Becoming Domestic

This summer I have felt as though I have become very domestic. I planted a tomato garden and have been making salsa from the tomatoes as they ripen as well as dehydrating some to use later. I have also made lots of blackberry jam, strawberry jam, raspberry jam, and strawberry-rhubarb jam this year.

Now my mom and I are making soap and candles. I don't know what has brought this on us but this summer I worked harder than I have at any job I have ever had. But at least I can actually see the products of my labor and know that we will be benefiting from all of the work that we did and are doing. It also makes you think about when you go to the grocery store, you think more often "do I really need to buy this, wouldn't it be better to just make it at home?" We have greatly reduced the amount of canned goods that we buy, such as fruits and spaghetti sauce by canning our own in the summer and using them throughout the year.

I am glad that I am learning these skills that many have forgotten in light of all of the modern conveniences but when you make it yourself you appreciate it more and get exactly what you want rather than settling for something that isn't exactly what you wanted because what you wanted is gone or worse they stopped making it.

7 Down 93 To Go

So I'm over one month in and I have 7 dishcloths completely done. I am a little behind because I am still have trouble finding my routine for this semester of school. I do however have a couple more almost done, they just need the ends woven in which is my least favorite part of any project.

To add to the amount of work for this project, I also have a couple of rather time consuming Christmas presents that need to be completed for my parents. I just have to keep in mind that I have to make two if not three dishcloths per week.

An interesting self challenge

I recently saw this post where someone is trying to knit 100 dishcloths in 1 year. Well I thought that I would try it as well, however I won't limit myself to just knitting them because I like to crochet as well. I will begin my challenge tomorrow as today I am away from home and not able to start. So my goal is to have 100 dishcloths knit and crocheted between August 16, 2010 and August 16, 2011.

Finishing Projects

Lately I have been trying to finish projects that I have had started for a long time and just haven't finished for one reason or another. As I was going through my UFOs, I realized that a lot of them were really close to being done. I had a market bag that only had about a half hour's worth of work on the strap left to do, a sling bag that only had to be sewn together and many dishcloths that were over half way done. So last week I got the market bag done and then took it to the farmer's market the next day. I also got the sling bag sewn together, though that went into my bag of christmas presents.

Text books Suck!

I about had a panic attack yesterday when I saw how much it was going to cost initially for textbooks next fall. If I bought them new through the school bookstore it was almost $700 without tax for books for three classes. Thank God for Amazon because I was able to get 4 of the 5 books that I needed for about $270 which was not nearly as bad but still ridiculous.

Worst Blogger Ever

I feel like the worst blogger ever. Things have been so busy and I just realized that I haven't posted in over a year. I'm going to try to be a better posted.

Well I graduated a week and a half ago with my associate's in Small Business Management and will be transferring to SVSU in the fall to continue in Accounting. I have been so busy with school that I haven't done much else for the past year. Now that I don't have school all the time, I don't really know what to do with all of my time. I have recently begun to knit and crochet again. I mean I didn't really stop but I didn't do very much of it since the mad rush to get Christmas presents done last year. It's nice to want to do something creative rather than only have time for homework and be so mentally drained that I don't want to really do anything that takes much thought.

Here are some of my recent projects that I have gotten done for some friends that are obsessed with Little Big Planet.