Week 4 Round-Up (a wee bit late, but better late than never!)

In the kitchen I made lots of salads, in bulk, to see us through. Lots of potato salads, pasta salad (I tried the pesto pasta salad again, and again it was  a huge hit) and coleslaw, with boiled eggs. I washed, dried and bagged two huge lettuces, sliced up three enormous cucumbers, sliced red, green and yellow capsicum and drained three tins of beetroot. Getting dinner ready was easy - one night I drained a jar of meatballs and warmed them, another night I drained a jar of ugly chicken and we had it cold, and on another night I drained a jar of corned beef and we had it cold with the salads. I love easy meals!

I made a double batch of pizza bases.

I made a jar of coffee syrup. Thomas has taken to having an iced coffee in the morning, and he was buying it from the supermarket and if it wasn't marked down it was over $7  per litre! It costs around $3 to make 2 litres of  coffee syrup, enough to make up 40 iced coffees using 50ml with 200ml of milk. Depending on the cost of your milk, each iced coffee costs around 37 cents! When Nescafe is on sale, I stock up so we always have instant coffee to make coffee syrup.

In the garden, the next round of raspberries are coming on. I've been watering regularly, and watching them. As soon as they are red I'm out, gently pulling them off the canes, before the birds can get them. They get washed, dried and frozen for jam later in the year.

Week 4 was a slow-ish week in the craft room. 

Lots of cutting out of canning mats and towel toppers using really pretty fabric full of pumpkins that was gifted to me a while back, and I learned a new crochet pattern for bowl cosies.

The pattern said they were one hour bowl cosies, it takes me about 2 hours to finish one while I'm watching TV of an evening. I'm using up cotton yarn from the stash, the this first set is going to be multi-coloured! I think they will go into the van, they will be great when we're camping. 

What have you crossed off your gift list this week?

Week three is down! And the present box is filling up quite quickly. 

Last week I worked on dishcloths, bowl cosies and canning mats. These are all great stash busters, using those small amounts of yarn and the odd lengths of fabric. I can see the stash slowly shrinking.

I also worked on Easter decorations and cards. I love to decorate for special occasions, and Easter has always been a favourite, next to Christmas. Everything came out of the shed and had a spruce up, ready to be arranged around the house. 

I worked on happy mail and Easter cards, I posted some to overseas friends this week so they'll get them sooner rather than later. I think the weather in the northern hemisphere is slowing things down a wee bit. 

Bag clips and button jars have all been done and packaged up for gifting. The button jars are recycled jars, and some of them have pin cushion tops. I'll be keeping an eye out for buttons at op shops this year to add to the jars. The bag clips are fun to make and to give, and they're a useful gift that's not too expensive. 

So the bag clips were crossed off the list, and I crossed off three dishcloths. I didn't have bowl cosies on the list, so I've added them in sets of two, I have three people in mind for them. The stash may be shrinking but the gift list is growing!

How are you going with your handmade Christmas? Are you getting things done? Is your present box filling up? 

Week 2 is done and dusted!

I worked on perpetual Christmas gift wrap i.e. cotton canvas Christmas stockings, one for everyone in the family so we can ditch the wrapping paper.  The little stockings were 50 cents each on clearance. I printed some transfers and ironed them on and I love how they turned out. 

In the kitchen I made a huge potato salad, a huge coleslaw and a huge pesto pasta salad and we had them with our dinner each night.

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Chicken fillets were on sale before Christmas and I stocked up, and froze them. I really want to empty the freezer so out they came and I canned 7 quarts, around 6.5kg, for the pantry.

Worked in the garden. The weeds are loving this humid weather.
Chased birds off the peach tree, even with netting they try to get the fruit.

Worked on the tutorials for the February card retreat.
​Worked on happy mail.
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​Happy New Year! 

This is the first MIM check-in for a brand new year, and I'm so excited at the thought of a new year of sharing all the wonderful things we make, bake, grow and sew to benefit our families and homes each week.

Because it was the end of the old year and the start of the new, I spent a lot of time cleaning, polishing, dusting, decluttering, tidying things up, sorting things out, straightening shelves and drawers. It sounds silly but I like to start the new year with a clean and tidy home; I feel like it sets the tone of our home for the coming year.

I washed and refilled empty canisters and spice jars. 
I made a quadruple batch of taco seasoning.
I made stock with a chicken carcass from Christmas Day and froze it.
Both freezers were sorted and cleaned and the inventory updated.
The pantry was emptied, all the shelves cleaned, everything wiped over before being put back.
I did the end of year shopping. 
The kettle was cleaned with citric acid, now it is sparkling again with not a hint of scale.
The dishwasher and washing machine were cleaned for the first of the month.

​The power head on my vacuum cleaner stopped working, and of course the repair place is closed until the end of the month. And it could cost a lot to repair or replace, and in the meantime I still need a vacuum cleaner. 

Hannah saw an ad for an upright vacuum at Harris Scarfe reduced from $299 to $89.99, so we went to have a look. They only had the display model, so with another 5% off, I came home with a new vacuum cleaner and it is brilliant! The floors are clean and I am one happy homemaker.

​In the craft room, I worked on two prayer keepers and some cards for happy mail.

​Getting ready for Christmas, I started two bottles of vanilla. They will be well brewed by the end of the year.

I crocheted a dish cloth, and then adapted a dishcloth pattern to make face scrubbies.

​In the garden, we cut up the dead fruit trees and put them in the green waste bin. I turned the pots into an empty garden bed, added a layer of compost and dug it into the existing soil over a couple of days. I'll let this sit for a couple of weeks then it can be planted out.

We started picking little lettuce leaves from the seedlings we replanted. 
I picked rhubarb.
I picked raspberries every morning, just a handful, and put them in the freezer for later.

What did you make, bake, grow and sew last week?