The Damsel in Dis Dress
Posted in cleaning, Uncategorized on Nov 4th, 2010
If you’ve been doing any canning, or even have a bowl of aging fruit on your counter, you may have experienced a fruit fly family reunion. Just for fun, the little pests fly in human faces and crawl all over human food. That’s what brings them joy. That’s what makes their little 48 hour lives [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 22nd, 2010
The Damsel would like to introduce you to one of the Old School’s students. Meet Jeanette, who blogs at Jeanetics. Looks like she’s been doing her homework. Good job, Jeanette! Go to the head of the class and here, take this extra bathroom pass. Jeanette: Home canning is becoming a lost art. I think it’s [...]
Posted in cooking, guest post, Uncategorized on Oct 13th, 2010
The Damsel would like to introduce you to today’s substitute teacher (guest poster): The Lovely Jennifer. aka The Jennifer Who Can Do Everything Like Totally. Hi! I’m Jennifer. I’m a homeschooling mom of 5. I love to be domestic and learn old-school ways of doing things–that’s why I love the Damsel’s blog! I’m happy to [...]
Posted in preserving, Uncategorized on Sep 27th, 2010
Way back last year, the Damsel posted about Making Your Own “Sun-Dried” Tomatoes. She’d dried tomatoes sort of half-heartedly before that, and didn’t know how much she’d use them. (Click the link for directions) A year later, she’s here to tell you she LOVES this method now. She used the dried tomatoes all year long [...]
Posted in home repairs, Uncategorized on Sep 21st, 2010
The Damsel’s sprogs were funny little people. She’s not sure why, but they adored dropping things out of the upstairs windows. In fact, at any point in 2003, you could walk around her house and find little piles of household objects directly under the 2nd story windows. The Damsel now wipes a tear away, since [...]
Posted in bedding, Uncategorized on Sep 10th, 2010
You’re at the store, looking at new sheets. The packages proclaim mystifying numbers: 200 count, 600 count. One even says 1000 count. What does it all mean? In modern bedding, this number refers to the number of threads, per inch, that make up its weave. The higher the number, the more threads. A low number [...]
Posted in clothing, thrifty, Uncategorized on Aug 28th, 2010
First, let’s talk about this. What do you use Febreeze for? Be honest. You use Febreeze to make stinky fabric things smell better. Febreeze works by binding the stink molecules to itself, rendering them unsmellable. It also adds a scent of its own. It doesn’t remove the stink–it’s simply bound up and covered over. Still, [...]
Posted in reviews, Uncategorized on Aug 16th, 2010
CSN Stores recently sent the Damsel a Henckels Santoku kitchen knife and asked her to review it. CSN is pretty amazing. They sell nearly everything, from table lamps to toys to furniture to purses. The Damsel was excited to try the knife, because she’d heard people say cooking with a good knife is dreamy. The [...]
Posted in preserving, Uncategorized on Jul 27th, 2010
Get ready for a SERIOUSLY old-school skill. When you make jam or jelly, you need something to make it jell. Most folks use commercial pectin–a product extracted from fruit–usually powdered (although liquid pectin is available). But. BUT. What if it was doomsday and there was no pectin in the stores? WHAT WOULD WE DO????? The [...]
Posted in preserving, Uncategorized on Jul 23rd, 2010
Freezing raspberries is as easy as kindergarten. The Damsel would like to gently insist that you flash freeze your raspberry treasure. Do it this way: 1. Wash the berries. This means put them into a strainer and rinse well with cold water. 2. Let them drain a bit. 3. Spread them out in a single [...]
