Self and priorities....

I imagine most of us are busy mums, wives and homemakers; some juggling work outside the home, perhaps time poor with babies and toddlers to care for, or finding much of your day taken up with other responsibilities. 

I haven't met anyone with surplus free time for quite a while! Have you?

I am blessed to work from home, and I never neglect to thank God and my husband for that privilege - but I also acknowledge that those of us who do run businesses from our homes rarely have opportunity to 'leave it at the office' come 5pm. 

Last year I made the decision that my health needed to take higher priority than it had previously, and over a period of a few months I lost 9 kilos and felt better than ever. Then we moved. Then extra responsibilities like 80 minutes a day in the car to drive Blossom to and from work were added. I found myself time poor and struggling to keep up with designing, stitching, pattern writing, running a home, blogging, maintaining long distance friendships, and producing healthy and nutritious meals seven days a week.

My body began to show the effects of neglect.

Last week I decided this 'struggle' had to end, and a system that benefited the family AND me needed to be put into place - after all, a family needs a HEALTHY mumma and wife!

I bought some workout gear, and a shady hat...

...discovered my favourite exercise instructor had FREE classes online...

...and gave myself one hour per day of ME time to exercise, walk, read 'stuff', potter in the garden, soak my feet, or just do nothing. So far this is working a treat! It's not until you 'give' yourself time that you realise how much you need it, and how much nicer you are because of it. 

If you had an hour to yourself each day, what would YOU do with it?

~~~~~~

This morning Blossom and I left home an hour earlier than usual so we could try the coffee at our local cafe. We've lived close by for two months now, but never crossed it's threshold, so a visit was well overdue.

I had my standard skinny cappuccino, whilst Blossom enjoyed a chai latte and some scones...

The cafe is "Millie J" at North Shore, and has a lovely atmosphere.

Even the little sugar sachets were cute!

~~~~~

Lovely Wanda was cleaning out her craft room and wanted to send me some of her excess lace. I am going to have fun with these - I love cotton lace! She even made the patchwork card. Thank you Wanda!

~~~~~

In my sewing room I have finished the first of three projects for the next issue of Elefanz HOME magazine. The theme for Issue 10 is "Little Things".

I loved making this mini quilt, and incorporated my favourite block, the Churn Dash, with some stitcheries...

The blocks are 6" square, and the finished quilt is just 12" square!

~~~~~

Tomorrow morning Blossom starts an hour earlier at the pharmacy for training in diabetes treatment, so I am going to head to the beach with my ipod for an hour's walk. Luverly!!

What will you do to revitalize yourself?

Hugs

Jenny

xxx

A re-purposing tutorial, and about a beak...

So far I've only been showing you ways to re-purpose old clothing or fabrics, but there are so many other ways to re-purpose in your home!

If you've taken this challenge with me during 2012, it's time for me to give you another idea to work with!

Plastic containers are part and parcel of many things we purchase. Mr E and I take a few dietary supplements which are packaged in small plastic bottles - convenient, but at the end of their use we toss them into the rubbish bin and a new bottle is opened.

I've decided it's time to make use of them and save the landfill!

Yesterday I finished a bottle of COQ10, and today I am going to show you how the empty bottle has been given a new occupation.

You will need one plastic vitamin, or similar sized, bottle.

Measure the 'useable' height of the bottle...

Measure the circumference...

Add 1/2" to the height, and 3/4" to the circumference. Take note of the measurements.

Cut a piece of plain fabric to the height + 1/2" you've measured, and make it as long as you like, but not longer than the circumference + 3/4". Trace a small design to stitch in the centre. I used the bird from this month's "Promises & Borders" block, and added a few flowers.

I fused some Whisperweft fabric stabiliser to the back of the traced fabric before stitching the design.

(Many people have emailed recently asking if I use a hoop when I stitch. No, I don't. I don't like them.)

Hmmm, see the word? That's a hint on where I am going with this.

 Once stitched I trimmed the excess fabric from the sides, but left the height as it was.

(You might like to use all the same fabric as the stitchery)

I added some fabric scraps to each end of the stitchery, before trimming them to the circumference + 3/4" that I had originally measured.

I cut another piece of fabric the same size for the backing.

I also cut a piece of thin fusible Pellon, but this was cut to the exact measurements I first made of the bottle.

Fuse the Pellon to the back of the stitched block.

Lay this face down onto the right side of the backing fabric, and sew around the four sides with a 1/4" seam, leaving a 2" opening at one end for turning out.

Trim the points from the corners, and turn right side out. Ladder stitch the opening closed.

Quilt some running stitches just inside the edge of the bottle wrapper.

Ladder stitch the two short ends together...

Make a large yo-yo (suffolk puff) for the lid, glue it down, slip the bottle wrap around your bottle, and fill with pins!

I kept the moisture pack from the vitamin bottle and popped it in with the pins to avoid any rusting. Wonderful for my tropical humidity!

Voila!

~~~~~

I received an email asking for help in satin-stitching the bird's beak in Block 3 of "Promises and Borders".

You use just one strand of thread for this, because the beak is tiny.

Here is a diagram of each stitch. 

Make one long stitch down the outer edges of the beak, top and bottom.

Next you make gradually shorter stitches parallel with the top line of the beak.

Hope that helps!

~~~~~

If you have an idea for re-purposing empty plastic bottles or glass jars, leave a comment so we can share in your wisdom!

If you want to show us what you're doing to re-purpose your bottles and jars, why not do a tutorial on your blog and let me know so I can send all of us over to visit. 

Have a wonderfully productive day!!

Hugs

Jenny

xx

Simple living....

Usually when I purchase a craft or home-making book I take my time browsing through. I love to savour the delights found on each page, and ponder the life lessons a particular book may reveal.

Not so with my latest book!

DOWN TO EARTH by Rhonda Hetzel

I found Rhonda's blog, "Down To Earth", last year, and have been reading over a few years worth of simple living posts since then. Just last month this wonderful book of hers was published here in Australia, and on Monday it arrived at my door.

I really wasn't sure what to expect inside, but hoped it would be a concise tome of her simple living ideas and advice. It is more than that. 

Within the first 43 pages I had numerous 'light bulb' moments of revelation, and one very important confirmation of a thought I had shared with Blossom only a day earlier.

This book is going to take a bit of my time in the coming weeks, and I am ready with a journal to take notes along the way. Rhonda is a 'commonsense' woman, and they are the best type to glean from.

I purchased mine from Fishpond Australia.

~~~~~

One of the things Rhonda encourages is making do, and using what you have to produce meals. I took that to heart today.

Having been blessed with a bargain on organic chicken 'lovely legs' (skinned, fat removed chicken legs) I did a search at Taste.com.au for a recipe and thought 'Easy Lemon Chicken Tagine' sounded good. 

 One of the ingredients was Moroccan Spice, and just as I was about to grab my car keys and head out to the supermarket to buy some I stopped in my tracks and thought, "what would Rhonda do?". I'm pretty sure she'd look for a recipe to make Moroccan Spice herself!

So that is what I did. A quick google, and I had it!

All the individual spices to make the Moroccan blend were in my spice racks!

The chicken is now bubbling away in a cast iron pot on my stove, and smells amazing!

Mr E has just left to pick up Blossom from work, so a tasty dinner will be on the table as soon as they walk in the door. Yay!

(I also baked a Chocolate Apple Cake for dessert...are you drooling yet??)

~~~~~

In the sewing room I am playing with a new design. Oopsie Daisies again, but little ones this time. 

~~~~~

What book, or author, has inspired you lately?

Hugs

Jenny

xx

A Sunday ride...

On Sunday morning Mr E left home early to meet up with some fellow Townsville Ulyssians for a ride to Lucinda for lunch. We stopped at the Frosty Mango, just south of Ingham for coffee along the way, then met up with some Ingham members who joined us for the remainder of the ride.

Lucinda is a very small beach side community, with a 5 klm conveyor that carries sugar cane from the shore (the conveyor begins on the right of the photo below)....

...5 kilometres out to sea where it is loaded onto ships.

It goes as far as my eyes could see!

Now that beach looks lovely doesn't it? It was such a hot and humid day yesterday, and a dip in rhe ocean would have been lovely, BUT - we live up in the tropics, and over summer you do NOT go swimming at the beach. The waters are filled with deadly jellyfish and crocodiles. 

One of our Ulysses members told us how was out fishing in his boat a month ago right here at Lucinda, and he spotted a croc in the water, about 300 metres from the shoreline - but there were some very stupid people jumping from the conveyor belt into the water below.

Yesterday we saw two young women ignoring the many large signs forbidding swimming in the water and lolling about in the waves. 

Why do people always assume it won't happen to them??

ANYHOW, we left Lucinda and headed back to Ingham for afternoon tea at Ray and Julie's before riding home again. It was a great day because these people are fun to be around. 

Later that night Blossom, Mr E and I went to a different church with a couple of Christian friends from the Ulysses, and what a blessed night it was!! About 25 people were baptised, and their testimonies were life changing. Blossom re-committed her life to Jesus, and we stayed afterwards for a pizza party the church put on for everyone. What a truly wonderful Sunday we had. :-)

~~~~~

 20% OFF my patterns and magazine issues!!

It is autumn here in the southern hemisphere and I LOVE this season more than any other.

To celebrate, I am having a 20% off every pattern and magazine listing in my Online Shop!

Just type the code AUTUMN at checkout (before you pay) to receive 20% off your entire order.

Visit my Shop HERE. 

The offer is only valid until midnight Friday 9th March.

~~~~~

If you weren't a follower last year when our southern autumn arrived, you will have missed out on my free autumn stitchery.

Feel free to download it HERE and stitch away!

~~~~~

Later this week I am going to do a couple of short stitching tutorials. 

See you then!

Hugs

Jenny

xx

"Promises and Borders" Block 3....

Thank you to all the lovely people who have left a comment, or taken the time to email me, about my "Promises and Borders" BOM! I'm so happy you are enjoying the blocks so far, but you have all told me how anxious you are to see Block 3. 

Your wait is over! But before that...

This week was a huge one with family visiting on Monday and Tuesday...

 ...plus the magazine publishing date on Wednesday, followed by pattern writing and posting projects to a few Australian paper craft magazines on Thursday! Once that was all done I got sidetracked with an unusually 'mild' day in the tropics on Friday and took the opportunity to finally sort out my sewing room (I haven't been happy with the layout since we moved here in January)...

SO - I was running behind on the final stitches for the "Promises and Borders" March block and wondered if I'd be late getting it to you, BUT, I have spent much of today finishing the wording, adding the borders, and I can happily say "here it is!"

Joshua 1:9

You can download Block 3 HERE.

~~~~~~

On the subject of downloading my free designs...

It seems no matter if I use Google Docs, 4 Shared, or Scribd, there are always going to be some people who have trouble downloading. I am having the same problem with my monthly magazine.

Ever-my-help, Mr E did an experiment last night and tried downloading all my recent free designs, as well as the latest issue of my magazine. 

He found that no matter what he did, he was unable to save the files when using Internet Explorer as the web browser - however, he had no problems when using Firefox, Waterfox, or Google Chrome as the browser. One of my magazine subscribers stumbled on this solution, so Mr E checked it out.

Not sure if that is going to help all of you who hit snags with the download or saving the pdf, but it may help some.

The only other thing that can help is for you to update Adobe Reader. You can do that HERE.

If you are still stuck after trying these solutions, you can contact me and I'll email the block to you.

~~~~~

I did take an hour out of my day, after driving Blossom to work, to drop by the local Endeavour Op Shop yesterday morning. I found a very pretty crocheted blanket - perfect for winter...

...and this little basket...

...which now holds the fabrics and pretties I received for my birthday. 

~~~~~

Have a great weekend!

Mr E and I are riding with the Ulysses to Lucinda tomorrow for lunch. Can't wait!

Hugs

Jenny

xxx

Things that excite me....and other stuff too.

It's so encouraging to read comments, and receive emails, from all of you!

Having that feedback inspires me more than you realise.

I thought today you might like to see some things from other craft people that inspire me!?

 ~~~~~

Let's begin with Jessica from Twin Fibers. She took a plain Wonky Star block and dazzled it!!

 I literally drooled when I saw this on the blog she shares with her friend, Jennifer.

Because I make myself at least one thing just for pleasure each month, I have this near the top of the list. Jessica made hers a mini quilt, and I'm thinking I may do the same. GAWJUS!!

See more pics, a step by step tutorial, and Jessica's blog post HERE.

~~~~~

Another pretty thing I'd like to make is one of these, from The Haby Goddess...

I have PLENTY of old doilies, but have never thought to dye them! 

Visit The Haby Goddess HERE and see her step by step tutorial. 

(Just remembered I have a few fabric dyes packed away....mmmm....)

~~~~~

About four years ago Blossom learned to crochet, and she made me lots of teeny tiny crocheted granny squares and circles in vibrant yellows, blues and reds. I did use some as a 'window' in small soap sachets for the linen cupboard and for Lavender bags, but I never thought to use them as pin cushions like Namolio!

Aren't they gorgeous!? 

You'll find plenty more in her Etsy Shop HERE.

~~~~~

It's been a while since I did some straight piecing. I get so caught up in stitchery designing that I lose time for some basic quilting - until now. I saw this quilt on the Blue Elephant Stitches blog...

...and noticed she had a tutorial too, so guess what is on my list as well??

I just love quilt blocks surrounded by white. You can see her tutorial HERE.

~~~~~

I have been playing with something new myself today. I love affirmations and inspirations, especially the one word kind, so thought I'd draw up some words and stitch them onto sweet little lavender scented pillows...

I dug out some of my vintage buttons for a little bit of embellishment. 

They'll look really cute in a basket, I think. 

~~~~~

Finally I want to announce the winner of the "Someday Roses" challenge!

I shared this design with you earlier in the month...

Apparently the pattern has been downloaded almost 700 times in the last three weeks, but only one lovely lady has sent me a photo of it on a re-purposed project, so guess who wins this book?

SISBABESTITCHES used fabrics from an old shirt, skirt and other scraps to stitch 'Someday Roses' into and apron!

Before...

After!

Congratulations SisBabeStitches! I'll be contacting you for your address and this book will be winging its way to your door.

~~~~~

I'm wondering if you need an easier Re-Purposing challenge for March? Do you have some ideas? If so please leave a comment and I'll see which one grabs my fancy. 

I want to mention the new Blogger 'double word' verification on comments. I hate it. Time consuming, hard on the eyes, and a nuisance for everyone. What was wrong with the single word, Blogger??

I opted for no verification to make life easier for you, but ended up making life harder for me. 

Hackers were leaving rude links and ads on comments as far back as 2009 - and in two days I spent a good couple of hours working my way through them and deleting them. Not nice. 

So I have the word verification back on. Sorry, but it just has to be. 

~~~~~

Before I go let me share with you pics of my final birthday gifties from dear friends.

My besty, Fee, spoiled me by printing up the first 8 issues of my Elefantz HOME Magazine (cause she knew I couldn't afford the ink), and sending me other beautiful goodies!!

Michelle sent me a sweet parcel of elephant fabrics, and 'real' Shabby Chic stationary all the way from the US...I haven't stopped writing myself notes in that book since it arrived!

Kathleen (Cottonreel) sent me these lovelies all the way from the UK, with a picture of her garden in May. I often dream of visiting her and Bluebell one day. 

And my final gift was from my dear friend, Dawn! It arrived in a huge box and I had no idea what on earth she would be sending me that big. 

It's a white elephant!!

I have white floors and white walls so I had to put it up against the fence for the photo. This is so me!

Dawn also sent another parcel the day before. That one had two of my quilt tops which she had machine quilted for me, and they are GAWJUS! I'll show some pics once I've sewn on the bindings.

If you're in Australia and need a quilt top machine-quilted then visit Dawn's blog for details. She's wonderful!

Thank you to all my friends - you made this a very special birthday indeed!

~~~~~

Goodness, I should have told you to make a cuppa before you started reading this blog post. It kind of got longer and longer...maybe we all need a coffee now. ;-)

Have a wonderful March. First day of autumn!!! \o/\o/\o/ (excited? Who, me?)

Hugs

Jenny

xxx