Making Do

Yesterday I had a lovely day doing normal uneventful trifles. Visited a lovely friend for tea and biscuits, went out to lunch and Danika and I went to a pre-loved clothing market. She picked up a couple of bargains including a lovely woollen Leona Edmiston dress and I bought two new (to me) reddish scarves. It was great to see so many women bustling about trying to pick up a bargain as well as reducing the amount of waste instead of just throwing the clothes no longer needed or wanted away.

I do so love re-using and reducing the amount of clothes etc that I buy. Making do and with less.   Voluntary Simplicity is a movement/belief/way of life that has been gripping more traction over the last few years and I can certainly see the benefits of it. There are heaps and heaps of blogs devoted just to that way of life on the net.

The Franmaree Road Baker

Chris and I started baking our own bread in 2010. We then moved onto making our own soap and washing powder, growing lots of our own veggies and generally cutting back on unnecessary expenditure.  We really enjoyed making things together and have a couple of funny stories about the chemistry of making soap!  It was empowering and enjoyable to see how much we could reduce our daily expenses just be being a bit more careful about what and where we purchased items.

The kids helping Chris dig carrots - they loved it 

I have never been an extravagant spender (well I lie a bit there, when it comes to jewellery I turn into a different person but only momentarily :/).   I buy most of my clothes at places like Myer (generally only reduced items)  or Target etc. When the children were younger, I tried to encourage them not to "label shop".  When the girls were in university they became fabulous little bargain shoppers, only purchasing when they really needed something and then usually at the sales or discount shops, you know downstairs at Portmans :)  they wold often ring to tell me about a fantastic bargain they had picked up - they are still wearing some of those clothes! Their idea of a great night out was to walk up Sydney Road and have a $7 soup dinner.

For fun we would always go into Alana Hill when I was in Melbourne but it was just to look and dream.

The "old school" ways of doing things, like knitting and dressmaking and cooking from scratch have been things that I have always done  Even as a young married girl of 19, I made my own bread and as many of my own clothes as I could. I learned to cook early and could make a entire meal from what was in the fridge and the garden on the farm. It is a real pity that this isn't a skill that is taught in school or at home now.

I hope that as my girls set up their own homes and have their own families that they will follow in some of my foot steps.  I hope they know how to cook from scratch, make a dress or knit for their children. Children, I believe,  really don't need designer label clothes or every new toy that comes onto the market.  They don't even realise what they have on as long as it is warm and clean; who cares where it came from? They need love and attention and to foster a keen sense of creativity so that they can always keep themselves occupied or entertained.   (There is a whole other post that I will write one day about how I get myself busy on the farm when I didn't have the latest toys or friends on hand to play with. Hilarious now when I look back )

One of my earliest memories is of my Mother and I sitting in front of the fire and making doll clothes.  I must have been only about 4, as the others kids were all at school and I was home alone with Mum.  Maybe that will be a Momo job for me :) - teaching the grandies to sew and knit!

Another "old school" thing to do that is nearly going by the wayside - is letter writing.  A few years ago I wrote a note to my niece, who lives in Queensland.  She was so pleased to get my old school letter, that I thought well I might just keep doing that.  I love to go to the post box and there to find a letter! So if I enjoy it, odds are a lot of other people do too.  I might start up a new habit.  I might write a letter to one friend a week. Who wants to join me?