What To Do With Too-Small Onesies

I've been in a massive cleaning and purging mode over the last few weeks, which has felt AWESOME.  One thing I've run into though is too much of one thing (baby onesies that don't fit a growing-taller baby, for example) and not enough of another thing (t-shirts that don't swallow said baby whole).

So I had the idea - why not just upcycle onesies into toddler t-shirts?

No sewing required.

Just snip straight across the bottom of onesie ... aaaaaaand, you're done.  Because onesies are made of knit fabric, they don't fray.  They'll roll up a bit with wash and wear, but won't come unraveled.  

You know I hate throwing anything possibly useful away.  So, thanks to an idea from my neighbor, the leftover bottom parts of the onesies are now going to be fine motor skill training experiences.  I trimmed off the excess fabric and left just the thick trim with the snaps.  Big Sister will LOVE this on our next car ride, I just know it.  Snap, unsnap, snap, unsnap, snap, unsnap.  I bet it will keep her occupied for at least 3 1/2 minutes.

Our CSA (Alternative)

I love the idea of a CSA ("Community Supported Agriculture") box - a farm subscription for a season that provides us with fresh and local produce while at the same time gives a farm a reliable source of income.  Seriously - I love it.

Kale buds: yummy on salads.  Also, very random.

But we've never done a CSA before.  Instead, we came up with an idea last summer that works for us.  I like to think of it as my CSAlternative.  A bonus is that we have a little more autonomy over what we get each week, and we don't have to shell out hundreds of dollars up front for things we may or may not really want.

We take $20 per week out of our grocery budget and put it in a farmer's market budget.  (I literally do this with cash ... I find that I like the more tangible presence or absence of cash when it comes to budgeting).  Every weekend, we go to our little market and make ourselves spend our money.  To be quite honest, it was a little tough at first ... $4 for a head of lettuce made me want to shriek in agony.  But we made ourselves get on board with spending our cash - because, after all, it is farmer's market money ... just a few dollars here and there throughout the market, until we were out of money and had a few new things to try.

It definitely doesn't get us through the whole week, or let us try everything we might see.  But it does make it possible for us to be consistent at a farmer's market on a pretty tight food budget.  And $20 is pretty do-able, right?

It's worked out nicely that if we travel, we can just try a different farmer's market.  In the winter, we spent our market cash on other local goodies (or hot chocolate from the cafe near the market).

It's just a little thing, but it's worked for us.  Maybe one day we'll venture into joining a real CSA, but for now we're satisfied with our alternative.

The Story Behind Unconvenience

This business of going all "Unconvenienced" started with a coffee pot.

Or, more precisely, without a coffee pot.  Once upon a time, our nice high-end wedding present of a coffee maker got a short in it and went on the fritz (i.e., it started melting from the inside of the display and caught ever so slightly on fire before we unplugged it).  At the time, the Mister was in graduate school, I had quit working to stay home with our kiddo, and we didn't have the space in our budget to replace said coffee maker.  So like any resourceful outdoor enthusiasts would do, we raided our bin of camping gear and resurfaced with a sturdy french press.

Sure, making coffee with a french press required more time and energy than we had spent on coffee prep before.  But the coffee was SO good (noticeably, outrageously delicious) that we decided we didn't mind the extra steps it took.  There was something we actually enjoyed about taking some steps "backwards" - that is, away from the nice convenience of a coffee pot with a timer and brew strength button - that made it feel like more of an accomplishment and less of a hassle.

That was the start of the Unconvenient for us.

We hear that it's good to "unwind" after a stressful time, that occasionally "unplugging" from technology is helpful ... so, reaching for the "Unconvenient" isn't really that much of a stretch.  Unconvenient - not inconvenient, but Unconvenient.  Backing away from Convenient.

There are so many things that I assume have to be a certain way - how I buy my groceries and prepare food, for example - that Unconveniencing myself requires something to jolt me out of my routine (like a coffee pot catching slightly on fire) and finding other - possibly slower or harder - alternatives.

Don't read into this too much to think that I believe Convenience is bad.  I LOVE my washing machine, a grocery store where I can buy produce and packaging tape at the same time, and a car to get around in.  But my two little words for this year - "intentional" and "simple" - have got me thinking that quicker is not always simpler, and more often than not convenience is the enemy of my intentionality.

Oddly enough, I think some of the Unconveniences in my life that make me slow down or spend more time on things are really, really great ... because they make me slow down and spend more time on things.  

So, there you have it: the Unconvenient Truth.

PS.  Also, this is not a rage against coffee makers.  I love coffee from any source.  And I would love to have a cup with you sometime, friend.