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?
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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. 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! Doesn't a week roll around fast? Last week was spent mostly on getting things done around the house and garden. Make it: *Mostly cards this week for the Happy Mail project. *I've been busy making samples and kits for my Card Buffet at the end of the month, it is filling fast, and that's so exciting. Bake it:
*Brownies have been the treat of choice the last few weeks. With the price of choc bits and cocoa, they'll be staying a treat. You can get my super delicious brownie recipe here. *I made tortillas for lunches. *Potatoes were down to 60c/kilo so a five kilo bag was mashed and frozen for winter meals. Grow it: *Weeds were pulled and the beds put to rest until after we come back from our trip. No point in planting anything at the moment as we won't be here to use whatever it is. My plan is to plant some things just before we leave and they should be ready when we get home, or at least close to being ready. *Picked silverbeet, rhubarb, mint and rosemary. Not a lot of making last week, it was busy, busy, busy with lots of appointments. Lots of baking done though (it's rather therapeutic) and some crafting. Made up the kits for a shoebox swap for a retreat I attended over the weekend. Made pillow boxes for pillow treats for the retreat. Made double batch of scones and Cranberry Hootycreeks, and a quadruple batch of Brownies, some for home and some to take to the retreat.
Cooked a bulk batch of mashed potatoes for the freezer. Made focaccia. Made two loaves of bread. Made a batch of pizza dough for the freezer. What did you make, bake, grow and sew last week? Good morning! It's Make it Monday on Tuesday! Easter mucked up my days, I completely forgot that yesterday was Monday, having everyone home for four days threw me out. Last week was busy; aren't all weeks busy? But it was a good week. I spent a lot of time waiting, so I read, and worked on some new crochet patterns for different types of scrubbies. Hannah will be testing them too, to see which scrubbie is the most efficient and comfortable to use. I made some little baskets for our Easter table. Instead of eggs this year, I bought blocks of chocolate and put them in these cute little hessian bags I monogrammed with iron-on vinyl. I made hot cross buns and cooked most of our meals from scratch. As a treat, No. 1 Son bought tea one night and it was delicious - burritos and nachos that I diligently noted the ingredients and flavours so I can MOO them in the future.
What did you make, bake, grow and sew last week? Hello!
When I was a little girl, I thought being a mother and homemaker was the best job in the whole wide world, and I couldn't wait to grow up and get married so that could be my job. I still think it’s the best job in the whole wide world, even though our children are now adults. I still get to be their mother, and Wayne's wife and create a home for them. I get so much joy and pleasure out of canning corned beef for the pantry shelf or getting a load of washing out, dried, in, folded and put away. Filling the pantry with good ingredients to make tasty and healthy meals for my family makes me smile. Being able to pick apples of our trees, or rosemary from the garden not only saves us money, but makes my heart sing with joy. When I sit down to write a Make It Monday post, and think about what has been accomplished during the week, I tend to forget about the things that are habit: making the bread, cutting flowers from the garden, canning meat and veggies for the pantry, sowing seeds, because they are habit, I made another two tea cosies for the present box. The Easter decorations came out and the house was decorated and readied for Easter and the rest of Autumn. I covered candles for our Easter table. I repurposed some old jars to use as vases for our Easter table. This last week the kitchen was busy every day. All our meals were cooked from scratch, using ingredients in the pantry and produce from our garden. I made pizza bases and focaccia and canned 6 quarts of canned beef for the pantry. 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. 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. What did you make, bake, grow and sew last week?
Hello! If you're in southern Australia I really hope you are surviving this ridiculous heatwave. It is exhausting, with overnight lows in the mid 20s making sleeping rather unpleasant. Even so, looking back at my notes, last week was a good one for adding to the pantry and the present box. When I sat down I wondered what I'd be able to share. Thank goodness for notes and lists! It felt like nothing much has been accomplished. I made fig jam (my favourite). I made another batch of tomato relish, using the last of the tomatoes from the garden. Some of this went into small jars for Hannah's pantry. All our meals were cooked from scratch, using ingredients from the pantry, fridge, freezer and garden. Homecooked meals are so much nicer, especially the salads we've been living on. Bought salads just don't have the same fresh crunch or taste. I made a double batch of potato salad, coleslaw and pasta salad. These three are my stock salads, everyone likes them, they're quick and easy to make and keep well in the fridge. I made sandwich bread and raisin bread. Hot cross buns were on the plan for the weekend but honestly it was just too hot to even think of putting the oven on. I'll get to them this week when it is cooler, and do a few batches for the freezer. During the heat of the day I stayed indoors, and worked away on small projects. Some round dishcloths were added to my linen cupboard, some were put aside for Hannah's Christmas stocking, and some went into the present box. I finished knitting a dishcloth that had been on the needles for a fortnight! I finished another beaded jug cover for the present box. Now I'm on the lookout for pretty milk jugs to pair them with. Op shops will be my friend for this, and I have Hannah looking out in the oppys in her area too. Pinterest brought up a pattern for kitchen towel toppers, and I love it. It's crocheted and uses the smallest amount of yarn, perfect for using up scraps, so that's what I did, and added three kitchen towels to the present box. The Easter cards have been made, written in, addressed and are ready to go to the Post Office tomorrow. In the garden, the last of tomato and cucumber plants have been pulled out, chopped up and added to the compost pile.
Rosemary was picked and dehydrated and added to the pantry. Rhubarb was picked, cooked and frozen for winter. I picked a handful of raspberries every morning and it was hard to resist eating them, they are so sweet and full of flavour. I'm not sure what to do about the winter garden. We will be away for nine, possibly 10, weeks. Timing the planting so things aren't ready too soon will be the trick to a successful winter garden, and that means timing the seed starting and planting out, and yes, it's making my head ache. It will work out I'm sure. I didn't get any sewing done this week. I did get lots of fabric washing and cutting out done though, I'm hoping to get it all sewn this week. What did you make, bake, grow and sew last week? Good morning! Summer is peak preserving time. It feels like every day there is something that needs to be processed and preserved, because there is. This week I've been busy with tomatoes. Lots of tomatoes. I am over the moon excited because this is the best year for tomatoes in ages. The bushes are just full, and still flowering and producing. And I am not wasting a one. Of course we are eating them fresh, but there are enough to make relish and salsa and passata. On Monday I made tomato relish and zucchini pickle, before the weather turned to searing heat. All our meals were made using ingredients in the pantry. I'm trying to use up what's in one of the freezers, so the meal plan is a guide and our meals have been slightly different to the plan. They've been good though! Then on Wednesday it all ground to a halt. On and off over the last couple of weeks I've had vertigo. Since last Wednesday the head spins and nausea have just about brought me to a halt so there has been no crocheting, sewing, knitting or preserving done.
Everything has just kept rolling on though. That's the beauty of a routine, even for household chores. Washing has been done. Meals prepared. Bathrooms cleaned. Floors swept and washed. Even the shopping was done. Everyone knows what has to be done when, and just gets on with it. This week, vertigo and weather permitting, the plan is to get the cucumbers and tiny tomatoes pulled out, and those beds turned over and compost added to them, ready for planting in a couple of weeks. What did you make, bake, sew and grow last week? 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? |
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