Town House Homestead Tuesday

Well here we are in 2018 starting new again. The severe temperatures took the last of the surviving bees, but we will begin again in early spring 2019. We will take the time to plant a stronger pollination garden and prepare better. Although we are saddened, we did out best. It warmed up enough to bring the hive box inside so that we could clean it, and retrieve whatever honey and wax for our use. Needless to say everything is frozen.

My daughter managed to clean one side of a frame and simmer down the frozen wax and honey. The bee shaped jar we found thrifting, and she promised it would hold the very first honey she got from her own bees. We will be able to fill this jar and maybe another. We are not sure of the amount of wax we will have, but all will not be lost.

There is canning on the horizon. Soups, broths, and stocks from the stock up in the freezer. This has been a blessing for us because we actually eat what we can. I like my deep pantry. I also use canning jars to vacuum seal everything from cooking and baking supplies to dog food. Extra work, but safer storage.

You know it's winter and a time to slow down when a shoe box of knitting is on the end table. A pair of socks here and there and small things made from leftover scraps. We try to use everything if we can. I also have a stack of patterns that I'm searching through for my next winter knitting project.

My quilt is closer to being done. Much more to do, but I'm making progress. My goal is to have it on my bed by the end of this month. I'm just hoping I have made enough binding for it because my scrap pile of this fabric is quite small.

Yes, this little guy and I had a good Christmas. I'm still working hard at the bonding with him, but he's learned to leave my bare feet alone, not chase my feet, not touch my sewing or knitting and he tries hard to listen. Our major goal with him is to stop the play biting and jumping, but everyone tells me he's still young. Hunter will be one year old February first. 

I hope that everyone is surviving the cold winter. I have a bad case of Spring fever today, but I have seeds to organize and lots to keep me busy. Thank you for stopping by and have a great new year.  

Town House Homestead Tuesday

So here we are, Thanksgiving over and Christmas moving in. My daughter had the week off to relax for the Thanksgiving holiday. It gave me a little time to myself. It was just her and I for the week, and of course Hunter. We spent the time doing those little things that have needed to get done. 

Dessert was brought to us by Burwell catering. German chocolate cake for weeks, and oh how good it is. She out did herself again and we got all the blessings.

Chris from CCH Lawn and Landscape delivered the shelves. We have wanted something on this wall for nineteen months and finally they are here. 

Through the week we have continued to unpack items we've wanted on the shelves and added some Christmas decorations. We have unpacked Santa's, dishware, and books. The baskets are new and the one over Hunter's crate hides his toys. We have a ways to go with the unpacking, but it's beginning to feel like a real home.

My daughter found a three foot tree that is on top of a vintage dresser. Very Hunter proof, but I probably shouldn't speak too soon. Some of her Santa collection is on the shelf. I need to point out the new door bell. She found it on eBay and of course it's a vintage 1950's door bell. She installed it this week.

I relaxed a lot this past week because I had help with Hunter. I picked up my knitting needles again to try these ornament cozies. They turned out well and they were a small simple project.

I've also gone back to knitting more socks. This yarn was a gift and it got packed when we moved and I just found it again. I find knitting very relaxing. Once I've figured out the pattern that is. 

I got a bit done on my quilt. Not as much as I would have liked, but my hands and eyes are older now and it's tougher for me to sit. I really wish I'd started quilting when I was younger, but as they say, we were busy raising families and getting by. 

My garden has caused me stress, only because it's not happening fast enough, which I'm learning to let go of. For several reasons my garlic bed is still not in. I'm hoping today will be warm, as predicted, to get a start. One reason it's not in, is my physical ability to do a lot. Another is my budget. I needed, to fence it in which meant fence stakes, fencing, and of course weed cloth so that I don't have to dig the whole bed. My daughter bought the fencing, I bought the stakes and weed cloth. This had to be done because of this guy.

Don't let that face fool you. Of all the wildlife around us, it's Hunter who has managed to dig out a lot of what I planted. Markers are his favorite, but he thinks he can bury his things in my garden, and why not? If I'm digging why can't he? Hunter is growing up, but when I go outside I need to take my vinegar water bottle with me to keep him from jumping on me and I try to give him something to occupy him while I'm out there. It works for a while. Maybe the protection of the fence will allow me to get some garlic planted. 

If you look real hard you'll see Hunter peeking out from behind the gate. He's afraid of the gate, but this is how we get any housework done. It's hard staying ahead of a ten month old puppy, but we keep trying. The funniest words out of my daughter's mouth this past week she had off, was that she had to get some housework done. I laughed and said what? Maybe some day he'll let us just sweep. So, that's what's been happening around the Town House Homestead. Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week, share your blessings, and love one another. 

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

Well, another long and busy week is behind us and the learning continues along with confusion and wonder as to why things are the way they are. 

I finally found time to enjoy the process of baking my pie pumpkin last week. It's one of my favorite vegetables to put up and it makes the townhouse smell so wonderful. I roasted the seeds and can not wait to start cooking this week. My $2 pie pumpkin yielded six cups of puree and one cup of seeds. 

It's coming up on the holiday season and I'm always looking for home made things to do. I enjoy working with textiles and have been learning more knitting stitches and making more ornaments. This is the first time ever that I have knit with five needles at once and this star is the result. I was intimidated at first, but it is really easy once you are familiar with the pattern.

Here they are in red. It uses so little yarn and I am using the leftover from my knitted sock adventure.

I also found a few minutes this week to work on a Christmas fabric ornament. I have a personal collection of red, white, and green folded fabric ornaments. These are three inches square and are the Cathedral window quilt design. I will add a bead to the middle and attach a hanger. I love folding and manipulating fabric and this is using up a lot of my scrap holiday fabric.

Isn't this the most beautiful picture of fruit, vegetables, and snacks? There are 2 large heads of cauliflower, 15 cucumbers, 5 oranges, 4 bags of baby carrots, 4 snack packs of graham crackers, 6 yogurts, 25 apples, and a large container of guacamole. Well, this was all rescued. Headed for the landfill. Yes, this is what makes me wonder why things are the way they are. It is a liability to give this food away. I am grateful that it was rescued and given to us. There's been cooking going on, sharing going on, and healthier eating going on. It can only do good if we overlook the liability. I find that as I'm maturing there are fewer things physically that I can do, but if I can be gifted food because people know I won't waste and will put it all to good use, then that will be the direction I take. From the townhouse, a great big thank you for stopping by to visit and please have a wonderful week. 

Thrift finds.

This is going to be the shortest thrift post I probably will ever do. We were taking plastic bottles to a bottle return facility and just half a block down the road was an antique mall. We enjoy this venue, but hadn't visited in a while and we decided since we were that close we'd get some exercise and walk around for a bit. So much beauty. We walked and looked and got ideas and only found three items, but good items to us.

Well here it is. Our big shopping trip. The skein of baby blue yarn was $3 dollars, but it is a vintage seven ounce skein which I'm sure will produce three pairs of knitted socks. I may have to make one pair with a white cuff, but that's okay by me. The vintage salt and pepper shakers are plastic and so adorable. We just couldn't resist. The pink Pyrex pie plate is in mint condition and my daughter's first piece of pink. The price of this item was $3.75 because the booth we got it from was having a sale. Original price was $3.99. She's added it to her collection. That's what a walk through an antique mall yielded. Thank you for stopping by for a visit and we hope all of you finds as fun as ours. 

Thursday's Threads

Quite a few years ago now I downsized to move in with my eldest daughter. In the transition I believe many of my holiday decoration were accidentally donated and the items I thought were donated I'm still finding in buckets and boxes. I can only hope that someone else is enjoying the items. So that leaves me with the task of getting new decorations or decorating at all. Since fabric is the medium that I enjoy most and with a pile of scrap fabric that some times gets out of control I made one decoration.

I found this vintage doily that was a star. I decided to maybe make a dream catcher style decoration, but it wasn't working for me. Then I decided to mount it on fabric to put in an embroidery hoop. Well what color fabric? I tried everything and baby blue was the choice. Then I began folding fabric stars. They mounted nicely  on the hoop, but it needed a little something else. That something else was ribbon and I just tacky glued it on the back to hang down. Not fantastic, but one of a kind and it looks nice on the door. This is inside because we don't have screen doors and anything we hang outside has to be wired down to stay in place.

From the folded stars I have now created another pile of scrap pieces. I wanted to make holiday mug rugs, so I cut a few triangles and tried my hand at a star. I need to practice more because I had a hard time getting them to line up. This practice star will not go to waste. I'm sure it will be something, but the decorating is still on the cutting table and it may be next year before they become something. 

Then comes the socks. This is pair number 12 and I managed two pair a month for the first half of the year. My goal was to learn two new things this year. Socks was one and I think that's a success story. Now it's on to learn the second craft and that is cheese making. I am excited to try this and look forward to posting the progress. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. Ours we are hoping is quiet and relaxing. We will have a few food treats and watch some movies, but will probably just enjoy the nice weather they are predicting and listen to the distant fire works. Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Thrift Finds

Life has been a bit busy growing the store and sewing and doing those things that we want to do. At this point there is never enough time to do what we "want" to do, but we did get out for a donation run because we are always purging and then took a quick jog through the thrift store. 

We found a vintage daisy floral sheet, a Vera scarf, a Vera napkin with the lady bug insignia, a hand embroidered linen for a future sewing project and for $1.99 we got six sets of double pointed knitting needles. Best bargain ever!

We got one canning jar, but the price was right, a bundle of mini embroidery hoops, a pair of Tiki vases, a doily, a white bowl that is not vintage or anything. It was used by florists and it fit in with a few other white pieces my daughter has collected and the final item was a vintage Pyrex baking loaf pan. Not bad for the few minutes we hunted.

Visit her at poetcharms.etsy.com

There is a sale going on at my daughter's on line store. Pleases feel free to stop by and check it out. There are many vintage items, fabric and hand made items. Hope you feel like looking. Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog. I wish everyone a wonderful week.

Thursdays Threads

There's been some breaks in the kitchen activities lately and it honestly feels great. There are so many things that my daughters and I want to do and we are taking the time to do it. This past weekend I continued working on my memory tee shirt quilt. It is coming along well, but I ended up with enough shirts to make two quilts or a front and back. I needed one more shirt from my son's college he graduated from last May and it has been ordered and should arrive by this Saturday. I am excited to have one more item on the road to being finished. 

My eldest daughter finished an apron made from a vintage sheet. This is one of the many, many projects that she has underway and it felt good to her to have it finished. 

I continue on my new adventure knitting socks. I know some of you wonder when I find time, but we live in a rented townhouse. I have some not so nice neighbors who will keep me up late nights with the noise. They can start being noisy at 5:30 a.m. and go to well after 11 p.m. and no matter what we do it doesn't stop. We are close to our goal of finding a new residence, but it may be up to 16 months from now. Money isn't growing on the tree fast enough so in the mean time I reduce my stress with my knitting and am rewarded each time with a new pair of socks or other clothing item. I think I will probably have a few dozen pairs of socks by the time we can move.

The most challenging part of my life right now is growing my green thumb. It is a test, but I have one window that is small and can't be blocked (according to the complex rules) so I have a small table with my Christmas Cactus plants on it. My white Christmas cactus is growing leaps and bounds and it is actually blooming "one" bloom and it's May. I guess it likes that window. I'm calling it my prime gardening space.

Life in the townhouse has it's challenges. Too small but workable, bad neighbors but the reward is socks, and taking the time to look and grow into the new life we so need and desire. Counting our blessing every day and taking advantage wherever we can to move forward. Thank you for stopping by and have a great weekend. 

Thursday's Threads

So much going on that it's getting harder to keep up with the blog. My daughter collects vintage fabrics and linens and cuts them into fat quarters to sell on her store poetcharms.etsy.com. This is what will be listed in the next few days. They look so pretty all together.

I've been trying to get some of the projects done in the sewing room that have just been sitting there waiting. One of the biggest projects has been cutting down my collection of tee shirts to make myself a memory quilt. I need to purchase a tee shirt from the college my son graduated from before I can complete it and that's getting closer.

After cutting them down and making the squares so they will fit together I'm cutting down the excess pieces into ten inch squares for future projects. It's really beginning to look a lot more organized and uncluttered in my small bedroom/sewing room.

A couple of weeks ago my daughter traded a piece of her Pyrex for this wonderful skein of yarn. It comes from the Knitted Wit in Oregon https://www.facebook.com/KnittedWit and I have enjoyed making this fun pair of socks. All I need to do is weave the toe and they are ready to wear. That's pair number five this year since learning.

I'm going to use up more leftover skeins of yarn with the remainder of the rainbow to work on the next pair. It's been quite relaxing to me. Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read my quick blog post and  have a great weekend. 

Thursday's Threads

There are a lot of evenings around this townhouse homestead when I am ready to turn in at the early hour of 7:30 p.m. but when I post to my blog, which has literally become my diary, I understand why I am tired. I am learning to make myself stop and sit, but to do this I have to have something to do when I'm sitting. Knitting is that thing. I would like it to be sewing, but sitting at the machine isn't quite as restful as knitting. 

I have absolutely no idea where this lovely and very soft coral colored yarn came from, but it's never ending and I still have a bit more to use. This week I came across a vintage knitting book and found the pattern for cuddle mocks, so I knit a pair. I made so many of these in every size when my children were younger, but this pair is for me. 

My new venture this year has yielded another pair of socks. This pair is a low cuff pair to wear with my sneakers. I have a very special skein of yarn coming to me via a trade my daughter made and I am so excited. It is multicolored and hand dyed. This pair makes my fourth pair, so that means I am averaging one pair a month. Not bad for a craft that is forcing me to stop and relax. 

Thank you for stopping by and peeking into my diary. Have a wonderful weekend and take the time to relax. 

Thursday Threads

Textile crafts have always been my favorite way to have fun and be creative. I've tried paper crafts, painting crafts, glue, wood, and other types of creativity, but I always come back to textiles.

I taught myself how to knit socks this year and yesterday I completed my second pair. I'm not perfect yet, but I'm feeling more confident. I have more yarns to keep going for quite a while and am excited to know I can have what I want and need more than what manufacturers think I need. I also started a pair of mittens and they are still a work in progress, but with a couple more hours of time I will have them finished. It feels great to be using the yarns that have been sitting and waiting to be made into the projects intended. 

My daughter made this up cycled tote bag from her collection of vintage bed sheets. She uses a lot of the reclaimed linens for projects like this. She added a doily and made ribbon and yo yo flowers to embellish it.

She also finished this large granny square afghan this week. I love the aqua and white. This may be donated to a hospital charity. That's what's been keeping us busy here at the "Craft Zone" these past couple of weeks in our spare time. I can't even begin to tell you the ideas that float around in our heads and wonder if there will ever be time to do all that we would love to do.

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

This past week has been a busy one. I've been listing items on eBay for my daughter. Sales have been better than we thought so all that shipping has to get done. I'm getting ready to start some tomato seeds soon. Still a bit early for our zone. In the meantime I've been making very good use of my second hand vacuum sealer. I live what I call "My Canning Jar Life". We stopped using a lot of disposable plastic bags, however, I do use vacuum seal bags. These can be reused. Another step towards being green. I started vacuum sealing our grocery investment in jars over a year ago and it's paying off in many ways. 

This is our expensive purchase of non fat dry milk, sold in a box, but will keep for quite a while in quart jars. This is why when we see jars at thrift stores we get them. I also use oxygen absorbers in the jars.

I store everything and make use of everything. I make bread crumbs and croutons out of leftover bread, pudding, cornbread mix, pasta and oatmeal to list a few. I even make my cookie mixes ahead of time and vacuum seal them for future use and yes, I vacuum seal candy in jars. Empty spaghetti sauce jars work well also. As a matter of fact any jar with a cover that has a rubber seal inside can be reused with the vacuum sealer. The benefit to us for doing this is that we don't have to spend more money on smaller amounts. We can take advantage of larger sizes and sales. Living in an apartment situation you never know about the critters so it protects our investment and the best part is that we are eating better because we can have a wonderful variety of food ingredients and spices available all the time. So at this point in time my new to me older version of a vacuum sealer purchased on line has more than earned it's keep and still will. 

So on to the socks that I promised myself to learn how to knit this year. Here they are. One for each foot. This challenge to myself was not without a few attempts. I did end up pulling them out in several areas several times, but I got them done, figured out how to make them the correct size for my feet and now I can work on more and move on to the next challenge of making cheese. There's a saying going on here that was actually a comment made by a supervisor at my daughter's place of employment. My daughter was talking about using scraps of fabric to make quilts with another co worker and up cycling items not wasting anything and this supervisor heard the conversation and quickly voiced "like the depression". The saying has stuck because I guess the depression is on a lot of people's minds. My socks are made of second hand yarn, "like the depression". 

Thank you for stopping by and think like you can do anything and you will. Have a wonderful week.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

One of my challenges to myself for 2015 was to learn how to knit socks. The brain is getting there. I made my practice sock and started a "real" sock. Before committing to the socks and the use of small size double pointed needles I needed to get back into the knitting frame of mind. My knitting in the round project was a simple hat.

I found my years old, hand written mitten pattern and I will make myself mittens and an ascot style scarf to go with my hat. The time I have to knit is when all the work is done at the end of the day, of course when I'm tired and don't want to think, but it came back to me.

I've become motivated to finish the cardigan sweater that was started quite a while ago, but the motivation comes from all the altered clothing ideas that I've been seeing on line. I have crochet reclaimed trims that I want to add to make it unique. The bag of red yarn are factory ends that was given to me to make myself more socks and speaking of socks...

here's where I am with them. I am ready to start decreasing the toe. It isn't perfect, but it's a sock and it's for me to wear in my boots. This is a Mary Maxim yarn that I got a few years ago that I kept to work with my spool. I have a few different colors so after I make the solid colors I will start by making mismatched socks because I'm a big fan of them.

This townhouse homesteader has been busy doing other things too. The canning of meat that we find on sale along with the canning of my soups so I can make a large batch and not lose it and just learning to can things I've never done before. Thirteen months ago I made sour milk chocolate cake out of some milk that didn't quite curdle, but was at that almost turned point. I baked it in pint size wide mouth jars. I've done this many times with banana bread and I knew it could be done with cakes, but it was new to me. The jars are still well sealed and I ate it this week and I am still alive. I wouldn't give this as gifts unless I put a short expiration date on it, but it is something to consider if you bake from scratch and can't eat it fast enough or need smaller helpings. Yes I can freeze it, but I only have an apartment size freezer for now and loafs of breads and baked goods waste what little  space I have in the freezer. 

Once I figure out and get the socks accomplished it's on to making simple cheeses. That's the second challenge for 2015. I only had two. So thank you for stopping by to visit and I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Townhouse Homestead Tuesday

January is over and WOW what a whirlwind of growth and busy. A few days into February and it we're still going. 

Early in the month I found two cloves of garlic that decided to start growing. I was surprised because this is from what I harvested in 2014. I took a minute and then quickly put them into pots to see where they would go. Well here's the progress. They are 13 inches tall today and still going. 

I continued to learn new bread recipes and doing more with the dough. We are eating less bread so I'm baking bread every two weeks and finding myself using the old bread for croutons and bread crumbs. I store them vacuum sealed in jars and haven't lost any yet. So far croutons have stayed fresh for a month and some are still going longer.

I found a Rival Crock-Pot at the thrift store for 50% off, final cost to us was $4.49. Brought it home, cleaned it up and made a batch of Buffalo pulled chicken. It works great and is smaller than the one I had and takes up less room on the counter.

This was an attempt at Buffalo pulled chicken Stromboli. It was good, but I wanted better. I used a pizza dough for it and I thought it was a bit to hard.

This is the second attempt and I was happier with this one. I used a french bread dough that I let rise for a bit and baked at a lower temperature for a few minutes longer than a loaf of bread. I was excited that this fed six people. 

The canning continues. I added quite a few pints of chicken broth. I have an amount of jars that I'd like to have on hand that I'm working on. I also added more beef broth and as the year progresses I hope to add more. The picture on the right is all chicken. My daughter purchased a ten pound bag of chicken leg quarters for the grand price of $6.90 last week. At $.69 a pound I had to make it work. I boiled  them and took the meat off the bone. Total nine cups of meat. I filled three pint jars of chicken and seven pints of chicken broth. I made three cups of Buffalo pulled chicken. From it I made the Stromboli and put up one pint. I think I got more than most people would get from chicken legs and I figured it out with the future soups and meals to be about $.29 a serving. This does not include any breads, pot pie crusts, noodles, rice or vegetables that would be added, but that would probably increase the price to about $.43 a serving. I am pleased.

Finally the sock. This is as far as I'm going with my practice sock. I'm pretty sure I know how to weave the toe. It's a misfit I know, but I needed to do it large enough to visually see how it worked and I used large size needles and didn't change them as the directions said and I'm sure I can try now with smaller needles. I got the two sets I needed in the smaller sizes on sale with a Christmas gift card this week and will be figuring out my gauge and starting with more scrap yarn until I get it to where I need it to be. One goal met for 2015.
Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful week. I'll see you all again soon.