little free library

I recently took a trip to Minneapolis. It was my second time there, but the first time in great, just have to be outside weather. On top of all the wonderful activities this lake filled city has to offer during these glorious weather stretches, the whole place is very walkable.
As I trekked through the neighborhoods surrounding the downtown area, my friend pointed out the Little Free Libraries that have popped up all over. The LittleFreeLibrary concept began in Wisconsin, but is quite popular all over now. The community movement is simple-folks put out tiny decorated boxes that serve as lending libraries for the area. There is a site where you can order your own little library or just read about the movement.
NPR did a piece on these tiny libraries as well - take a listen!

Images: wikipedia, cascadiahomes, laughingsquid, indiegogo

this time of year

 The crickets sang in the grasses. They sang the song of summer’s ending, a sad, monotonous song. “Summer is over and gone,” they sang. “Over and gone, over and gone. Summer is dying, dying.”

 The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year — the days when summer is changing into fall- the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change. - E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

 Image: deviantart

Make Do and Mend

WWII campaign poster from a UK educational site.

I've been researching how to repair the thigh-worn bare spots in my husband's corduroy pants. I'm determined that we not replace them without at least trying to patch them--I want to prove my very limited sewing skills and justify the presence of the sewing machine taking up space in our house. I also feel a sort of familial obligation: my grandmothers came of age in different times from ours: one was a survivor of the Depression and the other was a civilian worker on the British homefront during WWII. As they grew up, and then, as the mother of four children each, they would have put patches on over and over again. According to my mom, her mother's generation would also reinforce the high-wear areas of new clothes. A greater generation than ours, to be sure.

Some instructions for mending pants can be found here and here.

Here's a humorous "Make Do and Mend' instructional video from the 1940s British Ministry of Supply (warning: contains a pantsless man in a bowler hat).

And other images from the homefront:

UK National Archives