Oops, have you machine-washed a sweater or handmade socks that weren’t supposed to go in the washer? Never fear, felt is a wonderful crafting material. You can crawl the web all day for craft ideas, but for toy food patterns, visit Premeditated Leftovers.
 
Christine Tolhurst did the searching for you.
 

 
Buying large quantites of food on sale can help your food budget, provided you eat it on time. Organizing your food in the order in which you need to eat it can help you rotate stock just like the grocery store, and beat that “best before” date. Visit Jillee for methods of rotating a full pantry.
 
Because money tastes good.
 

Let’s talk about an American clothing company called Imogene + Willie. Matt and Carrie Edmonson started their family-run business by updating the factory of Carrie’s family in Kentucky. Their American-made jeans are worth washing properly (or rarely washing). In this video, Cotton, Inc. interviews Carrie and Matt.
 
Read Imogene + Willie’s story
 

 
Simple living means you watch over your time and protect yourself from constant distractions, choosing when to engage media instead of letting it decide for you. It means using your whole brain, including the parts that you may have neglected since getting a tablet, like your five senses. Crystal Ellefsen is discussing how to ingrain this philosphy in her children.
 
Consider The Art of Simple for children.
 

 
Women unite! We are facing a global chocolate shortage. Climate change has hurt the reliability of cocoa crops so farmers are switching to more stable ones. Demand for luxury food is also going up as the rest of the world catches up to the West. Colin Payne has more details at Inhabitat. In the meantime, let’s think about a few chocolatey problems Colin didn’t touch on.
 
Notice that I just called chocolate a luxury food. Are we really treating it like one?
 
When we load chocolate with unpronounceable ingredients so that the actual cocoa content is less than half, can we even taste the stuff?

When we pay discount prices for cocoa products, do we care whether the farmers are paid for their work? Most chocolate producers do not pay cocoa farmers adequately for their work. Some farmers give up on cocoa not because of farming problems but because buyers are willing to pay better for other cash crops.
 
If cocoa is a luxury food, why are we eating it constantly and paying low prices?
 
To live a simple, conscientious life, sometimes you have to go back to treating luxuries like luxuries. It might mean eating less chocolate or being willing to pay what it’s really worth. Simple living isn’t about paying as little as possible for everything. It’s about dedicating your resources where they matter. If you’ve simplified your budget in other ways like hanging laundry to save electricity, you may have freed up enough money to pay what food is really worth. Buying Fair Trade is one way to pay for chocolate.
 
Inhabitat has loads of articles on cocoa.
 
Resized image is CC 2.0 by Irene Scott/AusAID
 

 
If you’re in your twenties it’s not too early to be conscientious in the way you live your life. The Art of Simple reader Rebecca is about to graduate, and has asked Tsh what she wishes she would have done when she was younger. It’s a personal answer with room for comments.
 
A click for all ages
 

 
The last article I referenced was about slowing down and considering why you have chosen your life so you can stay motivated. It makes sense that the following article is about keeping a journal. Journalling forces you to find signifance in events that you overlook the importance of because they may be important only to you. That’s not a bad thing, you know.
 
The art of journalling is at The Art of Simple
 

 
When it comes to housekeeping and building a family up, it’s almost everybody’s first time. It’s no surprise that Kresha Faber’s tips at Keeper of the Home are so popular. She writes on five ways to step back and look at why you’re living your life the way you are. Hopefully she can help you not only to remember to take regular breaks, but to get motivated again.
 
Take the time.
 

 
For many of you it’s shoveling season already. Thankfully, Jillee is staying on top of this fall and has already released a formula for hand warming salve. Her sister Rebecca at Camp Wander discovered that black pepper essential oil gave a warming effect to a yet unpurposed salve like her Naked Salve. Now you shovelers can have faster recovery times.
 
Visit Jillee
 

 
When you see and smell the coffee grounds left in your coffee maker after a good brew, you know there is still something good left inside them. Diane Hoffmaster has ten ways to reuse coffee grounds around the house, from cleaning aids to health to crafts.
 
Visit Turning the Clock Back.