Feather your Nest Friday, June 5, 2015.

Our first week of winter has been cold and I think I had somehow forgotten what winter is like! We have to make the most of the season we are in so for us it is soups, stews, evenings in the warm with candles and fairy lights, knitting and crochet and lots of crafts to work on. This time is good as I get lots of things made and my present cupboard re stocked. It is a great time to concentrate on rugs and blankets as they keep you warm as you work on them.  I finished Chloe's Moroccan Wedding Blanket. (well, imitation Moroccan Wedding Blanket). This was quite a big job.

Chloe sent me photo's of how it looks on her bed and in her room...

Houdini likes the fluffy bits apparently. Sparkly nesting material potential?

I have moved on to scarves and next a rug with pom poms along the edge.


This week was pretty good. Some of the ways I saved money were-

Mum's friend gave me 8 more giant jars with lids. I would say these hold about 2 kilos of sugar size wise. Now I have 11. I am using these for a lot of dry goods in my pantry. I am writing her a thank you note and begging her to keep using the same coffee!

Mum gave me a pavlova base. I decorated it with lots of fresh berries and then shared it between our three households so everyone had a mid week treat.

I made chicken quiches using Lucy's recipe. I made one large and a dozen small ones.

Pumpkin was 70c a kilo at our green grocer so I bought 5 kilos for soup.

I made chicken stock using mainly left overs and ingredients from the freezer (part of my use it up freezer challenge). In the freezer I had celery, garlic, parsley so they went in.

Oranges were $1 a kilo so I got some for eating fresh and some for making Sunshine cake next week.

I am nurturing along lots of seedlings in the garden, mainly herbs.




Some of the ways I built up the nest were-

I added quite a bit to the pantry and cellar.  Some canned goods plus dried fruits.

Also I warmed up the living room with throw rugs and the same for the end of the bed.

Learning new skills is building up your home. I am thinking of having a "learn a new skill a week" series... Thank you to everyone who posted links to tutorials on Wednesdays blog. If you have a skill that is useful, money saving or home building think about making a tutorial. What is obvious to us as we have been doing it for years might be really useful to someone else. Thinking this I am making a mini tutorial for Crock Pot Chicken Stock for Monday's post. A stock can be largely made from leftovers and scraps and then becomes a very tasty and nutritious base for your soups, risotto, a glaze, sauces, gravy... anyway I will get to that Monday.
My next new skill is (hopefully) dumplings. As in dumplings over a casserole, dumplings over caramelized apples and so on. Thanks to Sue who has helped me with this! Dumplings are a very good way to stretch a meat meal.

Other "nesting things" to include would be that Harper gained weight and that makes me happy!
Here is Aunty Chloe with her...

She is such a little character. Look at that little face and those little hands!

All Mothers will know that "the nest" and everyone being well and fine includes the whole family. We all help each other and build up each others nests. If one isn't right no one is right!

I still have today to go...  I am making creme caramel in the crock pot tonight, soup is cooking itself now so at dinner all I have to do is put the stick blender in and blend.

A little bit of sunshine is peaking out so I hope to make the most of it.

How was your week? How did you save and build up your nest?  I am noticing a lot of nest building pantry wise amongst my friends and blogs I follow. There is great security from knowing you have on hand things to cover most situations.
There are so many ways to build up your nest. Spending time with your family is building your nest.

Have a wonderful Friday and weekend! xxx