Fun with a Camera

You can have a lot of fun with your camera and it doesn't have to cost much at all. Our camera is a simple Kodak EasyShare that we got on vacation in Chattanooga one year when we were privileged to go. We had a great time visiting the aquariums and riding on the riverboat there. I love Chattanooga.

You can publish your photos in several places online so your family can see them. At this point I only print out the ones we really want to keep or send to a relative with no computer or online access.

Hope you enjoy these pics as much as I enjoyed taking them!

Knitting and Spinning

Can you tell I learned how to upload pics to my blog today? :-)

Knitting and spinning are great ways to make gifts for others. They seem old-fashioned but are fascinating ways to spend your time.

I taught myself to knit 3 or 4 years ago. I love it. It's so calming and orderly. I feel connected to all the other women through the years who have knitted while I'm working with the yarn and needles. My favorite book that helped me after I learned the basics is "Stitch and Bitch" by Debbie Stoller. Interesting title, but a very informative book.

I started out with a Bond Sweater Machine, which was a lot of fun. The sweaters in the pictures were knitted on that machine. I learned a lot, esp. how to correct dropped stitches. To this day, if I drop a stitch and don't find it for several rows I never panic. I just pull out a crochet hook and hook them all back up.

I wanted to learn to knit by hand, though, so I kept working at that. It was so difficult for me to learn how to switch from knit to purl in the same row that I will drop everything to teach someone else how. The first items I knit by hand were dishcloths. I still have many of them and use them!

Spinning just happened to us. We were at The Lenoir Museum and saw a demonstration of spinning with a drop spindle. I bought one and it came with a small amt. of wool. We played around with that for a couple of years. Then I found a group that learns to spin at a library near us. My son and I went and had a great time. We learned about a larger group, The Tennessee Valley Handspinners. We go to their meetings as often as we can. I got a small charka loom and I'm trying to get replacement belts for it. (Not easy.) I'll get a picture of it up when I can.

 Composting

Composting is not that hard. I've seen ads for expensive composters but we are doing it the simple way. We keep a small pail with a lid in the kitchen. All our veg scraps go in, along with fruit peels, coffee grounds, egg shells and believe it or not, dryer lint! Every day or 2 (or for as long as he can get away with) our son takes all this out to a far corner of the yard and dumps it. (We live in a rural area so it isn't close to another house, not even that close to ours. Plus a well-kept compost pile has little or no odor.) Every few days it is supposed to get turned. I know it's doing well because underneath there are red worms hard at work. In the fall we want the compost to help us start a strawberry bed!

Keep meat and milk products out of your compost pile so it won't draw animals.

I thought we'd have a huge pile by now but it breaks down quite a bit really. We don't have as much stuff there as I'd expected.

In a few weeks I plan to load it in the wheelbarrow and add it to our garden. Then we'll start all over!

 Earth-friendly Cleansers

I no longer buy commercial cleaners. I do get laundry stain treatment, but I deleted cleaners from the pantry list I shop by. I've found that baking soda, vinegar, soap and water are excellent cleaners.

Baking soda and vinegar are so versatile! For windows and mirrors I combine vinegar and water in a spray bottle and spray on the surface. I rarely buy paper towels anymore so we use old microfiber cloths or newspapers to dry. For counters, just wet them down and sprinkle with some baking soda and rub in as a paste. Then wipe off with a wet cloth. I use baking soda and water for the bathroom sinks and counters as well.

For soap scum in the sinks and tubs I use an idea from Flylady.com. Rub the soap you normally use onto a scrubbing sponge. With a little elbow grease and water for rinsing, your tub and sink will sparkle.

The Tightwad Gazette has several recipes for earth-friendly cleansers if you want to take this a step further. Lots of great ideas there!

Redecorating Time in Tennessee!

You can see pictures of our kitchen project. The green is the color we want it to be.

I got distracted with raising the kids and didn't notice how shabby our house was looking for a long time, until one day I was shocked to see that we hadn't done anything to our house in years! Paint is the most cost-effective way to redecorate, so I started planning and getting enthusiastic about this new project.

My m-i-l papered the walls of the kitchen when she lived here (before Fred and I met and married) and did a great job. Then we papered over that during the first year of our marriage. Now I wish we'd peeled off that first layer of wallpaper and painted. We got a crack in the wall from the house settling and it tore right through the wallpaper (not pictured).

Well, the paper we put on comes off easily enough, but my dear m-i-l must have used the glue that you brush onto the paper because this stuff is really tough to get off the wall. We use lots of hot water and Diff, a pirhana, sponges, putty knives and a scrubby sponge and it's still a real job! It's cheaper than hiring it done, but since we don't have a lot of time each day to devote to this it's taking much longer than expected. Hopefully this is the toughest room and the rest of the wallpaper will come down much more easily. We still have one room and a hall to do. Papering over a layer of existing wallpaper is highlighted in my memory as "things I wish we didn't do".

Canning Project!

Here you can see some of the food we canned this summer. It was not as hard as I'd expected it to be, but I was so glad to have help from my kids!