diy and garden time

in the immortal words of david brent (the boss on the original The Office) "(i'm feeding the starving africans)...DO IT YOURSELF!" (in a british accent and all)...i've been DIYing it lately and enjoying that. i've found the internet to be a grand library of various tutorials and recipes for pretty much anything you might want to learn to do or make and my latest projects have been inserting zippers (can you believe it's actually EASY?!) and making laundry soap--this one in particular brings me much joy as laundry detergent is so freaking expensive and i have three kids, one in diapers--i do A LOT of laundry...as in, whatever else i'm doing at any given moment, i'm also doing laundry. plus, it's detergent--a petro-chemical based, harsh, not environmentally friendly consumable good that i go through a ton of. there are "green" laundry soaps out there, but they are super high cost for super low volume and i haven't been able to afford them for years now. i made this laundry soap with a tiny bit of plain glycerin soap (which i had on hand because, you know, i make soap), some baking soda, and water. and yes, it works! i tested it first-thing on diapers--no residue, clean looking and smelling, and fresh! yippee! it cost me probably 6 cents a load, if that. i found the recipes on tipnut.com, which is a place i stumbled on that is very midwestern-frugal feeling, not a flashy, sassy, trendy-looking place, but chock-full of good info nonetheless. most of the recipes call for something called washing soda, which is different than balking soda, but i couldn't find it anywhere in cottage grove, so i settled for the baking soda recipe. i'm gonna try a different recipe next time, for kicks. if i can find washing soda in eugene.

the zipper inserting tutorial i found on uhandbag.com, which is the perfect website for me because it is crammed with tutorials on making all kinds of bags/totes/pouches...i don't get much time to go online, but i love going there when i can to ogle all the bag-related stuff. i needed a new pouch, as the one i had was falling apart...dad gave it to me many years ago from one of his trips to mexico and i keep it in my purse, stowing my wallet and keys and random cards and pens and things in...but i hadn't made myself a new one cuz i didn't know how to do zippers. i thought i could probably wing it, but i checked for a tutorial and voila! i now know how to use the zipper foot on my sewing machine and the pouch i made turned out just grand. i cannot wait to buy more zippers and make about a million more pouches--fun and quick! and, by the way, the zipper i used was in a box of sewing ephemera that gramma judy sent over with kimmy and gregg, so thanks gramma judy, i used the zipper! (there is a LOT of cool stuff in that box, including some stuff you use to make your own lampshade, which i am so going to use to make a shade for my viking warrior lamp named draco). pouches are fun and zippers rock!

i spent a good three hours in the front garden today, pulling out the old brassicas and peas, tidying up the beds, preparing to plant garlic, and planting a few end of summer things that hopefully will produce a little bit (lettuce and etc. salad greens) and get strong enough to weather the winter (leeks). last week i planted some mums and a hibiscus in the front flower bed, they look awesome--much nicer than the overgrown, seed-riddled calendulas that were there...plus there are lots of calendula babies coming up, which tend to over-winter and provide a nice spot of color. i also planted some poppy seeds, which hopefully will come up next spring...i planted them on the street side of the farthest-from-the-house raised bed box to pretty it up a bit--towards august the whole garden tends to get all dead and lumpy looking (except the tomatoes, of course--which we are eating plenty of).

tomorrow is the first day of school and the girls are STOKED! we don't know how long it'll last or what's going to happen, but we're gonna suck the marrow out of it and enjoy every bit. the girls were both asked to be on the welcoming committee--ushering around the new students, showing them the ropes and explaining how things work, like JC and how to get certified for stuff. it's going to be a great year!

i'm grateful for:
the library (what a GOOD idea!)...of late i've read: tigerheart, all the way home, a wolf at the table, and currently how far is the ocean? --all checked out from the library
antibiotics (r. has a vasectomy-related infection at the moment. it sucks)
dirt and compost and duff and all things earth-related
online tutorials (they rock!)
my home