No-Sew Curtains

     We put new shelving in one of our bathrooms and saved money by not building cabinets with doors. However, I really wanted some coverage for all of our bathroom stuff. After a couple of months I finally had the mental clarity and motivation to construct some curtains.

     When I set out to sew these curtains, I realized that I hadn't touched my sewing machine in about 3 years. I had given up sewing because my sewing room had become Julia's nursery. I also realized that I was a lousy seamstress. Enthusiasm for making cute little girls' dresses does not make for straight seams! I didn't want to bother with tangled threads and bobbin problems. So, I used "heat 'n bond" sewing tape, instead. This was rather challenging, though, as the material I used was thick and I had to apply several layers of tape to get my seams to stick.

     Because the bathroom is so small,  I couldn't get an optimal angle for a better picture. They are not perfect, but they'll do the job and add some tropical color to my beach-themed bathroom.

"Mom, Can You Teach Me How To Sew?"

     Chloe, my 7 year-old burst of energy , posed this question to me awhile back. Truth is, although I love to sew and have sewn quite a few clothes and curtains and things in the past, I've never been properly taught correct sewing technique. Once I took a few classes and was dismayed at all I didn't know and had never been taught. So, I cringed when she asked me that. However, I remembered seeing a simple sewing project in a gardening book. This project involved sewing together 100% cotton material to store vegetables in. The cotton absorbs excess moisture from the vegetables that can cause premature molding, but also allows the vegetables to "breathe" so to speak. So, I designed a simple project for Chloe to do. I also agreed to pay her which delighted her. She's always eager to make money and I'm sure she'll be my richest daughter! I just need to teach her how to save her money.
     Anyway, I started with some 100% cotton dish towels that I bought at CVS pharmacy for 1$ with three in a pack.

     I pinned the towels together and then marked dots with a red permanent marker as holes for Chloe to sew through on both sides.

     I sat with her and showed her how to do several stitches and then helped her do them herself.

     When she was done she had done a commendable job and was proud of herself.

     Although this particular bag is rather small for the zucchini I placed in it, I have plans for Chloe to sew larger bags for larger vegetables. This bag might be well suited for herbs or small peppers. You get the idea.

     I was very pleased to help Chloe earn some money, $1 or $2, while also working on her eye- hand motor coordination and fine motor skills. I love killing multiple birds with one stone!

Girls and Green Things: Money and Weeds

     The economy has affected our family as well. After about 17 years of working almost every summer, Tim is "unemployed" at the moment. Add in furlough days at the end of June, and we've made some adjustments to our budget. The first thing to be eliminated was the girls' allowances. All of them were pretty understanding, but broke. Elena and Camille have gotten some babysitting jobs that have paid for a fancy movie premier, "Eclipse," but are otherwise needing some green backs for other "frills" purchases (translation: clothes shopping at the mall.)

 So, as I looked around at all the yard projects I had to do, I hired them to help me with weeding my butterfly and hummingbird habitat garden and putting weed cloth down. The total hours spent with both of them working has been about 4. So, I paid them each $4 an hour. I already had the weed block covering, so my only expense was their labor and 16 bags of bark chips at $3.88 each and 2 boxes of fabric pins to secure the weed block down at $12 each. So, the total cost of the project was just over $100 and two  happy girls that are a little greener in the wallet and the thumb. I'm ecstatic because I've just eliminated hours of back breaking weeding. Plus, in addition to water saving mulch for my plants, I've created a much nicer looking habitat for my butterflies, hummingbirds and humans to enjoy gazing upon.

At the beginning of the project...

At the end of the project

Project Nightstand

Before and after pictures say it all! This was my nightstand several months ago. 

 

And today.... I'd like to think that my sleep is less "cluttered," but that's not really true. I'm just much less discouraged when I wake up and I don't have a pile of books spilling off my night stand. It's easier to find my current book, too.

The truth of the matter is that my cozy, inviting bed is hard to sleep in sometimes. See the picture below? Notice how much room there is for me to sleep in my own bed?  But, I have to admit, my last two girlies are really cuddlers and I love it! (most of the time...)

Home Grown Pizza

From my garden:

From my kitchen:

Pizza dough: Courtesy of Allrecipes.com

Recipe Photos

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Pizza Dough I

By: Gudny Bjorg Kjaerbo 

Prep Time:
10 Min

Cook Time:
25 Min

Ready In:
35 Min

Servings  (Help)

US Metric Calculate  
Original Recipe Yield 1 pizza

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

Directions

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water. Spread out on a large pizza pan. Top as desired.
2. Bake at 375 degrees C (190 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 112 | Total Fat: 2.1g | Cholesterol: 0mg

Grilled vegetables:

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes:

Grate with Parmesan cheese:

Consume with delight!

Flowers From the Underworld

     This is a photo of my Cinnamon Sun sunflowers I planted from seed in early April mixed in with some Sun Samba sunflowers. My Cinnamon Sun sunflowers in particular have  produced abundantly and gloriously. I will probably cut at least 2 dozen more sunflowers from the massive 8-foot tall giants in my yard. I love their dark, rich, chocolaty-brown color with flecks of amber emanating from the tips. They're rather exotic and unusual-looking. I think they look marvelous on my dining room table. I smile every time I come in the door as they're sitting in their vase saying, "Look at us! We're gorgeous!" And they are. Fresh-cut flowers add such an inviting element to any room in the house.

     When Leanne, my 9 year old,  saw them in their vase, she commented to me, "Those look like flowers from Persephone's garden in the Underworld."  I laughed. It seemed a fitting description due to their dark color. Leanne was referring to her latest literary series addiction, Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. She read all of the books - 100 chapters! - in one week. (She wanted me to put that in. The kid has earned bragging rights!) I have to chuckle at how much she has grown to enjoy reading. This child will read till late at night, at the breakfast table, in the car, when she's supposed to be doing chores, in the bathroom, etc. However, this was not always the case.
     Leanne didn't attend pre-school like my older girls did. But I worked tirelessly from about the time she was 3 or so helping her learn to identify her alphabet letters. We read lots of books, drilled through several stacks of flashcards umpteen times, used sandpaper letters, shaving cream on a plate, drawing letters on her back, writing them with pencils, pens, markers, crayons, etc., coloring in block letters and stencils, singing them, hopping on alphabet floor tiles.... Get the picture? I'm tired just remembering all my efforts.
     I finally decided, for various reasons, to put her into 1st grade in our local public school. Part of my thinking was, Let them have a crack at teaching her to read. She still can't recognize W and H. God bless 'em! Lo and behold, by November she was her 1st grade teacher's star student who had made the most dramatic progress of any student that year, despite the teacher's initial (no surprise there!) concerns. I was relieved! So grateful! My alphabet-challenged child was finally reading!

     She was just a late bloomer, unlike my sunflowers. Living things bloom on their own time table I guess.But when they bloom, watch out!






                                           (My giant Cinnamon Sun sunflowers to the right)

Joy at Dawn - All Three of Them!

     I have three favorite Dawns. One is the rising of the early morning sun. I greatly cherish the quiet of the early morning hours. I love an early morning stroll out to my garden to see the sparkly dew drops on my tomato plants' leaves. I salute my 7 foot tall sunflowers that stand like sentinels in my garden with their bright faces that eagerly greet the sun each morning. They watch over the comings and goings in my garden throughout the day:  birds splashing in their bath, bugs crawling around in the dirt, and the weeds growing, growing, always growing... Adding to my auditory delight are little birdies in their trees tweeting their morning greeting to the emerging sun.    
     If the Sand Man has shown me favor throughout the night (as opposed to feeling a cuddly child crawl into my bed in the wee morning hours complaining that, "I had a bad dweam"), then I feel industrious in the early morning hours. I am primed and ready to start a load of wash or transfer wet clothes into the dryer, put away drip-dry pots and pans on the counter from the night before, examine breakfast options for the morning and dinner plans for the evening, check my e-mail and look over my to-do list for the day, and see Tim off for work in the morning. After lunch time, I am ready for a nap!

Second on my list of favorite dawns is my high school friend Dawn (on the left in the picture to the left). I met Dawn when we were juniors in high school. We were on swim team together and spent many afternoons hanging out at my house or her godparent's home where she resided. She has overcome significant hardships in her life and has always remained sweet, sincere, and very generous with her care. I attended her wedding about 20 years ago and visited her at the hospital when her newborn baby, Amber (now 19!), was born. We share a mutual friend, Tina, a grade school friend of mine(in the picture on the right side with Dawn). Over the years we've all drifted in and out of contact. Dramatic personal trials have collided into these special friends' lives and I've found myself talking to them more recently. I am so ecstatic about that. Tina and I are trying to coax Dawn to move back to southern California from Albuquerque where she currently lives. Hopefully, with much prayer and patience, we'll get Dawn back out here so we can have some rockin' girls' nights out!
     Lastly, there's Dawn - the dish washing liquid. This post is appropriate for this blog about domestic issues because Dawn is a lady's best friend when trying to get grease stains out of clothing.  After soaking a greasy shirt in water, I then take a nail brush and scrub the spot out of the shirt.(Embarrassingly, these are frequently my shirts!) Sometimes, I fill a small empty 5 quart ice cream bucket (free with ice cream purchase and abundantly useful in many ways) with warm water, place the Dawn-doused shirt in it, and then let it soak for a couple of hours, or days (!) depending on how busy I am. Because I haven't gotten around to clearing a spot off my dryer  to easily scrub out my greasy shirts, I'll just throw them in the wash. Often times, the shirt will come out of the dryer looking like new. So handy! I have a small detergent bottle, or extra liquid hand soap bottle that I have near my utility sink in my laundry area. This way I always have my Dawn nearby to squirt on grease spots. If Dawn won't get a spot out, then nothing will. The shirt is destined for the trash can.

     With just overly dirty clothes (think dirt stains, chocolate stains, snot stains, and of course, ketchup) I place the grimy clothing item in my ice cream bucket with warm water and rinse out the cap I use for pouring liquid detergent into my washing machine. I don't use extra grime-busting products. Why spend extra money and make space in my laundry room for more containers if I don't need to? The concentrated teaspoon or so in the dispensing cup is usually enough of a boost to get extra "yuck" out of dirty clothes. What do you do to get stubborn stains out of your clothing?