Home beauties

Day 18 living with out

This is a no spend day.

'Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'

                                                                                                                   - William Morris.

Clewley park

Day 16 living without

This is a no spend day.

It took me time to understand my water lilies. I had planted them for the pleasure of it; I grew them without ever thinking of painting them.

-Claude Monet. 

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Simple quotes

Day 11 living without

This is a no spend day

'I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.'

- Emma Goldman.

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Little pleasures

Day 4 of living without

This is a no spend day

“After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”

― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

Sweet things

Day 3 of living without

It was a dreary day today, so a good day to be indoors.  There was some baking to be done, simple classic cupcakes. A recipe online supplied the ingredients list although this one seemed a little heavy and not very sweet. The icing made it sweet. 

The icing was made by sifting icing sugar and cocoa powder together into a medium bowl. Butter and milk was added. Then it was all mixed until the ingredients were combined. Then the icing was spread over the cupcakes.  For the topping we used crushed nuts on one batch of cupcakes and coconut on the other batch.

This is a no spend day.

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Little Things

Winter has arrived and the days have been cold, wet, and windy. It is a good time to stay indoors when possible. My garden is loving the rain. 

Meanwhile I have been doing some mix media painting. I'm on a Folk Art style at the moment and using up scrap supplies. I used up alphabet letters I have and had to cut some down and rearrange the letters to make the letters I didn't have. The word 'little' uses L's for T's and F's for the E. 

The video below shows how I go about creating the art.

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Autumn Orange

It was a cooler morning this morning and still slightly over cast. I've been painting of late but the truth is I'm not feeling it. I'm in a bit of a artist block and it doesn't help I can't seem to find a subject and style I like. I'll paint through the block and hopefully something will come of it. I did an art journal page cutting up a piece of art I did at art class and rearranged the image then added in a scripture quote I thought fitted. 

As you can see I was inspired by my pot marigolds. This is mixed media on paper. The scripture is Isaiah 40:8 - The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 

At home, I've also been cutting up and using some pumpkins Dad grew in his garden. I'm saving the seeds to start my own. If you have this Queensland blue pumpkin type growing at home and using it for mash Mum told me to add some sugar into it before you mash to sweeten the taste of it. 

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Bright things

The weather is bringing in the change of seasons, before we know it we'll be in Autumn. There was supposed to be some super cell storms but we had a lot of rain and the muggy weather is back again. 

At home there has been preparations for a hearty vegetable stew using up what was in the fridge and the last of Nanna Chels' (going grey and slightly green) Zucchini's. A packet of french onion soup mix lifted it up a bit and made it tasty. I also made up another damper to have with the soup and that went over well.

I've also been playing with paper things. I had some snail mail to send out, a little late for January mail but it was sent. I know the overseas pals won't get their letters until February so I decorated my letters with a romantic theme. I already had the envelopes and the stamps are old ones from my collection.

It really has been a month of use what I have. But then don't I always do that? 

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Home passions

“Homemaking is a passion you can pass on from generation to generation.” 

-Elizabeth George

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are

Daily moments

"Never let yesterday use up too much of today." - Will Rogers.

Market day

I've been quiet of late pottering around at home and have been a bit neglectful of my poor blog, but I hope to fix that and post a bit more.

The weather of late has been a mix bag of warm and windy which is not a good combination for the fires that have been around. But at least the wind has been keeping the days mostly cool. I think summer is going to be a hot one.

Last week I received an email to let me know about the new workshops for the Simple living group, the co-coordinator, Margy, also sent information about a mini homeschool market held at the Range Christian fellowship on the week end. My aunt and I headed off early to have a look around at the stalls. It was a good day to wander around to look at the stalls as the day before was so windy! It was still windy but not as windy.

I came home with two pressed flower bookmarks, yes I know I could make them my self but I like to help kids who are making their own items to sell. The book marks have scriptures on them with spelling mistakes :):

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, scince (since) what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18

I can do all things through Christ which (who) strengtheneth (strengthens) me. Philipians (Philippians) 4:13

I also brought some clay charms from When Laura Meets Clay: Whenlaurameetsclay.etsy.com. The book marks and the charms items will go well in snail mail letters.

I've also been pottering around in the garden and preparing potpourri mixes from the dried flowers I already have dried. My room smells like a flower garden.

There's been a lot of snail mail happenings too. I made some cards and postcards out of old magazines for a swap.

My art desk also has a lot of paintings going on. Just small ones for now.

We had a lot of produce from the garden too. We pickled beets. Picked silverbeet and more kale too. Over the last year or so dad has been planting out a few small garden items to grow in beds. The old favourites most kitchens like are being grown. We have three raised beds that are giving us plenty to use in the kitchen. Which proves you don't need big to start with.

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Simple happiness

Windy August arrived, and we've been having a mixed bag of weather. I think the changes in weather has brought on the flu that seems to be doing the rounds. I've been sick with the flu and that leaves me puttering around at home taking it easy.  I honestly can't remember the last time I had the flu, probably why this one really hit hard.

I spent today recently changing the look of my blog, with a new header and background. I've also updated the library links at the top adding in new links I needed to include. I've added a few more home making titles as I would like to focus on those aspects of creating a home as well. 

I have some writing I would like to start as a home making series to add to the new links. I expect I'll be able to get that series going shortly.

As usual there is some crafting but not much. I've been trying to get the ufo's finished in the basket of sewing I have. This flu really takes it out of a gal.

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Heart n Soul

The weather changed and we had a bit of a cold snap. I did the mistake of walking in the cold wind and ended up finally getting the lurgy that's been lurking around our place. I'm all sniffles and snuffles consuming hot lemon water and honey. Meanwhile I'm playing with paper. For these book marks I used an old Thomas Kincade calendar my aunt gave me.

This are part of a e-swap. Which means you send something electronic to your swap partner. For this we had to choose a scripture from the book of Joshua. I chose:

"Make sure you obey the law that Moses commanded you: Love the Lord your God, do his will, obey his commandments, be faithful to him, and serve him with all your heart and soul."

- Joshua 22 : 5

Of course, I'm always the odd duck in the pond who does everything different.

 So instead of just sending a link with an image made by someone else.

I used the images to create book marks of the things my swap partners like. I'm in the mood to make more book marks so stay tuned for that.

Now, it's time for more hot lemon water with honey and I think I need a nanny nap.

Hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

gathering fragments

The first day of winter arrived here on Sunday although you'd be hard pressed to find anything winterish about it. The day was chilly but overall very nice and not at all like winter. I think the garden is confused with the weather as we still have roses blooming lovely in the yard. We've also had a glut of beans, peas and cherry tomatoes. The peas hardly make it off the vine and into the kitchen with every one just wandering down to the back yard for a nibble.

Things have been busy of late. There's been a few doctor's appointments with the elders and myself, mostly checkups. Apparently I need to change my non-existent exercise habit, to be fair, I walk, just not enough.To improve feeling tired and mostly run down I need to get moving. I also think this tiredness is part of the hysterectomy and menopause but I'll get moving more to see if that improves things. To sum up: I'm 47 years old and I feel at least 110. So walking is on the agenda. Other things on the agenda was removing my art blog I don't feel the need to have two blogs. So my paintings stays here.

I've been slowly progressing on two small quilts. With everything going on, they are taking more time than I like. I hope to be finished with them soon. Do you recognize some of the fabric? I sure did get a lot of mileage out of that length of reused fabric. 

I like this from Lydia Child. Written in 1831, it still seems suitable for today's living and I know a lot of people including myself who make use of everything where possible. I have a little book where I write nice things down in. My hand writing isn't the greatest but I prefer to write things out than copy paste and print. 

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Small Sayings

O sing to the Lord a new song.

-Psalms 96.1

I hope everyone is having a good day or evening where ever you are.

Easter

I hope everyone has a happy and blessed Easter where ever you are.