Crafternoon!

Melted Crayon Art

T-shirt Scarf

 I am so excited! A friend of mine organized a Sunday Funday Crafternoon -- wonderful ladies meeting once a month to craft! Though it's only been going for two months, I am so happy that I am finally getting to those cool craft projects I keep putting on my boards on Pinterest. Many of the lovely ladies I am meeting with are artists so it's fun to be around such creative minds, especially since I am such a step by step, inside-the-box kind of person. I have never considered myself a crafter, but now I am! Check out my t-shirt necklace/scarf I'm wearing today! If you have not checked out Pinterest -- please do! It's a great, easy, and visual way of sharing recipes, DIY projects, animal pictures, teaching ideas, and inspiration all in one place with strangers and people you love. If you need an invitation to the sight, just let me know. I'm a little sad this wasn't around for wedding planning, but honestly, it probably saved me some screen time! Crayon Art - hot glue crayons to canvas and heat with a heat gun or hair dryer. Guthrie was relaying the steps to a friend and said we used a blow torch -- that might be too much heat :)  For the t-shirt scarf/necklace, there are many DIY websites with instructions (including a Martha Stewart video). I used this one here. I thank my parents for the old t-shirts they don't wear anymore; happy to find a new use for them. Have a great week! Peace!

T-shirt Scarf #2

PRG

Laura and I are in the middle of buying our first home right now! We started the process last May by taking  the all-day PRG homebuyer workshop that, though long, was very comprehensive and included some good info from a lender and 2 real estate agents. Needless to say, Laura and I left feeling very confident in our ability to acquire and retain a home given our ability to budget and plan well for the future. Well, our lives took a few unexpected turns as you may or may not know...

First, a little background on PRG: The organization started in the 1970s as the Powderhorn Residents Group, a group of local residents focused on ensuring more affordable, resident-controlled housing in the neighborhood. It has since broadened to be a housing development and education center promoting neighborhood stability and resident self-sufficiency. More at their website.

Well, In October of last year I found another job, Laura had been working as a first-year teacher for a few months, we decided to start thinking about the prospects of a buying a home again. We started by assessing our finances, went to a few open-houses, and decided to take the next step to better understanding our ability to get a house.

At the beginning of January of this year, Laura and I had a one-on-one education session with a PRG representative who took the time to look at a huge (at least 2 inches thick) stack of our financial documents to determine whether or not we should continue looking. Well, we got the go-ahead and found that taking the homebuyer workshop first was something that most people do not do, and only do because it's a requirement for FHA loans. We have since acquired our lender and real estate agent and on our way to hopefully finding our dream home.

More to come!

Re-grow Your Green Onions!

Who knew? We use these so often, but only a little and most it of goes to waste. No more! You apparently can do this once or twice. Saves money and waste! yay! Sorry about the bad pick, it's from my phone. Just stick in water and put near a window. Refresh once in a while. Easy-peasy!

Sorry it's short and late, but 2012 has been insane! More to come on why--once we finally have time to wrap our heads around it :)

Peace!

Ditching Our Bank

This has been a long time coming. When we moved back, we had every intention to find a local bank or credit union when we returned, but we honestly got a little lazy. We started with a big bank because my little sister was working at one at the time as a teller and she got a little bonus for signing new people up. The thing about big banks--they are convient. We didn't switch because of their easy online access (since our REI credit card is also from the same bank) and the abundant supply of ATMs (I hate ATM fees).

So, we are finally now proud members of Wings Financial Credit Union (formally City-County). There are many great credit unions and local banks in Minneapolis that our neighbors on our e-Democracy listserv recommended. We first narrowed our search by only going to visit those with Saturday hours because of our busy weekdays. We also wanted a credit union with more than one location in Minneapolis. We did a credit union tour on Saturday and popped into three different candidates. We went with Wings because they were in a convenient spot not too far from our duplex, very helpful and able to answer our questions with the most ease. In one place we visited, everyone smelled liked cigarette smoke and another was just so busy and not as conveniently located.

Additionally, Wings offers easy online banking, phone app for mobile banking, Twin Cities themed checks, 0.25% APY for our checking, 0.50% for our savings (0% and 0.05% at US Bank, respectively), and great CD options. We also feel apart of a banking family by having the ability to vote on the board of directors and attend annual meetings. Here's to truly local banking!

Tea Cozy

Look at my tea cozy I made! This was my solution to the water I heated getting cold and me having to choose between gulping down luke-warm tea or wasting water down the drain. No more! Now my tea is warm cup after cup in my cutie pot and knitted project. There are lots of free patterns on Ravelry if you are interested. You need to sign up, but it's free. It's just nice that after a year of knitting now, I can actually make useful products! :)

Shout Out - Guthrie Byard Powderhorn 365 Thursday Photographer!

We have mentioned this website and community project before, but I would love to shout out Guthrie as the official Thursday photographer for PoHo 365. Here's his link to keep tabs on his work in the community.

Eco Dry Cleaning?

This is a post way back from May that I guess we never posted. We have since gone twice to this dry cleaners, since, for those things that are dry clean only, they do claim eco practices. Here's the post:

This is all started with a Spring Cleaning / Purge. Guthrie and I made it a point, especially with the grad school coma I was in, to start the spring off right with a full on cleaning of the apartment and the purging of things we really don't need. We organized kitchen cupboards, found new was of arranging things, added compost to the house plants, (I separated the compost from the wormies), cleaned things that had been neglected, and got our house ready to host people once again. We also had nice carload of clothing and other items to donate to goodwill. Then we got to the front hallway closest...

There's a question mark since this is not the most totally eco thing in the word, but some things need dry cleaning. We are the type of people that just put many things that are "dry clean only" on really delicate in the wash and lay flat to drive (I am sure some people are cringing), but with our winter coats and Guthrie's suits we wanted to make sure we didn't mess them up. We with Chinook Book in hand, we found Prestige Cleaners and Uptown Cleaners. Here are some of the highlights:
- odor free
- non-toxic
- clean with pure liquid silicone (which is chemically inert)
- when finished, it breaks down into three components - water, sand and carbon dioxide

Honestly, I don't really understand, and have been happy with their service (plus the discount in the Chinook Book). For more info on their process, check out this website: GreenEarth Cleaning

Peace!

Natural Clothing Dye

I got a new white H&M cardigan from a clothing swap last spring. Unfortunately, I wore it about three times and then noticed that some of the sleeve had turned blue due to a laundry mystery (we had some other victims from that load, and I still don't know what happened. I blame my neighbors...) I didn't know what to do with it, and I didn't want to just throw it away. I thought that maybe I should just dye it something dark blue or purplish, but I didn't want to buy a box of strong chemicals. I did some research and found these two articles about DIY: Natural Non Toxic Dyes and this article on color inspiration. I know that the color won't absorb as well for this fabric since it is a cotton/nylon blend, but cotton, wool, anything natural will work well for home dying with natural ingredients.

Basically, I started by simmering the sweater in a fix of 1/2 cup salt in 8 cups of cold water for an hour. Then I rinsed and rung dry. Meanwhile, I skinned a cup of blueberries (took a long time) and had them simmering in a solution of water and vinegar (4:1). The whole apartment stunk. I did that for an hour, strained out the blueberries, and lightly heated the sweater in the deep purple solution for another hour. I am actually do this for a second time because I made the mistake of not letting the sweater dry flat, so you won't have a picture of me wearing the sweater until next week, but I promise I will update! Doing it a second time is also making it a little darker since I only used the cup of blueberries. It's a pretty pinky- purple right now.

Next week, look for info on Sunday Crafternoons and a home ownership update!

Peace!

1/9/12 Update! It's done! In the end it turned into the light lavender color that, though I was not expecting, I am very pleased with. I definitely think more blueberries would have equalled a darker color, but since they are not in season, I was a bit cheap. The stains I was trying to cover up are not noticeable and my former white cardigan with blue spots has new life as a lavender sweater. You can tell the contrast between the buttons and the sweater (the bottoms were white, as it was before). Peace!

We're back!!!

Yup, that's right. It's been over 6 months. I was in the kitchen, stirring my pot of a sweater I am dying using blueberries, salt, and vinegar and thought, "I should be taking a picture of this for the blog!" And that's what I did. The project is very passive so I was also drinking red wine and watching old episodes of the Office -- sorry, I didn't crop the pic ;-)

So, why the post all of a sudden? Honestly, 2011 has been a roller coaster. I love roller coasters, but 2011 has been a tad nauseating. Quick recap: we've lost one job, gained two, became the community photographer, put our dreams of buying a house on hold, laughed, cried, became an aunt and uncle, tragically lost a family member, cut our hair short and grew it out long, started paying back both of our student loans, had weeks (yes, more than one) where our total number of work hours were well over 100, applied for food stamps, and starting earning more money than we ever had in our lives all in one year. We sadly spent a lot of 2011 tired. We also spent a lot of time reflecting...

And now we resume the blog. It's different from before. Instead of a mini-change a week, it will be everything: changes, projects, ideas, our quest for a home to call our own, our week by week adventures of being a couple trying to be good stewards of this Earth while we enjoy one another and what She gives back to us.

So, check back this Sunday for a post on what happens with my sweater!

Peace!