Farmer's Market Finds

What they say about Farmer's Markets is all true. Great fresh options with a good chance of being organic. And more variety than in your average grocery store. I saw at least 4 kinds of cherry tomatos yesterday. And purslane! I haven't found purslane in the yard this year, so I was excited to see a big bunch for a dollar.

The local farmers are bringing a lot of Asian veggies I don't yet know. I love buying something new, and with a few tips from the farmer, experimenting in the kitchen. Last year I discovered rutabaga - love them! And sometimes you get a surprise... The honeydew I bought appears to be an orange fleshed honeydew. I love honeydew, but not a big fan of cantalope, but I think I like this hybrid.

Then there's the olive guy... during part of the year he has olives cured with just salt. Right now his selections have vinegar, but we try not to hold it against him. The little one loves olives, so we buy a lot. The lemon peel stuffed olives were interesting. This time I bought Greek dried Kalamata olives. Very salty, but yum! I'm not too sure what to do with them yet, but they were nice chopped up and steeped in olive oil for an easy salad dressing.

Wool underwear

Back when I was in a frenzy buying wool sweaters to make longies for the wee one I picked up a sweater at a thrift store. Not just a wool sweater, a wonderful, soft, thin wool sweater. It was missing its tags but I'm optimistically positive it is Smartwool. I originally thought it would make a nice pair of summer longies, but hesitated and then discovered the little one is a naturalist in the summer. Well, she's probably a naturalist the rest of the year, too, but we keep her covered up.
Back to this wool I need to use... underwear, grownup underwear. It gets cold in our house in the winter. Wool is supposed to make great underwear, requiring less washings than regular cotton (umm, we'll see about that part, I'm a bit skeptical of the idea of rotating unwashed underwear). So off google to find directions for turning a wool sweater into underwear.
Perhaps my problem was using the term underwear instead of panties. Anyone else have an issue with 'panties'? I never liked that word. Anyhow, I found this post: Any Size Long Johns from Wool Sweaters Now that's an idea. A few odd seams in a pair of long johns won't matter if no one's going to see them anyway. And it combines another project I've been contemplating - something warm for under skirts in winter. Flannel bloomers had been the direction I was going, but wool long johns sounds even cozier... Now to find out if my sweater can cover more than just my butt.

Lavender, Sage, Calendula, and Figs?...

flickr.com/photos/7326810@N08/, CC BY 2.0

We caught an ad for a Peace and Harvest Festival at a relatively local organic and natives nursery... So guess where we were on Sunday.
I have a weakness for herbs, so we came home with a six pack of calendula, 3 varieties of sage and two forms of lavender. Also found a fig that would fit in the car and a cute strawberry tree that has the most gorgeous little flowers.
So not only do we need to get the raised bed filled with dirt, I have to find places to plant all my lovely herbs and baby trees.

Motherhood on a Budget

My daughter is 16 months old now...
Despite my resolution not to buy unnecessary commercial toys, we bought two big ticket plastic items this week. She's at the little mommy stage, carrying and kissing her plastic (ugh, that's a subject for another post) doll and her stuffed animals.
She's shown interest in bikes and riding toys when visiting other places. So, we snatched up a tonka truck for $10 on craigslist. She's also had lots of fun with the play kitchen at grandma's, so Dora's talking kitchen found its way into my car this week from another craigslister. The gal selling Dora's kitchen removed the batteries before handing my purchase over (um, can we say cheap?). But that's fine, I really don't know why a kitchen needs to talk anyway.
We probably have one more purchase ahead, because the little one is into everything. Climbing into cupboards, hiding under the table, under my desk, she even crawled into the dog's crate. So, we're pretty certain she needs a fort/house/tent. I realize the simple answer is a blanket draped over chairs, etc. But we don't seem to have the necessary sturdy furniture in the right room for that solution. A cardboard box sounds good too, until we think about the kinds of critters that live in this valley. So, we're watching craigslist, for a washable tentish item.
I suppose we could be hitting garage sales, but 7am is just too early for baby and I.

Artful finds

I'm finding motherhood and work are not allowing me any sewing time. So, since I haven't any finished projects to show off, I'll highlight someone elses.

KreatedByKelly makes fanciful items from buttons and other items. I've particularly admired her button bouquets. Black and white makes an elegant bouquet...

At her ArtFire outlet, she has jewelry that is more in my price range. I love the idea of jewelry from recycled materials. It beats buying mass produced metal bling with the social and environmental ravages left behind. I'm really not a pink kinda gal, but I love this pendant.

Relieving the Guilt of Computer Potatos

As an online shopper and a future online seller, the environmental impact of all the shipping and packaging involved was bothering me. TreeHugger has an article about the greenness of shopping online. It is worth a read Online Shopping vs. Driving to the Mall: The Greener Way to Buy
The bottom line is it depends on what you buy. Definitely relieved my guilt about ordering items I can't get locally.