Plain and Practical

I feel old

and I even had help moving two truck and one jeep load to the house last evening--today, pack the rest of the kitchen items from the store, sweep, vacuum, mop, do a little dusting. Almost done. The living room is completely stuffed with home stuff and store stuff and starting tomorrow, I will be sorting it all out one.box.at.a.time. I need have no doubt of the Lord's prosperity for me, I just need to be careful it doesn't fall down and squish me while I get it all pigeonholed away. Peace.

Rolling An Apron-Full of Balls, Forward!

So it doesn't show, no point in a photo, but I am making progress, real progress. I've ordered some spinning supplies on Etsy (silk waste, dyes, and favorite'd a spindle maker for later on for show supplies) and I wrote a long letter to my Amish friend, Katie, spelling out the dye plants and the herbal plants I'd like to purchase next summer, as well as request for a fallow field of saplings and willows to wander in and cut basket handles to steambox for basket-making in the springtime.

I also put in a request for broom corn, for broommaking in the falltime, if they don't raise it around their neighborhood or themselves, I'll get some from my supplier in Florida. Ordered the corks they were looking for, and later ordering two copies of Handbook Of Natural Plant Dyes, by Sasha Duerr, one for me and one for Katie, this book even shows you how (recipes and all) for making iron mordant, dyeing with purple cabbage and coffee grounds, using alum as a mordant, and other simple good things.

Then I finished up two very simple knitting projects I plan to make into kits, will show you pics after they dry. I plan to make beginner and intermediate kits for selling on Etsy and for the show in April, as well as take to the show in Traverse City in September.

I found a used copy of the Iliad, one of the books on my reading list, so figured God wants me to start with that one first. Anyone wants a copy of my reading list (it's a two-year challenge of classic titles I haven't covered during my previous 50 years on earth, or, titles I have read so long ago I can't remember anything specific about their contents) just let me know and I can send it to you, but be prepared, it's all non-fiction, much of it on Gutenburg's site, nothing lightweight in the batch, and includes military strategy, philosophy, historical scientific theory, politics, and world history.

Today, Husband is offering to help me get the three large pieces of furniture from the shop, and then since he works this week, I'm on my own for the rest. Pat coming on Thursday to help sort books, the vintage ones can be sold on Etsy but the rest getting donated to the Plain City thrift store (so of course, we'll be shopping when we drop them off). The doggy rawhides were donated to the K-9 unit at the police department yesterday, and the hot peppers are being packaged to take to a charity chili cookoff at North Market, being held in February. The rest, greedy me, is mine.

There will be lots of homemade cornbread with molasses dribbles, hot herbal teas, rice casseroles and bean soups ahead. I am so very blessed, the store taught me many things to make me a better business person while working from home, and it also revealed a Truth to me--I'm happiest at home, in my kitchen and studio, and to be taught this lesson in such a loving, gentle way, just reaffirms my daily feeling that He is always taking care of me. Peace.

New Things, Old Things

I got up thinking about how wintertime holidays meant more time with my Grandfather, I really miss him.  He taught me to play a wicked game of gin rummy, and checkers, and chinese checkers, and puzzle games, on long dark winter evenings like the ones coming up soon.  We'd do the chores together out in the big barn, and by together I mean most of the time we could reach out and touch each other, chatting about school (his and mine, he was a teacher) and the pregnant mare and helping me spell things for the "mill list" pinned up next to the horses' grain bins.  Wintertime, the sweetest part of it, meant sitting and paying attention to details--cleaning the harness and repairing it, making rugs, planning with the seed catalog.  Remember over the next couple of weeks of Crazy Christmas Holiday Stuff, to take some time to sit with your youngers, and pass along traditions, think about the important things.

And about passing along important things, I send friends in the area this message on Facebook, if I missed you, consider yourself invited:

"We are having a Groundhog Day gathering at our house.  The purpose of bringing these folks together, is so we can take the skills we have and share them with others.  Whether it's a serive we can do/help a homeowner with, something we're willing to teach, something we have to trade or barter, everyone has something good to share.  One person may have firewood and another may be able to take care of your infirm mother a weekend, another might e able to teach guitar lessons or how to frame in a deck in exchange for a fishing boat, onemight have a wood shop and another able to loan a camping cabin.  If we get together and share information, we grow stronger as individuals and citizens."

The format is, people bring a chair, and photos or examples of their skill or product, we go around the circle "show and tell" style.  "Hello, my name is Bob, you've probably seen my produce sign out on route 4, and I'm willing to trade fresh produce for labor any time after July first, my number is ---" or "I do day care and I can take in a kid for someone willing to do all the yard work, mowing and raking and making sure the parking lot is okay for people in the wintertime."  After we go around the circle I tell people there's beverages in the kitchen, so what I get out of this is a deadline to clean my house once a month really really well, and I get to make cookies and watch people enjoy those and coffee and mint tea.

The whole thing was inspired by the "Occupy" movement, and I figure the best way for us to take back a sense of control of our own lives, is to grow in our independence, build our own networks, share what we have learned with our neighbors and friends.  I'm hoping it will help berry bushes laden with fruit not go to waste, let people know they aren't alone figuring out how to save money, give everyone participating a chance to save money and time.  Our own social services, run by us, costing us nothing, building our community.  We'll see if people are interested.  Do what you can, where you are, with what you have, right?  peace.

box of mohair from Edie's

One Door Closes, Another Opens

So good news, I've been rolling several balls forward since I deduced that the shop was closing, and materials for sewing orders and crafting projects have been flowing in.  From Gohn Brothers, more pins; from Edie up in Blissfield, raw mohair from her lovely goats, ready to be washed, dyed, and drum-carded into exciting batts.  I packed a box of things from the store to be listed on Etsy in January; made a date with Stasia to pick up all the things she's willing to consign in her shop--the Monday after Christmas.

I'm looking forward to catching up paperwork in the mornings, sewing and listing in the afternoons, unpacking boxes in the evenings after fixing and eating a homemade supper.  Less than 2 weeks left to go.

Tomorrow, here in the shop's big commercial kitchen, we've got volunteers coming and we're baking 1000 cookies for the local food pantry--then doing it all over again on the 21st.  A commercial-sized roll of parchment paper is ready, another shop owner arranged for the ingredients to be covered by another business, I'm picking up the last ingredient early in the morning.  We always said if we had any kind of a business, we would want to use it to benefit the community, not just ourselves, so even as we are checking off our last few days, it's good to know we stuck to our mission statement.  Peace.

New Shoes!

Laugh all you want.  It's not easy to find plain shoes.  Lucky for me I got these big potato farmer feet when they were handing out footies, so I can fit easily into men's shoes--

leather, sturdy, $25 on sale at "The Shoe Department."  Didn't get any help finding them, the two sales girls told me they didn't have anything like what I described, and yet 10 minutes later I was at the counter with these.  They came with really annoying thin waxy round laces so I got these nice fat boot laces and replaced those, much beter even if a little long.

I'd rather have the ladylike shoes I can get in Shipshewana, but heavens, been two years since I was able to get there, and probably at least two months before another opportunity opens.  These will have to do in the meantime.

I keep replacing the store stock of these:

heh heh, bacon and eggs ornaments.  Also have Pizza ones too, made from acrylic felt bits, very pleasurable to ply a needle through.

Pat is going on vacation out west for  a month but she said if I get my pizza quilt top made, she will show me her hand-quilting tricks.  I ordered a wool batting from Gohn Bros. and it's arrived and been tucked away for that project.

I've come up with two more prototypes for Art-O-Mat and hoping to send the first ones this week to see if Clark likes them.  More product lines means more income when I start working from home in a month.  I think I'll be sitting indoors quite a bit, we may be down to one vehicle by then because our faithful old Dollarmobile is getting chancy, Craig had to put a new battery in it this week.  I can walk to the post office and dollar store, as well as local restaurants and shops, so long as I can have the truck one day a week for grocery shopping, I think we could make one-car living a possibility at least in the short term until springtime.

I also finished a huge substantial heavy-reading list, if anyone wants a copy, let me know.  It's all non-fiction, containing classes in philosophy, history, military strategy, genetics, politics of the pre-18th century, development of mathemathical theory, and more.  Trying to fill in some of the countless holes in my little pointy head.    Peace.

Let's Start a little Social Movement

So, here's my crazy little idea. Let's start an Occupy At Home movement. Let's gather our friends and once a month, at a house or a church basement or the local Lodge hall or a room at the library or in someone's barn, let's exercise our tenuous right to assembly. Let's gather together and share our knowledge so that we can withdraw from the commercialization and corporate greed of foriegn entities. One person can hold up a bag of tin cans and give the current redemption price at the scrapyard and set up a recycling option from their garage. Another can hold up some yogurt they made from stale milk and give everyone the recipe and instructions link. A mom can hold up a cloth diaper and tell people she has the pattern to share and how to wash and take care of them, see her after the meeting. A man can stand up and say, if anyone has a wood stove or fireplace, he'll split wood with you if you'll come and help take down three old trees he needs to remove. What do you think of my crazy idea? Got name suggestions? Well, typepad is having issues so more later when it's working properly. All your thoughts appreciated, toss them on the table.

A Sweet Little Foundling

got this little treasure yesterday while thrifting:

I have a few repairs to make on it here and there but it's usable, and will make someone's bed both warmer and more loved.  I like these quilts, made before olfa cutters and "designer" fabrics, back when folks used what they had, scraps from clothing or leftovers from cutting out a garment at home.  I like that they aren't perfect, and the fabrics don't all match.

Winding down on the store, going to run out of Honey products before we close, I think, and husband and I drove two hours in the pouring rain last night to do the last pickup of eggs, 24 dozen.  I have stuff I can still shelve to keep the store full, and that's mostly the first half of the afternoon today, then this quilt and some other handwork later this evening.

My head has just been exploding with new projects.  Remember always that when one door closes, another will open, and I can Witness to this promise.  Some of the ideas I've been shelving in my brain for years, suddenly have a resolution in technique or materials that make them possible.  A wall sculpture I could never bother making because it couldn't be moved or shipped, suddenly a little light bulb has come on and I knew how to build it so it could be stacked and sent anywhere.  I've been making art-o-mats for years and couldn't resolve an issue to complete one of my ideas, and not only did I receive the answer how to do those, but a third product idea as well, blooming full and complete into my mind.

I'm surrounded at home by things that need to be done, although they are work (like finishing unpacking us from our Labor Day move) and involve cleaning and moving things and getting paperwork under control, I am looking forward to all of it.  I'm looking forward to a house and home that are clean and neat, good meals, healthy homemade snacks.  There are fabrics stacked in totes to the ceiling, and when I'm tired of sewing, there is wool and mohair to dye and card and spin and knit.  I am so incredibly blessed by my Faith and Marriage and good Health.  Who could ask for more, for their Christmas gifts?  Peace.