Catching up and a free tea towel pattern...

Well it's been nine long days since my last blog post and even for me lately that's a long time! Hubby has been home on school holidays for the past week, you see, and still has one week left before the final term of our Australian school year begins and he has to slip back in to teaching mode for another ten weeks.

So right now we're working around home and in the garden doing needed repairs, removing spent vegetables, weeds and unwanted plants, building new raised garden beds, planting carrots, radishes and more herbs...as well as fixing the unexpected problems like the dishwasher flooding the kitchen and my laptop seizing up after the latest big Microsoft update. 

My dear man had to improvise with the split dishwasher hose because there are none in the country (cause they come from China no doubt) and bought some industrial hose which he configured to the machine perfectly. My laptop on the other hand needed to have everything saved onto the external hardrive (I do this every few months anyhow) then the whole laptop wiped to have Windows re-installed along with all the various drivers and apps that keep my busy business running. This was not a smooth exercise for hubby, who is brilliant with techy computer stuff, because my laptop refused to recognise the hard drive when we were ready to transfer all the files back over - aaah, the joys of computer life. So he manually (over 24 hours) transferred them over and was rather relieved to see the back of my desk when it was complete. So this led me to be 'absent' for three days in the last nine.

Another day was spent reacquainting myself with all the updated functions (why do Microsoft have to keep changing things????) and just when we thought everything was going smoothly again our dear hen Bess died. 

When we got the two chickens a year ago we knew they were getting on in years but they still laid regularly and when Bess got a bit poorly a few months back I did everything instructed to make her well again. And she did bounce back so in the end she had a couple more months of scratching in the garden and staying close to our other hen, Daphne. But poor Bessie, it was her time to say goodbye so Mr E has buried her beside his shed and planted a tree over her grave. We affectionately call it the Bessie Tree. Daphne was lost for the first two days without Bess but she's come good today and has decided that hubby is her best friend so while he's been washing and vacuuming and polishing our old cars this morning she stayed right beside him. 

We have two new 'point of lay' hens arriving mid October and we're praying Daphne and they get along well. But in the meantime she's decided human company is a comfort. 

Late yesterday afternoon I was tidying the linen cupboard and pulled out a set of check tea towels I purchased months ago. I always refresh and decorate my tea towel supply in January as a ritual beginning to the new year, but as this has been a year which many of us would find hard to describe with a single word or phrase I decided not to wait for next January and began sketching a simple design to stitch onto a small aqua check towel. Small patterns which are cute and refreshing to the eye really brighten a kitchen and the area around it...and they're fun to stitch too. 

I'm hoping to create a few more tea towel patterns soon but first I must complete the December set of Faith in Hand designs as I always work two months in advance. However, I do find that stepping away from 'work' and just creating for pure delight is a great boost to the overall creative flow so perhaps I should sprinkle these extra projects in between the essential designs?

Use the link below to download the pattern...

DOWNLOAD Cook With Love PATTERN

Cook With Love is a beautiful phrase don't you agree? 

It's so easy to let kitchen weariness and even boredom creep in to meal making, especially when you're unwell, tired or on a tight budget...and I feel this way at times too, despite my absolute love for preparing food. I find that when those moods threaten to darken my thoughts it's time to watch a few favourite cooking channels on YouTube, recipe accounts on Instagram or old episodes of the Great British Bake-Off. Every single time without fail I am inspired and can't wait to get back into the kitchen and create with whatever ingredients are on hand.

Recently a friend, Teresa, shared photos on Instagram of a French chicken salad sandwich recipe she'd made from a recipe she'd found (also on IG). It looked scrumptious and as I had a bit of leftover roasted chicken breast in the fridge (we reintroduced a little meat back in to our meals over the past six weeks) I gave the recipe a try...after I baked a loaf of fresh bread first.

I made enough for two days of lunches and hubby was rather chuffed about that. 

The French chicken salad recipe came from the Mon Petit Four blog and just in case you'd like to try it yourself HERE is the link. 

Another delicious treat made this week was a very easy, dairy free, chocolate pudding.

The main ingredient is avocado, which you cannot taste surprisingly, and I can assure you this will be made over and over again. I served it in jars with chopped strawberries on top...

Afterwards I added some strawberry jelly as well (jello) because my husband simply loves jelly. 

Tomorrow I'll be restocking our depleted avocado supply. We go through 6 to 8 a week but this might just tip the scales over that. 

You'll find the recipe HERE at Downshiftology. 

I think that's enough catch up for today. We still have chores to do and I want to spend some time planning something special to share on the blog from October...but that's as much as I can say right now. I wonder if you have any ideas what I'm up to?? Hmmmm.

God bless your precious hearts, and may your joy in Him increase more and more each day, for He joys in you dear one...never doubt that. 

Loving hugs

PS: Before I go...almost forgot!

There's only a few days left to join Faith In Hand for the October patterns....

pop over HERE for that info. Thank you. xx