Free Project to make and a week in this life...

 

I love discovering new kitchen crafts to make, new recipes to try, and new decor ideas to ponder and plan. In fact anything to do with adding life, beauty and function to our home puts a smile on my face and a skip in my step. 

Years ago I saw a very cute 'string' bag in a magazine and thought to myself, "I'm going to make one of those bags someday"...well friends, my someday arrived. I'm sure these little bags with a hole in the front for pulling string through hung in many kitchens when my Nana was a young wife and mother during the Depression, but I can't remember seeing one in modern times. Needless to say, they are quite a handy tool for the homemaker, so why not make it really pretty as well?

I drew my little bird up on a piece of linen, then fused a piece of very thin fabric stabiliser behind the traced stitchery.

A tiny hole was cut at the centre of the flower, and for a few days I spent a little time each afternoon on the slow stitching of my bird.

 

The linen measured 10" high by 12" wide, and I folded it in half so that I had a 10" x 6" linen bag shape. I measured up 2.5" from the base of the bag front and traced my bird so that it would sit in the centre of the bag. See in the photo above.

Once the stitchery was completed (the hole is made with buttonhole stitch) I opened out the linen and measured down 2" from the top of the bag as a guide for sewing some cotton ribbon casings, which would later be threaded with string to close the bag. 

Isn't this old Tilda ribbon lovely? I discovered it hidden at the bottom of one of my lace and ribbon boxes where I had forgotten all about it! 

Next I made a hanging loop from more of the ribbon and hid the ends under the centre of the ribbon at the back of the bag. 

Then it was time to sew the bottom and the open side closed with a French seam. If you're making this for yourself...

French Seam: Press the piece of linen in half to create the bag shape, with the bird stitchery centred on the front half of the folded linen. Keeping the wrong sides together, sew down the side and across the bottom of the bag with a 1/4" seam.

Now turn the bag inside out, and sew another seam down the side and across the base. This now encloses the raw edge, and you have made a French seam.

Turn the bag right side out.

A few final steps followed. 

I sewed a double 1/4" hem around the top edge of the bag...

...then threaded a 20" length of string through the ribbon casings so that both ends of the string come out on the right side of the bag.

Bag complete, I popped a ball of string inside the bag and pushed one end out through the hole in the bird. Pulling the casing strings through the ribbon and tying a knot to secure the bag closed, my new string bag was ready to hang in the kitchen!

I wonder where you'll hang your string bag?

I have mine hanging near the pantry door, where it looks pretty and is easily accessible should I need a length of string.

This Kitchen Craft project would be great to make for homemaking friends so why not sew a few and pop them in your gift box? Use the link below to download the free stitchery pattern.

DOWNLOAD the String Bag stitchery pattern.

For the rest of the year I'll bring you new ideas for Simple Kitchen Crafts, but if you have some ideas of your own please leave them in the comments. Next week I'll have a different version of the string bag to show you, and a second free stitchery for it. 

READING:

I began reading a new book this week, one of four I recently purchased, and it's even lovelier than I'd hoped. "For the Love of Homemaking" by Mrs Sharon White is a collection of her blog posts from 2009-2012 and I am so inspired in my own homemaking by her writings, so I'll share titbits on my own blog as I journey through this book.

I was also surprised by how much I'm enjoying Shana Schutte's devotional book "Two Minutes in the Bible for Women". None of the devotionals are more than two pages, but they pack a punch so be forewarned. By the sixth day I had ordered another copy for Blossom!

Another book by Mrs Sharon White looks promising too, though I've not yet begun it. "A Mother's House: the Blessing of Being a Christian Housewife" were blog posts published in 2015-16. 

You can no longer read the blog posts, but I find it wonderful to have them all together in a book.

The fourth book I bought was a children's story about that wonderful man of God, George Muller, and this morning I sat at Blossom's with the children gathered around and read it to them. So many questions they had, especially as they are privileged not to live as homeless starving orphans and were wanting to know more. 

Children are never too young to learn about great men and women, for in teaching them about such people we can encourage them to be good and kind and brave too.

COOKING:

When I went to Blossom's this morning I took a batch of sour dough raspberry and lemon muffins. I cook a lot with sour dough these days, and am regularly experimenting with new recipes that make use of my sour dough discard.

A favourite recipe are these sour dough crackers which I find hard to stop eating once I begin! The only ingredients are -

185g of sour dough discard 

30g melted butter 

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix everything together well, then spread thinly on a parchment lined tray. Scatter a little more sea salt across the top. 

Bake at 160c (325f) for ten minutes and then take the tray out of the oven to score the batter into squares with a knife. Place back in the oven and bake for another 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from the oven, cool, and then break apart along the score lines. Seriously delicious!!

I find myself baking two loves of bread a week as that is sufficient for the two of us. My Mockmill 100 grain mill is amazing, and the home milled flour has added a wonderful flavour and texture to all my baking.

Another recipe for using sour dough discard is this Banana Bread. Wow, this was really good, and if you'd like to try it pop over HERE to the King Arthur Flour site. I replaced half the ordinary white flour used in the recipe with my own freshly milled flour and the banana bread baked beautifully.

I was cleaning out the fridge yesterday and discovered a kilo of organic pears I'd purchased at Coles, reduced to $1 - how often do you come across bargains like that? I don't, so it was important to make use of the pears before they ripened too far. 

My husband doesn't like pears, but I love them, so I decided to make a jar of pear jam. HERE is the recipe I used. I haven't tried it yet, but as soon as my next loaf of bread is cool it will get a trial run. Hopefully it will be yummy.

Much of what I've made in the past few days has been chosen as a way to use up what was already in the fridge. 

The sour dough discard needs to be used every few days. The banana bread was made because I had five almost black bananas in the bowl. The raspberry muffins because I had almost two punnets of raspberries which needed to be eaten quickly. The pear jam because the pears were almost too ripe. And then there was this bread and butter baked pudding, which used up the last of our milk, eggs and bread - but also the last bit of apricot jam in the jar. 

I must say that spreading the apricot jam over the buttered bread before pouring the custard mix across the top is something I shall be doing every time I make this recipe. Hubby and I both loved it. 

Meals have been simple and delicious - chicken and roast vegetables / chicken and corn soup made with my own bone broth and the leftover chicken / nourish bowls with brown rice, fresh vegetables, black beans, brown rice and Korean sauces / and yummy dahl with brown rice were some of the dinners we enjoyed this past week.

I had my second ever trip in an ambulance on Wednesday, just a precautionary measure ordered by my doctor. I spent the afternoon and evening with simply wonderful nurses and cardiac doctors, and was allowed back home by bedtime with a list of tests and procedures to look forward to in the weeks ahead. At least now I know one thing - I have an enlarged heart. 

I'm totally calm and at peace, grateful for such good care on Wednesday, and relieved at knowing the Lord holds my life in His care and will be by my side in the journey ahead. Your prayers are appreciated, because who doesn't want prayer? We are called to pray for one another, so if you have a prayer need right now leave it in the comments below and I will pray for you, and I'm sure every believer reading your request will pray as well. 

Just so you know, I'm feeling very well today and have been back in the garden for an hour to keep doing those little things that all add up to big things in the end - atomic habits. 

Bless you all so very much, and know that you are loved and treasured by an awesome God, and that your life has meaning, no matter what season you are in. 

Ephesians 2:10 is a verse which has helped steer my course through many moments of doubt, and I pray you take it to heart as well because God created YOU for a purpose and if you still have breath, dear one, you have a purpose. 

(If you'd like to stitch this pattern you will find it HERE)

Hope you didn't mind the long blog post today. From Monday I'll be doing a few shorter blog posts each week instead of one large post. Much easier to read and write I think. 

hugs

Weekend at home and preparing food...

 

We got some rain yesterday and today and as a bonus the temperature dropped a bit, the plants have had a lovely soak in the water from heaven, and time spent weeding the path from the back of the house to the clothesline was easy work.

I love seeing water droplets on the plants, sitting there like little jewels they glisten in the filtered light of an overcast day.

Yesterday I finally got to begin the process of dehydrating seasonal vegetables and fruit while they are cheapest, though this won't last long as food prices are rising quickly. I admit to envying those in cooler climates who get to grow abundant vegetable gardens through spring and summer. Unfortunately not much 'day to day' food grows well here in the tropics at any time of the year, for even though winter is best for salad veg, we've had very warm winters the past few years and simply cannot keep the bugs from invading everything.

This winter will more than likely be another warm one (imagine mid-spring weather) and without a nice cold snap (imagine mid autumn) the bugs don't ever die off, they never stop multiplying. So we've decided to rest the garden from vegetables this year and grow as many herbs as we can for drying later, plus rocket and spring onions because they don't get much attention from the bugs in any season. 

I began the dehydrating with carrots on Saturday. I don't peel them, just wash and run through the Sumo Slicer...

...before spreading across the trays. I filled five trays with two kilograms of sliced carrots (4.4 pounds) and they took just six hours to dehydrate.

Whilst that was happening I made two jars of lime curd because this is the first year our lime tree has had fruit and though very good sizes and extra juicy, there were only six limes. Three limes were used for the lime curd, and what a simple recipe it was - from start to finish about ten minutes using the microwave.

The lime curd is delicious!! If you'd like the recipe it is HERE though it is for lemon curd, but I simply substituted them with my limes. I will definitely make more next lime season.

I also made some Amaretti biscuits because I had leftover egg whites from the lime curd. They're not a traditional Amaretti because I can't stand almond essence so substituted with vanilla essence, but every other ingredient is the same. This was another super easy recipe, and done in a food processor! 

The biscuits surprised me because of how simple the steps were using the food processor, but they turned out just as if I'd spent way more time beating egg whites and gently folding ingredients. If you're interested in the recipe it is HERE.

During the week I like to have a few simple sides prepared for salad nights, or to add on open sour dough sandwiches, so I used THIS recipe to make pickled cucumbers, and my usual (and very simple) recipe for pickled red onions.

To make my pickled onions (these are not for preserving but for using within a week or two) you need...

* 1/4 cup water

* 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

* 3 teaspoons sugar

* 1 teaspoon salt

* One large finely sliced red onion

Mix all together in a bowl or jar and leave to soak for an hour, then drain away the liquid and store the onions in a glass container in the fridge. In the photo above I had not yet drained them.

I also began a new sour dough starter. There was a time when I had it going all the time and baked sour dough bread every second day...but then life got in the way and the kids had left home...and you know? 

But we are taking food production very seriously now, as stores often have empty shelves and prices continue to climb, so baking my own sour dough a few times a week will become normal again. I've been paying $6 a loaf for sourdough the past few years and yet I can make my own (which tastes far superior) for around 80c. This is a no-brainer, right?

As sour dough bakers have become more knowledgeable I decided to research more and found THIS wonderful video tutorial with step by step instructions for starting a sour dough from scratch. What I liked about this one was how very clear it is and also that it has measurements. I used to make my starter very similarly, but really needed a refresher course. 

It's day two with my starter now and it is happily bubbling away. Being in such a warm climate starters tend to grow far quicker than regular or cool climates.

This morning my dehydrator is working hard, the trays filled with pineapple, nectarine and apple slices, plus I've sliced my remaining limes as well. I watched a video the other day where the woman dehydrated lemons this way and then ground them into powder to store for flavouring her baked goods - well, I thought that was so clever, so we'll see how it works with my few limes.  

This morning we also headed out to Bunnings for herb seedlings and a few indoor plants.

I've planted out basil, rosemary and continental parsley already, but I'll leave the five indoor seedlings till tomorrow.

Some wonderful news from the garden at last, about the Elder Tree. Finally, we have a few berries! Only a few mind you, but it's a start. They have been literally baking on the tree and falling off as tiny green things for many months, but today I saw these...

There's more on the tree, green still, but they're bigger than the ones which baked and fell, so I am hopeful. In the meantime I have popped these few in the freezer and when I have enough one day, they shall become elderberry cordial. 

Last thing to share is that we are now ready to buy a grain mill and have narrowed our choice to two models. We're just waiting to see which one is already in stock and can be purchased immediately as they are both made in Europe, but online shops here have them. The two we're looking at are the Mockmill and the KoMo. How wonderful to mill our own grain and bake with it!

Now I'd best sign off as we're off to visit Blossom and family and I have some lime curd to gift her as well. Then home to play with these lovely Cath Kidston drill fabrics which I bought at a garage sale about 18 months ago. I'm thinking some peg aprons...maybe sell some as well...we'll see how I go after I make the first one.

Have a blessed end of weekend, lovely friends, and may the grace of the Lord and His perfect love fill your empty spaces and draw your hearts to dwell on peaceful thoughts.

hugs

The loaf is baked!!

I just wanted to show you my freshly baked loaf of sour dough bread!
I've shared with you my recipes, but as yet you haven't seen the finished product, so today I baked my loaf and it was the BEST I have ever made! Usually I bake after 5 days of feeding the 'mother', but we've had a lot going on here at home with school holidays and trips to the coast ( and my stitching frenzy to share In My Garden with you!) so it was 7 days before I baked it. I think I'll keep going 7 days because it's soooooo good!

Have you been and visited my fellow Gum Tree Designer, Paula, yet? She has a fantastic giveaway, AND she has just released the first free block in her new "Life's A Hoot" BOM!

I'm having a day off tomorrow...going to the coast with my beloved!
Hugs and prayers
Jenny
xxxx