Redwork & apple pie...

My prayer-partner-and-forever-friend Allie has just shared a beautiful Redwork Christmas pattern on her blog and that got me thinking about how wonderfully comforting and homely I find Redwork embellished items to be.

Here are some especially useful designs which I imagined being just right for displaying on Christmas gifts or included in the festive decorating of our homes.

First of all HERE is Allie's joyous free pattern, Oh Ho The Mistletoe...

THESE cute chooks by Shellie Wilson are definitely going to be added to my personal stitching list...

Love cross-stitch? THIS tree pattern from a French designer is gorgeous...

 What about a lovely Redwork heart? You could sew one of THESE monogram initials into the centre!
The heart pattern is HERE on Mary Corbet's wonderful site...

And don't forget that my nine Redwork blocks from The Vintage Kitchen are still available as free downloads HERE in my shop until December 31st...

It's very relaxing to stitch a Redwork embroidery, isn't it?!
Just one single colour.
Love it!

If you love Apple Pie but can't have a wheat or gluten crust, you may like to try the pie I made last weekend...

I've shared the full recipe over HERE on my Cooked Simply, With Love blog.
There's also a quick recipe for making Vanilla Coconut Cream (in case dairy is your nemesis).

Today Mr E are I have a little adventure ahead of us.
No idea how it will turn out, but it could be life changing.
And then again, it may all be a fizzle of nothing much at all.

Either way, it's not bad. Just different.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!
hugs

Treasures...

I went for a stroll through a local op shop the other day.

My ten dollar budget, all in coins, jingle jangled in my pocket as I slowly walked along the shelves anxious to discover hidden treausure.

I was specifically looking for balls of wool as often these charity stores have bags of them donated by people who simply have no use for wool anymore.  

Well, sometimes you decide to visit on just the right day, don't you?! 

 Springy green pure wool skeins at $1 a pop were hidden under mountains of ugly acrylic yarn, but I only bought two because I thought that would be enough for nice tea cosy, but when I got home I wondered whether a spare may have been wise. 

Needless to say I'll go back and retrieve a third ball today.

But the wool was not the highlight of my treasure hunting.

The hankies photographed above with the wool were!

I'm still pinching myself at securing this exquisite lace 'kerchief for a mere 50c...

The other two hankies were also 50c and very sweet as well...

A final 50c purchase was this tiny little vintage style frame which I believe is destined to display one of my embroideries...

I arrived home rather chuffed with my little bag of treasures, and still with $6 in my pocket for next time.

Budgeting is coming along well with our drastically reduced income, especially as here in the tropics it is mango season and we buy them from roadside farmers for between $8-10 a bucket.

There's about 15 - 16 mangoes in a bucket so as you can see they are a staple in our diet at the moment...

 ...especially for breakfasts...

...along with plums and peaches and nectarines which are also in peak season so very cheap to buy.

I've been making my own granola for years now, and with the fruit and a dollop of vanilla bean yoghurt it has become our every day breakfast.

I'm also using the mangoes in smoothies, juices, 2-minute ice-cream, and as the base for a salad dressing.

The funny thing is, I only discovered I liked mangoes a year ago. 

For over five decades I thought they were ghastly, and then one day last January I just 'liked' them. 

Strange, huh?

 

Last bit of news for the week is the completion of the sixth design for month 4 of the Stitchery Club...

 All information about joining is HERE.

Update on the wool situation with THIS cardigan I intend knitting for Blossom:

I have been absolutely blessed by your advice, both in comments and private emails, and have decided that it cannot be knitted up in cotton as I'd lose all that lovely soft drape, but I also cannot afford good yarn at the moment so Blossom and I have agreed that I'll put the project 'to one side' for now and review it when Mr E is once again employed.

For the time being I'll feed my need to knit by using up some scrap yarn I already have, and hunting down a nice tea-cosy pattern for my op-shop skeins.

I hope you've enjoyed our first week of A Year of Gentle Domesticity. 

I know I have, and all your encouraging comments along the way have inspired me, so *thank you* ever so much!

Till next time,

hugs

 

Pretty storage!

When I was down in Melbourne for "Let's Get Stitched" in March, one of the other tutors (and roomate!)  was my sweet, sweet friend Vikki Collumbine of Sew Useful Designs.

We have this adoration-of-each-others-designs  'thing' happening, always have actually. She's a talent and a half to be sure, and always good for eye candy projects. She wanted to make mine, and I definitely wanted to make hers!

I fell in love with the project she shared with the ladies on the Sunday.

This is Vikki's original,  "My Sweet PDFs", which she designed to store all your printed pdf patterns. Isn't it adorable!?

That cover captured my heart and when I eventually carved out a bit of 'self sewing' time a couple of months ago I stitched up her cover design and framed it in pretty Tilda roses and spotty fabrics. I didn't make the pdf storage folder like Vikki's design, though. 

I had a different purpose in mind....

You see, I usually have around 4 to 6 new Elefantz designs on the go at any one time, and I decided to use Vikki's cover design on a large folder for storing my projects that have been stitched but are still waiting to be made into something.

Inside the cover I've made a nice big pocket that fits A4 pattern sheets...

...and the folder itself holds quite a few velcro sealed plastic pouches that I fill with the completed stitchery, threads, and pattern sheets for safe keeping until I'm ready to sew them into a larger project, or just until I write the pattern...

 

Pretty cool, yeh?!

I'm sharing this to encourage you to look outside the box with designs you like but think you may never make because they look like they take a little more skill than you have.

Vikki is amazing with little trims and edgings and extras - but I'm not - and she loves what I've done with her gorgeous cover design, so win win all around. Thanks Vikki-love!

You can see all the photos of her original project HERE on her blog. Like I said, she is incredible.

And on to something else incredible!

Remember months ago when I made my pear placemats? 

Well ever since I have been searching for a 'just right' tablecoth to no avail.

Until last week when a Goldilocks moment happened upon me...

I don't know why, but delicious food tastes even more delicious with matching placemats *and* tablecloth!

Quinoa Salad with haloumi, pine nuts and grated beetroot...

Organic grapes fresh from the Atherton Tablelands just a few hours north of us...

 

Now that I have a full tummy and a sweet folder to store my completed stitcheries in I think I should finish piecing a quilt and empty one of those plastic folders...ready for another new design. 

Have a brilliant Tuesday!

hugs

Back in the kitchen, and a winner...

Something Mr E and I agree on is that good health and a strong immune system reflect what is served in your kitchen.

Even though we both got 'taken down' with this nasty flu, we actually handled it better than we would have a couple of years ago. Living a healthier life and being very conscious of what we 'feed' our bodies got us through this illness with no medication at all, apart from a few ibuprofen when I had a migraine.

He bounced back quicker than me because he rested his body more than I did, but as any housewife/mother will tell you, that's fairly normal. I run on adrenalin - big time! That's why I came crashing down so hard in March after my trip to Melbourne, and I still hadn't slowed down enough to fully recover when I succumbed to the flu a couple of weeks ago.

Big lesson for me to learn - and also a reminder that I'm 55 now, and not 35, and therefore need to take that little extra care with any form of recovery and rest.

So I truly rested yesterday. I listened to all your advice and put my feet up and watched movies while I stitched. 

I never tire of "How To Make An American Quilt" and as the credits rolled at the end of the DVD I felt so inspired to design a certain quilt that has been roaming along like a gathering tumbleweed in my mind for years, but has never seen the light of day in my sketchbook. It was nice to not have anything to distract me from bringing this idea to paper, and it may take years to stitch, but at least it's an idea on paper now and one step closer to life.

Today I have been back in my kitchen - yay!!

Mr E has been away for three days and will be home again tomorrow night, so I wanted to return to my daily routine of nourishing food preparation before he gets back. After giving the kitchen and fridge a good scrub out, I went shopping for fresh produce, and then set to work.

First on my menu plan was to make some rhubarb and strawberries for pouring over chai pudding...

Just chop a large bunch of rhubarb and two cups of strawberries...

...and add them to a saucepan with a tablespoon of water, the juice of 1/2 a lemon, and 2 tablespoons of rice malt syrup (you might choose sugar, honey or agave)

Simmer for 30 minutes. Yum.

Serve with Chia Pudding.

In a jar, shake together - 1 cup of coconut milk / 1/4 cup chia seeds / 2 teaspoons of raw honey.

Leave the pudding in the jar on your bench for about 30 minutes, giving it a good shake every 5-10 minutes. This prevents the chia from clumping as it absorbs the coconut milk. Pour into a bowl...

...and pop it in the fridge until you're ready to serve. This makes a beautiful dessert, but can also be served with fresh fruit for breakfast.

Next, I needed to make my adrenalin booster, the Singing Canary!
(adapted from Trim Healthy Mama)

In a high speed blender add two diced lemons (skin included), and 3 cups of filtered water. Blend for about 3-4 minutes. Strain the lemon water through a piece of muslin, squeezing out as much of the juice as you can from the pulp. 

Return the lemon water to the blender, and add:

/ a good pinch of celtic sea salt / stevia sweetener (according to taste) / 2 teaspoons organic coconut oil / 1 teaspoon non-irradiated tumeric powder / 4g vitamin C powder / 3 splashes vanilla extract (not vanilla essence) / 2 teaspoons whey protein powder (non-sweetened) /

Blend the lot. Fill a jug half way with ice cubes, and pour the Singing Canary over the top. Drink throughout the day. 

Do you like my glass? I call it the Pride & Prejudice glass because I always imagine it's Mr Darcey and Mr Bingley out shooting with their hounds.

Next on my menu plan was Cashew & Orange Cream. I will have this served over fruit and oats for breakfast tomorrow.

Zest the rind of one orange, and combine it with one cup of raw cashews in a high speed blender ( we use the Nutribullet)...

Blend until the nuts and orange zest start to clump like butter. Add the juice of 3 oranges...

Blend again until you have the consistency of thickened cream...

Stir through 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract...and lick the spoon, You won't want to waste a single bit.

My final job today was to prepare the Kale for tomorrow's green smoothie. I love Kale, and it's an amazing super-food!

One thing I have recently learned through both Mr E and I having the auto-immune disease Hashimoto's  is that even though many experts warn against eating goitrogens (cabbage, broccoli, kale, brussel sprouts etc) because they can depress the thyroid function even more than it already is with these conditions, it is only for those whose under-active thyroid condition or Hashimoto's Disease is caused by iodine deficiency, as goitrogens interfere with iodine absorption in the body.

This is not the case with Mr E and I so we can enjoy Kale in our green smoothies each day.

I'll add these recipes to my Recipes Page (here) in case you ever want to source them for your own use. 

Give them a go...honest, they are all yummy.

WINNER!

The winner of Dawn Hay's PRESTON BAG pattern is Diann from New Jersey!

Congratulations Diann, I'll be emailing you soon for your home address and then this gorgeous bag pattern will be winging it's way from Australia to you.

If you would like to make Dawn's bag, just pop over here to her shop. It's available as an instant pdf download, or you can email her via her blog here for a paper pattern.

Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!

hugs