Voluntary Simplicity - Work Smarter

As a side note, today is much better. I passed my test yesterday and the remaining three bunnies look healthy and good. I have to remember to stay in the moment. Not dwell on things that are yet to be, tackle each thing as it comes. Take steps forward but not engross myself so much in getting ahead that I forget where I'm standing. Thanks to all that gave your support. It was (and is, as I re-read the posts) so very much appreciated.

The girls and I are reading more of Little House on the Prairie 75th Anniversary Edition*. The life portrayed is so very close to what I want to offer to my family in some respects and it has has given me insight to how things got done before electricity and running water.

It's given me much to ponder. For instance, Pa got the bucket of water from the creek. Ma gathered up all the sheets and clothes and washed them in the water, rinsing them in a second tub. She laid them out to dry on the grass The water got drained out into the field, hydrating the land. There wasn't mounds of laundry to be done. There wasn't enormous amounts of water being used. Ma didn't spend time every single day pulling the loads of laundry through the line. Why is this?

I reason it's because they didn't have more clothes than they knew what to do with. Clothes serve a purpose, a function. They're not merely things to hang in closets, left to crumple in drawers, taking up space, sometimes never worn before they're grown out of. I speculate too, that the kids took better care of their clothes because of this reason. They knew they couldn't afford to waste what they had on. That they'd probably have to wear that outfit or those pajamas again before they got cleaned.

Then we read about Ma and her after supper routine. The family of five had four tin plates, four tin forks, four tin cups while they were out camping on the prairie. After they were used they were promptly washed. Ma didn't have piles of cups and plates and bowls stacked in the sink waiting to be washed. There was no dishwasher running excessively like it is in my house. She didn't waste money on detergent and heat drying her dishes. Why is that?

Again, here I ponder the simplicity of living with only what you need. How hated chores and overwhelming tasks break down to small, easily accomplished goals. But we must find a balance. I realize that getting rid of too much can actually make life harder. Though, knowing how things used to be puts a new glint in my gaze. I look at our posessions in a new light.

What is needed? What makes us happy?

For each person the answers will differ. For our life on the farm, we want to work smarter not harder. Less clothes = less laundry, less storage and less mess. Less dishes means the kids have to be concious of the items they dirty, less work in cleaning and less resouces wasted. I want less work in these areas to free up time to do things that make me happy. To ease the burden of housework that yolks me.

I've pared down the books and feel good about the ones that remain. This week I'm going to be looking at our clothes and eating utensils to see where I can make a difference there as I work -hopfully smartly- towards a simpler life.

What burdens do you have that discourage you? Is there a place in your life you can par down to lighten your heart?

*The link I provided is an associate link to Amazon.com. Purchases made through this link help support our family.

New Lines

When we were out buying more wood for the Recycle Pallets into a Deck project I picked up some retractable laundry lines. I had quite a few lines up before but we had to take them down to build the bunny hutch and with the new walkway we, well...clotheslined ourselves on the hanging ropes. Often. 

I bought 40' lines (there is very little chance we will ever use all forty feet in this house, mainly because our property is only 30' wide but they can be taken down and moved with us) and put them up this afternoon.

It came with screws I felt were grossly inadequate for the job. See shiny screws on left? Bad. See my replacement screws on right? Much better.

I had to predrill holes into the hundred year wood that holds our house together. I stood on a chair to get the lines up high enough to walk under but not so high I needed a stool to put up the laundry. I also hung them above the airconditioner so when it kicks on the hot air will serve an actual productive purpose.

On a side note, I'm resisting the urge to paint them to look like fish. Tell me I shouldn't.

All in all, it took about fifteen minutes to screw in all three lines and the hooks on the opposite side. I also predrilled a hole into the fence before screwing in the hooks. I really love my power tools.

It was rainy today; sprinking off and on. So I have to wait to try them out. These give me a ton more linear feet of drying space than I had before and they retract. A huge bonus when various spiders spin webs across lines every single night. I used to take a stick and swipe it across the lines every day last summer before I could hang clothes. Some looked like tiny crabs with red spikes on their backs. Eewe. Plus these lines are coated so they won't get mildewy or wet.

I'm very pleased with the quality of the retractable lines even if they cost about a bajillion times more than the simple loose hooks and length of rope I initially had in place. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be airing my clothes outside!

Easy add-on Pockets (or how to make a 5 year old deliriously happy)

You might remember this dress from our beach side photo shoot a few weeks ago.

It's a cute plain knit dress that cost under $10 new. I usually don't go for matchy stuff for the kids (since it's just about impossible to find five things in all their sizes that go together) but for the sake of nice pictures I do my best. My issue with matchy-matchy clothes is that it really boggs down the individual personalities of each kid and makes it a pain to get them dressed since 9 out of 10 someone's something that goes with it is lost/dirty/stained. (This is purely my opinion and yes, I do think matched outfits are cute).

So, Cordelia donned her plain yellow dress and I frowned. Uhmph, I thought, she needs more oopmh. So, we went down to the sewing area and picked out some fabric to make pockets. Every little kid needs pockets to hold their "stuff".

She chose mermaids with honey comb insides. I actually already had these cut for a quilt so it knocked time off preping the fabric.

Cut 4 squares 1/2' larger than the desired finished size. They can be all the same but Cordi wanted the honey combs too. I think it's cute.

Pin them right sides together and sew a 1/4" around THREE SIDES leaving a 1/4" space from the end of the unsewn end.

Snip off the edges and turn inside out, use a pencil to poke out the edges to make sharp corners.

It's nice to have a little help too.

We also embellished them a bit with some blue large ricrac to make it look like waves. Cordelia was really excited about this little addition. (sorry for the crummy lighting).

Fold in the tops using a ruler to make sure they come out the same size. Pin in place and sew across the open top (and across the ricrac of you add it).

Since we're dealing with a knit, we had to really make sure to pin these down well so the fabric didn't shift or pucker when we sewn the cotton pockets on.

Sew around three sides making sure to reinforce where the top of the pocket meets the dress. These will get a lot of wear and you want to make sure it doesn't rip.

What a difference some easy 15 minute pockets make! Cordelia -who liked the dress well enough to begin with - LOVES her "new" mermaid pocket dress. And no one else will have one like it.

Emmy's new old green dress

Amelia, or Emmy as we call her, has a penchant for vintage baby dresses. I love it. I try and accomodate her love of the simple old-time fashions whenever I can.

I scored this dress at a consignment store. It has a small rounded collar, a high waist, a lace hem and a button up back bodice. Little gathered sleeves round off the top. I got it at a stuff a bag sale at this great consignment store I used to frequent. They had a Black Friday sale where I got to stuff a grocery sized bag with whatever I could get my hands on before someone else, all for ten bucks. It started at ten a.m. Shoppers were already lined up in front of the store on that cold morning, bags at the ready. The owner, Michelle, signaled us a go. The smoky breath of a dozen bargain crazed women filed the frigid air as clothing was pulled haphazardly from hangers; eyes quickly darting around as we all searched for things we just had to have; bags shuddering under the weight.

Mayhem, coffee, and a rare vintage clothes find, a girl's dream come true.

There was only one problem...the dress is stained just a little. Perhaps that's why I was able to find it among the racks of clothes, passed by. You can't really see in the photos but there is a light brown water mark across the entire top of the bodice. There were a few other yellowish spots on the skirt as well. The lace also seemed to be a bit darker than the cream of the dress. I quickly analized the merit of these imperfections. There's nothing wrong with an imperfect dress, you just have to get creative.

Once, in a different thrift store I found a really cute red baby doll dress that just happened to be Emmy's size. It is similar to this style but shorter. She was with me that day and saw me pull it from it's hiding space on the rack. In the middle of the store Emmy stripped screaming "Dat Emmy Dwess! Emmy weared it! I pud id on!" Needless to say, that dress is hanging in her closet now. If she knew it was there, she'd be stripping right now to don it. She runs to these dresses, fetching them out of the dryer. She doesn't do this with her Gymboree ensembles. It cost me three dollars and lights up my baby's face. Can't get much better than that.

When you like vintage things, like we do, you have to take the good with the bad sometimes. This was a really well made dress. Being a fairly capable clothing sewer I checked the seams for durability. I couldn't tell how old it was because there is no tag but by the style and the stains it's probably at least as old as I am. I saw potential in the dress. I stuffed it in my bag. Pleased as punch with my find, knowing I had a little someone at home that would just gush over it.

So, I brought it home and true to form, Emmy fell in love with "Emmy peddy dwess!" (Why she refers to herself in the third person is a mystery, I can't remember any of the others doing it, but it's Emmy and we love it) I wanted to give it to her then but I couldn't let her have it without some doctoring. I pulled out a few fabric dyes I had on hand for some different projects. Denim blue or Kelly green were my only options, unless I wanted to go to the store to get a different color. I didn't want to. Kelly green it was!

Emmy was delighted watching me "Emmy dresses colors." as she put it which in toddler talk means:

 "Mommy is dying my dress Kelly green. That is my dress. I'm Emmy. I'll wear it when she's done but I'm still going to ask her a million times what she's doing, if I can help and if it's done before she gives it to me."

So, with Emmy by my side every step of the way, we dyed it green. We rinsed it. A lot. We washed it by itself and then dried it. Finally, finally, Emmy got to put on her peddy dwess all toasty from the dryer...which she wears backwards.

I've changed.

Last night I had to go shopping. This chore has become an irritating task for me, even when I don't bring the kids along. I really loathe clothes shopping, have no use for jewelry or perfume and fancy toiletries and make up end up sitting unused in the cabinet. The truth is I have no use for 99% of what is sold in the mall (the percentage would be higher but the bookstore closed). I used to shop all the time and never was bothered by it. I suppose with this desire to homestead I've changed.

Most everything I need now is on the internet...as long as I don't need it right now which is the case of the outfit for the upcoming weekend, or the necessary groceries. I get my music online in the form of MP3's, books come from half.com or one of the big "B" chains, I can order practically everything (including some food) and have come to love shopping in my jammies. Having all that wonderful shopping at my fingertips has replaced trekking through crowded stores packed with overpriced junk. Plus, getting the mail is fun.

So, here I am, seven at night walking the mall. Store after store filled with trendy looks I had no desire to wear. I only need a dress. A semi-formal to formal dress. Just one lousy dress! What was offered in the stores was either short cut and slutty, yards of taffeta promness or mother-of-the-bride-wear. Nothing suited for a almost thirty mom with dreadlocks and a wrist tattoo going to a formal Army dinner. Sigh. I trudged on.

I tried Ann Taylor, NY&Co., a black and white store that looked promising, Old Navy, Sears, Macys, then stumbled tired and bleary eyed into Saks. Big. Mistake.

The mannequins in the front looked promising as I held my breath through the cloud of perfume that marked the path to the clothes. Past the shoes with name brands like Prada and Chanel I should have known better and turned around then and there but I was desperate for a dress. I needed to get it so I wouldn't have to come back. I turned a corner and found the clothes. Giving things a good glance I didn't see anything appropriate for my soiree but it's a big store. Making my way back out of that section to hunt down the formal wear a really cute flannel shirt stood in my way. If I had been drinking something I would have choked. Then again, I'd have to have been drinking to have bought it. The little white tag that faced me showed the reasonable price of a mere $138. WHAT?!? For a flannel shirt? Did this shirt give the wearer super powers? Did a portion of the funds go to aid starving children? I bet anyone could raid some relative's closet and find a similar shirt...for free. What exactly was I getting other than a shirt that resembled any other flannel shirt? Someone's name, that's what, and the Saks bag to carry it in. 

I'm not an art hater. I do realize that clothes are pieces of art, someone creates the pattern, chooses the fabrics and makes the darn things. I just don't understand why they have to cost so much. Buying flannel in builk should be pretty cheap and sewing a shirt isn't that hard. I know, I've done it. The plastic buttons weren't coated in gold either. That shirt sent me running out of the store so quick I almost walked in the path of someone spritzing overpriced perfume. That's how rattled I was.

In all honesty, I was just disgusted. I've become increasingly disgusted with the way things have become in our society. I used to bop down the mall laden with bags and not care about the empty space in my wallet. I've changed. Am I cheap? Unashamedly, yes. And I like good quality for the money I do part with. I suppose with the way I've been heading lately, towards homesteading and a farm of my own, looking at those items, realizing the severity that there's a market for it to need an entire two story store attached to a hundred like it to cater to persons anxious to own them is a little overwhelming. I just don't get it anymore. I don't see the appeal. It's hard not to look at that flannel shirt and think of the dehydrator I've been wanting or materials to build a chicken coop.

I suppose it boils down to priorities. I shouldn't have been surprised but it was like a slap in the face that my own have changed so much from the "norm". I guess I really have changed when, after hours of shopping, only smiled when I picked up my new cordless drill.