Recently in For the Family Category

Sweatshop Free Crafting and Art

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by Mama-Lu

Wandering around the aisles of craft stores dreaming of projects used to be my idea of a great afternoon out. When I decided to chase the sweatshop-free dream, suddenly the aisles went from tempting to depressing.

It would be so easy to snatch up lots of fun, cheap supplies and create items for sale, but the "Made in China" label puts a damper on those ideas. In the end that's a good thing. I do not need a reason to buy more stuff, and buying things that might be more expensive keeps my purchases limited. The real temptation is to increase my Etsy shop profit by using sweatshop products. At the same time, every time I type "This is a sweatshop free product" it makes me feel like I can make a difference.

Honestly, yarn sources are not too bad. Beads for rosaries on the other hand is a little tricky. I did find beautiful beads from fair trade sources like Happy Mango Beads and Kazuri West, but these would send the cost of a rosary well beyond my price range. I could also buy from the Czech Republic, since they make beautiful beads and as members of the EU have trust worthy labor laws. In the end I ordered from American Woodcrafters Supply Co.

I am still a long way from being sweatshop-free in everything, but crafting is one area I am doing pretty well, even for the kids. Despite the distance I still have to travel, the more labels I read, the more committed I am to doing better.

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Hurry, Hurry, Hurry

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This is Mama-Lu. Chris usually edits my posts so please excuse any problems and the absence of my special font color. I'll have him fix it when he get home tonight [fixed--ed]. Since these are time sensitive and I forgot before he left, I'm flying solo.

  1. Time is almost up to register for the Smart Martha Seminar taking place at St. Matthew's in Champaign on November 15th. Learn new ideas about having a faith-filled family and managing your house. Plus, spend the day with other women who are trying figure these things out too.


    For more info, visit the Smart Martha website, and to register go to our parish website

    I've heard good things!

  2. Scoot on over to Seaside Tales for a chance to win one of my duck puppets. Enter by Friday!

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"What's up with that?" Wednesday (II)

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by Mama-Lu

What's up with Curtis Orchard? My sons love our local orchard and pumpkin patch. We spent a lovely afternoon there this week. The boys had fun feeding the goats (with food they had picked up off the ground,) driving the play train, and walking in the maze. After our friends left, we walked out and visited the pumpkin patch.

Back inside we looked around at all the nifty stuff to buy and watched the electric train. Finally we went to check out. I was not buying apples or pumpkins because I knew those were understandably expensive. It is harder to make a buck with a small family than a mega farm. All we wanted were donuts. However, I was a little shocked when I discovered that the price I expected for a dozen was actually the price for just six.

So I wonder, are they really charging a fair mark-up, or are they taking unsuspecting city slickers to the cleaners? Not that I begrudge anyone the right to make a buck -- and they do deliver a good time. I just wonder. I also wonder if they would be interested in carrying my pumpkin hat next year. :)

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The Musical Fruit

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by Mama-Lu

In these tight times, I recommend eating beans. They are nutritious and cheap, and can be delicious. They do have some side effects, but when you are with your family (which you have to be because you cannot afford to go out,) that is not so bad.

The trick to great beans is to start with dry beans. After attempting to cook dry beans many times, I had given up. They always came out tough! Then I read an article in Cook's Illustrated which gave me the secret ingredient -- salt. If you add a generous amount of salt to your soaking liquid, the bean skins will melt in your mouth. The other trick is to keep out acids (tomatoes) until the end.

To prepare my family's favorite black beans, simply boil 1 cup of cleaned beans in 6 cups of salted water (or broth) for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let them sit for about and hour. Return to medium heat, add a diced onion and cook for about 45 minutes. Add 2 cans of diced tomatoes and cook for another 10 minutes. These beans, served over a simple rice pilaf, make a fabulous comfort food and a very cheap meal.

Happy Eating!

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Makeover Friday

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(by Mama-Lu)

This summer I hope to take For the Family on the road to some craft fairs. For these events, I want to put together an Etsy wardrobe, 2 or 3 days worth of eye catching wear purchased from Etsy. I know it is a little early to start planning, but here is what I am eyeing right now:

While I'm at it, this is the "mini" for my Etsy shop:

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Promotional Announcement from Mama-Lu

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I would like to announce the opening of For the Family a new store on etsy, run by me as mamafamilias. It is small, just Family Rosaries and the "Haycorn" an acorn shaped hat for babies. In the future, I hope to make it a little less small and include more hat styles, puppets, First Communion veils and possibly "Kitchen Madonnas" (images of Mary embellished with cloth and beads). For now, it simply gives me an excuse to spend more time doing some things I like to do and a way to share what I make with others.

Haycorn.jpgThis is still learning a learning phase as I work on the ins and outs of selling on etsy (which, by the way, is a website for selling handmade or vintage items.) Plus I'm much more accomplished with a crochet needle than a camera, so product pictures look... well, they look like I took them.

So if you get a chance, stop by and have a look at mamafamilias.etsy.com to let me know what you think. All suggestions welcome! While you are there, take a peek at the many other stores etsy has to offer. There are some wonderful items. Of course, if you have a few extra minutes you could register and "heart" me. Someday it would be nice to have a sale, but for now I will settle for not sitting alone in cyberspace. :)

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November 2008: Monthly Archives

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Mama-Lu's Etsy Shop

About this Archive

This page is a archive of recent entries in the For the Family category.

Food and Drink is the previous category.

Higher Learning is the next category.

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