Crafts, Canning, and Lots of Cat Pictures
In reality, I know I don’t need this beautiful print by Eleanor, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting it.
Image courtesy of Eleanor & pushmepullyou design
I’m really crazy about pretty much everything in her shop, but these sweet kitties take the cake. I love green and black right now, and as far as I’m concerned lace and cats are two things you can never go wrong with. Plus, shipping is free right now! What’s not to love about that?
Posted in etc.
One of the best purchases I’ve ever made was Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing. The projects are not only easy to sew, but they’re actually useful. I feel good about giving people gifts I know they’ll use and appreciate, and I’ve made almost every project at one point or another to give as a gift.
One of the best purchases I've made!
I decided I’d start off pretty basic with my first Stash Busting project and make these wonderful little tea towels. I’ve included a step-by-step photo tutorial below. I used most of what I had left of a beautiful chocolate brown and cream linen damask shower curtain.
You’ll need:
- Fabrics
3/4 yard (44″ wide) light-weight cotton or linen for the towels
1/4 yard (1/2″ wide) twill tape or cotton ribbon for the towel loops
- Supplies:
yardstick
fabric marker
scissors
straight pins
Step 1: Cut out all pieces from the fabric
Step One
- The book says to measure and mark the dimensions below directly onto the wrong side of your fabric using a yardstick and fabric marker. Then, using your scissors, cut out each piece, following the marked lines. (I don’t have a yardstick, however, but I do have tweezers and I find it just as easy to make my measurements and pull out a thread where I’ll need to cut. I find that my lines are actually a little straighter that way, since I’m very bad at drawing and cutting straight lines.)
From the fabric, cut 2 towels: 18″ wide x 24″ long
From the twill tape: cut 2 loops: 4 1/2″ long
Folding over the first 1/4"
Folding over the second 1/4"
- With the wrong side of the fabric facing up, fold each edge over 1/4″ toward center of the towel, then press. Fold over another 1/4″ and press. Set aside.
The loop method
My (preferred) corner method
- The book says to fold the twil tape so it makes a loop, and tuck it under the fold in the center of one short side. Pin the loop in place. I did this for photographic purposes, but for my own use I prefer a straight piece of twill tape in one of the top corners.
- Machine stitch a 3/16″ seam around all four sides, backstitching at each end. Make sure you stitch through all the layers. Press.
- If you chose to use the loop method, then, with the right side up, stitch across the loop, just inside the folded edge (approximately 1/16 to 1/8″), through all the layers. This wills top the edge from curling.
- Repeat the previous steps to make the second towel.
Two sets of finished (?) damask tea towels.
I made two sets of these towels, one with orange stitching and one with blue. I used bright thread I’d bought for special projects in the past. If I can rustle up some dye, I’d like to also dye the towels a coordinating color since I really prefer to use kitchen towels that won’t show every speck of dirt.
What's left of my blue thread.
And here’s proof that my stash is already dwindling!
Posted in DIY
I love botanical drawings, and I’ve been hoarding these beautiful calendar pages for almost three years. I decided to finally do something with them and, using some cardboard and scrapbook paper, I made a few valentines to send to a few friends. I put these sweet babies in the mail today, so hopefully they’ll make it to my friends by Valentine’s day!
Handmade valentines from recycled cardboard and calendar pages.
Posted in DIY
Chowder is helping rip up the bedding materials.
For the first time since I got my worm bin, for Christmas last year, its time to clean it out and start over. It hasn’t been that long, because I didn’t order the worms until around February or March, and it’s a pretty big bin so it’s taken a while to fill up. Still, the worms have multiplied beyond reason (quadrupled, at least) and have eaten most of their bedding and all of their food by now. The hardest thing about all of this, though, is that the pace of things around here hasn’t slowed as much as I’d like. All of the afternoon naps, hot tea, and scary movie marathons I have been longing for are still, for the most part, on hold because my schedule is just too hectic. Needless to say, I don’t have the time that cleaning out this big ol’ system requires. I devoted a couple of solid hours the other night and only managed to harvest about a gallon of compost and a pound of worms, which I sent right over to Turby and John for their own backyard compost bin.
Getting ready for their journey to Turby and John's.
When I started my bin I started with around that many worms (a pound is roughly 1,000 worms), but they have multiplied by this point to at least five times that number. At this point I’m realizing that what I need to do is get a tarp and an entire day free and I’ll lock the cats in the kitchen (they love to sniff the worms, and Chowder has actually licked one or two to death) and go to town. I may lure some friends over with family dinner. So far cleaning out the bin is a kind of tedious process, but it has been very educational as well. By digging through the entire system I’m learning what the worms like best (they love eggshells as well as egg carton cardboard and coffee grounds and filters) and what takes longest to break down (peanut shells). The whole thing, though, defied my expectations as far as smell and cleanliness–after all, I had been putting rotting food in there a few times a week for six months up until a couple weeks ago when I let up so they could finish digesting (the plan to clean out my bin has been in the works for a while). There was very little left in the way of food scraps. The fact that I gave them some time to eat everything up combined with the fact that I puree all of my scraps in a food processor is a likely explanation for this. I think that for outdoor systems throwing food in whole is an okay practice because, in general, those systems are a lot roomier. Breaking things down, though, makes the food itself more accessible to the worms because they don’t have to wait for the food to begin to decompose before they can eat it–something that I particularly appreciate since I live in an apartment and my bin stays inside year-round. (I first read about this blender method at Red Worm Composting, which is actually the place I ordered my worms and my definitive source for all things worm-related. This feeding method is called Homemade Manure, and while I have amended the process a little I think my results are still relatively the same, although the stuff I feed my worms is more like a thick sludge than the texture I think manure would have–take that however you will.)
With ample space left, as you can see.
So, anyway, I worked on separating the worms and compost for upwards of two hours and I barely made a dent. However, I did come to the realization that there’s actually a lot of room left in my bin, so I gave them some more food and bedding and decided to worry with it on a day when I have more time. I may continue to separate it out a bit at a time, but Thanksgiving break is coming up relatively soon so, if anything, I should have at least one day to myself then (I’m keeping my fingers crossed about this).
My sorting method is less than scienfic and highly inefficient--I made piles of worms, uneaten bedding, and compost.