HA! no, Polly. Rosie and Alice are quite well behaved. I think that washing day has been buried in my mind since I was a little girl. I used to have a lot of books with Airedales in them when I was little. I think it's from that.
This is my first visit to your blog and I want to thank you for being so generous in sharing your wonderful stitchery patterns. I love them all but especially the fat quarter one!
I found your Blog with so many wonderful free stitcheries, and so many wonderful things! Now I've got a question: In the next month I'll meet some friends and we all want to visit a exhibition in cross stitch. We are so many women who felt in love in counted cross stitch . I would like to show them how easy it could be to work on beautifuly stitcheries. Can I use your design for this workshop with my frends??? alda
I have become addicted to stischery since reading your blog and just love it. I have found some other patterns...they are free on a website called Redwork and Stitchery.Probably you have already discovered this and I have missed it in your notes. Thanks for the addiction,Rhonda.
Once more thanks for sharing these beautiful stitchery designs... my favorites are garden sampler the herbal hearts, how lovely ... and the FQ diet... hilarious and very true !!!
Hi love the site, but would love to do the sampler to the right of the screen but can't find the pattern. Would you be able to help please. Saw this done onThe Quiet Home website and thiought it was fab. Tina directed me here for the pattern, but perhaps I am a little blind. Many thanks. Susan
Thank you for sharing these! First of all, I can NEVER EVER have too many embroidry patterns ( although I already do), second, I love the message and style of these patterns! I already have a plan for the Herbal Hearts pattern for a gift ( or gifts ) I'm searching the blog/site for more wonderful patterns!
Don't know if you'll see this Rhonda! But I want to thank you for making your stitching patterns freely available. Embroidery is my passion and I have a LOT of books, magazines and patterns, but I just had to add this cute Washing Day pattern to my files! It reminds me so much of when I was a kid and our dogs used to chase the sheets as they spun around on the line on a windy day. Mum used to run outside shouting at them!!
I have stitched up your Herbal Hearts pattern for a Skinny Pinny Pincushion Swap. You can see it on my Flickr page here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/43229651@N06/13450472973/in/set-72157643016631513 Thank you so much for sharing this drawing. I live in the US and I made this for one of your Aussie neighbors, Kerrie Brill over at http://channelbankcreations.blogspot.com.au/ When I got her name in the swap, I started reading her blog and learned that she liked prim and that she follows your blog and when I saw that you had these sweet little patterns... well, it was just too perfect and I just had to make this up for her. Thank again.
I welcome readers' comments. However, this blog never publishes business links or advertisements. If you're operating a business and want to leave your link here, I will delete your comment .
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.
ABOUT ME
Down to Earth is a blog by Rhonda Hetzel, dedicated to simple, intentional living — from home cooking and gardening to frugal budgeting and handmade crafts. It’s a space for gentle inspiration and everyday wisdom on creating a life that feels real, balanced, and deeply fulfilling.
Down To Earth Book
My books are all published by Penguin. Down to Earth, The Simple Life and The Simple Home have been in book shops since they were published in 2012, 2014 and 2016, respectively. On 20 October 2020, Down to Earth was published as a paperback.
We had a nice supply of ginger beer going over Christmas. It's a delicious soft drink for young and old, although there is an alcoholic version that can be made with a slight variation on the recipe. Ginger beer is a naturally fermented drink that is easy to make - with ginger beer you make a starter called a ginger beer plant and after it has fermented, you add that to sweet water and lemon juice. Like sourdough, it must ferment to give it that sharp fizz. To make a ginger beer plant you'll need ginger - either the powdered dry variety or fresh ginger, sugar, rainwater or tap water that has stood for 24 hours to allow the chlorine to evaporate off. You'll also need clean plastic bottles that have been scrubbed with soap, hot water and a bottle brush and then rinsed with hot water. I never sterilise my bottles and I haven't had any problems. If you intend to keep the ginger beer for a long time, I'd suggest you sterilise your bottles. MAKING THE STARTER In a...
This will be my last post here. I've been writing my blog for 18 years and now is the time to step back. I’ve stopped writing the blog and come back a couple of times because so many people wanted it, but that won’t happen again, I won’t be back. I’ll continue on instagram to remain connected but I don’t know how frequent that will be. I know some of you will be interested to know the blog's statistics.
I'm sure many of you are wondering: "Why make soap when I can buy it cheaply at the supermarket?" My cold process soap is made with vegetable oils and when it is made and cured, it contains no harsh chemicals or dyes. Often commercial soap is made with tallow (animal fat) and contains synthetic fragrance and dye and retains almost no glycerin. Glycerin is a natural emollient that helps with the lather and moisturises the skin. The makers of commercial soaps extract the glycerin and sell it as a separate product as it's more valuable than the soap. Then they add chemicals to make the soap lather. Crazy. Making your own soap allows you to add whatever you want to add. If you want a plain and pure soap, as I do, you can have that, or you can start with the plain soap and add colour, herbs and fragrance. The choice is yours. I want to add a little about animal and bird fat. I know Kirsty makes her soap with duck fat and I think that's great. I think t...
I've had a number of emails from readers who want to start preserving food in jars but don't know where to start or what equipment to buy. Leading on from yesterday's post, let's just say up front - don't buy any equipment. Once you know what you're doing and that you enjoy preserving, then you can decide whether or not to buy extra equipment. Food is preserved effectively without refrigeration by a variety of different methods. A few of the traditional methods are drying, fermentation, smoking, salting or by adding vinegar and sugar to the food - pickling. This last method is what we're talking about today. Vinegar and sugar are natural preservatives and adding one or both to food sets up an environment that bacteria and yeasts can't grow in. If you make the vinegar and sugar mix palatable, you can put up jars of vegetables or fruit that enhance the flavour of the food and can be stored in a cupboard or fridge for months. Other traditional w...
With all this rain around we've developed a mould problem in our home. Usually we have the front and back doors open and that good ventilation stops most moulds from establishing. However, with the house locked up for the past week, the high humidity and the rain, mould is now growing on the wooden walls near our front door and on the lower parts of cupboards in the kitchen. Most of us will find mould growing in our homes at some point. Either in the bathroom or, in humid climates, on the walls, like we have now. You'll need a safe and effective remedy at some point, so I hope one of these methods works well for you. Mould is not only ugly to look at, it can cause health problems so if you see mould growing, do something about it straight away. The longer you leave the problem, the harder it will be to get rid of it effectively. If you have asthma or any allergies, you should do this type of cleaning with a face mask on so you don't breathe in any spores. Many peopl...
Bread is one of those foods that, when made with your own hands, gives a great deal of satisfaction and delight. It's only flour and water but it symbolises so much. I bake bread most days and use a variety of flours that I buy in bulk. Often I make a sandwich loaf because we use most of our bread for lunchtime sandwiches and for toast. Every so often I branch out to make a different type of loaf. I have tried sour dough in the past but I've not been happy with any of them. I'll continue to experiment with sour dough because I like the idea of using wild yeasts and saving the starter over a number of years to develop the flavour and become a part of the family. However, the loaf I've been branching out to most often is just a plain old five minute bread. By five minutes I mean it takes about five minutes actual work to prepare but it's the easiest of all bread to make and to get consistently good loaves from. If you're having people around for lunch or...
I have known for a while that this post was coming, but I didn't know when. This is my last post. I'm closing my blog, for good, and I'm not coming back like I have in the past. I've been writing here for 16 years and my blog has been many things to me. It helped me change my life, it introduced me to so many good people, it became a wonderful record of my family life, it helped me get a book contract with Penguin, and monthly columns with The Australian Women's Weekly and Burke's Backyard . But in the past few months, it's become a burden. In April, I'll be 75 years old and I hope I've got another ten years ahead. However, each year I'll probably get weaker and although I'm fairly healthy, I do have a benign brain tumour and that could start growing. There are so many things I want to do and with time running out, leaving the blog behind gives me time to do the things that give me pleasure. On the day the blog started I felt a wonderful, h...
An email came from a US reader, Abby, who asked about being a homemaker in later years. This is part of what she wrote: "I am a stay-at-home mum to 4 children, ages 9-16. I do have a variety of "odd jobs" that I enjoy - I run a small "before-school" morning drop-off daycare from my home, I am a writing tutor, and I work a few hours a week at a local children's bookstore. But mostly, I cherish my blissful days at home - cooking, cleaning (with homemade cleaners), taking care of our children and chickens and goats, baking, meal-planning, etc. This "career" at home is not at all what I imagined during my ambitious years at university, but it is far more enriching. I notice, though, that my day is often planned around the needs of my family members. Of course, with 4 active kids and a husband, this is natural. I do the shopping, plan my meals, cook dinner - generally in anticipation of my family reconnecting in the evening. I can't h...
Every morning when I walk into my kitchen it looks tidy and ready for a day's work. Not so on this morning (above), I saw this when I walked in. Late the previous afternoon when I was looking for something, I came across my rolled up Zwilling vacuum bags and decided they had to be washed and dried. So I did that and although I usually put them outside on the verandah to dry it was dark by then. I turned the just-washed bags inside out and left them like this on a towel. It worked well and now the bags are ready to use when I bring home root vegetables, cabbages or whatever I buy that I want to last four or five weeks.
When I was doing the workshops and solo sessions, I had a couple of people whose main focus was on creating the fastest way to set up a simple life. You can't create a simple life fast, it's the opposite of that It's not one single thing either - it's a number of smaller, simpler activities that combine to create a life that reflects your values; and that takes a long to come together. When I first started living simply I took an entire year to work out our food - buying it, storing it, cooking it, preserving, baking, freezing, and growing it in the backyard. This is change that will transform how you live and it can't be rushed.
22 Comments
Did Rosie and Alice inspire the Washing Day stitchery Rhonda? They are all lovely.
ReplyDeleteHA! no, Polly. Rosie and Alice are quite well behaved. I think that washing day has been buried in my mind since I was a little girl. I used to have a lot of books with Airedales in them when I was little. I think it's from that.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for some more of your beautiful stitchery patterns Rhonda.
ReplyDeleteThey're just wonderful!
Thank you soooo much for sharing the stitcheries with us! :> They are adorable! :>
ReplyDeleteLovely! Thanks so much! This is something I'd really like to do more of. So relaxing.
ReplyDeleteThis is my first visit to your blog and I want to thank you for being so generous in sharing your wonderful stitchery patterns.
ReplyDeleteI love them all but especially the fat quarter one!
Margaret
Thank you for the stitchery patterns, love the herbal hearts one! :)
ReplyDeleteI found your Blog with so many wonderful free stitcheries, and so many
ReplyDeletewonderful things!
Now I've got a question: In the next month I'll meet some friends and we
all want to visit a exhibition in cross stitch.
We are so many women who felt in love in counted cross stitch . I would
like to show them how easy it could be to work on beautifuly stitcheries.
Can I use your design for this workshop with my frends???
alda
Hi Aldi, yes, I'd be happy for you to use the patterns with your ladies. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteoh, thank you very much!!!
ReplyDeletealda
I have become addicted to stischery since reading your blog and just love it. I have found some other patterns...they are free on a website called Redwork and Stitchery.Probably you have already discovered this and I have missed it in your notes. Thanks for the addiction,Rhonda.
ReplyDeleteThese are wonderful
ReplyDeleteOnce more thanks for sharing these beautiful stitchery designs... my favorites are garden sampler the herbal hearts, how lovely ... and the FQ diet... hilarious and very true !!!
ReplyDeleteI've just found your blog and stitchery designs. Thanks for so generously sharing them. They are lovely.
ReplyDeleteHi love the site, but would love to do the sampler to the right of the screen but can't find the pattern. Would you be able to help please. Saw this done onThe Quiet Home website and thiought it was fab. Tina directed me here for the pattern, but perhaps I am a little blind. Many thanks. Susan
ReplyDeleteI love these patterns. I would like to make some cards with them - am I permitted to sell the cards I make? I look forward to hearing from you.
ReplyDeleteEmma - The Sparkly Fairy
j'aime beaucoup vos créativitées !Merci de publier ! Bonne journée !
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing these! First of all, I can NEVER EVER have too many embroidry patterns ( although I already do), second, I love the message and style of these patterns! I already have a plan for the Herbal Hearts pattern for a gift ( or gifts ) I'm searching the blog/site for more wonderful patterns!
ReplyDeleteDon't know if you'll see this Rhonda! But I want to thank you for making your stitching patterns freely available. Embroidery is my passion and I have a LOT of books, magazines and patterns, but I just had to add this cute Washing Day pattern to my files! It reminds me so much of when I was a kid and our dogs used to chase the sheets as they spun around on the line on a windy day. Mum used to run outside shouting at them!!
ReplyDeleteI have stitched up your Herbal Hearts pattern for a Skinny Pinny Pincushion Swap. You can see it on my Flickr page here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/43229651@N06/13450472973/in/set-72157643016631513 Thank you so much for sharing this drawing. I live in the US and I made this for one of your Aussie neighbors, Kerrie Brill over at http://channelbankcreations.blogspot.com.au/ When I got her name in the swap, I started reading her blog and learned that she liked prim and that she follows your blog and when I saw that you had these sweet little patterns... well, it was just too perfect and I just had to make this up for her. Thank again.
ReplyDeleteWow!! Theese patterns just made mye heart smile <3 Thank you for sharing :) love drøm Wenche
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Rhonda for the lovely patterns! What a sweet generous soul you are.
ReplyDeleteI welcome readers' comments. However, this blog never publishes business links or advertisements. If you're operating a business and want to leave your link here, I will delete your comment .
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.