Feather your Nest Friday 31 October 2014.

Each day I am writing in my journal the things that have been wonderful blessings in my day and the things I achieved towards feathering our nest. This is in part so I don't get to Friday and think "what have I been doing all week?"

The ordinary things we do day to day can be enough. We may do nothing extra aside of keep everyone fed and alive! Just this can be a full time task. And there are times nothing extra is possible. You know, we need to count all this as important work. Keeping things running, food on the table, linen and clothes washed, children happy, pets fed, lunches packed... whatever it is in your house this is all important stuff. And there are times especially with small children or sickness in the house just managing the basics is a huge achievement. We need to count it all. It all matters and it is all worthwhile.

The stage of life you are in is something to accept. When there is a new born baby a feather your nest achievement might be managing to clean or cook a simple meal. One thing I have learned is accept the stage you are in. It is fleeting. Enjoy and relish it. There will be time later for other things when there is no time now...

When you do anything to strengthen, nurture, nourish or encourage your family you are building up your home. After all there is no point having a beautiful well kept home if the family living in it don't feel loved and secure.

Some extra things I achieved this week to feather the nest were:

From re arranging some potted plants I ended up with an empty wide and low bowl type planter. And a shady spot with a space. So I thought violets in this bowl would work well. I looked at violets in the nursery which were $14 per pot. mmm I decided to dig up some with roots from my existing violet patch and plant them around the bowl. In the first days they drooped but I kept watering and now they are looking perky... they will soon enough fill the bowl and look lovely.

I washed a very large floor rug for Lucy. I spread it over the outdoor setting, sprayed it with Miracle Cleaner and hosed it down. I rubbed a few spots that needed it. When it drip dried enough we turned it over (I needed help with that) and did the other side. On the second day it was dry and looked like new. I don't know what rug cleaning would cost but I imagine this saved quite a bit of money and it's like a brand new rug. The Miracle Cleaner recipe is here.... Miracle Cleaner.

I vaxed the carpets. We have three rooms of carpet. I used miracle cleaner in my vax (it is a vac that has a wet and dry function) and miracle cleaner on stains and spots. (please note my vax is old, it won't void a warrantee or anything like that due to using a cleaner of my own choice) It came up so well and smells so fresh. A flyer in the mail said carpet cleaning on special was $129 for three rooms so that is what I will say I saved.

At the supermarket they had a trolley full of bagged up fruit and vegies at $3 a bag. Each bag had I would say about 5 kilos of produce. It all needed to be sold asap. It was all very good. I chose two bags. I ended up with about a kilo of apples, six bananas, a large red, a yellow and two green capsicums, two bunches of asparagus and whole lot more. Lucy came over and saw my mountain as I was unpacking and washing it. I gave her some of everything. Then I picked her a bunch of oregano, a bunch of parsley and a little bag of coriander. She was very happy! I have so many things I can make with all of this. It might be funny but I count any money I saved their households as something too.

Another thing I did... I almost never wear earrings but I have some gorgeous ones. I got them out and gave them a clean and wore some. And to make them noticeable I wore my hair in a half up style. This had the effect of I got out my pretty hair clips and cleaned them. So for a week I feel like I had a new hairstyle and new jewellery and the change is lovely. And I got comments. All for free. Years ago a jewellery told me to mix half glass/window cleaner with half dishwashing detergent and use a soft toothbrush to gently clean my rings. This is good for most jewellery not for pearls though. It makes things look like they have been to the jeweller for a professional clean. Clean thoroughly with this and then rinse. Work away from the sink in a bowl of water and a jar of this... I have a major fear of jewellery going down the sink. But this works miracles and things look new!

Here is a picture of part of my lounge with freshly washed covers. Wrestling the covers back on was better than a gym session!

I got an idea. Googling will get you more pictures on this but I took one to demonstrate. My daughter took me out to lunch. We shared a "tasting plate" desert. I keep seeing and hearing this "tasting plate" concept. So out comes a little selection of things looking gorgeous. Each one is quite tiny. My brain went !!! this idea of a multitude of things on a lovely plate or platter could be used to present a whole variety of left overs, things we need to use up etc that on their own do not make a meal. But all together as a "tasting plate" they look fabulous. And everyone can choose the bits they like. Bliss. It works equally well with sweet or savoury meals. So tasting plates here I come!

Yesterday I used some left over roast lamb and my capsicums and tomatoes from my bargain vegies and made pizzas. I made them for dinner, my husbands work lunch today and one for the weekend. They were really good. I also used up some soft cheese I had frozen.

Last week I discovered a lovely blog with the best name! It's called "If you do stuff, stuff gets done" by a lovely lady called Rhonda. Here is a link.... If you do stuff, stuff gets done. In true form Rhonda works hard, saves money and builds her home!

What did you do this week to build up your home? I will leave you with Rhonda's words... "if you do stuff, stuff gets done" I am going to remember this forever!
Like Flylady says housework done imperfectly still blesses your family. A lot of things are the same. We may not attempt crafts, cooking, cleaning and all kinds of things feeling our efforts might not be perfect or good enough. But they are, that is how we learn! This opens the door to trying new things and you never know how this might help your family or yourself! Often a small change can produce big results! This has been a year of many changes for me. Actually in my diary I am listing all the changes I made this year, the new things I learned and did for the first time ever. It is a long list. It is probably why I saved a lot of money this year in different ways. Some things I had in my mind as "too hard" turned out to be easy!

What did you do to build up your home this week? I hope it was a wonderful week. It is the last day of October. I hope to finish some things today and I will feel October was a very productive month. I love that feeling! Thank you for joining me in Feather your Nest Fridays!

Have a lovely weekend. The roses are out in my garden now, I am loving them!