Make It Monday Week 1 2023

Hello Lovely Crafters,

It's our first official Make It Monday.

I've always called Monday, Make It Monday in my mind and in my diary. It's the day I try to do something creative, to make something either for a gift or our home or even to sell. I think I chose Monday because when the kids were small it was the one day of the week I didn't have any extra curricular chores - no reading, or swimming or library to do, no Church business to attend to. Monday was my day for sewing and crafting and I took full advantage of it.

Last week on the Cheapskates Club live YouTube show, Planning for a Handmade Christmas, Jane asked if we could do a weekly show and tell on our Facebook group, and Make It Monday was started, even though it was a Tuesday!

So last week the craft room was very, very active.

It started with finishing off the New Year clean and organise. I finally made the labels for the cubbies in the craft room - it's only been a year! 

​Then I had to find space for the Cricut Easy Press No. 1 Son gave me for my birthday (and he made his mother cry!). 

Of course I had to find some projects for the Easy Press so I printed some images from The Graphics Fairy and transferred them to some tea towels. It was so much easier than using the iron or the Mini Press (and I love my Mini Press). This tool will get a regular workout I'm sure; the list of iron on projects is growing.

​Next on the list was working on the birthday cards for January and a few for the retirement village (they requested more). I bundled up two envelopes to send off on Monday, one to the retirement village and one to CWA. 

An order came in for white daisy dishcloths, so I spent some time listening to YouTube while I crocheted them - they were a special order, I've never thought to crochet or knit white dishcloths. I love them, they look so fresh - fresh as a daisy!

​I worked on tutorials and videos for both here and The Cheapskates Club (our parent site). 

Before any project was started, I asked myself if I had everything needed, or would something have to be bought? If the answer was something needed to be bought, I rethought the process and came up with either a solution using what was already in the craft room, or a new idea. I'm still trying to only use what I have, and not spend any more money to make gifts. So far, so good - no out of pocket money spent.

I made trifle for dessert and it lasted three days. I love trifle, and Wayne does too, and it's great for using up stewed fruit or stale cake (not that cake gets to go stale too often in our house). The weather has been very hot and quite muggy, so I've been making jelly every morning and putting it in the fridge. Ice cold jelly with fruit has been our dessert/after dinner snack this week.

Most of our meals were cooked from scratch, here at home, using pantry ingredients. We did have a delicious Indian meal for my birthday, and instead of going out, we chose to have it delivered and eat at home. It was so good, and under $60 for five, with leftovers that are in the freezer.

The garden is finally starting to look like a garden. It has been very slow this spring/summer. The tomatoes finally have flowers and the zucchini and cucumbers are producing. The celery is growing well, and the beans have flowers at last.

I've been picking a handful of raspberries and strawberries every morning and putting them in the freezer. When there's enough they will be come jam for the family.

​What have you been making, baking, growing or sewing this week?