March of the Tools: Marga Mill

Tonight we took a trip to the grocery store and I finally gave in and bought a flour mill (aka wheat grinder). I chose the Marga Mulino mill from Italy (Marcato brand - I suspect mulino is just "mill" in Italian). However, since I'm a little strange and love to experiment, the first thing I milled was not wheat but black beans:

Here is the mill in the only spot in my kitchen that it will clamp to - next to my shallow sink. I had to take out the drawer to get it to work, but I'm glad it fits somewhere. My antique dining table is much too thick to accommodate the c-clamp.

I could have got an electric mill for $100 more (from Blendtec - that guy with the YouTube "Will it Blend?" videos), but there really is something romantic about old technology and doing things by hand. I also could have purchased a Victorio for $5 less, but this one seemed sturdier and had a larger reservoir.

It also came with a fetching little brush. Once you take the top cover off, you can see the top two rollers with their diagonal grooves (I believe this is called knurling). There is one more roller below.

I'm rather excited for all the cooking implications this will have (mushroom bisque, fresh homemade bread, rice flour, ground herbs), but I'm really more excited for non-food (yet non-toxic) experiments. I think the first thing I'll try is some finely milled sea salt to make bath salts. I'd love to try crayons for candlemaking, but they'll probably get smashed in the grooves - the wax is probably better suited to a cheesegrater. It would be pretty interesting to send some paper through and see if I can get a nice texture. If you think of anything for me to try, please leave a comment!

Also, if you get one of these and don't get a manual, I found one on Scribd.

My Latest Article

My latest article, "How to Choose a Pediatrician", has been published in the most recent issue of the Utah Baby Guide. You can read it here.

Or, if you want to bypass a PDF download and the rest of the issue (which is full of great articles), you can read just my article here.

March of the Tools: Ponoko

I'm still planning on posting about the tools I used to make my own baby announcements, but I just happened to stumble upon this amazing website. The possibilities are making me weak in the knees!
Basically, you submit a vector file, and you can have it cut in acrylic, wood, felt, or other materials (37 total!). I REALLY need to spend some quality time getting to know Illustrator.

Also, Ponoko has means for you to sell items you make with their service, sell plans to have other people use in their order, or buy plans from other people (there are also a few free plans). They charge mostly according to how long it takes them to make your item, but they will give you a quote by email when you submit your design.

March of the Tools

If you know me, you know I can hardly resist buying nifty tools. My husband is the same, but goes for the more manly variety. Anyhow, I have decided to participate in Heather Bailey's March of the Tools this year and share some of my favorites with you. I was already planning a post on how I made my own baby announcements and already have a full complement of pictures ready to go.

Project Redux!

I have some fun past projects I'm planning to post here. I'm going to tag them all as project-redux and also have a naming convention for post titles - "Project Redux: _____" First, I'll probably do some re-posts from my collaborative blog with my sister - Two Oh Oh Eight Project(ion)s (we are working on updating the title) since the photos are all ready to go. Then I'm going to start delving into the rest armed with my new DSLR (at least for the ones I haven't given away). If you have requests for anything specific, comment away! Otherwise, I'll probably be pretty random about it.

Spoonflower

Spoonflower is a really neat service that will print fabric with your own custom design. You can upload it and then order it by the yard, or even as 8"x8" swatches or fat quarters. It costs $18/yd. Considering most fabrics at quilt stores retail for $10/yd or more, it's a very reasonable price. I find the prospects very exciting. It's yet another reason for me to hone my graphic design skills.

New Habits

Lately, Alice has had some funny habits that I'm curious about. When I wake her up in the morning, I find her sleeping in front of the door with her pillow and blanket on the floor. Also, she's been leaving a couple of ounces of fluid in her sippy cups whenever she has a drink and refuses to drink the rest, but demands refills. She also is probably quite past ready for serious potty training since she changes her Pull-Ups herself when they are the least bit wet. It's kind of expensive, but I really don't have the time or stamina to begin since I still have a newborn. Maybe in another month.

My First Letter to Congress: A Request for Changes to the Consumer Product Improvement Act (CPSIA)

My brother who spent his summer as a congressional intern informs me that there are quite a few people who write in regularly to their appointed representatives and senators. I am not one of those people. However, it recently came to my attention that there is recent legislation regarding three things near and dear to my heart (children, handmade items, and thrift/vintage shopping) that is a bit heavy-handed. Here is my inaugural letter to Congress (may I be more politically active in the future!):

Please support changes to this law to allow exemption of lead testing for:
* The sale of children's items which were handmade in the US
* The sale of secondhand children's goods

As a parent, it is important to me to have the choice to be able to support small industries and purchase unique items. It is also important for me to be able to buy used items. Children's items are expensive at retail prices, and the new testing requirements will only make this more true.

Although I was appalled at the presence of lead in toys from large-volume retailers, please allow me the discretion of what products I will trust in my home. Such large corporations who outsource manufacturing to China should have done in-house testing. Since they didn't, I would support a government mandate that these corporations be required to have third-party testing. However, I fear this new law will kill the entrepreneurial American spirit in the children's sector and create a monopoly of the market of a few well-established companies. As a parent, I have enjoyed the benefits of many innovative and useful products produced by small companies, and this law as written will seriously hinder the development of such products in the future.

Also, once this law takes effect, many companies I patronize will be forced to declare bankruptcy and go out of business. The closure of numerous small-scale manufacturers and secondhand retailers at the same time will surely be a difficult blow to an already-crippled economy.

I believe that the exemption from testing for the sectors mentioned above (secondhand retailers and small-scale US-based operations) is the best solution to remedy this situation. If this is not possible, some inferior remedies that would still be helpful would be:

* allow for products to be labeled and sold as "not tested lead-free" in lieu of expensive third-party testing
* require testing of raw materials (i.e. paints, textiles, woods) rather than end-user products

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Note: I did actually submit this letter through the proper channels rather than just posting it on my backwoods blog. If you would like further information about this law, visit http://www.coolmompicks.com/savehandmade/ and http://nationalbankruptcyday.com/

Hello Again

I think it's perhaps time for me to try to be a blogger again. Hello, world.