‘Stuff’ Project for October 2013

It is very satisfying to combine items that have been languishing as ‘stuff’ in my house for years into something useful. This month the project is a bag to hold ‘hand wash’ items when I put them into the washing machine (I never ‘hand wash’ any other way these days).

The items I combined were the zipper end of an old satin pillow case (it was something I thought I wanted over 20 years ago but quickly decided was too slick to actually use) and a piece of gauzy fabric that I’ve had for so long I don’t remember its origin. The whole project took less than 30 minutes because the zipper was already in place. 

Projects of my Own

I am savoring projects that are my own these days after years when most of my projects were assignments or done to benefit someone else. I’m not totally done with those projects-directed-by-others but these days the majority of projects are my own - conceived, done, and enjoyed just for me.

What do I mean by ‘projects’?

Projects are a series of activities that lead to a specific goal and, for the purposes of this post, they have a beginning and end.

I have four main project areas right now:

Classes. Each Coursera class is a project for me. I decide what I will do beyond the watching of videos. Usually I follow up on the reference material. Sometimes I buy the book and read it. And finally - I write notes about the class…what I think about the subject, if I agree or disagree with the instructor, how my perception of the school offering the course is changed by the course, what the course has changed about the way I think…or act.

Sewing. Each garment I make is a mini-project. Sometimes I make a series of similar items (like the Two T-shirt dresses); others are one of a kind. I spend calm time before sleep planning the project, then do a lot of measuring. I sometimes challenge myself with ‘rules’ like 

• No hand sewing
• Minimize scraps
• Avoid buying any new supplies 

Blog themes. I sometimes have multi-post themes for my blog and consider each a project. Some of them are monthly - like the 3 Free eBooks picks - and they are on the planning calendar I do for the year. Some are over a shorter time - 2 or 3 months; the Becoming 60 theme is an example of that. Those too go on the calendar with notes of the main points to be included in that post.

 I’m sure there will be other kinds of projects that will come and go….but I’m enjoying these this fall!

Baked Yogurt Custard

Icy cold smoothies made with plain non-fat yogurt have been a great way to get calcium through my diet this summer - but smoothies will not be appealing as the weather gets cooler. In the past week, I started looking for other ways to eat yogurt that are warming. My favorite so far is Baked Yogurt Custard.

Icy cold smoothies made with plain non-fat yogurt have been a great way to get calcium through my diet this summer - but smoothies will not be appealing as the weather gets cooler. In the past week, I started looking for other ways to eat yogurt that are warming. My favorite so far is Baked Yogurt Custard.

The basic idea is to use non-fat plain yogurt, fruit and eggs as the basis for custard rather than the more typical milk (usually with some fat), sugar, and eggs. The recipe below was my first experiment:

• 1 banana
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup grated sweet potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 cup yogurt 

Slice banana into baking disk. Mash. Add other ingredients. Whisk thoroughly. Let mixture come to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake custard until ‘set’ (it took about 30 minutes in my oven).

Let cool to comfortable eating temperature.

The resulting ‘custard’ is thick and has a pleasant tang from the yogurt and orange peel. Some discoveries with this initial recipe: 

• The grated sweet potatoes were a little crunchy (I was trying to clean out ingredients from the refrigerator and should have saved the sweet potatoes for something else!) and
• It probably was too much to eat at one sitting (but it was so good!) 

I’ll make some adjustments next time and try some other fruits similar to what I have been using in smoothies during the summer. Pumpkin custard using yogurt rather than evaporated milk sounds good too; it would require sugar of some kind (honey rather than white sugar?). It occurred to me that Baked Yogurt Custard could also be made with vegetables (different seasonings and no sugar) to be more quiche-like. It is a lower fat technique than using cheese or cream. And I will try cooking it in my crockpot rather than heating up the whole oven!

The bottom line of all this is that I’ll continue buying as much non-fat plain yogurt through the winter as I have all summer!

Feeling Energized at Home - 2013

Last year I wrote about September being my high energy month of the year - and it is still true in 2013. This year the energy level seems to be even greater and directed over a broader swath of activities.

Basil ready to dryLike last year, there is a lot to do outdoor as we near the end of the growing season. The red-purple leafed plum tree has lost enough leaves to begin raking; my plan it to spread them over the garden patch cleared of lemon balm, honeysuckle, and other wild plants in August. I’ll scatter seed pods from cone flowers and zinnias there so that flowers will grow there next summer under the sycamore.  I am also harvest basil and mint from the containers on the deck; the basil is already in a tray in the kitchen drying. The mint may take more than one tray so I’m waiting to cut and process it until the basil is dry and stored away for winter soups.

Clearing ‘stuff’ from the house is splitting into two efforts.

• Two T-shirt DressThe first is to change items into forms that are more useful. The two t-shirt dresses are an example I wrote about earlier this month. I’ve also made a Kaftan from a piece of fabric - using an old handkerchief for part of the neckline (I’ll post about it when I finish). I’ve also discovered that an old Mr. Coffee carafe (the machine itself has long since been replaced) with its handle removed fits in crockpot for baking and custards. We’ve also repurposed my husband’s the old chair mat that was cracked to protect the carpet under and around the cat litter.
• The second is to start reducing the number of ‘keepsake’ boxes. For over 15 years while my daughter was growing up we always had a box that was catching anything we did not immediately decide to recycle or trash. There are several boxes for every year! I’m going to use a ping pong table to make annual piles and I’m sure there will be quite a lot that is not worth keeping.

Considerable energy is going into planning for travel and guests for the next 6 months. I always like to do my research about places I travel and understand what guests will be most interesting in seeing when they are in town. I enjoy the planning almost as much as the activities planned!

I’ve already posted about classes in progress. There are now 4 Coursera classes in progress. They are all excellent - thought provoking in very different ways.

September is definitely a high energy month for me. It’s easy to be enthusiastic about everything in my days.

Making a Two T-Shirt Dress

About a week ago I had one of those ideas that come just before sleep that kept me awake for at least an hour - working out the details and making plans. The idea was to reuse some T-shirts my husband had culled from his closet (the neck was stretched out, the underarm fabric was rotting, or the cat had made a hole trying to untangle a claw) to extend the length of some of my T-shirts into dresses. I have quite a few T-shirts and tend to not put them on frequently enough to ever wear them out…and I enjoy wearing the one knit dress I have during the hot days. I came up with several ideas about how to put the dresses together to get enough length for a dress.

In the morning I started my first Two T-shirt Dress. I started with a turquoise T-shirt that I’d used for painting - managing to get some splatters on the bottom hem. The pattern on the front of the shirt ended for a high waist - a good place to cut. A Black t-shirt with a little writing on the upper front was in the pile from my husband; I cut the bottom off just under the arms. His shirt was a little bigger around that mine was so I made side seams in the black tube to make it the same circumference as the turquoise one. The dress needed more length so I was going to have to use the turquoise piece I had cut off at the bottom of the dress. I cut the hem off the black T-shirt so that the seam would be less bulky and cut the teal peak on the bottom so that there would be a slit to make walking easier. Both bottom pieces were use inside out from the original shirt so I had to turn up a hem in the lower teal shirt portion. I used a stretch stitch for the seams and then finished the edges together with a zigzag stitch.

The second dress was even easier. I decided to just add onto the end of my light blue T-shirt because the pattern was so large. The bottom was cut from a navy blue T-shirt and simply gathered onto the bottom of the light blue T-shirt (I cut the hem from the light blue shirt to reduce the seam bulk. The original hem of the navy blue T-shirt became the hem for the dress - so this was a one seam dress!

The third dress was the hardest because I had to piece the ‘skirt’ part to get enough length. I decided that I didn’t want to length in the lighter color and I didn’t want it again at the bottom of the dress either. Also - I did not realize until after the dress was made that it would need to have some elastic at the waist because it looked way too big otherwise. I made the casing for the elastic by stitching the edge of the seams attaching the lighter shirt to the skirt.  I'll probably tie a scarf around the waist of this one.

All three of these dreses are going to be worn frequently until it gets cooler.

When my 40 year old sewing machine actually worked after I oiled it, I thought I would use it for some fabric/thread doodling - maybe make a small quilt - but I am way more satisfied with my Two T-shirt Dress project!

Houses of the Future - A Wish List - Part II

Today's post is from the perspective of configuration. There are certain type so floor plans that appeal to me for the future. The technology that makes a house generative and sustainable must be packaged in a way that faciliates the lives of the people that make it their home.

• The concept of ‘single family’ should change to be three generations in the house: children, their parents, and grandparents. Today almost all houses are originally built for two generations and then retrofitted to three as needed. With the demographics of the population shifting older and young people continuing to live with their parents longer, the trend in new housing should be to accommodate at least two adult couples…with three being even better. There are many ways this could be accomplished:
  • Using the same basic colonial house floor plan with walk out basement: increase the sound proofing between floors making the second floor for a couple with children, the walkout basement for a second couple; instead of a living room/dining room make a bedroom/sitting room for a single adult or a guest room. This arrangement could be a retrofit for an existing home.
  • Imagine a hexagon shape that contains a kitchen, eating area and den; this is the core of the house. There are wings from 3 of the six sides (evenly spaced around the hexagon); each wing includes a bathroom and bedrooms, home offices, etc. I’ve drawn a rough diagram below. The plumbing for the house would all be in the hexagon or the walls the wings share with the hexagon. There could be many variations of this basic design:
    • Basement under the hexagon only
    • Basement throughout
    • Some wings with two stories with outdoor bridges between the upper floors of the wings
    • A garden on top of a single story wing reached by the bridges from other wings and/or external stairs
    • One wing could have a laundry room and garage on the first floor and then have the rooms for living above
    • Various lot shapes and sizes could be accommodated by different lengths of the wings.
  • Keeping an overall rectangular shape, it is easy enough to achieve separate space for two adult couples. The shared areas - den, kitchen and eating area are in the center of the house and the separate space is on the sides. An outdoor area - side yards - can also be non-shared space. Again - there are variations of this design:
    • Configure this arrangement as a U instead of a rectangle. The inside of the U often becomes the shared garden area because it is primarily accessed from the core of the house.
    • The living space one side can be smaller to make room for a garage.
    • Basement - or not.
    • One side two stories - particularly the one that includes a garage. 

I’m sure over time I will think up more to add to this wish list....and I'll post them as a part III!

Part I of the series is here.

Houses of the Future - A Wish List - Part I

Single family houses have been the main places I have called home. There were a few apartments I lived in between the ages of 19 and 25…and an apartment we rented while we waited for our third house to be vacated so that we could move in; I always thought of the apartments as temporary and that is what they turned out to be. Of all the housing types available, the single family houses come closest to what I want in the future although I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what would make them better. Some of the items are possible now while others will require technological advances. Here’s my wish list:  

• All external surfaces need to be productive. They need to generate power or grow food. The paint, brick, siding, and shingles we’ve been using for years protected us from the elements but that is not sufficient for a house of the future.
• External surfaces and structural integrity need to be sufficient for the environment. In areas of high wind, heavy rain or snow, or extreme temperatures - houses need to be built to survive and remain habitable.
• Plan for older inhabitants. At least one suite and the main core of the house (den, eating area, and kitchen) must be accessible without stairs. The bathroom needs a large shower that is easily entered. Doors need to be wide enough to easily accommodate mobility devices (i.e. wheel chairs, walkers).
• A gray water system collects ‘slightly’ used water from sinks, showers, bathtubs, dishwashers, and clothes washers and then the water is used in toilets and for watering gardens reducing the water going into the sewer.
• The driveway and patio - any concrete or asphalt surfaces - need to be pervious pavement so that water soaks through rather than drains away too rapidly. If water drains from roof surfaces, it should be collected and used for gray water purposes. Again - this reduces the water that goes to the sewers.
• Yards have grass in areas where it is needed recreation (for example, a play area for children). Otherwise - the yard is either in native vegetation that does not need to be mowed/watered or used to grow food (vegetable garden, orchard) mixed with flowers.
• The inside of the house can be easily reconfigured as the needs of the inhabitants change over time. The number of internal walls is minimized; permanent walls are only built where they are needed for structure, sound proofing or privacy. Screens, storage units or sliders could be used a movable room dividers.
• Closets include shelves and racks to allow productive use of the space all the way to the ceiling.
• All rooms have some form of overhead lighting and ceiling fans.
• Heating and cooling is done to keep the temperature at comfortable levels in rooms that are in use at the time and the system is tunable for a particular person (for example, the room where an older person is located might be warmer in the winter time).
• Heating and cooling is done in the most efficient way possible for the area. In areas where geothermal (buried pipes) heat pumps are possible, this may be the way to go….or maybe there will be other technologies that will be even better. The classic gas (or heating oil) furnaces and electric air conditioners are not what we should be building in the future.
• Lighting is on when the room is occupied and it is needed. Otherwise the lighting turns itself off.
• Window coverings adjust based on temperature and are linked to the heating and cooling system. For example, on a  the window coverings will allow direct sunlight to shine in to warm the inside on a cold day to the temperature preferred by the person in the room.
• Kitchens need to function well for several people cooking at once.
  • If there is room for a center island, it needs to be counter space - not a stove top.
  • Ovens - microwave and conventional - are combined into one unit.
  • Water for drinking (and ice) is filtered.
  • Over counter cabinets go all the way to the ceiling to maximize storage space.
  • Task lighting is installed under the over-counter cabinets and comes on automatically when needed.
• At least one wall of each room is a ‘screen’ that displays art or functions as a computer display.
• Work from home is a growing trend - particularly for workers performing their jobs via computer. The house needs to be adaptable to support a work environment for everyone in the house.
• Modular construction may be a way to make new technology more accessible at a reasonable cost. The idea of a core of rooms (kitchen, eating, den) with all the utilities connected being built first with modules of rooms that plugged into those utilities is appealing both to allow for 'starter' homes and then enlargement of the house later by the addition of modules.
• No more items that are merely for ornament like shutters that don't close or dormers that provide no space on the inside. 

I’ll post the coninutation of my wish list tomorrow.

April 2013 Doodles

Pink and black seemed to be my colors for April. There is only one in this set that has different colors! I’ll try to have more variety in May.

Enjoy the slide show.

What if….our clothes adjusted to always keep us at the most comfortable temperature?

Our clothing has evolved from skins to natural fiber fabrics to synthetic fabrics. We add layers and weight to be warmer; jettison layers and heavy fabrics when we want to be cooler. The changing external environment and our own internal heat (from increased activity or ‘hot flashes’) means that we may need to make changes to our clothing during the day or wake up during the night to throw off blankets. The basics of clothing have not really changed very much.

What if our clothing detected changes that indicated we were hot or cold and changed subtly to warm us up or release heat, perhaps even overtly cooling us? We might learn more detailed information about ourselves - as a population and as individuals - once we started experimenting with the new clothing. Maybe some of us prefer to be warmer than others…perhaps everyone instances of higher metabolism producing more heat but we have simply ignored the extra bit of warmth in the past because it was not significant enough to change clothes.

If we had the clothing to keep us at the temperature we preferred, would we stop heating and cooling our dwellings? That might imply that ‘clothing’ would cover us completely. Would it filter the air we breathed and the food we ate?

Would style of clothing be important enough that the technology would need to include the ability to shift into different ‘looks’? Would color be structural and thus be programmable? Would we choose to shimmer like butterfly wings or peacock feathers if we had that choice?

Warmer with a Scarf

This last cold snap has raised my awareness about scarves: they can indeed help you feel more comfortably warm. This is not about scarf paired with coats for outdoor wear (although that is a good idea too); it’s about a scarf worn inside over normal indoor clothing - as shown at left over a sweater.

I’m not sure why it took me so long to make the discovery. I wore scarves for years to compliment the ‘business casual’ attire I wore every day. But those were tied loosely. The scarf needs to be snuggled up to the neck for warmth.

When I hiked the Grand Canyon over 30 years ago - I discovered that having a wet bandana around my neck helped me feel cooler - but missed the opportunity to make the correlation that the neck temperature leads in perception of comfortable temperature (for me, the feet are first….and then the neck).

But - it is a welcome discovery while we are in the 20s outdoors in Maryland and trying to conserve energy by not keeping our house overly warm!

Roses and Rosemary

Usually ferns or baby’s breath is used in the filler around long stem roses. My sister recently chose to buy flowers that completed the color of the roses and then trimmed the rosemary plant in the garden to add extra greenery. It looked great and adding the rosemary smell to that of the roses was very appealing as well! Rosemary is now on my list to plant in my garden in the spring.

I am babying the rosemary I kept in a pot on my deck through last summer…so I might be able to just plant it as soon as the weather warms enough in Maryland.