My Goals

I am setting down a list of skills I would like to learn or practice.  I expect this list to grow as I come up with more things to learn.

Each time I make an effort in a skill, I will tag the post with labels.  If you are interested in a particular skill (whether to learn it yourself or laugh at my incompetence), look up the skill by the tag to find all posts about it.

-Gardening and growing my own food:
     Composting
     Pest control
     Not killing the plants
-Preserving food:
     Canning
     Freezing
     Drying
-Making food at home:
     Yogurt
     Bread
     Butter
     Cheese
-Soap and lotion making:
     Colorants
     Scenting
     Opening a business someday
-Winemaking
-Beer brewing
-Carpentry skills
-Energy reduction
-Green cleaning

Sewing Project

Now, I am not skilled at sewing.  I can work maybe three settings on my sewing machine, and I generally have to stop once or twice each project to rip out a seam and start over.  But I like the creativity and freedom involved.  I like picking the fabrics and combinations.  I like creating something with my own hands.  I can express my mild creativity with low risk, and it gives me something productive to do during periodic unemployment.  And best of all, I can make handmade, homemade gifts to give to people I love.

Occasionally, this will backfire.  About three years ago, I got it in my head to make advent calendars for everyone I know.  I started making little mittens, trees, presents, ornaments, and santa hats, and intended to put them all on string to make a little advent garland.  But you need at least 25 little guys for every garland.  And I wanted to make six or seven garlands.  And sewing numbers on each little ornament?  I didn't get through that many before the project became too daunting and I gave up.

I've made a few quilts, some napkins, some bags, and little things around my house to relative success.  When my brother's girlfriend saw the Christmas stockings I had sewn a few years ago, she expressed her frustration with being able to find stockings they liked.  I jumped at the chance to make them some for Christmas.

I had this fabric left over from the advent calendar fiasco, and loved it.  (It was my mitten fabric.)  I added fusible interface to the back to give it a little more stiffness.  The stockings I made for our home did not have fusible interface to start, and they just sort of hung limply and misshapen when filled, so I ended up adding some to relative success.

The pattern looked a little small in the stocking form, so I decided to add the heel and toe details to make it a little less overwhelming.  The top, heel, and toe are white fleece (discounted for being the end of the roll and having a small blue discoloration!).  These were all machine-sewn.  I hand-sewed the fleece letters.  Here, I sewed the letter before sewing the two sides of the stocking together.  It is much easier than waiting until the stocking is all one piece.

Stockings after the sides were sewn together. 

A little mistletoe detail to break up the white expanse at the top.

The finished stockings!  I made a smaller one for their cat as well.  I am about to ship these off (with a little bit of soap and lotion extras) for their Christmas.

(Yes, I recognize that it is the end of January and a little late for Christmas gifts.  I got married about a week before the holidays, and it put a damper on my ability to purchase or make gifts this year.  Better late than never?)

I hope they like them!

Hippie Adventures

I live in a city, but I dream about owning a homestead someday.  I walk the concrete sidewalks, but wish for dirt lanes.  I dig in my community garden plot, but dream about the gardens and orchards I would create.  I lay in bed at night and listen to the sounds of the traffic go by, but imagine the sounds of the birds and wildlife.  I love my condo, but I want something I've made by hand.

There are many good reasons I am in the city instead of making my homesteading dream happen, but it doesn't mean I can't continue to work toward my goals.  Here I will detail my hippie adventures:  learning and honing the skills to live as sustainably, and simply, as I can.  I will teach myself with books, mentors, or by doing.  I'll practice, make mistakes, and hopefully have successes.  I'll incorporate my newfound skills into my life, and continue to hone them as I learn new ones.

And maybe someday, I'll get to practice those skills on a farm.  One can only dream.

And practice.

And adventure.