traditional homemaking: a homemade winter! - Page 2

[MamaFern]

ok.. maybe i have a minute between nursings and other child needs!

im busily sewing this as part of my middle ones Christmas gift. i actually bought the pattern over a year ago, cut out the pieces last winter and planned it to be her gift then, but it never happened. i have since moved to the town where the pattern maker lives, and we live only a few houses from each other on the same street, completely unknowing when we moved!.. so its kind of funny, but also wonderful because she is so skilled and knowledgeable and also has all of the supplies on hand! she actually bought one of my toadstool dolls for her nature table. i was pretty honored. her shop is bear dance crafts btw

so yeah, im sewing and sewing and knitting.. on the side grinding flour and getting organized for Solstice/Christmas. we made pizza for supper tonight and my daughter helped grind the grains. it feels SO GOOD to make our own flour. i just absolutely love it.

tomorrow we go to visit our farmers folk friends where we will cut out Christmas tree and visit the sheepies & children. then we have a community potluck dinner (put on by the food security network), with all local meat & veggies..and everyone else brings the deserts. it should be a huge, wonderful feast!
then sunday im having some friends over for a breakfast feast and monday is a solstice gathering..so busy days & nights!! its a really full & heartwarming time..especially since it is our first winter here and i feel so welcomed. when we moved here in july i knew 2 people..now my friends are countless!

we are so wintery here that im having a hard time thinking about spring at all yet, but of course its in the back of my mind. we plan to food garden at the community garden, just half a block from our house, and grown some larger crops like potatoes and squash at our friends farm (mentioned above)
i have done lots of gardening in the past, but never in this region, so it should be a fun experience! sand do herbs and flowers here at our house

also on the de-cluttering bandwagon. i was putting away clothes this afternoon and being ruthless with what im throwing into the free store bag. we have too much! most of it is thrift shop stuff, some hand-me-downs, but i get overwhelmed by the stuff and im ready to clear it out! new years resolutions to simplify even more!

i think that my moment is over, but im enjoying reading about all of the new posters to the group, and hearing about everyone's wintery season..

[jillyofthevalley]

Fern, did you get your grinder from a Canadian store? I've been wanting to get one for some time now. I did have a link saved but when I updated Firefox it erased all my bookmarks and I can't remember the name of the store.

[MamaFern]

yes, its from a little shop in trail. there are lots of mills out there but the family grain mill (this is the one that i wanted) is hard to find here and just so happens they are the only ones in canada that i could find that carried all of the components.. http://www.cookshoppe.net/ i ordered it and got it the next day. they are really great people.

[jillyofthevalley]

Originally Posted by MamaFern

yes, its from a little shop in trail. there are lots of mills out there but the family grain mill (this is the one that i wanted) is hard to find here and just so happens they are the only ones in canada that i could find that carried all of the components.. http://www.cookshoppe.net/ i ordered it and got it the next day. they are really great people.

That's perfect, thank you! I have a kitchen aid so I can use it on that as well as get the hand crank.

[MamaFern]

Originally Posted by SunflowerMommy

That's perfect, thank you! I have a kitchen aid so I can use it on that as well as get the hand crank.

you have to make sure that you have the right voltage on your KA. i thought that too, but it happens that mine doesn't have enough, and after reading many reviews people who do have a KA with the family grain mill have said that it burns out the motor really fast. the hand crank is actually pretty efficient.. we have made bread and pancakes, and baked goods and pizza dough all hand ground. we have an old bosh motorbase to power ours if need be, but i have yet to use it.

[jillyofthevalley]

Good to know! I guess I'll stick with the hand crank for the time being. It's not like I plan on cranking out pounds of flour at a time. I think my arms can handle it.

[MamaFern]

Originally Posted by SunflowerMommy

Good to know! I guess I'll stick with the hand crank for the time being. It's not like I plan on cranking out pounds of flour at a time. I think my arms can handle it.

even on the finest grind setting my older children can do it.

[artparent]

oh, i exchanged the fine yarn i had for a heavier weight, and started socks last night, thick warm house socks, so yummy! handpainted, beautiful. i must hurry now! and i've picked up some off-sale tea towels to do a bit of patchwork onto, presents/wrapping paper. i was also compelled to get a raspberry mohair yarn, it was impossible to resist. i've no idea what i will make with it, mind you naughty creature. so wonderful to be able to leave my children happily with my parents, and spend some time looking through patterns and touching all the yarn.

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[marimara]

Hi everyone! I've been MIA from traditional homemaking for a while but I've been reading what you all have been posting. I'm still doing my crocheting, getting better but still a beginner. I made several Christmas presents including a scarf, 2 pairs of fingerless gloves, another scarf for a man, a baby blanket, and several scarflettes/neckwarmers for my Etsy shop.

Now I'm working on a cute blanket for cuddling on the couch, it's in organic fluffy cotton and made doing alternating rows of sc w/bobbles and dc on the next row. Really cute.

I made homemade biscuits the other weekend using a Depression Era recipe, from 1933, they were good, hubby and dd loved them with honey and butter.

I've been making lots of chicken stock while cooking chicken in the crockpot. I made 2 loaves of honey wheat bread a couple of weekends ago too, dh scarfed those down real quick.

What else? Well dd has had 3 colds all in a row and I caught 2 of them, so a lot of what I've been doing is trying to get us better w/garlic, honey, zinc, echinacea, and astragalus. I'm battling one right now.

Oh yeah, I taught dd (with the help of Starfall) how to read! She wanted to learn so she's learning. We plan on homeschooling her too.

We are going to try to sell our house again in Feb, let's hope it goes well this time!
I've been decluttering like a mad woman and the house is looking good.

I'm glad to see this thread has taken on a life of its own, you guys are great!!!!! I'm consistently amazed at what you ladies are able to do on a regular basis! I go in waves, some weeks I'm really homey and crafty then weeks go by without anything.

[artparent]

1930's recipe please!

we had an early christmas present in london before we left, river cottage family cookbook, and another written by hugh, on preserving. i cannot wait to use. i love that it is completely local, and seasonal but i would love to also get my hands on some old books about homemaking + food.

your house sounds good, best of luck with a sale!

if you eat fish, may i once again highly, highly recommend cod liver oil to keep the illness away. carlson's lemon is good, i've heard twinlab is also good.

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[IntuitiveJamie]

Hi everyone! I was on the original TH thread last year and I loved it. Loved the ideas, love the support and help as well as hearing about what everyone does in their homes. Welcome to Winter. Hope everyone is staying warm!
I'm in MS so it never gets freezing exactly, but it is currently fairly chilly. I have a new home so it's pretty sealed up, but I still feel like I would like to make some window draft thingys (what are they called). I have some sleeves from some wool sweaters that I felted. I think they will be perfect with the right filling to sew up and use.
This year I also need to sew some curtains for my living room windows. They are so bare and I would love to add some color as well as some texture to that room. I would also like to change them out twice a year. I want to do sheer, billowing curtains in the spring/summer and thick quilt like curtains in the fall/winter. I really enjoy having decorations to change out not only with holidays, but with seasons. I need more winter stuff though. That's my goal right after Xmas is to make some blue/white wintery feeling stuff. Specially since it doesn't snow here. I would like to bring that element into my home through decoration.
I hope I can keep us with this thread again. I really enjoyed it last time I was active on it. I'm so busy with my business now and small kids and homeschooling and everything just like everyone else; but this thread helps me stay motivated about my home and I want to get back to make it more of a priority. It got slightly shoved to the side last year.

[marimara]

1933 Baking Powder Biscuits recipe here: Old Fashioned Living


They turned out pretty good for me and I'm no expert at baking by any means. I followed the recipe to a T.

Great with butter and honey ,eaten fresh from oven!

ETA: I just flipped thru the rest of that site, Old Fashioned Living, and there is a TON of good info there! Bookmarking...

[sunnylady303]

I finally had a productive day!!

I got the rest of the holiday baking done I wanted to, house cleaning and organizing, present wrapping with the little one, and started and almost finished a scarf for one of my girls. It's good to stay on track. And I felt like I had a good mommy day, IYKWIM. I was attentive and gentle and engaged. It's good to feel good.

I am surprised by all this given that I am very tired and PMSing badly!

The Old Fashioned Living site looks very cool. I can't wait to explore it more!

[jillyofthevalley]

Well, I woke up this moring with a terrible head cold so not a lot getting done around here. I did manage to clean my kitchen and bake an applesauce cake. Not exactly christmas baking but it`ll be yummy! I hope this cold passes quickly. I don`t have time this week to be sick.

[greenmamapagan]

Oh a new thread. It's not winter here though Although I live in the mountains and the mist has only just cleared now at 1pm so I guess we could pretend
I'm typing on my new desk in my new sewing room/office as DH and I decided to swap rooms. He's going to do his painting in the teeny little room that was my sewing room. Here hoping it leads to both more craftiness and better organisation for me

[artparent]

sorry greenmama new studio sounds exciting

excited to look at that site too! we managed to persuade my reluctant little one out to a christmas party at a dear friend's place, it was so wonderful. i met a beekeeper who plays classical guitar like i do (did!) and talked a lot with homeschooling mamas + papas. really wonderful, beautiful home, if that mama had time i know she'd be on here. the homelearning mamas + children are planning to dip beeswax candles for the solstice i cannot wait.

well done, sunny! i need to focus, so close to christmas and i haven't baked, nor finished presents, nor done our winter stories/family card! sometimes when i think i'm keeping it simple, i'm actually just procrastinating

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[artparent]

oh oh. i can see i'm going to be busy reading articles instead of doing things i need to do

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[greenmamapagan]

Oh dear, I was just about to get up from the computer too!

[columbusmomma]

Neat butterfly cake Jo!
I spent almost the entire day yesterday doing a deep clean/decluttering to my whole downstairs THe house is in order for our christmas company coming and in general! I will hopefully have some time to make some soup for gifts and we need more holiday cookies around here! I've spent hours making last minute photo books for relatives. THe kids are excited since we've gotten a little snow
Hope everyone is well!

[MamaFern]

i stayed up till 3am tidying, doing laundry, getting everything ship shape. now im exhausted. we had our breakfast party and it was great.. my eldest is over at a friends, after a good snowball fight and outside play time. i sure needed the fresh air after having so little sleep. i hope to complete a few sewing projects tonight, that horse and a toadstool doll, and then ill be ready for solstice tomorrow! im so excited!