Where I've Been and Earth Day...

I've been meaning to update for a couple weeks but have been putting it off. However, one of my blogger friends, Becky, suggested I write an Earth Day post inspired by The Sage Butterfly. So, first my update then my Earth Day thoughts. :)

Update (AKA Where in the world did I go???):

So, shortly before dropping off the face of the earth, I decided I was going to try to post once a week (since twice a week was too much for me). What I had not anticipated was being wiped out by morning sickness shortly after making that commitment--mind you, the pregnancy is totally planned, but the wiped out part wasn't. Is it ever? For the past 3 months or more, I've been just trying to keep up on the bare minimum around the house. My husband even took over all the cooking of major meals, all grocery shopping, and most of the cleaning around the house. I am almost 19 weeks along now and am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I've had breaks from the sickness over the past couple weeks and they've started to get longer. I'm hoping I'll be able to function like a normal human being soon! :) Soon I'm hoping to restart posting here (I have done some crafting despite being wiped out), but first I have to return to posting on my family blog--or my mother would have my head! She reads both, you know. ;) (Hi mom!)


Earth Day:

I'm going to totally break the rules on this one, but that's ok. Here's what I'm supposed to write about: "List at least three books that inspired you to perform any sustainable living act or inspired you to live green, and then tell us why they inspired you. These books do not have to be about green living. Nonfiction and fiction apply." A full list of the rules can be found at The Sage Butterfly.

First, a short tangent: I'm not exactly a fine specimen of green or sustainable living. However, I think I can say that we, as a family, are at the beginning of our "journey" and as we become more established in life we will find it more and more natural to move along this path of moderate "greenness." I would say that we're just trying to be responsible for the world around us as much as is possible for us at our time of life. Now, on to the books...and breaking the rules... ;)


To start off, I would have to say that cookbooks, in general, have been a huge part of my inspiration to be more natural. My mother cooked most of our food from scratch and I picked up a love of cooking and baking early on. It was not until I was on my own that I began to translate this love of cooking into a desire to use more natural, even home-grown, ingredients. But I would have to say that my awareness of the importance of as-close-to-natural-as-possible ingredients started with my love of making food.

Next, I would have to say that a wide variety of blogs (not books, but oh well!) have given me much more specific inspiration and instruction on how to live more naturally and sustainably. I would never have thought to try half the things I have, especially when it comes to sewing and reusing items, if it had not been for the ideas that pop up in my reader feed. A few of my favorites: Tipnut (Tips and projects collected from around the internet on how to tackle all sorts of tasks around the house.), Lifehacker (Another blog that collects articles, as well as produces some of its own, on practical tips for doing things in life--has a much wider variety than Tipnut.) , and Frugal Babe (A working at home mom shares stories about her family's ways of achieving frugality and minimalism.)

Finally--it took me forever to think of the title of a specific book that inspired me to think about natural living--I loved the story The Island of Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. It's been years since I read it, but for a quick summary: it tells the story of a young teen girl who is somehow left behind when her tribe leaves her island for a new land. She manages to survive on her own and overcome many difficulties using next to nothing (since her people took everything with them!). It concludes with a happy ending. :) As a girl of 13 or 14, I remember being amazed at how much the main character was able to do with so little. Many of the things she knew or figured out (like how to weave a skirt with plant fibers), I hadn't even considered as the basis (possibly) of our modern ways of doing things.

So there you go: my three "green," "sustainable," or "natural" living reading sources. I broke about 10 of the 5 or 6 rules, but I did manage to finish the post before the end of Earth Day. Run over to The Sage Butterfly for a great list of gardening blogs that she invited to participate (at the bottom of the post) and who all likely followed the directions better than I did. :)

~Regina

Advent Calendar: Part 1

While browsing through projects on Oneprettything.com, I found this adorable baby sock advent calendar and decided that I was going to make it.  Well, something very like it.  We have tons of out-grown baby socks floating around the house, so I decided to put them to a new use.

First, I soaked them in diluted bleach to soften their colors. I rinsed them thoroughly to make sure I got out all of the bleach, then proceeded with the rest of my project.

Yep, I picked up "scarlet" and "kelly green" Rit dyes to try out. I've never dyed fabric before, so this was a fun project.  I decided to try making some stripes by wrapping some of the socks with rubber bands since the socks were kind of boring.

Then I weighed how much dye was in each package and halved it since I was only doing 13 socks in each color. The packages said they could work for 3 pounds of fabric and I didn't even have a pound.

I covered my work area since I didn't really want to dye our rental apartment's counter...

I decided since I wanted very rich colors, I was going to halve the amount of water called for (relative to the amount of dye I was using) and try the boiling dye method.  So I ended up with 1/4 of the amount of water called for (per color) and 1/2 the amount of dye.  Then I added salt into my pots (one of the Tips for Success on the Rit website) to help the color take to the fibers.  Mix it well!

The instructions tell you to dissolve the dye in hot water and mix it well--then pour it into your pots.

Look at that lovely color!  I was doing the green at the same time, I just found that the pictures of the red turned out better.

Pour it into your pot, mix it in, and add your fabric!  (Note: I may be missing a step here, make sure to follow the directions on your dye package!)

Bring your water up to a simmer and keep the fabric moving constantly.  This was a very time-intensive, labor-intensive project.  I was hot and sweaty and very tired of the socks by the time I felt they had soaked long enough.

After about 25 minutes, I pulled out a sock to test it.

Rinse, rinse, rinse!  Start with hot water and slowly work your way down to cooler water--this helps set the dye.  You want to make sure that the water runs clear, that's how you know you're done.

I like the color!

So time to pull out all the others!  I spooned the socks out rather than pouring the full pot of dye out because I wanted to make sure I still had some dye in case some of the socks didn't take the dye as well as others.

The sock laying on top is the one I've already rinsed.  See the color difference between it and the socks that have yet to be rinsed?

I rinsed all the socks together, slowly working down to cold water. Then I pulled the rubber bands off the socks that had them.  These didn't turn out too badly!  They look kind of like soccer socks, but oh well. :)

These however were a no-go.  Awful!  I put them back into the dye to soak some more.  No tie-dye for us!!

Ewww!  The double stripes didn't work either!  Back into the pot with you!!

Finally, I got all of the socks sufficiently dyed and rinsed and took a break!

Off to wash them (in cold water) and dry them for the next part of this project!

Oh, but wait!  A word about my pots...I was really scared to use my non-stick pots for this project and almost didn't.  But my wonderful husband insisted that it would be OK, so I did.  They worked just fine and have no residual dye stuck in them.  I made sure to refill them with very hot water and sprinkle some baking soda into that water and let them soak until cool, just to make sure that all the dye particles were sucked out of them.  Then I just washed them as normal.  It's been several weeks since dying the socks and I haven't given it a moment's thought when using the pots.  No problems at all!

Part two is right here!

~Regina