In my Kitchen :: Blog Hop

"Each day I find myself snapping a picture or two in the kitchen - a pile of ingredients, a table waiting for us to gather around, a sink full of soapy dishes, a cup of tea, dinner as it comes out of the oven - simple, everyday moments in the kitchen. These photos serve as a reminder of days gone by and as encouragement to carry on in this busy kitchen of ours when inspiration is lacking."              - Heather from beauty that moves

see more 'in my kitchen' inspiration at Beauty the Moves

                                

              

            

morning cup, kimchi for one, daily school lunch dilemmas (any ideas?) spring fiddleheads (lots, I need to look into preserving these, cleaning them was half the battle)

this week in my kitchen :: lunch edition

 

 

 
"Each day I find myself snapping a picture or two in the kitchen - a pile of ingredients, a table waiting for us to gather around, a sink full of soapy dishes, a cup of tea, dinner as it comes out of the oven - simple, everyday moments in the kitchen. These photos serve as a reminder of days gone by and as encouragement to carry on in this busy kitchen of ours when inspiration is lacking."              -by Heather at beauty that moves

see more 'in my kitchen' inspiration at Beauty the Moves

 

 

 

 

 

 

birthday baking

 A double batch of Applesauce cake (because it used up the whey and homemade applesauce I had in the fridge).   Plus peanut butter cookies, since the oven was on already.

Tuesday

~fresh yogurt waiting to be strained and put away, this batch gave me a lot of whey

~dinner is in the crock pot and dinner for tomorrow night is prepped

~waiting for my son to return from Cuba this evening

~hoping my littlest is ok at school today

~today, I got to see the excitement of a kindergarden class that discovered their first quail eggs

~looking forward to visits and celebrations this week 

The Weekend Past

Breakfast in a (indoor) tent 

A big batch of homemade yogurt (4L of milk) also providing a big batch of whey

Checking the garden and pulling weeds (so much easier after a heavy rain)...could my soil be any rockier?

 Visiting the new chicks

Six Days of Reusables

six days of cloth reusables

As I'm folding all these bits I wonder if it really helps, does this make a difference to the environment, to our spending?  Then I think of all the years these pieces of fabric have given us, they've been used over and over again and I know we've saved.  Although there is the initial investment of the raw resource (cotton) and fuel to mill and transport that fabric.  These items are used repeatedly for many years.  This saves us money and decreases our use of environmental resources.  Any of these items can also be made from reclaimed clothing and household textiles (sheets, towels, etc) and this is likely the ideal.

The picture was taken after six days of reusables for a family of five, the pads are only used about four days each month.  This would easily equal one small load of laundry a week (if you chose to wash them all together, I don't.  You can see my washing routine below).

I wish I had thought to count how many of each item we used, and I didn't include dish cloths and tea towel in the photo.  Since we don't use paper towel I probably to use more dishcloths and tea towels than most families (and I also have a dishcloth complex, I'm always changing them!)

In the picture....

~Cloth Pads:  I can count 23 pads in the picture.  This was enough for my 3 day cycle this past month (when using tampons and disposable pads my period was easily 7 days long).  Clearly I'm a big fan of cloth pads ;-) and I have way more cloth pads than any woman could possibly need, some of the pads from my last cycle are fairly new.  Several are at least 5 years old, they look great and will last many more years.

~Cloth napkins:  we use these instead of paper napkins.  I don't put them out at every meal but the kids know where they are and get one if they need it.  These napkins were a shower gift at my first wedding, making them about 12 years old.  They're a little  faded, but they're still perfectly fine for their intended use.

~Wipes and tissues:  these are pretty amazing.  I've had many of these since I was cloth diapering my son 9 years ago.  When he potty trained I didn't know what to do with these (still useful) wipes so I decided we'd use them as hankies.  At that time I was a single mom, and every bit helped.  When Rowan potty trained her wipes went into the pile of wipes too (I loved those bright wipes).  Now we have so many cloths that I keep a pile tucked in the bathroom cupboard and when we have a cold going through the house I just get them out so we have lots of extras.  I have learned to keep a box of kleenex in the house for company.  **this is one area of my cloth routine I would like to change, currently I fold many wipes through the week, I figure I waste 1 second of time for each wipe.  Over 9 years that's a lot of wasted time!!  I'd like to find a cute basket that I just toss the clean ones into, no more folding them!**

~Rags:  I use these to clean the bathroom and for other kinda gross jobs that I don't want to use a dishcloth on.  The rags are just old t-shirts cut into pieces.

~Family Cloth (aka toilette paper):   this is one reusable some people are uncomfortable with and I get it.  I don't remember how I came to start using it, I think it was around when Rowan was potty training and thinking of all the toilette paper we would be using.  I figured I was already using cloth to wipe her, so why not keep using cloth?  Then I got to thinking about my own usage and thought I might as well too.  My justification is that I save money on toilette paper as well as avoiding extra waste in our septic bed which could be a huge savings.  The whole family doesn't use family cloth and I'm just fine with that.

~Face cloths:  most of these face cloths came from a surplus of unused hand towels, I cut them and serged the edges.  For both my kids I've had a stack of face cloths for after meals, their hand and face get a quick wipe off (even if they don't like it) and they're ready to play without trailing their meal all over the house!

On Washing....
I try to wash like things together, while still being smart about my water and electricity usage.  Usually I pre-rinse my cloth pads, family cloth and cleaning rags.  Then I'll put some towels in with them and run the load.

The cloth tissues, facecloths, and napkins just get tossed into the laundry hamper with like colours and washed with the regular laundry.

I don't notice a great amount of work to using cloth washables but as you can tell it's been a slow evolution of replacing cloth with paper in our home.  My spouse is supportive of it, that makes it easier.  It saves us money, not loads of money but each frugal change adds up to bit of money.  Although we can afford to buy paper towels and boxed tissues, I'd rather not.  I could buy disposable menstrual products but after switching over 8 years ago to cloth there's no way I would ever go back to using the disposable products, even if they were free I'd still reach for some cloth.

outside my window

It's beautiful outside, the load of whites is blowing like crazy on the line.  They'll be off the line soon and a load of darks will go up.  Tomorrow will be town day so I don't want to worry about laundry tomorrow.  The littlest one is outside picking dandelions to help her Dad make dandelion wine.

The shipping labels are printed, invoices sent, PUL ordered.  Now it's just some cleaning and grocery shopping to get ready for another family BBQ this weekend.

Glad for more snow

I know, glad for more snow? I am, it's true. I'm not ready for spring yet, I've got more inside organizing and rearranging to do. Diapers to repair, orders to sew, summer skirts and shorts to make (see I am thinking of warmer weather, just not ready yet.) Knitting can at least travel outdoors with me, but there is so much work waiting for us outside that there will be no knitting under a tree for a long time. First will be getting these girls contained, then the yard cleaning that needs to be done. (For now the snow hides that mess from me, thank you snow).

Using the heat

I finally brought our drying rack up from the basement to start drying clothes by the wood stove. I thought this was going to be an awful chore but I'm finding it very easy. I've done lots of indoor clothes drying but as a family of five I thought it would be a major pain. It's not though, and I'm only using my dryer about 1x per 1.5-2 days. Compared to my normal 2-3x per day! Plus the dryer doesn't seem to be running that well so I was sometimes needing to run the dryer 2x for a load (not something this frugal mama likes to do!) Even the diapers go on the rack. I'm sure we'll see savings on our next electricity bill. I still use the dryer to dry all the diaper wipes, dish cloths, socks, and family cloth etc. Hanging all those little things would be a bit too much for me!

Our wood stove has paid for itself in less than a season, we're so happy that we (Bill) put it in. We've even got enough wood to get us through most of next winter too, it's a good feeling. We were shocked by our heating bills last winter. The furnace is original to the house (so about 30 years old) and it's electric. Our bills were just shocking, we managed to get through but the wood stove was a necessity.

Now, a quick stocking update...

I'm busy with custom orders, but I'm sewing them up as they come in, I'll add bits of stock to my shop here and there. I added some wool backed pads to my Etsy shop today and I've got a few more pads to add in the coming days but my computer is running painfully slow today so I need a break! Here's a peek at some :)

Yarn Along!

This is my first time joining in on Ginny's Yarn Along. I cast on a pixie hat for the youngest, her hat from last year has gotten too small (oh my how she's grown!) This time I'm making up my own simple pattern, I'm not sure what the yarn is but I love how the colour is working up. I do know it's 100% wool and hand dyed by a WAHM on Hyenacart. I'm hoping to find the details on the colourway, pastels kind of scare me (due to the ease of staining) but add in some shades of brown and pastels no longer scare me! You can also see my first Milo vest, also knit for the youngest, she's so tiny though and I knit this too big so I'm going to try adding some stitches at the back to make the fit a bit snugger and add some length to so that it will fit her for much longer. It will be worth the work to have the vest fit longer. The Milo pattern was a great knit and I can see myself knitting many more.

Quintin and I finished Farmer Boy last night, we love these books and I can't wait to start on the next book in the Little House series. Rowan has been loving Good Night Harry. I read it to her two times and nap and bed time while she nurses to sleep. She was on a Red is Best kick but Harry seems to have won out for now. I've pulled out my copy of Roughing it in the Bush by Susanna Moodie. I can't remember the first time I read the book, it was years and years ago. Possibly even before Quintin was born. I don't often re-read books but it's like I'm reading this book for he first time. The struggles of emigrant families in a new and challenging place....it reminds me that though life may seem rough at times I just can't imagine the struggles these pioneers endured and now as a mother myself the my reading of the book has changed again.

A New Turkey Tradition

These wild turkeys turned up in our yard yesterday afternoon, there was nine of them. They wandered around our yard for a while and showed up again this morning though they didn't stay long with our dog outside. The boys watched them for out the windows yesterday and it provided some slow and gentle entertainment that they were in need of. Last year a larger group of turkeys showed up on December 26th and spent a very long time exploring the yard. Wouldn't it be nice if it happened every year? When Rowan woke up from her nap we went sledding and came home for stew from the crock pot.

The boys went outside this morning for some playing in the snow. We're having a bit of a thaw here so it was really slushy and wet out and Rowan and I stayed in, though she would have loved to go outside. The nice thing about having much older brothers is that they make snowmen for you.

And sometimes even deliver them to the front door....

While the boys played outside I made this blanket as a gift for a co-worker of Bill's. They just welcomed a baby a couple weeks ago and these extra big two layer receiving blankets are always a welcome gift. The Christmas decorations are being packed away slowly, mostly to avoid jarring the littlest one. All that's really left is the tree, this year is certainly a record for me. I don't think I've ever left my tree up this long (not in my own adult life anyway!) Tomorrow I'll clean it off and Bill will put it out in the yard and then we'll vacuum and vacuum those needles up! I've enjoyed the slower post-Christmas this year. There's been lots of knitting and some sewing. Next week they'll be more sewing than knitting as I get a couple of orders finished....for now though I'm back to my needles :)

Have a Happy New Years!

Getting Organized (and a plea for blog help)

A few blogs and sites I like to check into and there seems to be a search for finding a rhythm and a balance at home. I find this search reassuring-I'm not the only one looking for balance! I've been doing this stay at home mom thing for almost seven years. In that seven years there's been a fair amount of turmoil, ups and downs and changes so it's safe to say that while I've maintained my sanity there's a lot of room to feel more balanced.

One thing I've stuck to all these years is making a daily list, my list saves me and reminds me at the end of the day I've been busy, I haven't wasted time. Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to use my list to get more organized. It's hard to stay organized with a family of 5, two kids who travel to their other parents, a toddler and a house that's been under constant renovations since we've move in. So my goal is to be a little more organized, and I'm starting with a purge and overhaul of Rowans play area. This seems the best place to start, if her play are is more toddler user friendly then mama (in theory) should be able to squeeze a little more organizing time into the day.

Here's some photos of the newly overhauled play space. I removed the huge storage unit I was using because it hid her toys more that organized them and over the last few days I've put away several toys (I like to keep lots of toys so I can rotate them in and out, truthfully this is great BUT I need to get rid of a lot more toys still!) I wish I'd taken some before photos because this is a big improvement. Looking at these pictures now I can see there needs a bit of warmth added, a little rug and maybe some art on the wall.

now for my plea for blogging help. Can someone please help me out with how to add links to my blog posts? I'm sure it's easy, I just can't figure it out!! I'll be posting my Christmas to-do craft list but I'd like to be able to link to some the patterns/tutorials I'll be using. thanks for any help :)

October!?

October, I almost can't believe it. The photo of the tree out front of our house was taken just the other day, now it's completely orange and lost many more leaves. There's so many projects happening here, renovations, room changes, a wood stove being installed, a chicken run going in to contain our chickens who have become a little to comfortable in their yard, on the road, up the road, visiting the neighbors chickens and inviting them back to roll and dig in front of our house.

And the crafting that needs to be done. I made these bunting flags yesterday. What a fun project and a great way to use up some fabric. This set reverses to Halloween flags, love it! I started on some ornaments that I'll be adding to my shop soon. There's Thanksgiving at our house, birthdays to plan and craft for, Christmas gifts to make (many).
I think my next post will help me organize my holiday crafting.

Being Home

I've spent the last few days stuck at home, my partner was away on a business trip and my tire was flat. So, a flat tire right? It's not a big deal it's just I have to wait a bit for my partner to fix it, tomorrow I'll be able to use our second car (thank goodness we have two cars!). Being home though has made me realize that often my outings are an escape, sometimes I get out of bed in the morning walk out to our open concept living area and I'm overwhelmed, sometimes consumed by the clutter. The clutter I'm sure I just cleaned up the day before. Being stuck here has made me realize that I need to purge and re-organize. There's been lots of that happening already and I'm thinking the next step is to get my family to help out with this-they'll be rewarded with a much happier mama/partner.

I took this picture of the little one this morning, she loves some outside time and I'm trying to make sure she gets more of it....I'm trying to make sure she gets more of my time. I'm feeling very needed by her right now. This morning I made a big batch of apple sauce, (it's so yummy!) I gave some to Rowan as a treat after lunch mixed with some homemade yogurt, she thought it made better finger paint than food. Hopefully her brothers will help her understand the yumminess of applesauce after dinner tonight.

I've been busy sewing some fall clothes for Rowan, my shop hasn't been updated in a while. I have been keeping up with custom orders though. I have some shop sewing goals for the week, but I think I'll be a little behind with my schedule due to the flat tire and some juggling. I'm trying to find a better balance. When I sit at my sewing machine my toddler lets out a screech, so I'm taking that as a sign to slow down, at least for now.

phew!

I'm very happy to be back saying we're getting back into our routines, including nursing! yeah!!! Here's a little pick me up I made for myself. It's topped with swirl dyed bamboo velour, isn't the dye job fabulous, it's done by The Indigo Onion. I just backed this with some matching flannel since I don't need much protection right now.

The rest of today is about laundry, paper work, cleaning, a walk, and starting to pull the garden out.

Exhausted Sunday

I woke up so exhausted this morning, I think Rowan nursed all night last night. Still tired of course but things needed to get done so I pulled myself together and got some stuff done. I finished up some sewing, went for a walk in the rain with Rowan in the Ergo and an umbrella. Changed two beds, put away my sons laundry (possibly my least favorite chore!) fetched the eggs, made banana blueberry bread. It feels good to get so much done in such a fog.

There's more work to this afternoon including shop listings, another bed to make, washing diapers, and making a batch of homemade leftover soup. Making soup from leftovers is so fast and my family loves it. This batch will have a base of some of a leftover curried chick along with some rice and pasta from the week and a bunch of veggies thrown in. So easy :)

Here's a sweater I got finished up yesterday, it's made with a whole bunch of leftover hand dyed yarns. I cast it on just before we left for our camping trip and I surprisingly had time to work on it. My son picked out the bee buttons, he really wanted some red fire truck buttons but the sizing didn't work. It's made using the Mossy Jacket pattern in the 18 months size, I wish I'd knit the body a couple of inches longer. Hopefully it fits through the winter.

Here's another scrappy project, it's a double pocket wetbag that I should be able to get listed in my shop later on today.

And a quick custom pad (yes, custom orders can be just 1 pad ;) ) I love this Heather Ross print.

Canning = Sugar?

I got started on some canning today. I made a batch of icicle pickles, a batch of raspberry-banana jam, and a batch of raspberry-mango-banana jam. All the raspberries were picked locally, the bananas and mangoes not so much ;) but we had them so I used them up.

My partner and I have been talking about our dependence on sugar lately...white, refined sugar specifically. We're wanting to cut way back on our use of it. We figure that for baking we could use raw cane sugar and start looking into other alternatives like stevia. I've taken to using honey in my coffee, it took some getting used to but it's fine now. But canning-without sugar?? We did read that you can use up to 50% honey in place of white sugar in jam making but we make a lot of jam here so financially it's not really an option. Today I used 5 cups of sugar rather than the called for 6.5 cups of sugar (that's per BATCH of jam!) yes, that's a lot of sugar even at my cutting back. And the pickles (being a sweet pickle) took 3 cups of sugar. That's 13 cups of sugar I used today-in those jars in the pictures!! Really if you have any ideas on canning with less sugar or other alternatives please, please share!

Todays harvest

Today we picked these pickling cucumbers from the garden, I think we're about to be inundated with tomatoes and cucumbers. We're just a couple of weeks away from prime canning season. And the eggs of course, we usually get 4-6 eggs per day from our five chickens.Laundry on the line....I enjoyed some quiet time today putting out the laundry while the kids were inside with my partner. I took my time to enjoy the quiet and I was extra ornery about how I hung the laundry so that it took me longer :) It's been weeks since I hung the diapers in the line so they're due for a sunning, today the wipes and family cloth also made it onto the line.

Some crafty bits

I just added some pads to my shop, I guess we can disregard my last post about stocking every other week. It seems just as easy to stock weekly, rather than having a bunch of listing to do all at once. Today I added some bamboo velour and some cute cotton prints, more with PUL than usual. I also finished up a little custom order of more purple.
Look at this, I've been wanting to make a few of these bowl covers for a while and I did get one made this week. I've been reaching for the plastic wrap way too often lately.


Even better than the wrapping gizmo is what's inside...homemade guacamole (my baby LOVES this stuff!) You can see the inner of the bowl cover here too, it's nylon so I can just wipe it clean or toss it in the wash. I've got to make more of these.

And knitting, after two kind of disappointing projects I took a break from knitting. The knitting bug came back though and I've started a pair of longies for the fall. It seems that after 6 years of knitting these diaper cover thingies I may actually know what I'm doing! I just bought this new pattern http://hyenacart.com/EviePants/index.php?c=0&p=34615 and I'm so impressed with it, I highly recommend it. This picture is from yesterday and I'm further ahead now, I've got the gusset done and I'm onto the first leg. I cast these on last Sunday and these are going pretty quickly for me. The yarn was a custom hand dyed by a WAHM, http://hyenacart.com/Yarnoodles/ when I was newly pregnant with my now 16 month old!