More redwork, links and general homemaking...

 As I mentioned last week when I showed you progress photos of my first Japanese style rice bag, the completed bag would be used to hold small stitching projects, once I'd made a matching pincushion and needlebook set. And that is what I've done since we last chatted here.

The rice bag is small, with a base and sides which measure only 5.5 inches square, so my pincushion and needlebook needed to be smaller still.

The pincushion is 3" in diameter, and filled with crushed walnut shells. I used some of the striped fabric from the rice bag to add a little tag, which is most helpful when pulling it out of the bag. I drew two little vines and embroidered them onto two quarters of the pinnie, then added two wool felt hearts from a small scrap of rich red felt I'd saved for a 'one day' project. You never know when bits of left over felt will come in handy. 

The needlebook - well, I actually made two covers for it, but decided the first one was too busy with not enough solid linen behind the embroidery and applique. As the French linen used is over a hundred years old, it was important that it should shine. I really loved this second version of the needlebook cover and it genuinely compliments the rice bag and the pincushion beautifully (plus another tiny felt heart to match the pincushion).

Inside the needlebook I added a pouch to protect my tiniest pair of embroidery scissors, plus more of that lovely scrap of rich red felt on both sides for holding needles and pins. There's also a wee pocket on the left side to store threads...

To keep those tiny scissors in their pretty scabbard I've added a press stud closure...

The closing ties are made using a 1/4" bias tape maker from white embroidery linen (the kind I use for most of my stitchery designs). Now my set is complete and I can plan the next project!

In the Kitchen...

On Monday I decided to clear out a few more things from the freezer, and one of those items was pumpkin I'd mashed up after our very abundant pumpkin harvest in May and June. We gave pumpkins away, and I made plenty of meals with some more, but for the rest I cook it and mash it for things in the future. 

Last year I was planning to bake a Pineapple Fruit Cake (recipe HERE in my free e-book) but realised we'd run out of tinned crushed pineapple, and I had no fresh pineapple on hand either as I could have put that in the food processor and used it instead. Something I am grateful for is a Nana who was resourceful and could swap around ingredients without ever blinking an eye! If she did not have what she'd normally use, she would use a substitute, and the final result was always delicious. And so, with Nana's example to draw from, I used mashed pumpkin in the fruit cake instead of pineapple. 

Well, hubby and I loved that pumpkin fruit cake, and so it's become the regular way for me to bake it now, which is wonderful when cleaning out the freezer and a use for mashed pumpkin is quickly required. 

I bake it in a large bread tin, then slice it when cold, and freeze half. 

Plenty of bread flour is also kept in the freezer, so I decided to bake a delicous focaccia to serve with meat balls that night. We had some leftover olives to use up so they covered almost two thirds of the focaccia, and the remainder just has fresh rosemary from the garden. Celtic sea salt and olive oil is added across the top before baking, and from the bottom of my heart, I can say this is my absolute favourite bread to have with anything. 

Half of this is kept in the freezer, along with half the meatballs I'd made, so we have a hearty meal to look forward to on nights when we're busy or simply exhausted and cooking is not an option. 

Removing some chicken breasts from the freezer gave me more room for preserving the last of our garden produce, so I cooked them in butter and diced some for sandwiches and a pasta salad, and the rest were sliced for use in chicken/avocado/cucumber sushi rolls which hubby takes to work with a satay dipping sauce I like to make.

Homemaking...

I have a set of binders in my sewing room/office and one of them is the very well used Household Binder. It holds a lot of things that are referred to regularly...

One of the things I needed to do this week was replenish my supply of Miracle Spray, which over the years has proved to be the very best cleaner and the one I use daily for general cleaning, spot cleaning and washing stains. The recipe ingredients are always ready in my laundry storage area, and as long as I have an empty 2-litre vinegar bottle on hand, a quick supply can be made immediately. 

I decant some of the mixture into a glass spray bottle, and can happily tell you that my husband loves using it too. 

Generally...

We're in the process of pulling up most of the vegetables we have grown over our tropical winter, as the season is over and the spring/summer bug brigade have arrived in full force already. There are some things they leave alone, such as beans and snow peas, so they'll keep producing for a while yet, and the citrus trees are already showing signs of being quite fruit laden in coming months. We have more bananas growing, which have been bagged to deter the fruit bats which fill the skies most of the year, especially now in mango season. We lost half of our last banana harvest to fruit bats last month - they even tore into the bottom of the bags. Being mango season they will probably be busy elsewhere for the next few months and may leave our bananas alone. 

I completed another large cross stitch, but will show that next week. 

We sold my beloved and very old yellow Mitsubishi Lancer. I did cry. It was my dream to own one the first time one drove past back in 2007. In 2013 hubby saw a second hand one and bought it for me. What a marvellous car it has been all these years...and not just for me, but for hubby when his car was off the road, and for Blossom when their car was off the road. It was loved by all the family, but being 22 years old now, it had a lot of breakdowns over the past six months and we simply could not pour all the money needed into a car that would continue to have problems. A young man has bought it as a project to work on over time, and I am hopeful the 13 years of prayer and worship almost daily as one of us was driving along, will bless him. 

My beloved is having a birthday today... 

He has turned 60, and with almost 35 years of marriage behind us, I give all the praise and glory to God for the ever-growing love we share, and the countless blessings He has showered over our marriage through these decades. Would you pray a blessing on him today sweet sisters in Christ? God knows what he needs most, and in that we can surely rely. Thank you. xxx

With regards to sharing links to some of my preferred YouTube channels, I shall create a page on the blog you can access and have a scroll through. You may like some and not others, and that's fine. :-) 

I am quite eclectic in the things I watch and do not like wasting uneccesary time scrolling channels, so these are the channels I enjoy for inspiration, information, and pure delight. 

Go HERE to the "I'm Watching on YouTube" page on my blog. 

Hope this wasn't too long for you. I've come to realise that it's best if I just do one blog post per week, and hopefully encourage you in some way to see joy and beauty in the everyday ordinary things, especially during these times of unrest and change across the globe. 

When we put our hands to work within our homes, our very own family sanctuary, and keep the world at bay, our mind, heart and body relaxes. Physical 'stress' from housework, the garden, or cooking, is good stress. It's productive. It's healthy for us, and it glorifies the Lord who has provided what we need, when we need it. Removing our thoughts and focus from an ever increasing darkness around the world, allows peace to settle within us and within our homes. We pray for those in need, and then hand it over to the Lord. We do not scroll and scroll social media, or watch for every new bit of news on the television...we look at what is right before us, and what needs doing. Pray about your day. Ask the Lord to guide you through it, and give thanks for all you have. 

Don't look to the lives of others as your guidepost. You and I are unique in this life, individuals with our own resources, relationships, health challenges, limitations and life skills. I am inspired by those who work hard and simply 'get on' with what needs doing, those who create beauty in the simplest ways, those who are not out to copy others but to use their own mind and imagination to bring about a life worth living to the glory of God. 

The older I get, the more at peace I have become with the life God has gifted me to live. It's something that allows me to be myself at all times, and to be content in all situations - maybe not immediately, but it comes about the closer I walk with Jesus. 

I like who I am, I like that my heart desires to be refined, I like that God knows this and even though I am so very imperfect, He is patiently changing me day by day. What a gift that is! 

May the days ahead bring you many happy moments to treasure in your heart, and may you find all you are looking for in our Saviour, Jesus, who loved you with His life before you were even born.

Much love!!

Until next time,

PS: My Etsy Shop is always open, so please drop by if you are in the mood for something new to stitch.

CLICK HERE

Redwork rice bag, and Cully May...

 Well, wasn't it a bit strange to have commenters unable to leave their comments on Blogger blogs last week? Many of my blogging friends had the same problem as me, and though we tried leaving comments on each others blogs (multiple times) it just would not work for days. Apparently Blogger updated everything but a glitch was found in the comments update so it took a couple of days to get that sorted, but thankfully we're all back to normal again. :-) If you took the time to leave a comment on last week's blog post and could not get it published, thank you for trying. It means a great deal to have you write back to me, and share your own thoughts and experiences, as well as updates on how your own days have been. (((hugs)))

This week had ups and downs at our place. After doing a bit better with my leg/knee situation for a few weeks, I found this past week to be akin to "taking two steps back", so lots of rest times were required each day between home and garden tasks. I admit to feeling a tad frustrated at this unpredictable roller coaster effect on whether I have good days/weeks or the more difficult ones, BUT...every day has it's own rhythm, and no matter what, I seek out opportunities to do what I can around home, and also to be creative with my hands during the needed intermittent hours of resting my leg. 

Last weekend I decided to begin a new project, one that has long been on my list of things to learn or make. In last week's post I wrote there were six things on my list which I hoped to do in the months ahead, and as I needed a lot of down-time this past week, I chose to start with some redwork slow stitching and the making of a Japanese rice bag. 

Many years ago I purchased some pieces of vintage French linen, the kind with red stripes and a bumpy weave. I've read that many people do not like hand-stitching on this kind of linen, preferring smooth fabric instead, but I really love how it can give a more rustic finish to hand embroidery so I chose to finally make use of it all.

I began by drawing up four little designs to stitch, which would incorporate a bit of applique. The white French linen fabrics (above) with the thick red lines were to be my embroidery backgrounds, and the fuller red striped fabric behind them is repurposed from an old linen top I had. Together they worked beautifully for what would eventually become a rice bag. 

I blanket stitched the applique pieces with a single strand of off-white thread...

Using the white thread allowed the applique to blend more easily into the linen background, rather than standing out and taking centre stage in each of the embroideries. 

Each day I would embroider one small block, and took my time to use different stitches, or add lines of running stitch - my sketches are a basic rough outline and any enhancements are made during the stitching. 

It's been a while since I did a design just in redwork, but the vision in my minds eye of a vintage style well-loved rice bag was a project I was excited to finally create. 

Rice bags are made in many sizes, but I chose to make a small one, with the base and all four sides measuring 6" square, so that should give you an idea of how small the stitcheries are. 

I waited a day before sewing the sides together and finishing the rice bag, because I like to give myself a bit of pondering time before the end of a project, just in case a few changes or new ideas come to mind. I was still not sure whether to line the bag with more of the striped linen, or whether to use plain white linen. 

The white linen won in the end, and I also used it for the double drawstring closure. Once the bag was completed (yesterday) my heart was so very happy with how it turned out because it's even nicer than I'd hoped. 

 

Once it's sewn, each side and the base measures 5.5" square. The lining is made the same as the outer bag but with no embroidery. Across the top there are channels, one on each of the sides, to thread the drawstrings through...

Now you may be wondering what I'll use this sweet little bag for? First I shall draw up a couple of new designs for more redwork using leftover fabrics from the rice bag, and then I will use them to make a small needlebook, scissor fob, and pincushion to keep inside the bag. 

Embroidering small projects is one of my favourite things, and this little bag will be perfect for storing what I need, plus a project-on-the-go. 

On my pondering day, between completing the embroideries and eventually sewing the bag together, I did a little more redwork to personalise a couple of Japanese style cross-back aprons I'd purchased recently from Temu. I genuinely like these cotton aprons, and am thrilled with the quality. Not having to tie apron strings or adjust neck ties, these simply slip over your head and cover the body very comfortably. The cotton fabric is thin admittedly, but I've not had a problem with that, especially as our tropical summer arrived this week (completely skipped spring!) and thin cotton or linen clothing is once again a must. 

What I did not like was the little decorative tag on the front of each apron, and as I had some nice thick cotton twill tape in my drawer (came wrapped around sheets we purchased last year), and red thread on hand, I decided to personalise my aprons and drew up two tiny embroideries to replace the generic ones that came with the aprons. Much nicer...

My week of redwork costs me nothing but time. It's so much fun using what you have, especially what you've had for a long time and waited to use 'one day'. My outlook on life is very much about using the good crockery all the time, making things with special fabrics I collected years ago, and enjoying all that we have today. Why wait to use what's already in my possession? And why waste money on buying more when I have enough now? 

I thank God for all He provides, and for the commonsense needed to create beauty from what is already in my hands, the things He has gifted me with and allowed me to source over the years. 

One more thing before I close off this post. I'll be having some regular days with Cully May as my companion and helper. You know, she turned 10 last month! Many of you will remember her birth back in 2016 and the JOY of seeing our precious Blossom bloom into motherhood. I still can't believe its been a decade since I held the first of three babies...I am a blessed Nana indeed!

Anyhow, Cully May and I love spending time together, but it has not been as often since my accident last year, so Blossom and I decided we'd make a regular day of it, and this past Wednesday we began. 

We took a trip to the library (just up the road), had an early lunch in the library cafe, and then back home to watch a favourite show, The Great Australian Bake-Off. 

Ever since she was a toddler, Cully May has loved watching baking shows with me, and this particular day we got inspired to make a few simple things before Blossom arrived to take her home. 

Firstly we made Hedgehog Slice, a family favourite, and as a bonus it's a no-bake recipe (we used THIS recipe). She was able to take most of it home for the family to enjoy, but left a few pieces here for Poppy to enjoy after work - which he did!

Then Blossom arrived an hour earlier than expected, so we raided the garden for tomatoes, leeks and basil to make a sauce, and cooked fried gnocchi which was then folded through the sauce with some fresh garlic, cream and a squeeze of lemon juice. It is one of my husband's favourite meals and was a real hit with Cully May and Blossom as well. 

Cully May took this photo of us...a bit blurry and a tiny pic, but so very special.

I hope you enjoyed today's blog post. Last week I received notifications from some of you that yes, you would like me to share some of my favourite YouTube channels, so I'll have that done for the next post. 

In the meantime, my prayers are with you and for you. May your hearts be full of joy and gratitude for what you already have, and I pray the Lord will bless you with extra creativity to make your home even lovelier by the addition of what you can make with your own two hands. 

Much love!!

Until next time,

PS: My Etsy Shop is always open, so please drop by if you are in the mood for something new to stitch.

CLICK HERE

Use it up, mending, learning...

 

I've been planning a blog post for the past two weeks, but life steps in and those plans fall by the wayside. I'm sure you experience this yourself at times? There's nothing wrong with making plans, in fact I think its wise, but an important life lesson is always be ready to put those plans aside, or alter them in some way, due to the inconstancy of everyday life. 

Labelled organsation with purpose...

It's the first week of spring here in Australia, and over the past few weeks I've gradually been working on creating more orderly spaces in our home, rather than the usual spring clean. Staying on top of housework means I am not needing to do a 'deep' clean very often as the daily and weekly maintenance tasks keep the home clean and tidy, but there are times when large heavy items such as fridges, freezer, washing machine, tall cupboards etc need to be moved, and that's when my husband steps in to the do the muscle work. 

So with no actual spring cleaning to do, I have used my time to order different areas in such a way that if anything happened to me, my husband would be able to find whatever he needs. This is not at all to sound morbid, as I have no life-threatening illness that would prompt such a plan, but I believe it's an important step as we get older, to consider what we'd be leaving behind should the Lord call us home unexpectedly.

My husband can often be seen or heard rummaging in cupboards or drawers looking for things. I ask can I help and what is he looking for, but he always says, "No, I'll find it", because he never wants me to have to do something he feels quite capable of accomplishing himself. Bless him! 

Anyhow, I bought some lovely wire basket containers with solid wooden lids for the pantry, and have sorted items into them and added labels to the lids. Now he can find whatever he's after, and is even putting things away because he knows where they go (normally I say, "just leave it there and I'll put it away"). I've done the same thing with other household items we store in bulk such a soaps, medicines, razor blades, candles, cleaning products, personal care products, extra cutlery, and so much more. They are in two areas of the house (part of our wardrobe and part of the linen cupboard) so all he need do is look in those cupboards and read the labels to find what he's after. 

In the midst of this I have donated quite a few blankets we never use and some electrical items that are also not in use, and this has given us more open space in the limited storage areas we have in our small home, thus allowing him to find things easily.

I am now about to do the same in my small craft/sewing/business room. The containers I bought for the pantry in blue and green, have been purchased again but this time in pink. They will not just look pretty, but also make the organising of things much easier. I am really enjoying all this! 

Learning new things and a wonderful blog...

My favourite blog is Grandma Donna's, which always gives me food for thought, especially with regards to homemaking as we age, but her most recent post gave me something else to consider, and my goodness I got excited.

She and husband Charles are always learning, refining what they do within their home and garden, and being mindful of mending, repurposing, simplifying, and caring for what is already in their possession. Donna cooks fairly simple foods, relying a lot on their garden for ingredients, but she also tries new things as a way of providing experiences they could not afford to explore otherwise. For example, she'd love to have croissants, so she decided to learn how to make authentic croissants. She use to do tatting, but after years of not doing it she forgot how to start off, so she looked to Youtube and had a refresher course by watching others. If you have a read through her blog you will find many things to inspire your homemaking, as well as many things which give cause to stop and ponder in this world gone crazy. 

So what was I considering? Learning new things. The things I have long wanted to learn but have not taken time to pursue. Though I am not on social media, and am very grateful for that, I do watch Youtube as a source of information and inspiration with regards to homemaking, sewing, knitting, gardening etc. I actually thought in my next blog post that I'd share a list of my most watched Youtube channels and tell you why. Would you be interested in that?

I am a visual learner, so I like watching how things are done rather than reading a book about it, so I'm preparing for myself a list of six things which interest me and which I'd like to try or learn more about, and once I have the basics the decision will be made as to whether its worth my time and effort or whether I should try something different. I believe at my age (67) it's important not to plod on with anything new that isn't do-able, enjoyable or productive in some way, so I have no qualms about moving on from a disappointing 'new' interest and investigating another.

Mending...

Most of my wardrobe consists of cotton or linen dresses, and I wear them all year round. As we live in the tropics of northern Australia, it's only a few days through winter when there's a need to wear a cardigan over a dress, or linen pants under the dress, so dresses really get their share of wear and tear, as well as constant washing and hanging out on the line in our bright sunshine. Over time the hem edges begin to wear away, though the rest of the dress is fine, so I began last summer to remove the bottom hem from some of my dresses and replace with a fabric edge in complimentary colours. The dress below is a real favourite, and last week I replaced the lower hem with some fabric I've had for more than a decade, so it now has new life. I also have two more dresses on my sewing table which need hems replaced, and I must admit, when I wear one of my mended dresses it feels brand new. 

I've also mended nightwear, and some linen tops I like to wear occasionally over linen pants. Before putting anything aside as no longer wearable, I leave it on the cutting table for a week and try to come up with a way to make it wearable once more. 

Use it up...

Late winter and early spring is strawberry season in my part of the country, when they are at their peak sweetness and cheapest to buy, so this is when I make a year's supply of strawberry jam. I have three main jam seasons each year - January for mango jam and apricot jam (mid summer), March for plum jam (early autumn), and August for strawberry jam (end of winter). 

Last week I went through the fridge and garden to see what needed to be used up. I had bought a few kilos of strawberries and they needed to be made into jam before they turned, plus I'd picked carrots and radishes from the garden that I decided could be refrigerator pickled to have with salads or side dishes.

I also had beef mince and potatoes to use up, plus carrots and an enormous glut of tomatoes and parsley from the garden, as well as a tub of apples in the fridge, and a container of passionfruit pulp in the freezer from last summer's vine. So apart from making jam, I did pickle carrots and radishes, and made a delicious Cottage Pie that we ate over three nights...

...as well as an apple and passionfruit crumble, also enjoyed over those same three nights.

We have "tomatoes coming out of our ears" right now, and I am picking at least a kilogram every day, so my freezer is fast filling up with 400g bags of cherry tomatoes for use in cooking between now and next winter's growing season. This is one of the reasons I am needing to use up previously frozen fruits such as last summer's passionfruit from our vines and some purchased peaches which I stewed, plus lots of stewed autumn plums. With the next stone fruit season only a few months away, we can enjoy the rest of the frozen peaches and plums right now.

End of season garden...

Spring in the tropics heralds the winding down of production in our garden as it will soon be far too hot and humid to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, snow peas and such...but we're still growing bananas all year round, the new crop of passionfruit will be enjoyed, our lime tree is already bulging with fruit, both lemons trees have buds, the orange tree has tiny fruits, there's five pomegranates on our relatively young tree, and the elder tree is bursting with flowers. We also have an abundance of herbs, bunching shallots, rocket, baby leeks and spring onions.

(the pomegranates have to be bagged otherwise bugs destroy them)

Can you guess what I've been nibbling on this morning?? The mulberry tree is lterally dripping with lush purple/black fruit and I get to enjoy them every day after hanging the washing on the line...

And for those who asked about our Kelly-dog, he is fine. Kelly would much rather be inside than out, so we do have to encourage him to spend time in the garden every day by locking the back door and having him wander the garden while we water, weed and pick produce. He's a true couch potato, which is unusual for a large two year old dachshund! 

It's been exhausting some days to stay on top of the garden, harvesting and preserving for the future, but it's also been a lot of FUN. My knee cries out to stop and take a break every hour or so, and I do, but even going slower than before the accident, so much is being achieved in those short but regular pockets of time around the home and in the garden. 

Rather than focus on what I can't do, I had a mindset change one day in the swimming pool (thank you Lord) and began to give thanks for all the things I CAN do, and there's a lot! When I'm in the pool swimming laps, I am reminded that apart from the area around my right knee/calf, the rest of my body is fine. I feel no knee pain in the pool as I swim, so there's a very real consciousness about how normal the rest of my body feels, and when the Lord brought that to mind a few months back, I was so overjoyed I cried tears of gratitude and continued to swim with the happiest heart. 

In the midst of trials, any trial, there will be things we struggle with which can almost take over the workings of our mind. Those challenges might magnify and sadly become the focus of how we see our life, or ourselves, and those around us. God knew I needed to have my eyes shifted from the pain and loss of what I could no longer do, and open them to see all the things I could still do...and to be glad of them. 

Learning, mending, using it up...

Through the past 14 months since my accident God has had me learning more about Him and how I am to live the rest of my earthly life than ever before, through the best textbook a woman can read...His Word.

In that same period of time, God has mended decades of brokenness and grief in my heart, buffed away many of my rough edges (still a work in progress) and refined my character with such strength and yet gentleness so that I am becoming a kinder, more forgiving, and Spirit-led daughter of the King. 

And He's reminded me to use what I already have - the gifts He gave me to be used for His glory, a mind for learning, a desire for obedience to Him, words to write, a glass-half-full attitude to life, and the ability to care for my family and home with a full and loving heart. 

I am so very blessed. And if you allow Him, He will show you just how many blessings He's brought into your life as well. It's easy to look at what we don't have, what hurts, what is lacking. But pray that He will lift your eyes to see what you've been missing, sweet friend. 

Much love!!

Until next time,

PS: My Etsy Shop is always open, so please drop by if you are in the mood for something new to stitch.

CLICK HERE