here. BTW, if you've hung around this blog long enough you'll know that this was my second fire in the oven experience.

Task 1 for the weekend: Find out where to purchase the oven element, buy it and replace it.

Then there was the problem of Mel, our leaky little bichon. He's 9 1/2 and he leaks. You could walk him to the moon and back but he still leaks. He wears doggy diapers in the house but he leaks through them with alarming regularity. He's already ruined the living room rug. In fact, it was so bad we ripped it up to get rid of the smell. But since you can't just have a plywood floor in your living room, a new one was already on its way (an eco friendly corn based product but more on that another time). The carpet store called Thursday to let us know that the carpet we ordered had come in and they were coming to install it Tuesday.

Task 2 for the weekend: Solve the Melly leaks problem without killing or rehoming the dog.

My parents had an outdoor dog pen that they weren't using. A quick phone call later and we had an outdoor pen lined up for Mel. In the nice weather, he can spend his days outside. The pen is even big enough for Biscuit to hang out with him. (Don't ask me about winter or bad weather, I haven't gotten that far yet.) He can spend his nights in his crate inside, which is where he likes to be anyhow.

Task 2 amended: Pick up pen at my parent's house.

We were having friends over Friday evening and Friday had been a busy day so Jim ran to the store while I waited for Rob to finish swim team. Last minute trips to the store are rarely frugal and this one was no exception. It happens. While our friends were over they told us about an appliance parts store in the area.


Task 1 amended: Go to appliance store and purchase oven element.

It sounded like things were getting easier but actually this is when things got screwy. Since it had been a hellish week, we slept in Saturday morning. This was obviously a huge mistake. When Jim called the appliance parts store, we discovered they had the part but they closed in 45 minutes and they were a 25-30 minute ride away. Jim ran out of the house without finishing his coffee but he got there before the store closed. Within two hours of the phone call, the oven was in working order again.

Thge rest of the tings we hoped to accomplished seemed pretty manageable. Mow the lawn, have the girls really clean out their closet, empty the living room in anticipation of the rug coming Tuesday and see if we couldn't clean out the garage a bit.

Then we discovered we would be entertaining on Sunday afternoon. Skip taking the living room apart. Plan a snack menu as well as a dinner menu, just in case. Another trip to the grocery store was required since our bulk food order wasn't coming until Wednesday.

The Jim tried to adjust the flood lights outside our garage door and the metal fixture broke off in his hand. I wish I had a picture of the look on his face but I was too busy saying something like, "I can solve this problem" to snap it. The perk of decluttering is you never know what you'll find along the way and sometimes, it's pretty useful stuff. I was pretty sure I had come across a motion detector floodlight fixture that we'd bought about nine years ago but never installed. Forty five minutes later, we once again had a working light fixture outside the garage doors and it was a motion detector too!

In between this madness, I started attacking the areas of the garage that are largely my domain, namely kids stuff. We had 5 pairs of cleats that fit none of my kids, 2 sets of training wheels that are gathering dust...the list grew everytime I turned my head. So I embarked on a freecycling and garbage removing frenzy while Jim worked on the light.

I won't bore you with the details of the rest of the day but it went on and on like that. So did Sunday morning. Sunday's snacks were prepared or purchased with the idea that they would easily become lunch snacks or part of dinner. For example, the veggie platter became part of the Jerk Seitan that we had for dinner last night, nuts were divided into containers to take with lunches. You get the idea.

As it turned out, our guest had to leave before dinner so the barbequed lentils that I had cooking in the slow cooker will be tonight's dinner. Since our guests left earlier than we'd expected we ran over to my parent's house, got the dog pen and set it up here before dinner.

Not the way I'd planned it, but everything got done and we had a lot of laughs along the way.

A Few Quick Notes

The almond milk yogurt is officially a no go. It doesn't firm up. No matter, it will be used in baking. I'll stick to making soymilk based yogurt, which firms up with amazing regularity.

The rag balls I mentioned yesterday take a longer to make than I thought so I'm still working on them. That also means I never got to cut any quilt squares.

Finally, the sparring gear pickup was a bust. The person did show but her school of karate uses a different type of sparring gear. Bummer!

Now I'm off to make some more rag balls and get to those quilt squares!

Things That Take Up Space & Serve No Purpose

There are things in life that serve very little purpose but take up a huge amount of space. The sparring gear that's been sitting on the top shelf of my sons' closet since last May is a great example of this.

The boys lost interest in karate when they discovered swim team this past September. I held onto the karate gear because there is nothing that pisses this frugal momma off more than having to repurchase something she's just gotten rid of. So I waited and waited and waited.

I finally asked the boys if they planned to return to karate last week. They said no. I ask if they would mind if I got rid of their sparring gear. They said no. I wanted to be really sure so I waited until yesterday and asked them again. They said, "NO!"

So, I listed the almost brand new sparring gear on a local tag sale website. Happily, someone is supposed to pick it up later today. The closet is emptier and my wallet will be fuller. (Unless of course, the person is a no show. Chile, I'm thinking of you!)

I was pondering the idea of a project log again. I had planned to make a summer weight denim quilt for our bed last year but promptly forgot about it when the cold weather arrived. As I lay melting under the heavy quilt last night, I had a eureka moment and remembered my original plan. Would a project log have helped?

At least now I have a plan for the massive amount of worn out jeans that I've saved. I have other clothes that I'm planning to cut into strips and wind into rag balls for future projects, like that nifty rug in Mason-Dixon Knitting.

A google search on winding fabric into rag balls, revealed the dumbest thing I've ever heard of, how to make decorative rag balls. Actually, a lot of sites had similar projects. I swear this is proof that civilization is crumbling! Then I remembered that Ruthie had found this rag rug tutorial which revealed how to cut the fabric into strips and wind them into balls. I also like her joining technique (knot the ends together).

So here's the decluttering plan for today. Cut fabric and wind into balls, making sure not to use fabric that's been set aside for the boxer short project. I'd also like to get some squares cut for the queen size denim quilt. Maybe I'll even write down a few plans for future projects.

I've got a batch of alomond milk only yogurt brewing. I was super careful with the temperature so this batch should tell all.

No-gurt & Gardening Plans

I did it! I cleaned all the crap out of the cutlery drawer. I also showed the newly cleaned drawer to anyone who walked in the kitchen, although most didn't care as much as I did.

I've been making yogurt regularly and using a bit from the last batch to start the next with great success, until this past week. I had it in my head to try making the yogurt from almond milk instead of soy, in the interest of variety and just to see what that would be like. For my first batch I decided to mix half soymilk and half almond milk. The mixture bubbled and fermented a bit but didn't make yogurt.

Never one to give up, I reheated the mixture, let it cool and added fresh starter. Still, some bubbles and a fermented smell but no yogurt. I'm left wondering if I messed something up in the preparation or if almond milk isn't a good base for yogurt.

I'll be trying again Sunday night. This time I'll do one thermos batch of soymilk and one of almond milk. I'll also be sure to pay very close attention to my thermometer. I confess, I often put the giant measuring cup with the heated soymilk and thermometer in it next to me on the coffee table to cool. I glance at it while I'm knitting or enjoying an old movie with Jim. Usually I catch it just in time but sometimes I lose track and it gets too cold. That might have been the problem with this batch.

BTW, a batch of yogurt that doesn't quite set works wonderfully in place of clabbered milk in biscuit recipes. If your yogurt does set, the whey that you drain off to thicken the yogurt works really well in biscuit recipes too.

The beautiful weather yesterday distracted me from my inside tasks and lured me outside so I haven't really decluttered much more. I've got the itch for summer. Fortunately, we're heading upstate this weekend. A quick call to town hall in our little Adirondack town yesterday revealed that there is still some snow on the ground up there. No planting this weekend but I'll hopefully be able to plan the new home for the currants since there are blueberry bushes in their original place.

My worms have been given strict orders to work overtime so I can adequately fertilize these thrice transplanted bushes!

Is Your Stash Worth Storing?

I confess, my kids are off from school this week and blogging is not a big priority for me. I have ventured into the garage for a bit of decluttering but just a bit. Here's some good decluttering news from the garage though. I was able to sell one of the guinea pig cages that we no longer use. (Decluttering for fun and profit?!)

I'm planning an attack on the cutlery drawer later today. Do I need a fish boning knife? (I'm vegan so probably not.) How many skinny rubber scrapers does one family need? (I hate skinny ones, they do a lousy job.) Is it time to get rid of the knives with the handles that have half come apart from broken rivets? (Probably yes, they were a wedding gift back in 1990. I think we've gotten enough use out of them.) What other mystery crap is taking up space in that drawer??

Meals have been pretty basic. I've relied heavily on my 14 day menu for inspiration. That's not so shocking since that's what it's there for. I guess what's shocking to me is how well it's working.

We've begun the great closet change up, where winter clothing is trucked up to the attic and summer clothing is brought down. This is a great opportunity to go through clothes and weed out the too worn items. Several of Jim's shirts are too worn at the collar and cuffs to be repaired but they'll make great material for the upcoming little boy boxer short project. Other shirts are being saved for rug making projects. The trick is to keep the useful, store it well and still get rid of crap along the way. This is the real challenge.

I save all sorts of things if I think they'll be useful down the road. For example, oversized envelopes with just my son's name on them get sent home from school several times a year. I save them and use them for shipping out my own stuff. I also save padded envelopes. You just put an address label over whatever was written on the envelope the first time. (In fact, I think Ruthie and Sarah have been the recipients of these preused envelopes.) These are useful and easy to store.

Unfortunately, not everything is so clear cut. Only you can look at your stuff and decide what is worth storing and how best to store it (without buying more crap to store it in!!) I'm wondering if a project log would be useful. It could be a place to catalog what you've saved for what project and maybe even to write down a goal finish date. Like the meal plan, would it help you get started on your next project and avoid the abandoned project piles of the past? Could you use it to help you clear future clutter? (If I don't start by this date, I'm never starting this project and these materials should be donated?)

What do you think?

Baby It's A Bib

The bib for my nephew's birthday sparked a lot of lively conversation among the party guests. It turns out people aren't as different as they may initially seem. There were a lot of closet crafters in the group. There was even a closet crafter who outed herself in a big way when she recreated her sons favorite baby toy for her grandson! I didn't know my mother had it in her!

There was also an almost universal feeling among the parents in the group that gift giving for children had gotten out of control. Most agreed that useful, handmade gifts were a welcome change. There was even talk of beginning mitten projects for holiday gift giving. It was really inspiring.

That's not to say I didn't raise a few eyebrows when I mentioned my penchant for unraveling thrift store sweaters as a source of yarn for my projects but Rome wasn't built in a day.

Just for the record, I love the simplicity of the bib pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I just need to work on my button hole technique. I think I created a new stitch while trying to make the button hole.

Pants as Packaging?

Today, I'm packing these boxes of clutter into my car and dropping them off at the thrift store after work. Another larger item that's been in my way for a long time is being donated to our swim team tonight. It feels good to declutter with Chile!

As for the birthday gift for my nephew, I'm about 1/2 way through the bib pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I'm using yarn from a sweater I unraveled a while back. I like the almost denim look the yarn has.


Speaking of kids, my son is learning to play recorder in school this year. He already had a decent recorder but he wanted to buy a new one so he'd have a case like everyone else. (Naturally, the case his came with has been missing for several years now.) I offered him this challenge. He could spend $5.00 of his own money and buy a new recorder or he could design a cover and I would make it for the existing recorder. He really struggled with this decision. For an 8 year old, its a pretty big one. In the end he decided to use the recorder we had. That meant I had to make a case for it.

Here's the pattern he drew. Notice the excrutiating detail he has included. He's very specific. I thought I really might be in deep trouble with this one.


I headed to the drawer of pants in need of a project and found the perfect pair of cotton black pants to use.


I did a lot of measuring as I tried to convert his desired pattern into a real one. Here's a hint for anyone embarking on a task like this, keep the object you are making the case for close by. This allows you to continually check to see if the size is still ok.

Anyone could make this or something like it. In fact, I think its a great project for practicing your sewing skills. Even the embroidery is just a very basic backstitch. Remember this: You can do great things with some basic skills!

Here's the finished product.


And here's the happy kid with the finished product.


Rob couldn't wait to show his music teacher his new case. There's an added bonus. He'll alway know which recorder case is his.

Decluttering, Knitting & a Challenge

I'm still decluttering along with Chile but I jumped ahead a little and began tackling some majorly cluttered corners of my kitchen cabinets. (Forgive me Chile, I had to, otherwise the boxes I'm using to declutter might have become part of the clutter!)

We've weeded out all of the plastic cups, as well as an insane number of coffee mugs and an odd assortment of champagne flutes. How many of any of these things do I really need?? We've packed them in boxes to be donated on Thursday. We're not done yet, the pile of boxes is still growing.

Using Chile's 10 minute technique as a jumping off point, we've been cruising through rooms, cabinets and drawers. Obvious clutter is removed and packed away to donate or just tossed if not donate worthy. Going through the house this way is a lot like pretreating a stain. I'm making the first pass now to make the final round go that much easier.

In knitting news, I just took Mason-Dixon Knitting out of the library. What a fun book. There are patterns in there for things I'd never considered, like a curtain or a hand towel or a rug or a super absorbent bath mat. I'm inspired! I did have to go online and look up what the devil yarn forward and yarn back meant, even though its totally obvious. I can't help it, I had to make sure it meant what I thought it meant!!!

Today's agenda includes washing tons of laundry, making a batch of chili for dinner and making bread. All the while I'll be peeking around for clutter to dispose of while making sure new clutter doesn't enter the house.

I've also got a birthday present to plan for my nephew who's turning 1 this weekend. Hmmm...maybe that bib pattern I saw in Mason-Dixon Knitting...I certainly have the yarn to do it. Actually I thought this post was over but the thought of my nephews birthday reminded me of something that's been on my mind for a long time.

What is the deal with gift giving for kids anymore? I'm especially talking about little kids. We give them more stuff than they could possibly use. Giant plastic toys, noisy toys, toys with gazillions of little parts that always are missing. I can't be the only parent who noticed that most of it just sits around once the party ends. This is the very genesis of some of the clutter parents are dealing with right now.

Trends start somewhere. If everyone who reads this blog vows to never buy another present for a child, just to buy a present and instead gives something useful and handmade, image the impact we could have over time. Maybe there are others in each of our circles who are dying to do the same. Our simple act might empower them to give more thoughtful and less consumption based giving a try. Not comfortable making things? What about a savings bond or a donation to a college fund? What about the gift of time? Can you spend a day doing something with the gift recipient that makes a memory rather than more clutter?

Come on people, we can do this!

Cutting the Crap with Chile

I've joined Chile's decluttering challenge, although I'm already running a day behind. No matter, in the spirit of casting off the bonds of winter, I shall dive into my paper piles

and basket of magazines/catalogs.


I'll tackle my file cabinet tomorrow, when I'm feeling braver!