I'm Addicted

When I was a little girl, my mother taught me how to knit and crochet. I remember making several blankets for my Barbies but that's about it. I really don't remember being frustrated with the process.

A couple of years ago, I realized I really didn't have much in the homemaking skills department to hand down to my daughter. I remembered the fun of crocheting as a kid and attempted to pick up the craft once again.

I don't think I've ever done anything more aggravating in my life! For starters, my stitches were so tight they squeaked! Apparently, one cannot be stressed or uptight when crocheting. I may have been a tad stressed and uptight. The art of crochet was soon heaved out the window.

Fast forward to today: I have found a new best friend in the realm of yarn crafts: The Knifty Knitter!

These are the circular looms for hats, scarves, purses and whatnot. There are oblong looms as well for blankets. I don't have any of those yet (hint, hint, Sweetie).

These are so easy to use, I'm quite tickled with them. And knitting now actually calms and relaxes me! Who'da thought?

I've made a couple of projects I wanted to share. First, a warm scarf for those cold Nebraska days:

And a little hat (one of three) I've made for Punky's dolls. I highly recommend trying new techniques on smaller projects. You'll see results right away without spending too much time or materials in the event you make a few mistakes. Punky's doll clothes are my test items.

For instance, this little hat is riddled with mistakes. I won't point them out to you but they're there. It's just easier on one's crafting ego to make mistakes on smaller projects. Trust me.

If you're new to knitting or it's been awhile since you've hooked 1 and purled 2, I highly recommend the Knifty Knitter. You can pick one (or two or three or ten) up at your nearby craft store or Walmart.

19 Minutes, huh?

I came across this article from Shine.Yahoo.com that details how to clean your house in just 19 minutes a day.

The article gives a lot of great advice. Basically, just keep up on the basic stuff before it gets out of hand. When I'm on my game, I'm pretty good at doing just that. The only problem is I haven't been on my game in so long I'm missing a few pieces and the instruction booklet.

Plus, no one else really wants to play with me.

Then there's the fact that I can take a 20 minute catnap and be completely refreshed for the rest of the day, so if I've got 19 minutes on my hands you can guess what I'm going to do with it!

The Naturally Clean Home

One of my goals in being the person God created me to be is to be a better steward of my money. Having enough money to live as comfortably as I do is a blessing straight from God and I need to show my appreciation for this blessing by making more sensible choices about how I spend it.

One way I've chosen to save money is to stop spending it on unnecessary (and toxic) cleaning supplies. Not to mention, I'm starting to get a little sick thinking about all the harmful chemicals I'm bringing into my home and exposing my children to. I'll be honest, I haven't done all the research on it but you can read a couple of articles on the subject here and here.

I think it's safe to say, however, that cleaning your home with more natural products and ingredients is just an all-around better way to go. Not to mention, cheaper!

I recently purchased The Naturally Clean Home by Karyn Siegel-Maier from Amazon a couple of weeks ago. I have not yet tried any of the recipes but will be doing so today. My kitchen sink is in need of some love so I'm going to try out the basic sink cleanser recipe. Care to go on this adventure with me? Great!

Okay, according to The Naturally Clean Home, this cleanser is safe for porcelain or stainless steel sinks. The author recommends using a vinegar rinse before the final hot water rinse to prevent residue from the baking soda. From the book:

Basic Sink Cleanser

1/4 cup baking soda

1/2 cup vinegar

3 drops lavendar, rosemary, lemon, lime or orange essential oil

Combine all ingredients. Rinse sink well with hot water.

Pour the cleanser in the sink and wipe with a sponge or cloth.

Rinse again with hot water.

I don't have any of the essential oils listed but I do have peppermint. That ought to wake me up, wouldn't you say! I'll let you know how my sink turns out. If you are willing to give this natural cleanser a try, I'd love to hear how you liked it. Also, if you have a tip for cleaning your home naturally, please let me know. I'd love to highlight it in an upcoming post! Thanks!

Update: I used the cleanser above and, I have to say, I really like it! I completely forgot about the essential oils but that was okay. And it was nice being able to clean something without breathing any fumes. It worked fast, was easy and rinsed very nicely. I didn't need to do the vinegar rinse at the end. The hot water rinse worked just fine. I'll definitely be using this again!

Minimizing Monday

This week over at Handprints on the Wall, Kendra challenges us to get rid of those stacks of magazines that have a way of piling up around the house. Not to pat myself on the back too hard but I'm actually pretty good at keeping the magazine piles at bay. When I buy a People mag or the like, I let them collect until I have 5 or 6 then I take the stack to my hairstylist to put out for her clients to read.

But there was a time years ago when I had roughly 150 magazines piled in my spare bedroom. 150! Can you believe it? Well, as it turned out, that enormous stack ended up coming in quite handy. I had taken a Interior Decorating 101 class at the local community college and our final assignment was to collect examples of several design principles and elements and put them all together in a binder:

I still use this binder to this day. I even used it to demonstrate several decorating tips during a "How To" day for my M.O.M.S group at my church. I had to follow a format but you can make your binder any way you like, of course. You can place a picture on one side and a brief description of what you like about it on the other.
I find that when I cut pictures out of a magazine, it's important for me to write down why I pulled it out. I can't tell you how many times I've found a picture from a magazine and then thought, Now why did I keep this?

I do have a small collection of magazines awaiting placement in a binder. I'll get to it, but sadly, not anytime soon. Here's where I keep my current stash:
I also have a nice pile of scrapbooking magazines waiting for a project. I'd like to cut out the samples of scrapbook pages and display them but I'm a little short on ideas. You wouldn't happen to have an idea for me, would you?
Please, leave a comment if you have an idea for what to do with my scrapbook magazines. Or, better yet, if you've blogged an idea, leave me the link to it. I'd love to check it out!