To Alex -

To Alex...who is far away in person, but never far from my heart. I miss you. Enjoy these snippets of everyday family life here in the states.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Delighted!


Yippee!! I won the give-away at Mary Beth's blog. I'm both surprised and delighted. When I initially commented on the give-away, it was to let her know that I was going to copy her idea for a give-away of my own. I had no inkling that I might win hers. How cool is that? I've already emailed to tell her that I have plans for all the goodies, but the first thing I'm going to do is nip a bit of that yummy chocolate bar. Oooh, can't wait!

And now, for the real reason I'm here today. As you know, I've joined the One Small Change project and my January change was to compost all of the scraps that I normally toss in the winter. I don't know why I had been tossing scraps in the trash because I compost all Spring, Summer and Fall. Did I think they wouldn't decompose? Was it too much effort to walk across the yard in my boots to dump the bucket? (haha....I laughed when I originally wrote that last sentence because I said I walk across the yard to dump the bucket in my boots. Too funny. I don't dump the scraps in my boots. Seriously!)  Anyway, the composting has been going great. I have made a concerted effort to separate out the scraps that the ducks will eat, and they've been enjoying their little treats, but everything else has been going into the flower garden. I'll be curious to see what the pile looks like when we have the Spring thaw, but I'm sure it will all turn under quite nicely.

I posted this last Wednesday about my change for February and then I came back to say the produce bag didn't turn out quite like I wanted because the cheesecloth was too thin. Jennifer quickly replied that she edited her tutorial to include using a heavier cloth, but I didn't see that until this morning...after I had bought mosquito netting and had another go at the produce bags.

Oh, it worked up great this time and the material was so easy to work with. I salvaged an old shoe lace from my sewing notions for the drawstring and now the bag is light, see-through, very inexpensive and quite sturdy so it should hold up to multiple uses. I've got a few more to make and then I'm ready for my February change. I need to get my hooks up by the back door so my shopping and produce bags are handy and within sight when I leave for the grocery store. This is fun! Please tell me you're participating too?

If you decide to make the produce bags, please use Jennifer's tutorial. It's very easy to follow and the bags really are quite sturdy.

I've got another great post for later this week that features a Sew Mama Sew tutorial. It was a special Valentines project that I helped the grandkids make for their parents. Beautiful and so much fun!

4 comments:

  1. So glad to hear the composting is going well! The produce bags look great and I know you are going to have a successful Feb!
    Suzy

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  2. I'm so glad you were able to get it to work for you. Your bag looks great.

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  3. good for you! i love composting! produce bags were my choice for january. i used unbleached cotton muslin, which worked great for grains as well as produce.
    nicola
    http://whichname.blogspot.com

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  4. I've been using fabric produce bags for eons! I keep them, along with a dozen fabric shopping bags, in the trunk of my car.

    Good job on the composting! I tend to get lazy in the winter as well about schlepping the scraps out to the bin in the cold and dark.

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