Our Homemade Life. . .

"Recognizing myself as a creative is not about giving myself permission to “make crafts” but is about a transformation in how I understand myself and view the world. Being a creative person is more than sewing a quilt, writing music, performing music, taking photos, etc. It’s about being a problem solver and a beauty maker and our homes needs that. The world needs that.  I’ve come to describe what I do simply as creative living, not defined by any one craft or activity but an overall approach to life. An approach to life, I might add, that is helping our family to live our dreams and create a livelihood consistent with our values."  - Renee Tougas

As Joseph and I started this journey to become more self-sufficient we have been met with great support from family and friends, but we've also received negative comments from some family and friends too.  Most of the negativity is centered around our homemade projects such as homemade shaving cream or laundry detergent.  Comments like:  "You know you can buy that stuff", I find most irritating.

We've chosen to make our life creative and more self-sufficient because we actually enjoy the process of making things with our own hands.  We enjoy investing the time and hard work to accomplish a goal we set out to finish, such as building our chicken coop; who wouldn't?  We named our house Eidolon House - The spirit of creativity - so we are always reminded to engage ourselves in a life of creating.  There is so much good to this lifestyle that I often find it hard to express the overwhelming feeling of independence, creativity, and happiness I feel living here with Joseph.  

This blog (HERE) expresses perfectly why we do what we do! 

"We all have our own unique reasons for doing the things we do. Here are my reasons for making things at home:

1. Cost savings. By making my own medicine, shampoo, and meals from scratch I do save money! It’s a fact, the raw materials needed for these things are definitely cheaper.
2. Ingredient control. I have no doubts when it comes to knowing exactly what’s in the things I make. Reading the labels of things like processed foods, lotions and other body care products is scary — there are so many ingredients that are dangerous by-products of various corporate industries and have proven links to any number of illnesses…it just not worth it.  
3. Producer not consumer. Making it homemade has taught me how to reduce my own tendencies toward hyper-consumerism. I’ve become a lot more savvy…buying only what I need and learning to save for the things I really want.
4. Reduced waste. Without all bring in all of the wasteful packaging that comes with buying things from the store…my home is definitely generating a lot less trash.  
5. Independence, Fulfillment, and Empowerment. And lastly, perhaps I have become accustom to the feelings of independence, fullfillment, and empowerment that come from this lifestyle. It satisfies something deep inside of me to know that by my own hand these things are produced." -Frugally Sustainable. 

Homemade shaving cream!
  I had a blast making these as Christmas presents for the men in our life.

Dipping candles was a spontanious project we decided to do on a Saturday afternoon.
As a family we jumped in the car to go shopping for candle making supplies and
we stayed up all night watching movies and dipping candles as a family.  

Joseph and Macsen put the most sweat into this coop and it's the best  damn coop around!
My boys did a fantastic job!

Naysayers!  Be gone I say!

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