By now, you well and truly know how I feel about incorporating handmade into my life. I love it. But there are exceptions to the rule for me. Of course sometimes I need to buy supplies and those supplies are not always technically handmade, eg. fabric. But I try to use these items to the best of my abilty and not waste them. Last year I tried to give as many handmade gifts as possible. This year I’m going for an even bigger percentage of handmade gifts, even if it means buying handmade from other craftspeople. I do make exceptions to this self made rule though and just today I made two purchases for Christmas gifts that I did not make myself, are not supplies and yet I’m really proud of my decision and here’s why…….
Today I purchased two books. Both books have been written by normal women who have chosen to spend less and make more. I am hoping that by giving them to the people close to me, I can encourage their already grounded love of handmade and homegrown and support two amazing ladies who’s blogs and words have been of great encouragement to my own handmade journey.
The first book I bought is Down to Earth by Rhonda Hetzel. I follow Rhonda’s blog Down to Earth as she shares her ideas for simple living. She lives in Australia and has lots of ideas and experience about growing your own produce, making your own eco friendly and low cost cleaning products, bread, jams and more as well as tips for saving money through reducing electricity costs and buying less. She also has a wonderful consideration for low environamental impact and the importance of family and community. Although I am far from achieving all the things she writes about, she manages to write in a way that doesn’t make you feel guilty and encourages you to take your time with the changes she suggests.
The second book I have bought is Ana White’s The Handbuilt Home. Ana White is the author of one of my favourite and most inspiring blogs Ana White and lives in Alaska. When she describes herself as a homemaker, she is not kidding, she seriously builds homes! Her blog has many, many beautiful furniture plans on it that I would love to try one day and for that reason I am giving this book to my dad, (who is a builder and carpenter) in the hope that he might like to work on some of the 34 ideas in her book with me tagging along and learning and asking lots of questions lol! Her book projects range from storage to tables to child friendly furniture pieces and more.
Oh, and in the interest of spending less energy, I bought these online whilst having a cup of tea! Haha, now that’s what I call saving energy!
I am so excited about these books arriving! I also feel good about my purchases as in the long term they are helping the innovative women who wrote them and helping the people close to me to SPEND LESS and MAKE MORE!
Like this:
Like Loading...
