100 Things You Can Make

Crystal, the author of my favorite frugal mommy blog, linked to Deborah's list of 100 things you can make yourself, complete with instructions. I found it fascinating to see what you can make at home if you've got the time and inclination.

Here are the things I've made from the list:
1. Applesauce - I learned while I was in Armenia from Mrs. Dreisbach. It's really quite easy and very good.
2. Spaghetti Sauce - my mom's recipe is the best!
3. Jelly - I helped my mom make it a number of times as a kid. I made it for the first time by myself last summer. We have a great blueberry farm near our house and I made blueberry jam. Not nearly as good as mom's strawberry jam, though!
4. Mayonnaise - for a high school science class when we were learning about emulsions. I'm pretty sure I didn't actually eat any of it.
5. Pesto - I'll have to share my recipe sometime. It's good. I've made it for a number of special occasions around our house. I usually turn it into pesto cream sauce for pasta. Yummy!
6. Salsa - without cilantro, of course!
7. Gravy
8. Coffee - ok, this was a pretty easy one to get credit for. I even looked at the instructions to make sure they weren't talking about growing the beans yourself or something.
9. Stuffing - Grandma Greene's recipe is the best!
10. Ice Cream
11. Pizza
12. Playdough - I learned recently that the homemade version doesn't have the preservatives that the store bought stuff does. Leave it in a ziplock bag undisturbed for a few months and it gets pretty rancid.
13. Bubbles - Soap + Water. Yeah, I can handle that.
14. Curtains - really cute yellow ones for our second home's guest room. Ok, my mom helped a little since i don't have a sewing machine of my own.
15. Candles
16. Skirt
17. Shorts - Not exactly shorts, but I worked at a camp one summer that required the female counselors to wear culottes. They're not an easy thing to find in a store. I made a bunch myself.
18. Bread
19. Pretzels - The soft kind. Only once. It was a little more work than it was worth.
20. Stool - Probably not the kind she was referring to :)
21. Pinata - A taco-shaped one in 5th grade for our class's Mexico party.
22. Crayons - I made crayon muffins once. I'm counting it.
23. Gnocchi - Made it in a cooking class with my friend Erin once. Never at home. A little too labor intensive.
24. Guitar - Again, not exactly. But I did make a hammered dulcimer once for the science olympiad (with significant help from my dad and Mr. Johnson). It's a stringed instrument, so it should count.
25. Igloo - see photos of my most recent creation
26. Cheese - I also learned this in Armenia, but it's another lesson I haven't used since.

These are a few of the things I haven't made, but would like to someday:
1. Hummus - yummy!
2. Pudding pops
3. Pickles
4. Finger paint
5. Bird house
6. House - this will never happen, but I think it would be fun to be able to design a house with all the things we like best from the places we've lived so far.
7. A kite

Here are some things from that list I'll definitely never make:
1. Bacon - Seriously, I have better things to do.
2. Tofu - Gag! Enough said.
3. Wine/beer - I'm a teetotaler. The only alcoholic beverage I've made is apple jack from letting the cider hang around too long.
4. Paper - It's plentiful enough around our house without me making more.
5. Couch - God bless you if you've got the skill for this, but wow! That seems like an awful lot of work to me!
6. Biodiesel - I prefer not to mess with things that are combustible.
7. 4th of July sparklers - See #6. Besides, we still have dozens left over from 2 years ago. J touched the wrong end of one and wants nothing more to do with them.