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 am determined to find new homes for many of the wonderful things that currently clutter my home. The garden needs my attention, too, so I expect to be busy between volunteer commitments that seem to grow in importance and time!
I can’t wait to turn over my garden and fill it with lovely compost!
Where to start? The big spring project is MARKET GARDEN! Gonna grow til I can’t grow no more and then take it to market. Then when the summer months take hold, I’ll be planning WAY ahead for winter – a massive FALL garden to try to keep fresh produce going as long as possible without a greenhouse (but probably row covers). Maybe foolishly, I’m picturing a Winter Solstice dinner party plucked fresh from the backyard – escarole and onion soup, chard/spinach/arugula salad, hearty whole grain bread, sweet parsnip and carrot crisp for dessert….I CAN DO THIS!
i’m looking forward to freezing some fruit mixes to make sorbet in the middle of the winter–does Kate have recipes for sorbet?
I just moved & I am going to be constructing some vertical gardens from used pallets for my new (tiny) back garden. Cannot wait!!
I’m so looking forward to having a garden. I have started a bunch of herbs in old baskets I got at goodwill since we will be moving in July.
I have a teeny tiny strip of yard that lines my rental. I can’t wait to build a fence to surround part of it and protect my yard from neighbors who are looking for an organically grown treat! I’m also an avid canner and I’m very anxious for the season to start. This book would be super helpful to me!
I want to clean up the garden area and organize my kitchen so I have room to experiment with canning.
I am tackling our back yard and using non-chemical weed killing methods to clear sections for gardening and landscaping. I plan to have the best looking yard in the neighborhood with the biggest veggie garden I can manage.
I plan to use non-chemical methods to de-weed my back yard and plant a HUGE veggie garden of tasty organic treats for my little family. Then I plan to find a local swap to trade out my extras.
Every year I have plans for something during our short summer in the PNW. Last year I added a couple more garden beds, and this year I’m determined to build more structures for vertical gardening. Cukes, squash and whatever else I can grow up, instead of out, to maximize my garden space. I’ve discovered PVC pipe is cheap or free and makes a sturdy structure.
I’m really looking forward to getting serious irrigation put in the garden. Now that we’ve been here two years I feel like I understand the sun patterns and I’m ready to commit. Now, how to do that in addition to having a baby in June? Hmm….
We are in the midst of a huge remodeling of the center of our home- kitchen, eating area, and family room..I’m most looking forward to putting it all back together again and reorganizing cupboards and pantries. I love to pare down what we have and be surrounded by all that I truly cherish.
In the garden I am most looking forward to getting the container part of my garden going…spearmint, clove pinks, wild rose, dill are waiting to go in. Inside, I most look forward to seeing curtains, blanket, & robe being sewn.
I am eagerly looking forward to restoring several old wooden dressers that are currently stored in my garage. Planning to turn them into hanging shelves for the garage.
I look forward to planting where ever I can in my little yard and turning a flower garden into an herb garden in my front yard.
We just bought a home on an acre so we will be converting the shed into a chicken coop, fencing in half an acre of a couple of pigs, planting fruit trees, and of course growing all the veggies I can stand!
I am really looking forward to a visit with my Dad, and phase #3 of Treehouse construction! While he’s here, I hope to have his help making a laundry-line in the backyard.
I strive to brings inspiration and vitality to our modern day in the spirit of the yesteryears. Following my heart, allowing my hands to connect with the soil, to create with natures gifts and bring beauty and light for a more homeopathic, natural, and balanced way of life. Believing our ancestors had it right, I strive to learn, and to create in an environment that fosters the spirit of their ways. Unfortunately so many of their traditions seemed to have been lost in the last generation, so I too am one of the “awakening” trying to learn the re-found knowledge. I’ve began a little business reclaiming material to reclaim our roots. It’s just getting started. But I’m loving every minute of it, and having ideas pop in my head with every ordinary object I see
Looking forward to my first garden this year!
Going to try some old windows and hay bales to get a head start on the garden!
I’m looking forward to raising chickens in our backyard for the first time. We also have our first garden.
I have ripped out almost all of the old carpeting in the house–hello cement floors! I’d like to chip out all the ceramic tile too, for a clean surface throughout the whole house. Lotta work but worth it.
I will be getting a patio and want to plant perennials all around the edges to make it look like a magazine!
My project is to declutter my apartment and this will be an amazing help!
well, since i will be moving this summer, that seems like it will be our biggest project. but my partner and i are most excited about having a strong commitment to pickling and putting up preserves as well as teaching ourselves DIY bike maintenance! first step: new paint jobs. yay!
Looking forward to remodeling the bathroom with new sink, flooring, and counter tops. As well as remodeling the room right next to it. Taking up the carpet and putting down tile flooring. Eventually this room will become the laundry room.
Looking forward to my third year of jarring and preserving our homegrown produce! I really enjoy presefving, once you get the basics down its totally an art form. This year I’m trying my hand at cheesemaking!
I need to redo my son’s room. He’ll be 13 soon and needs a room more suited to a teenager.
painting the basement – not fun! But also building another raised bed in the garden bringing the square footage to 324! I’m going to plant asaragus and rhubarb in it.
I moved hydranga bushes last year and I’m looking forward to redoing the border
I’m still a little nervous canning yet and have just started to garden as organically as possible! I’m glad there’s an opportunity to win this book, it’s on my wishlist!
I am a first time canner and need all the help I can get. My garden could also use some work.
I’m going to master breadmaking!
Painting the new (Dec 2010) vaulted ceiling in our kitchen. Pine v-groove boards with rough cedar box beams.
Can’t decide on stain, whitewash, or ????
Love the tip on what to do with fresh homemade bread!
I just moved into a new place and have COUNTLESS new projects to work on, but I’m really looking forward to getting some things done in the yard first.
Okay, my goal for the spring 2012 is to rearrange my fiber storage in my laundry room. I want my fleeces and yarn stored so that I can see them, but they are protected from bugs! I also want to do this without spending a whole lot of money! So as an avid fan of Improvised Life I am trying so hard to think outside the box! I added to my Amazon wishlist the metal pegboard, that seems to be a wonderful solution for convenient storage, hooks and magnets too!!!
I planted a garden this year for the very first time and I want to learn to preserve some of the fruits of my labor.
Spring is such a great time: all of the new beginnings that occur. I’m looking forward to planting a small vegetable garden in May. Nothing tastes better in late summer than a homegrown tomato! I seem to eat them like candy! I also plan on putting my house on the market early Fall – so any ideas to freshen up a small cottage style Cape circa 1948 would be helpful! Now if there was just a way to increase the number of hours during the weekends….
I think I’ll toggle back and forth between redoing my pantry shelves and recovering a small sofa. The pantry shelves are too deep and dark, and things get lost back there! And the sofa has been banished to the garage when it should be a comfy place to flop near the fireplace. All in due time…
I’m determined to get the clutter out of my closets and into my first tag-sale; and third-floor city apartment or no, to grow some veggies for myself this summer.
I want to start dehydrating. I found an American Harvest snack master at a church rummage sale and am ready to get started!
I am desperate to get my project area organized and decorated. And my closets need help!
Oh – there are so many! Getting the hardscape in our yard finished then actually planting a garden! Then putting windows in the basement to create a new office for me (one without a 2 year old who falls asleep at 7:30 each night rendering the computer useless) that looks out onto the new yard.
I am always happy to get back in the garden in the spring, and less than thrilled about all the cleanup projects on my list, but this year’s big excitement is the chicken coop we are building in anticipation of the backyard chickens that are arriving in May!
I’m still cleaning out the garden debris, and looking forward to planting the vegetable garden, repainting the wooden furniture on my porches, and putting like items together inside the house, and outside.
One little step at a time, I want to clean out, and clean up everything, from the greenhouse to the barn. We have fences to rebuild, the fields to irritate, aging animals who need T LC, and it’s all overwhelming, but gratifying.
In short, I’m looking forward to the joy of making a little progress.
hmmm, summer projects! always enticing! I have this little cabin in the woods and am dreaming about an outside shower. I know I will use a solar bag to heat the water and eco friendly soap but I am still working on the other details. In any event, the idea of watering my little patch while showering, after I finished raking and planting, and looking at the sky, sounds very fulfilling.
Thank you for the consideration.
Like so many others, hard to know where to start, the garden, better planning and more canning and freezing. Clearing the house and basement of clutter so I can get to the things I actually want to use (like my sewing supplies), refinishing floors, painting, not to mention playing with my children (I have this summer off too!!).
For the Hip Girls Guide giveaway….I am attempting to re-do my 11 year old son’s room and make one entire wall dry erase and use astro-turf for carpet .
Losing my home & furry family, now in a shelter working on getting an apartment- I will be utilizing all types of found things to make my space a home. Sustainability is my new style =)