And...we have a dog

Meet Lucy!

This sweet girl is our new dog - a 3-year old Beagle mix which we got from a shelter. So far, so good....

Canned Coleslaw

My heart was pounding fast with excitement as I went to the basement and retrieved my canner and enough jars for a canner load.

Behold, my first canning project of 2015:

Since cabbage was on sale last week, I thought I'd give Canned Coleslaw a try. Basically, it is pickled cabbage. It won't form the bulk of our vegetable consumption, by any means. But I thought it would be a fun departure from the norm.

Oof. So excited to have some canning done for 2015!!!

52 Projects (Project 9)

A pom-pom wreath!

This is a project I've had in the works for a while. When I got done with my daughter's afghan, I had quite a bit of yarn left. One day I was looking down into the bag where the yarn was, and I got the idea to make a pom-pom wreath.

This hangs over my daughter's bookshelf in her room.

While I had the yarn and a straw wreath, I still had other supplies to buy.

Floral pins: $.93
White yarn (to wrap the wreath in) and pom-pom makers: $5.15
Birds: $2.53

I tried making pom-poms without the pom-pom makers and it was a big waste of yarn. I had a $5 off $10 coupon for Jo-Ann's so I used that for the white yarn and pom-pom makers. Making the pom-poms was fun!

floral pins and pom-pom makers

I didn't have enough yarn to completely cover the whole wreath in pom-poms, and I did not want to buy more yarn. So I bought the white yarn to wrap the wreath in so that the straw part was covered where there are no pom-poms.

The sweet little birds were not my original idea. When I thought of making a pom-pom wreath, I looked at pom-pom wreaths on Pinterest and came across this pretty wreath (unfortunately, I could not find the post with the original picture in it, so all I have is a Pinterest link).

Cost: $8.61
Running Cost: $19.42

52 Projects (Project 8)

I am continuing to make washcloths. Who knew they would be so addictive?

And also, who knew I had so much appropriate yarn in my stash? Not me, on both accounts!

The cream washcloth is made from the same yarn I made my daughter's baby afghan out of, when I was expecting her. I had one skein left. I expected to get two washcloths out of it, but it knit into just one with only a little scrap of yarn left. It's so nice and soft - the yarn is 50% cotton and 50% microfiber.

The pink washcloths are made from yarn which (according to this post) I originally purchased to make socks out of but ended up making a flower washcloth out of instead. I still have enough yarn to make one more washcloth.

Cost: $0
Running Cost: $10.81

Whether we knit or sew, spin or weave, or refinish chairs, making things that people can use to clothe their bodies or furnish their homes can offer a welcome change from the recurring tasks of daily life. One woman says, "Whenever I begin to feel entangled and trapped in necessary tasks, I hear my grandmother's voice telling me that her mother used to admonish her: 'You have to make something, Sarah Elizabeth. You shouldn't spend all your time cooking and cleaning--those things are never done. You have to make something!'"

Cooking, cleaning, laundry--these things are necessary and important and perhaps more lasting, at least in their effects, than we tend to give them credit for. But it is important to make things too--things to wear and things to use, things to keep and things to give, things that can remind us of our own essential physicality and of our links to past and future generations.

--Keeping House, the Litany of Everyday Life, by Margaret Kim Peterson, page 81