2023 - The Year To Get Stuff Done!

Again, I have been away for AGES - why does this always happen?!

I have started a new job and it is keeping me very busy. After being a SAHM for 25 years, it is taking a little getting used to juggling all the housework, kids' stuff and work.

But I still want 2023 to be the year of getting stuff done. All those languishing WIPs, project plans that I really want to make but never quite got to, books I have been meaning to read for ages, organising the spare (aka junk) room, all the things! 

So let's roll up our sleeves and get to it! 

Knitting

I will be continuing on with my 35c earned per 10g knitted rule. Believe me, there is no way in this world that I need any more yarn, so I may allow my 'earnings' in different categories to be spent across any of the categories. 
It is 38 degrees C here today (100F) so knitting is not really on my mind today! But autumn/winter will be on us soon, thank goodness, and then the real knitting can begin.
And I will continue, slowly, slowly, with my vintage knitting, in particular from Stitchcraft magazines. 

Quilting

While I do not have any specific earning goals for quilting, I certainly have projects that I would like to finish and fabric stash that needs to be used up. Some of this fabric will sneak on over to the cross stitch category to use as finishes. And I really want to make some project bags using Elizabethanncanstitch's Youtube tutorial.

Cross Stitch

Again, I will be continuing on with previous earnings projects for cross stitch, using the guidelines from the Stitch From Stash Facebook group. 
I will also be participating in WIPGO, hosted by Jessie Marie Does Stuff  (this link will take you to the How To WIPGO video).

I do not have enough WIPs (in cross stitch, anyway!) to fill all the squares on the board once, so have chosen to add projects multiple times. Hopefully this will lead to at least a few finishes in 2023.

I will be working on each project for 14 hours in the month it is called.
So January's calls were squares 6 and 10 - the 2020 Pandemic Sampler by Sarcygurl and Ice Angel by Lavender and Lace. 
Ice Angel is one of my oldest WIPs. I couldn't say exactly how long I have been working on this. Let's just say, the last time I remember stitching on it was when I was in hospital for the birth of my oldest son and he turned 18 last year! It needs to be finished! 

This is my progress as at the beginning of January on the 2020 Pandemic Sampler.

And for Ice Angel.

Let's see how far 14 hours of stitching on each can get me! 

I picked up these planners from Amazon (using Christmas gift money) to help keep me on track. 

Reading

I have a ridiculously high Goodreads goal this year - feel free to friend me over there. 

I would like to focus on more Australian authors and nonfiction this year as well as continuing with my reading from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Boxall. 

I participate in a number of reading challenge groups as I always like a list or prompt to follow! 

Walking

Not a crafty goal but I am finding this to be a lot of fun and quite motivating. I found this free app (or you can use it on your computer) called World Walking. It links to the health app on my iPhone so I can add my steps for the day to my chosen walk. 
And always one to take on the biggest challenge, I have of course chosen to 'walk' from London to Lapland! 
It is fun as you can look at a street view of where you are currently (except for when you are crossing an ocean!) as well as follow on the map. 

As you can see, this will take a while! My movement is hardly registering on the map but I am almost at Canterbury. Looking forward to reaching Dover and heading across to the Dunkirk Ferry Terminal. 

You can also set up walking groups, so you can walk with friends.

I may walk Transylvania next - after I make it to Lapland! 

So that is some of what I have planned for 2023 - I will expand on each section soon. I am attempting to publish two blog posts a week - fingers crossed! 

Happy crafting, reading, walking, or whatever you have planned! 

February Wrap Up

 Well, it is the second month of my limited buy, stash busting year and I am pleased to say that I made only one craft purchase this month. 

It was not even yarn! A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I used to do cross stitch. I am not even sure why I put it away for years. I think maybe I found knitting to be easier when the kids were little. Anyway, Flosstube has encouraged me to renew my love of cross stitch. 

On 1st March, the #itsbeenonehellofayearsal is starting. This is a SAL for the Pandemic Sampler, a gorgeous free pattern by @sarcygurl. You can find the link to the pattern on her Instagram profile. 

Long story short, I had no fabric big enough in my stash so I purchased some. 

And that is my only craft purchase for the month! And I feel great about it! I don’t feel at all like I am missing out (only a few times watching YouTube). But then I remember this is much more fun and creative than just buying new stuff! 

Anyway, what did I make in February? 

I completed six projects from stash yarn, including one long-standing WIP. I want to focus on clearing at least one long standing WIP per month. 

The Valentine Socks used 336m / 80g of yarn, from yarn purchased in 2020. This was our February socks project for the Hand Me My Knitting group. 

The Valentine Hearts dishcloth used 72.1m / 46g of Peaches & Creme that has been in my stash since 2006! I bought tons of this cotton on eBay long ago (I have enough to keep the whole world in dishcloths!) 

I love the Blue Barley Hat! Our February stash down theme in the Hand Me My Knitting group was ‘head’. My daughter claimed this hat as soon as I posted a photo on Instagram! 

This used a total of 285.9m / 70g of yarn. The blues were three minis from the KnitCrate minis in 2015. The pattern is from the book Knitting From The North by Hilary Grant which I borrowed from the library. 

And another gold Christmas tinsel! These are the perfect car knitting project and we had to go to Bendigo for my son’s basketball state championships. It used 72m / 50g from yarn purchased last year.

Another dishcloth - the Oak Tree Dishcloth. More of that cotton from eBay! It used 70.5m / 45g.

And my long standing WIP was the Pool Party Leg Warmers. They used 341.3m / 91g of yarn which I received in a Woolswap in 2018.

So for those that have been keeping track, that is a total leaving my stash of 1177.8m / 382g. 

Per my rules, I have allowed myself an earning rate of 35c per 10g. I know this doesn’t seem like much, but I wanted it to be a quarter or so of the yarn being knitted. Otherwise the stash won’t be diminishing! 

So I have ‘earnt’ $13.37 for my knitting in February. And I’m not even slightly tempted to spend it! 

I am finding that I am not even that interested in browsing the internet or looking for things to buy.  And this is giving me back heaps more time to spend actually crafting! 

Hopefully this wasn’t too much number crunching for you! Does anyone else do something like this? Or keep track in some other way? I’d love to hear about it  

I am looking forward to seeing what I can achieve in March - and I’ll have some cross stitch to show as well (that is a whole other earning process! 😀)

Happy crafting! 

Very Sad Day - Book Destash - And Some Knitting

It is a sad day when it is time for a book destash! But even I will admit that just maybe, the books are taking over a teeny bit.

Normally this would so be me! No such thing as too many books. But I really do have literally 1000s and as we are no longer homeschooling, quite a few can go. I am also clearing out DVDs and sob, sob, my china collection.


If you happen to be in Australia, you can join this Facebook group, Homeschool Buy, Swap, Sell - Australia, to see what I have for sale.


So while I am stash busting my books, I am currently reading The Dilemma of Charlotte Farrow by Olivia Newport.

I was halfway through before I noticed this is actually the second book of a series. But it is perfectly fine as a stand-alone novel. I am really enjoying it - a quick and interesting read as I love historical fiction.


I haven't cast anything on for a while, except for this garden gnome. And I have done so little - two boots and about a quarter of the jacket.
But this is what he will look like, eventually!

I also purchased two gorgeous new patterns from Georgie at Tikki.


This is Vexillum.

And this is Oolong.

Photos from Tikki Knits on Ravelry

It is spring here (not that you would know!) but I am still looking at shawl patterns. My favourite thing to knit.
What is your favourite thing to knit?


Linking today with Ginny for Yarn Along.


Have a lovely knitting and reading week!

To-Do List and What We Have Been Up To

It is school holidays here, so I haven't been on the computer much. Just hanging out, kicking the footy, shooting hoops, gardening together, movies, library, playground. 

We just returned home from a weekend in Melbourne - the big smoke! We did a little bit of shopping and visited with family. My dad is doing well. He is walking now, using a cane, but the pain is pretty much gone. He did lose most of his hair. He thought he had managed to avoid that as it did not start falling out until about four weeks after he finished his chemo. He is hoping he may even be able to start driving again. God is good!

I took the two younger boys to see Oddball. If you are looking for a gorgeous family movie, this is it! 

It was very exciting to see our local area up on the big screen too. Lots of fun to recognise all the places we go to - the boys were thrilled to see the island they swim to was where the penguins live.

And being me, I was swooning over the gorgeous knitwear worn by the mother and daughter. I have my eye on this cable jumper!

The movie was shown as an activity run by the library so beforehand there was a craft activity to make your own felt fairy penguin. They turned out so cute!

The other family movie we watched this week and really enjoyed was Paper Planes, another Australian movie. 

Who knew there were world paper plane championships?! I was really pleased to find two enjoyable movies that you didn't have to worry about the content. Just good fun - I highly recommend both of them. 


My last list has a few carry overs, as I was expecting really, with the holidays.


Garden and Homestead

• Weed and plant out wine barrel planter.

• Plant seeds of: coriander, parsley, silverbeet, spinach, spring onion, pak choi and lettuce.

• Plant gladioli tubers.

• Finish weeding in front flower bed.

Knitting, sewing, crafting

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

• One night knitting on Minecraft pickaxe.

• One night knitting on rainbow bunting - for front fence.

• Research sock patterns for dad's Christmas present.

Household

• Make Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate.

• Make Lemon Cordial, and then with the peels, make Candied Lemon Peel.

• Sort out two boxes from garage.

• Take spare books up to Little Free Library.

• Sort out baby clothes.

• School holiday planning.

Actually, lots of carry overs! So this week's list looks like it will be pretty much the same content.

Garden and Homestead

• Weed and plant out wine barrel planter.

• Plant seeds of: coriander, parsley, silverbeet, spinach, spring onion, pak choi and lettuce.

• Plant gladioli tubers.

• Plant potatoes.

• Finish weeding in front flower bed.

Knitting, sewing, crafting

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

• One night knitting on Minecraft pickaxe.

• One night knitting on rainbow bunting - for front fence.

• Research sock patterns for dad's Christmas present.

Household

• Make Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate.

• Make Lemon Cordial, and then with the peels, make Candied Lemon Peel.

• Sort out two boxes from garage.

• Take spare books up to Little Free Library.

• Sort out baby clothes.

• Do lots of cooking with eggs! You will see why when I do my weekly menu post later today.

Bag Yourself A Gardening Bargain!

Unfortunately, only for Australian readers! But if you want to save some money and you love bulbs as much as I do, head on over to Garden Express, where the spring flowering bulbs are all on super sale.

This is the parcel I received this morning.

Suffice to say, I was super excited! This is what I ordered:

50 Dutch Iris Mixed for $14.00.

60 daffodils (Dolly Mollinger and Fortune) for $27.72. 

80 mixed tulips for $21.60. Are you kidding me? Earlier in the season, they were $5 for 3 bulbs! This is my best buy ever!

Admittedly, the bulbs are sprouting, so need to be planted quickly. They also may not have a great show of flowers in the first season. But this is the only way I purchase bulbs and they are worth the wait for the savings.

I also purchased some plants at normal price, which are still great prices. 3 kgs of seed potatoes (King Edward, Ruby Lou and Sebago), 24 strawberry Lowanna, a hellebore, an aloe vera and a Strawberry Taffy penstemon.

So happy with all these purchases. A catalogue was included so I can browse for more goodies at my leisure.

And just to top it off, I even received a free gift!
3 packets of 20 - one each of Anemone mixed, Freesia mixed and Muscari Blue Grape Hyacinth. Looks like I am off to the garden now to get planting!

The Simple Life - The Greenest Life

'Instead of focusing on all the green products we can buy and consume - that new hybrid or a fancy water-filtration system - remember that living simply is usually the greenest choice of all.'

The Imperfect Environmentalist by Sara Gilbert

Of course, it is generally better to buy the green product (not always though - you need to do your own research). But are green products really making a difference?

After all, it is still a 'product' that required energy to be manufactured and transported, with some sort of packaging that will need to be disposed of, as well as the eventual disposal of the product. Recycling is better than not recycling, but it uses an exorbitant amount of energy and it is unclear as to whether this outweighs the benefits. 

Thus, not consuming at all, if possible, is preferable to choosing a green product. 

Sounds difficult?

It is, particularly as we are conditioned to feel that consumption is 'necessary' to keep our economy moving. But we are way beyond the 'green products will save our planet' stage. It is simply not enough. We must accept that substituting a green way of doing something is not going to be enough. We will not be able to convert all our oil/coal/gas energy consumption to a sustainable model. Instead we must accept that we must reduce our energy usage, and reduce it drastically. I would say, to 20% or less of our current usage levels. We must accept that we will need to return to the village model of living, where our needs are met locally, very locally. 

The actions that I feel are the most important/ useful would be:

1. Grow your own food. Establish an orchard, learn how to save seeds, make compost and fertilizers, assume that you will not be able to buy any of the gardening products you purchase now.
2. Establish an alternative fuel source. Plant a woodlot and install a wood stove for cooking, with a hot water heating capacity.
3. Learn food preservation techniques, such as canning, fermenting, drying, etc.
4. Establish a water collection and storage system. After all, it falls out of the sky all the time!
5. Determine what livestock you are comfortable with and learn about their care, processing, etc.
6. Stock up on items that may not be available in the future. This is really a short-term strategy; it is way more important to learn to do for ourselves.

Think of the necessities of life and work on them first - water, food, shelter, health.

Clothing is where my plans fall down at the moment. Wool, no problem - I have sheep and know how to process from fleece to yarn or fabric. However, cotton or something similar is more difficult. Has anyone had any successes with fabric for clothing?

I would love to hear your thoughts and what you are doing. Do you have support or does everyone you know think you are slightly crazy? 

Mrs Beeton's Advice For Homemakers

Mrs Isabella Beeton - most of us have heard of her and her classic tomes instructing the homemaker in everything from cooking, cleaning and childrearing, to how to be unselfish and make a happy home.

I borrowed this book recently from the library.

This was first published in 1893 and as I love anything from the past, I had to read it!
It is a real gem - so much wonderful advice that is just as relevant today as it was in 1893 (although maybe not all the references to servants; don't have any of those!)

From the very first page:

'Not everyone can realise what the work of a good housekeeper really is. We see in a well-ordered household everything neat, clean and comfortable, servants doing their work thoroughly, and meals well cooked and punctually served, and we take it far too much for granted that it should be so. Could we, however, look behind the scenes we might be surprised at the method, care and labour needed to make and keep the wheels of domestic machinery running so smoothly.'

I take homemaking very seriously and consider it to be my 'job'. It is always disheartening to hear that often society in general, and certainly our current government, think that women who stay at home are 'slackers' and 'lazy' and they should find a job so they can contribute. Nothing could be further from the truth! I personally feel sympathy for women who feel they should work out of the home or need to for financial reasons, even though they do not wish to, as in the majority of cases, they are also managing most of the home as well. I am so blessed and feel so grateful that I am able to stay home.

I also enjoyed Mrs Beeton's financial advice. I have kept a cash book of sorts for a long while now, since reading Your Money Or Your Life and this post on Mrs White's wonderful blog, The Legacy of Home. I also love Mrs. White's book, Living On His Income.

From Mrs. Beeton's chapter entitled Housekeeping Accounts:

'It is far better to live in a small house that we can keep nicely in order, with service well within our means, than in a large one where the whole of our income is consumed and for which we can barely afford sufficient servants.
There are too many people who prefer to be grand than comfortable; and still more who, without meaning to, spend a good deal more than they need or can afford upon unnecessary luxuries. Let our young housekeepers beware of falling into this grave error. Let them, whether their incomes be large or small, remember that it is their duty to live within their income and that extravagance is a vice, whether it is found in cottage or mansion.'

It seems that things don't change! Change some of the wording, take out references to servants, and this could have been written by any modern-day advocate for simple living.
Too many people are drowning in financial troubles, often caused by the desire to always have more, better, newest. Mortgages have sky-rocketed in Australia and I simply cannot understand the need to have huge homes with three or even more bathrooms, media rooms, parents' retreats, etc. If only we could be satisfied with less. Less wouldn't even be a reduction in the standard of living for most.

And to my mind, all of this comes full circle back to Proverbs 31. I feel that if I can follow the teachings in Proverbs 31 as much as possible, it will make my homemaking and myself the best that I can be. 
We can all only strive to do the best that we can, and that will always be pleasing in God's sight. 

I love to hear of any other books that you have found useful on these topics, especially Proverbs 31. I need to keep my library busy!

Linking today with Darling Downs Diaries for Good Morning Mondays, and Strangers & Pilgrims On Earth for The Art of Home-Making Mondays.

Anything Finished This Friday?

And the answer is yes!

The Colin vest for Cuddlepie is finished (I talked about it in this Yarn Along post).

I really like how it has turned out. And super easy pattern - great TV knitting!

This shawl is one I knitted quite a while ago (before I started keeping good notes on my knitting!), so I do not remember the pattern I used or the yarn (I thought it was Fyberspates but cannot find a sparkle lace in their collection). Except that it was a laceweight with a bit of sparkle. I don't know if you can see the silver in the photo.

It is so lovely and light. I knitted it to wear to my daughter's deb two years ago.

I have been enjoying a new linky party called Wool On Sundays at Rainbow Hare. IN a previous post at Rainbow Hare, I was reading how Janine was going to make 2014 the year of USP.

(USP = useful things, saleable items, presents)

I thought in my Year of No Superfluous Spending this would be a good idea to take on board. I had already decided that I would try and make as many gifts as possible this year (anyone with ANY great ideas for men and 10 year old boys, you would be my friend for life!)

But I also need to spend time making useful items. It is easy to get carried away making items because they are cute or pretty, but they need to have a use.

Of course, this quote from William Morris comes to mind:

And with so many items, these two functions can overlap and we should try to make them overlap. If you need a new tea towel, pretty it up a little. If you need some new cereal bowls, buy the prettiest ones you can afford. We all need some loveliness in the everyday.

Which brings me to the next quote I found from William Morris:

May we all find happiness in our everyday. 

Linking today with Wisdom Begins In Wonder for Fibre Arts Friday and Hard Knit Life for Freshly Finished Friday.

It was the boys' sports day today and they both did very well. Legoman missed out on age champion by a whisker.