...excess material things that is. I've caught the annual bug to clean, organize, and pare down. I got on a kick last weekend during my staycation, but it carried through last week and the urge is still there. I held a rummage sale on Saturday and couldn't believe all the stuff that left our house--whether we sold or donated it. I wondered why we'd hung on to it this long. After getting all of this stuff out of our basement where it had been accumulating for the sale in a large corner for the last month, I decided to vacuum the basement. This chore is mine on our weekly/bi-weekly/annual cleaning list (yes, it exists and we love it that way!) so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to check off this twice yearly task. I worked high and low for at least an hour getting every cobweb and piece of gook from every nook and cranny. This is not a finished basement, but one with a cement floor and exposed beams on the ceiling, so you can imagine how visibly buggy and dusty it can get. Well, as I cleaned I felt the urge to totally rearrange my craft area. Though I'd love to have a
mom cave, I can't begin to compare my corner to the gorgeous getaways the Haute Apple Pie ladies recently blogged about. But I can at least try to design a space where I feel comfortable, organized, and inspired to create on a regular basis. There wasn't much wrong with the old setup of my "cave," but as any woman, especially a busy little mama, will tell you it's nice to freshen things up once in a while and change the scenery. While I sat in the cold garage on Saturday at my ill-attended rummage, I had some time to surf the web and get inspired by the blogs of some fellow female crafters who are doing incredibly creative stuff! I hope to
make time this week to pick up some of my own projects and start more.
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| At My Sewing Table |
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| Tray of Notions and Tools |
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| Dried Sunchokes (they look like mushrooms) |
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| Grinding into Flour |
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| A Fairly Fine Flour (say that 3X fast) |
In other news, the first two steps of my sunchoke experiment have been successful. The sunchokes were completely dry as of Sat. (took a few days with the oven on and off at low temps. to dry them.) Tonight I ground them into flour. I started by putting them in the food processor, but that was about to tear up the blade. I transferred them to my spice grinder (a coffee grinder dedicated to spice grinding), which took a bit longer because of multiple batches, but was much more efficient believe it or not. From the seven pounds of sunchokes I dried, I rendered one quart of flour. Not peeling them didn't hurt the final product at all, in fact, it imparted a nice earthy aroma that I imagine will add an interesting flavor to savory baked goods. Stay tuned to read what I make with this flour. It was by far one of the most interesting urban homesteading experiments I've tackled yet. The product was 100% grown and processed on our property--even better than the dilly beans with homegrown dill and garlic, but outsourced vinegar and salt.
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| A Quart of Sunchoke Flour! |
...excess material things that is. I've caught the annual bug to clean, organize, and pare down. I got on a kick last weekend during my staycation, but it carried through last week and the urge is still there. I held a rummage sale on Saturday and couldn't believe all the stuff that left our house--whether we sold or donated it. I wondered why we'd hung on to it this long. After getting all of this stuff out of our basement where it had been accumulating for the sale in a large corner for the last month, I decided to vacuum the basement. This chore is mine on our weekly/bi-weekly/annual cleaning list (yes, it exists and we love it that way!) so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to check off this twice yearly task. I worked high and low for at least an hour getting every cobweb and piece of gook from every nook and cranny. This is not a finished basement, but one with a cement floor and exposed beams on the ceiling, so you can imagine how visibly buggy and dusty it can get. Well, as I cleaned I felt the urge to totally rearrange my craft area. Though I'd love to have a mom cave, I can't begin to compare my corner to the gorgeous getaways the Haute Apple Pie ladies recently blogged about. But I can at least try to design a space where I feel comfortable, organized, and inspired to create on a regular basis. There wasn't much wrong with the old setup of my "cave," but as any woman, especially a busy little mama, will tell you it's nice to freshen things up once in a while and change the scenery. While I sat in the cold garage on Saturday at my ill-attended rummage, I had some time to surf the web and get inspired by the blogs of some fellow female crafters who are doing incredibly creative stuff! I hope to make time this week to pick up some of my own projects and start more.
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