Making your home

At some point in the morning, without fail, I make our bed. It's an indispensable part of my home making and the comfort it provides us when we go to bed at night consistently reinforces its importance.  Some folk have to drink coffee in the morning, I have to make our bed. It makes sense to me and it motivates me to care for the rest of my home too.  Lately I've been thinking a lot about the work we all do in our homes and I know that for me, housework slowed me down, lead me to a better life and changed me in the process.  

Easter - sit back and relax

It's been a busy week. Shane, Alex and Eve slept here last night. Jamie is here now, Shane is at work and soon they'll go over to Kerry and Sunny's to have a sleepover with Jamie. He even cleaned his room for the big event!  It's surprising how much you forget about normal life at various points in time.  It's only when we have the grandkids here that I remember looking after my own sons and the feeding, drinks, colouring in, playing, arguments, broken sleep, walking on small pieces of Lego 🙄 and the pure joy of looking after little people. And just how relentless it is.

Starting work on the rabbit while I watched Gardeners World.

In the couple of days before the gang arrived, I worked on the ballerina rabbit birthday present for Eve who turns four on Sunday. I struggled for a while with the shoes and then realised the answer was to hand-stitch them and then cut the felt slightly outside the stitch lines.  Eureka!  By the time Eve arrived, I'd sewn and re-sewn the shoes, and for days had thought about what to make for her top.  I finally settled on a knitted shawl, tied at the back the way I've seen some ballerinas wear their shawls.  She liked it but I think she preferred playing with the Peppa Pig car and passengers. Oh well, she might be next week's favourite.

How are you going with your apron?

Today I've been working on another felt rabbit, this time for my granddaughter Eve's fourth birthday next Sunday.  Eve told me last week she wants to be a ballerina. 🙂  This rabbit is a ballerina and at the moment I'm sewing prototypes of ballet shoes.  It's hard going because each shoe is only 20cm.  😳  I'm hoping to finish her tomorrow but I still have some knitting to do after the shoes.

Another birthday! UPDATED

I wrote the first part of this post in 2013 to celebrate my 65th birthday and thought I'd add to it today, on my 71st.

Homemade dog food

Recently I revised my recipe for Gracie's meals. I've never fed her canned dog food because I want her to stay healthy and I doubt the claims of healthy ingredients in most store-bought canned food. Homemade dog food is easy to make and I make a big pot full, keep one container of it in the fridge, and put the rest in the freezer.  Generally I cook the food up once a month.

Sewing bee - aprons

I wanted to hold this world-wide sewing bee so that we could work collectively on aprons that we use everyday. It's economical to make aprons rather than buy them, you'll build your sewing skills at the same time, so it's worth the time and effort you put into this.  So what is a sewing bee? This is the meaning taken from dictionary.com: Bee is derived from the Old English meaning “a prayer, a favour.” By the late eighteenth century, bee had become commonly associated with the British dialect form, been or bean, referring to the joining of neighbours to work on a single activity to help a neighbour in need: sewing bee, quilting bee, etc. 

Sewing bee list

Well, that was a delightful surprise!  I didn't expect so many ladies would join the sewing bee.  We'll have a good time and hopefully all come out the other end with at least one apron.  Next Monday  I'll post details of the sewing bee as well as a few free patterns that you can download. They'll be patterns for an ordinary plain apron - the simplest one to cut and sew, a harvest apron, cross-back apron, shop/market apron, half apron, peg apron and a child's apron.  You'll need about one metre of fabric for the main part of the apron and 25 cm of contrasting fabric.  If you're a new sewer, it might be wise to buy cotton tape too so you don't have to make the waist and neck ties.

THE LIST IS CLOSED NOW. Even if you're not on the list, you'll still be able to see everything that goes on in the sewing bee.  So join in and sew your apron with us.

COMMENTS ARE ALSO CLOSED

What are Rhonda and Hanno doing? Let's see...

It's such good weather here at the moment. The nights are coolish at 15C and the days are warm and comfortable around 28C. The true marker of the start of cold nights hasn't happened yet but soon I'll get out a set of fluffy flannel sheets, add a doona to the bed and we'll be in winter mode. I love this time of year.

Last Sunday we went to the local Chipmunks for Jamie's eight birthday party. Sunny flew back from Korea on the morning of the party so it was lovely to catch up with her and all the family news while we sat and had a cup of tea. Shane brought Alex and Eve down for the party too so it was a good day for being with our family and celebrating together.