Making It - Inspiration Thursday
I've been reading Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Comsumer World by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen the authors of the blog Root Simple, which I also enjoy.
This book has so many useful, money-saving, and rather simple projects to make at home ranging from DIY cleaning products to how to slaughter a chicken, from brewing your own beer to building a solar cooker, from homemade chapstick and healing salves to the art of beekeeping. And so on.
The projects are very well written up and easy to follow (though I still don't plan on slaughtering chickens any time soon). Some can be done in moments others are much longer and more involved.
The offer five tips for living a life where you are the one Making It instead of the one Buying It.
#1 Start by trying one project and build slowly from there.
#2 Laugh at your mistakes.
#3 Follow your intuition.
#4 Trust nature.
#5 Keep learning.
And it has me so inspired. Not just to try things in the book either. It revived my overall sense of joy and empowerment whenever I can find a way to make something cheaply when I formerly had to buy it. (Here is where I must interject that last night Matt tells me he doesn't understand how we all got tricked into buying toilet cleaner when vinegar does the trick superbly and it so much cheaper and non-toxic. I told him that was how I felt when I discovered the cooking rice wasn't hard...so why pay more for Minute Rice. We've been tricked into thinking we need specialty products that I don't think we really do.)
So, check out this book if you are so inclined. I hope you become inspired to "Make It," even just a little bit. After all, that is tip #1. Start small and see how the ripples grow.
This book has so many useful, money-saving, and rather simple projects to make at home ranging from DIY cleaning products to how to slaughter a chicken, from brewing your own beer to building a solar cooker, from homemade chapstick and healing salves to the art of beekeeping. And so on.
The projects are very well written up and easy to follow (though I still don't plan on slaughtering chickens any time soon). Some can be done in moments others are much longer and more involved.
The offer five tips for living a life where you are the one Making It instead of the one Buying It.
#1 Start by trying one project and build slowly from there.
#2 Laugh at your mistakes.
#3 Follow your intuition.
#4 Trust nature.
#5 Keep learning.
And it has me so inspired. Not just to try things in the book either. It revived my overall sense of joy and empowerment whenever I can find a way to make something cheaply when I formerly had to buy it. (Here is where I must interject that last night Matt tells me he doesn't understand how we all got tricked into buying toilet cleaner when vinegar does the trick superbly and it so much cheaper and non-toxic. I told him that was how I felt when I discovered the cooking rice wasn't hard...so why pay more for Minute Rice. We've been tricked into thinking we need specialty products that I don't think we really do.)
So, check out this book if you are so inclined. I hope you become inspired to "Make It," even just a little bit. After all, that is tip #1. Start small and see how the ripples grow.
Very good advice. I know we do a lot things that seem overwhelming to other people, but we didn't just wake up one day and start doing everything, we just did something and then it worked and became part of our life and then we were interested in something else and learned how to do it. Some things we tried we only did once, like cheese making, others we started and have never looked back like baking our own bread we have done it for years and years and love it.
ReplyDeleteToday I left for work and was rather amused, I had on a skirt and blouse I had made for myself, topped off with my favorite cardigan and hat I knitted for myself (they are in a pleasingly aubergine purple, the yarn color is called eggplant). Once I would have laughed to think I would wear an entire ensemble made by myself but no more, every day I have something on that I have either sewn or knitted. I make my husband shirts, he must have around twenty of them now, he makes blueberry wine so he has a shirt made out of a blueberry print, he likes wine so he has a shirt with a print of different kinds of corkscrews. He has nascar prints, Colts prints, deer, wolves, indians, you name it he probably has a shirt in a print. Again, one day I just made one shirt, years later my husbands closet is exploding with color!!
I love books and blogs that encourage me to step out and try something new, and as my husband and myself like to "do for ourselves" we are always game to experiment.
Bean
Oh this is SO true, Bean! So true! I think some of my friends and family are intimidated by what they see as radical change...but like you said...I didn't start doing it all at once overnight! Baby steps, baby steps!
DeleteI love that you have entire homemade outfits. Isn't that just one of the best feelings--so satisfying!?!
There are so many things that I do now that I would never have believed possible. Just goes to show that one never knows what they are capable of....
What sort of shirts do you make for your husband? With collars and such? Button down? Just curious....
DeleteSounds like a wonderful book and blog. I will have to check them out.
ReplyDeleteI now have their other book from the library. Its called The Urban Homestead. Very interesting as well!
Delete