Baggin' it!

Well, it has been a few days into the New Year and I am putting into practice my One Small Change. For this month I have chosen to forgo all plastic bags. This past weekend I realized that one of the reasons I may be forgetting my bags is that I have had them for a long time. I've accrued them over the years from thrift stores, donations to good causes. They are stained, holey and some of the handles have broken off. So Hubby and I put our collective creativity together and made some new bags.

Hubby repurposed the feed bag into a grocery bag. We have a few more of this sort of plastic weave bag around and will be making a few more.

I made the patchwork bag to hold my knitting ( which has been christened by a water bottle some little person put in it while we were about today). All the materials for the patchwork were from stash, old jeans and finds from yard sales. I also put a tool pocket inside the bag for easy reach of the tools I use most often.

Wee one wanted a new bag too. His library bag was also well worn out, so he got a new one for the new year. I think Scruffer kitty would like one too!

So today was the first chance I have had to remember the bags. I went to Marden's, a salvage store, for .75 fat quarters for more patchwork. While digging in my wallet for the cash to pay, I heard the clerk open a plastic bag. I told her that I did not need a bag and I added that it was a New Year's resolution to stop using plastic bags ( gotta spread the word;). We went to the healthfood store next and I used a cloth bag there as well. I think that it is easier to remember to use my bags when I go to the grocery store but I have a tendency to forget when I go to other retailers.

I also made a linen bread bag for keeping homemade bread in. I had an old linen table cloth that had been stained by one feast too many and saw this idea at Soule Mama. I am still a novice at the sewing machine but I am having a blast with the process. Next project is to make some take-a-long produce bags. Oh and all those old bags, well, they will be mended and patched because they are still useful!

One small change and New Year hopes...

I have joined Hip Mountain Mama in her "One Small Change" Challenge. The idea is that small changes can make a big difference. We live fairly lite on the earth here at Fleecenik Farm but it is so easy to slip, it is easy to take the easier road, dismiss the one plastic bag because it is only one bag. But it all adds up ( as the cache of plastic bags in the cupboard prove) So for the month of January my one small step will be to be very diligent about bringing my fabric bags with me everywhere I go and to remember to bring them into the store when I do go to the store. It is the small changes that create better habits.

As for New Year's resolutions I am going to take a different approach this year. Each year there is a list of things I hope to do. You know the typical stuff: exercise more, eat better. Well, inevitably, I do not fulfill these goals. It is January and my natural inclination this time of year is to hibernate. This hibernation is always a good time of year for me. I feed my creativity, explore and learn new things. I nap. I play. I bake. I read cookbooks. Why would I want to deny the pleasure I get from this yearly rhythm?

Instead, I am going to strive to improve what is working already. This is not to say that there are not goals I want to accomplish. I want to open an Etsy Shop this year. But the shop is just an extension of a family goal.

Anyway, in the effort to improve what is working already, there are several areas in my life as a domestic goddess that I would like to refine. We have been doing really well with eating from food storage these past couple of months. What has not worked, in this regard, is my documentation on this blog. So I will be making a weekly post about how we are managing this, with recipes! Sometimes I have found that we spend more on food when we are on the road. So I would like be more diligent about cooking food to take with us.

Money is an area of our lives that we have been looking really hard at lately. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you have been following our family's travails as hubby lives two hours away during the week. He has been home for 2 weeks and goes back to work on Monday. We have accepted that this may be the way our lives are for the rest of the school year. But we don't have to be victim to circumstance. We have found a potential home that we can owner finance. We need 10% down for a down payment. We will have the needed amount by June 1st if we follow a very austere savings/ money management regimen. We have been paying attention to every penny and find that there is all sorts of extra money in our budget if we just pay attention to where is all goes. I plan to write more about this as I share some things I have discovered over the last month.

I would also like to give more attention to working with what I have on hand. My handmade Christmas did not require the purchase of vast amounts of materials ( partially because I have a bit of a yarn stash). Anyway, I have several home projects I would like to work on this winter that require me to use paint and fabric I have on hand. I would like to explore kid crafts while working with what we have on hand.

I have learned to embrace hibernation and the introspection that comes with this time of year. I look forward to sharing our continuing adventures this coming year!

More homemade Christmas...

Handknit socks for teen. There was an appreciaitve oh! when he put them on and then he wore them three days straight. His birthday is this month so I will make him another pair and maybe they won't be so ripe when they hit the laundry basket;)
I made this pencil case for the teen. He is an aspiring artist. His pencils were kept in a tin. I thought that if he had the case he could take them with his sketch book when he goes for wanders.
I made a couple of draft snakes for my aunt and my friend Louise. These were very fun to make. I used scraps of fabric I had in my stash.

This was the best handmade Christmas present. The wee one and I found this wooden truck at the GoodWill last spring. It was dirty, its bumper looked like a dog had chewed it and it was missing its back wheels. All summer and fall it sat on Hubby's work bench. Hubby wanted to fix it up for him but time and circumstance conspired to keep it gathering dust on the bench. Hubby has had 2 weeks off. His first weekend home he set to work planning how to revitalize this great truck. Hubby worked on the wheels and worried that wee one would care about the difference in wheels. I assured him that he will be so happy that his dad fixed the truck for him that he will not care about the particular wheels. Wee one was VERY happy.

Some of our handmade Christmas...

Hubby's Maltese Fisherman Hat

Teen's Watch Cap

Hubby got in on the action and made me a Boot Scraper! I am so please:)

Hubby also gave me this water color painting that our friend Lisa painted.

Yes there are still projects to finish. This is a blue felted vest for teen. Only half done. Below is Hubby's half done vest. Last year, I gave bags of yarn to I figure I am way ahead of the game. Although, I still have a whole vest left to make now...go figure!
There are still more handmade gifts to post.....

We had a lovely quiet day on Christmas day. How was your holiday?

Sorry for the inconvenience...

But it seems I may have been spammed in comments. So I will be moderating comments for a while until I think the coast is clear...

Rejoice in the Light, Revel in the Dark!

This short day, this long night we walk a mile through the woods. In the dark we hear the creak of maples leaning away from the roar of winter wind. A crescent moon dressed in gossamer cloud begs us to wait a few more nights for its blue dance on New Year's eve. I listen to each foot step crunch on snow. Ahead of me, the music of my son's voice sings about sled rides and glasses of milk.

At the end of our journey there is a pot luck feast abundant with sweets, wassail, a bonfire, ceremony and true, good friends.

And in that ceremony our ill wills join a Yule log on the bonfire and turn to embers dancing in the wind. We sing song and bang drums and revel in this yearly ritual of the longest night.

Blessed Be.

I am enjoying...

I've been busy baking sweets and finishing holiday knitting. Today I spend some time with the sewing machine. Wish me luck!

In the meanwhile, I thought I would share some things I am enjoying.

This soup is delicious! I substituted buttercup squash for the pumpkin. I used this easy Garam Masala recipe.

I found this blog very interesting and this article in particular says it all for me.

I am working hard to make this as much of a handmade Christmas as possible. Here are some last minute quick gifts that we are making.

If you are a knitter and have some little kids on your list these hand puppets work up really quick. I can knit one in a couple of evenings. I made them in dish cloth cotton so that they are easy to clean.

Thumbless mittens are being whipped up fast and furiously at my house as well. All the kids in my family are under 5. Trying to get those little thumbs in a mitten thumb and hope that it stays there seems an exercise in futility. So I have been making mittens without thumbs in toddler/preschool sizes. I can make a mitten an evening. I hope to have my own pattern and pictures posted this weekend!

In our house we love to weave pot holders in our house. A few always find their way into Christmas gifts that the kids give. I think that this is a craft not restricted to children. I love to make them too and folks love their sturdy usefulness. You could whip up a whole bag of loops in an evening.

I plan on making a couple of these draft snakes today.

And lastly, I have made several pair of these slippers. They were very fun to make. I can crochet the squares for one slipper in an evening.

Just a reminder that Monday is the last day to mail packages and have them arrive on time.

Cheers!