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Kelly’s Shibori Challenge
Hanging shibori fabric. Image by Katie, courtesy ofWikipedia Kelly here: 1) I know, I know. What’s with Root Simple and all this Japanese stuff? I don’t know! 2) This is less a post than a plan. I’m...
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Everlasting Flower for Colds
Dried California Pearly Everlasting. The flowers are small, about the size of a buttons on a shirt collar. Last summer I was happy to be able to take a class on native plant use taught by Cecilia...
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3 things to do with citrus peels
Waste not, want not! Our recent post on Candied Grapefruit Peel yielded some interesting comments, and at the same time Erik made a discovery about citrus. Thus, three things to to do with your...
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How to Prep Fabric for Dyeing: Scouring
Check out the water after boiling my supposedly clean sheet! As usual, I’m taking my shibori challenge right to the deadline. One important preparatory step to dyeing is a cleansing process called...
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Shibori Challenge Proves Challenging
So it’s May 15 and I have not met the terms of the Shibori Challenge. I have been playing with both natural dyes and shibori techniques, but have not yet made anything worthy of being sewn up into a...
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Update: Citrus Vinegar for Cleaning
In a previous post we talked about soaking citrus peels in white vinegar to make scented vinegar for cleaning. I’ve been doing this for a while now, using a 50/50 water and vinegar blend in my spray...
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Indigo 101
Graham stirs the vat with his “witchy stick” –which is tinted many beautiful shades of blue. One of the primary lessons of gleaned from my Shibori Challenge is that cotton is difficult to dye with...
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A Mason Jar Camping Lantern
Okay, so this isn’t going to win any awards for ingenuity (or craftsmanship!) but its easy and it works. I use this little jar and ones like it when we car camp. Barring high winds or rain, the tea...
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Deodorizing Wash
Deodorizing wash? Freshening wash? In Making It we called it cleansing spray. I’ve never been quite sure what to call this. It’s not a deodorant, in that it doesn’t really stay on you, deodorizing...
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Your Essential Oil Toolkit
A few bottles of essential oils are an important part of the DIY toolkit, but some people don’t ever try them because they are so expensive. I can’t deny that they are pricey, but once you start using...
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Wild Edible: Bermuda Buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae )
Image courtesy of Wikipedia. Photo by MathKnight It’s Bermuda buttercup season in Los Angeles. Burmuda buttercup, also known as sourgrass, soursop, African wood-sorrel and many other names, is a...
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Failed Experiment: Bermuda Buttercup or Sour Grass (Oxalis pes-caprae) as Dye
The “dyed” t-shirt is on the left. The shirt on the right is a basic white tee. I could have achieved similar results by entropy alone. Chalk this one up to the failures column. In an attempt to use...
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A Homemade Mattress?
The Princess and the Pea by Edmund Dulac Addendum 9/6/16 Of interest to people thinking about making a mattress of their own or in search of alternative mattresses is The Ultimate Earth Bed. See also...
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How do you care for cast iron?
They really knew how to rock cast iron in those days. A couple of months ago I found an 8″ cast iron skillet on the sidewalk. It was a newer model pan, already seasoned, hardly used. One of my...
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It’s Calendula Season!
Just a reminder to you all that Calendula officinalis (aka Pot Marigold) is super-easy to grow in the garden. Why should you grow Calendula? To make Calendula infused olive oil, of course– as I’m...
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White Sage and Bees and our other sage friends
One of my favorite plants in the garden (I’ve posted about it before) is in bloom right now: the white sage, Salvia apiana. Salvia apiana means “bee sage” and boy howdy did they get that one right....
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Why are the pockets on women’s clothing so lame?
Trout likes himself a sewing project. Especially one he can lay on. Or gnaw on. What is with women’s clothing? Why are all of the pockets sized somewhere between tiny and non-existent? There seems to...
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Recycled Dish Scrubby
My dish washing accoutrements consist of cotton dish cloths–which steadily devolve lower and lower down the Rag Hierarchy as they age–and homemade scrubbies. I make my scrubbies out of net produce...
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Shoemaking Advice?
If only my shoes will turn out this well. The oldest surviving leather shoe: 5,500 year-old shoe found in a cave in Armenia. Photo by Gregory Areshian. Via National Geographic My post about homemade...
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New Project: Making Bitters
Our friend Emily Ho over at The Kitchn recently posted a good set of instructions on how to make homemade bitters. Bitters are made up of various aromatic substances tinctured in alcohol. These...
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