I am a bad, bad blogger. March 18, 2011

I know this, and I am sorry.  For what it’s worth, I have been healing and not feeling like doing much more than whine about it – and being I have no desire to now or later revisit my whine fest I avoided blogging at all.

As of last Thursday, I have been released for “light” exercises from my Doctor. I am permitted to lift 1-2 pound weights – of course the lightest one we have here is a 10lb one. Oh well. That’s what canned goods are for. That and walking. Lots and lots of walking. For hours per day in fact. He said walking is good exercise for the back. Unless you have a very weak (which I seem to now have for the moment), you probably do not even realize the muscles in your back that are being used in walking. I do. It’s something I’ll never take for granted again – in my life!

I have however had time to drool over my garden catalogs, and even placed an order. We’re getting a cherry tree, and two black berry – what, vines, bushes? What ever. Two of those. Mostly because we used to have wild raspberries growing at a cabin we rented in the country – the one with a brook right behind the house – the one we where we got flooded, still I miss that place <sigh> So, being true to form – I shall take what I miss from there, and bring it here –  While they grew wild – I had decided to train a few onto an arbor. The ones on the arbor ripened more quickly, grew larger, and were much easier to harvest. Plus, since they were on a hill – it saved them from being accidently mowed over…again. Not that it would happen here – since we have an all garden-no lawn theme going on:)

Back to work – and it feels good. February 22, 2011

No, I’m not working outside the home again. I’m not sure what lies ahead for me in that regard. I’ve been a bit of a miserable home maker as of late though, and it finally sunk in why – because I wasn’t doing it. Yes, I’ve been doing my chores, no one has missed a meal, or a snack for that matter. I still bake, and mate socks (although, usually a pair at a time…) and all else that’s implied with being a home maker. But, it’s about making the home too – not just maintaining it.

So, yesterday I woke up took an ibuprofen and went to work on ironing the fabric I purchased weeks ago to make some kitchen accessories. For my $6.00 splurge – I expect to get curtains, cushions for the benches to the kitchen table, a couple of pot holders and maybe a table runner.

A seamstress I am not – but I do enjoy the idea of sewing immensely. That’s what keeps me trying. Of course, if I tried more often – I might be better at it. None the less, I now have new Kitchen Curtains hanging. I even made the tie backs with a little ruffle. I was a little concerned about trying that with this fabric, it’s upholstery fabric I purchased at Ocean State Job Lots…which is a bargain variety store of sorts. Three yards for $6 was too much to pass up, and I decided to get as much out of it as possible.

Next, I will start working on cushions for the benches. The comforter I’m repurposing for the padding is now in the washing machine, and then I will be off and running with that. In the mean time, I have a few scrap pieces from the curtains, and am working on cutting squares for some pot holders to put together with some scrap denim squares I’ve got lying around. Now that I’m moving along with it – I’m excited to see just how much I can get out of my little splurge.

Trying to learn to knit February 3, 2011

I’ve been crocheting since I was pregnant with my daughter – who will be 19 yo next month. I was on bed rest with my 3 yo son. Crochet gave me a way to keep my sanity, as well as make little things to enchant and entertain my son at the same time.  Crochet will always be my first love. But it’s been almost 20 years now, and I’m ready for a little something different. Something a little dangerous – if you could see me wield my needles, you’d understand.

This is my first swatch. Tonight, I’m attempting to add the pearl stitch to my repertoire and see what I come up with.

This look like a good time to you? January 30, 2011

But it really was. It helps that the “pencil” protruding from my hand is in fact a latex prosthetic from our local costume shop. DD and I spent some time there this afternoon at a free make-up class.  It was, as many of the best things are – a last minute type of thing. S.S and I just noticed the sign out in front of the store while we were on the bus on our way home yesterday. I called Sammy right away, knowing she’d be thrilled to attend. Unfortunately, it was a bit short notice for her to find any one to go with – so I went with her, and I’m glad I did. We had a really good time there. It’s been a while since we’ve had any “Mommy-Girl” time, as we call it.

                                         This definately fit the bill.

Really? January 24, 2011

"Slocks"

So, on my quest of crochet patterns to make thoughtful and sweet little gifts for those I love this Valentine’s Day things have taken an odd turn here. There is an overwhelming demand for the most basic/simple thing I think I’ve ever made. Slippers that have been lovingly and laughingly dubbed as “Slocks” by my family. The pattern can be found here at Bev’s Country Cottage . I made them for Christmas in 2009. Last night, my brother even stopped down here with his on to show me the holes and pulls he’s developed in his; to strengthen his plea for a new pair.

                                        So, Slocks it is.

Nothing much… January 21, 2011

I’ve been working mostly on simple little things. Laundry, mending (finally!), and cutting up my recycled fabric stash, meaning old clothes that are too far gone to be passed along any other way.

We’ve discovered a way to watch t.v on the computer. Well, not discovered exactly – I mean, there’s commercials all over for it, and on the shows we do watch there’s always the added “if you’ve missed an episode go to www. someplace dot com” at the end. I just finally decided to take a look at what’s out there. Yesterday, I was watching the first two episodes of  Downtown Abbey at pbs.org. Love it!

Today won’t be much more exciting. Marketing, working in my room. I’m sure I’ll find something to watch while I work. I’m really just posting to be sure I’m not disappearing again…

4 More Sleeps January 17, 2011

That’s how Hubby and I count the time until he’s home again. He left for another week working out-of-town this morning. He’s been gone for almost an hour, and I already miss him.

Next week, he starts a new job – one where he will be working locally. For another 3 months, any way. After that, he’ll be back on the road, in Buffalo or NJ. Buffalo would be nice, most of his family lives there.

While he’s on the road this week, I’d like to get things in better order so I can actually enjoy the time he’s home again. We changed rooms around a bit over the weekend -  the kids traded spaces, and , well the kids did it themselves. There’s a little tweaking (cleaning,organizing) left to be done…

I’d better get moving though, only 4 more sleeps to go!

Laundry Soap Recipe January 15, 2011

Laundry Soap ing.

Years ago, I read about home-made laundry soap recipes online in a forum that is no longer available.

There were many shared, both liquid and powder, I’ve always preferred the powder. Even when we lived where we had harder water, I would just put the powder into a jar with hot water, shake it up to dissolve and then put it into the machine from there. For me, it’s more of a storage issue. It takes less room to store 6 months worth of detergent in one container in powder form, as opposed to jugs of liquid. Plus, I have a tendency to lean towards laziness to be honest, and the powder is much easier to complete. There are many recipes for H.M detergent still to be found, I’m sharing with you the one we use.

 

1 -55 ounce box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda)

1-76 ounce box of Borax

2 – 5.5 ounce bars of Fels-Naptha laundry soap finely grated.

 

Combine all ingredients well into a large (we use a large cereal container) container with a good lid. Shake it up a bit if you’d like.

 

To use, just add 2 tablespoons worth per load.

 

It does not suds. This threw me off for a while at first. I tested it against a national brand name, and it won – hands down – for us. For a while, I wasn’t able to find the ingredients to make it where we’d moved to. I had forgotten all about it until we bought this house and my Father bought me front loading machines. These require “He” soaps, which are more expensive. Ironically enough, where they differ from ‘regular’ soaps, (aside from in price) is they are low sudsing. Seems the agent in ‘regular’ detergents is damaging to the belts in the front loading machines.

For under $11, I can make enough soap to do laundry for the 6 of us who live down stairs, 3 who live upstairs and it lasts us about 2 months per batch.

I went back to school today January 14, 2011

No, it’s not that I’ve gone back to school to further my own education. I went to try to keep get my son on track with his. I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say, he’s grounded.

It was so much easier with DD – she was homeschooled, lol. At least I knew what was going on then!

So, DD comes into the kitchen and says - January 14, 2011

  “I don’t get it, you guys cook so much, but we never eat any leftovers.” That reason is two-fold. First, as I mentioned before, we freeze portions of most meals for Hubby to take on the road for lunches the following week (or weeks) ahead. Second – we eat the left overs alright – we just make new meals from them. That roast we had last Sunday, on Monday it was in the soup for dinner. Ironically enough, it’s what was on the stove when D.D came in and made her query.

The recipe on the back of the bag of lentils called for ham and celery – both of which we did not have. So we diced up the roast, and added carrots instead. I sliced up a small loaf of bread that was getting a little hard, buttered, seasoned, and toasted it on the oven. Voila, we had the perfect winter fare on the table in 30 minutes.