Here On My Island (Wednesday Hodgepodge)

Notes from our Hodgepodge hostess: "Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to share answers with the universe. Here we go-"

1. "The cure for anything is salt water-tears, sweat, or the sea." (Isak Dinesan) Would you agree? Of the three, which has 'cured' you most recently? 

None of those that I can think of! Didn't Isak like chocolate?

2. What's something you can't eat without salt? Do you normally salt your food a lot, a little, or not at all? 

A few years ago, we were very very low salt around here (a medical need), and I had a low-sodium food blog as well. Since then we have eased back into our normal amount of sauerkraut. But I was eating awhile back with some friends from the U.S., and they said that Canadian food generally seemed undersalted. So maybe there's a cross-border difference between "a little" and "a lot."

3. Sands of time, bury your head in the sand, built on sand, or draw a line in the sand...which sandy phrase could best be applied to something in your life right now? 

Sands through the hourglass?

4. A favorite book, movie, or song with an island setting or theme?

This is just for any of the Squirrelings who stop by here:


5. Yesterday-did you run your day or did it run you? How so?

I am at the tail end of a writing project, so I'm trying to pretend like I'm on a desert island without too many distractions.

6. You're on an island holiday. Will I most likely find you parked in a beach chair, shopping in town, on the back of a jet ski, or snorkeling off the back of a catamaran?

No idea, I haven't been on an island holiday since I was three. No, wait, I guess Prince Edward Island counts too, right? Not exactly tropical, but it is an island. But that was a long time ago too.

The beach chair sounds nice.

7. What do you think we humans most take for granted?

Opposable thumbs.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Mr. Fixit told me yesterday that he is getting pumped to do some more cleaning out (this time mostly mancave stuff). I've already been through a lot of the typical online lists of things to trim down (like the Scavenger Hunt we did last year), but here's another one I found with some fun ideas.

Linked from the Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

From the archives: Blow Off Some Steam

First posted April 2013, as part of the Hidden Art of Homemaking discussion at Ordo Amoris.

I'd be tender - I'd be gentle and awful sentimental
Regarding Love and Art.
I'd be friends with the sparrows ... and the boys who shoots the arrows
If I only had a heart.

"A Christian...should live artistically, aesthetically, and creatively...we should look for expressions of artistry, and be sensitive to beauty, responsive to what has been created for our appreciation." ~~Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 2 

"For too many people...the creative muscles and joints (if I can use that picture!) have stiffened with disuse."

"We are all in danger of thinking, "Some day I shall be fulfilled. Some day I shall have the courage to start another life which will develop my talent", without ever considering the very practical use of that talent today in a way which will enrich other people's lives, develop the talent, and express the fact of being a creative creature."

Frugality, second (or third) generation (updated with photos)

Our Dollygirl was recently given a Samantha doll by her Grandpa Squirrel.  Samantha is a "retired" American Girl doll, so she was acquired through E-bay.  She is in very good condition and is missing only her shoes.  Samantha, if you're not up on your American Girls, is a well-off eleven-year old from 1904.  Dollygirl wanted her to feel at home, so to speak.

We found out that Samantha was coming last Sunday night.  By the time the package arrived on Tuesday, Dollygirl had already carved out an extra doll-space in her room, made a bed from a box, and contrived some Edwardian-inspired bedding.  

She had previously borrowed a pair of pajamas from her doll-playing friends around the corner, so Mama Squirrel's nightwear services were not required.  In fact, this is one doll setup that Dollygirl has managed almost completely on her own.  (We do have the free downloaded patterns for "Samantha's Pretty Clothes.")

Samantha's homemade bedroom furniture includes not only the bed but a washstand (also from a box) with a Mylar mirror, and a nightstand from a plastic container.

She also has a small (real) copy of The Wizard of Oz (Dollygirl says it's Samantha's favourite book), a Madame Alexander Oz doll (McDonald's giveaway), a sewing basket with an embroidery project that we scavenged from a Little Women treasure chest, and some mini paper dolls (same).  Dollygirl made her a lunch basket with a plastic peach, a Sculpey roll, and a cookie (all things she had already), and she's working on some school supplies.

All without having to so much as shake Dollygirl's piggy bank.  Or ours. (The Springfield doll line, at Michael's, apparently includes some plain black shoes that should fit Samantha's feet, and that shouldn't set us back much.)

I am very proud of my next-generation frugal-hacker.


Linked from Festival of Frugality #388 at The Frugal Toad.

Blow off some steam: Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 2

I'd be tender - I'd be gentle and awful sentimental
Regarding Love and Art.
I'd be friends with the sparrows ... and the boys who shoots the arrows
If I only had a heart.

"A Christian...should live artistically, aesthetically, and creatively...we should look for expressions of artistry, and be sensitive to beauty, responsive to what has been created for our appreciation." ~~Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 2

"For too many people...the creative muscles and joints (if I can use that picture!) have stiffened with disuse."

"We are all in danger of thinking, "Some day I shall be fulfilled. Some day I shall have the courage to start another life which will develop my talent", without ever considering the very practical use of that talent today in a way which will enrich other people's lives, develop the talent, and express the fact of being a creative creature."

Linked from Chapter 2 Linky for Hidden Art, at Ordo Amoris.