Unstuffed: Homestead for the Holidays

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Homestead for the Holidays

I left my home early yesterday morning to visit family for the holidays, but here are some pics that I've taken over the last week or so that reflect a little of my day to day at this time of year.

Decanting herbal tinctures, some of which will be gifted to family members. (I got the potato ricer you can see, at a thrift shop last week, but I won't be using it to rice potatoes. I'm repurposing it as an herb press. It works wonderfully for pressing out oil and alcohol macerations. This was an awesome thrift find!)

My coffee table with some Christmas crafts. Chopsticks in crochet holders will go to some sushi loving folk so they don't have to use the disposable, wooden chopstick at restaurants.

My cozy crochet corner with found lamp and chair.

There's always laundry to be done.

My Omas with flower and seasonal deco.

A Blue Christmas Kitchen

Silver and Gold

Red and Green

Frosty with plum infused brandy and basil vinegar.

My Tante M. made this ceramic shoe for me when I was seven. It's for Sankt Nikolaus Tag.

May you all enjoy a wonderful holiday!

5 comments:

Nienke said...: Sinterklaas!! My favourite holiday! (In the Netherlands, the gifts are accompanied by little, often sarcastic poems about the receiver, which makes it a celebration to be enjoyed by all ages... That, or either I'm just a kid inside); December 26, 2009 at 5:17 PM
Amber said...: Hi Nienke!

When I was little, I polished my shoes and left them out for St. Nick. In the morning they would be filled with fruit, marzipan and chocolate. It was definitely a highlight of the season for me. Sooo exciting and fun!

Wishing the kid inside of you lots of celebrations!; December 27, 2009 at 8:54 PM
Alicia said...: So I realize I'm a little late on this one but I couldn't help but admire your little stack of hankies. I was once a regular hanky user and had a stack of beautiful hand embroidered linen hankies that were passed down to me by my great grandmother. When I left home my mother put them away for me somewhere and sadly, is currently unable to find them. One of my resolutions this year was to reduce my paper waste by (inspired by you!) using rags instead of toilet paper, and reverting to my hanky use. I feel like I have searched this city high and low and all I can find are those ugly, scratchy men's handkerchiefs. Even in thrift and vintage shops I've been unable to find ANYTHING satisfactory. Until I can reclaim my own stash I need a few to get me by. I was wondering where you found yours? Or do you make them? Or did you inherit them as I did my originals? Thanks in advance!; January 5, 2010 at 10:50 AM
Amber said...: Hi Alicia,

I do have a growing collection of hankies that I love.

Many of them belonged to my great grandmother too! She crocheted lacy edgings around hers which are so delicate and pretty.

The rest I have slowly acquired in the last couple of years. Like you, I haven't had much luck at the thrift shops. The best source I have found so far are Christmas church bazaars. This year I picked up a few for 50 cents each.

Of course that doesn't help your search much, since I expect you'd like to find some hankies before the next bazaar season comes around again!

I just did a quick search on Etsy and found a number of people offering hankies, some of which seem quite pretty. Of course they are probably a bit more expensive, but that might be a starting point.

I hope you find your great grandma's stash soon!

And best of luck on your resolution to reduce paper. Awesome!; January 6, 2010 at 9:35 AM
Alicia said...: Thanks! I was really hoping to get out to some bazaars this xmas but was way too busy with exams! Thanks for the link!; January 6, 2010 at 9:55 AM

Raison d'etre

In 2008 I didn't buy anything new for the whole year. Food and basic toiletries (but not toilet paper) were the obvious exceptions (twice I broke my own rule). Used items were allowed, but I tried really hard to reduce consumption as much as possible.

I finished my year successfully, and along the way learned a lot about how much the world consumes, the waste we produce, sustainability, voluntary simplicity, climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, the water crisis, the food crisis, voting with your dollar, voting with your fork....

Now, I've transformed into a slightly nutty, very passionate, gardening, preserving, DIYing, simple living, nature loving, weed eating, backyard medicine making, urban homesteader, and I still don't use toilet paper!

With the help of the Awesomedudeguy (ADG), I'm continuing my exploration of living lightly and frugally, while increasing my self-sufficiency and resiliency, staying debt free, and preparing for a climate changed, resource depleted world, in uncertain economic times.

My nothing new restriction is lifted, but I continue to be a gentle, local consumer as much as possible.

My hope is that some of the information and resources I post about here will be helpful to others. Thanks so much for stopping by !

Yours in unstuffing,
Amber

"Forgive me if I never visit. I am from the fields, you know, and while quite at home with dandelion, make a sorry figure for the drawing room" ~Emily Dickinson

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that.... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature." ~Abraham Cowley

"The laws of nature are under no obligation to cater to our culture’s emotionally charged fantasies of perpetual progress and limitless growth." ~John Michael Greer

"Sometimes we think we are too small to make a difference in this big world. Our actions seem insignificant in comparison to global issues such as climate change and population growth. However, the reality is that action on an individual level is exactly how big changes are made. Without individual and family sustainability, there’s no community sustainability. And without community sustainability, there’s no global sustainability. In fact, earth-wide change is absolutely impossible without individual change.
It really does come down to you and me."
~From Living Sustainably: It's Your Choice

"The universal conspiracy of the silent-assertion lie is hard at work always and everywhere, and always in the interest of a stupidity or a sham, never in the interest of a thing fine or respectable. Is it the most timid and shabby of all lies? It seems to have the look of it. For ages and ages it has mutely laboured in the interest of despotisms and aristocracies and chattel slaveries, and military slaveries, and religious slaveries, and has kept them alive; keeps them alive yet, here and there and yonder, all about the globe; and will go on keeping them alive until the silent-assertion lie retires from business--the silent assertion that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men and women are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop." ~Mark Twain

"It is not enough simply to abstain from theft...We must remember that nothing in this world really belongs to us. At best, we are merely borrowers. It is our duty, therefore, to borrow no more from the world than we absolutely need, and to make full and proper use of it. Taking more than we need, and wasting it, is a form of stealing from the rest of humankind."
~Commentary on Sutra 30 The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali