Rainy days, mending, planning a new tutorial...

We've had so much rain this month that I've rarely needed to water the garden. In fact we've had so much rain that all four pumps in our front and back yards have been working overtime, and praise the Lord only one of them broke down. They kept our yards looking more like a lake than the oceans of times past. We are so glad hubby spent two weeks in May last year replacing and re-building all the pump wells and pipes because his hard work is paying off. We're still only in the first half of our tropical wet season, and more monsoons are yet to come, perhaps a cyclone (though we pray not), so knowing the pumps are moving the water out from the yards and into the council storm drain is a great relief. 

Each day at morning tea I sit at my desk in the sewing room and work on blogging, writing, homemaking and sewing plans for the months ahead. On the rainy days it was simply beautiful watching the rain drops glisten and fall from the Grevillea, Syzygium and Bottle Brush trees outside the window, and the little honeyeaters darting to and fro from branch to branch.

While it's been so wet, warm and humid, my attention has been given over to a jolly deep clean of the living/dining room, kitchen, pantry, bathroom and entryway...the evidence of each day's labour being my aching muscles at night. But working hard around home brings great satisfaction, and definitely worth the  aches and pains. 

I got down into the window tracks one morning, after washing the inside of the windows, and was horrified at the build up of dirt and dust. Obviously it had been a long time since I did that task.

 All the appliances were cleaned inside and out, and I must tell you that cleaning the dishwasher with citric acid is wonderful! Just add 1/4 cup where you'd normally put your dishwashing cleaner and run your regular cycle. When you open the door later it gleams and sparkles good as new. 

I've also done some mending of clothes, some curtains, and cushion inserts. I find in our very hot tropical weather, many things become brittle, even the covers of cushion inserts. This one was crumbling before my eyes...

Just over a year ago we switched to all linen sheets, but I kept the old cotton ones because they are really good for backing quilts, runners, etc...but they also make excellent replacement cushion insert covers.  I cut a rectangle from the old sheet to fit, sewed French seams along the sides, and hemmed the open end, before popping the crumbling insert inside and slip stitching the opening closed. 

Now I can safely place the newly covered insert inside my pretty cushion covers without dealing with a crumbly mess whenever I want to change them. 

After this repair I took my sewing machine in for a service. Blossom reminded me that our machines had not been serviced in a very long time (6 years - ouch!) and when we got them back they worked like new. We simply hadn't noticed any issues until then, as I find over time you get used to things not being perfect. Anyhow, this enthused me to get back to sewing on my machine more often, and that decision prompted a new tutorial which I'll be sharing next week. 

Here's a little peek at what we will be making...

It's a small sewing pouch, the kind you can fill with EPP papers and fabrics, scissors, thread and needle, to take on a journey, or to work from whilst waiting for an appointment. They are very easy to make, and will post in an envelope if you do not fill it, so they make excellent gifts.

Inside is a pocket for holding the EPP bits and pieces, and the needles and pins are held in place with soft squares of doctor's flannel (which is pure wool). 

Pop back here to the blog next week for the step by step tutorial. 

Even though it's raining a lot, the weather is still hot and humid, so cool afternoon snacks and soda water infused with frozen pineapple or citrus slices are my go to. At the moment I'm relishing grape season, and have developed a partiality for apple slices dipped in peanut butter. Oh my, it's quite scrumptious!

Did you make the bookmarks from my free Books & Roses block of the month last year? When I shared the first one last January I suggested some of you may like to use them in a quilt instead of a bookmark. Well, my good friend Joanne in the Netherlands, ran with that idea! 

She's been sending me update photos every month, and here are her twelve Books & Roses embroideries displayed inside churn dash blocks...

...and the other day I received photos of the completed quilt. I think you will love it!

Isn't it wonderful!? 

And her smiling face peeking over the top was just as exciting to see. Joanne is one of the most positive women I know, and even in the midst of her own great trial last year, she made me laugh and look at life as the absolute joy it is meant to be, praise God. She's a strong woman, and as you can see, a very creative one too. 

NEWS: Instagram

I have opened a new account on Instagram. The many months since I left IG were more beneficial than I can say, because though I may not have spoken or written of it, last year was (personally and for family members) a very challenging one. 

Taking time out to examine my life, my character, my hopes and plans, my relationship with the Lord, my available time, and the very great responsibility of being a homemaker and the matriach of our family - those many months of social media absence proved beneficial, as they gave me needed space to sweep away doubt and cobwebs, and to become sure of exactly who I was and the direction God required me to pursue. 

I actually did not think there'd be any return to IG, so making this decision over the past week surprised me...but we live in a time when the voice of conservatives, of Bible believing Christians, of homemakers, wives, mothers and grandmothers, of Titus Two women, are being drowned out. So while we're still able to speak, I'd like to encourage women in my own small way, and just as I do this on my blog, so I plan to do also on my new Instagram account. 

You can follow along HERE or search for @jennyofelefantz 

Well, I'll get back to my planning now, as I have a few tutorial ideas I'd like to work on for coming months, plus a new issue of The Homemakers Heart to compile...

...and with a great recipe book find from the op-shop recently I have notes to make because it's full of great advice for menu planning in the economy of today. So much of it I heard from my Nana's lips, but had forgotten. Now the memory is being jogged awake. 

Bless you heaps, and I pray that whatever your season, you're finding ways to beautify your home environment and infuse joy into all your tasks. May the Lord bless the work of your hands today and every day...

Hugs

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Books & Roses BOM - final two patterns...

 

Today I have the final two Books & Roses BOM stitchery patterns for you. 

Have you enjoyed this year's free block (bookmark) of the month? I have heard of many ways the patterns have been displayed, and not just as bookmarks, but inside quilt blocks and also on greeting cards. How have you been completing them?

Bookmarks are such an easy gift to post away in a letter, a card, or tucked inside a book - and if you're a reader yourself, you know you can never have too many bookmarks. 

The November bookmark is smaller than usual, and that's due to having only a tiny scrap of the beautiful fabric which adorns the top and bottom of the stitchery. This little bookmark is just right for my small Spurgeon devotional.

On your pattern sheet for December I have no included '2023' but you could easily write it in yourself. It was just as I was stitching it that I thought what a nice way to begin next year with an appropriate bookmark - and I even used some pretty fabric from my new free block of the month, The Virtuous Wife. 

Use the link below to download the double pattern.

DOWNLOAD Books & Roses November and December stitchery pattern set

If you have missed any of the free monthly Books & Roses stitchery patterns this year go HERE for the download links. 

I awoke with a nasty head cold this morning, my first in ages, so I wanted to get these patterns out to you while I'm still functioning. Unfortunately my nose is now a constant drip, a migraine is brewing and my throat feels like razor blades are embedded within....so I shall sign off and take my leave to go rest and recover with plenty of homemade cold tonic and hopefully some bowls of soothing chicken soup. 

God bless you all,

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October bookmark pattern...

This month's bookmark is finally done, thanks for your patience. 

I drew up a sweet stack of teacups to applique, perched them on a stack of books and popped a couple of red roses in the smallest cup. 

On your pattern sheet I've drawn little roses inside each tea cup, just in case you'd rather stitch them than add applique. 

Something else I did this month was to hand quilt the top and bottom feature fabrics, one with diagonal cross hatch, and the other with squares. I also made this bookmark much larger than previous months as some of my reference books require more than the average size to save a page. 

A triple layer of lace and ribbon completed the October bookmark. 

Hope you like this one! Use the link below to download the free pattern.

DOWNLOAD Books & Roses October stitchery pattern

 

Early each morning there's been cloud cover for a few hours, so usually I'm found pottering around the garden, doing what I can to prepare beds and pots for the very hot months ahead. 

There's not a great deal of food you can grow here outside of the winter months, strange as that may seem to most of you, but I'm studying up on what might work. So far, we've got two new pumpkin plants doing well, sweet potatoes just kicking off, more spring onions (green onions) which always do well year-round, radishes, rocket (always does well), a capsicum plant which resides in a pot of snapdragons, and beetroot greens. Much of these are under shade cloth in the raised beds, or for the smaller pots I've used old net curtains to shade them. 

I roasted the last butternut pumpkin yesterday. It was only a small one, but perfect...

For fruit we have a paw paw tree which has established itself well the past two months so we're hopeful of fruit (probably next year), and the passionfruit vine is vigorously spreading over the structure hubby built for it. Our sole blueberry plant surprised us with six blueberries last month, and has suddenly had a growth spurt, so we're hopeful for future fruit. The blackberry bush was so dormant the past six months that we though it had died, but no, it's sprouted to life and is beginning to spread it's limbs across another structure hubby built for it. 

Ginger, which we're growing for the first time, has burst to life in a pot, so I got keen and planted another ginger corm in the raised bed where we had grown tomatoes over winter. 

With regards to flowers - the geraniums, snapdragons, calendula, roses, dianthus, seaside daisy (which grow in the shade of the elder tree) and zinnias are all doing fairly well. Amazingly, the chrysanthemums are still bringing forth a few blooms as well! I have to keep my eye on everything though as our sun is already scorching petals if I'm not checking often and moving pots around to shadier spots if needed.

After browsing one of my garden books, I picked some chive blossoms the other day to make a flavoured vinegar. 

I only made half a jar as I didn't have enough blossoms for the full recipe, but it will be fun to watch this jar turn a deep pink over the next two weeks...

Apparently the flavour is delicious, and as the only ingredients were chive blossoms and white wine vinegar, if we like it I'll make more each year.

This is the book I'm reading - full of garden ideas!

Remember those pretty china teacups and saucers I showed you in the last blog post? Well, Blossom and the children were over on Tuesday and the girls couldn't wait to have a tea party! They even asked for a refill. 

Charlie is almost two now, can you believe it?! 

Every time I try to get a photo though, he's jumping around and not wanting to stand still so the photos are blurry...but, you can still see how he melts my heart!

Migraines are hitting very hard at the moment, so blog posts have slowed...but I didn't want you to wait any longer for the new bookmark stitchery, so thought while I have a free hour I'd give you a catch up on home life as well. 

I truly hope that each of you are doing well, that you're finding joyful things to put your hands and minds to...and that you remember to give thanks each day for the sacred gift of life. Beginning each day with prayers of praise and gratitude, we set our thoughts on the Father above, and this in turn brings blessing to the hours that follow. 

We thoroughly enjoying the extra time spent reading God's Word before breakfast, as well as after. My beloved, who has a stressful job, drives off in a much calmer state of mind. Spending that extra time each day in our Bible study has been, and is, incredibly life giving. In fact, I hear my husband let out a sigh when it's time to close his Bible and go get ready for work...and I think, that's what it should be like, right? We should love reading God's Word so much, that we don't want to put it down. 

Bless you heaps, lovely ones. I've got notes for the next book study chapter, but with this barrage of migraines (weather related) it's not been easy to assimilate it all into a blog post. Soon, though.

Hugs and blessings

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Better late than never...

 

There's something very calming and lovely about raindrops on roses, don't you think?

We had a little rain the other night, not as much as the garden required, but enough to fill my heart with delight as I walked amongst the various roses in bloom, now adorned with the clear jewels of heaven.

I'd not intended to be away this long from the blog, nor to be so very late with this month's free Books & Roses bookmark...but intention and reality occasionally do not agree. Such was the case in my life the past couple of weeks.

A confirmed diagnosis of Pes Anserine Bursitis in my right knee was given yesterday, after more than six weeks of increasing pain, and limited mobility. At first it was thought just my patellar tendon had become inflamed again (which it had) so I followed the same physio protocol as before and that soon remedied the problem, but another swelling at the side of my knee was getting worse. 

A new set of physio stretches and exercises are now being adhered to, but the doctor tells me it may take months to heal. Not the best news, but really, it's not that bad either. It could have been something more sinister, and it's not, so I am incredibly thankful for that. 

Of course the bursitis has definitely slowed me down in life, more than the intentional slow living I'd slipped into this year, but rather than being frustrated, I just do what comes next, and when one task is completed I move on to what follows. 

And that, my friends, is why the September bookmark stitchery is a week late. :-) 

So at last it is here for you. The yellow floral print is one of my all time favourites, and quite old, so I only had a small scrap left, but now I can enjoy it slipped inside a book for many years to come, God willing.

Are you adding the little pops of applique to your bookmark stitcheries each month, or stitching them without? You probably know I love tiny applique in designs. 

Use the link below to download the free pattern.

DOWNLOAD the September Books & Roses stitchery pattern

We're still gathering from the garden each day and I try to plan our main meal around what's available. I've waited ages (it seems) for the snow peas to bear fruit and this week we've enjoyed those precious green treats in stir fries and salads.

The cucumbers have come to and end, but with over fifty picked from one plant over the tropical winter growing season, there's no complaints about that. There's fermented jars of them in the fridge, and another six still to eat in salads. The only sad thing is that we grow these foods in winter, but cannot grow here in summer when we really want to eat them fresh. Ah well, as in all things, I give thanks.

Beet greens are added to the salads now, and Bok Choy to stir fries or salads. The Bok Choy has already bolted to seed as the early spring weather has brought very warm days, so I'll probably finish picking what's left by the weekend. 

I bake our bread two or three times a week, milling the whole grains to make flour. Now that the weather is so warm and humid I noticed it can become mouldy by day three stored in calico inside the bread tin, so we're back to the usual habit of storing bread in refrigerator. Oh, winter, I miss you already.

My blood pressure has crept a bit too high the past few weeks so I'm making up bottles of hibiscus tea every few days. Though I enjoy it as a hot tea, having it made up and in the fridge gives me a refreshing cold drink after tending the garden each day. I do not add sugar, just steep the loose dried hibiscus leaves in boiling water for ten minutes and then strain. Hibiscus is a naturally sweet, though tart tea...and excellent for naturally bringing down BP. 

Not at all recommended for those with low BP.

We're restricting cane sugar in our diet these days, so I've gone back to baking from some old recipes which use dates, bananas, maple syrup or raw honey for sweetener. On Sunday these little cookies were a delicious treat!

Made from almond meal, flour, almond butter, peanut butter, egg, maple syrup, cranberries and coconut oil, they were so good. We only have two a day, which is quite sufficient for a treat. 

I have a number of new designs made, but no patterns written yet...though I had hoped they'd be done by now. In future I shall remember just how busy the winter garden is, and either work on patterns earlier in the year or later. Pretty soon it will be very hot and I'll spend a fair amount of time each day cooling off inside with the air conditioner running, so time will be available for pattern writing then. After tending to the home and cooking of course. 

For those who have asked me to bring back Phyllis May's Kitchen...all the patterns are now available HERE in my Etsy Shop. They are very detailed, so you should be fine following them. To look at this project pop over HERE for all the photos. 

I'm currently re-stitching all the blocks to make a quilt (those instructions are also included in the patterns) and if I get time to photograph them later in the week I'll show you. :-)

For now though, I need to get up and walk around as sitting makes my knee worse (though swimming is wonderful for pain relief).

I'm praying for you all, as I know from the comments here on the blog, and private emails which arrive each day that we all have seasons of life which are harder than others, and praying for each other is one of the greatest gifts we can give. 

Sorry for not replying to all those who have emailed recently (and one which was sent to Blossom for me). Avoiding time at the computer, or sitting anywhere for very long, has been important. Know that I have read your sweet words and truly, you bless me. Thank you.

I "will" have the next book study chapter very soon. It's all about being feminine...

hugs

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