Eco-friendly living for the practically minded.

Friday, June 12, 2009

sewing machine: HUGE SUCCESS

Do you see a hem on these pants? No? Good, because I have successfully used my new sewing machine to blind hem these suckers. Take that Martha. (Ok, so there's a line where I need to iron, but I did get the hem right!)


For the purpose of reusing clothes (and making new ones when I dislike the current fashions), I have purchased a sewing machine. Actually, my mother purchased me a sewing machine. (Thanks Mom!) Now that I have successfully done a reasonably difficult hem with it, it's time to go on to new, easier projects.

First up on the save-the-world-with-simple-stuff list: cloth napkins, kitchen towels, and other mess cleaners. We've already put the paper towels in a cabinet and use cloth IKEA napkins for non-toxic messes. But we've had a lot of friends over recently, and I realized we don't have cloth napkins. So we've been using paper napkins because the cloth towels we have are for dirty messes, not for wiping hands and faces with. So I'm going to try making some cloth napkins for next time!

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Monday, June 8, 2009

My camera works again!

I hadn't posted for a while as my camera wasn't loading pictures onto my computer. I finally figured out the problem though; it seems there is something wrong with the cable. Here's the weird deal though: it works fine on Saul's computer, just not mine. But when I switched cables, it worked. So whatever.

Anyway, just found this on the camera. The culprit is in the lower right.


And this one was just cute.


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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Preserving herbs, results from winter

Well, I did learn a little more about this. Parsley, oregano, thyme, and basil all dried well. I tried drying on the branch and off the branch; off branch was better. Somehow it was more colorful and flavorful. Plus, they dried faster.

Don't dry chives though, they were terrible. I've realized it's not worth it anyway, they were still growing in the snow and they came back over a month ago. (And with a vengeance, too...anyone need chives? I have like 7 plants now.) I was only without for a couple months, so no big deal.

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It's Spring!

Ten days ago, we walked outside and crocuses were blooming! I declared it the beginning of spring and spent the next weekend planting peas, lettuces, and spinach. My neighbor says the timing was perfect; according to her, all of those are supposed to be planted on St. Patrick' Day. Nothing has germinated yet, but I'm hopeful. I think it's partly because I'm not watering it enough; you would think that it would have rained, but it hasn't really yet.

I am also not going to have too much lettuce this year. Really. I split seed packets with Emily, Kami, and Michael, so I only have .... 400 lettuce seeds....ok, I'm still going to have too much lettuce.

I'm always surprised at how depressed I am in winter and how much happier I get when we finally have some sunlight and weather above freezing. One of my neighbors was laughing because he still considers it winter right now, and I was out flipping the compost pile, raking leaves, and planting! I did try to prevent planting too much this year though. I'm spacing out the lettuce, and there are no radishes this year. That should help some.

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