Being Self Sufficient! Part 3

#3 Learn to Can and Preserve

Picture used from Scrapgirls.com

I used to can years ago.. both with my grandmother, my mother.. and myself.. only thing we really canned were tomatoes.. and I also remember doing peaches with my grandmother.. now.. I just freeze.. I specifically got a small chest freezer to store my produce in.. it iis so nice to not have to pay high prices for my veggies in mid winter!
One of these days I do want to try canning and making jelly again.. but usually I dont have the time.. with my orders and stuff.. 

716 Buffalos

This is one of her designs.. I have to say I love her ideas.. she takes some of the most unusual things and makes the prettiest Jewelry.. Here is my favorites.. do check her stuff out! 

#Etsy, #buffaloetsyteam, #handmade


https://www.etsy.com/treasury/MjE0Nzk3Mjh8MjcyNDA1MzAwOQ/716-buffalos-for-all-things-buffalo

Being Self Sufficient! Part 2

#2 Grow Some of Your Own Food – Plant a Garden

One of steps I like and have been doing now for 4 - 5 years is gardening.. the prices for food seems to go up every year.. especially for healthy, fresh veggies! I started just with tomatoes and peppers (yes, I am Italian.. so use those alot).. then every year I tried one or two new items.. This year I didnt try anything new.. the planting season started late.. plus it has been a cool, rainy season.. 

First having a backyard that is tree covered and with a bad clay soil with tons of weeds.. I didnt want to spend the energy gardening in it.. so I decided to do patio gardening.. my first attempt was to check out pots. um... large pots were way too expensive.. so thought about it and said.. why not recycle those plastic cat litter containers.. we get our cat litter in 40 lbs or larger and at the time was using Tidy Cat (yep.. those plastic containers).. so just took those. and punched holes in bottom for drainage.. I first tried using gardening soil.. discovered it was too heavy.. now I use potting soil.. If you look closely, you often can see the cat litter containers.. lol.. 

What I do is every year I take out half the old soil.. (saving it).. and mixing the old soil with new potting soil, coffee grinds, eggshells crushed really fine, and compost.  Then I transplant my seedlings (I dont often grow my seedings from seeds.. get them ready grown) in the pots with some fertilizer and more coffee grinds and egg shells.. You need to use eggshells in things like tomatoes to prevent with Blossom End Rot.. One of the things I discovered this year is you need to soak your crushed egg shells in vinegar before putting it in the soil and it really helped my tomatoes this year.. 

Anyways.. I discovered that these items seems to grow really well in pots: all kinds of tomatoes, peppers (both green peppers and Italian sweet peppers), eggplant, lettuces of all types, cucumbers, green beans, carrots, and the summer squashes.. I tried regular squash and broccoli.. no luck with those.. They just didnt produce enough for it to make it worth my while..The pictures here are recent.  took them a couple of days ago.. 

Baby Dresses on Etsy!

Just made a treasury of crochet baby dress patterns I would love to make..smile.. check them out! These dresses are just perfect for both a gift and to dress up your little one.. I checked them out and most are made with yarns I can use (no thread for me.. hurts my hands)..

I will take orders for any of these for the next month!

https://www.etsy.com/treasury/MjE0Nzk3Mjh8MjcyNDAzMjc3OQ/baby-dress-patterns-on-etsy

New Order I am working on..

Well.. I got a custom order for dishclothes and hanging towels.. she supplied the towels.. so far I made her dishclothes.. she ordered Bands of Lace dishclothes. I made them in the following colors.. bone and autumn red.

Then she dropped off the towels.. three different styles.. so I decided to match the towels to the dishclothes.. I think it worked.. what do you think.. 

I still have the cream color ones.. (same color as the off white tab).. these are actually the same color tabs.. just taken in a different place.. a bit hard to get good colors with artificial light. I probably will have the others done in the next day or so.. 

Being Self Sufficient! Part 1

I was reading this really interesting article on 9 Keys to Living a More Self-Sufficient Life!  It was quite informative.. and boy, I find that I am slowly doing what they are doing.. Just gardening to supply a part of our food supply, and selling my stuff online makes me feel both useful and in control of my life.. 

http://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2014/07/23/9-keys-to-living-a-more-self-sufficient-life

I decided to take one step every other day and discuss this.. for today I am discussing Step One..

#1 Simplify and Remove the Clutter

Are you a pack rat? A minimalist? I find that clutter stresses me out.. I hate not being able to find things.. and seeing a mess.. you would never think that if you saw my craft room.. but even in that disorder.. I have some structure to it.. cos I know where everything is!!

This is probably one of the hardest steps for me to do.. first, I am a collectors of yarn and crochet patterns.. tons and tons of them.. lol. I probably have patterns that go back to the 1940's (way before I was born too.. grin).. and my boyfriend is a bit of a pack rat.. sigh.. My latest attempt to do this is I am bagging up stuff in the back room again.. either to give away or throw away.. hopefully he wont figure it out.. lol..

I also am currently getting rid of items on Ebay.. selling books, tapes, and other small items to clear them out and make a little money too.. What doesnt sell after a matter of time ends up on Listia.. I am doing the same for my patterns.. slowly scanning them and putting them up for sale on Ebay or Listia.. it is a work in progress.. I figure I might be gone before they are all gone.. lol..

So I am taking 15 minutes a day to either pack up stuff from the back room.. or organizing items in my craft room to scan and sell.. little time.. hopefully will make some changes.. lol.. we will see.. I will update this probably in 2 weeks or so..

New Hanging Towels

These 2 Fall hanging towels are available for sale.. The owl one will be a set.  I am working on a second one in between orders.  I will be listing them in the yahoo groups also this week..and if not sold by the end of the week, then will be listed in Etsy.. these are individual towels and are $3 each + postage.

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These Fall towels are already listed on Etsy:

Fall Leaf Hanging towel

https://www.etsy.com/listing/163402418/fall-leaf-hanging-towel-crochet-topped?

Maple Leaf Hanging towel

https://www.etsy.com/listing/163416155/maple-leaf-hanging-towel?