Feather your Next Friday, 29 June, 2018.

I am so glad of Feather your Nest Fridays.   Stopping to assess things makes a world of difference to me.  I helps me plan next week too. But sitting here writing I see wow the month is almost over and we are right in the middle of the year already.
Big things are happening!  The second half of the year is set to be life changing!
We have the wedding coming in October.
So much to do!

This week I continued working on my pantry.  I emptied and washed all my jars and put my new labels on.   I am ordering more labels as I realised some I missed and had not thought of.  Also I have kept many spare jars since Bluebirds Farmhouse Pantry will be much bigger.

I found I had multiple jars with the same thing i.e. four jars of icing sugar.   So I made up snap lock bags full of things that need using up. 

I have used a lot  of these this week in a kind of use it up challenge.  I can see I have enough random dried fruits to make a fruit cake too. 

I made baked apples with some of my hailstone apples from the Adelaide Hills.  I bought four bags of these in support of the farmers who were hit by hailstones.  They are beautiful apples anyway.

They end up caramelised and gorgeous. I had baked apples for breakfast too.

One of my getting ready to move jobs this week was to touch up paint in several places with marks or chips.  I did all those and they look perfect!

I made GF Melting Moments.  I just used GF flour in my regular recipe.  Excuse the wobbly icing but these few were for Harper...

They tasted good and gave me something when I was craving biscuits!

I also made Gingerbread biscuits with honey.  I make these for the girls and Andy.  

I made tuna mornays, a big Tikka Masala Chicken curry and even had a bash at GF Naan Bread.  It worked!  I just used Aldi GF flour, yoghurt and a little milk to mix a dough.  I rolled them out and fried the disks.   Well yum!   I used homemade yoghurt and mint from Mums garden to make raita to go with everything. 

Andy said to stop telling him things are GF as he honestly can't tell any difference and thinks they are great.   I was really happy with this as Naan sure extends a curry a very long way.

I made a pot of use it up veggie soup for the lunches. 

Our neighbour over the road had an extension built.  She came over and asked us if we wanted a pile of wood that is left over.  Andy went over and took a photo of this all and sent it to Luke.  Farmer Luke said YES PLEASE!  so it is all sitting on our front veranda to go to the farm.   I asked Andy to guess the value of it and he measured it up and said $180.   So that is $180 in timber for farm use.

Mum gave me two beautiful cardis, one navy blue and one a beautiful claret colour.  

Lucy gave me three litres of olive oil which I decanted into bottles. 

Then I went to see Hilde and do a further afield shop.   Each time I do this it pays off so much.  My one purchase of hair colour for 33c cents per box (instead of the usual $19) saved me $170.

I got a car load of beautiful fruit and veggies for a fraction of our local prices.  

I found a crystal decanter and the cups and saucers I love for $4.

The biggest bargain was an expensive brand pure duck down Queen sized quilt for $15.  Bluebird Farmhouse will have another double bed so I need more linen.   This is a saving of at least $200 right there.   I washed it up in my homemade wool mix and it smells beautiful and dried in Mums tumble drier for half a day!   It is glorious! 

The second biggest bargain was a velvet coat for Harper.  It is lined with navy satin. It is just gorgeous.

My picture makes it look faded but it is luscious dark thick navy blue.

Hilde gave me two big baskets of lemons. 

I drink the juice of a fresh lemon every day in my jug of water (thanks to Lana that is my habit now) and I have enough to get creative over the weekend as well.

When I got home and unpacked I had so many veggies I made up a basket each for Chloe and Dad as they were coming to Adelaide for a meeting.

Dad loves cauliflower and cabbage, I guarantee he is cooking them up today.    So I got to see Dad and Chloe briefly and give them cups of tea before they headed back to the farm.  Dad told me there is progress and if all goes well we will have access to Bluebirds Farmhouse in August!  Then it will be a matter of assessing what work we need to do before we could move in! 

Yesterday I made the girls cupcakes to take today since apparently all the biscuits are gone! 

Over the weekend I will take some time to add up my Vicky Challenge.  This week will be very good.  It all adds up that is for sure.  It all helped other households as well as our own.   Every week I put my list plus the dollar value into my Vicky Savings book.  I have no idea how I am going compared to the last two years of doing this.  But it inspires me a lot to see what an incredible savings it is to shop around, bake your own, pack the lunches and so on.  You can have a real income with savings! 

How did you get ahead, save or build up your home this week?

Be very careful how you live- not as unwise but as wise

making the most of every opportunity.   (Ephesians 5: 15,16) 

This is on my mind a lot!  Take every opportunity to build your home, your savings, your relationships, your knowledge, your pantry,  your skills.  

The wise woman builds her house.   She looks well to the ways of her household and eats not the bread of idleness.  

In a world of confusion and conflict we have clear instructions, thank goodness.  We have a guiding light and when things are confused we do not need to be.

There is so much joy in small things and the ordinary.   Yesterday I tinted the icing on the cakes the palest creamy pink.  It was so glorious I though how happy I am in moments like these!  Once time I said how I realised I would far rather be home making jam than jetting away on a plane somewhere. 

This week I have had my head hit the pillow every night tired and happy with good thoughts and gratitude.   When your hands are busy  your heart  is happy I am sure of it! 

Have a wonderful weekend!  I think I will get an extra post in next week as I have one half done! xxx