I make lots of things myself!
Thanks for such a positive response to my posts 100 Things You Can Make Yourself and 100 More Things You Can Make Yourself. The comments are fun and the response has been overwhelming. Over 50 Diggs! I’m saddened by the amount of people who are cutting and pasting the list to their own blogs. I ask you please not to cut and paste my content to your blogs, thanks. It took me hours to compile those list and for you to just cut and paste it minimizes all the work I put into it. It’s such a personal violation, not to mention poor blog etiquette.
But that’s not what this is about. I received several emails asking me how many of those things I make myself, or if I do a lot of making “from scratch.”
I do make some things myself and I’m getting braver about how far I’ll venture into DIY territory. Suffice it to say that I make my own salsa and spaghetti sauce from tomatoes I grow myself. I make my own guacamole and chocolate chip cookies, and just about all of my baking is from scratch. I crochet lots of things, I especially love to make ponchos and afghans and even do a little cross stitch. I made a beautiful heirloom tablecloth for my sister one year.
Every summer I harvest my own annual seeds.
Before my husband was an accountant he was a carpenter and he still does plenty of the work here himself. I have homemade end tables, coffee tables and desks and don’t have to pay for the labor going into our house.
I encourage my five year old son to make stuff himself too. We started out small and painted water bottle vases for the Grandmas and made popsicle stick jewelry boxes. From there we graduated to scrap wood napkin holders and remote control holders.
For the person who felt it was unreasonable to expect someone to build a house, my brother in law built three big, beautiful homes and my younger brother built his family house.
For me it’s not necessarily about being frugal or cheap, it’s more about the satisfaction one gets from making something with one’s own hands.
The point of my lists are to inspire you to think of things you can do on your own, and do them. You’re only limited by your imagination.
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POSTED IN: Around the House, Crafty Solutions, Doing it Yourself, Eco Simplicity, General, Reusing and Recycling, Simple Pleasures, Simpler Thinking
9 opinions for I make lots of things myself!
Dave
Aug 20, 2007 at 8:48 am
“I ask you please not to cut and paste my content to your blogs, thanks.”
I don’t think anybody did this to be malicious or diminish your work. It was such a powerful list that people wanted to spread it virally. That should drive more traffic to you ultimately.
But it is your work, so if you want to be independent and part of “your” gang (blog roll), we can respect that even if we disagree.
Deborah Ng
Aug 20, 2007 at 8:55 am
Dave, if people want to spread the word they’re welcome to offer up a quote with attribution. To take my whole list and paste it to your blog is just wrong.
Andrew
Aug 20, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Deborah, I agree with you 100%. And I loved both your lists. Sadly, too many users out there are looking for a quick blogging buck, so they set up a crappy blog, and just cut and paste other bloggers’ words, adding a link sometimes as attribution. But yeah, it’s pure plagiarism.
And I know what you mean about the satisfaction of doing it yourself. I would love to be able to build a house or add on a room or something like that. But I’m barely adept at hanging a simple picture on the wall. Maybe one day I’ll take some classes or befriend a carpenter just to be his free intern to get that satisfaction. :)
I also wanted to let you know that I enjoy your blog so much, I just tagged you for a million dollar meme if you’re interested: http://www.everybodylovescoupons.com/2007/08/20/if-i-had-a-million-dollars/
Jennifer
Aug 21, 2007 at 12:10 am
“For me it’s not necessarily about being frugal or cheap, it’s more about the satisfaction one gets from making something with one’s own hands.”
I agree, there are varying levels of DIY. I make homemade bread often. Is it cheaper; not usually because I use organic items but will my son remember the time together making bread for the rest of his life. Probably. People can make things because it’s cheaper, better, healthier, more sustainable, or just plain fun. Sometimes you get lucky and it’s all of the above.
There are a million good reasons (or at least 200 now) to try to make something yourself and far less not to. I think what’s important to recognize about these lists you posted is that many of them can be done as a family or as a parent with a child. DIY project stand out for that reason, I think, most of all.
Great series of posts.
Michelle Gartner
Aug 21, 2007 at 12:19 am
Oh no Deb- I am sorry that it was cut and pasted with links and all that. It’s a lot of work to do a monster post like that, I was wondering myself how long it took you to do and then you came out with another. One of the reasons- I posted on it was to get it out there- but I agree with you- No one has the right to grab your posts and links and reproduce them like that.
I see someone tagged you already- I wanted to tag you for a really short and sweet meme. Stick it in your que if you run out of ideas- but obviously you don’t have that problem lately.
The tag is for Moolanomy My One Piece of Money Advice Meme. Short and sweet meme- give us all your best piece of money advice or a good money story. -Michelle
Amy
Aug 21, 2007 at 5:37 am
Deb,
I am so sorry that happened to you! How horrible. People have no idea what work goes into posts like this. I was so impressed with these and I hope that I was able to drive some traffic your way. Congrats on the Diggs and keep up the great work!!
marye
Aug 21, 2007 at 11:12 am
i thought there were lots of good ideas there…and I love being self sufficient..You never know when God will snap His fingers and science will cease to exist..YEAH! Try to figure out how to make a twinkie then!
Seriously..great list. And the less we depend on others to fill our needs the better it is for our finances and the environment…and our self esteem
Sabra
Aug 21, 2007 at 1:18 pm
They are fascinating lists for sure, and I’d bet you could make another two or three like them if you wanted. If you have the desire and can get the skills, you can make darn near anything on your own.
When my middle child was a newborn, she was so tiny I had to crochet her clothes just so she’d have something to wear; there were few preemie-sized things available & we didn’t exactly have a lot of spare cash. It is wonderful to have these things to look back on now and marvel at how far she’s come…Not to mention that I can pass down a lot of the larger things I’ve made her & her sisters.
Christa
Aug 23, 2007 at 5:59 am
Hi Deborah
I work for VideoJug.com and wanted to say thank you for featuring a link to our Chicken Nuggests video recipe in your ‘100 Things you can make yourself’ - you’re lists are great! You’ll see simplythrifty.com is listed as the top referring site to this recipie.
Please feel free to feature more of our food and drinks recipies, DIY, gardening and others you like. We also have some video advice on living cheaply http://www.videojug.com/tag/living-cheaply.
Thanks again, Christa.
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