Home made

We have been working on some projects lately switching to home made rather than store bought. Some are working great, others not so well but still plugging away at making them great. Here they are in no particular order....


1) David is roasting coffee beans. He found a place locally where he could purchase green coffee beans and he has been roasting them with a hot air popcorn popper. He makes small batches at a time and then taste tests with David, Bob (my dad), Randy (a friend), Jessie (my mom), and myself. We are learning to assess the coffee with words such as "earthy" and "complex". I only like to drink coffee with a lot flavored creamer and I can't drink too much too often because my body can't handle the caffeine but I have been enjoying trying the different beans and different roasts. Next is learning how to flavor the beans.


2) My mom and I make our own laundry soap. We aren't necessarily doing this for money savings, though it does help. We mainly wanted to do to see if it would help with all of our skin problems. We, as a family, cannot do laundry soaps with colors, scents and all the extra stuff that is added to laundry soap. The worst for us however, is fabric softener. That will set all of our skin itching, red and very irritated. So after researching online for making soap, we went ahead and made a batch. It has turned out wonderful so far. Our skin is much better and the clothes smell cleaner. We also found that vinegar makes a good fabric softener and we have been using that. I pour in the vinegar in the area designated for fabric softener and the clothes come out soft and not smelling at all like vinegar. The vinegar helps to dissolve soap build up so that is an added bonus.


3) I have been trying to make our own yogurt in a crock pot. It hasn't been turning out very well, though my friend has had great success with hers. I will keep persevering because we all love yogurt, it is good for our health, and I miss the yogurt we could get in France. The yogurt here in the states is WAAAAAAY to sweet and filled with ingredients that our bodies just don't need. Plus it is expensive and time consuming to keep our fridge stocked with yogurt for 8 people who love to eat it!!


4) I have been sewing again and I LOVE it!! I am even getting out of my comfort zone and sewed a skirt for Celeste. It didn't come out the way I wanted it to but it still is cute. I sewed a bag (look for pictures in another post), I am up to 8 blocks on my $5 quilt club (one more to make this weekend), and I am working toward the goal of getting my quilt rack set up. I am planning on having a big stack of quilts ready to go by the fall. Don't know where they will go, that is up to God but they will be ready for when He calls.

If you want any more information about any of the above projects, I will be happy to share specific details. I just didn't want to bore anyone who might not be interested. If you have any projects that you would be happy to share with me, please let me know.