To-Do List For This Week

Not too bad (but not very good) this week. I am quite pleased with there being any progress at all as it has been more hectic than usual with the boys home. I am definitely finding since they stopped homeschooling that they need constant entertainment or I hear the dreaded B word! They just don't seem to be content to just be anymore. It can get quite frustrating!

Garden and homestead

• Veggie garden - continue weeding and mulching, plant out areas as completed.

• Finish narrower new path in veggie garden. 

• Start seeds and plant snow pea seeds.

• Start new potato patch - all ready to go in about 6 weeks or so. I will top it up with another bale of straw before planting. 

Just a pretty boring pile of straw and manure!

• Set potatoes to chit.

• Weed bed outside kitchen window and sow with wildflower mix - definitely coming along. I am so happy I removed those grasses - although there is still one more to go in this bed and I discovered another one lurking under a tree!

Knitting, sewing, crafting

• Three hours of hand quilting on Miss Ballerina's quilt. 

• Finish back of Shoulder Rolls jumper from November 1933 Stitchcraft - I still can't seem to commit to the length I would like! I need to decide so I can start the shaping. I just need to dive in and hope for the best.

• Finish baby jersey from April 1934 Stitchcraft - half way.

• Knit one night on Girl On Fire shawl.

• Start Minecraft pickaxe.

Household

• Freezer inventory.

• Clean up clutter corner in our bedroom.

• Make air drying clay for Whirlwind - he wants to make snowmen - I need to go to the supermarket tonight to buy the ingredients as I haven't made it there yet!

So for this week, I am going to scale it right back. Hubby is also taking some time off work so my plans tend to go out the window then.

Garden and homestead

• Veggie garden - continue weeding and mulching, plant out areas as completed.

• Finish narrower new path in veggie garden. 

• Start seeds and plant snow pea seeds.

• Weed bed outside kitchen window and sow with wildflower mix.

Knitting, sewing, crafting

• Three hours of hand quilting on Miss Ballerina's quilt. 

• Finish back of Shoulder Rolls jumper from November 1933 Stitchcraft.

• Finish baby jersey from April 1934 Stitchcraft.

• Knit one night on Girl On Fire shawl.

• Knit one night on Minecraft pickaxe.

Household

• Freezer inventory.

• Clean up clutter corner in our bedroom.

• Make air drying clay for Whirlwind.

My list is seeming strangely deja vu from one week to the next!
And might be too busy holidaying to achieve much of this! But hey, there is always next week (and the week after!)

But the holidays just aren't long enough!

I

What Will We Eat This Week?

Joining today with I'm An Organising Junkie for Menu Plan Monday,

At Home With Mrs M for Meal Planning Monday

and Darling Downs Diaries for Good Morning Mondays.

A week of winter comfort food is in order. 

Monday
Tuna mornay - I have not made this in ages and all the kids (including the big teenagers!) love it.
Chocolate self-saucing pudding

Tuesday
Chicken stir-fry and noodles
Fruit salad

Wednesday
Crustless quiche, green salad, potato wedges
Apple pie

Thursday
Spaghetti bolognaise
Peach crumble

Friday
Homemade pizzas
Frog In A Pond

Saturday
Silverside, steamed greens, mashed potatoes, honey carrots
Lemon delicious pudding

Sunday
Tacos
Cheesecake - not sure what flavour yet!

This may not all work out as planned as hubby is taking some time off work and I am not sure what we will be doing. We will see!

Chocolate chip cookies

Lemon madeleines

Hedgehog slice

Cupcakes

Lemon curd and blueberry muffins

Fruitcake

Now these are some puddings! From Mrs Beeton's Cookbook

So many lemons at the moment - need to make me some lemonade!

Have a lovely week!

What Can You Do With A Mason Jar?

I love Mason jars - well, jars of any sort really. 

So I was looking for some to purchase online and came across some links to crafts with Mason Jars. I just had to keep looking!

Here are some of the Mason jar related items I found (which can, of course, be used to repurpose any jars you have):

How to tint your Mason jars using food colouring.
http://www.masonjarsales.com.au/tinted-mason-jar/



Various ways of making flower frogs - to turn your Mason jars into vases.

http://smashedpeasandcarrots.com/how-to-make-mason-jar-frog-lids-tutorial/

http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2014/07/diy-mason-jar-flower-frogs.html

This one looks like the easiest - just a piece of plastic cut to fit with holes punched in. It would take seconds to make.
http://diymaven.com/2013/10/29/how-to-make-a-fast-and-easy-frog-for-a-mason-jar-vase/


This is a link to 50 Best Ways To Use Mason Jars.
http://www.countryliving.com/diy-crafts/how-to/g1821/mason-jars/

This one is to 20 Of The Best Mason Jar Projects.
http://www.listotic.com/20-of-the-best-mason-jar-projects/

How about a Mason jar dessert? Peach Yoghurt Parfait.
http://www.mypapercrush.com/mason-jar-dessert-peach-yogurt-parfait/

Washi tape vases. These can be made with any old jar or bottle and look wonderful. I have bought some washi tape to make some of these - ready for all my flowers this spring (fingers crossed!)
http://www.hometalk.com/3458243/simple-washi-tape-vases-springcolors


Have you repurposed jars in some way? I would love to see some other great ideas. 

Independence Days Challenge: Week Four

'I can't say when the sight of my pantry full of food started to make me feel richer than money in the bank. It was a process of unlearning all the things that my society told me. Money is wealth, I was told, because it will always enable me to buy whatever I need. But as I learned more about the complex connections required to transform oil, seed, natural gas, a farmer's time and a corporation's packaging into a bag of baby carrots on the store shelf, I was struck by both how wondrous, and how unlikely those connections were.'

Independence Days by Sharon Astyk pg 45

Week Four already? Time flies! 
Still mainly in the planning and waiting for slightly warmer weather stage here. 

The house garden has been coming along - a little more achieved this week.

 The intersecting path is on its way!

 

This is the garden outside the kitchen window, which used to be my daffodil bed. Although it still needs weeding, I am really pleased to have removed those ugly grasses. They took a LOT of work - massive root ball on them.

On to the challenge! This week, I have:

1. Plant something

A row of spring onions, a row of baby beets and 20 strawberry runners. 

The new strawberries already have little leaves popping up.

2. Harvest something

OK, you know what I am going to say here - lemons and eggs! We have passed the shortest day of the year and the chooks must already know it - up to 6 eggs a day now.

3. Preserve something

I have let the ball drop a bit with this one as I haven't done any canning this week. I made some taco meat for the freezer.

4. Minimise waste

I am trying to make the property a closed unit, and one of my major purchases is chicken food. So I am researching various homegrown chicken feed ideas. If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it. When you Google this, there are lots of recipes for home mixed chicken feed, but these still involve purchasing the various components. 

5. Want not

My bulk order arrived so I am happily stocked up on nuts and dried fruit. 

6. Cook something new

As last week I bought all the quinoa on super special, I tried this recipe - Sweet Potato and Quinoa Patties. Sweet potatoes were marked down this week, so it was a double save! The patties were yum - even the boys ate them. The recipe comes from The Happy Cookbook (here is a review of the book by The Whimsical Wife, who also has some great recipes!)


7. Manage your reserves

Still cannot work out where to have an appropriate storage area. I am even considering buying a shipping container for this purpose! Plus all my books that don't fit in the house. I think it could work, just not sure about temperature control. I can imagine they get pretty hot in summer.

This is a pretty nifty idea! Turns two shipping containers into a shed/carport area and looks way better than a container sitting in the paddock.

And the shed made on Better Homes and Gardens - this would make a great farmstand shed!

8. Work on local food systems

I am hoping to get to a food swap held in our region. Not exactly local as it is 70kms away, but the closest we have. I would love to organise one for our area - one day.
I have been watching River Cottage Australia and he attended an amazing food swap. Whether more people came on that day, knowing they would be on TV, I don't know. But there was a fantastic variety of produce. 

Some places to visit for this week:

This is the recipe section of Honest To Goodness, where I purchase my bulk food. 

Geoff Lawton's video on feeding chickens without grain. I would watch all Geoff's videos. There is an astonishing array of information here.

How to grow quinoa

See you in the garden!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

• God's blessings, even through the hard times. Well, especially through the hard times. 

• The wonderful doctors, nurses, specialists, everyone who are helping my dad through his illness.

• School holidays. The boys are home for three weeks. Whenever there are holidays, I realise just how much I miss them and how much I am missing out on.

• My garden and small farm. Working on the garden, looking after the chickens, growing, all these activities give me peace and ground me. I simply couldn't be without them.

NOT my garden, but something to aim for!

• My little Cuddlepie, who turned four this week. Soon my littlest baby will be all grown up!

• My Whirlwind, who is so creative. This is a bow and arrow he made with loom bands.

• My Legoman, who is growing up way too fast for me, but is becoming a wonderful young man. Footy obsessed! 

How Many Projects Is Too Many?

Joining Ginny today for Yarn Along.

So these are the projects I currently have on the go - you can see them here on Ravelry. And my question is, how many projects would you have on the go at one time? How many do you think is too many to control at once? Keeping in mind, that this is only my knitting projects - does not include two cross stitch projects, three quilts and one embroidery project! Will the ones planned as gifts ever be finished in time?!

Still working on the back of the Shoulders jumper from November 1933 Stitchcraft and have now added the baby jersey from April 1934 Stitchcraft. Also, not photographed as I left it at someone's house, is the Girl on Fire Shawl and a bathmat that I am knitting in 4 strands of cotton on huge needles.

My reading this week is A Star For Mrs Blake. I am really enjoying this - pretty sure it was a recommendation from a previous week's Yarn Along.

 


The book is set in 1931 and follows a group of Gold Star Mothers as they make the pilgrimage to France to see the graves of their fallen sons. 

From the blurb:

'The United States Congress in 1929 passed legislation to fund travel for mothers of the fallen soldiers of World War I to visit their sons' graves in France. Over the next three years, 6.693 Gold Star Mothers made the trip.'

The Gold Star Mothers group is still active today.

Gold Star Mothers commemorative postage stamp issued in 1948.

I had never heard of the Gold Star Mothers so am really enjoying this book. I am just over halfway through - it is the morning of the day that they are to visit their sons' graves.

My other reading has been the winter issue of Earth Garden magazine. I particularly liked the back cover image - perfect for the cold weather we are having.

Not many flowers at the moment. I am planning to have some more winter flowers next year, but my single camellia has just started flowering.

This is the view from my kitchen window. I am slowly working on that garden bed. See those ugly looking grasses - they are history!

And thank you so much to all my new followers. I know it isn't that many, but I am so super excited to have reached 25 followers!

To-Do List For This Week

This is last week's list:

Garden and homestead

• Veggie garden - continue weeding and mulching, plant out areas as completed.

• Finish narrower new path in veggie garden. (half way)

• Start seeds and plant snow pea seeds.

• Start new potato patch. 

• Weed bed outside kitchen window and sow with wildflower mix. (half done)

Knitting, sewing, crafting

• Three hours of hand quilting on Miss Ballerina's quilt. 

• Finish back of Shoulder Rolls jumper from November 1933 Stitchcraft. (so close - one, maybe two repeats to go!)

• Finish daffodil tea cosy. 

• Start Girl On Fire shawl.

Yarn for shawl

• Start Minecraft pickaxe.

Household

• Freezer inventory.

• Clean up clutter corner in our bedroom.

• The boys finish school this weekend for a three week winter holiday. So plan some activities for these holidays, allowing for the fact that it will probably be pouring with rain for half of the time!

And for this week's list:

Garden and homestead

• Veggie garden - continue weeding and mulching, plant out areas as completed.

• Finish narrower new path in veggie garden. 

• Start seeds and plant snow pea seeds.

• Start new potato patch. 

• Set potatoes to chit.

• Weed bed outside kitchen window and sow with wildflower mix. 

Knitting, sewing, crafting

• Three hours of hand quilting on Miss Ballerina's quilt. 

• Finish back of Shoulder Rolls jumper from November 1933 Stitchcraft. 

• Finish baby jersey from April 1934 Stitchcraft. 

• Knit one night on Girl On Fire shawl.

• Start Minecraft pickaxe.

Household

• Freezer inventory.

• Clean up clutter corner in our bedroom.

• Make air drying clay for Whirlwind - he wants to make snowmen.

I am trying to keep the lists a bit shorter for the next three weeks of school holidays. Although the gardening can stay as Whirlwind is so happy to be on holidays so he can help in the garden.
So I really don't know how much I will achieve! 

And look! The first daffodil of the season!
It is only the first month of winter and there is already one very brave daffodil showing its face. Excuse the weeds - there are still some daffodils in the weedy bed outside the kitchen window. And I can't even see this daffodil from the window as it is behind a horrible ugly grass plant that I am hoping to remove. We removed two a while ago and it is difficult! There are two more in this garden bed, so a lot of digging involved!

We watched Paddington today. I loved the Paddington books growing up, but of course they have altered the movie to add extra intrigue and excitement. But what was I looking at the most? The interiors, of course, and the mother's clothing!

Oh my, I love this house! This is what I would do in my house - bright colours, painted murals, lots of china on display, gorgeous.

This isn't from Paddington, but it has the blue and yellow that I love, and I absolutely wish to have a cherry red Aga!