Resolutions and Goals, The Things We Promise Ourselves

It's that time of year, namely the beginning of a new one, which for many people means it's time to come up with a New Year's Resolution. This is typically something that we genuinely want for ourselves. It's a little ambitious but doable. And we almost always fail.  Is there something we can do to increase our odds of success?

Kindle Stand/Case

It's probably too close to Christmas now to think of giving this as a gift, but should you be on the receiving end of a new Kindle or tablet here's a great pattern for making your own case!

I found the link above a while back and made my case. I haven't taken my Kindle out of it since!

 

Redying a Salvo Dress

I found this great tie-dyed maxi dress at the salvation army for $4. Someone had given up on this beauty because of bleach stains. I thought it would make a fun project for playing around with some Rit dye and a Rit redying kit I picked up at Walmart a while back.

Original dress with bleach stains in lower right.  

Newly dyed dress!

Spring!

Spring has been very busy, as per usual, on the farm. I've been working a lot in the gardens and we have a new greenhouse!

So, if you'd like to see what I've been up to, read on (lots of pictures)!!

Finn's Flower Garden

So, um... sorry. I know I haven't been around in a while, and I have a TON of very good excuses, don't we all when we're caught slacking. ;)

The only craft project I've been working on is a gift for one of the few people who I know reads this blog, so no pictures of that. I have been doing a lot of gardening. 'Tis the season! I don't have any pictures of the vegetable garden because frankly it's not that impressive looking yet. I mean, plant seeds and for a while it just looks like dirt. So, I'll get some pictures of the veggies once the garden starts looking more gardeny.

Yesterday we went for a drive to find the new greenhouse that put up signs near my house. Now, I live in the middle of nowhere, so having something nearby is both strange and very very exciting! We found the place, not very large, but I guess they're expanding in July with a much larger greenhouse. Yay! I picked up some hot pepper plants since my seedlings succumbed to repeated and prolonged abuse and kicked the bucket a couple days ago. Whoops. I let Finn pick out some flowers (with no plan for where to put them).

While I was putting some lettuce into the little herb garden near the house I was struck by inspiration and decided to make Finn his own little flower garden to care for.

Watering in his pansies.

Yogurt!

I subscribe to The Nourishing Home's e-mail newsletter and was very excited to see this yogurt recipe from them! I had been toying around with the idea of using some of my calcium activated Pomona's Pectin to thicken a batch of yogurt, but was thrilled to see that someone else had already been successful with the much cheaper Unflavored Gelatin!

I use a lunchbox-sized cooler to make 2 quarts of yogurt at a time. Read on to see how it's done!

Hard Taco Shells from Scratch

So yesterday morning my darling husband headed off for work with both of the car seats in his car again. You think we would have learned our lesson by now. The real tragedy of this was that I had tacos planned for dinner and no taco shells in the house! What I did have, thankfully, was a bag of Masa and a little ambition. :)

Baby Doll Carrier

I found this awesome project over on Sew Bossi and decided to make one for my little daddy in training.

Non-slip Push-up Bra

I don't know about other ladies, but I have always been a little saddened by the fact that I was forced to choose between attractive bras which made me look nice and full-coverage mom bras that kept my ladies in place while doing the day-to-day bending and lifting of taking care of the kids and doing crazy athletic things like tying my shoes. I would go to the store, try on a few styles and bend to touch my toes with the opposite hand while trying them on. If everything remained in the bra awesome; however, this very rarely happened. Nothing like jiggling your tits back in place fifty times a day to really make you hate the people who design bras.

Then I ran across an article in the April/May 2014 issue of Threads about a woman who had sewn a strip of material covered in silicone along the top back of her daughter's strapless prom dress to keep the dress from slipping. Inspiration struck! What if I tried sewing a ribbon along the top inside edge of my pretty new push-ups to keep the girls from sliding around when I bent over? Spoiler: It worked!

Musty washcloths? Problem solved!

If you regularly use washcloths you've probably noticed that even straight from the wash once you get them wet they have a faint (or not so faint) musty odor. I've tried bleaching them, washing them in hot water (in the washing machine), and adding extra washing soda to the laundry to no avail. I read once in a book of old-timey advice that you can avoid this trouble by regularly boiling your rags.

You ever get a really good piece of advice but it takes you forever to actually apply it?

Glitter Time Out Bottles

So, I found this link on Pinterest and was reminded of it again when a friend posted something related on her Facebook page. So, it seemed to me like I better get to work on making a couple glitter bottles!

Not quite paper towels

I don't know about other people but my kids spill a lot of liquids, often full cups of water and milk. Finn demands a glass of milk, takes one sip and runs into the living room. Alice moves over to his chair and promptly spills the rest on herself, the table, the chair, the floor, and anything else near by. Our go-to in these situations has been cloth prefolds from the changing table in the bathroom, which work great, but I thought it would be nice to have something I could keep in the kitchen without taking up too much space or making things look too cluttered.

So, I've run across these cloth towel rolls that people have been making for themselves. Some people also sell them on Etsy for waaaay more than I would pay (not more than they're worth mind, I'm just cheap). I figured this seemed like a quick little project that I could tackle pattern-free, and I did.

Toddler Hoodie Jacket

Click this picture to find the pattern!

I found a free pattern for a toddler hoodie with a lovely video tutorial.

Turtle Bucket Hat!

You may have noticed I've been gone for a little while. I'm back with new crafty projects to share with you! The first project I did that I'll be sharing with you is this bucket hat from Sew Much Ado. I followed her pattern exactly except for adding more rows of stitching to the brim.