Back Home

My family and I have been home for a few days now, but only today  have I begun to feel like my brain is working again.  We visited the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina.  The temperatures were in the 70's, the wind was gentle but constant, and despite the near constant rain the humidity still felt low.

We came home to, "air you can wear."  The humidity was so high that you could actually see faint traces of water in the air.  It is hard to explain this phenomenon, but I will try.  It is a bit like a fog that is unable to burn off, even in the full heat and sun of midday, and a haze hangs over everything in view.  It feels like a steam room, or a bathroom after a long hot shower.  Like a thick wet blanket wrapped tightly around your body on a blistering hot day.  Muggy does not begin to adequately describe what the air feels like.

Today, even though the temperature was 95 degrees farenheit near my house, the weather was pleasant.  The humidity had dropped to around 50%, and there was a breeze that, while still warm, was cooler than the surrounding air.  Sitting under the shade of a large oak tree this afternoon, I felt as if I could think for the first time since leaving the mountains.

As you can probably tell, visiting North Carolina is like taking a breath of fresh air for my family (almost literally).  I had planned to tell you in detail everything about our trip, but as they say, a picture says a thousand words.  I think these pictures tell more eloquently of our trip than I could.

Beautiful isn't it...

By the way, I have a freebie planned that was inspired by this trip. I hope to get it up tomorrow or the next day (fingers crossed), so keep an eye out for it.

~Gerwerken

Everything Gives me a Rash Deodorant

Every deodorant we have come across so far gives Firebeard a rash eventually.  So far it has not mattered wether the deodorant is a major name brand, hypo-allergenic, all natural, or even organic.  They have all eventually given him a rash.  As a result I began researching natural deodorant ingredients to find out which ones might be the culprits.  Through my research, and a bit of experimentation, I believe I have now come up with a recipie for deodorant that won't give Firebeard a rash, and STILL WORKS! I decided to share this recipe with you in the hope that it will help others out there who get deodorant rash.  Enjoy, and please let me know if it works for you!

Everything Gives Me a Rash Deodorant

Ingredients:

• 2 tbl coconut oil
• 1 tsp shea butter
• 1 tsp cocoa butter
• 2 capsules vitamin E (optional preservative)
• 1/2 cup + 3-4 tbl corn starch

Directions:

1. Melt solid/semi-solid butters in a double broiler (or microwave)
2. Stir in liquid oils
3. Remove from heat, and mix in 1/2 cup cornstarch
4. Add up to 4 more tablespoons cornstarch to reach a firm consistency

Put this mixture into a container of your choice, (I used an old deodorant holder that I had cleaned out), and let it cool to room temperature before you use it.  Ta-da!  No more stinky, rashy pits.

So why no essential oil or baking soda?

I did not include baking soda because it has a slightly basic Ph, and human skin prefers neutral or slightly acidic Ph.  If you have very sensitive skin, the basic Ph of baking soda can irritate it.

Likewise I did not include essential oils because they can be irritating to sensitive skin; however, some are gentler than others.  Lavender is generally a good choice for sensitive skin, and tea tree oil, and neem oil will help keep stinky bacteria at bay, but try them in small amounts at first.

Perhaps I should also post the recipe for the deodorant I have made for myself as well, as I have insensitive underarm skin and my recipe is a bit different.

I will be taking off for memorial day, but with luck I will be back by Wednesday with more crafty goodness.

Sheep Herding at the Highland Games

The Highland Games were over a month ago.   I found them very interesting, and intended to tell you all about them as soon as they were over.  At least I have finally gotten to them.

My son enjoyed the actual games, wondering if he would one day be able to participate in the feats of strength.  My daughter was captivated by the bouncy house.  Firebeard looked for kilt accessories, and made sure I didn't try to sneak a highland cow into the back of the car (they are soooo cute!).  And I watched the sheep herding until the rest of the family threatened to drag me away bodily.

Here are some more pictures of the sheep herding....

FO - Blued Steel Socks

It occurred to me that this craft blog has not seen enough crafting lately.  Don't get me wrong, there has been plenty of crafting going on, just not enough showing up here.  So here is the first of the back log....

Blued Steel SocksPattern:  Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula by Amy Swenson

Size: US Men's Size 12

Yarn:  Cascade Yarns Heritage Paints

Needle Size:  US 2

These socks were knit for my husband, who has very big feet.  Knowing my tendency toward 2nd sock syndrome (and knitting a 2nd large plain sock seems like torture to me, halfway through the first), I decided to try to knit these at the same time.  I knit these 2 at a time on magic loop, and I felt the knitting went very well.  I did have some trouble when it came to the heel however.  I couldn't seem to knit the heel neatly, even after several attempts, and finally decided to make an afterthought heel which turned out well.

By the way, you can see how well the Cascade yarn has held up, because I forgot to take pics of the socks right after they were completed, and the above pics show several month of wear.

AC Cave

Even though our temperatures have been approaching the 90's (the 30's Celsius) for weeks now, it has actually been really comfortable outside.  The mornings have been cool, and the air has been dry.  There has also been a cool and frequent wind tempting me outside at every chance.

This is all very unusual for Florida, and we have been taking advantage of it by keeping the AC off, and windows open.  This unusual practice even gave me a treat when woken in the middle of the night by my son - I found the entire house smelling of flowers.

Yesterday evening saw this practice come to an end however.  With temperatures bordering 90 degrees F., humidity near 50%, and cool breezes nonexistent, the AC was turned on.  Alas, I knew it had to come to an end, but fresh memories of this brief time have me dreaming of cool mountain air, and wool sweaters.

Redefining Need

If you had told me in December that I would be spending the rest of the winter without central heat, I would have told you that you were crazy.  The weather had been extremely cold for Florida (near 32 degrees F, 0 degrees C), and it was expected to stay just as cold for the forseeable future.  We needed central heat, or we would freeze! At least that is what I thought until our heat went out in early January, and we didn't realize it.  We spent almost a week without heat before we noticed that the heater wasn't working at all.  Since then we have been wearing sweaters and thick socks inside, we've padded the beds with extra blankets, and put a space heater in the bathroom.  We have also noticed that living without central heat, even when it is freezing outside, really isn't that bad.  We didn't NEED heat after all.

Have you found that you didn't need something you thought you did?  Have you redefined your needs?  Please share!

Reduce - Stop Shopping

One great way to spend less money is to stop spending it.  I am not going to go quite so drastic as to say you should stop paying for everything and buy nothing (y0u probably have bills to pay and a desire to eat), but I think we should all stop looking for stuff to buy.  Unfortunately this is not as easy as it sounds. We are bombarded by advertising every way we turn.  Ads are on TV, radio, the internet, billboards, inside stores, and even in schools.  These ads are designed to tell us why we can't live without something we previously didn't know existed, and they work.

Here is what I suggest;

1. As hard as it may seem (and it is hard) avoid ads.
2. Do not browse in stores or online.
3. Visit stores as little as possible - the fewer opportunities you have to buy the less you will buy.
4. Keep a detailed list of what you need throughout the week.  Go to the store armed with your list.  Buy what is on your list, then get out of the store.

What can you do during those long hours when you are not shopping?I will have a long list of ideas for you next time.

~Gerwerken

Save Money - Reduce, Reuse, and DIY

I have been asked on more than one occasion how my family manages to make end's meet.  After all, I am a stay at home mom, and Firebeard works for the state (not an industry that tends to throw money at its employees).  What do I answer to this enquiry?  Grace, luck, we don't always make ends meet, I don't know.... The truth is that I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve.  With unemployment going up and economic stability still on shaky ground, I decided to share a few of these tricks.

I am calling my method Reduce, Reuse, and DIY.  Reduce involves spending less, changing expectations.  Reuse involves repurposing the goods you already have, or can get 2nd hand cheap/free, so that they suit your new and ongoing needs.  DIY involves the many ways in which doing things your self can save you money.

Since this is such a broad topic I plan to break it down into several posts, so can an eye on this space if you need some money saving tips.

My New Header!

Check out the new header Gadabout Knitter was kind enough to make for me!  Isn't it cute.  I love the little lady bug. It is exactly the kind of header I would have made for myself, if I had the skill or ability to do such things.  Perfect.

Firewood

Where I live trees fall down when it rains a lot.  I have no idea why this happens, but for the past several years my family has found its occurence very fortuitous.  When a neighbor's tree falls RedBeard (DH) and my FiL offer to cut the tree down and haul the wood away.  The neighbor gets rid of the downed tree, and we get firewood for the next winter. We usually have to wait for hurricane season to get enough rain for a tree to fall, but after several days of rain last week a tree fell in the development being built (by our next door neighbor) in front of our house.

The tree(s) that fell were huge, growing from one giant trunk to a two trunk monstrosity.  For some perspective, here is a pic of red beard atop the tree.  He is 6'3".

The weekend was spent cutting and hauling away the tree.  It was a family affair.  The menfolk did the cutting, while I knit, and the kids played a safe distance away.  When the guys paused to sharpen their saws the kids and I jumped into action loading the trailer.

The second day we were out was much colder,with rain coming in on the wind.  The kids wanted to "help" despite the conditions, and the fact that the only logs left to load were 100+ pounds.

By the way, this is about as close as we get to snow here in Florida, and yes, my kids did try to build a snowman.....or would that be saw dust man.

Remembering with Food

My grandmother grew up in the West Indies and immigrated to the US when she was a young adult.  Now she, and several of her sisters and brothers live here in Florida.  When they get together so do the tastes of their island home.  Now, whenever I cook a Caribbean dish I am reminded of sitting on the floor of her kitchen as a child watching her cook.

This past week I decided to bring a little bit of island flavor into my home in the form of guava pastries.  My daughter helped me make them, initially declining to try the guava, but she couldn't resist when they were done.

Need a great recipe?  Try this one.

wait...this isn't the salad bar

Greetings readership of Gerwerken's blog, I am a guest writer, her husband.  You may have noticed me in such famous editions such as "the garden box" and occasionally popping up as the recipient of some of her crafty resourcefulness.  When Gerwerken first asked me to guest-blog for her, I thought "I really don't know what I'd say.  I have a Wordpress™ account, but never post anything - where would I even start?"  Sadly, I'm still sort of stuck there. One possible angle I see is the almost contrary nature that our respective craft endeavors  have when compared side-by-side.  Gerwerken leans toward knitting, sewing, soap-making and organization among others - many things reflective of an altruistic and ecologically sound approach to life.

While not an anarchistic hellion (usually), most of my creative pursuits involve scrap metal, noisy exhausts, combustable substances, fire, and hitting things with hammers.  When I'm at my most creative, there's usually safety-goggles required, specific instructions to watch for falling objects, and usually something burning somewhere.

Yin and Yang, probably a very good illustrative metaphor.

Let me back up.  If you're reading this, you're probably already quite familiar with what Gerwerken is all about, and equally dumbfounded as I am about how those two kids turned out so adorable.

I'm an aspiring blacksmith, that's my goal.  Having attended an hammer-in (informal blacksmith gathering), made a bailing tine knife with my own two hands, I'm hooked.  Only, I didn't have anything besides a desire to learn when I got started.  That was about a year ago.

To date, things are progressing pretty well.  Having a background as a bicycle-mechanic, and the accompanying pragmatic mindset that comes along with it, I started working on the basics; identify the equipment needed to start smithing, find a place to work, set up shop.  The more I studied, the more I realized that much of the equipment I needed (tables, forges, kilns, implements) could be build out of scrap metal easily obtained from a junk yard.  That was all I needed - We're off to the races.

That, in a nutshell, is the craftiest activity I have.  I'm still learning, I haven't started smithing, but I'm on my way.

I work on cars, I weld, I fabricate, I build bikes, I ride bikes, I read, and now - I blog.

Hi.

Doctor, you've got some MRSA on your tie.

One of my best friends is a new doctor, who still wants to change the system and make hospitals a healthy place for patients.  During his annual Christmas visit last year he was incensed that doctors in many hospitals were required to wear ties.  After all, a doctor's tie is an exceptionally good at spreading disease.  Ties are at just the right height to get coughed on, they fall on patients during exams, they are not changed between patients, and compared to other clothes they get cleaned infrequently.  A doctors tie is probably covered with disease! Over the past year, with the mental image of a tie crawling with disease, I decided that this Christmas the good doctor would receive a tie with a visible representation of what was already on it.  The disease tie was born....

On a black silk tie I embroidered 4 visually distinct, and rather scary diseases.  Here are some closeups;

Next time you visit the visit the hospital, avoid the ties.

Holiday Roundup

Christmas decorations came down today officially ending Christmas.  Before I completely forget about Christmas, I thought I would give you a quick holiday round up since I was too busy to post during most of the Christmas season.

The Christmas Tree Farm

Decorating the Gingerbread House

The Captain Comes to Town

Christmas Eve Light Viewing

Christmas Day!

Coming Soon: The Christmas Crafting Roundup

2010

I hope you all had a great holiday season.  We had a wonderful time, but I am thrilled it is over now.  I feel like I have enough time to take a deep breath again!

I am so excited to begin a new year, and a new decade, it feels like a new beginning.  I have decided to set a few goals to work toward during this new year - some people might think of these as resolutions.  I would like to share my goals with you.

1.

Goal	Create a Home Management Notebook
Define Goal	Create a tool that helps me keep a well organized, efficient, and peaceful home, by keeping important information, checklists, and tools for my job at home all in one place.
How to Accomplish	Gather the information I use or need as a home manager and keep it in the same notebook.  Create a routine for myself, and keep a written copy of it in the notebook.  I will also create templates to organize future information, and use the notebooks of others as inspiration.

2.

Goal	Be a Healthier Person
Define Goal	Gain and maintain a healthy weight as defined by the BMI, and be able to ride the St. Marks trail (50 miles) in under 3 hours, and run a 5k.
How to Accomplish	Exercise at least 5 days a week.  Ideally that would alternate emphasis on aerobic activity, and strength training.  On days in which I do not feel able to exercise, I should at least engage in relaxation activities.  I will schedule times during my day for the sole purpose of exercising.  At the time of this writing that will be after my morning responsibilities, and again after the kids go to bed.  I will also make more meals for myself and my family with whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy amounts of dairy.

3.

Goal	Finish all of my current UFOs
Define Goal	Complete or rip back all craft projects currently left unfinished.
How to Accomplish	Find all of my current unfinished objects.  List them in order of finishing priority.  Those with due dates need to be finished first, and then those that are closest to being finished come second.  Objects that I no longer want to finish can be ripped back into their raw materials.  Once these projects are completed, I plan to have no more than 3 projects unfinished at one time.

4.

Goal	An Awesome Blog
Define Goal	A frequently updated, informative, easy to search, and beautiful blog.
How to Accomplish	First, begin posting at least 2 times per week, working toward posting everyday.  Second, make blog more searchable by better defineing post categories, and subcategories.  Third, focus on posting information that would be interesting and informative for my readers, and fourth, work on creating a unifying visual theme.

Are you setting any goals or resolutions for the new year?  I would love to hear about them.  If you are not setting any goals or resolutions for the new year, why have you decided against it?

Happy Holidays

I hope this holiday season is going well for all of you.  So far I am feeling a little behind on my holiday to do list, but instead of letting the stress get to me, I am letting a few things slide (unfortunately the blog is one of them, sorry).  After feeling completely overwhelmed last year, to the point that I did not enjoy the holidays until after they were over, I am making a conserted effort to enjoy myself this year.

In addition to realizing that I don't have to make everything perfect, I have also realized that I don't have to stress about buying my kids expensive Christmas presents.  Christmas isn't about expensive presents, and my kid's shouldn't expect them.   Instead, I will get them something they will really want that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.  The rest, I will make.  We will have a small but heartfelt Christmas.

I will leave the spoiling to the rest of my family.

My family started our simple holiday fun, by picking out our Christmas tree at a tree farm in North Carolina while we were up there for Thanksgiving.  In addition to the fun of going out in the field and picking a still growing, uncut tree, this tree farm had carriage rides driven by Santa, and an elf village with crafts for the kids.  This was all for the cost of the tree, and our (rather small) tree was only $20.  The kids loved it!

In keeping with my simple holiday fun here are a few things you can do this holiday season, if you live in or near Florida's Big Bend region;

• Thomasville, GA's Victorian Christmas Festival in downtown Thomasville.  The festivities are December 10 and 11, 2009 from 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.  Admission is free.
• Christmas on the Farm at the Tallahassee Museum.  The farm is having it's Christmas on the 19th of December, 2009, from 11:00 - 3:30 and you can participate for the cost of Museum Admission.

Candy and Candles

My family, including myself, has been out of order as of late.  The kids got either a very bad cold, or a mild version of the flu.  They have only recently begun feeling better, and letting me walk around without holding one of them.  One good thing did come out of it however, I am now almost completely immune to my little boy saying, "I can't do it.  I siiiiiiiick."  The recent fake coughing at the end of that exclamation was like a vaccination encouraging quick immunity.  Who would have thought a two year old could be so manipulative.

My daughter had her 4th birthday just before the illness kicked in.  To my immense pleasure, she picked a Halloween themed party, which we decided to hold on Halloween night.  Since I LOVE Halloween, it was no trouble to go all out for this party, and I did.  Here are some pics from the festivities. The birthday girl and her grandmother as fairies.

Graveyard cake, as requested.

Lady Fingers.

Marshmallow Bones.

Batman!

Formula for Increasing Evenly Across a Row

I finally got around to putting up my formula for increasing evenly across a row, check it out.  It is on the Knitting Math Page.

DIY Laundry Detergent

So you can knit, sew, cook your food from scratch, and change your own oil.  Can you make your own laundry detergent?  Do you even know what is in your laundry detergent? I started making my own laundry detergent almost a year ago now, and I have been experementing to find the best formula.  At the moment,  I have a keeper.  This formulation has been successful at getting out toddler strength stains.

This is how you make it...

Ingredients:

Castille Soap (grated)

Borax

Washing Soad

Baking Soad (optional)

Essential Oil (optional)

The Formula:  I made a ratio of ingredients rather than an exact recipe so that you can make a small batch or a large batch, and there wouldn't be any problem going from English to metric measures, etc.  Note:  Ratios are by VOLUME.

Mix 2 parts grated soap, 1 part borax, 1 part washing soda, and if desired, 0.5 to 1 part baking soda (use more for heavily soiled clothing), and essential oil as preferred (I like lavender).

Example: 2 cups grated soap (about 1 bar), 1 cup borax, 1 cup washing soda, 0.5 cup baking soda, and 20 drops essential oil.

Once you mix it all up, stick it in a container with a tight lid, and use about 1/8 cup per regular load of wash.

Delicious Mud Pie

Yesterday was Labor Day in the US, making this past weekend a long weekend for me and my family.  Rather than trying to take a long trip out-of-town, we decided to relax and do some work around the house.  It turned out to be a wonderfully refreshing weekend.  My kids had an especially good time on Sunday playing with what they informed me is their favorite toy, "dirt."  Here are some pics of their good "clean" fun.

On Monday we cleared about 1/6 of an acre that we hope will be our new garden next summer.  The trees we felled will become the borders of our garden beds, the larger limbs will become trellises, and the smaller twigs, leaves, etc will be composted.  The kids helped the entire time, mostly collecting the smaller items to be composted.  I think you will likely see more about it in the future.