Life With The Crew

Spiders, Woodpecker Poop, and Plenty of Fresh Air

This morning was one of those days.  One of those wrong side of the bed days, complaining and moaning days.  Not for me, but for the babe.  So after ignoring her while I did my chores, we then did what always makes us better - we went into the great outdoors.  With the backpack set with snacks and my camera, we left town and headed out to check on the lake that was drained, awaiting dredging.  We ignored the Wrong Way sign to avoid the icy hill and parked on the quiet side of the "lake", though it is all quiet at this time of year.  We didn't go far today, just up a small hill, out onto the drained lake bed, then back around to the other side over the dam.  Enough to sit in the quiet, soak up the fresh air, and regain our balance.

As I was taking a picture of these grasses (I liked the silky white tufts), something crept into my view and I realized a tiny spider was traveling from one stalk to another.  The temp was just above freezing in the high 30's.  Can you see him?

On the lake bed, there was this large downed tree that we realized must have been half in/half out of the water.  There was a patch of vegetation that had been growing upward from the side of the tree with the roots that I think would have been hanging in the water.  Isn't that neat?

In a stand of oaks, we saw a bunch of fresh wood chip debris on the ground.  Looking up, we saw this.

Looking down again, we saw this.  Pileated Woodpecker poop!  We have seen a lot of Pileated activity in the woods, but never their droppings.  He must have hit the jackpot and had quite a meal.

Not very big finds, but we do always manage to see something interesting.  Hope you find something interesting in your weekend too!

A Thrifty and Unique Gift Idea

An old book full of beautiful photos, yet one that we're not going to read.  Cheap picture frames from the Goodwill store.  Add them together and you have a unique piece of artwork.  I hung these three in our Airbnb rental and will be giving another as a Christmas gift.  

 

That Time of Year - Repost

 

~This is a repost from two years ago, but it is still definitely applicable.  I feel even more strongly now about reducing the amount of material junk in our lives and making sure the things that we own are quality items that will last for a long time.~

I guess we are almost in it folks, that time of year again.  The Season of Giving.  Before the manic shopping event known as Black Friday occurs next week, I'd like to share some ideas for holiday giving that do not involve just buying stuff.  

-This post, written by Nourishing Minimalism, and shared on FB by Svenna of Stitch and Purl, caught my attention.  I have already shared it on FB, but wanted to share it here also.  It offers great gift ideas that take the focus off of a material "thing".  Memberships to museums, magazine subscriptions, paying for art or dance classes, making a coupon booklet for special outings, are just several of the ideas that are suggested.  It is a really great list!

-Buy from local businesses when possible.  Yes, they might be more expensive than the chain stores, but that is where the idea of quality, rather than quantity comes into play.  Does your grandchild need 5 new books or can you buy 2 from the local bookstore and then take him on a lunch date that involves a stop at the library? ~Or purchase used books on Ebay or Amazon.  There are great "old fashioned" books available for kids that are not available at the big box stores.

-Support companies that are using their profits to make a positive change in the world.  Patagonia is a favorite of my husband and I.  Yes, they are expensive, but that expense is the true cost of making a sustainable garment.  They are one of the few major companies that are walking, talking, and manufacturing in a way that my husband and I agree with.  Their newest initiative, to use goose down from geese that were never force-fed or live plucked is one that I am thrilled to support (when I need a new coat).  If you're not familiar with how conventional down gets from a live goose to inside your puffy coat or pillow, check this out.  (It is not graphic or gruesome, just informative.)  ~I also support Patagonia because they actively encourage their customers to either repair an item themselves or send it back to Patagonia to have it repaired, and to buy used Patagonia clothing (search on Ebay), rather than to buy a brand new item.

-When I can't find shoes at the local kids thrift store for the little babe, TOMS is where I shop.  For each pair of shoes purchased, they donate a pair to a child in need.  The shoes are good quality, they have fun designs, and how can you find fault with putting shoes on a child's feet?  If you're interested in finding out more, click here.  (Their pink glitter shoes were a big hit in this house!)

-If you would like to put your money to good use for somebody in need, you can make a donation to Heifer International.  Based on the "teach a man to fish" concept, Heifer doesn't simply give money to people in need.  They provide them with an animal that will not only provide their family with food, but also a source of income.  A cow will provide them with enough milk for their family's needs and they can sell the excess.  This money can be used for their children's education or for starting a business.  Each family is required to "pass on the gift" by giving the animal's offspring to another family, so your donation could kickstart a better life for an entire village.

-Not that I need to tell many of you crafty readers this, but if you enjoy making things, give them as gifts!  Since knitting is very en vogue now, get your needles out and start purling!  Maybe your dog-loving parents would appreciate a hand-sewn dog bed for their beloved furry family member.  For your chocoholic friend, make her several types of hot chocolate mixes.  Think outside the chain store gift box.

*I am NOT affiliated with or receiving compensation from any of the organizations and companies listed in this post.  

Not Too Proud For Free Food

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across this movie.  Just watching the trailer gave me goosebumps and disgusted me.  It isn't the food that is disgusting - it is the food industry and the way that society has been brainwashed to think about food.  Several days later when I picked up my husband from school, he walked out of the building with two big catering food containers.  There had been a catered pasta and salad lunch at one of his business school events that day.  It wasn't anything great, just white pasta with sauce and out of season salad, definitely not organic anything, but it was food in perfectly good condition.  My husband just happened to be standing by the food table when he saw somebody start to throw it away.  It had only been sitting there for about 30 minutes and had been fine for everybody to consume then, but now it was just trash.  So my husband shrugged off the strange looks and brought it home to feed his family.  The pasta filled three 9 x 13 baking pans - three of them!  I put two in the freezer as we worked our way through the first one.  We only ate the salad at one meal and then gave the rest to the chickens, since iceberg lettuce isn't really even worth eating.  

There were three types of sauce - alfredo, vodka, and marinara.  The first night we ate the alfredo, which I doctored up with some olive oil, parmesan, and oregano.  One night I added homemade ricotta cheese to the red sauce pasta, another night I threw in chunks of whole milk mozzarella with basil.  If we had served it to someone, they would never have thought that it was unwanted leftovers.  And what is wrong with "leftovers" anyway?  If it was good enough to eat the first time, then it should be good enough to eat a second time.  When we eat in restaurants, I am amazed and dismayed at the amount of food that people do not eat and which I know will end up in the trash.  I really don't understand that - you just paid for it.  Why not just drop a couple of dollar bills on the ground while you're at it?  

I know I'm ranting on my soapbox now, so I'll step down.  It wasn't the single individual's fault who wanted to throw it away.  In a perfect world, the university would have a composting program in place that is easily accessible (because no one wants to be inconvenienced while doing the right thing.)

This Is Rubbish is a group based in the UK that aims to communicate about preventable food waste.

Food Waste News has a ton of current interesting information about food waste.

And if you have a chance to watch the Food Wast Movie, definitely check it out.

 

Shared On The Home Front for the HomeAcre Hop.

 

 

Paths

While I was running the other day and thinking about our life, as I often do when trying to forget that I don't necessarily enjoy the physical act of running, but that I do it because it is good for my body and head, I started thinking about paths.  How everyone is on a different path, multiple paths, and one person's path isn't necessarily better than someone else's.  But the path that one person chooses to follow, might not sit well morally with someone else.  

 If you can find a path that feels right to you, that makes you happy and that feels good to follow, then go for it.  But don't be afraid to take another path if the one you are on doesn't satisfy you, doesn't seem to take you where you want to go.  Some examples:

-My husband was working for a small employee owned company that he helped create.  He had a management position, but felt like things were stagnating.  He wasn't going to have any opportunities for growth and he wanted more - to be able to flex his brain muscles a bit, to push himself more than what he currently had to.  So he left that job and now is back in school, earning his MBA.  Where this new path will lead, we're not sure.  But he feels confident that it was the right one to take.

-My vegetarian path started when I was 16 years old.  I believe that animals feel the same pain that we do, that they deserve the same respect and compassion that we do, and I am not comfortable taking their life, or having someone else take their life for me.  Some things can't be avoided - yes, my dogs and cats eat meat; yes, heritage breed livestock won't survive if they don't serve a purpose, which is primarily being a food source - but my husband and I do not need to eat meat to survive.  When I first became a vegetarian, I tried to convince everyone else to become a vegetarian too.  After all, I was an idealistic, passionate teenager.  However, I realized after many heated arguments that you can't change someone else's point of view unless they want to change.  Even showing someone else the very ugly, point blank, black and white truth (literally black and white in the case of factory farmed dairy cows), isn't going to change their habits unless it is a path that they want to follow.  

-The path that I am most focused on right now is our path of living a less materialistic life.  This path should be simple, right?  Just buy less stuff and get rid of the unnecessary stuff that we do have.  But again, it isn't black and white.  There are the things that we keep for sentimental reasons (my husband moreso than me), the well-intentioned gifts that we don't want to seem ungrateful for but that we just don't need, the things that perhaps we should keep because they might be useful in the future.  We started down this path due to simple need - when I became a stay-at-home Mom (a whole separate path), we lost my full time income and so had no money to buy extra things.  I no longer needed the nice dress to wear to the office (which I didn't really need in the first place).  We no longer had the time to go to the movies or to enjoy a dinner at a nice restaurant.  What at first was a change of habit by force, became a way of living and thinking that felt right.  Now we enjoy eating at home more than going out - the meals are made from scratch from organic and local whole ingredients.  For less than the cost of one piece of cake at a restaurant, I can make a whole cake (and eat it while wearing my pajamas)!

This less materialistic path is certainly not a crowded one - everyone else is still running towards the shopping malls (or flying down the internet paths).  However, it is a path that we feel is best for our budget, for the sustainability of this planet (our miniscule part of it), and for the way in which we want to raise our daughter.  To understand that when she does purchase an item, it is for a specific reason, it is a quality product, and when that item is no longer needed or able to perform its task, to dispose of it in a way that does as little lasting damage to this planet as possible.

I hope that in this New Year you find health, happiness, love, and satisfaction on the paths that you have chosen.  If not, then strike out on a new one!  This world is a big great place and you only have one lifetime to experience it.

Christmas Break

I thought maybe some of you would enjoy a break from all of the festive Christmas goodness everywhere, so I'm going to share some pictures of old house parts.  Sounds like a treat for the eyes, doesn't it?  The Old House Parts Company is located in Kennebunk, Maine in a huge building overflowing with parts salvaged from old homes.  I was actually really excited to take my camera along - this place was amazing!  We stopped in on our way home from Maine.  We didn't really have anything in mind to buy, but we had a great time poking around.  Stained glass windows, real wooden doors, vintage light fixtures, door fittings, salvaged wood for flooring, clawfoot bath tubs, ornate heating grates, and tons of other items.  You know all of those ideas for cool repurposed projects that you've pinned?  This is the place to buy the parts!  (No Pinterest for me though; I do it the old fashioned way - cutting out pictures from magazines.)

There were bright colors in that stained glass window, so maybe that could count as being festive!  

Look What I Found!

As the little babe and I were driving to the park the other day, we passed a house that was having a "mega moving sale".  I wouldn't have stopped because we don't need more stuff in our house and I am already feeling overwhelmed at the moment, but it was a house that my husband and I have always thought was interesting.  It is a wooden shingled house with dark red window trim.  It is a very wooded double lot in the middle of a suburban neighborhood filled with more traditional (aka boring) houses.  The yard is enclosed with a fence made of collected sticks and chicken wire - it is really cool and almost disappears into the bushes.  Since it is a wooded lot, the people started gardening on the sunny strip between the sidewalk and street.  I know that it probably raised a few eyebrows because no one else does that.  They have been expanding it for the past several years and it is made up of several raised beds filled with veggies and flowers.  They even have a compost area.  

Last week I noticed a Sale Pending sign out front, which was odd because there was never a For Sale sign.  I wondered what the situation was and my nosiness convinced me to stop.  I gathered from the conversation inside that the husband had died and the wife was moving to central Texas.  I was a bit disappointed at the house though; it wasn't as interesting as I expected inside, but I did find a couple things to buy.  The wife had a huge textile collection - embroidered handkerchiefs, cloth napkins, tablecloths, blankets, runners.  She also had a big cardboard box full of yarn, mostly wool.  I was well behaved and only bought three skeins.  I bought a pretty pink tablecloth with tulips embroidered on it and a pillow sham that is very girly pink, but was too perfect for the little babe's room to pass up.  It is too big for any of my bed pillows, so I think I will have to repurpose it into something.  I also got a pretty linen tea towel and three adorable handmade dinner plates.  They have farm animals on them and once I found out that they were handmade, I couldn't pass them up!  

Oh, and I almost forgot about the sweater!  There was an amazingly thick cabled sweater, handmade by the woman.  It was a smidge too small for me, but I knew that I could turn it into something.  I have several large throw pillows on my very bland sofa.  I have been wanting to make pillow covers for them, but just haven't got around to it.  Well, now was the time.  I pulled the sweater over the pillow and it fit perfectly.  I sewed 5 buttons along the bottom ribbing and sewed the neck hole closed.  Then I cut off the arms and sewed those holes.  All done!  The color is the same, but at least now there is texure.  One pillow down, two to go, plus two more on the loveseat.  I'll have to look for more large sweaters.  

 All for just $15!  Have you had any thrifty finds lately?

Shared on The Self Sufficient HomeAcre for the HomeAcre Hop.

A Felted Feel Good Sweater Project

In my fabric stash, I had two wool sweaters.  A red turtleneck that was too big for me and a really nice green cardigan with a Fair Isle design from LL Bean.  Unfortunately, the green one shrank a bit and was too small.  I have been holding onto them because I knew they would make a great project one day.  This week I washed and dried them so they felted.  It was a tough decision about whether to felt the Fair Isle.  I kept debating if it was better to give it to Goodwill so that someone else could wear it or to repurpose it myself.  I decided on the latter.  

I made them into several items for the little babe.  She really likes what I made and they will keep her nice and warm this winter.

First project - a pair of simple mittens.  I used one of her current mittens as a pattern.  Figuring out the angle of the thumb was the hardest part.

I then cut the neck off of the red turtleneck sweater to use as a cowl for the little babe.  That was all I had to do - just one cut!  No sewing required.  Doesn't get much easier than that and she has been wearing it everyday since I made it.

Almost as simple were the leg warmers I made from the sleeves of the Fair Isle.  I cut them to a length that reached the little babe's thighs, then I folded the top over a piece of elastic and sewed it down.  You can't see it in the pictures, but the Fair Isle design is around the ankles - they are really pretty!

Then for the project that required a bit more head scratching and sewing.  I have not really made a good usable pair of pants for her.  All my ones in the past have been a bit restrictive.  So I am finally happy to announce that I sewed a pair that fits!  The pants will not win any prizes for aesthectics or sewing skill, but they will keep my little babe's buns warm this winter.  Using a pair of her pants as a pattern, I placed the legs on either side of the buttons on the cardigan, using the bottom ribbed edge of the sweater as the bottom of the pants.  I then cut up as far as I could to the neck of the sweater.  It wasn't going to be enough to cover her butt, so I then cut two pieces from the body of the red sweater to extend the top of the pants.  I added a piece of elastic at the top.

All warm and toasty!  And she just happened to be wearing her new red and green pajama top, so that is why she is ready for Christmas.  We weren't taking early holiday card photos!

I shared this post on The Self-Sufficient HomeAcre for the HomeAcre Hop.

How To Score A Vintage Children's Wooden Stepstool

 

How To Score a Vintage Children's Wooden Stepstool

1.  Go for a run at the end of Bulk Waste Week with a cute child, preferably your own, but the cute part is what's important.

2.  Spy wooden stepstool on curb from a distance.

3.  Nonchalantly check it out while maintaining pace.  

4.  While running away, calculate the following:  Did it look broken?  Can you carry it home on the stroller?  Did the house look like normal and cleanly people lived there?  Do you really need it?

5.  Decide the answers are:  no, yes, yes, not really but it's made of real wood and is cute.

6.  Circle the block and attempt to wipe away sweat and fix hair.

7.  Park stroller and approach door.  While knocking, try to look as pleasant and normal as possible while your face is bright red and still covered in sweat.

8.  Preface your request with, "I know this is strange, but..."

9.  Allow strangers to look at your cute child who has a scowl on her face because she needs to take a nap.

10.  Run away before the child whose stool you just took decides that she wants it back and starts crying. 

11.  Finish your run looking like a complete fruitcake for having a wooden stepstool on top of your running stroller.

12.  Get home, wash it off, let the little babe test it out and say, "Hot damn, that was a great find!"

 

Shared on Friday Finds. 

Hump Day Give-A-Way 5.28.14

Welcome back to Hump Day Give-A-Way!  I'm glad to be back in the routine after the bit of traveling I did.  I have a really cool artist to introduce to you today - Mona of Mona Does Concrete.  While cruising Etsy, looking for awesome stuff to share with you, I saw these concrete coasters with fun bike designs on them.

Concrete?  Did I say concrete?  Yes.  These are 4" hand poured concrete coasters, sealed with olive oil, and backed with corked.  Wouldn't you love to have these sitting on your coffee table?  What a conversation starter!

After admiring the coasters, I read Mona's About page and was really impressed with her philosophy and the process behind the items that she makes.  She strives to use green, eco-friendly materials and to think about the impact of what she is making and doing.

I then checked out the other items and saw this happy looking trivet, which can also be hung on a wall.  Doesn't it make you smile?

The winner of today's Hump Day Give-A-Way contest will win ONE of the above - either a set of 4 concrete coasters or one concrete trivet/wall hanging.  To enter, simply leave a comment below.  Unfortunately, this contest is only open to my readers located in the United States (sorry Asparagus Pea - I know your love of concrete!)  The contest is open now until Friday, May 30th, at 7am.  Make sure to stop by Mona Does Concrete on Etsy to see her other designs!

CONTEST CLOSED