Home Life

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/mcshelpsite/sewingstuff/freepatterns.html/ I’ve never seen so many free patterns in one place! 

http://sewing.about.com/od/freeprojects/Free_Sewing_Projects.htm About.Com’s Free Sewing Projects page

http://www.craftfreebies.com/sewing.html Many, many more sewing patterns

The above sites include patterns for children, dolls, babys, adults, objects, kitchen/bathroom/bedroom/home, and so much more.  I’m a woman on a mission, preparing for Christmas a bit earlier than usual this year because I want to sew a lot of my gifts (for my children and family and friends) and time for sewing is incredibly limited between homeschooling, raising three small children, taking care of my husband, trying to rest while pregnant, taking care of our home, gardening and running a busy business… But I am so inspired thanks to these links!  So many cool things I never even considered making, and things that I’d never buy, but if i can make them out of the fabric I already have, it may be worth making!

I had a minute today to surf the web so I googled my favorite homesteading terms to try and dig up new resources to read.  I came up with some gems!

http://scratchcooking.wordpress.com/ this is a shamless plug for my newest blog, in which I am posting recipes from my master cookbook that are completely made from scratch. I’m also going to include how to make basic ingredients instead of buying them for your meals.  Reading the first post on there will give you more of an idea of the direction I want that blog to head.

http://www.outofthenestandbeyond.com/links_homemaking_sites.htm lists a variety of homemaking and homesteading sites.  I have not visited all of them yet.

http://www.oldfashionedhomemaking.com/ Old Fashioned Homemaking is an awesome site with plenty to share

http://teachinggoodthings.com/ They offer a free course “Encouraging Eager hands” for your children.  I haven’t started it yet, but did sign up.  It looks interesting!

http://domesticdiva101.blogspot.com/ a blog with tons of recipes, and a list of other cooking blogs

One fo my favorite resources is www.pathtofreedom.com It’s a journal, blog, information archive, etc. of a city homestead and all of these great things they do to help and teach others that they can homestead no matter where they live.  A lot of their information is coming in handy now that we live in the city - though our property is much smaller than theirs, I’d like to think we can follow many of the same ideas.  I started getting my garden plot together (better late than never, right?  Hey - at least I started a lot of my plants early this year and have been eating fresh green beans and peas for a few months now from my container plants).

Anyway, this ‘100 foot diet challenge’ is a challenge to all households, starting once a week, to eat a meal prepared from totally home-grown and home-made ingredients.  I try to prepare every meal for my family in this way, however not having any livestock it’s really hard to provide home grown meat

http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2008/01/06/100-foot-diet-challenge-launch/ is your information page. 

Who will be joining this challenge with me?  We need to band together and fight what this world is coming to.  one household at a time, we can make a difference together.

For many, a garden of any size is practical.  If you live in an apartment, container gardens (indoors or out) is an option.  For those with homes, an in-ground garden (and/or container gardens) are an option.  For most of us, however, growing our own meats, dairy and eggs can be a bit of a challenge.  I’ll venture to say that most in an apartment setting probably can’t do this.  Buy local if you can, to support those who are able to raise meat locally for other locals to eat.  If you have a backyard then you have more options - goats for milk, chickens for meat and eggs, rabbits for meat - all are great small space livestock.  I’m entertaining the idea of each of those for our city backyard but I really, really have to do some thinking.  I know they won’t take up too much space but I do have to share my backyard with my kids, our boat, another vehicle when we get one, and my garden!

I was thumbing through one of my favorite country living books, Storey’s Basic Country Skills, and came across some great curtains for the country home.  These are great because they are #1 functional, #2 cute, and #3 Very easy to make.  I’m going to start on mine tomorrow I think - I need curtains on one of my windows and am just sick and tired of making simple straight curtains!  By the way, if you want really easy directions for making curtains I’ll include them here (how I did them, anyway).

To see tab curtains in action and how to make them, visit Here and Here.  If you shop at wal-mart, the one in Monroe has $1/yd fabric and I love their selection. 

To make basic, simple no-frills curtains you need to start off with your window measurements from the rod to the bottom of the window (or a few inches below it) and from side to middle (or a couple inches wider)

Cut your fabric according to those directions (you’ll need two peices), but be sure to add extra length and width for hemming.  If you plan to use these curtains from one room to another and mix them around a bit, make them long enough to fit your longest window, and just hem it up if you move it to a shorter window.  For a super wide window moving to a narrow window this idea may not work so well though, so keep width in mind.  Fold and press the edges, and fold and press again to hide the raw edge.  Sew the edges.  Then for the top you want to create your opening for the curtain rod by folding the top down a couple of inches and sewing again.  You can line the edges of your curtains with a color or pattern that compliments the main curtain color if you wish.  I did this by measuring my edges before folding the top down for the curtain rod, figuring out how wide I needed this strip of fabric including width to fold in the raw edge and press to keep it in place.  Then I lined the strip of fabric up with the edge of my curtain and sewed it on.

Boy it seems all I’m doing these days is posting links instead of explaining things myself.  But I’m finding so many great links I am hoping you’re all enjoying them.

I came across a neat site with gardening projects for kids, and also easy instructions to make your own newspaper pots. http://www.global-garden.com.au/gardenkids.htm is the link, which gives you a bunch of great educational activities AND projects to make useful stuff.   Want to make a barometer?  Garden pond?  What about a scarecrow?  Autumn leaf wrapping paper?  I’m going to have a fun time planning some activities for the kids from this site!  We homeschool and I bet you can figure out what our main focus is this time of the year! 

If you enjoy gardening in the summer and harvesting fresh vegetables, you can also enjoy fresh vegetables in the off season from an indoor container garden.

 I’ve already begun my green beans and peas indoors for a early harvest, and will continue to grow them starting indoors again in summer and will continue year-round.  I’m considering taking out two shelves in my greenhouse to keep a few tomato plants over the winter

You’ll need to be sure you have proper lighting, adequate watering, proper containers, and know how to pollinate by hand, if necessary.  Some plants like beans, peas and tomatoes are self pollinating meaning you don’d need to do anything to help the process.  Others you will need to do by hand, with a paint brush, cotton swab, or other small object to transfer pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers.  When properly done, you should only have to do this once.  

Here are step by step instructions

More information on growing vegetables indoors year round

Information on Pollination

A list of veggies and how they’re pollinated and saving seed.  List is on 2nd page.

I’ve been talking about it for a while now, and now it’s time to act.

I am going to start a homesteading/homemaking support group.  I’m looking at it being at a library.

What days and times work best for those of you who might attend?  You can post a comment or e-mail me at sarah@motherhoodnaturally.com  I want to be sure to plan it for a day/time that as many people can attend.

If you have experience on something related to homesteading and homemaking and would like to lead a discussion or teach us something please let me know! 

The goal of the group will be to promote a back to basics and frugal living style, and I know we ALL have something we can share with others so there will be a chance for lots of discussion where we can talk about any topic related to the theme of the group.  I’ll help plan meetings but I am depending on the community to participate, share your skills, and help all of us save some money, become more self reliant, and learn lots of new things.

And please remember - ANYONE is welcome to attend these - not just those living ‘in the country’ or who ‘have a farm’ because I believe ‘homesteading’ can be done in any home, anywhere.  It’s a mind set, and there is something we all can do to become more self sufficient and work with what we have.

I’ll post a date and time when I schedule it - but I’ll wait a few days to hear from you to see what days and times work best.

A site I use some recipes from is a really great resource for gift-giving, seasonings, pre-measured stuff, breads and more.  So, let me introduce you to www.giftsfromyourkitchen.com

It’s live!  Finally!  I’ve gotten around to creating a resource website on the things my family and I do to ‘work with the land’ and save money.  It’s no where near done - I have a ton of articles I am still working on but felt I had enough content to put the site up.

http://www.motherhoodnaturally.com/homestead/home.htm is the link.  Bookmark it and check back often.  As I go through my day I keep getting reminded of things that might be helpful to add to there, so I add it to my list and when I have a few minutes to write it up, I will!

Let me know what you think!

http://www.castirontrader.com/castironcooking should take you to a link to download a free e-book about cooking cast iron!  Lots of great information in there.  Cast iron is my all time favorite way to cook, since learning how to use it (my first experience was less than successful and left a haze in our home for hours…).