Now that spring has officially sprung, we find ourselves ready for new projects, around our houses and outside. We keep coming back to our friend Kate Payne’s The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking
The books covers a ton of ground, from what you need to stock your home (and how to make your own resources) to the basics of easy, stylish home design. She has trouble-shooting options for virtually any common home mishap. It was Kate’s blog, of the same name, that we turned to last week when we needed instructions for how to hang pegboard in your kitchen.
Some of our favorite springtime gems from Kate’s guide include, her how-to on setting up your own bucket garden;
photo: kate payne
…her advice on the best kind of plant-starts, and dresser drawer plant beds;
photo: kate payne
and her easy instructions for first-time canners who want to preserve the fruits and veggies that are about to start popping up…
photo: kate payne
But she has so much more indispensable knowledge to share, like general rules for freezing foods and how to choose the best (and safest) home cleansers.
One of our favorites: Eight Fun Things to Do With a Loaf of Homemade Bread:
#1: Eat it all immediately.
photo: Kate Payne
We want to give Kate’s book a good home with someone looking for some guidance! In the comments, tell us what project around the house or in your garden you’re most looking forward to tackling this spring/summer, and we will randomly choose a commenter to receive a free copy of this great book.
Since we’re going to be moving, we’re going to give this giveaway a month: Deadline May 19, Midnight.
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I want to grow some food in my backyard. I haven’t figuredquite what yet, but something edible will be grown this summer!
I’m determined to get all the enormous stacks of books off the floor and into improvised bookcases/shelves this summer. HOWEVER. . . I’m in need of inspiration!
Old crates stacked high? Glass blocks with fabric-covered plywood? Nothing feels right. . .yet.
I wil install 10 – 8′ poles vertically into the ground surrounding our 12 big, mature blueberry bushes. Next, in June, before the berries are mature, Carl and I will crow-proof the entire blueberry patch by wrapping the area outlined by posts in netting—including the top. Using the “Hip-Girls Guide….,” I will learn to tie the knots to secure the door enclosure. A secure door helps everyone—friends, neighbors and ourselves— to easily enter the berry patch, pick the berries while keeping the birds out.
Why not do a search of “bookshelves” on ‘the improvised life’? We’ve got tons if ideas.
I am going to try to tame the mint that is taking over my garden. I suspect it may win!
I am looking forward to baking the cookies that will be the favors for my wedding. Snickerdoodles from the Fanny Farmer Baking Book and Chocolate Chip cookies from the Splendid Table radio show/website!
I have a garden that I plant like the French Potagier. It has been extremely successful in our 16×16 garden. Last year I added blueberry bushes and raspberry bushes and a grape vine to the perimeter. This year I hope to espiliar (sp) an apple tree on the fence line and move my herb bed. Wish me luck! My secret (not so secret) dream is to add a chicken coop!
Build my pergola – if I can ever figure out how to anchor those posts!
I am going to rehab my studio. I’m hoping to create an environment to nurture my creativity!
I can’t wait to make apple and pear chutney. Have been making with a friend for three years. now. We have expanded to dilly beans and sweet zucchini relish. Going to try onion jelly this year.
Growing spaghetti squash for the first time. And fixing the beds along my sidewalk.
i’d like to paint the living room and kitchen walls and put up some bookcases to get my ever-expanding collection of books off the floor.
I am looking forward to so many things this summer! It’s difficult to pick one. I guess I’m most looking forward to developing my flower gardens so that when I walk up tp my house I love the way it looks.
I’m looking forward to starting a wildflower garden.
I’m looking forward to building a flagstone patio this summer!
I’m most excited about expanding my balcony garden – lots of yummy veg to grow and eat this summer.
I am looking forward to some veggies I have recycled in my container garden cut off ends of celery and lettuce and pinapple and onions ect.And my compost pile getting ready to be put to use
This summer I hope to grow enough rhubarb for a pie, enough raspberries for jam, and enough veggies to can a few and make a giant batch of tomato sauce. Kate is such an inspiration – can’t believe I don’t have the book yet… thanks for the chance to win!
I am looking forward to tearing out an old furnace that fills my front door area and building shelves galore to contain everything from canning to shoes to coats! Talking all-purpose mudroom/pantry. My goal is to reuse as many of the materials as possible. Another big goal for me this summer is to learn to can!
My girlfriend and I are moving into our first place together this summer and it’s huge! I’m excited for so many things…decorating, setting up our kitchen, stocking our pantries, growing herbs on the deck, and trying my hand at canning for the first time.
In the garden I’m most looking forward to making Clove Pinks Syrup. In the house, I’m most looking forward to finishing a pair of curtains, so that I may start on blouses & skirts!
My biggest project this summer is getting rid of a whole room of stuff after my plunge into minimalism.
I’m learning how to can this year!
I’ve wanted to try my hand at canning for the longest time! I just feel like I need to read up on the subject more before I venture into the unknown. I also want to fix up my apartment patio with some planters and make my own little oasis/garden for juicing!
Amazing giveaway! I’ve been wanting this book for a year. I’m number 85 waiting for it at the library.
This spring/summer, I’m really excited to try fermentation. I started canning last year and I’m obsessed, and I thought fermentation would b a good addition!
Grow a vegetable garden!
I have never been great at setting up and organizing my home especially after a move. We moved into our apartment approximately 3 years ago. Since then I’ve received several loads of my stuff being returned to me by various friends who were gracious to store it for me. Of course I did receive my stuff after I had organized and set everything else up in the house to run nicely. The last batch of items I have had for about a year and have neither found the motivation nor time nor desire nor inspiration let alone no ideas on how to organize it in a way that he can be used at a moments notice. I would love to try the ideas in the book and see how inspired I might get from what the author has written and/or suggested on how to set up and organize items. Thank you for steering me out. Good luck to all of us who have entered the contest.
We are planning to turn our entire yard into an edible yard, including the front yard. We started last year, by putting in a veg garden, adding chickens and a cobb oven. Then last fall we planted garlic around our front walkway.
This year we’ve expanded our garden, have added hops to our yard (my husband brews), have added a “biscuit stove”, have increased our chicken flock and are planning to add berry bushes and fruit trees.
It’s a slow process, but we hope to use the Dervaes family in Pasadena as a role-model and keep extending what we raise and grow each year!
I’m looking forward to weeding my small garlic patch.
I am going to strip and repaint our wrought iron porch railings. They’ve been black forever, but I decided on bright safety red!
I’m looking forward to figuring out which of my outdoor plants can winter over in our new bedroom.
My project is starting an herb garden on the terrace. This year — it will happen!
I’m going to build a bamboo fence with all the bamboo that is taking over my yard.
I’m really looking forward to smoking some meats, pickling everything I can get my hands on, and growing some really tasty and colorful edible flowers. Yay food fun!
I’d like to finally make real fermented pickles, in addition to my usual vinegar pickled ones
Planning to build raised garden beds in the backyard – the funkier the better.
Also have a shady corner I want the transform into a “secret garden”.
Painting the worn, faded picket fence would signify life behind it. And roses! I can never grow roses! Too cold? Too shady.
Remember to harvest the currants.
Go swimming every day!
I’ve started a couple pots of morning glories and am building little trellaces to line the insides of my sunny bedroom windows. They are starting to come up, and I’m looking to bedroom windows lined with morning glory vines!
I cannot wait to get into my garage and clean out the leftovers from all my projects from this past semester. It’s time to reclaim my space!
I am looking forward to making end of the season Citrus marmalade from our grapefruit, orange and key lime trees. I might even throw in some jalapeños!
I have the worst black thumb, and I would love to see what she says about keeping an herb garden alive!
I’ve moved into a small space and dumped about 2/3 of my possessions. I’m still learning how to utilize the space. The hardest part is decorating: How to display the things I love without over crowding. How to be clean clear, simple, functional, and not just look sparce or poverty stricken.
Hey, I’m a stay at home dad with three boys….and boy do I have some projects to tackle and probably top of the list would be to get my garden producing. So thanks for the freebie opportunity and i’ll look forward to more you’re terrific postings
This summer is shaping up to be a very big one with a short move involved. I am a single mother and my family have been in a housing program which when we complete it this June will see us with a section 8 voucher after 8 years of being homeless. We will move into a slightly larger apartment that I will need to make functional at a very low cost. WE are living on $475.oo a month total cash income and I need to make all things work with that. So I will be pulling 58 years of experience together in making everything I can from donated materials or things purchased at very low cost. I will be up-cycling, recycling, re-purposing or scratch building things in a rented garage with a girlfriend where we will be trying to make things we can sell to people just like ourselves that will be high quality and low cost. Our goal is to build our selves a small business and at the same time help build a community within our apartment complex.
I’m going to install a drip irrigation system (to go with the rainwater harvesting tank I’ve installed) for the front garden. And mulch the front. And plant it with lots of drought tolerant native plants.