Greening Your Laundry

new A-line skirt

with gorgeous linen Japanese fabric from Alewives

Seems like the word is getting round to bloggers in Maine about the goodness of homemade laundry soap. You may have read it here first, but look who else is on the homemade kick! And some laundry sweetness, as well as a CraftingMama shout-out, is here also on the blog of Little Bits and Bobbin (if you need to know how much I love this gal, check this post out. swoon.)

cleaning products:

homemade scouring powder and toilet-cleaning supplies

I am also pleased to tell you that on June 23rd, Wednesday @ 11 a.m., I will be giving a demo/talk about greening your laundry at the Birchwood Motel in Camden, ME. Read this post about how Jenny and Eric are making green choices for their local business: making their own laundry soap and installing a gorgeous new laundry line is just a start. Think about how awesome it would be to sleep on sun-dried sheets, laundered without chemicals, the next time you stay in a motel! The workshop is free and participants will go home with a sample (and laundry soap recipe), as well as resources about alternatives to chemicals in our homes.

To register, Friend/Like the Birchwood Motel on Facebook and leave your RSVP there!
New PJ pants around here. In the photo above, Sylvan models his new pair in a fabric called Hedgehog Love (also from Alewives). What is not to love about THAT? The sad news is that I underbought fabric for these, which means that I am not readily embracing the true size of this boy who was/is my baby.

For the extra long-leggedy one, Jonas, I knew that I needed quantity. I used a pattern from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross, Pajamas for Everyone, and I made the ADULT size Small. I thought, Oh Ho, I can just whack off a bunch of length and they'll fit him fine. Well, I am here to tell you that I did not do any chopping of any length. My 11 year-old boy who was/is my baby is also really the size of a small adult (in height, anyway). Wow.

Collecting Grandma-isms

OK, so you may know that my husband is a teacher in a Waldorf school. He will be with his class for their final year (8th grade) this coming year. And he uses expressions in the classroom, to show surprise, chagrin, shock, that we might not hear other places except maybe a facility for older folks. Such as: "My Land!" or "Oh my stars!" or even "Oh my stars and whiskers!" Another one, from Hannah: "You bet your sweet bippy!" Jonas made up this one: "By my blazing bloomers!" And while I know that my dear husband is capable of *other* types of expletive language, learned from ghetto rap in his youth (and look how he turned out), I think it's so sweet that he is passing along these quaint turns of phrase.

a tightrope for spiders

I have learned of a new one from my friend Miss Smith lately, which I am hoping we (collectively, in our various corners of the world) can resurrect into popularity: "Toodle pip!" Do you love it?! She says it's mostly used by older New Zealanders and it means "Bye! See you later!"

my A-line skirt as basket

So. Here is the question: Can you share with us any unique Grandma-isms from your neck of the woods? That way I can give them to the Mister to share with his class and we can preserve these bits of our linguistic heritage with the next generation. Please don't be shy!

So check this beaded ribbon out, made especially for me by Robinsunne as a thank you for proofreading her latest book. And see that pattern in blue? Robinsunne used it because it was my doodle, you know the thing you do over and over in high school algebra class, if you aren't very excited by the content of the course, and perhaps also you have terrible basic skills and want to try really hard NOT TO BE NOTICED under any circumstances?

The nifty thing about it is that you can squinch it all together and make neat designs. She also tells me that you can actually cut it, without a bunch of beads flying everywhere. Not being a beader, this seems really miraculous. So you could use it as trim on a bag, or an accent on an ATC. Neat! Also, it elicits a really visceral response from me that makes me want to either rub it on my cheeks and maybe even lick it. Sorry if that's TMI.