What do you make? Interested in what people make here...

Hey everyone,

I am not a very active poster here... more of a lurker.

I had a long conversation with a friend of mine about the lost art of making things yourself. Whatever it is... craft, food, lotion, potion, whatever. Something that you make yourself...

I was curious what people here make themselves?

I will try to make anything even remotely resembling home decor. The fancier and the more challenging, the better.

I'm in the process of transforming the boring guest bedroom into an opulent oasis. All because I found a bed crown at a yard sale lol! Can't have a fancy, to-die-for, bed crown in a boring room, now can we?

So far I've made several austrian panels and valances for the windows, and the same for the bed crown. I'm awaiting the arrival of a ceiling medallion that I will paint up to set off the chandelier (not ordered yet) and the colors in the bed crown and possibly the colors in the room. I will use a tapestry type wall hanging that I made several years ago for the decor on one of the walls. It has cording and tassels that drape from it. I may incorporate matching cording and tassels into the curtain setups as well; jury's still out on that.

The bedspread is due to arrive sometime this week; I toyed with the idea of making one but thought better of it. I may in the future. The one I bought has a style that will perfectly tie in with the curtains I made and would have been a total pain to create myself.

The bedskirt is still an uncertainty. I need to see the bedspread on the bed first. It's something I could very easily make. I did find one at a yard sale that's the right color, but not sure I like the style that much. It's a bit more shabby chic than I want. It only cost me $3 so I'm not out much lol! If I don't like it, it will be lovingly donated to a local charity organization and live its life somewhere else.

I'm also in the process of designing an exquisite wardrobe for two dolls I found at a yard sale. They will each have at least 5 of the fanciest wedding dresses and wedding accessories I can dream up, plus other clothes and accessories.

Ps: I do NOT usually spend money like I'm doing right now. Since we moved here several years ago, I haven't done any decorating. The bed crown changed all that. I cut corners everywhere I can, both because we aren't wealthy, and because I sooo enjoy a challenge to make something totally gorgeous for a fraction of what it would cost new.

I can't resist going into the guest room several times daily just to look at how beautiful it has become so far. I love it!

Pss: One thing that made my heart sing was when I looked at the facebook page of the people who bought our last home and saw some of my handmade fancy decor was still there and being loved lol!

I've made clothes, quilts, bags, cushions, curtains and other things (sewing).
I've made hats, scarves, socks, blankets, washcloths and other things (knitting, crocheting).
I've made earrings and other jewelry, hair bows, elastic headbands, keychains, wallets, and other little crafty items.
I've made lip balm, sugar scrubs, salt scrubs, shaving cream, lotion bars, face oil, and hair care products.
I've made wildcrafted tea blends, infusions, tinctures, etc.
I built my chicken coop, does that count?

Oh! Homemade cleaning products (all-purpose spray but also things like laundry detergent, dish detergent, and boiling plant material for magical mop water, haha).

I will consider making just about anything, but in particular, I try to make things out of salvaged material to keep it out of the landfill/recycle longer.
1. This spring I made 2 new raised beds out of salvaged pallets.
2. Today I'm having Scarlet Runner Bean dip because Scarlet Runner beans grow more easily in my climate than Chick peas. (and the local humming birds love the flowers)
3. Later I will make Mayonaise out of an egg my chickens laid.
I love to re-purpose (a friend gave me old cotton drapes, so I made shopping bags out of them - a blast from the 1980's)
The reality is that people are so used to seeing things already made, it's hard to realize how to turn on our creative, problem solving brain cells and realize that someone, somewhere thinks up these ideas, so why not us?

Speaking of which, my friend has a lot of trouble with the "safety pin like clip" used to hold her commercial crab bait bags closed. I'm off to sew a pair of plastic buttons on and a loop of fine string to flip over them. I made her one already as a "test" and she's absolutely thrilled with it! The buttons are from my Mother-in-law's button box which I inherited  and if she could see what I'm using them for, I bet she'd be smiling!

I make utility furniture when I need it. I've made shelves and workbenches, stools, etc.

I also make crafts, especially terrain for table-top gaming and cardboard toys for my kids.

I very rarely make anything that doesn't have a use (decoration is not a use) I cook and make 95% of our pickles/jams/tinned tomatoes and other preserves, I make our curtains and very slowly I do socks for him, but slowly they are a long way down the list.
Yesterday we had very light wind, so light we were moving huge pieces of silage plastic around (50m by 12m) we had just folded it up and got some weight on it when the wind picked up, while we were securing the overlap with another piece of plastic the wind picked right up, gusted gale force and took out the pollytunnel. so today we were remaking the pollytunnel from scraps of a previous one we had kept.

Fascinating! thank you for sharing

I am amazed that many make clothing and home décor here.

i guess you mean beyond an ordinary dinner? ‘cuz, dinner.

also, lots of stuff. lots of fermented foods, including various krauts and condiments (the garlic scape relish is recommended), dosas, kishk, etc as well as about ten years of making wild-yeast mead. processing true Camellia sinensis tea. leaching acorns and grinding for flour. processing wild hickory, black walnut, and acorns to press oil (that bit slightly more professionally than other bits of this list). grafts, lots of ‘em. mousetraps. cricket traps. music, improvisational, spontaneous, and planned-out. rockstacks. tea from wild plants. jerky. there’s probably other things i’m not thinking about.

there’s lots more i want to make but haven’t gotten to yet, too.

Between hubs and me (there is some overlapping):
Fermented foods and beverages, charcuterie, cheeses, yogurts, canning, dehydrating, freezing what we grow our buy from very local growers, painting, animal husbandry, learning blacksmithing, all household cleaners/products, all personal hygiene products (except my hair conditioner - working on that), all health/wellness/ remedies (including his cardiac care, my fibro & lupus care), construction, wine, beer, sewing whatever needs doing, felting, learning to produce fiber from the livestock to the crochet hooks, knitting needles, looms...

I am not so professional. LOL

Things we make the artisan way...?
- Soap (from rye).
- Traditional cook.
- Sourdough bread.
- Keffir.
- Some preserves: olives, tomato sauce, chucrut, ...
- I recently made a garden planter out of pallet planks.
- Does dishwashing by hand count?

Abraham Palma wrote:
- Does dishwashing by hand count?

i considered that one, too. i make the kitchen clean!

....periodically.

Skandi Rogers wrote:(decoration is not a use)

That reminds me! I have made Christmas decorations: popcorn garland and punched shapes from orange peels, that kind of thing. For the tree.

Marisa Lee wrote:

Skandi Rogers wrote:(decoration is not a use)

That reminds me! I have made Christmas decorations: popcorn garland and punched shapes from orange peels, that kind of thing. For the tree.

Decoration is what makes the world go 'round (for me anyway) lol!

Recently I've been making tools, spoons, and handmade wooden toys.

My kid's making castles out of bed sheets and mattresses.

Jay Angler wrote:
2. Today I'm having Scarlet Runner Bean dip because Scarlet Runner beans grow more easily in my climate than Chick peas. (and the local humming birds love the flowers)

Have you ever tried Hannan pop-beans? I'm also in the PNW (Vancouver Island) and am trying them this year. I struggled to dry my Scarlet runners this summer.

Edited to add: I make sourdough, jams, booch, cider & wine, hemp milk, lots of ferments like sauerkraut, tempeh, and miso.. I've also built some planters and cold-frames with my girlfriend. But she is the woodworker in our family :). She also makes beautiful lino-print and wood-burned art, including a series of handwritten storybooks with accompanying lino-prints that I've been receiving as gifts for the last couple years! I found a sewing machine on the side of the road that seems to work so I'll be taking lessons in the new year and hopefully begin to make some clothes.

I think I'm pretty typical in making do with what I have by repurposing things.  I don't make things I need around my place from scratch, but rather walk around the place thinking of what I need and seeing what I've already got that might work with just a few tweaks.  As a result, everything is cobbled together out of something else -- but it all seems to function well enough.  

Sometimes I feel I'm a pretty ingenious person for coming up with the fixes I do.  But then there are other times when I look around with the critical eye of someone who isn't into my kind of lifestyle and kind of wince.  You won't find my place in an issue of Better Homes & Garden, that's for sure!

I draw, make bread in our dutch oven (ruin my slim girlish figure), bake cookies and cakes, make birthday cards for the grandchillens, and enjoy visiting with my wife.

One thing I make I call a "runnel".   It's a cross between a riddle and a pun.  Examples:

• Words broken at the end of a line, and connected by a long, wavy hyphen? Pythonated.
• Word for a castrated male goat? Debillytated.
• Why are fire trucks red? 'Cuz they're always Russian around to put out fires. (a very dated joke, stolen from somewhere)

Today's new creation:
• Medical term for a seriously overweight person? Infatuated.

I've been collecting these since I was 30 or 35, have over 200 in a file now. Tried to publish, no-one cared.

....Frustrated in Bonanza...

Inside stuff. Sorting and organizing. Going through old clothes and such and giving them to people or organizations that can distribute them. Quilting, sewing, and mending. Baking and trying new recipes. And laundry, there is always laundry. Plus all the farm chores that have to be done no matter what the weather

I make 'Good Trouble'.
                       In honor of Congressman John Lewis

I make lots of things from wood.  Chicken coops, chicken tractors, dog houses, benches.  I'm not that good at it, so much of the time is spent making long wood into shorter wood.

I can make my  own bread, cakes, and baked goods. I can cook, make granola, yogurt, cheese, ricotta cheese, sauces, soups, and preserve food. I made compost tea, our own composter, designed lettuce tables, and  gardening methods.
I have recipes  and make healthy organic cleaners from Dr Bronner and essential oils, and  laundry soap ( I do the dry mix) . I have made furniture polish before. I have been a textile artist with some weaving, upcyclced. mix media. I have made my own organic deodorant, perfume, tintures, tea mixes, and learned how to roast coffee with a popcorn maker. I have made small potholders, quilts, and can sew by hand, etc. Leather journals. Grind grains for flour. I want to get back to some of them.  I can use looms, and want to learn more, card wool, spin. I cant really think of rest right now. Designed a doll, children's,  book, poems and will be working on a book etc Learned SEO, web design etc

This is a reply to the dog picture, titled "keep your eye on the ball":

Years ago in corporate-technological land, there was a wall poster that said (with appropriate pix):

" Keep --
    *    your ear to the ground;
    *    your eye on the ball;
    *    your shoulder to the wheel.
Now try to work in that position!"

(for what it's worth, certainly less than a cup of coffee...)