Not your Granny's clothespin apron!

I recently received a copy of One Yard Wonders for Mother's Day.  The book has 101 sewing projects that use 1 yard of fabric or less.  It really has some cute things in it and I have enjoyed just perusing the pages.  It has several little apron patterns in it.  They're the kind that tie around your waist and don't have a top part.  I don't get that.  As a cook, I rarely spill things on my pants, but I am *constantly* spilling or splashing on my shirt.  But, when I saw this apron project, I knew I needed one and so did my friend Rhonda.  

A couple Christmases ago, Cam bought me a clothesline.  It's the kind that looks like a spiderweb and raises up and down like an umbrella.  I *love* it.  It can hold so much laundry!  When my dad saw my hanging laundry, he thought my dryer must be broken, but no, I find hanging clothes on the line to be a very peaceful activity that I rather enjoy.  So, if the weather is right and time permits, I prefer to hang my laundry out.  Of course, besides the cathartic benefits, it also saves energy which is a bonus. 

That's all well and good, but you have to keep the clothespins handy somehow.  They say you shouldn't just leave them on the line as they will get mildewy and yucky.  I had been keeping mine in a really cute basket a friend of mine made me for the purpose that said "laundry" and an embroidered picture of clothes on a line.  But, our puppy got a hold of it and alas, it is no more.  Perfect timing, actually, as I already had the project in mind.  

This is how they turned out:

My butterfly apron

I surprised Rhonda with hers the other day.  She seemed quite tickled.  I had purchased the fabric I made hers from probably a decade ago.  (That sounds like so long ago.  It's kind of fun to be of an age where I can say I bought something a "decade ago")  But, it had never met it's perfect project...until now. As soon as I spotted it, I knew it was meant to be Rhonda's clothespin apron.  =)

Rhonda's bohemian apron

I used it for the first time the other day and it was GREAT!  It was so handy.  It worked so well.  I realized, though, it was not as handy at being stored between uses as its basket counterpart.  So, I added this handy dandy little loop so I can hang it up between uses and on the line to wait for me to take down the laundry.  Perfect!  

I'll drink to that!

Around the farm, I try to have as little waste as possible.  Luckily, a lot of our waste can be used by our animals (like the pigs or chickens).  But, there are some household goods that just have to be thrown away, like paper towels, plastic baggies, and paper plates.  I have reduced our consumption of those in a major way.  We use cloth napkins all the time.  Cloth napkins can be expensive, but my first batch was simply some old rags.  The next batch was some cotton fabric that I serged the edges of.  I just throw them in the regular laundry and *voila!*, no more paper napkins.  I try to use glass containers for packing foods in as much as possible as well.  We rarely use paper plates and I really don't mind washing the dishes all the time.  

I've been trying to reduce the amount of plastic we use in our home in a lot of ways, including taking my own bags to the grocery and shopping.  I'm not a big fan of plastic and it seems we're learning about more and more negative effects it has on our bodies, not to mention our earth.  Up until recently, we've been using those reusable plastic cups and straws for drinking.  My girls are past the sippy cup age, but not quite to the age where they can be trusted with glasses without lids. 

I was not happy with the cups.  #1, they are plastic.  #2, they're really not meant to be used over and over again and get to looking pretty scudsy after a few rounds in the dishwasher.  But, I had yet to find a solution that I was pleased with.  Other lidded receptacles or those with built-in straws were hard for me to keep clean.  After being inspired by my SIL, I came up with these bad boys: 

 

This,readers, is my new best friend.  I should come up with some clever name for it, like ... well, I don't know.  But, anyway, I used a mason jar (which I find to be very stout and hard to break), drilled a straw-size hole in the dome lid, and screwed the lid on.  I purchased some metal straws and *ta da* a reusable, dishwasher safe, drinking cup for kids.  The cool thing is, you are not supposed to reuse dome lids again for canning. BUT, I can totally use them for this purpose!  No more throwing away dome lids!  Yay! (Okay, fine, I bought these cute gingham looking ones for this purpose, but from now on I'm going to reuse!)

  

My niece Dorothy (left), and Lila really liked them!  I missed the photo op of them smiling at one another across a child-size picnic table sipping their water gleefully, but here is one of them clinking their glasses.  =)  

The next thing I think would be nice is some wine charms like this or this so the girls would be able to tell their drinks apart easily.  But, overall, I am really happy with these!

Baby gifties!

 A couple of my friends have recently been blessed with new babes, so I've been busy crafting away! I made this cute little froggie from a free online pattern.  Yay!  I love free patterns!  His bottom half is "stuffed" with a tennis ball which makes him a little bouncy. I debated whether or not to add the toes and I'm really glad I did, because I think they're so stinkin' cute.

My dear friend Jenny recently had twin boys to add to her brood of handsome guys (5 including hubby).  I felt like the twins might need matching sun hats and shoes.  I bought the patchwork fabric at Joann and think it turned out really cute.  While making these, I really came to realize how much I love my overlock sewing machine!  If you are a sewer and don't have one, I highly recommend it.  It does such a nice job finishing edges.  It took me awhile to get comfortable with it, but now that I am, I turn to it during almost every project.  It makes everything look more complete. The shoes were really a pain in the butt because of their size.  I'm not sure they will fit any baby feet, but I'm hoping to go meet the new guys soon and see.

I really love crafting gifts.  They seem to be well-received and, most of the time, the materials can be purchased for less than the cost of a store-bought gift.  Giving something personal and unique is fun.  I got a great book from my MIL for Mother's Day from my Amazon Wishlist full of great, small projects.  More about that to come.

Raised Beds Rock!

 

I am loving our garden this year!  We changed gears and tried something new, and we have been so pleased with it!   In the past, we have had a large garden spot and planted lots of produce.  But inevitably, our good intentions would be taken over by weeds and the hard work needed to keep it looking nice and producing well would be forgotten.  We have always had enough to can and freeze, but it always felt like *a lot* of work!  

This year, Cam built a beautiful raised bed in our yard.  It has ended up being so wonderful!  We don't have to weed as much, don't have to water as much, it looks awesome, it's concentrated and just all in all, feels easier and more pleasing.  He designed it himself, using the mulched walkway to ensure that every area would be accessible without standing on the soil to prevent compaction. Granted, our harvest may not be as big this year, but it will probably be a lot more manageable!  

 

In each of the southerly corners we have green beans ready to climb these rustic poles.  Along the back you can see the livestock fence panel.  We are using that end for our climbing plants.  Our first harvest was peas that grew up the panels.  We just removed those plants a few days ago, fed them to our garbage disposals, and made room for squash, zucchini, tomatoes, etc.  

Beets!

We have been harvesting salad, peas, and we just harvested some beets.  The peas and salad were quite prolific.  The girls would munch the peas right off the vine while they were out playing.  Have I mentioned that I love our garden? =)

Living Garbage Disposals

Lined up to eat

Ok, we don't actually feed them garbage, but they do eat pretty much every scrap of food that is left on our plates.  We have raised pigs now for three or four years.  The first year we had seven or eight up on the hill.  The main purpose of the pigs was to try to seal in the pond that's up there.  Their wallowing, pooping, walking, and generally living on the space was said to be a great way of making the bowl-shaped depression that was unable to hold water into a pond.  So, we bought pigs.  We did a co-op adventure that year, raising the pigs for not only ourselves, but our neighbors and friends.  We each paid a share of the feed costs and then when the time came for butchering, everyone paid their own bill.  Because, if you didn't know it folks, that's what  you do with farm pigs.  They did a pretty good job that first year, but we felt the "pond" could still hold water even better with another year of pig living.  So, again they came. 

Cam got really tired of toting water and feed up the hill twice a day for several of the hottest months of the year, so this year, we scaled back and he built a more permanent shelter in which to house them in that is near the barn.  The down side to that is that they're near the barn.  Which also means near the house where we can smell their smelliness.  And, yes, folks, they do smell.  Cam positioned the pen in such a way that the wind doesn't often blow from the pen to the house, but when it does, peeeeeuuuuuu!  
Aside from the smell, I do actually like having the porkers around.  It makes me feel pretty good that our "waste" becomes food for them and any excess we have actually makes it cheaper to raise these guys because it means less feed to buy. It's also really nice to know exactly where our pork comes from and how it was raised.  I love that the distance from the farm to plate is, oh, about 100 feet. 

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

We took a trip to the Louisville Zoo recently to check out their new bear exhibits.  We really enjoyed it.  We went on a cool morning and the crowds were low.  The bears were active and we all really got an up close and personal look at them. 

 I love this pic of the kids glued to the scene of the two bears "playing". 

 The bears are siblings and put on a good fight scene while we were there.

 

The exhibit is made to look like an Alaskan fishing town and I think they did a really nice job.  There are lots of angles and places to view the critters.

Sawing logs...

 

I promise we have enough beds in our house for Maggie to sleep in a real one.  However, several times in the recent past, I have sneaked into quiet time only to find her asleep in: her underbed storage and a doll crib.  Interesting.  Anyone else find their child asleep in strange places?