Any yarn you can spin, I can spin thinner...

I have been boasting for some decades now that I can get the wool from a sheep's back on a man's back. That is, I can shear sheep, spin the wool, dye it, weave it, knit, crochet, and dozens other ways of making things from fibers, I can felt wool, and I can sew. And I know how to handle linen and nettles as well. To me making a suit is not a challenge. It's what I am trained to do. I could have been one of his teachers :-D

But making my own tools?

I could be making my own spinning wheel and loom, and other tools like that... what about needles? 

Also, I haven't worked with cotton. I wonder how different that would be, and if it was any idea of me to do that, because I live in Sweden. 

I don't want to work with silk, though. 

Then there are the accessories. He made a belt of deer skin he was part of hunting, and that he tanned himself. So, I'll need to add hunting, butchering, tanning, and leather work to my list.

Basically, how to use every bit of an animal. I mean, the step isn't that big.

Also shoes, socks, hosery, belts and bags, gloves, scarfs, and hats. And jewelry. :-D

Anything you can do, I can do, too!

 So... the tools and equipment needed to make a sandwich, could I do that?

For bread... hmm...

- farming equipment... what is the minimum for growing wheat? 

I'd need a hoe. 10 square foot farm area is possible to prepare with just a hoe. I think I'd like a rake, too.
It's possible to make both of wood, but I would prefer a metal one.
So, for that, I'd need some metal and wood... and I could collect iron ore and create a kiln of some sort... 

I can make the dough on the table (or any flat surface), but I'd prefer a bowl. So ceramics. Collecting and cleaning clay, and then some sort of kiln for that :-D I suppose it needs to be different from the iron kiln. 

Then I would need an oven. Again, it's possible to build an oven of clay. 

I would need some sort of pail or bowl to collect the milk in, and to make the sourdough/yeast. 

I think I'd like a tin bucket for the milk, and glass jar for the sourdough. I don't have the slightest idea if glass jars are even possible... But, why not. I have always wanted to learn to blow glass :-D
Until then, a ceramic jar is adequate.

The same with vinegar.

I would need some sort of cooking pot or kettle to boil sugar and salt, and some sort of strainer... I wonder if cloth would do, or do I need to draw metal thread and weave a net?

I would need a mortar and pestle. Ceramic one should do. Or maybe I need to make it of stone :-D
(I know how to polish stones for jewelry, I suppose mortar requires a little different techniques.)

Frankly, THIS impresses me more than growing and processing wheat :-D

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better...

 So... I found this YouTube channel, "How to Make Everything", and... er...

Well. 

OK, then. 

Let's make a sandwich from scratch. I mean, scratch.

I want a BLT.

So... I'll need bread, mayo, bacon, tomatoes and lettuce. And salt and pepper.

For bread, I'll need
- flour
- milk
- water
- butter
- sugar
- salt
- yeast

To get enough flour for a loaf of bread, I'll need about 10 square feet of wheat.

To get enough milk, I'll need a cow or a goat. I know how to milk. 

To get enough water, I'll need... would I need to find a fresh water spring, dig a well, or learn plumbing? Or would it be enough to use the water that is already accessible? Like with cows, I'm not going to buy a cow for a cup of milk. I have had milk goats, I know what it takes to take care of goats.

To get butter, I'll need the milk :-D

To get sugar, I'll need sugar beets. 

To get salt, I'll need the ocean.

To get yeast, I'll need sourdough. To get sourdough, I'll need some flour and water. Maybe some sugar, or fruit, or something... Hmm...

For mayo, I'll need
- eggs
- vinegar
- mustard
- oil

To get eggs, I need hens. 

To get vinegar, I need some sort of juice and a vinegar mother. I think the easiest is to take apples. I wonder if it would be enough to just pick apples, or do I need to grow an appletree from seeds :-D
(I know how to do that, too.)

To get mustard, you need mustard seeds and water. You can use beer, and add honey, vinegar, and perhaps some turmeric to dye it yellow, and add a bit of flavor. I can grow turmeric.

I think I'll brew some cider. 

To get honey, you need bees. I don't know beekeeping, but it's on my to do -list ;-)

Oil, then... I'll need some oil producing seeds or nuts, and an oil press. They make these small hand cranked table presses, but basically, if you make nut butter, and let it stand, the oil will separate and float on the top, and it's just to pour it out and use it. So one doesn't really need an oil press. A mortar and pestle are quit enough.
Now, we don't get groundnuts in Sweden :-D But there's rapeseed, linseed, sunflowers, hazelnuts, hemp... 
And, actually, you can use ghee to make mayonnaise. Any liquid fat is fine. You can make mayo out of bacon fat, if you like.

Which leads us to bacon.

To get bacon, I'll need a pig, and I need to kill the pig, and process the corpse.

I'll need curing salt, and that... I think you get sodium nitrate and nitrite by... mining... and doing stuffs... chemistry and so on. And I think that is a bit too dangerous considering that I'm going to eat that thing, and if I don't get it right, I assume I could be killing myself. So better buy the curing salt ready... mined and chemistry stuffs doned. :-D I assume curing your own bacon is hard core enough for this challenge.

Now, I haven't cured my own meat yet, but that, too, is on my to do -list.

I'll need also sugar and spices. Black pepper... I can't go and pick it from trees, so I suppose I'm allowed to use the black pepper one buys from store. But paprika powder. It's just sweet peppers dried and ground.

Tomatoes and lettuce grow in the garden, so that's an easy piece.

Now, if I'd want some cheese and ham on the bread, in stead of bacon?

Then I'd use the ham of the pig to make ham. I've done that.

And some more milk to make the cheese. I have done soft cheese, but not hard cheese, so that would be a challenge.

Cheat day

 I was watching Supersize vs Superskinny, and I saw Helen get up in the middle of the night, walk to the kitchen and take a bowl of cereals with cream and sugar. I love cream. I love cereals. I want that!

Then she eats brown sauce on toast. I don't think I'd like that, but a toast sounds nice. :-)

A couple of bars of chocolate (like 5 I guess) - I love chocolate bars!

Energy drink. No thank you. A glass of milk with that chocolate would be better.

3-4 bags of crisps. Now, British crisp bags are smaller than our Swedish ones, so perhaps just one bag of crisps.

On the video, she was having some sort of cupcake there as part of the "couple of bars of chocolate" - I think I'd like a mazarin or two...

and in the show she woke up her partner in the middle of the night with some pastry and a package of biscuits... 

And get all this on a tray and sit in a comfy chair all cuddly in a soft blanket and watch my favorite tv show...

And then, when her kids have left for school, she sits on her bed, watches more television, and enjoys her "breakfast". There's a couple of bags of crisps, chocolate bars, chocolate fingers, some sort of strawberry cakes, energy drinks, and then she'll have some sort of savory pastry. Basically repeat of the night.

In the "house", she serves Elaine, her partner, first Chinese takeaway leftovers for breakfast.

As lunch, she has a couple of energy drinks and a package of chocolate fingers. Nah. I'll take that Chinese takeway as lunch :-D (With dessert, of course)

As dinner she'll have pizza, and more energy drinks. 

As supper, there's kebab, chips and onion rings.

Now, I know this is not a sane way of eating at all, but the night raids are like a kid's dream! So I want to try it, once in a lifetime. 

I'm going to add one of my own dreams from when I was a child. I used to buy pick'n'mix candy, go to the library, and sit hours in a comfy chair and read and eat candy. 

Hello, my darlings!

 A new year... 

I know 1st of January is just a random day among all the other equal days, but 1.1. has magic. It feels like one is taking the first step of a whole new game. After all, no-one knows what will happen the next 365 days... 

So. Let's do things a bit differently this time.

1)

a) Write down all the things you'd love to know more about, you'd love to do, experience, try, that you enjoy doing, get excited when you read or see someone else doing.
Really, ALL. The more the merrier. If you get to 1000 things, I want to know what you have on your list!
Go through the list and remove the things you aren't that interested, really. Choose the things that, if someone ringed the doorbell tomorrow and told you, that you have been chosen in random to participate in this "thing", you'd say "yes!"

I choose all the things in my Pinterest boards and all my blogs :-D

b)

There is 8760 hours in year 2021.
Adults work approximately 40 hours a week, that's 2080 hours a year
Adults should sleep 8 hours a night, and that's 2920 hours a year
That leaves 3760 hours for other things. Of course, you will be using about half of that to things like transport, toilet visits, washing yourself, cleaning, eating, and other things like that, but it is also possible for you to do other things while doing those things, so I'll just ignore them. There's quite a little things that demand your 100% attention, or where you can't do other things at the time. 

Anyway, that leaves you 10 hours every day to do what ever you want to...

Divide the hours with the things you want to do, and dedicate that amount to each of the things.
Let's say there's the following things on your list:

- learn to dance tango
- streamline holiday decorations etc.
- write a book
- illustrate a book
- translate a book
- learn kitchen etching
- write a movie script
- design patterns
- create wardrobe
- make a corset
- make miss Fisher doll
- balcony
- box of chocolates
- get better with French and German
- practice guitar playing
- illustrate a divination card deck
- baking
- arts
- crafts
- photography

You could use a "school day model" - divide the day's 10 hours to these subjects, for example, you write 1 hour, sew 1 hour, design 1 hour, make art 1 hour, craft 1 hour etc.

If you are like me, you aren't much interested in more than 1-2 subjects / season, and I would then divide the whole amount of hour with everything here; 188 hours per subject. Divided as one feels like it. That would be about 2 1/2 weeks courses when everything is about one subject. 

There are some things on this list that would do fine with such time plan, but some others would not. Like languages. You should give each language at least 15 minutes every day. Also, I think guitar playing would do well with 15 minutes a day. 

Some things here are easier to do while doing other things. You can watch television while crafting, and practice languages while brushing your teeth, and you can listen to audiobooks while you do arts and baking and such.

Other things to consider:

What about the 52 week money challenge?
Adjust it for your purposes. You can count up from $1 to $52, or down from $52 to $1. You can divide the whole sum ($1378) to 52 equal amounts, and save $26,5 every week - or more or less, as fits your budget. You could save as much as you can up to $50 every week. For me it would be best if I saved $50 every time I get my salary (twice a month) and then what I can the weeks I don't get my salary. (That would mean I save $7 dollars every week I don't get my salary, and end up with $20 more :-D
It wouldn't be too noticeable in my budget, but the $1400 in December would be a very nice bonus indeed :-D

"Stretch your comfort zone by taking on a new challenge–or doing something differently than you normally do– every day for a year."
Maybe write a list of 365 things you are scared of, and do them?