Good morning!

My apologies for being absent the last few weeks, I had a family emergency to deal with and as you know, for me, family comes first, ahead of crafting.

That means not much was done. Some I shared in the weekly Cheapskates Club newsletter, but when I had time to sit, I was exhausted and crochet or knitting, or card making just seemed too hard. 

Things are a bit better and getting back to normal, so I have been making and baking. No sewing, and a very little growing. 

And that's OK. We don’t need to be go, go, go 24/7, even when we are too tired to think straight. Part of being a responsible adult, as well as a responsible homemaker, wife, mother is knowing when to stop; when to say no; when to rest. Because often if we go down, the whole family goes down. So if you're ever feeling overwhelmed, take time to regroup. Get some rest. Turn off the unnecessary. Focus on yourself - it's not selfish, it's good commonsense.

This last week I've been catching up with cards for the Happy Mail project, and working on some for a future card buffet I'm holding, and it has been wonderful to sit at my craft table surrounded by paper and stamps and dies and ink pads and let my creative side loose. 

Some of the cards from the May card buffet have been used for happy mail. 

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I had some fun playing with DSP and stamps and dies and cardstock making samples for the July card buffet. 

​Baking: not a lot! My One Bowl Chocolate Cake is my go-to recipe, and two batches were prepared and baked into little loaf cakes in my silicone mini loaf pans. I love these, $5 each from Kmart (and they're pink!), they make six little loaf cakes from one quantity of cake batter. I count one mini loaf as the equivalent of two cupcakes when I am serving them. 

Then there were some bananas getting too soft, so they became banana and choc chip mini loaf cakes. What can I say - the mini loaf pans were out, so I used them again. I sprinkled choc chips on top before baking, rather than having to ice them. They were a hit for morning tea.

We pretty much stuck to the meal plan; everything needed was in the pantry, and I didn't have to think about what to prepare for dinner, or what to tell anyone else to prepare. Having it on the fridge just makes life easier. 

Growing-wise, potatoes are coming up all over the place and as we don't have a planned garden this winter, I'm letting them go. The rosemary is still growing, and I've been picking oranges and mandarins from the fruit trees. The raspberries have been cut back. The rhubarb is going well. I cut back the hydrangeas so now they just look like dead sticks in the pots, but they will come back in the spring and provide beautiful flowers again. And the bees are still buzzing in the lavender. I really want to cut it back, but while the bees are buzzing around I'll leave it and hope it survives the winter. 

And the only sewing I've done is to mend a pair of track pants and darn the heels in a pair of wool socks for Wayne. 

It feels good to be back on track. We are officially on holiday, so I have a big bag of things to do as we travel around. I'll try to post again next week, although it may be a day or so late, depending on internet reception.

Please share what you've been making, baking, growing and sewing, I love to see everything even if I don't comment, and you all help to motivate me.

Hello!.

Autumn cleaning is almost finished. Just the last little tweaks to do this week and the house will be spic and span for the rest of autumn and winter, such a nice feeling.

This week's makes:
Finished a hunter green tea cosy for a friend's daughter.
While I was in a tea cosy mood, I found some pink wool and made a new tea cosy for my tea pot for winter, and then Hannah spotted it and asked if she could have one too, so that is almost finished. 

​Some cards for the Happy Mail Project.

​This week's bakes:
Not baking but made a big batch of Depression Era Salad and filmed it.
Made a double pasta bake, one for tea one for the freezer.
Made a double batch of wheat tortillas, used some and froze the others.
Dehydrated celery and celery leaves. Ground the leaves to powder to use in soup and Cream of Anything Cup a Soup.
Canned 8 pints of mushrooms and 4 pints mushroom stock from three kilos of mushrooms.

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​This week's grows:
Picked more rosemary and rhubarb and some raspberries. 
Used a homegrown cucumber and garlic, and MOO yoghurt to make tzatziki.

This week's sews:
​Hannah asked for something to store her knives in in her camping box so she wouldn't get cut when she put her hand in to get one out. One handtowel and 20 minutes and this is what I came up with. I used some silver iron-on vinyl and a free SVG of cutlery to decorate it. Now she doesn't have to be afraid of putting her hand in the box, the blades are safely covered.

Good morning!

We had some very hot days, all in a row, so the poor garden suffered. 

Every morning I was up and out early, picking tomatoes, cucumbers and berries. 

This week I made yoghurt in a new, electric yoghurt maker.

I made a toolbox gift box for Wayne's Valentines surprise.

​There was a very cute little watering can in the craft stash, and with the help of the Scan and Cut it is now decorated, wrapped, labelled and in the present box. 

No. 2 Son requested more Iced Coffee Syrup, so I told him where the recipe was, and where he'd find the bottles and he made a double batch.

I used two jars of potato to make an easy potato salad.

For Valentine's day I made a blackberry mousse for dessert. It looked so pretty in some of my vintage dessert bowls. 

I made a card for the Happy Mail Project.

I managed to get a set of coasters done, using a pretty pale orange cotton from the stash. I'm not usually a fan of the colour orange, but this is so soft and pretty, and these little cotton coasters can be tossed in the washing machine over and over so they are great for everyday use.

And this is today's offering of tiny tomatoes from the garden. A whole colander, almost full. All washed, draining and then they will be turned into relish.

We had visitors one night, and it was easy to put a nice meal together and get the guest beds ready on the spur of the moment. 

And of course all the usual goings on in our house: the cooking and cleaning and gardening and general plotting and planning all happened.

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

Good morning!

It was a bit of a slow week for me, I just seemed to run out of puff quickly if I went too fast, and of course the weather was typical for our city, hot one day, freezing cold the next, bone dry then we were on flood alert. We had thunderstorms and torrential rain two nights in a row. Good for the garden but one in particular was terrifying in it's intensity.

I hosted cards on Saturday and it was a fun day. We had a lovely time sharing tips and hacks and ideas and showing off our handmade goodies. 

This is my project for the day.

​I picked raspberries, rosemary, tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden. We ate them fresh each day and loved the taste of fresh from the garden food. 

I canned brisket two ways. We had some for dinner with gravy one night, the rest is on the pantry shelf. 

I was given a beautiful bread tin, one with a lid to make a sandwich loaf and I can't wait to try it out.

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

Good morning!

What did you make, bake, grow and sew last week? I'd love to know!

More than half the week was written off with our entire household knocked flat with the flu. Thank goodness for a stocked pantry and freezer, and for a meal plan on the fridge. No one who felt like eating went hungry and the medical pantry was fully stocked with all we needed to survive.

By Thursday I was starting to feel a bit better and started to get a few things done.
*canned 18 pints  of ugly chicken
*canned 5 quarts of corned beef
Yesterday (Sunday) I went shopping, specifically to buy brisket and mince, and was blessed with finding both on markdown for great prices. It meant they needed to be processed and preserved straight away, but that's what a summer Sunday afternoon is for.

I was able to
*can brisket
*canned mince
*can 6 quarts meatballs in broth

The tomato plants are loaded! I can't wait until they all start to turn red. As soon as I see even a hint of red I'll be picking them and letting them ripen inside. The birds and possums, and now the bats, are quick so I need to be faster.

I made some cards for the Happy Mail Project, using a new range of papers and a fun new punch. I love them! These will be going out later in the week. 

One of my favourite things to do, and something I do at least once a week, is sit at my craft table and make cards. I love working with paper, cardstock and ink, creating beautiful cards for any occasion. I find it very relaxing, and I love to give the cards I make and see the smiles the create. 

Over Christmas I was talking to someone and they mentioned how they hadn't received a single Christmas card, and they couldn't remember the last time they had pulled anything other than bills and junk mail out of their letterbox. 

That just about broke my heart. Loneliness comes in a shapes and forms, and not getting a simple letter or card in the mail is just one form, but it's a form I can do something about. 

This year I've started the Happy Mail Project. 

Every week throughout the year my aim is to make some cards and send them to people, just because, to hopefully brighten their day and make them happy. 

I'm not planning on writing a great, long, screed, just a short note saying hi, I'm thinking of you, thought this would make you smile sort of thing, to let folk know they're not forgotten and that they are important every day, not just on special occasions. 

Every Thursday I'll do a post office run and drop that week's happy mail in the box, hoping the cards will brighten someone's day.