my love affair with self-sufficiency

Life is interesting.

I have never been interested in cooking or being self-sufficient.

In the last two years, however, this has change. I still do not like cooking but baking, pickling, and jamming have been awesome. I could not be more excited 🙂

Fermented food

Sourdough: I first became interested in baking bread and I now even have a sourdough starter that makes wonders every week 🙂 I have not purchased any store-made bread since May 2016. I also shared my sourdough and commercial yeast loaves with my fiends. What a joy 🙂

Kefir: I then was gifted by kefir grains within 2017 and i not only fell in love with kefir itself, but I made cheese/spread from it and even used it in baking bread 🙂 Drinking kefir makes me feel good and I know that it gives me the calcium that I need at my age in addition to many nutrients. I am very happy with it 🙂

Pickles: I did pickles before thanks to my mother, but I have never been this interested in it until recently – I love the beet and cabbage pickles I make! I think it is the benefit of living in a cold climate that the pickle lasts long without going bad and this way I always have a jar or two in my kitchen. I made three batches of beet pickles this fall enjoyed by myself and my friends 🙂

Sauerkraut: And tomorrow I will try my first ever sauerkraut! 

How about this? 

I think I am moving in the right direction 🙂

 

Jam/marmalade:

And just within the last 5-6 weeks, I started experimenting with making jam; dried fig jam first, then orange and tangerine, and today the raspberry jam/marmalade 🙂

I feel like I am doing such a great job refraining from additives and chemicals in store-bought jams/bread/pickles. I must be rightfully proud of myself and I am!

 

Sewing

Okay.. I have not been as productive as I wished, but since I purchased my lovely sewing machine last year, I have done small stuff, including lots of covers for jars and discloth/cloth for the counter and window sills. I am yet to undertake a serious project, like a blouse or a quilt, but I know when the time comes, that will happen too 🙂

 

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These are newfound interests for me and they have been enriching my life, providing me healthy and affordable food/items, and I feel increasingly “able”.

I really am excited about this change in me.

 

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gif by:https://giphy.com/gifs/XSKhFtfGr1HYA

 

 

7th day of the staycation

cannot believe it has been 7 days that I have not been working… 7 days is a huge number. I was not working at the office but i was working at home and busy with socials. I really am looking forward to resting now..

Anyways; as per my sewing adventures; I have been trying to sew a dish cloth to have my water pitcher to rest on. It usually drips some water when filled and when I put it in the counter, sometimes it drips all the way down to the outside of the drawers. I was very aware of the water damage and I thought that should be the first thing I should be trying.

And I have. The end result was funny:) one side longer than the other (no wonder why I do not have its photo here); while I liked the colour (lovely and fresh-looking yellow) and the use of it, I thought I could fix it by appliying a bias tape. So yesterday I tried that and the end result was horrible. Sewing is difficult friends!!! 🙂 I tried it again today with a larger bias tape – again the same problem – the corners not done well.

I was very frustrated and was about to dump it in the garbage and start a new one. Then I wanted to give it another trial. The corners are not the best, but it seems slightly better than before with a much larger bias tape. I was happy and wanted to make it better. So I tried a decorative stitch around it. This time, though, the tension was not good so the back thread showed on top, the back thread needed to be replaced in the middle, and it went all messy after that. decorative stitches are diffiult to fix in the middle of the way… So I thought I could cover it with a lovely ribbon. Okay.. It looks not great, but honestly I love it and I am using it 🙂

By the way, yesterday I also tried a larger dishcloth this time to have my flour jars on it. It turned out to be not devastating, though I must confess I messed up with the corners again. I tried cross stitch to cover this mess, which made it even worse. So my only solution was to have those ribbons again!! Do they not look great? 🙂

I need to hear “good job” to feel good about myself and keep going with sewing. I tell ya; sewing is hard… it is not for the faint hearted like myself.. So please let me hear “good job!!” :))

this is the large dish cloth I could manage to start, mess, and somehow fix in a single day yesterday 🙂

the horrible cross stitches on the cornres are hidden by this lovely ribbon

I cut this piece from a panel fabric for kids stuff

this is the miracle dish cloth that I have had many difficult encounters to fix with different bias tapes – but it is beautiful

the red ribbon saved this cloth and made this painful adventure reach a more positive end 🙂

do not mind the irregular shape and a weird corner now – I need to hear “good job” to feel good about myself and keep going with sewing. I tell ya; sewing is hard… it is not for the faint hearted like myself.. So please let me hear “good job!!” :)))

My first serious sewing trial

After yesterday’s exciting fabric hunt, I could not help but try to replicate a favorite blouse of mine. I thought that I needed to start somewhere to get a feeling of sewing.

I surprised myself though. Seriously, no it was not a great work, I need to have better neck lines and also desperately need a rotary cutter, but hey do you not think this actually looks great?

It does!

Too bad its cut is small (how did that happen?)

Great that I have more fabric and an idea about how to better sew it next time 🙂