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

Fussy pieced pincushion and a herb stitchery for you...

 

Last year I shared a free ebook of pantry staple recipes and pre-mixes, and inside was a simple herb stitchery template for you to make if you felt inclined to sew it. 

Must admit, I do love stitching herbs! 

The template I shared back then was just the line drawing I'd sketched, but with the intention of stitching it one day. During a break this year I finally got around to it, as one of my monthly UFO Adventure projects for 2026 (I shall get my Makers Journal up to date this week and show you - every month there has been a UFO make, so I'm very happy about that).

In my cupboard was an inexpensive cotton dress purchased from Kmart two or three summers ago, but after one wash it shrunk quite dramatically. The fabric was lovely so I cut it up and put it aside in my stash. After tracing my herb design onto a piece of cream linen it was this very fabric that came to mind as inspiring the thread colours and applique prints I would use...

The fabric is very fruity and floral, so I'm deciding whether to make an apron and insert the completed herb stitchery into the bib section, or to sew a decorative tea towel from the dress fabric and embellish it with the herb block. It would be fiddly to make the apron because the dress fabric is in odd sized pieces, but I do think that's the direction my creative spark is veering closer to. What would you choose?

If you missed that free Pantry Staples e-book, it can be downloaded HERE.

If you would just like to make the herb stitchery download it HERE as a free gift. 

Reorganising my sewing room last week, I remembered that I'd forgotten to show you a really sweet pin cushion I made last year, inspired by a block I saw on Pinterest. I don't know the source of the 12-patch block, but it really caught my eye when I saw the photo because of the way it had been fussy cut to create a wreath. Beautiful isn't it?!

(photo via Pinterest)

I spent time going through my fabrics to find one suitable for something similar, with the idea of making it into a pin cushion. I eventually chose this lovely floral with spots on a white background, and though perhaps not quite as obvious as a wreath, I loved the final effect. 

(the fabric I've used is Barefoot Roses by Tanya Whelan)

The completed pincushion is a favourite of mine and often in use, not just because it's functional, but mostly because its so pretty on my cutting table and makes me smile. Such a simple idea, and I thank whoever made that original wreath block shown on Pinterest for inspiring me to try something similar. Are you inspired too? 

In the last blog post I shared some yummy baked goods that will be made 'over and over' in our kitchen as they were so delicious, and many requests came for the recipes. 

The recipe for the Lemon Kefir Pound Cake is HERE and the recipe for the Fat Rascals I chose from numerous ones online is this below -

The Fat Rascals recipe makes 8 large, but I made ours slightly smaller and got a dozen. Even then my hubby said "Gee, these are big". They are quite hearty indeed. :-)

Well, it is late Sunday evening now and I'm rather weary but satisfied after mopst of the weekend spent getting the front and back gardens in order, plus baking a delicious roast chicken dinner Saturday night, giving the bathroom a really deep clean, and reorganising all my DMC and Cosmo threads in preparation for spring sewing.

I did have numerous short rests between activities, but the weather was glorious, so many hours were enjoyed in the garden and I can truly say the aching knee tonight has not dampened my joy. Hubby is tired and sore too, but we have wide smiles and full hearts. 

God bless, have a delightful week ahead and I'll write again in a few days. 

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

Faith Hope Love - a gift...

 

Hello again, and welcome back...

Yes, it has surely been awhile since my last blog post. I had written back in May of taking a break for 4-6 weeks to focus on some health self-care, but more than 9 weeks have passed, and though I appreciated all the caring emails and Etsy messages asking how I was, I must apologise for not responding. 

I do not want this blog post to just focus on the continuing pain and treatment challenges of the past year since the accident with my knee, as it can be quite wearying being regularly asked "are you any better?", "how is your leg now?", or "what treatment are you having?" and not having the mental capacity to explain something that is ongoing and still being treated with various avenues - so I simply opted out of correspondance and blogging. Please forgive me if you are one of those precious women who reached out, and received no reply. ((hugs)) I even avoided discussing things with my daughters, and rather turned the conversation to their own lives and families, because to me they mattered far more. 

So let me offer a one-off reply today and then we'll move on to more enjoyable things. 

The past three months have been the worst with regards to pain and recovery. It turns out that I was given the wrong treatment by a number of different physiotherapists and more damage was done to my knee and surrounding ligaments over the course of these past twelve months. But they were simply following the guidelines for various 'singular' aspects of my injury and not the combined aspects, believing they were helping, so I hold nothing against them. 

Last week I began with a new physiotherapist, a woman with much experience, a woman who didn't just listen to me (such a blessing) but who connected the dots with all the areas of my knee which were injured in the accident, rather than honing in on just one. She's a gift from God to be sure. I am unable to sit in a car (as a driver or a passenger) and cannot travel even short distances anymore, so we are doing video appointments instead of 'in person' ones. Even in the past week of following her advice, I have some improvement, and though the road ahead is long, I have hope of finally recovering and getting back to my normal everyday life. The extensive nerve pain side of things is extremely difficult, and the treatment for that has thus failed, but I have faith this too will be resolved in time. 

I have read your comments and emails, and prayed for those of you who shared stories of your own mobility, joint and pain challenges, and the treatments which helped you. What surprised me was how different they all were, and how different my situation was to all of them as well. How very unique our bodies are, and that helped me realise that its okay to get second (and third and fourth) opinions if a treatment is not helping or is making the problem worse. Thank you for praying for me, and please be assured that I was praying for you too. What a gift it is to pray for others and know that we do not need to have all the facts about someone's situation for God knows it all. We just need to lift them before His throne and leave it all in His care. Blessed are we.

As I have been unable to stand for long, it was important to find a project that would take time and not need for me to be up and down in the sewing room (I do miss that though), so the best option was to begin a cross-stitch pattern. You know, it took me a month to choose one. ;-) I had decided a lovely strawberry themed pattern would be lovely hung near the kitchen and so I began looking online at paper patterns and PDF downloads. 

There were some lovely small ones, but my preference was a larger design that would take time, and that search took quite a while. Eventually I chose this one, and am loving it. This was my first time printing a large PDF cross-stitch pattern, and the 8 pages of the strawberry graph needed to be cut and aligned to give one very large sheet to work from. Initially my thought was to not buy another large pattern such as this again, but over the past six weeks in which I have been working on this, it has not been a problem at all. In fact I have purchased another cross-stitch pattern from the same designer to work on when I finish the strawberry one (though the next one is smaller and only 6 pages of graph). I may tea dye the strawberry cross-stitch when its finished, as I think it will suit a more 'aged' display when framed. 

Our garden is somewhat changed this winter. If you're new here, we live in the tropics where summer vegetables are grown in winter. I do a little in the garden each day, thankful that everything was planted months ago before my injury worsened, so it only needs watering and fortnightly fertilising, along with the joy of harvesting fresh tomatoes, herbs, spring onions, leeks, beans, cucumbers, snow peas, rocket, bok choy, lettuce, herbs and other greens. Our pomegranate tree has five good fruits on it, and more forming, so it has finally established itself after four years of nothing but a single fruit two years ago. 

My rock, other than Jesus, has been and always is, my precious husband. He works six days a week, and yet these past months has taken on some of my home duties in order to alleviate a bit of the regular homemaking work load that I love and miss. Small things, like doing the dishes after breakfast and making the bed before he leaves for work. Watering the vegetable gardens at dawn became his responsibility too, as well as picking up the groceries after I have ordered them online. Every extra thing he's done has been done with a heart full of love for me, and I have never felt so deeply treasured in all my life - which surprised me because his love has always been true and deep. 

Despite everything, I choose to laugh a lot, and smiling is natural because God made me to be 'glass half full' girl. Knowing that life is a gift not be taken for granted, as are the family our Father gave me, JOY overflows in my life every day. 

His Word is alive and as I read, He has given me more 'epiphanies' this year than ever before. I am always telling my husband, "Mark, listen to this..." and he also marvels at things hidden deep in Scripture than are too easily overlooked. Oh how exciting this is! 

You know, this past year is not one I would have chosen had I known in advance the level of pain and immobility that would progress with the passing of each month - BUT - I have learned things which would not have been learned any other way (I think) and for all these life lessons, sharp character edges smoothed, JOY increased, love expanded, spiritual insights, and confidence in pursuing a healing path and not giving up even now, it has been worth it. More than I could have imagined. 

No matter what God allows in life, do not let it rob you of growth, change, and hope. It's too easy to wallow when things are harder than you'd expect, to allow despair, complaining, impatience and other negative attitudes to infect your heart and mind...and by extension to spread into your relationships with loved ones, and even with God. It may be hard to be happy and hopeful if you're not naturally a positive person (my husband is like that) but God can do anything, so why not ask Him to change your perspective and to graciously highlight things in your life which bring  to mind the JOY your heart needs. ((hugs))

I'm sure this post is long enough for today. Now that I have updated you, it's a relief to move on with blogging again and focusing more on the everyday life of homemaking, regardless of the life season you or I are in, and on living this life to its fullest with JOY and hope in the Lord. 

God bless dear ones!! Let me know how YOU are okay? 

I have a gift for you before I sign off...

I first released this pattern in 2012, and I still use the table runner today as it's one of my favourites though it is a little worn out. I have long wanted to remake it, so that might happen soon. I'll share pics here if it does. May you be blessed as you make it for your own home or as a gift...and remember, have faith, hold on to hope, love God with all your heart, and show His love to those around you...

DOWNLOAD THE PATTERN HERE

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