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!

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

Grocery bags, all purpose carry bags, produce bags…  My favorite are #1 and #2 so far.

Anyway, I’m bringing some of the country home with me.  I’ve put a garden in that spans about 3/4 of the length of our yard and about 1/3 the width of the yard.  I’m hoping this garden will provide for our family’s needs until next harvest, with the exception of eating fresh vegetables which I’ll have to buy some over the winter (but I’ll also be keeping a supply of vegetables growing indoors over the winter to reduce what we’ll have to buy). But anything to put in meals I should have in my freezer or home canned in my pantry.  I want to give away any excess that we have (maybe make a little stand on my front yard), and grew more watermelons and pumpkins than we’ll ever need, and I have plans of just giving them away also to those in need.  Maybe next year I can sell or give away my extra seedlings to help encourage other families to garden because I have yet to see another garden in a backyard around here.

My husband is on the fence about chickens, but I’m totally for it.  The plan is to build a chicken tractor (a movable coop) or two (or three) to raise chicks in as babies and butcher when they’re mature (keep enough for our yearly supply plus a few extra for company, giving to those in need, and unplanned needs) and butcher all at once, or at least all during a certain time period and not year-round), then keep one tractor around with a few hens for eggs year-round.  The tractors, when not in use, can be stored on their side somewhere in the yard.   I think raising chickens might actually be a little better on the wallet than meat rabbits, which are our next option.  However, rabbits are quiet and chickens aren’t totally silent…

My husband and I are building a fence for my garden today with spare wood we have laying around.  My dogs (3 of them) are thrilled with having a backyard to run and play in (my Vizsla actually sprained a leg from all of the stair climbing and free running he’s suddenly had access to!  he’s fine now!) and the garden is fair game to them.  If I want to harvest anything this year I need to keep them out!

We’re also going to build a compost bin.  I brought my compost from the apartment which I kept in a rubbermaid tote.  Currently the pile is still in the tote until we get the bin built in the back corner of our yard. 

I’m looking for a container to collect rainwater in, so I can use that to water my garden instead of city water.  I’ll connect that to my downspouts.   I’m also going to find a way to drain my washer water into a container to use outside, once we use up the detergent we first bought for our new washer (high efficiency washer - we had laundry piling up to do and grabbed the cheapest detergent we could find to get us by).  Then I’m going to mix up a batch of my home made detergent which is environmentally safe, and use the washer water to water my garden and lawn also.  I have to find a way to be able to easily connect and disconnect from the collection bin though, because I don’t want to use the dirty water from when I wash cloth diapers.

Now that we are living in a house with a backyard, there is so much more we can do.  but, we are renting and that does put a damper on some things.   I have ideas popping into my head every day.  Solar panels are another thing we’re interested in, but I admit to knowing nothing about them… Can they be easily removed?  We’re renting and don’t want to put the expense into buying them unless we can take them to our next residence.  Our landlord will not pay to have them put on, so if we did something like solar panels we’d need to be able to take them with us and restore regular electricity to the house before leaving.  

I’ve started a blog about our adjustment to city life, and how we’re homesteading in the middle of the city.  If you’re interested, feel free to check it out.  It’s taken us a full month to move (my husband has injured himself a few times and had a hospital visit or two… I’m pregnant while also chasing after three young children but ended up taking on the brunt of the move… Needless to say, things didn’t move as quickly as we had hoped.  We’re still unpacking!). 

So there has been a lot to do, not to mention the backyard is/was (we are spending hours outside each day cleaning the backyard up) overgrown with vines,  bushes and small trees, my garden is the first garden that has been there in years at the very least so I had a lot of work to get it ready.  Don’t forget about usual house cleaning, caring for my three children 4 and under, homeschooling AND running my business from home (I have my own office now! YAY!), that’s left me with very little free time to blog.  I’m working on it though.  I have a vision and each day we’re a little bit closer.

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!

So the homesteading and homeschooling meetings are going to be cancelled. If anyone wants to take them over, feel free.

We took the opportunity to move our of our duplex into a 4 bedroom house all to ourselves and couldn’t resist. ;-)  So now we’re living in South Toledo.

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.

May 19th in the Community Room at Bedford Library.  6-7pm (we can schedule longer meetings in the future).

Topic will be vegetable and herb gardening with the goal of self sustainability.  We will cover in ground gardens and container gardens.  I’ll provide some “how to” information on making your own gardening supplies, planning gardens, figuring how much you’ll need to plant and more!

Have knowledge on gardening?  Please contact me - you’re welcome to speak on the topic of your choice at this meeting!  If we have a lot of people offering advice, I’ll see about scheduling the meeting a bit longer.

What to bring: Your favorite gardening resources to share (internet or book), your favorite “from scratch” recipe preferably from the garden, and yourselves.  Children are more than welcome - I’ll have my three there (4 and under).

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! 

 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.