T-Shirt Treasures

There are lots of tutorials out there about how to make t-shirt yarn, so I won't bore you with the details of that. But just to inspire you- take a peek at what I made out of a few old t-shirts and other random scraps of knit fabric. It's not the world's most gorgeous rug, but it fits quite nicely in front of my kitchen sink, and gives my toes something to sink into when I'm washing dishes!
It's pretty simple, really- just takes a jumbo size crochet hook and a few hours :) I used a single crochet throughout, with a (sc, ch 1 in same stitch, sc) at each angle.

Pinterest

I did it... I put it off for a long time, because I was afraid that it'd be a time waster. And it probably will be, but I kept looking at other people's craft ideas and wanting to bookmark all of them, and figured that it'd probably be easiest if I created my own pinterest account.

so I did.

hopefully this will inspire me to actually come up with more creative crafts, and not just sit at the computer dreamy-eyed over what everyone else is doing.

I always have a pile of crafts going anyways. I have to do this 20 hour long online course for my nutrition research, so I picked up a pair of knitting needles and dug into the big fat spool of yarn that I picked up at the thrift store the other week. I can't stand to have my hands being lazy while my brain is occupied.

I love my classes, and my new friends in this new home. I've been so blessed by all of the opportunities and relationships that God has placed in my lap.

Vermicomposting: Meet My Worms

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I have abhored throwing perfectly good vegetable scraps down the drain. So, when my parents came to visit, they fixed up some containers to build a worm farm, using the instructions found here. I asked my roommates for their permission to do this in the garage, and they are fine with it :) I brought the subject up subtly with one, and she seemed pretty leery, and seemed relieved that all I was doing with the worms was to create fertilizer/compost for plants. It turns out that she knew a woman who baked worms into her brownies!!! I'm not quite that extreme, thankfully!
So, here are the bins, with holes drilled in and a fancy spout installed in the bottom bin.


Then, I threw in some shredded newspaper to create some nice bedding for the worms.


And proceeded to place my worms in their brand new home. These worms were a gift from a professor at WVU- who shares my passion for food environments and economics and their impact on the way that people eat. She is going to be on my graduate committee as I hone in on my thesis (something in this area!) and complete my research. I might even get to take my worm composting system into the Introduction to Sustainability course that she teaches!


Funny thing is, I don't LIKE worms. It disgusts me to touch them, and even looking at this picture makes my stomach crawl!But, worms are powerful and productive little workers, and I hope to soon have a good pile of my own compost, so that I don't have to buy expensive potting soil. And, food scraps will no longer be going into the garbage disposal in my sink and into the sewage system.
I'll keep you posted on how this great experiment turns out. I'm fully prepared for some unexpected surprises and challenges.

The Pendant Lamp

This was an idea I got off of "pinterest"- to make a lamp out of old doilies.
In an attempt to be ultra thrifty, I tried to make my own modge podge out of flour. That didn't work out so well. It looked like this:


So, I ended up just thinning down some Elmer's glue.



With my mother's helping hands, I laid the doilies around an inflated balloon. This was slightly stressful, since I was running out of glue the first time I attempted this, and the doilies kept slipping. It took quite a few tries to complete this little art project.



I threw a few stitches on as well, to keep the finicky doilies from slipping. After it had hardened, I popped the balloon and inserted a light bulb.


Since I don't have overhead lighting in my new room, this lamp is nice to hang above my bed. It gives a really cozy glow to my living space.



That made it sounds so easy! My advice if you're going to try this: make sure you have enough glue when you start, and an extra set of hands is always nice.

On another note, my grad classes have started. A computer mapping course- "Geographic Information Systems", "Statistics", and "Nutrition and Disease" will keep me busy on top of my research. I am learning to navigate Morgantown, where to get baskets of apples for sauce, and I'm thankful daily for my incredible roommates.

Today I spent the afternoon making "Swirled Herb Bread", 2 recipes of Whole Wheat Pitas, a leek quiche, zucchini brownies, apple crisp, and roasting peanuts for peanut butter and eggplant for babaganoush! I think I should be set for a few days of eating :)

Priorities...

So, when I shared with my church family about my recent trip to Bolivia, I ended with a brief moment of "looking ahead". I shared prayer requests with them, and now I'm going to share them with you.

1) Find a faith community that challenges me to grow in my relationship with Christ.
2) Pursue my studies wholeheartedly- learning as much as I can about nutrition and immersing myself in the opportunities provided for me.
3) To live lightly upon the world, building upon the biblical ethic of stewardship. For me, this includes seeking to be sustainable in the way that I use my resources and gifts, and how I eat.

Tonight, I had a choice to make- ought I whip up some delicious tomato sauce from the meaty red orbs languishing in my garage and crank out some sweet applesauce from the bushel of green orbs that are chilling beside the tomatoes? Oh, how I longed to steam up the kitchen with a bit of cooking. But, I spent last night canning a batch of salsa and getting to know my roommates, so tonight I had to focus on my studies.

Which included walking down to Starbucks to take a set of online medical terminology quizzes. Anyone interested in prefixes, roots, and suffixes? Go to dmu.edu/medterms for a great online guide if you want to learn! So, I've spent the past 2 hours sitting at a computer taking these quizzes... I feel like canning would be a lot more productive!!! Oh well, a grad student I have chosen to be, so a grad student I will be.

An update on my "garden-less" state: my dearest parents came to visit on Monday and Tuesday, bringing my big furniture, as well as a portable garden of pots of herbs. Incredibly welcome gifts from my eldest sister-in-law (who also sent me a trash can full of tomatoes, and a 5 gallon bucket of compost)! So, now I have a mini garden on my bag porch. And my parents even prepped some tubs for a vermicomposting (composting with worms!) farm. I have to clear that with my roommates yet...


And the tomatoes and garlic chives:

The Art of Living Without a Garden

It's a lot harder than I ever expected. I have to actually pay for my vegetables. Now I'm on the other side of the farm stand, and it's kind of strange to be the one choosing what I want to purchase.

I've found 4 farm markets so far in Morgantown, and visited 2 of them in the first week, as well as joining a food coop for my bulk goods. I will probably order my meat through them as well.
Here's a picture of my market finds from Saturday:




And here's what the trunk of my car looked like after a trip to Goodwill, and the local hardware store. I'm going to try my hand at some container gardening on my porch- we'll see how the cost effectiveness of this attempt works out. I'm going to try to keep close tabs on it. (and yes, I hadn't taken enough cloth bags along, so I ended up with plastic bags...)



Here's a picture of my kitchen counter with the dozen sweet corn that I bought by the side of the road. The hardest part of living without a garden is not knowing what to do with compost!

And here's a picture with my favorite "corn chips"- slices of kernels fresh off the cob.

Hopefully there will soon be a picture of the vermiculture system that I'm going to try. Worm farming, here I come!

I'm making yogurt in a new place!

That's my newly crafted euphemism for "I moved". Yes, my home is no longer in Pennsylvania, but in Morgantown, WV.

I've been here for about 23 hours now. I was so excited to stop at the Welcome to WV sign- I picked up a stack of visitor's brochures. Although I'm a pretty permanent visitor, I want to learn everything I can about my new state.

I carried all my stuff up the stairs, blew up my air mattress, and started organizing.

This morning I made my first batch of yogurt here, and ran 2 canners full of pint jars of peaches. Now I'm downtown at the public library making use of the free internet. I've been biking, although I'm still learning the best routes to avoid some of the hills and traffic :)

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures- I forgot my camera at the house at and I don't have internet there.

Orientation for my Masters in Human Nutrition and Foods begins tomorrow.