​Good morning!

It has been very cold here, and very wet. I know it's winter, and it should be cold and wet, but I must be getting old because this year I've really felt both!

We kept the house warm with the fire going. Someone asked how much we pay for firewood - we don't! During the summer we collect firewood, bring it home and let it season for a year so it's nice and dry and ready to burn. It's not a chore to us; we turn it into a day out with a picnic lunch, and who doesn't enjoy a picnic?

I made pizza bases, using the bread maker for the dough. 

All our meals were cooked from scratch, using what we had on hand. No one was hungry and no one turned their nose up at any meal. 

I juiced lemons and froze the juice. The peel wasn't nice enough to zest, but it was perfectly good to drop into a jar of vinegar for lemon cleaning vinegar. 

Veggie peelings went into the freezer to make stock. 

I picked more rhubarb and stewed it, then froze it. During summer I'll mix it into plain yoghurt for breakfast. 

Not much happening in the garden, thanks to the rain and the cold. Keeping on top of the weeds is keeping me busy for a few minutes each day.

My lavender (don't you love how it's "my" lavender) is looking gorgeous. I picked a few more stems  to strike. They are really easy to do, and who wouldn't love a pot of lavender as a gift? I know I would.

No sewing done, not even mending last week. 

Last week I had sorting and tidying the craft room on my to-do list and for the most part it has been sorted and tidied up. I still have the fine detail sorting to do this week and then everything will be organised and in it's place, easy to find and use. That's the plan anyway!

A lot of time was spent in the craft room, making samples, and writing up tutorials, and cutting and packing card kits for my Card Buffet yesterday. It was a really nice afternoon, beautiful women creating beautiful cards, letting their inspiration take over and making my designs their own. It was a lovely way to spend a cold and wet Sunday afternoon.

Good morning!

Last week flew by. It was so very cold here, and wetter than a winter has been for a while. We are now living in a home with water views, the back and front yards are just floating. Poor Lacey-dog stepped off the pavers onto what she thought was grass and sunk! She was so funny, didn't quite know what to do for a second. 

I didn’t get any crafting done last week. I did get the kits prepped for this coming Sunday's card buffet, a big job that I was happy to cross off my list.

More was accomplished in the kitchen.
*I cooked a big pot of chicken and veg soup in the pressure cooker. Half a small chicken fillet, lots of onion, celery, carrot and potato and plenty of stock went into the pot, 30 minutes later we were eating delicious soup. I used the hand mixer to shred the chicken and you'd never know there was so little meat actually in the pot. 

*Made pizza bases and used two of them to make BBQ chicken pizzas for Hannah and I for tea on Thursday. 

*Cooked all our meals from scratch using what was on hand. 

*Served toasted crumpets with the soup to make it a more filling meal. 

*Picked rosemary from the garden for Hannah.

*Packaged 6kg of chicken fillets for the freezer.

*Bought mozarella, ham and salami from Savemore. Spent half an hour repackaging and vacuum sealing into smaller portions and put them in the freezer. The saving on the salami alone was $22, the cheese $26 and the ham $18.  A $66 saving and enough in the freezer for a couple of months.

*Between rain showers I rugged up and weeded and dug over the garden beds, dug in some compost and planted parsnips, turnips and beetroot, and sprinkled silverbeet seeds over the top. We'll be eating silverbeet and beetroot in a few weeks. 

*Picked some lemons and mandarins from our fruit trees. Picked rhubarb from the garden.

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

Good morning!

It's Make It Monday and while I don't have a lot to share, I didn't waste travelling time while we were on holiday. The crochet hook was busy!

Before we left home I packed a bag of yarn, a pair of knitting needles and my set of crochet hooks. And a pair of scissors - trust me when I say it is frustrating to need them and not have them in the bag.

​Lots of daisy dishcloths were finished, some for the linen cupboard, some for Hannah and some for the present box. 

​I learned a new stitch for dish cloths and love it, thank you to my friend Rosanne for sharing with me. The test dishcloths have been added to my kitchen basket and now we're home, I'll get started on some for the present box.

​The little lemon tree had lemons on it ready to be picked, so I did that yesterday and juiced them and froze the juice straight away. I gave them a good wash and then zested the skin too, and put it on a sheet of baking paper on top of the fire to dry. The house smells lovely, and I have a nice little pile of lemon zest to use in baking.

This week my plan is to sort, tidy and declutter the craft room. It needs it, there's a lot of piles of fabric, yarn, paper, stamps, tools, vinyl - you name it, it's probably in a pile in that room somewhere and needs to be put away. 

Next on the list is the garden. It's full of weeds, they have grown very fast in four weeks. This week is going to be very cold and wet here, so I'm thinking 10 minute spurts in between rain showers will be my plan of attack. Gumboots, gloves, beanie and coat are by the back door ready to be donned to keep me warm. 

Now we are in the downhill run towards Christmas, it's time to really get stuck into the gift making, card making and baking (or at least planning the baking). December will be here in the blink of an eye and as the plan is to have everything finished and be ready to kick back and enjoy Advent and the Christmas season, I need to be a little more diligent towards getting the gift list crossed off. 

Even a few minutes each day can get a lot done in a week, let alone 4-1/2  months.

That's my week, or three days for me.

What have you been making, baking, growing and sewing while I've been on holiday?