Family, pugs, garden harvest, and sewing...

 

CROSS STITCH - another finish

I am genuinely loving my return to cross-stitch this year. Before I ever taught myself to hand embroider and design, I used to do cross-stitch, and taught all of my children to cross-stitch as well. My eldest girl, Kezzie, has done the most beautiful pieces, and gifts them on special occasions. 

You previously saw the large strawberry design I completed in July, and here's the one I completed in August...gorgeous folk art style ducks. 

I have decided to finish the ducks as a cushion cover for our bed. The colours and design are perfect for this spring and on into summer. Still deciding on the fabric for the borders, but over coming days I intend going through what I have on hand and choosing from them. 

Now I am working on another cross-stitch, and this one will hang in a hoop when it's completed. The rabbit is surrounded by a blueberry wreath, and I think it will be lovely hanging in the living room...or perhaps the bedroom... we shall see when its done. ;-)

GRANDCHILDREN & PUGS

Yesterday I headed off to spend the morning with my grandchildren and Ross. Blossom is working as a house cleaner these days, and as Ross has been unemployed since last November, he is the one now homeschooling the children. Both Ross and Blossom are amazing parents, and an amazing couple, who put God and family above all else, so they accept the blessings and challenges of life with grace, and do what they can to care for their three cherubs, working with whatever season the Lord has them in. 

Cully May, Rafaella and Charlie David, as well as the two pugs - Barney and Tucker - cover me with hugs and kisses, and we have the best time together! 

Ross has a chess table set up all the time for the kids because they love to play, even 5yo Charlie David has become a chess addict!

You can see the cat poles in the background above, but I rarely see the two cats - Kiki and Howl. They sleep all day in hidden places, then come out to play all night. The pugs and the cats get along wonderfully, which is nice because our 2½ yo dachshund Kelly hates our 16yo Sophie cat and goes after her. It has been very sad having to keep Sophie up the back in the pool enclosure, though we have made it into a safe and comfy sanctuary for her, and spend time every day with her for long cuddles and brushing her fur. 

Cully May is learning French now, and this has made me think it could be time for me to brush up on my high school French so we can have conversations...though to be honest, I only did one year and wasn't all that good at it. Ha ha! Perhaps she can teach me in time?

GARDEN 

We pulled the remaining carrots last weekend, along with the white sweet potatoes. The carrots are delicious and I'm finding ways to use them, other than just roasting or boiling. Hubby loves my pickled carrots, and I will make a carrot cake for Rafaella before I see her again next week, but I was thinking I'd try fermenting some as well. Have you fermented carrots before? Any tips??

We had rain yesterday afternoon and into the night, our first rain in six months. Oh it was glorious!! Apart from us getting a break from all the watering each day, this gave all our trees a deep soak, and may help the grass come back to life. Currently I stand on hard dry dirt whilst hanging the washing, although Kelly thinks its great and digs holes all over the place which I have to mindful of as one unforseen foot fall into a hole sets my leg and knee recovery back many weeks. 

SUNDAY DRIVE

Last Sunday we went for a drive along the coastal side of Crystal Creek...

It was a glorious day, not too hot and very peaceful. The creek, though I do think of it as a river because it's very wide as it nears the ocean, is a popular spot for locals and tourists alike. On the mountain side there are waterholes where many come to swim. On the coastal side there's a track we drive along that takes us past many tiny shacks, privately owned for many decades, where the owners come for weekends to fish and relax. 

We drove until we found the one spot open to the public where they can access the beach. We didn't go walking there as I am not stable enough to walk on sand yet, but there were a number of tents and BBQs set up where people had stayed the night. We get a lot of backpackers in our part of the country, and they know where the free camping areas are so as we drive around we see a lot of them in tents or sleeping in the back of cheap old vans they buy on arrival in Australia. 

You can just see the ocean in the distance as we turned off the track to go home. Such a beautiful day. 

SOCKS 

I wrote recently about learning new things, and I've been going through my list of skills to learn, things to do, or things to make, deciding which one to do next. One of those things was the rice bag I shared back HERE and HERE, and another thing, a skill actually, is to knit socks. I asked Lin about 'where to start' as she is a prolific and very skilled sock knitter, and she suggested beginning with the free beginner pattern from Christine at Winwick Mum in the UK. So I have that downloaded and printed up, and am just deciding on the yarn to use (gosh, I nearly died when I saw the price of sock yarn online - Australian prices are around $40 a skein). I have plenty of the cheap 4ply merino yarn I bought from Temu, which I used to knit fingerless gloves for Blossom and the grandkids this past autumn, and think I may use that as my practice socks. Apparently socks wear better if there's nylon mixed with wool, but my yarn is 100% merino wool. Anyhow, using what I already have is the best option, especially when learning something new.

If you'd like to see Lin's socks, just go HERE to visit her blog and scroll through. So many gorgeous pairs! Thanks for the help Lin. :-)

FINALLY, another Japanese sewing skill to learn...

I thoroughly enjoy stitching the occasional Japanese hand embroidery patterns by Yumiko Higuchi and Yula. I also enjoy repurposing old clothes into Boro style tops, and sewing Sashiko blocks. But recently I came across something I'd not seen before - mosaic darning. This began with a talented young woman, Tomomi Mimura, who elevated the basic art of darning into something beautiful and artistic. 

This was to become a new skill for me, and once I'd purchased a PDF copy of her book, Darning Embroidery, I could not wait to begin working on her practice samples. The book is in Japanese, but there are photos throughout, and if you already hand embroider, as I do, it's easy to figure out. 

The hardcover cost was too high for me, but I have purchased a number of great Japanese embroidery books from KaylieBooks for around $6 -7 USD (currently $10.20 AUD) and that's how I bought this one.

The first practice sample was completed today, and the photo tutorial was excellent.

Fortunately I had linen, 4ply cotton yarn and a darning needle on hand to use. The first sample is a square darned with two colours, and I chose red and white. 

Normally I never use an emrboidery hoop for anything, but as this is weaved across the fabric and hardly ever goes through to the back, I prepared a small hoop, drew a 2" square with a Frxion pen, and began. 

I LOVE the feel of texture in embroidery and patchwork (a reason I love to hand quilt), and this has a beautiful texture. 

This is the back once the piece is finished.

I've begun the second sample, a circle that is not made as easily as the square, and I chose a thicker yarn, but I'll show you that one next time. In the meantime, it's such fun to be cross-stitching, and darning, each day. Each is slow, each is pretty, and each one is incredibly peaceful to work on. 

What are you working on that gives you a sense of peace and joy? 

As I was doing that square darning sample my mind kept going back to childhood, and the evenings when Nana would be darning Pop's thick woollen socks, the ones she had knitted to keep his feet warm on cold nights down at the wharf where he unloaded cargo from large ships. 

As I progress with the darning, it will become a mosaic style and I cannot wait to do that and show you. 

In Closing...

I had decided not to share about the unexpected switch from Ross to Blossom as the breadwinner when it began about five months ago. It felt strange to them, as it did to her dad and I, and we all questioned God. But with so many jobs applied for, Ross still had not been successful, and a friend of the family offered Blossom some work in their house cleaning business so she accepted. It turns out Blossom is their best employee, and she loves cleaning...though she spends all her non-work time with Ross and the children as they are the lights in her life. She knows this is for a season, and accepts that in God's perfect timing things will change. 

From Ross's perspective, this was a huge life shock, but also an unexpected blessing. He is a natural teacher, enthusiastic about encouraging each child's individual skills and interests, and over time has discovered what it really means to be there for your children, to listen and hear what they say, to be a more intuitive husband and able to use his own skillsets to add routine and order and fun to each day. He is currently working at night on building a business of his own online, but his first priority is Blossom and the children. He is Blossom's greatest supporter and is so very proud of her for stepping out and trusting God in their current season of life. 

My husband and I are VERY proud of our daughter and son-in-law, and we know God has used their situation to teach us some things as well. 

In our mind's eye, we plan our way and visualise how it will turn out if we do this, or that. We offer it to the Lord, and if you're like our family, we ask Him to close any door we should not walk through, and swing wide the doors He would have us proceed through. None of us expected that Bloss would do what she is now doing for her family. But God knew, and it is God alone who has strengthened her and carried through. It is God alone who has used this time with Ross to bless their family in ways there had been no opportunity for in the past. God carries them both. God leads them both. And God will change things in His perfect timing, if it be His will. 

I have been reminded to step aside and let God be GOD in every way. All through the Bible He surprises us with the unexpected, and He is the same God today as He was thousands of years ago. Have you needed a reminder to step aside, or to let go of your own ways in order for God to have His way?

(pattern duo here in shop)

Have a lovely week ahead my friends. Posting on Thursdays seem to work best for me, and I'll send out a weekly or fortnightly newsletter as well on that day. You can sign up for the free newsletter HERE, and that way you won't ever miss a blog post. 

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

Bakin' stitchin' and a country drive...

 Hi everyone! 

How have you been? Are you enjoying the final month of the season, wherever you are across the globe? It's almost the end of winter here, and we've had a bumper harvest of tomatoes, rocket, spring onions, numerous herbs, cucumbers and radishes. I'm hoping we can harvest for a wee bit longer before it gets too hot again, but just this week the dreaded 'green vegetable bugs' have returned and that's always a quick marker to empty the tomato beds within a couple of weeks as they pretty much decimate them. 

No complaints though as the freezer has a bountiful supply of baby roma tomatoes and yellow pear tomatoes for pasta dishes in spring and summer, and we still have plenty in the fridge for enjoying now, plus there's hubby's large and delicious Rouge de Marmande tomatoes which he grew for the first time this season and will become a winter regular in the raised beds. 

The other day I made a cous cous salad using tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, radishes, and coriander (cilantro) fresh picked from the garden.

I completed the large strawberry cross stitch and am very happy with it, but have not yet made a decision on whether to lightly tea-dye it (for more of an aged look) or leave it as it is. 

Now I've begun a new cross stitch pattern that I work on in the evenings. It's a lovely floral duck design which would look nice on a decorative tea towel to hang on the oven door...again, it's just an idea and I'll wait until its complete before making a final decision. 

Baking has been high on the agenda recently, especially Fat Rascals, which were baked two times in a week as they are just the kind of baked treat hubby and I enjoy! There are many varied recipes online, but the one I chose was 'just right' and we shall stick with it...

For the first time in months my leg behaved and I was able to travel in the car for a fairly decent Sunday drive (180 klm round trip), and we celebrated with home-brewed iced coffees and Fat Rascals on the way. They really do make the perfect travelling brekky!

Our trip was up the Mingela Range to the tiny town of Mingela. The town has only a handful of residents, but was once a beautifully quaint country stop for those who lived there and the farmers around the area. Today there's an old pub, which is currently undergoing refurbishment and has camping facilities, but the rest of the town is what you can see in the photos below...

The train line going out west runs parallel to the main street, and just beside it we found a bower's nest under one of the bouganvillea trees...

Some other baking recently was a Lemon Kefir Pound Cake, as I had some excess kefir to use up. The recipe also had a lemon syrup drizzle, but I chose not to do that as I really didn't want it too sweet - just a simple, moist lemon pound cake to have with a morning tea cuppa. This is another recipe I'll be making over and over, and probably one day with the drizzle too...

It made a large loaf size cake so I sliced up half of it and froze the slices for quick treats. In fact I freeze quite a lot these days as it's nice to just pull something out of the freezer to have with cuppas or as a dessert, or to take on a drive. 

I enjoy grinding my own spelt grain to make flour for sourdough or regular breads, but I have begun using it for other baked items as well. I mostly use the Nourishing Traditions method of soaking the freshly ground flour in liquid (yoghurt or kefir or whey mostly) for 24-48 hours before adding other ingredients. Below is the most recent bake, with a flour/kefir mixture after 48 hours...

Then I added honey, eggs, vanilla, orange zest, baking soda and cranberries, with slivered almonds across the top. Baked in a loaf tin, this was soooooo good!! When the freshly ground grain is soaked this way, it gives you a beautifully soft texture when baked.

This was sliced, half of it frozen for another day, and the rest enjoyed with butter over three days. Delicious!

Next week I shall be returning to regular blogging, and will share some of my hopes for the future. 

God has been abundantly gracious in my life, and even though I'm still in the midst of treatment for this painful knee/leg injury and must be mindful of activity, He has stirred my creativity once more, and I am looking forward to working on some new things, whilst remaking some older projects. 

Recently I told my husband I was feeling quite obsolete, and he laughed. And when he laughs he makes me laugh! We chatted and he understood what was going on in my mind after such a long period of stepping away from a few of the things I loved (such as long Sunday drives, blogging, driving the car to visit the grandkids, sewing, doing my own grocery shop, visiting a friend)...and I was encouraged to simply do what makes me happy NOW, and use the gifts God gave me. Even if its just in a very small way. So the sewing room got a slow, deep clean this week, and that filled my heart with joy. 

God bless you dear ones, and if you've been feeling a bit obsolete too (hubby still laughs at that description) then take a step back and pray for encouragement to see the bigger picture, and focus on the things you CAN do, rather than what you cannot. It might bring joy...

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