I made a tiny cover known as milk jug cover, in the past these were made to keep gnats out of milk. You can make them any size you want or need and use them to keep flying insects from getting into the fresh milk. This summer we have had our share of gnats and flies.
I made a very tiny one this week for a small dish. Glass beads are used as a weight to hold the cover over the sides of what you are covering. In the show Downton Abby they are used in the downstairs kitchen to put over the milk jug. This is my mini cover.
This is a tiny bowl that is a medium size salt dip or condiment bowl.
So I pulled out some beads to match the bowl and decided on two colors instead of three.
I put the beads on the pearl thread using a needle. I first sewed with a regular cotton thread around the lace circle to hold the double layer lace together and draw the lace inward to fit over the bowl.
Then I crochet an edge. I was wishing at this point that I would have chosen a regular small crochet thread instead of pearl thread because it was so slippery.
I continued on and it looks a little messy but I don't worry about that since it is for my home and not a gift and serves the purpose.
I have all size jug covers, and they are very old. I did a post on these in 2016 and I will attach a link to this post.
These covers are surprisingly heavy with all the glass beads and this keeps the cover wonderfully secure.
Since our history studies, Charles and I still use the cloth hankies, it is starting to feel odd if we use something modern. I like it better the old way.
I am really enjoying using my simple weekly meal plan and we are not getting tired of repeating the meals each week, it has been very good for the budget and just knowing what we eat on each day of the week has helped add calm to the home and the budget.
My last post I posted a picture of a cabinet in the kitchen and I said that the cabinet separates the kitchen from the laundry area. A blog reader Katherine, asked in the forum if I could show our laundry area and asked do I still hand wash our laundry and I explained that I do not do that often now because my left arm is weak from medical issues and I use my washer most of the time but I can if I need to.
I decided to post a few places I normally do not take pictures of. This above is what we call our outdoor water closet. Many years back I have a post about our rain barrels. After years of storms and such we condensed down and moved the barrels under the carport and enclosed an area. The tank pictured above is a 65 gallon fresh water tank, not rain water.
These two barrels hold rain water and on the back side of these two tanks is another tank we call our intake tank that we have made a filter with different size gravel and we have a flush system where we drain off the first catch trash. I forgot to take the picture of that. After it goes from the gutter into that tank, the water then goes into these two tanks. We keep them in this shaded area.
We are currently working on this area and we are redoing our outdoor bathing and laundry area. We like having this area for power outages and living more like the past.
This is our laundry area, it is not the old style like the 1940s, our handwashing is done outside. We have an old Roper washer and a regular dryer next to it. I do hang my laundry when I can and some days I need to use the dryer. Behind the two silver water filters is the cabinet in my last post that I keep my pots and pans and everyday dishes.
Further back to the left is a old book shelf that I use to keep laundry items on the bottom and some cookery items and up top potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions. The cabinet on the right before you get to the washer and dryer holds sewing and craft items and tins and such as this.
I keep a few of my home canned items as well.
A hidden area in the corner of our bedroom. I love this space.
It is my easy access corner. It is in the corner by the doorway going to the small hallway that goes to the other bedrooms and bathroom. I used a small homemade bookshelf that used to sit on top of a chest of drawers.
Charles keeps his shoes on the bottom shelf and I keep my clunkers and then the next shelf holds clothing I will wear more than once and I give a quick fold and tuck it in there.
Charles chifforobe is to the left and I hang my robe and bed robe and hats :) I am showing this because some people are like us and live in a small house and even smaller than ours, maybe this will help to inspire some ideas.
If we had an emergency in the night we can grab robes, shoes, clothing quickly.
I have spent so much time and energy always trying to get my house tidy, and I finally realized that it is okay that everything is not gone out of sight. I can keep it out where it is convenient for us, and as long as it is "clean" then all is good.
I have gotten rid of most of our what I called clutter or unused items, yes we can have too much if it starts causing us to not be able to clean our home.
At this time I have decluttered to the point that what is left I still want to keep because either it has a purpose or I like it. I still want to crochet and knit, sew and make lace. I want to keep cooking and reading and enjoying the things we have. Charles still wants to build things in his shop and work on things that need repairing. We want to do these things as long as we can because it will keep us moving.
Our conclusion is that for us and the way it used to be long ago, if the house is "CLEAN" the items in our home is "CLEAN" then enjoy the things in our home that makes us happy or has a purpose. When something gets dirty then clean it with soap and water.
We never tire of our cottage pie on Sunday's. We are staying on budget of $100.00 per week. We went over one week and under another so far we are good and we have only a little over a week to go.
Scrambled egg with cheese and spring onion and bacon.
I made an apple pie and I will be posting the pie crust recipe with photo's on my next post the next couple of days. I do not use egg wash or milk wash on my pie crusts. Just a simple plain butter pie crust.
I will post two links, this one is the 2016 post about the jug covers.
https://gdonna.com/living-like-the-past/a-time-that-makes-sense/
This link below is about how to crochet a beaded edge from a lady on youtube. I would never be able to explain this and so happy that she did this. I did have a difficult time with no instructions but watching her and I hope that it will help you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGTU505hSoo&list=WL&index=103
Next post is called the Pie Crust. Grandma Donna
