Dyeing a little...

Venturing into some scary territory this morning - and dyed my first woolen baby wrap!
A wool and cotton blend, the Didymos Juno Pfau!

(before dyeing - stock photo)

Also known as the 'Christmas Pfau' because of it's (usually) forest green-and-white color scheme, ugh, I just could not love it, even though it's wrapping qualities are legend...and heck, it was supposed to be my woolie baby wrap for the winter...anyhow, after gathering supplies for a few weeks, it took the plunge today! Despite my nerves a'jangling, it went through the wash, then into steamy hot water on the stovetop, all teal-ly with acid dye and vinegar...and tried hard not to mess with it (I've read these things felt so easily!) then rinsed it and washed it in Eucalan on the gentlest cycle my machine can do - and, voila! Oh my teal-ly blue green goodness! A woolie Pfau I can looooove! Mmmmmmm. Yummy. 2 tone, because the white threads are wool and the acid dye only adhered to those threads...and the result? Still shimmery and gorgeous. And wearable! (I have olive skin. Forest green? Uh, no. Teal? Yessssssssssssssssssssssss!)

Hard to photograph, though...so I am showing it next to my Ocean (Aqua?) Pfau so you can see the difference in blues...

So, see? All the white chickens (okay, peacocks) all turned teal! No more white! I lurve it! 

If you'd like to know how to do this yourself, first read the great info on wool dyeing here and here.  Based on that info, I bought a giant 21 quart enameled canning pot from Amazon and 2 Jacquard acid dye 'pots' in teal from MisterArt.com along with a big 'splosh' of white vinegar that I already had in the pantry.  Finish with Eucalan wool wash and enjoy your new woolie! :)
Love,
Mamazakka

Digging out..Part 1

Simplicity Parenting.  Great book.  About how less is more.

It's giving me LOTs to think about while I dig us out of the consumerist mass I have spent the last 10 years (and most of our dollars) loading into our house, quite on top of us.

Don't get me wrong, I still love 'things', and I still want the 'BEST' things for my kids, but I am on a curatorial cleanse, and I won't stop till I've figured out the which, what, and why of it all.   And simplify.

I think THIS is why the boys Lego was driving me so insane: there's so much, there's too much of it in the house, AND they want MORE.  We have been outdoors a bunch lately, and that has helped 'cure' the monomaniacal-ness of it all, plus I've been simplifying the kids' rooms, so that's helped too...but I've been realizing, really with the help of this book that too much of a good thing is really really crippling, to creativity, to peace of mind, to living the life you intended to live with your kids.

Too much of a good thing can be suffocating.  Mega piles of Mega Blox?  Massive piles of clothing? Monstrous stacks of books, too many for our shelves? More play-kitchen foods than the play-kitchen can hold? Stacking bins filled with the overlow? Yeah, it's too much.  I'm embarrassed.  I am grateful for all we have, but I am guilty of over spending.  In my search for wonderful playthings, I have bought, traded, and created more than our little house can hold, and more than we can afford.  I have spent whole days, weeks, probably months trying to get everything 'organized' and put away, but I have to admit there is more stuff than we have space for.  And with 6 kids, space is precious.  Time spent with the kids is precious.  Not time spent sorting stuff.

I've already given loads to the Salvation Army, I'm selling on ebay, I've got listings going on craigslist, and I've decided to offer up some good free-bees here, if you're interested.

So stay tuned!  I'm going to go look for some good offerings for this site, maybe 1 per day.
Don't let my lovely clutter become clutter for YOUR home, though!  Tell me why you 'need' the free-bee and it'll go to the answer I like best.  Or to the first.  I don't know.  But let's see what I can find.