Tackle It on Tuesday: Fabric Letters

June 3, 2014

This past week I tackled - Fabric Letters

I was really excited about starting this new project and had high hopes about this one, that is until I realized how hard it is to machine sew some of the curves on the letters, yikes!

Plus, purple disappearing ink does not show up very well on purple fabric...

At this point, I just need to cut around the sewing lines and add a little bit of fray check to keep the fabric from fraying.

So will I be mass producing this project? Um, I think not. As cute as it is, I will finish this one up and keep it in our toy basket for when little people come over to play.

To tackle this week - a surprise

Working on the fabric letter project over the last week gave me an idea for a new project using burlap and fabric. Be sure to check back next week to see what I come up with!

What project are you tackling this week?

Tackle It on Tuesday: Freezer

May 13, 2014

Last week, I announced that I was planning on tackling my freezer over this past week. A little bit of procrastination on my part led to taking a bit of time this afternoon to tackle this project. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly I was able to clean out the freezer.

Here is how my freezer looked last week:

After throwing out a couple of things and doing a bit of organizing, here is what my freezer looks like now:

Ah, looks so much better! Will it stay like this? Most definitely not! And that is okay. I know this is one place where the contents is always changing. But now I know we need to use up some frozen blueberries soon!

This week, I am hoping to tackle a pretty big project for a friend. I have resisted sewing Civil War dresses for friends because everybody's shape is so different, and when you don't live very close to the person, it makes it a little difficult to do fittings. Since I am trying to earn money to go to Colombia though, I thought this would be a good time for me to tackle this one project.

This project may take me more than a week, so I will be sure to at least post my progress next Tuesday.

Are you tackling any big projects soon?

Tackle It on Tuesday: Laundry Soap

May 6, 2014

Last week, I happened to read a post in my Bloglovin' blog feed from Mary at Owlhaven where she shared her recipe for homemade laundry detergent. Her post was very timely for me because it was almost time for me to make another batch of laundry detergent. I had been using a recipe from a friend that makes 5 gallons of liquid detergent. One thing nice about Mary's recipe is that it uses all the same ingredients that I already have on hand.

Another nice thing about this recipe is that you can make a smaller quantity and it can be ready right away.

In a matter of minutes, I had enough laundry soap to run quite a few batches of laundry.

I only had enough Borax to made half of the recipe, but it made more than enough for me to have laundry soap for quite a few weeks to come! Since yesterday was Monday (which equals 'laundry day' at my house), I used this new-to-me laundry soap and was quite pleased with the results. The hardest part about making the recipe was grating the Fels Naphta soap, but I love that this recipe comes together so quickly. It just might be my go-to laundry soap from here on out!

So what I am going to tackle this week?

Yep, this is the contents of my freezer right now. A little disorganized, and really, I am not even really sure what all is in here. Yikes!

What project are you working on this week?

Tackle It on Tuesday: Books

April 30, 2014

I know, I know...today is Wednesday, not Tuesday. But sometimes, you just have busy days and don't have a chance to type out a blog post. So this one is a day late...anyway...last week, I started to tackle just one book case in our home.

Now you have to know, it is very hard for me to part with books. I am not your typical girl. I really hate to shop for clothes, make-up, shoes, jewelry, etc. But let me spend hours in a bookstore, and I am in heaven!! I love the look of books, the feel of books, the stories you can learn from books. I have been known to read well-loved stories over and over again.

Because we have book cases in almost every room in our home, I thought it was about time to start selling at least some of the reference books we have referred to over the years when my children were younger in our homeschool journey. Not only that, by selling some of these, I can add some cash to my Compassion Colombia fund!

I am so happy that I made some good progress on clearing out this one book case. Now to try to sell what I have! If you are interested, I would be happy to send you a list if you are searching for some great reference books for your home library.

So in addition to finding homes for quite a few books, my new task for this week is to try a new laundry soap recipe.

For a couple of years now, I have been making a homemade liquid laundry detergent recipe, but you know what? There are times when I really don't feel like making 5 gallons of laundry detergent!! So I was excited to see this recipe for a powder laundry detergent and uses all the same ingredients! I will be putting this together and giving it a try over the next week.

Do you use homemade laundry detergent? What project are you tackling this week?

Tackle It on Tuesday: Civil War Event Photos

April 22, 2014

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie, a sweet little film camera that I took to Outdoor Education Camp in the fifth grade. Since that time, I have owned many other cameras and have learned a lot about photography. A couple of weekends ago, our family attended a Civil War event at my favorite location just west of Yosemite. The location is absolutely beautiful!

On Saturday, one of the battles took place during twilight when the light was amazing. Since we are members of the group, I was able to gain access to hang out by a tree on the battlefield during this twilight battle to take pictures. I won't bombard you with a lot of photos, but I will share a few of my favorites:

See what I mean? So incredibly beautiful here!

I had to include this photo because my son is in this one. He is the fourth one from the left.

I haven't finished editing all of the photos I took that weekend, since I did take over 300 pictures. This is one reason why I take quite a few photos, so I might capture one like this...

...or like this one...

...and like this one.

So I didn't quite finish tackling all of the photos I intended to edit, but I did delete over 200 pictures. After editing about 20 pictures, I have another 50 to edit to finish this project. And I really need to finish editing these photos since I am going to be paid for some of them! Yay!

For this next week, I want to start going through some of our bookcases. This is just one of many full bookcases we have in our home.

It has been a while since I have homeschooled little ones, so it is probably time for me to clear out some of my younger age books. But it is so hard for me to get rid of books! So I wonder how many books from this bookcase I can let go of? Be sure to check back next week...

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Love my family, flip flops, baking, reading, photography, traveling, and Compassion International