Today is back to school for Mini Mister. In the pouring rain. He is a big-boy kindergartner. This first day of school is something he has been wanting since last December. He told his daddy this morning, “daddy, I got up early so I can go to work with you.” Daddy said, “today is your first day of kindergarten. Do you want to go?” Mini Mister rephrased, “I got up early so I can go to kindergarten!”
I didn’t have my camera but I will probably always remember that small face, with big squeezable cheeks, looking back at me this morning as he disembarked the van. “Bye mama. See you later!” What a big boy he is! I felt so proud, happy, and filled with love. (Instead of the worried, sad, teary wreck I thought I might be.)
What would the beginning of school be without a bit of sewing? Our Montessori school uses washcloths to dry small hands. We were instructed to send in six. One for each day of the week and one to spare. I didn’t feel quite right sending these along without a personal touch. Some custom seam binding made from the last bit of stashed away cars fabric made these clothes more like the little-big-boy I dropped off at school this morning. A classroom parent takes home all the laundry once a week and returns these little cloths clean and folded on Monday.
The second project I needed to fashion was a placemat for lunch time. At first I thought packing a lunch every day would be such an arduous task. And not that it isn’t, but I like to look on the bright side of things. Public school lunches are wheat based. Pizza, hot dogs, mac and cheese, sub sandwiches, grilled cheese….wheat, wheat, wheat. Mini Mister might just benefit from a home-packed lunch that contains healthier items without wheat that he’ll actually eat. And of course he’ll be less likely to eat anything if he is playing “racing cars” on his placemat. Mama, what were you thinking?
This was a first try. A little reverse applique, a little bit of machine embroidery, and a whole lot of fudging. I am not that satisfied with it and plan to do a second attempt. Mini Mister seemed to like it just fine. I also thought it needed a few racing cars. (But I couldn’t decide how to do “flat” wheels. I felt buttons would be lumpy.) But Mini Mister instructed me that he doesn’t want any vehicles on it. So, I guess that will be that. This kindergartner knows what he wants.
I love thrifting, though I haven’t been in quite a while. One needs a keen eye to cut through the clutter and find those diamonds in the rough. My mind needs to be in creative-mode to be able to envision the reinvented polished piece instead of simply seeing the wrinkled, slightly stained, pile of fabric tossed before me. Fewer kids in my cart basket helps keep me in that creative-mode.
Maybe thrifting was bred into me. I remember many childhood afternoons wandering the cluttered aisles of dusty, musty ”antiques.” It was so boring. I think I was into new and shiny back then. My parents wandered to and fro, searching each shop for that gem waiting to be discovered. Occasionally, they’d make a purchase, lug it home to be dusted off, refinished, and placed in that special corner of our rather eclectic home. I mean, were else but a mostly forgotten antique shop would you find a wooden toilet seat to adorn the walls of my parent’s home?
Antiques in these parts of Virginia are “real”, thrift stores many times give you the same feeling that you are hunting for a hidden treasure. As an adult living in the suburbs, I’ve found thrift stores are one of the best places to purchase fabrics for making items for the home. This blue and taupe striped cotton fabric was a curtain in a former life. I needed dish towels and this pattern looked homey enough. This fabric is the perfect weight to be draped over bread rising in the oven, cover pastry dough, and dry off dishes.
I cut rectangles, folded the edges and folded them again to sew a large finished edge; and presto, some ultra cheap kitchen towels.
A couple of pointers about this project…
*If you were to make your own dish towels, search for linen or cotton fabrics. Look at the tag to check the fiber content. When in doubt, scrunch the fabric in your hand. If it wrinkles, it is a natural fiber. If it flattens out, it is likely a synthetic polyester.
*Be aware of the colors of your home decor. Don’t simply pick up that fabric because it is a good price. Buy it because you would love to see it hanging in your home.
*To create repurposed dishtowels, stick to curtains, table cloths, and perhaps think blankets. There is a lot of fabric yardage per the price.
*Sew on a loop to one corner, or use a grommet, to hang your dish towel creation.
*Always, always, always launder your fabrics well as soon as you bring them into your home.
This project should only take a couple of hours to complete. It took me six months because…well, I was pregnant and had a baby, and because usually you can’t clothe a baby in a dish towel.
P/S
That biscuit is not a gluten free biscuit, so don’t ask. Pillsbury has got the recipe and it was for a family who just had a baby and we were bringing them dinner. But my kiddos got to it first. And yes, the fabric was laundered clean before the biscuit was placed there.
One of the reasons I spend so much time knitting on the sofa is because of these beauties. I remember being a teenager, holed up in my parent’s den, chatting with a friend on the phone, feet up on the desk, watching the winter birds feeding. For hours. Mostly chickadees in New Hampshire. But here, in balmy northern Virginia, we see a few more varieties.
Ammy and Gramps gave the kids this bird feeder for Christmas. It took a bit for the birds to find us. Like a month. But after much frustration, moving the feeder a couple of times, and self-doubt about the quality of our seed, they came. Well, they came after they found our neighbor’s larger tree-hanging feeder. And they usually visit us after his is empty of seed. We feel like we are a pretty strong back-up nonetheless.
At first the kids wanted to “roar” and jump around like monkeys to scare the birds. After a few “let’s be nice to nature” prompts, they have calmed down and turn to our bird watching book to see who visited our feeder that day.
I just like seeing a bit of nature outside our very, very, suburban window.
Oh it is one of the most wonderful times of year! (Isn’t that in a song?) Time for gift making, gift acquiring, gift giving, and gift wrapping. I always lamented the big balls of paper that go out to the trash curb after a festive morn’ of present rummaging. As a kid, I was the kind to smooth each piece of wrapping paper and save it in my closet. For what I don’t remember. But what to do with the scrappy scrapps my sister left tearing through each sheet of paper that enclosed her next present surprise? Even at 8 years old, balls of wrapping paper in the trash was like money down the drain.
In my first few years with the new business title of “homemaker” I did my best to emulate that good Martha Stewart, and adorn my pretty, monochromatic paper-wrapped gifts with plastic ornaments, mini kitchen utensils, jingle bells, and lavish ribbons and bows. Because really, isn’t a gorgeous package just that much more exciting than the plain old paper gift bag with colored tissue paper hanging out the top? And then two kids, not enough hours in the day, and a limited budget reality set in…and maybe a bit of eco-friendly green-ness settled in too…and I made a switch to wrapping our gifts in pretty fabrics.
So honestly, I never knew what people made with those crazy holiday fabrics in the store. Who would want to wear an entire skirt made of fabric printed with little pink snowmen with orange mittens and purple kittens on it? Well, maybe you’d buy a yard of that colorful fabric at 50% off to wrap that gift for your niece. (Note, I’ve made up that fabric print and I don’t have a niece. But if I did, I’d imagine that that is the kind of thing I’d do for her.) For our family, I’ve acquired a gold and white scroll pattern, a red and white swirl pattern, a red and white snowman pattern and a green tree pattern to wrap our gifties this year. And, in a take-it-easy-holiday fashion, I’ve managed to wrap each gift WITHOUT sewing a stitch. So if you don’t sew, or don’t have time to sew, this re-usable gift wrapping tip is for you!
A couple of notes before I show how I did all this.
- Get your fabric on SALE! It can get expensive. Watch for coupons that say 20% off your entire purchase and couple that with a store-wide sale of 30% off holiday prints. And after-the-holiday clearance sales are key winners too!
- I used quilting weight cottons (think light weight.) You can also used gorgeous home decor fabrics which are heavier, more expensive, but a bit more showy. Oh, and don’t be afraid to try velor, repurposed-felted cashmere, or even something already made like a linen dishtowel. (Use a linen dishtowel tied up with kitchen twine to wrap up those homemade freezer rolls you plan to give!)
- Buy an extra yard of fabric. Just in case.
- Think of this endeavor as a bit of an investment of both time and money. Wrapping with fabric does take a little more time than wrapping with paper. Next year, you’ll already have a stash lined up. Keep in mind that as you give these away, you’ll need to create a few more to replace them!
- Think about the fabric patterns an colors you select. You’ll want some to coordinate so you can use these patterns as ties to adorn, and hold fast, your packages.
- You’ll need an iron and a pair of pinking shears.
1. Shall we get started? Measure the fabric around the gift, just as you would with paper. Use a pinking shears (important!) to cut your wrapping fabric to size. You’ll want just enough fabric on the sides to fold the “triangle ends” down to the back side of the package. I suggest using pinking shears because then you don’t have to hem the fabric to keep it from fraying. But, if you’d rather, simply roll hem the edges and machine stitch in place!
2. With pinking shears, cut a length of contrasting fabric for the tie. (I liked 3″ wide, by how-ever long. A yard or more long seemed to be enough to tie up a medium sized box.) Fold in thirds, wrong-sides together, and press flat. (I didn’t bother to “finish” the ends, I just cut them off with the pinking shears, so they wouldn’t fray.)
 
3. Fold the fabric around your present. To make crisp folds use an iron. Just hold that baby up to the fabric-wrapped cardboard carton and give it a puff of steam. CAUTION: don’t use an iron when the package underneath is shrink wrapped or could otherwise be damaged by high heat and steam!! Wrap your coordinating tie fabric around the gift and tie it in a bow to the front.
Presto, a very cute gift ready to be put under the tree. (Well, handed off to St. Nicholas who will put it under the tree.) Happy Holidays!!
This week I posted this tutorial for my honey-comb appliqué tote bag. Also be sure to visit the One Small Change blog for my other quilt-square appliqué tote bag tutorial (for the bag above) and more explicit photos about how to sew a lined tote bag.
 Have a great weekend!
We love, love, love tote bags. This organizing tool, in my opinion, is one you can never have too many of. Tote bags are some of the easiest and most economical green organizing solutions to create yourself. Really!
I purchased retail quilting-weight cotton fabrics for the applique motif, but the unbleached mid-weight cotton fabric I bought at a thrift store for $1.50. (In it’s former life it was a curtain. And with this kind of a yardage, I am able to cut 4 tote bags of varying sizes.) To save more money, thrift, or yard-sale find the applique fabric as well. Look for shirts, blouses, and light weight cottons to create your very own design.
There are a million and two uses for organizing with cloth. I use them for the obvious toting of belongings. A simple tote holds our birthday banner and keeps it neat, and free from dust until it’s next use. I store those silly glass pebbles for my flower arrangements in a tote bag. Puzzle pieces can be stored in a tote with a zippered top and a simple tag. Think of dice, card games, and dominoes organized in little draw-string totes hung on a peg board for all to reach. That is just the beginning of the list of uses for this very useful organizing solution.
The tote I designed above is an applique design. Wanna know how to make your own? Read on!
Honey-Comb Applique Tote
Materials
- light cardboard
- paper scissors
- scrap pieces of coordinating patterned fabrics
- thread and sharp needle
- paper-backed fusible webbing
- Embroidery thread and sharp embroidery needle
- (2) 23″ x 10″ pieces of unbleached cotton fabric – medium weight (I recycled the fabric from a curtain)
- (2) 14″ x 4″ pieces of unbleached cotton fabric – medium weight (these will be the handles)
- fabric scissors
- sewing machine
- iron and board
How To
1.Wash and tumble dry all fabric.
2. Make your form. On the computer, create, or just download, a hexagon. Print it out, transfer the shape to a piece of thin cardboard and cut it out.
3. Trace the form, leaving 1/4″ seam allowance. Cut out the fabric hexagon.
4. Center the fabric under the form and fold two sides to the wrong side of the fabric,
 
finger press, and hand baste stitch in place. Continue counter clockwise until all corners are basted in place.
5. Remove form from fabric hexagon and press. Repeat 13 times with varying patterned fabrics, or create enough for your desired design.
6. Arrange your hexagon pattern.
7. Whip stitch the hexagon pattern together.
 
8. Lay hexagon pattern on paper-backed fusible webbing and trace. Cut webbing. Follow manufacturer’s instructions and fuse webbing to the wrong side of the hexagon applique pattern.
9. Fold the outside tote bag fabric in half, matching raw edges with wrong sides together. (The bottom of the tote should be where the fabric fold is.)
10. Arrange outside tote bag fabric with the fold closest to you. Peel off paper from webbing and align applique motif on the front of the tote in manner desired. Follow manufacturer’s instructions and fuse the applique motif to the front of the tote bag.
11. Edge stitch around applique motif in thread color of your choice. Stitch along all edges of each hexagon. (Stitch-in-the-ditch, to use a quilting term.)
12. Add any embroidery, like a simple running stitch design, to the front of the tote bag.
13. Fold outside tote bag fabric in half right sides together, matching raw edges. Pin and stitch the side seams using a 1/2″ seaming allowance (sew the 11 1/2″ sides.) Repeat with the inside tote fabric. Clip corners and turn outside tote fabric right-side out.
14. Fold handle fabric pieces in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press. Open and fold raw edges toward creased center and press. Fold in half lengthwise again and press.
15. Edge stitch pressed edges together along the length of the bag handle (the 14″ side)
16. Align tote bag handle raw edges (the 1″ side) spaced evenly along the right side of the 10″ top of the bag outside fabric and pin. (Make sure the handle fabric isn’t twisted and handles should lay toward the fold of the bottom of the tote on the outside of the bag. Baste raw edges.
17. Place outside tote bag fabric with handles, inside the tote bag lining fabric so that right sides are together. Align side seams, make sure the handles are in between the tote bag layers, and pin.
18. Seam raw edges (use a 1/2″ seam allowance) around the top of the bag, leaving a 3″ unseamed opening through which to turn the bag, back stitching at the beginning and end. (Reinforce the seam over the bag handles by back stitching.)
19. Turn the bag through the opening, smooth bag liner to the inside, and press.
20. Edge stitch the top of the tote bag 1/8″ from the edge to close the 3″ opening.
21. Fill your new tote with something gorgeous!
This month of September for our One Small Change, we are incorporating more green organizing solutions into our home to help our environment. Visit the One Small Change blog to declare and share your change, and be inspired by what others are doing to help heal our earth!
UPDATE: For more pictures about how to construct a lined tote bag, visit my other tote bag tutorial at the One Small Change Blog.
 I felt like a chemist over the weekend as I stepped out on my back deck to mix up some water color paints. With all the ingredients, powders and liquids in little bottles and containers, I set to work, creating what I hope will be WAY-more-economical watercolor paints. (I was on the back deck not because of something crazy-scientist caustic, but because there was better light for the camera.)
You can find the recipe I used here.
My tips and thoughts:
- These are so simple to make it almost hurts.
- Mix the first ingredients in a measuring cup with a pour spout. I know I pictured a pretty vintage pyrex bowl of which I am very proud that I thrifted for $1, but using a measure with a pour spout makes life a lot easier.
- You need to know your colors and what mixed with what, gets you what. (Note: too much of anything mixed with too much of anything else gets you brown.)
- If you are like me, you are going to have to buy corn-syrup. Because although the recipe author thinks this is a “typical pantry item,” I don’t keep this stuff in my pantry.
- These take WAY longer than 24 hours to dry. So put yours next to a fan or you could just tell your kids to be patient.
- This is a great way to re-use those oh-so-wasteful crazy styrofoam and plastic egg cartons.
- Since this is so economical, I am planning to give these as Halloween gifties to all our pre-school friends. (Better that the corn-syrup is in the watercolor picture than in their little bellies.)
a tisket…a tasket…a green and yellow basket…
And then something about sending a letter to someone I love, and losing the thing…and now that I think about it…I don’t think I have ever seen a green and yellow basket…except maybe at Easter.
Anyway, this week I am pondering some more green organizing solutions going on here at the house. (Last week I wrote about organizing with wood.) Along our journey away from plastic bins, buckets, and boxes, I’ve begun collecting…slowly…baskets. Thrifting one here, rescuing one there, and now, I am even considering making one myself.
Back in the old days, when this blogger was in third grade, and her teacher lived in a teepee, I tried to make my first basket. It was made of raffia and pine needles. (We did a lot in third grade that wasn’t on your main-stream-grade-school syllabus. Plucking a chicken for the boarding students’ dinner and making pine needle baskets were among the off-beat curriculum requirements.) I kind of remember this being a difficult task. Pine needles breaking. Pine pitch on my fingers. My fingers turning black. And never finishing that first basket attempt.
Beside that assignment I never paid baskets much attention when I was a kid. We’d used a deep wire basket hung high up on a nail near the ceiling where the air is warm for ripening fruits. And another round squat wire basket with handles was for collecting fresh eggs from our chicken coop. And now I can’t think of a single other basket we used back then. (I phoned my mom about this lack of basket use in our home, and she informed me ,that she didn’t much like baskets and that kids broke them. That was why we didn’t use many.)
When I entered college and read one of the winter seminars was entitled “Underwater Basket Weaving,” I just laughed. And I started to reach for the plastic. I couldn’t imagine how you’d weave a basket while swimming around under water. When one of my friends took that class, I figured out that only the basket is underwater. Not the weaver.
Fast forward to today. I am finding that baskets that are made of natural materials are difficult to find. Books about making baskets are easy to find. And so are basket making supplies. So maybe when I get up the guts to try making one again, I’ll choose a simple pattern, locate some pruning shears, and give it a go. Until then, I am sticking to uncovering the few and far between hidden treasures at my local thrift shops.
Even in scarce times we are using natural baskets more and more in this house.
This basket bin organizes all those odds and ends that need to be near the telephone. (Because they just don’t have elsewhere to go.)
This old top-hinged picnic basket tucks away my knitting projects and yarn stash.
This is the pre-school green wire grocery shopping basket.
This lovely basket was rescued from our toy-pile and put to work organizing wash clothes in the bathroom.
  
I believe these were desk filing trays in their former life. Now they beautifully organize my pantry and chest freezer stuffs.
:: :: ::
If you do run into a basket on your next trip yard-saling, thrifting, or sifting through your grandmother’s basement, here are a couple of things to consider before you bring that baby home with you.
- Avoid mildew and mold. Avoid anything with spotty black stuff on it, and avoid the ones that smell musty.
- It must have a sturdy construction. Avoid baskets with missing parts, handles that are frayed, or parts that stick out. You wouldn’t want your farmer’s market beets to roll through the parking lot because your basket busted.
- Eye varied shapes, sizes, and colors. Since you can store tiny kerchiefs in a small basket, as well as a down comforter in one much larger, vary the shape and size of the baskets on your thrift store shopping list.
- Lids are nice. I like ones that close and pretend that the cluttered contents on the inside mean nothing to the serene brown cane exterior.
Baskets made of natural materials can provide sturdy, hide-away organizing. And metal baskets can withstand freezer temperatures as well as the humidity of a steamy bathroom. So, do away with the plastic bins and reach for a basket. Maybe if we continue to use baskets at home my kids will have more fond memories of baskets then I do.
For more ideas about how to make One Small Change to your lifestyle, and read what others are doing to live more sustainably, visit Hip Mountain Mama’s challenge blog!
If you’ve been following along for a bit here in the space, you might remember Suzy from Hip Mountain Mama challenge to other bloggers and those endeavoring to live greener to make One Small Change. The challenge ended in April, but those who began this movement decided to continue on and are still making One Small Change every month to live more sustainably.
September as a pivotal month of change. A change of seasons, a change of schedule, and a change of weather. So I decided this month to be the time to jump back in and share the One Small Change our family is undertaking to live greener. I love organizing my home, so this month I plan to collect and create some greener organizing solutions, and of course share them all here with you.
There is just so much plastic a girl can take I tell you! This blog, Organizing-Life began with my passion for all things in its place. I organized everything really. And all in plastic containers. They are cheap, simple, modular, interchangeable, uniform, and plentiful. Now, as a girl going green, I am thinking about what else can I use to organize our belongings that isn’t going to leach BPAs, phthalates, and other toxins. What do you use to organize your home you ask? Why, natural materials of course! Remember stone, wood, glass, paper, and metal? Ahh, to bring a bit of the earth into our home would be a relief.
This month I plan to share a few of the ways we incorporate organizing solutions made of natural materials into our home. It isn’t easy. I feel like I am on a safari sometimes hunting down organizing containers made of anything other than plastic. I am usually astounded at the prices of these beautifully crafted organizers. Think outside the box, get creative, and thrifty, and make do. And really, it works to help make the home a bit greener.
The first switch we are endeavoring is to get rid of our plastic bowls. I found these very dirty, but very sturdy, wooden bowls the other week at the thrift store. With a little bit of elbow grease, these were revived into working condition and are now part of our collection. In fact, they are the perfect size for popcorn.
- Sand them down. Use coarse sandpaper for wood first (like a #60) and then a fine sandpaper to smooth things out (like #150.)
- Rinse to get rid of the dust, wipe, and let them air dry completely.
- Let them be or seal them with linseed oil and beeswax. (Melt a 1:1 ratio, cool, and wipe on with a clean rag. Wipe off excess with another clean rag and let the piece dry completely. This concoction is food safe.)
- Hand wash these babies. Don’t try to put them through the dishwasher because they’ll dry out and crack.
Where to find it:
- Yard sales, Craigs List, Freecycle, Ebay, rummage sales, thrift stores, your parent’s attic.
How to use it:
- Knick knack drawer
- At the dinner table
- Fill with stones, acorns and pine cones and use as a table centerpiece
- Jewelry catcher on the dresser
We have a lot of plastic bowls. And we are slowly replacing them all with wood, glass, and metal. For food stuffs, it is a small way to keep the plastic out of your food. For the rest of your home, well, wooden bowls are a nice way to bring a bit of the outdoors inside. And we just like to limit the number of plastics we touch daily. (If that is even possible?) The fish Nemo’s friend Dori comes to mind. “Keep on swimming, keep on swimming.” We are just endeavoring to do the best we can in this world made of plastic.
Up next, plastic vs. baskets.
P/S Can I also submit this as an additional Small or rather Large Change? My husband just took a new position with the Department of Energy managing government loan guarantees for renewable energy projects across the country. I am pretty darn proud of him as I too believe that renewable energy sources will pave the way for our continued future energy consumption. As a former poli-sci undergrad, I am a bit taken aback that now we are part of that bureaucratic system. Yikes! All for a good cause perhaps.
P/P/S
Take a peek at what others are doing to live a bit greener at the One Small Change Blog!
 P/P/P/S
Can I do that many P’s? For a much better tutorial about how to restore your wooden treasures, visit The Magic Onions blog here.
 If you have been around the blogosphere a bit, you probably have noticed a million and one articles about going “no poo.” That is, not shampooing your hair. (Okay, maybe more like hundreds of articles, not a million.)
I decided to jump on then bandwagon and I don’t think I am going to go back.
I decided to go the more natural route a couple months ago. There are so many chemicals in commercial bath and beauty products it makes my head swim thinking about it. And many of them are toxic. If you don’t want to take my word for it, you know the site I always point to, the Cosmetics Database. Go look at what is in your shampoo.
Anyway, since my gluten-full days of yore, I’ve had dry, brittle, dull hair. With flakes. It didn’t look good. I wore it up, back, in a bun just to “hide it.” I figure some of this was my bodily nutrition, (the foods you eat can certainly help your hair look better) and some of it was my beauty routine.
Now, using budget friendly, eco-sensitive, simple baking soda and apple cider vinegar to cleanse and condition my hair, it feels soft, supple, and it shines brilliantly. Not kidding.
I’ve heard this method isn’t for everyone. Some love it, some hate it. But I am a believer and I hold firm. If you’d like to check it out, here are a few of the hundreds of places to visit.
Hip Mountain Mama-Tree Hugging Tuesday No Poo Method
Simple Mom, How to Clean Your Hair Without Shampoo
Babyslime Shampoo Info
Green Phone Booth, No Poo Convert
Building Ordinary No Poo Day 15
Now, I wonder if in the Rodgers and Hammerstein play, South Pacific, the leading lady would have been able to “wash that man right out of [her] hair” with baking soda and vinegar. Doesn’t sound that romantic does it? Maybe we’ll just go for the commercial suds shampoo there.
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thank you for stopping by my blog  I am a 35 year old mom to a 4 year old son, a 3 year old daughter, a son born in May, and a wife to my life wonderful. I write in this space when my crafty inspiration strikes or when I get to pondering about how we can live more simply and better connect with the earth around us. We are a family surviving the suburbs, contending with commercialism, and getting to a greener lifestyle. Welcome! ~Abbie a few blogs I like in no particular order Permission © Organizing-Life 2009
All images and designs are property of Organizing-Life. Please do not copy any original designs or photography without written permission. Thank you!
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