Sometime within the first year or two of our marriage, I came across a book at our local library called The Homemade Year, by Mildred Lawrence. It's a kids' book, really (well, probably pre-teen/teen), and I assume it's long out of print, but it is a really neat book. All about a young city girl who goes to stay with her country cousins, and learns how to do everything the "homemade" way. If they want butter, they churn it. If they want dresses, they sew them from flour sacks. And so on. Anyway, I have decided that I'd like to make this a homemade year in many ways. I'd like to make more of our cleaners and such from scratch--today I made my own laundry soap for the first time ever!--as well as continuing to cook mostly from scratch. I want to learn to garden and hopefully can some of our own food. I want to make do with things I have, instead of always going out and buying something new that I think is a "need." And I want to spend a lot more time crafting and making handmade gifts for next Christmas--maybe if I start now I'll be able to get more of them done in time. :) I guess I just feel this need to be much more frugal, but to also have lots of fun doing it--to get creative with it! The internet is a wealth of information for pretty much anything homemade that you could imagine. And every day I'm finding new inspiration at one of my new favorite sites, One Pretty Thing. So, I'll be trying to update with my progress now and then. Here's to a homemade year!! :)
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
A Homemade Year
Sometime within the first year or two of our marriage, I came across a book at our local library called The Homemade Year, by Mildred Lawrence. It's a kids' book, really (well, probably pre-teen/teen), and I assume it's long out of print, but it is a really neat book. All about a young city girl who goes to stay with her country cousins, and learns how to do everything the "homemade" way. If they want butter, they churn it. If they want dresses, they sew them from flour sacks. And so on. Anyway, I have decided that I'd like to make this a homemade year in many ways. I'd like to make more of our cleaners and such from scratch--today I made my own laundry soap for the first time ever!--as well as continuing to cook mostly from scratch. I want to learn to garden and hopefully can some of our own food. I want to make do with things I have, instead of always going out and buying something new that I think is a "need." And I want to spend a lot more time crafting and making handmade gifts for next Christmas--maybe if I start now I'll be able to get more of them done in time. :) I guess I just feel this need to be much more frugal, but to also have lots of fun doing it--to get creative with it! The internet is a wealth of information for pretty much anything homemade that you could imagine. And every day I'm finding new inspiration at one of my new favorite sites, One Pretty Thing. So, I'll be trying to update with my progress now and then. Here's to a homemade year!! :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Wonderful, inspiring idea, Carrie! I find that I've already been doing this throughout the Christmas season. Almost all of my gifts this year were homemade, and almost all of them were made using things I already had on hand. (At a Christmas crafting forum I visit, they call this "slashing the stash".) My plan now is to work on Christmas gifts and decor for next year, all through the coming year.
And I too am committed to making things homemade -- from laundry soap to bakery items to mixes, etc. I've been doing this for a while, but I'm getting into it more now. This past weekend I made homemade Boboli (Italian bread shells for pizza, etc.) and was pleased with the result.
Thanks for the inspiration!
I am curious about making the laundry soap. What do you use for a fragrance? I like the laundry soap "smell" and wondered how you work that in to making your own.
I would LOVE to have my own garden and learn to can. Maybe that dream will come true someday. Right now, we have too many trees and not enough sun. So, until we can cut down some trees, I'll just have to wait:).
I love this idea! I made several of the Christmas gifts this year, though I gave out fewer than anticipated (I hear you on starting now for Christmas '09!).
We're gardening more seriously this year, but you have access to wild berries, right? I recall your post about making freezer jam, mmm. I'd also like to do more homemade cleaners, though we're still working through the stash of products purchased when we still had a Costco membership. They're running out very slowly since I've been using the ol' vinegar & baking soda method for lots of things.
Eagerly anticipating you experiments...
That sounds like a fun book to read. I'll have to see if our library has that. I will admit that I do very little from scratch.
I use and love Simple Green for cleaning. It is around $8 for a gallon. I picked up a bunch of spray bottles and dilute it accordingly. It is safe to use, doesn't have a strong smell, and I don't have to worry about it when my minions clean the bathrooms. :)
I am on board with the homemade Christmas gifts, though. It would be good to start earlier this year.
Thanks for the comments, ladies! It will be fun to see how "homemade" I can make this year. :)
And Rachel, there is a ton of info. on TipNut.com about homemade laundry soap if you're interested. Also, the recipe I used came from Tammy's Recipes. The fragrance in it comes from Fels Naptha soap and it smells pretty nice, but I've read that you can also put essential oils in it for a different scent. I made the liquid kind of soap, which comes out all gloopy and weird looking, but there are also lots of recipes for powdered, which is what my mom makes. Hope this helps!
Mindee, my aunt cleans houses for a living and she uses Simple Green all the time. You're right, it is good stuff! And your comment about your minions made me giggle. :D
Post a Comment