Sadly, code school was so demanding of Faye’s time that between being on the computer and being on the computer, she had little time for sleep and no time for being crafty in the kitchen. But last year’s gifts have not gone forgotten.

Flash forward 9 months to this past weekend, and in the spirit of GSTD, I finally decided to give the soap a try. (OK, it was prompted by an impromptu doll-cleanup project.) While I wouldn’t count grating a bar of soap as my favorite way to spend 15 minutes, the overall process took less than a half an hour and I wondered why it’d taken so long!^ I’d already had a Nancy’s yogurt container within reach that used to hold detergent from the coop which made for an excellent shaker. The steps were simple:

1. grate soap into Nancy’s yogurt container
2. mix in washing soda & borax
3. put the lid on & shake, preferably to a pop song

Voila! To boot, the soap worked well (though I want to share the proof in a not-related post about the doll).

Ingredients for Laundry Soap Powder:

• 1c Washing Soda – Portland Homestead Supply Store, $3 for 3 pounds.
• 1c Borax – I’ve had this box in the house so long, I don’t remember. I’ll consider it free.
• Grated Natural Handmade Laundry Bar – “From Santa” only $5.5 at Sellwood Soap Company (though there are many cheaper alternatives) – Not into grating? They have a great post about an alternative process requiring some melting & a food processor.

In fact, it worked so well, I decided it was time to bake some bread. Thanks to my last housemate leaving a bread maker -and- a bread maker recipe book, I found a Peasant’s Bread recipe for which I already had all of the ingredients:

• 3 c flour
• 1 c water
• 1 tsp honey (though I ended up putting in closer to 1.5T in an effort to finish the last of the local honey from across the Bridge of the Gods)
• salt to taste & yeast

Since bread calls for mayonnaise and we’d just boiled a dozen eggs for our recent hiking & camping trip with some left over crying to be made into egg salad – I had to round out the evening with some homemade mayo from The Silver Spoon. This time I was patient in letting my 2 eggs come to room temperature and lucky to have some delicious white wine vinegar & saffloa oil on hand. It was the best batch I’d made in a while.

Waking up to fresh bread in the morning, I enjoyed making our lunches more than most Mondays.

While I *was* gearing up to make my next 30 day challenge focused on reading more – I’m spontaneously throwing my hat into the ring for 30 days of homesteading. As for what that means, I’m going to start small and say that means continuing this awesome momentum of fixing the shit that keeps breaking and using what’s already here. It could also mean tracking everything I purchase, though I doubt I’ll be drawing it anytime soon. Whatever it manifests as, I’m going to start small and give myself room to grow.

^ When I asked Faye what took us so long to make the laundry soap, she said she’d looked at it several times and didn’t want to wait all that time. What time? Oh, the time between when you boil it and it’s ready. Boil it? What – What instructions were you reading? Oh, I don’t know. The ones on the bag? I immediately went to Google and started looking at DIY fails. Maybe it was tooo simple to be true. Alas, I found recounts of this powder story, got out of bed, went down 2 flights of stairs into the basement to see just what I’d used (Sellwood Soap Co), browsed their website and finally felt confident that I’d done it right. Phew. 

The post 3 simple DIYs for clean clothes and better sandwiches: a homesteading weekend 9 months in the making appeared first on Jewels.

Quite possibly.

In part one of taking a first look at what I see every day, this is what I found and these are the conversations (with myself) I had.

• Champagne Corks for Door Knobs
• Champagne Corks for Wall “Hooks” (I see a trend…)
• Door Knobs for Curtain Ties
• Empty Picture Frames for Fancy Walls

(Update: I did this post from my phone, so the layout is experimental … my explanations as the maker of the way things are are alongside the photos. My observations and questions as the visitor are below.)

• Cool cabinet knobs. Do these work? Did you drink all the champagne to have the knobs or did you make knobs because you’d already drank the champagne?
• There’s no pictures in the frames, yet I like the wall. Mentally, I fill in the frames with a variety of photos starting with puffy paint sweaters and 80’s backdrops reminiscent of high school mug shots and family portraits. I wonder if you meant to leave it this way or have a hard time finishing projects?
• Did you do these before the kitchen or after? How much load can these handle? I think I’d like to try these for jewelry or curtain ties.
• Absolutely love the look of this! Where on earth did you find the old knobs?

Extra: Today is Day 5 of my 30 day blog challenge. Click ‘Follow’ at the bottom of the page to receive weekly updates in your inbox or follow me on Tumblr if that’s your scene.

The post I Spy: a fresh look around a space that i see every day appeared first on Jewels.

1. While it’s about as easy as Apple Pie (as, let’s face it, Apple Pie requires a crust which can be tricky), it still takes time.
2. Product photos matter. I tried some shortcuts and ended up putting away the iPhone for the trusty DSLR. Oh, and waiting for the morning light is worth it. Artificial lighting is like a boob job. It takes a bunch of time for something that will never be as good as the real thing.
3. Communicating with customers is kind of scary the first time when you’ve never used Etsy yourself. Buy something on Etsy before you open a shop. You’ll thank me for it later. And if you’re wondering what to buy, check out my store.
4. Pin it! It really is the one social networking site that sells.

And that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. I entered the world on Cyber Monday with a few pendants and somehow got a sale a short couple of days later after close to zil promotion. I wish I could tell you she LOVED her necklace … but I haven’t gotten any feedback yet. And I haven’t made all the updates I swore to myself I would. (The ones listed are using glass and I’ve moved on to resin & vintage chains.) Because, let’s face it, I’m not a shop owner. I’m a maker and a photographer and a daydreamer and I spend all of my managerial energies at work. So consider this a plea for a partner in crafting crime.

Can’t wait for this holiday season to pass so I can share more.

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Luckily, a friend’s birthday crept up on me and I now had the perfect excuse to get out the saw and get crafty. Being that I have little patience for following instructions, I didn’t dig up the old article and instead started in on my own safari adventure.

Read on to find out how you can get

from

Tools & Materials: a saw (see #2 below), hot glue gun (plug it in before you start and it just might be ready when you need it), magnets.
Time: 30-60 minutes.

1. Go shopping. Check out your local party store and stock up on cheap, plastic animals made in China.
   
2. Find a saw. Any will do. I’d wanted to try the Jig Saw but couldn’t find it and decided I probably shouldn’t play with power tools anyway, so grabbed a hand saw that could double as a cleaver. Saw your beloved toy in half.
   
3. Play Taxidermist. Chances are your toy will be hollow. Stuff it with something, preferably with fabric or paper. Definitely not something that will rot. Carefully place some hot-glue over the stuffing to seal the front/back half of your animal.
   
4. Insert Magnets. While the glue is still warm, place a magnet in each end, being careful so as to place them so that they will attract each other when you want to re-assemble your dear pet. I tried 2 different methods: (1) place magnet in so that the edge is flush with the glue or (2) submerge magnet in the glue and apply another clear layer of glue over the magnet. I tried the latter method as a reinforcement. Either appears to work fine.
   
5. Put a Photo in It. I created a little card for the special occasion, though I imagine you could print a photo with a cleverly placed face or body such that the animal adds to the scene. In my case, I started with a cougar joke until I realized I had a cheetah on my hands. (Thank goodness for Google Images.)
   
6. Give it Away. The end.

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