Things to do today (photos)

1. Wash, dry, and fold a small load of laundry. Mr. Fixit says his drawer for socks et al has never looked so good (thank you KonMari).

2. Go out with Mr. Fixit to pick up some meat and perogies at EuroFoods, and do whatever other errands we have to. Tomorrow's errand is a flu shot, but I won't think about that.

3. Wait for a package to arrive. (It did.)

5. Make dinner with whatever we get at EuroFoods. Just two of us tonight since Lydia has robotics practice.

6. Finish making the Christmas cards I started last week.

7. Search vainly for a bar cookie recipe from a Walmart magazine that I linked to but that has disappeared.

8. Pre-read a couple of books for our church library.

9. Hand-wash the dress I wore to church and to the Steve Bell/Malcolm Guite concert last night, because I am that kind of fussy about that dress. At least now I know how to pronounce Guite. (It rhymes with night.)

10. Re-read a little of Shepherds Abiding, the first Mitford book I ever read, ten years ago, and still a favourite at Christmas.

I bought a craft magazine

Better Homes and Gardens Make It Yourself, Spring/Summer 2017

I picked up a new BHG craft magazine, and decided to make the most of it. The price was (C)$7.99 plus tax, so if I can find 16 different ways to use this issue, then I figure fifty cents an idea is a good bargain. Helpful tips and cool products count too.

1. Cover idea: "Grown-Up Craft Camp." That's awesome! Why don't we do that at church? How about a Charlotte Mason moms' handicraft / nature day? Everybody knows somebody who could take this idea and make it the most fun ever.

2. Cover promotion:  "A Free Cross-Stitch Pattern Every Month." I can't see myself downloading the August flipflop pattern, but the June jam jar is nice. Related thoughts: I am just an occasional stitcher, so small and simple projects are best.

3. For the book list: Care Packages, by Michelle Mackintosh. Related thoughts: maybe some of the craft ideas would be nice in a care package or a gift basket.

4. For those of us noted for our black thumbs: several ways to produce artistic-looking fake houseplants from materials such as crepe paper and river rocks. Here's one of the designer's websites.

5. I especially liked the rock cacti idea. Here's the original tutorial on Salt and Pepper Mom.

6. Handmade books, using Coptic stitching for binding. (I've seen this called Japanese stitching too.) Similar instructions.

7. Another crafty stuff book to look for: Connect with Nature, by Anna Carlile.

8. This would be fun for a tea party: turning small red paper honeycomb balls (the poofy things for parties) into strawberry shapes, just by recutting the paper backing shape (the part you stick together) and adding a green top.

9. A good site for me and my "evil sewing machine": BHG's how to sew site. [link broken]

10. "I could do that": 1/2-inch diameter rope, hot-glued in a spiral to a cardboard circle. What it's for: party placemats, especially if you can find colourful rope. Sounds like a good way to use up a stash of ancient macrame leftovers. (These can't be washed, so they're for one-time events or at least for non-messy parties. Or you could reserve them for centrepieces.)

11. Maybe for that grown-up craft party: white cotton napkins, dyed in ombre patterns. (Think Easter eggs.) Related thoughts: not everything hand-dyed has to be bright and tie-dyed. Especially if you're using natural dyes, you can come up with softer-coloured options.

12. I like the photograph of a living-room table holding large fern fronds in a glass vase. Mr. Fixit is fragrance-sensitive, so in addition to the houseplants we don't have, we also keep cut flowers to a minimum. But some green leafy stuff would be okay.

13. Another photo I liked: jars filled with felt "canned" peaches, cucumbers, and tomatoes, which I assumed were needle-felted or something complicated like that. Actually they are simple shapes with a bit of added embroidery. What makes them look not-like-kids'-crafts is that you use wool felt, the "real" stuff, not the synthetic version from the chain store craft aisle. Also, I think, the appeal is in the grouping. Not one tomato slice, but seven. Not just tomatoes, but peaches and cucumbers. It's the same with the handmade cacti: one is okay, but a small grouping of different types makes it less random and more interesting.

14. Again, sometimes it's how you put things together. Case in point: a party table with rope placemats under the plates, and hand-dyed napkins on the plates, and stand-up placecards on top of those. Plus paper flowers and a handmade banner. For a special party, even just a rope-placemats kind of occasion, turn the celebration dial up full blast. It doesn't have to cost much.

15. There's an almost-hidden bonus in that party photograph: a purchased table runner with a white stencilled lace pattern on each end. Not hard to do that. I can imagine using the same fabric-paint technique on a thrifted tablecloth, or a fabric remnant.

16. But I cannot ever see myself being desperate enough to cover a flower vase with cut-off plastic spoons.

17. Bonus way to use the magazine: pass the issue on to a crafty friend who's been under the weather.

From the archives: Treasured Possessions

First posted May 2013. Based on The Hidden Art of Homemaking, Chapter 5. Edited somewhat.

Heirloom-quality tablecloths, candlesticks, silver spoons, fine bedcovers? I don't relate much to the particular home-making items that Edith Schaeffer recommends we acquire in Chapter 5.  A candlestick wouldn't necessarily make a hotel room "homier" for me (and do hotels allow you to burn candles in the rooms, anyway? I'm thinking it might be a bit dangerous). 

And Edith knew as well as anyone that "lifetime" treasures could easily be lost or broken.  It was her sweaters that got chewed in the opportunity-for-recycling incident she describes in this chapter, and her wedding china that reportedly got broken by the Schaeffers' constant stream of houseguests.  Moths (mice?) and rust corrupt, cigarette sparks make holes, and careless guests break dishes.  It's a bit of a paradox that Edith describes, in such detail, the value of having your own special stuff; but that she could also see possessions as belonging, ultimately, to the Lord; that dishes and rugs could be somewhat expendable in the service of the Kingdom.

I do have a few treasured family items, but they're not the sort of things you'd want to cart around in a suitcase or that you'd use to dress up a temporary space: a piece of red glassware that was my grandmother's, a Psalter in German script that was passed down through her family, some photographs, my mother's earrings, and so on. I don't think those are the "treasured possessions" that Edith was talking about.

"What about me?"

I think she was shooting more for two types of home-related treasures. 

One would be just familiar, everyday (but also beautiful and individual) home stuff that becomes so much a part of your life that you, or your family, can't imagine home without it.  These days, instead of silver spoons, we might think of afghans or scrap quilts, pottery coffee mugs or bowls, a something-a-day calendar (somebody recently mentioned one with daily paintings), personalized pillowcases.  And her point is that if you don't have any homey stuff like that, then you need to get busy and find some, or make some, or let your kids make some.

The second would be seasonal, ritual-type treasures, things like Christmas ornaments or a birthday plate.

 I'm thinking about my grandparents' move to a granny flat, after forty years in one house.  Somehow they managed to make their new living room look something like the old one.  My grandpa still had a special chair, and some of his steam-train memorabilia.  Grandma's coffee table was still topped by a particular millefiore paperweight.

.

Here's the last point: if Jesus said to store up treasures in heaven, not on earth, isn't that a good attitude to have?

Maybe.  But as Edith says...without any material connections, we risk becoming splintered, unsettled.  Our longings for a home on earth may simply reflect our longings for home in heaven, but while we're here, can't we make our homes places that we care for, and where we know we are also cared for?

Arranging your own convenience (how messing with your own head can be productive)

When you're trying to do the next thing, it helps to know what that thing is. There's an old writer's trick of stopping work in the middle of a chapter, so that when you get back to work, you know exactly where you're at, just pick things up and start writing again.

Many homeschoolers, not all but many of them, do pre-planning in the summer. Sometimes (as in Lydia's Grade 8 year), this goes as far as having an entire year's weekly work written out and bound at Staples. The thinking is that then, even if you change some things, you already have that idea in your head; you know what you're doing, and all that's left is to do it. I know at least one person who made a point of collecting up all the art and science supplies required for the term (or maybe the year) and having them handy in one box. (At least the non-perishable ones.) And it makes sense: even if you don't buy a science kit, shouldn't you have the same convenience as those who do, even if you have to arrange the convenience yourself?

We are not homeschooling this year, but I still do a lot of pre-arranging, maybe more than ever.To quote Aristotle and Mary Poppins, it seems like well begun really is half done. Especially if you buy a lot of zip-lock bags. (Oh, how I love those extra-large ones--and I wonder why I waited all those years to buy any.)

I pre-sorted and pre-cut fabric and supplies for Christmas crafting, and that way I knew how far the fabric was going to stretch, whether I actually had any interfacing, and where the spool of red thread was. When I felt like sewing and had time, I took out the right (large, extra-large) bag and everything was right there, no excuses, just like a craft kit. I think of this as a sort of messing with my own head, in a good way. If you know you tend to procrastinate on things because they're too much work, then having them pre-started can be enough of an incentive to finish them off.

That's one reason freezer-non-cooking has worked well for us this fall.The meals are made, they just have to be cooked. Recently I have done the same thing with dry ingredients for baking (more zip-lock bags, and I do wash and re-use them). I have an awesome bread-machine recipe for whole-wheat bread, but I buy the bag of whole-wheat flour and then forget to make any until the flour goes rancid. (Yes, I know you can freeze it.) I figured out that a small bag of flour makes about three loaves (and a couple of cups left over for muffins), so that's what I did: pre-measured the bread ingredients into bags, wrote on them what else to add (water, oil, yeast), and stored them in the cold room. I did the same for pizza dough and two types of muffins, and some of the ingredients I have collected up for holiday baking. I figured out that we had just enough coconut, but no dried cranberries, so those went on the shopping list.

All this has nicely short-circuited my procrastinatory tendencies, allowing my do-it side to shout a Simpson-esque "HA-HA" at the Daemon of Sloth. Aside from feeling so virtuous and actually getting the sewing completed (so much so that yesterday I just looked at the sewing machine and knew we were done our relationship for this season), it has paid off in more practical terms. At four o'clock yesterday afternoon, I put a bag of pizza-dough mix into the bread machine, let it run its fairly short pizza-dough-mix-rise cycle, preheated the oven, stretched the dough into a big pan, spread it with some garlic margarine Lydia had talked me into buying, sprinkled it with grated cheese (I do buy grated cheese sometimes, especially the mixed Italian kind), pre-cut it into breadsticks with a pizza wheel, and baked the whole thing for about twenty minutes. Mr. Fixit and Lydia got home at 5:30, and the big puffy cheesy breadsticks were just coming out of the oven.

Now here's the truth, if you really need to know how lazy I can be: pizza dough has hardly anything in it anyway. I think all that was in the bag was pre-measured flour and salt. (I added water, oil, and yeast when I mixed it.) It would not have taken much for me to think "bread sticks. Yes, there's a new bag of flour. There's the salt. Measure it out, off we go." Really, I could have managed that. But there's this extra incentive: a zip-lock bag with Pizza Dough written on it, telling me to add things to it, tantalizing me with its existence, begging me to make something out of it. The same with the bags of pre-sorted fabric and trims: "I'm a little XXX waiting to be born. Bring me to life." And freezer meals: "I'm a Crockpot full of chili."

And that's all there is to it.

Do you want to see a secret? (Holiday makings)

I put up a new page today called Mama Squirrel's Twelve Days of Christmas Crafting. Maybe it will inspire someone else!

Something to sit on

A few weeks ago, I bought a bunch of upholstery samples at the thrift store.

Since none of them matched each other, I couldn't use them for bags. But I did think they would work well as pillows, or maybe as a large floor-sitter. I sewed eight of them together, four for each side, and Mr. Fixit bought a 30-inch piece of 3-inch thick foam for stuffing. We had to trim it a bit, but the two of us managed to get the foam into the pillow sleeve. I sewed up the last end by hand, after vacuuming the bits of foam off Mr. Fixit. (They like to cling.)

Here is Dewey trying it out.

I stood the pillow up against the love seat so you get an idea of the size.

Not bad for $2 for fabric (and $12 for foam).

Frugal and fun: quilted Dayrunner cover

Two years ago I bought a brand-new, black, zippered Dayrunner (the 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch size) at a church rummage sale. I was happy to find it, but after all this time I was getting bored with the black cover. But I hadn't seen any prettier ones at the thrift store, and I didn't know how you would go about putting a handmade cover around the binder hardware and the zipper.

Today's Handmade Holidays post at Sew Mama Sew linked to this Composition Notebook Cover from Amanda of  Jedi Craft Girl for Riley Blake Designs. I decided to make one, not really thinking of my Dayrunner but just wanting to use some fabric that had been given to us, and thinking I would find a blank notebook to put inside. It took me most of the morning to make, but it wasn't hard. You cut an upper and a lower piece for the outside front cover, sew them together with some batting, and machine-quilt lines three-quarters of an inch apart.The inside lining is made with one large piece and two smaller pieces that are folded in half for the flaps. The whole thing is sewn together with a gap at the bottom and turned inside out. (The heart applique was traced from a cookie cutter.)

It was when I was choosing the button to sew on the front that I noticed my tired-looking Dayrunner on the table, and the lightbulb went on. On examining the case, I discovered that the inside of the Dayrunner lifts out of its zipper cover, so I didn't have to destroy it. (Bonus!)

I am so happy with this!

Saturday thrifting, an eye towards the holidays

 Eleven fabric pieces (upholstery samples, I think), for a dollar. Not washable, but still good for crafts.

 Stickers, fifty cents.

Pack of silk ribbons and trims, also known as an unused craft kit, two dollars.

Spring Flower Afghan

My sister-in-law gave us two bags of yarn leftovers. In one of the bags were twenty granny squares with off-white borders, and the rest of the yarn she had bought for her project.

At first I thought I would just sew the squares into a pillow cover.  Then I looked at this afghan (photo below) that I made almost thirty years ago (scary thought), and wondered if I could use the new squares to make something similar, because there was quite a lot of the off-white yarn. I didn't have the original pattern anymore (it probably came from Crochet World), but it didn't look that hard to figure out. (The yarn is Patons Canadiana.)

So here are some photos of the new afghan as it progressed. I'll put the captions under each photo.

I sewed the squares into two strips and went around each strip once to make a small border. I made three plain strips, the center one a little wider than the others. The plain strips are rows of treble crochet alternating with rows of half-double crochet, with chain stitches between the other stitches. The original afghan is all one colour except for the flowers, but I wanted to use some of the extra coloured yarn. I had enough egg-yolk yellow to edge the side strips, and I added apricot-orange borders to the flower strips.

The middle panel got a teal blue border.

Borders done, panels sewn together.

Off-white and teal granny-square style edging around the whole thing.

Then a solid off-white border. All this is pretty much the same as the original, but it shows up better with the bright colours.

Another view.

Close-up of the corner.

Oh, I forgot to say: I gave the afghan to my sister-in-law.

Lydia Knits Hats

Lydia started this school year barely knowing how to knit, and now she's up to double-pointed needles. Yay! (And thanks to the Apprentice for some coaching.)

P.S. Here's the pattern.

Lydia Knits Some More

Water-bottle holder (pattern from KnitGrrl 2)

Coin purse (pattern from Klutz Knitting)

Lydia Knits Too

What Lydia's been working on during readalouds.

The Apprentice Knits

My Christmas present from The Apprentice: an Amanda hat. Thank you, Apprentice!

Do crocheters make New Year's resolutions?

This post lists New Year's resolutions for crocheters.  They're not the funny sort, e.g. I won't try four times in a row to make a mitten pattern that obviously has something wrong with it before unravelling all the attempts and making something else. But you might find them useful anyway.

As for me, I don't have any crocheting resolutions except not to crochet anything in particular for about the next six months.

P.S. The crafts page is now okay for peeking.

Today's frugal ornament is on the secret page

I know I said I was done, but I found something fun to make for somebody, and the photo is at the bottom of the family-keep-out craft page.

Crocheted Snowflake, and links to more patterns

Today's Frugal Tree Ornament: Yes, there are about as many crocheted snowflake patterns as there are...snowflakes. But this is one I found this year, and I like it because it uses plain old worsted-weight yarn, which I have, and because it's actually pretty simple: no picots or anything fancy, just six points. Each snowflake is meant to be one motif in a garland, but just one makes a good tree ornament.

Are you looking for last-minute things to crochet? Check out Crochet.About.com ; they keep adding "best of" posts with free patterns. There are links to the best ornaments and so on on All Free Crochet, on Craftsy, on Ravelry, and so on. 

Crocheted Mitten Ornament

Today's Frugal Tree Ornament: I had just enough red yarn left to make one doll-sized mitten (from this pattern at Cobbler's Cabin). I put a little craft stuffing into it, ran a ribbon through the top, and scavenged two mini pinecones, greenery and tiny balls (on picks) from an old (thrifted) candle ring.

A little update on the Christmas-keep-out page

Updates to the family-keep-out-this-means-you Christmas page! (Photos too.)

Dewey's Link of the Day: Paper Snowflakes

Have you ever checked out PaperSnowflakes.com?

Dewey says you should really have a look. Besides, you don't have to clean paper snowflakes out of your fur.

More holiday things

 Cocoa can cover number two (we used a lot of cocoa this year.)

I cross-stitched this little wreath last year (a kit I found at the thrift store, while we were still volunteering there).  I had made it into an ornament, but it really looked awful.  So this morning I picked that all apart, salvaged the embroidery, and turned it into a card. (The window cards came with another kit. Have to love thrift stores.)