An unexpected slowing, a pattern and a tutorial...

I think many of you know that I've been pursuing a slower, simpler life for more than a decade now, probably since around 2012.  At first it was all about discovering who I was after many years of homeschooling, and then a realisation graciously unfolded before me from the Lord that I was now about to embark on a new season of life. I was an empty nester, no longer teaching, and discovering life with just the two of us left at home held a great blessing and immense joy. 

Life in the home would be slower, simpler, and different - though my natural "I can do it all" personality would thwart me off that track for many years. Slowing for me meant slow to learn! But I have, bit by bit, found that slowing, and especially living more simply, is what my heart truly needed all along. 

When I announced retiring from the blog last June, it was with full intent to not return. I spent the first two weeks shredding sixteen years of Elefantz Designs paperwork, and the next two weeks working in the garden. My heart soared in the garden! The joy was indescribable, and I felt perfectly at peace with my retirement decision. It was as though a huge weight had been lifted and I was free to live a much slower paced life as a very contented homemaker. 

And then I had an accident and injured my knee, an injury which ten months later has not improved, and is actually a bit worse than before. I was shattered at not being able to move around the garden, and follow through on the plans I had made for it and for our home. There have been other health issues since then, which praise the Lord have now been resolved, but the knee injury is the one which restricts me like no other. 

Back to blogging in November, there was joy being able to connect with you again, as I rarely see anybody since the injury, and that helped me to put the disappointments aside and get on with life as a slightly much slower homemaker. In fact I look back now and see all of this a blessing in disguise. My heart's desire was to live a slower simpler life, and God has used my unexpected physical limitations to teach me exactly how to do it. 

So here's the thing I have been reflecting on this week...

When you can only walk slow, everything in life slows with it. As the months have passed, I find myself not only unable to hurry, but not wanting to either. Not as much gets done around the house, or the garden, in any given day, but things eventually get done in time. I have learned that there's no rush to housework, no checklist to mark off at the end of the day, and no feelings of failure when tasks have to wait.

The garden is coming along well because of those small increments of care given in pure delight, and the preparation and care of making our sourdough bread over 24 hours every third day is an absolute slow joy after many years of baking a loaf within three hours. 

When I look around our home I see a place that is lived in, with a lot of love, a sanctuary for my beloved and I to enjoy each other where we can close a door on the world outside. I'm noticing things that eluded me before, and delighting in what once was seemingly unimportant. When I do something like cleaning the oven, I take my time, and it can be many hours of slow work, but I notice things which had been invisible before. 

For example, cleaning the oven this week I thought about what a home baker once said about putting dough to rise in the empty oven with just the light on - that it would give a subtle enough warmth to help the dough rise, and with milder winter days coming that setting would have been beneficial but alas I do not have an oven light. 

Then as I cleaned, I thought to check the oven manual. You never know what's right before you until you slooooowwww down. 

On my oven settings there's fan bake, ordinary bake, rapid bake, grill...quite a few settings, and I use them all for different things. But in the manual it mentioned a Defrost setting which can be used to defrost food from the freezer AND to rise dough! I walked slowly to the oven dials and yes, there it was in plain sight and I'd never noticed it. 

I wonder what else I'm going to discover that has been overlooked these past eight years living here? There's so much to love about this slower life, my friends. Yes it involves pain, and yes, it prevents me from driving the car, but it has so many benefits to rejoice in, and I choose to rejoice.

Now, this week I wanted to give you a couple of free projects. 

One is an embroidery pattern that ties right in to choosing a slower life. May it be a gift that blesses you, and anyone you choose to stitch it for. Use the link below to download my free "Message to Self" pattern.

DOWNLOAD the free pattern

The second gift is a tutorial which was originally shared here during Covid. I want to share a few home-focused projects with you in the coming weeks, and this is a favourite of mine. The Farmhouse Produce Bags are simple to make and you only need a few things, one of the them being a cotton tea towel. 

I made two back in 2020, one for onions and the other for potatoes, and they have stood the test of time because I still use them today. Six years on and they are still pretty, still functional and have not worn out. Using good quality tea towels may be one reason for that, but I also think the French seams have kept them sturdy.

We use brown onions and red onions, but all this time I've mixed them both in the same onions bag. Early this week that changed. I decided the red onions needed a bag of their own, so I followed my own tutorial, and made one...

If you'd like to make some Farmhouse Produce Bags, I have put the tutorial into a PDF file for you to download and keep. These bags would be fine for storing other things too, such as dried beans, parsnips, or whatever you like to store in cotton that will keep well. 

Use the link below to download the free tutorial.

DOWNLOAD the free tutorial

I completed the cushion made using the free Bird in Pot pattern I shared with you HERE and it's sitting in my leather chair by the front window, where our dear Kelly-dog loves to watch all the roadworks which have been going on out front since January. 

How are you? Have you had an experience which forced you to slow down, but became a blessing in disguise? Perhaps your slowing is still fresh and its been very difficult to accept - know that I am praying for all of you who are going through such a time.

Remember always, God sees you. He is not blind to your struggles, nor ignorant of your joys. He is our Father who loves us, and His mighty hands hold us even through the fire, the storm and the valley. This season has taught me to not just pray for healing, but to pray for my eyes to see the good in it, and my heart to overflow with happiness and gratitude.

ABIGAIL - I almost forgot to tell you that I have made the entire Abigail Bible study into one PDF file. You can download it HERE

God bless,

until next time,

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You will find loads of patterns for instant download HERE in my Etsy Shop