My First Attempt

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Posted on June 2, 2014

It is never too late to learn something new so today I have started some patchwork. I am hoping to make a quilt. It is not entirely true that I have never done patchwork before but it has been generally on a small scale and my own ‘design’.

Following some basic tips that I gleaned from Frugal Queen and this Youtube video, I set about making my first disappearing 9 patch square.

I did not buy any fabric because I believe that patchwork should be the ultimate in making do with what you have, not an excuse to rush out and buy all of the latest mix’n’match patchwork fabrics. I am using leftovers and offcuts from many of my own sewing projects as well as some that my mother gave me recently. Some of the pieces in the bundle are over 40 years old.

Here are some of the first squares I cut out. I was starting to arrange them for the block.

I chose to use mostly blue in my first project as that is the colour that I have most in the available fabric. It is also the colour of our bedroom so the quilt will look perfect on our bed if it reaches completion.

The first nine squares sewn together.

The disappearing 9 patch depends on then cutting the block into 4 squares, rearranging them and then sewing them together. This is the result.

So far today I have made 4 of these blocks and I am really happy with how they are turning out.

I think I am hooked but there are other things I need to do today as well. I will be back tomorrow with more adventures. In the meantime, let me know if you quilt or sew. Is it for fun or frugality?

Recipes and Restoration

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Posted on May 27, 2014

In response to the comments from my Clean & Green post the links to recipes for both the cream cleanser and wool wash are under the tab at the top of the page marked “Recipes – Other”. Unfortunately, the wool wash one does not have any photos as they were a victim of my culling photos some time ago 😦 I do need to make some more again before long so I will take some new photos. Also, I have found that the mixture sets quite firmly so I will be experimenting to make it more like a gel or even semi-liquid. I will let you know how I go.

Since we finished restoring the silky oak dressing table we have been searching for a similar unit for The Duke’s clothes. Many that I had seen on Gumtree (online buy/sell site) did not have enough storage space. I was hoping for a silky oak piece but that was not essential.

On the weekend we bought this piece. The thing I really love are the small, deep drawers at the top. They will be perfect for separating socks and underwear.

The seller had owned it for about 20 years and never restored it. We will need to replace the bases of some of the drawers and do a bit of structural refashioning. The piece is not original as the top left-hand drawer does not match the others and the front of the unit looks as though it was once the back of a piece of furniture. Apparently it has come from Coober Pedy (an opal-mining town in the outback of South Australia) and there is clearly a lot of history so I believe it deserves to be restored. It needs a lot of work but we are confident that it will come up nicely. We intend to replace the wooden knobs with metal handles to match the dressing table.

We do not intend to embark on this project at the moment as we are trying to get things ready before we head overseas in a couple of months. So we have covered the piece with a heavy drop-sheet and left it until we have more time.

Clean & Green

10 Comments

Posted on May 21, 2014

In an online discussion group of which I am a member, the challenge this week was to make some changes in your routine to make your life a little greener. It was noted that actions that are good for the environment can also be beneficial to your purse.

When I stopped and thought about this, I realised that most of how I choose to live is a result of making the best choice I can in the prevailing circumstances. Some of these things are what I have always done and others are changes I have made but it is so long ago that I do not even consider them as particularly green.

Here are some of our household patterns.

Use locally-made, environmentally-friendly washing liquid, laundry soaker, dishwashing liquid and dishwasher powder from Kin Kin Naturals.

Make my own wool wash and cream cleanser.

Use bicarb and vinegar to clean most surfaces.

Hang clothes outdoors to dry or in front of the fire. Use clothes dryer rarely.

Run our home on tank water, grid-connected solar power and solar hot water service.

Grow some of our own fruit and vegetables. This week I have picked lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, pak choy, lemons, oranges, mandarins. grapefruit and avocadoes.

Compost all our scraps or feed them to the chickens.

Keep chickens for our own supply of eggs.

Catch public transport to work.

Complete multiple errands when making a trip in the car.

Re-use as many resources as possible.

Avoid processed foods.

Make choices when shopping to avoid packaging – buy bulk/loose goods.

Use my own bags/containers when shopping.

Heating from a slow-combustion heater fuelled by wood collected from our property.

Give away items no longer needed via Freecycle or op shop.

Buy only what we need.

Repair things that we already own.

This is not a complete list but is an indication of what we do every day to lighten our footprint on the planet.

What choices have you made that could be viewed as ‘green’?

No Celebration Today

14 Comments

Posted on May 14, 2014

NOTE: The subject matter of this post is political and includes my opinions.

Last night was Budget night here in Australia. It was the first budget delivered since the election of the new government last year. There have been so many leaks and hints over the past weeks that people may have been forgiven for thinking that they had heard it all by the time last night rolled around. How wrong we were!

The governement have been hammering the message about the dire straits of the debt and deficit in this country and how everyone has to share the pain. From my assessment of the budget there is pain, YES (lots of it)………….shared, perhaps……………..equitably shared, NO!

I wanted to write this post last night but I was simply too angry to even contemplate putting my thoughts together in a coherent manner.

I would like to point out that my anger is not about what I or my family will lose personally, both now and in the future. I am angry that the sick, disenfranchised, elderly and those least able to defend themselves have been viciously attacked whilst big business have emerged virtually unscathed.

Here is a list of some of the measures announced – it is not complete and the time frames for introduction vary. I and most others do not have all of the details but I understand enough to be very, very unhappy.

As far as I can see I can expect to pay more for fuel with the reintroduction of the fuel excise to be indexed twice-yearly. This will also affect the cost of everything, including food that is subject to transport costs. I will have to make a co-payment to visit the doctor, have a blood test or an x-ray. Prescription medicines will rise in cost. The eligibility for an aged pension will rise to 70 years.

Our income is such that we are not liable for the debt levy which is being applied to all those earning in excess of $180,000 per annum. However, we have sufficient room in our own budget to accommodate the increase in costs that I outlined in the previous paragraph. We plan to have adequate superannuation to fund our own retirement without having to work until we are eligible to access the aged pension.

So, I should be pretty happy, right? I am not because I fear for others in our society who are not so fortunate. Check out this graphic for the ‘Winner and Losers’.

Here are a few examples of some of the negative changes. There are far to many to list.

No unemployment benefits for 6 months if you are under 30
Changes from Newstart to Youth Allowance for 22 – 24 year olds
Eligibility for aged pension to increase to 70
Superannuation Guarantee Levy to be frozen at 9.5% until at least 2018
First Home Savers Account to be scrapped
Schoolkids Bonus abolished
$7 co-payment for Dr visits and also pathology and radiology
Funding slashed to CSIRO, ANTSO, ABC and SBS
Abolish PHIO (Private Health Insurance Ombudsman)
Increase in cost of prescription medications on PBS ($0.80 for concession card holders and $5.00 extra for the rest of us)
Abolish the Australian Renewable Energy Agency
Cut funding to the National Anti-Tobacco Campaign
Gonski school funding model disbanded – cuts in education funding
Allowing hospital emergency departments to bill for “GP-type” visits
Cut funding for human rights education
Higher university costs

Here are some of the beneficaries that you may not have heard about yet.

Increased funding for school chaplaincy services
A new icebreaker ship
Funds for Australian Drug Commission
Medical Research Future Fund
$1 million for accommodation for students of Australian National Ballet

A quote I found online:

“No progress on tax avoidance, no sign that Australia will responsibly lead the G20, no reform of expensive concessions to the rich: this budget is a massive moral failure”

And finally, absolutely nothing positive for the environment and the effects of a changing climate but that is hardly surprising since Mr Abbott does not believe it exists.

Autumn Has Arrived

Foodie Friday – Kids in the Kitchen

5 Comments

Posted on April 12, 2014

I didn’t get back to post this last night. Miss O and Izz have been staying for a couple of days so the food focus has clearly been about them. They enjoyed shopping at Simply Good yesterday and discussing many of the different fruits, nuts and grains that we bought. Miss O was keen to practise her recently acquired spelling skills to read the names of the ingredients on the storage buckets and fill them up when we arrived home.

They picked pumpkins and tomatoes as well as collecting eggs. It is great to see them understanding where their food comes from. 4 year old Izz wanted an anatomy lesson on how the eggs get out of the chickens!!

Tomorrow we are going to a picnic with extended family so I made some choc fruit nut balls and Miss O helped by rolling the balls in the coconut.

Apologies for the brevity of this post but I have been working on our Ireland itinerary and looking at ferry timetables and rental car details.

Pretty Pillows

Clutter-Free – Start Small

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Posted on April 9, 2014

I often talk about decluttering various spaces and having less but today I want to focus my attention on having clear spaces. I am not advocating jamming your cupboard full of stuff, however, the benefit of clear surfaces cannot be underestimated. It is a task that is unlikely to be achieved in one go and can be enormously overwhelming. That is why I focused my energy on one room – the bathroom. It is the smallest room in the house and is designed for a specific purpose, therefore logically should be the easiest to minimise the ‘stuff’.

I have had the benefit of a renovated bathroom which has an inherently streamlined design. I love the fact that there is no plug lying around on the side of the sink. There are only 2 items on the bench – a ceramic shell dish which holds a small bar of soap and a repurposed vase (The Duke drilled a hole in the base of it) which holds our toothbrushes. It is a quick and easy task to keep this area clean and tidy.

As this is quite a compact area we chose not to have a bath – just an easy to access shower area. I had seen this type of recessed shelf in motel bathrooms and asked the builder to create one when we remodelled the room. I love the idea because it is simple and streamlined to the eye, nothing to rust or gather soap scum and there is no encroachment to bump into when you are showering. From left to right there is shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, facewash and a nail brush – everything required when showering.

The floor is another place where clutter can gather. I found these fittings which attach to the wall – a holder for extra rolls of toilet paper and the toilet brush holder are both clear of the floor and do not need to be moved when sweeping or mopping the floor.

The only 2 things on the floor of the bathroom are a set of scales and the waste paper basket.

My whole house does not look this clear but it is lovely to have achieved it in at least one room.

The vanity unit has a 2 door cupboard and 4 drawers. Tomorrow I will reveal exactly what is lurking in there.

Ashes to Ashes, Branches to Mulch

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Posted on April 6, 2014

We collect all of the fallen branches on our land for firewood, so today The Duke spent some time cutting up some more logs that were stacked and waiting to be cut.

Here are some of them cut and waiting to be stacked in the woodshed.

The mulcher which you can also see in the photograph also got a workout as we mulched several piles of smaller branches as well as some palm fronds and rotting branches. As always, nothing is wasted so some of the mulch was added to one of the raised garden beds that we are filling and the rest will be spread under the native shrubs which are planted along part of the front boundary. The mulch keeps the weeds mostly under control.

Next, we headed over to the area near the vegetable gardens. There was more debris to mulch, including the remnants of the corn stalks.

While the Duke and Psycho Dog were hard at work, I turned my attention to the new garden bed I built yesterday. I needed a bit more mulch and soil to fill it up and then I planted some Purple King climbing beans and radishes.

It is along the outside of the chicken run so the fence will provide an excellent trellis for the beans. I grew these beans a few months ago and had an absolutely fantastic crop so decided to grow them again. I added a couple of star pickets and some wire to enclose the bed so that the chickens cannot dig it up when they are free-ranging. I was just putting the finishing touches to the wire surround as the first drops of rain fell late this afternoon. We had a tremendous thunderstorm with some huge bolts of lightening very close by but were lucky not to lose power.

Finally, just to prove that our garden is decorative as well as functional, here is a photo of the roses flowering in the front garden.

Tonight I am going to make some decisions about my 33 items for the round of Project 333 which began on April 1st. I have kept track of what I have worn so far this month and will include them in the tally. I hope to share the details of my choices with you tomorrow.

More Mending

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Posted on April 5, 2014

Mending is to sewing like using leftovers is to baking.

Most people can bake or create a meal by following a recipe but often you need to have a good understanding of the underlying principles of cooking and meal preparation to be able to creatively and effectively use leftovers or random ingredients. The same applies to sewing. It is one thing to follow the instructions on a pattern to make an item but sometimes you need to use your understanding of some of the methods to apply it to mending tasks.

Today I was confronted with a pair of The Duke’s business trousers that had worn through right on the crease of the hem. I do not know how this happened as the trousers are the correct length and do not drag on the ground. It is difficult to see but the area just to the right of my thumb is a split. It is more obvious in the following photograph.

I unpicked a section of the hem.

The damage is clearly evident. I trimmed the couple of loose threads. I placed a piece of iron-on interfacing over the split on the wrong side. I made sure that the two edges of the split were closely aligned and then ironed the interfacing to seal it. With the sewing machine set on a short zigzag stitch, I stitched over the split.

This is the wrong side after I had stitched it.

Then it was a simple matter of rehemming the section of the hem which had been unpicked. I have not posted the ‘after’ photo as the mend is virtually invisible.