Category Archives: Homemaking

New & Shiny Stuff

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Regular readers would know that I am not an advocate of shopping.  Of course, I buy food to feed us and things that we use in our day-to-day lives but I am definitely not into shopping for recreation.

Every now and then I have a day like today when all I seem to do is buy.  I had to go to Brisbane this morning with The Duke as we were to pick up our latest purchase this afternoon, but more about that later.  It meant that I had the whole day to fill in so my first stop was Spotlight.  I bought 5 white buttons for a blouse I am making and I also took some time to look at the fabrics which were all 40% off the marked price.  I do not buy things just because they are discounted but I found some fabric that I am planning to use.

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The white piece is linen/cotton blend and I am planning to make a summer dress for myself.  I also bought some white lawn (not shown) for the lining.  I am going to use this dress as the pattern.

Black dress with white spots
The red is a stretch cotton (t-shirt) fabric which I plan to make a copy of a top I bought earlier in the year.

The other piece is white with black silhouettes of kitchen utensils and I am going to make some more potholders and a cover for my Kitchen Aid mixer which lives on the corner of the bench in the kitchen.

After my Spotlight expedition I went to visit my mother and we went to a large shopping centre near where she lives.  Apart from having lunch there we wandered around and I checked out several boutiques and I ended up buying a pair of white, slim-fitting trousers and a blue, patterned cardigan/bolero.  I did try on numerous other pieces but I am very selective in the clothes I buy and wanted to be sure that were exactly what I wanted but more on those another day.

The final hurrah was to pick up our new car after our previous one was deemed to be a total write-off after the damage sustained during the recent ferocious hailstorm.

I am planning a much less adventurous day tomorrow.  I will be staying at home and hope to get some sewing done.  It will not be any of the new material just yet as I have a couple of other projects that I need to complete before I start any new ones.

What are your plans for New Year’s Eve?  Partying or a quiet night at home?

 

 

That Moment When……………………

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You realise that the ironing board cover needs replacing.

2014-12-21 01One minute it seems OK and the next it has ripped to shreds.

2014-12-21 02This is the cover I made from a brand new cotton doona cover I bought from the op shop.  It was the first time I had made one and I was very pleased with the result.  You can read about it here.

I could never have told you how long an ironing board cover lasted but thanks to this blog I now know that this one has given 2.5 years of service.  I regard that as pretty reaonable as I do a fair bit of ironing.

Project Completed

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It is almost a week since my last post and in that time I feel as though I barely managed to keep my head above water, let alone write or publish any blog posts.  As well as running a home and holding down a full-time job I have been caring for my 2 granddaughters, aged 5 and almost 7.  By the time I cook meals, pack lunches, wash clothes, supervise homework etc I am pretty well exhausted.  Luckily, my stint is for 10 days so I can see the end in sight.

I had almost finished a patchwork project before things got busy and I have now finished hand-sewing the binding.

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This is a knee rug which I have made for my mother for her birthday.  Like the other work I have shown you, it is based on a disappearing 9 patch block.

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This photo shows the backing which is from a sheet that I bought some time ago from the local op shop.  In fact, all of the fabric is either salvaged from unpicked garments or offcuts from other sewing projects.  It is all cotton or poly/cotton but of varying weights.  In my opinion, this rug represents the true essence of patchwork – using up what you have.

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A close-up shows the wide border with mitred corners and then the binding to finish it off.

This is my first completed patchwork so I am definitely no expert.  If you were able to study the piece closely you would find that it is far from perfect.  There are some joins in which the corners do not match precisely, it is possibly not as flat or smooth as it should be and there are the occasional wrinkle and pucker.  However, I regard these as part of the love with which these was devised and assembled.

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Finally, I wanted to show you that you do not need to spend a heap of money on a plethora of gadgets.  I used my standard dressmaking scissors, tape measure and pins.  In addition, I used a set square and 1 metre metal ruler which I had on hand.  I also used a 1/4″ foot and a quilting foot for my sewing machine.  The 1/4″ foot was a handy addition but not essential, whereas I could not have completed this rug without the quilting foot.  I was lucky that both of these items had generously been given to me.

A Final Word

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I promise that this will be my final post regarding the G20 meeting in Brisbane.

The G20 is over.  Many of the leaders have already left Brisbane and others are due to follow in the coming hours.  Security fencing and barricades are being dismantled.  Brisbane will return to ‘normal’ tomorrow morning, although, there are indications that there may still be some disruptions to traffic during the morning peak hour.

To all intents and purposes, life in Brisbane will be the same as it was a couple of weeks ago.  From a personal perspective, I will be interested to see whether climate change and Australia’s response to it can be put firmly back on the domestic political agenda.  Mr Abbott was dragged kicking and screaming to accept that climate change discussions should be part of the G20 discussions.

A detailed comment on climate change has apparently also been included in the final communique.

The following details are from a report regarding the discussions.

The final G20 communique includes a significant passage on climate change after “difficult discussions” among leaders on Sunday, and despite an impassioned defence of coal and fossil fuel industry by Prime Minister, Tony Abbott.  After much wrangling, the final leaders’ communique includes a recommendation for nations to commit funds to the UN’s Green Climate Fund that Mr Abbott opposes.  According to sources, a clear majority of leaders – including US President, Barack Obama – argued for stronger language in the  communique on climate change, to the apparent chagrin of Mr Abbott.  Mr Abbott gave an impassioned defence of coal and, reportedly, argued against inserting a line in the communique recommending the abolition of fossil fuel subsidies, an objective of the G20 for many years.  Coal-fired power stations are the biggest contributor to rising global carbon emissions that are warming the planet.  Mr Obama is understood to have spoken forcefully against Mr Abbott’s position on fossil fuel subsidies. The final communique calls on G20 members to “rationalise and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”.   Mr Abbott had support from Saudi Arabia and Canada, but countries led by the US and Europe remained steadfast.

As President Obama said in his speech at the University of Queensland, “leaders must be held accountable.  Combating climate change cannot be the work of governments alone.  You have to keep raising your voices, because you deserve to live your lives in a world that is cleaner and that is healthier and that is sustainable … That’s not going to happen unless you are heard.”  Let’s get out there and do just that.

004Meanwhile, life goes on here as usual.  Our main focus this weekend was keeping the garden watered during the extreme heat.  Most plants seem to have survived fairly well.  The hot wind has battered some of the small hedging plants at the front so The Duke has re-staked them.  I took these photos yesterday afternoon.  They are not of the vegetable gardens but are simply some snippets of the views we see each and every day.  I hope you enjoy them.

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More Material

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Last weekend I spent a fair bit of time in the sewing room.  I am working on a project that I cannot show you for another week so more details then.

I have also been cleaning up and sorting out material – yet again.  Much of what I have is relatively small pieces so I have prepared some of them for future patchwork projects by cutting them into 5 inch squares.  The remaining pieces are bundled according to colour so that I know where to look if I need a specific colour.

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Today I was given a couple of bags of material.  It is mostly substantial sized pieces which will be suitable for making entire garments so I am off to have a closer look at them and dream of some future creations.

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Christmas is Coming

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I know that the year is rolling by and before we know it Christmas will be upon us.  In fact I read this comment on a discussion forum a couple of days ago,

“Everyone is so busy and it will get even busier as it gets closer to Xmas… which I haven’t planned anything….”

This got me thinking as to why everything has to be busy in the lead-up to Christmas.  I love Christmas for the joy of being able to share the day with my family, especially the grandchildren.  I do not enjoy the commercialism of it nor the endless round of parties, celebrations and gift-giving.  The associated stress and pressure is simply not worth it.

Christmas Shopping

I try to switch off to most advertising at any time but I find it particularly insidious at this time of the year.  Every conceivable type of business is exhorting us to buy their goods so that they can be delivered by Christmas.  Worse still, are the offers of no repayments until the New Year etc, etc.  Just remember that everything has to be paid for at sometime and do you really want to be paying for Christmas at this time next year?

Like many other aspects of our life, we have managed to eliminate a lot of unnecessary Christmas festivities and focus on what is important to us.

This year we will be keeping it simple.

Neither The Duke nor I attend any work functions.
The Duke and I will go to a local festive gathering.  It is an opportunity to socialise with our neighbours and is hosted by a different family each year.  Everybody brings their own drinks and a plate of food to share.
We will take our grand-daughters to see the Christmas lights in our area. I want to take them to a carol service at the local church.
We will spend 5 days at the beach with family.
Christmas lunch will be at my sister’s place with extended family.
Gift giving for the family will focus on experiences and/or consumable gifts.

Over the next 6 weeks I will share some of the things you can do and make in the lead-up to Christmas which are memorable but relatively easy on the budget.  Please share any special ideas from your family.

In the meantime, here is a photo I took yesterday when I went to Caloundra to meet some friends for lunch.  I am hoping for some similarly spectacular weather when we spend some time there at Christmas.

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Patchwork – 5 Months Later

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I have finally made it back to my patchwork that I first showed you here and here.  Well it is 5 months later and I have finally got back to doing some more.  I now have 31 blocks completed and here they are laid out on the floor in a totally random order.  None of the fabric was purchased specifically for the project.  It is all offcuts from dressmaking projects or small unused pieces from my stash of fabric.  That stash is a bit smaller now.  🙂

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By my calculations these 30 blocks should cover the entire bed but I am not too sure how much overhang I want at the sides and the end or how much I will lose when I add the wadding and quilt it.  I think I will sew all of these together and see what I think.  Then I can add another row or two of blocks if I feel it needs it.  I am also wondering whether to put a plain border of 6 – 8 cm all around the edge.

Please share your thoughts or experiences on patchwork/quilting in the comments.

I have also cut out another 80 squares for a smaller rug using the same technique but more about that another day.

A Gadget

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Tonight I want to share a small gadget that we have had for a couple of years.  I don’t even know what you call it.

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This small device plugs into a standard power point and then you can plug any appliance or powerboard into it.  It comes with a remote control which you can use to turn the power on and off at the switch without actually having to manually reach the switch.  We have two of these.  One is in the lounge room and has a powerboard plugged into it.  We have the television, DVD player and hard drive plugged in so that with a single press of the remote control everything is turned off at the power point.  It is completely turned off – not on standby.  Did you know that any appliance where there is an illuminated light glowing is only on standby and is continuing to draw power even when it is not in use?

The other device was in the office where we had the computer and associated peripherals plugged into a powerboard. Both devices are programmed to the one remote control.

We realised recently that we had not been utilising the remote control to turn these devices off as the computer has some serious issues when you turn it off and try to turn it back on again.  The problem may be terminal but we have solved it for the time being by leaving it turned on at the power point.  So we removed the remote control device so that we could continue to turn the television off when not in use.  The question then arose as to where we could use the spare device.  We routinely turn all of the appliances off when not in use so it seems superfluous.

Last weekend when we cleaned out the top of the cupboard in the office I found this powerboard but did not have a use for it so put it downstairs in the workshop.

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This morning I worked out a way that I could put both of these items to good use.  I have a long sewing table in the spare room, however, the power point is under the table which necessitates me clambering under the table every time I want to plug in the sewing machine or iron.

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So, I plugged the gadget in and then the powerboard into it.

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The powerboard sits on the tables where it is an easy matter to plug in the sewing machine, iron or anything else.

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The individual power outlets on the board have their own switches so even if the main switch is turned on due to the remote control the individual outlets can remain turned off unless they are being used.

I am so glad that I came up with this solution as it is infinitely easier than crawling under the table to turn the power on and off.

Organising Finances

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I have been at work all day so nothing much to report on the home front.

However, we are currently working on a long-term financial plan as opposed to the day-to-day budget.  There is so much to consider – transition to retirement, salary sacrifice, superannuation options and so on.  We have sought professional guidance but the final decision is ours and we have to be comfortable that we have a workable and sustainable plan.

Retirement

Do you have a retirement strategy?  Or are you already retired from the workforce?

Gloriously Gluten-Free

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I made a gluten-free lasagne for dinner tonight.  That is not particularly earth-shattering as I know that you can buy gluten-free pasta and I have used it on previous occasions.  However, this time I was inspired by a Facebook post from a friend and decided to substitute the lasagne sheets with sliced zucchini.

I use a combination of potato flour and chickpea flour to make the bechamel sauce.

Here are all of the components prepared before I assembled the lasagne.

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The last layer in place.

010Ready to serve.

001Plated up.

002The verdict?

The zucchini did not provide as much support as lasagne sheets, therefore, the lasagne did not translate neatly in one piece onto the plate.  The taste was excellent which means it was a success by my standards.  I would definitely make this again with a few adjustments.  I would make the meat sauce drier which I think would help in maintaining the shape.  The zucchini could perhaps be sliced a little thicker.  You could also make the serves in individual ramekins.