The little birds...

If you watch little birds you will see they are busy and happy! Using whatever they can find they create the most gorgeous little nest.
I would be the little bird with some glittery thread in her nest!
We can be like this. Happily working away with the things that are available to us to create a beautiful and happy home.
All the while with a little song in our heart.

Banner by Free Pretty Things for You.

Thursday 28 February 2019

Feather your Nest Friday, 1st of March, 2019.

Today is the first day of Autumn in Australia!  I have been looking forward to this for months!  The only thing is we have to wait a couple of weeks for it to feel like Autumn.  Today and tomorrow are very hot.  Usually the heat can keep up for a little bit yet then suddenly it will feel like true Autumn.  I am so glad to see the end of summer.  It is the hardest season here.

There have been signs of autumn though. First of all the Easter Lilies are out.  They are everywhere!  


It was a really good week!  I did some baking.  Mum and I were heading off to see the girls.   I made chocolate cupcakes with hundreds and thousands,  I used some apples in an apple cake and some little gluten free cakes.


To make the apple cake all I did is mix up a gluten free (you could use regular) cake mix, our half in the tin... sliced up two small apples and spread them across the batter.  Then poured the rest over that and topped it with apple slices and baked it.  It was delicious.  I drizzled icing over it.  Warm is would be a good desert.   Mum did a similar one using pears over the bottom of the pan.  Then when she turned it over the pears were the top.  It was beautiful!

Harper isn't much of an eater.  She sat and ate two and a half cupcakes!  Scarlett picked out hers and scoffed that.  Everyone loved the apple cake.

The pears are all ripening!  Every morning another few are yellow rather than green.  It is amazing to see as they were so rock hard I never believed they would ripen. And they are BEAUTIFUL.  The nicest pears I have ever tasted.  So we are eating pears daily.

We were given beautiful lamb for the freezer.  I packed it up into meal portions.

Each day we picked tomatoes and herbs.

I mended a sheet as it was one of my good ones and I am not parting with it!

A beautiful packaged arrived from my Aunt.  It was lovely.  She had a friend travelling through a town nearby and he dropped off a parcel for Mum and one for me.  It was like a care package tied up with string and a note on top.  It contained beautiful bath towels and a wonderful cook book!
Also it made me think to take every opportunity when someone is travelling.  Postage has become impossible for parcels now.  We have to go back to the old way of sending things with someone,  when people visit send them home with their Christmas or Birthday parcels rather than post them later (several of you have mentioned doing that)  and saving good boxes to pack it all into!

One night I made pizzas and used up an enormous amount of cherry tomatoes.  They were delicious!

Mum gave me some jars.

Chloe, Luke, Andy and me went out to dinner at a local winery.  We sat outside and this was the evening sunset...


It was just beautiful and a fun evening.

We have Black Cockatoos and it is very difficult to get a photo but they are used to me driving along the driveway and I got an ok photo, it is the best I have so far anyhow.  


They are huge and they are noisy but I love them!

Wednesday night my Dad rang.  He asked me if I want to go apple picking.  Obviously I said yes!  It involved a 40 minute drive and instructions to turn right at the rocks and pine tree.  I was to meet him there at 10 am.  
Everything you do here involves packing. I loaded the car with baskets, a ladder and my long handled fruit picker.  I packed tea, coffee, cake, gloves... and off I went.

The big and very old apple tree had the hugest apples I have ever seen.  Dad said they were small due to a dry year!   The tree was over the ruins of an old cottage. 


Through that window you can see a tree.   That is a big old Mulberry tree!  It was too late for the mulberries but next year I will be there!  I write in my diary when to visit various trees so I don't forget.  So I have Mulberries, mid February, written in my notebook.


We had a cup of tea and a chat then got down to picking apples.


To demonstrate the size.... the small basket is my own apples which are a medium to smaller size.  The big basket is Dad's apples...


After this I continued on to Mum and Dad's and gave Mum a whole basket of these as she will start cooking with them.   Then I had the  journey home!

When I had time to craft I worked on my blanket and I made a start on pot holders, for my gift cupboard and some for my kitchen...


And I made bookmarks...


And healing salve, sleep salve and germ fighter salve.


Mum gave me some wool wadding so I can work on more potholders.   Inside the first ones I cut up some old blanketing that was damaged and it made good insulation.

So it was a wonderful week!   I feel like I have lots of little adventures here! 

Today and tomorrow are very hot.  In between watering and looking after the chickens I will be inside quietly card making.  I am so thankful that in bad weather I am never bored.  I have all the apples to deal with, pears, crochet and the table covered in card making bits and pieces.  I want to make enough to package up cards to give as gifts.  The small bits and pieces will become gift tags.

How did you build up your home and pantry?  I hope you found ways to save and get ahead. 
Have a wonderful weekend! xxx












41 comments:

  1. What wonderful adventures you have. I love reading about them. Those birds are just beautiful - I can't imagine such exotic birds flying free!
    Your pictures at the old wall are lovely. The one looks like it should be framed. WOW - those apples are huge.
    Thanks for taking along on your adventure filled week!

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    1. Thank you Cheryl. I agree with you I really love the old wall and tree... I though it looks like provincial italy or something! It is hot and windy so thats a bad combination here today. I am inside apart for dashing out trying to keep plants going. Have a lovely weekend! With love Annabel.xxx

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  2. Annabel that photo of the apple tree on the side, looking through the old window, would be wonderful on a canvas. Our mulberry tree had a good lot of mulberries this year. Not enough for more than a snack each day but my goodness it was a very tasty snack.
    This week I attacked my garden in preparation for planting. I moved one raised bed closer to the veranda for both ease of picking and easy access for watering. I chopped and dropped a number of pumpkin and gourd plants. Tomorrow sugar cane hay will go over the top. Lots of seedlings have been planted in the raised beds. Corn has been sown directly. The seeds in the seed trays are poking their heads up. I am picking peanut butter fruit and trying to find ways to use this up. It has a date like texture so might dry a date slice and see how this works.
    We had lots of not quite ripe lemons blown off the tree. I made two new recipes of a lemon slice and lemon impossible pie. The lemon slice disappeared between here and Katie's house. It was delicious. Katie described it as a sticky toffee lemon butter on a biscuit base. The impossible pie was disgusting, but the local bird life thoroughly enjoyed it.
    The neighbours gave us half a very large Jap Pumpkin. Katie took half of that again. Our quarter of the pumpkin was huge. It was cut up and baked in the hooded barby. I have packaged it into meal size amounts and frozen them.
    Crafting has been working on my 12 point crochet blanket. I have run out of the yarn so am waiting until some more arrives. I have started looking for crochet poppie patterns. I have been asked to make headbands with crochet poppies on them for the Grandies plus one for the flower girl outfits for the September Wedding. So far I havent found one I am happy with but I will continue.
    It is still windy but this is normal for this time of year. I am hoping that the wind will bring some coastal showers with it. Hasn't happened yet but I am really hoping it will.
    Life is dry good.

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    1. Dear Jane, Thank you! Next year I will be keeping an eye on that Mulberry tree and striking when they are ripe! But I am very happy with the apples and they will keep me busy for a while and Im dealing with pears too.
      You are a big help to Katie. There is such a lot you can do with half a pumpkin. Your blanket is absolutely beautiful! There was a knitted poppy display somewhere... or maybe crochet? It made the news... so there must be a pattern for sure. Maybe you will adapt one until you like it enough. Then it will be your own pattern!
      I hate windy days and it is a north wind here today, that is the worst for us and probably most dangerous. (fires)
      I am inside working on cards and writing. But I have to ash out often to keep things alive outside! Everything is covered but is getting blown away by the wind. I will be glad when the heat is over!
      Have a lovely weekend. With much love Annabel.xxx

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  3. I so look forward to reading your posts each Friday. They always inspire me and just make me happy. Have a wonderful weekend. Kind regards, Sue.

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    1. Thanks so much Sue for your encouragement! Have a lovely weekend! xxx

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  4. Annabelle, can you tell me/us again where you find such lovely pictures for your bookmarks, please?
    I wish I could participate more in what you all are doing to Feather Your Nests, but the best I can do with working full-time is make sure my Farmer is well fed and his laundry is done timely and our home is snug & comfortable when he comes in from his off-the-farm job and doing cattle chores.
    This week I took a good hard look at our pantry & freezers and decided March is going to be Purge the Pantry Month. No grocery buying except dairy & produce. We have too much food here that needs to be eaten or donated.
    And finally we are suppose to get a snow storm & bitter cold again this weekend. I will be staying here at home as much as possible (just Church on Sunday plus a meeting there.) I have a baby quilt to work on for DGD#5 who's bday is coming in April. I probably won't get it finished but I hope to get it done enough to show and then finish afterwards.
    Thank you for sharing so much loveliness and joy in your posts.

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    1. Dear Kay, It sounds like your life is busy already! I would love to see the quilt when you are finished! A quilt is a pretty big job!
      Having a use it up March is a great idea. We do this sometimes to make sure we rotate things, especially the frozen stuff.
      For my bookmarks and cards I collect beautiful books from thrift stores. I go for rose, garden and birds mainly. A few times I have had Shabby Chic books and they have made beautiful cards. I try and pay $2 or under but sometimes I have spent a bit more. But sometimes I might get a hundred images! I have used Beatrix Potter books for baby cards. Go by what interests your family and friends. It is really easy and fun as with good images you dont need to do much to make them look lovely!
      Thank you for such a kind comment! Have a lovely weekend Kay! With love Annabel.xxx

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  5. Annabel, I have the same flowers at the start of my last blog post and I thought I was looking at my blog in my sidebar then realised it was yours. LOL! You are so fortunate to be able to pick all that fruit as the fruit fly destroys a lot of fruit grown up here. It has cooled down a lot in the last few days so it is time to start thinking about getting out in the garden again. I saw the warnings about your heatwave on the news. I am over the heat this year :-(

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    1. Dear Nana Chel, Easter Lilies must be wide spread! That is what we call them anyway.
      I would hate fruit fly! I hope we never get them here.
      It was really hot plus windy today. Awful. More of the same tomorrow then it will drop down 10 degrees... we hope!
      I hope then we can really had into Autumn. I am over summer too!
      Have a lovely weekend! With much love, Annabel.xxx

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  6. Dear Annabel,
    I love seeing what you have been up to for the week every Friday. You are living with such abundance around you! It is incredible the size of those apples. They are amazing. I remember going to a mulberry tree like that as a child. My friend gave me grapes, peaches, tomato and cucumber from her garden this week. Most were used up except I sliced and stewed the peaches to freeze. Emily was beyond excited when I took a bowl of grapes to her. I might as well have given her treasure she was so excited over it. That makes me so pleased that simple pleasures light up her senses as well 😊 My friend said her husband just loves giving me his garden produce as I really value and appreciate it. He even chooses the best especially she said. I still think of what you posted about making the most of every blessing that comes our way. There truly is abundance for those who are willing to take opportunities that come our way by the hand. (And a bit of time or work 😉)

    Have a lovely weekend. Hope everyone had a great week.

    Much love, Kaye xoxo

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    1. Dear Kaye, I am so glad you are getting this lovely garden produce! Your words also probably encourage that man so much! You are the same as me... with access to something you set it to good use, making the most of it. To me that is a joy but yes it is often work. I am having to plan how I do this, pears need using first, thankfully apples will keep a bit!
      It is lovely Emily is so keen on grapes. They are good at the moment.
      It was so hot today. I had to water often but I did some card making quietly inside in the cool. More of the same tomorrow! I made up some laundry liquid too and it turned out pale pink!
      Have a lovely weekend there, hoping it cools down and we can have true Autumn! With much love, Annabel.xxx

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  7. Oh my, that sunset!

    I spent my childhood in the jungle of Papua New Guinea where my parents were missionaries. Sunrise and sunset took place out of sight behind the lush forest, but I was an avid reader and still remember a line describing sunrise in Australian novel I read in Grade 5. The author described the dawn this way, "...the sun rose like a red hot frying pan" - the picture of the Australian bush that formed in my mind looked very much like your sunset photograph and tied my imagination to my father's home landscape in a special way.

    As always, your posts inspire. You have found good and rich rhythms in daily life.

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    1. What an interesting childhood Judy! A red hot frying pan is a pretty good description in the hot summer! Thank you so much! With love Annabel.xxx

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  8. What a beautiful post, reading about your week always makes me happy, and inspires me to want to do more, what a blessing you are.

    The photo of the two black cockatoo's is fantastic, I wonder if they are two juveniles with their mum?? They are big and beautiful, but beware of those precious crops if they find them!

    I absolutely adore the photo of the ruins, oh and to have apples sprawling over them free for the picking, what a delight. Just imagine, some woman would have lived there long ago, who probably planted that tree, and nurtured it until she could pluck it's juicy offerings, I always think of things like that when I am at those places.

    I adore those pot holders! They have given me lots of inspiration!

    I was gifted some recycled glass jars this past week, and I will make some more chilli jam soon to put in them. I've been picking passionfruit, chilli's, limes, rocket and herbs from the garden. I've also been on a mission for a couple of weeks now to use up the little bits of sauces and spreads I have lurking in my fridge, there's far too many of them, so each week when I menu plan I'll pick one or two condiments/sauces/pastes and make a meal with it, the only problem is, I still haven't emptied a jar yet! {groan} With the help of my son, we decluttered his room last week, he's a full blown teenager now, and has outgrown many of his 'boy toys' I'm slowly getting rid of these items, and just today I sold a box of lego for $50, so that was a financial blessing, as well as giving someone else the enjoyment of the toys. It's going to be a slow process, because I put the lego together first to make sure all the pieces were there, I'd hate to sell something to someone if there was pieces missing! Anyway, I will get there!

    Have a lovely weekend, and thanks again for another inspiring post.

    Cheers Cheryl

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    1. Dear Cheryl, Thanks so much! I think the middle cocky is a male and the others are females but you could be right that they are young ones too.
      The woman who planted the apple the would have planted the mulberry too I think as they are both very old. This property is only a few yards from the ocean so it is windy! But these trees survived the years.
      I have still been working on potholders. I have a lot to show soon! All farm themed but different i.e. cows, sheep, chooks...
      Jars are always handy. I love to have a stockpile of jars ready to go.
      Pizza and pasta dishes are great for using up jar sauces, dips and so on. A good mission.
      Well done on the lego sale! And getting a teenage boys room looking good and sorted out is great! I think they re encouraged but this and it is very nice.
      I hope you are having a very good week! With love Annabel.xxx

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  9. Dear Annabel, reading your blog is such a joy. You are truly an angel in this world! Every time I come here I instantly feel happier, more grateful and calmer. You have a wonderful effect on people. Thank you. I love how you went apple picking with your Dad. It looks so beautiful- what a view! I love how you are using what God is gifting us and putting it to good use. I bet the produce would taste delicious. I bet you are sleeping well in that good, fresh air. Back to nature, a slower (yet productive) way. I love how you take cakes when you see the girls. It is so cute. It makes it all the more special. This week, I have received free seeds, I sold something that was sitting in the cupboard, and I planted more plants. I have really tried to think of ways of 'making do'. I love what you have written about postage (I am continually surprised how lots of old ways are actually great ways). I am trying to crochet dish cloths. It is fun and I like how it is quick. I also want to make sets up. Lots of love, Bridge

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    1. Dear Bridge,
      Being in the country is good but I notice being out in the garden, crafting and cooking etc and keeping away from the media keep me much happier and more positive. Nature is the best medicine! Its amazing really. I am so glad you are crocheting.... dish cloths are a lovely gift. They look so sweet in a little pile of three and tied up together... or one cloth and a soap or something like that. Just lovely and these are sold in the trendy shops now! Also... I have a craft coming up to show you that Chloe has been doing... it is up your alley! It is a small crochet project, doesnt take much yarn and good gift. AND on Tuesday I have the New Zealand girls Rebecca and Alison, they started the Tuesday Afternoon Club with their Tuesday get togethers... they have both written a post on the process of deciding what to make, how to package it and so on. You will love this! It is really good! Anyway... lots going on!
      I love that you had some free seeds come your way a sale and some gardening! That is a good week!
      Sending parcels is a wonderful thing so if ever you know of someone coming up your way from the old home town please tell me as I would take this opportunity! Have a lovely weekend with your boys! With love, Annabel.xxx

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  10. Dear Annabel, ALL your photos are stunning. How lovely taking
    that trip with your Dad for those huge gorgeous apples. I agree that the ruin photo would look great on canvas. I grew up with a Mulberry tree in the backyard. So yummy but a lot of work for Mum as we six children constantly walked berry juice inside in the summer on our bare feet! Tip: if you get any Mulberry stains on your clothes, pick a green Mulberry and rub on stain before washing - that gets it out, I dont know who taught my Mum that but it works. I love the pot holders and bookmarks, well done! And the salves - you are so clever. I didn't get any more crochet done this week, but I right now I am baking a cake for my husband's birthday tommorow - the house is all clean and all the ironing done so I feel I am ending the week on a high note. Stay cool, love Clare

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    1. Dear Clare,
      Thanks for the tip on removing Mulberry stains. I really hope next year to get a good bucketful. I cant wait. I hope your husbands cake turns out well! I bet he is thrilled. Baking a cake for someone is one of the nicest things. Thank you for your kind words on my photos and week! It was really fun getting the apples. Luckily apples keep for a while. So hopefully I can steadily work my way through them. Have a lovely weekend and Happy Birthday to your husband! With love, Annabel.xxx

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  11. Hello Annabel and they must be the biggest apples I have ever seen :o . Your bookmarks, pot holders and everything looks divine :). The sunset is gorgeous and what a lovely view.

    Our Vicky challenge this week added up to $1485.62 for the week and was more about what we are saving and reusing instead of buying it again.

    Our Vicky challenge added up to $1641.92 in savings last week :).

    Finances and listings -

    - Paid an additional little over an extra fortnightly mortgage payment saving time and interest on our home loan.
    - Listed 7 items free on a fee listing promotion on eBay saving $11.55 on usual listing fees.

    Sewing -

    - Made curtains for the food storage room and bedroom from fabric purchased on special for $4 per metre saving $52.35 over purchasing them in the shops.

    In the kitchen -
    - Made all meals and bread from scratch.
    - Made 3 loaves of homemade bread for the week saving $10.47.

    In the gardens -

    - Dismantled 1 1/2 large wire enclosed garden beds as the uprights were termite damaged.
    - We saved so far about 150 mts of 90 cm heavy duty chicken wire, 50 metres of 25mm galvanised threaded pipe, 40 galvanised pipe fittings, and 6 x 3 m fence posts saving $1579.10 in buying them again.
    We will reuse most of this to build a fence to keep kangaroos out and shadecoth structure over our vegetable gardens when we rebuild them closer to our home and town water taps. What we don't use we will sell.

    Water preservation -
    - Used grey water from the washing machine and pumped from the grey water tank to water fruit and berry trees in our paddock and ornamental potted flowers instead of town water saving water costs.
    - Used saved shower warm up water and dish rinsing water to water potted herbs and fruit trees.

    I hope everyone had a great week :) .

    Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).

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    1. Dear Lorna, Sorry to take forever and a day to reply! I dont know where the days go honestly.
      I would say the apples are the biggest I have seen too. Yet Dad says they are smaller than usual as its been a dry year. Maybe he was puling my leg I am not sure!
      What a huge week you had!! You do such a good and smart job with eBay. All the free listings you do is wonderful.
      Well done on saving all the wire, netting and fittings etc. We are doing this too, we saved a heap of galvanised pipe the other day and stacked it in the shed. We have saved many good fence posts too, finding them in strange places... and polypipe. This is how we got our gate too... just found it in a strange place and salvaged it. All this is expensive stuff.
      What a wonderful week and I love hearing of your progress. Several ladies here are aspiring to do the same things as you and I have done re moving onto their own property, setting up gardens and so on. So I know a lot follow your progress as I do. It is very encouraging to see bit by bit week by week how working on something all adds together for good.
      I hope this week is going equally well! We have had a really cool change and even some drizzle... better than nothing! With much love Annabel.xxx

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  13. Those apples are enormous! Wow. Your life is so wonderful. I know there are hard times and days that just don't go right, but over all, you really have it all down! Thanks for sharing, and more importantly, inspiring us all! :)

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    1. Thanks so much Barbara. I do love life here. I am making the most of everything. Thank you for your kind words! xxx

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  14. Annabel, your posts are a wealth of inspiration and ideas - thank you. Only the other day I was discussing with Blossom how expensive gift giving is these days when 90% of our family live in other states. We're planning bulk gift parcels and also lighter gifts that don't weigh as much.
    I haven't really built up my pantry this week because I gave it an spring clean - or should I say AUTUMN clean! LOL! Now I'm writing lists and ideas for the future.
    Have a wonderful weekend.
    hugs
    Jenny

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    1. Dear Jenny, We definitely have to work out ways to beat postage. Thank you for your kind words! I am doing some Autumn cleaning also. I love Autumn! Lets hope this is the end of bad weather! With much love, Annabel.xxx

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  15. Your property is so beautiful and your life there sounds beyond charming. I'm absolutely enamored by those black cockatoos! They sure beat the zillions of sparrows and starlings that we have!!! (We do have the occasional black squirrel, though, which are adorable and always a treat to see.) Thank you for sharing your life with us!

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    1. Thanks so much Stephanie! This morning we have a similar cockatoo but these ones have yellow tails not red. Actually one dropped a pinocle on Andys ute and broke the windscreen! oops. Thank you for your encouragement! With love Annabel.xxx

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  16. This week John and I discussed the retirement budget and separately determined we'd increase our savings to channel some of the current funds into a sort of emergency fund for post retirement living. I am actually quite excited to have a new challenge, lol. I am still practicing crochet, but haven't made a thing yet. I love your bookmarks. They are lovely.

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    1. Terri I love a new challenge. Also the idea of not all your eggs in one basket. I am wary of retirement funds... here everyone pays into Superannuation... a percentage of your wage goes into this. Anyway as time goes on they up the age where you can access it. Then they decide to limit how much you can access and when. And so the dangling carrot is moved and moved. I do not believe we will ever see it as it is tied up in the stock market. So if that collapses goodbye super fund. So I have a cautious view on that. Saving for yourself elsewhere is a really wise move. And a new challenge is good! xxx

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  17. I really enjoy your blog. I would like to know how you make your healing salve, germ fighter, and sleeping salve. Could you please get us a recipe.

    I'm so glad that there are others who believe in keeping a full pantry. You never know what is down the road in your life. Keep up the good work.

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    1. Thank you so much! I followed the basic salve recipe on One Good thing by Jillee blog. Hers is a healing salve. For the germ fighter I used On Guard essential oil drops, ten per pot. The pots are little like a lip gloss size or a little larger. For healing I used tea tree and lavender. For Sleeping I used lavender, Camomile, Ylang land and cedar wood.. a few drops of each adding up to about ten drops. They are amazingly simple to make! Wellnessmama is another good blog for these kind or recipes. Thank you for your kind words! xxx

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  18. What a happy post, Annabel! You have been soo busy and create such wonderful things! I would love to hear more about the salves you made; how useful. This week I made chocolate covered strawberries, soo good and so easy to make (wash strawberries and pat them dry with a tea towel, melt bulk milk chocolate in the microwave, roll berries in chocolate, lay on waxed paper on a serving dish, refrigerate 20 minutes). I can't seem to keep enough of them made around here as they're eaten almost as soon as I make them! Love, Teresa

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    1. Thank you Teresa! I posted how I made the salves over in the group. They were very simple, I modify the recipe on One Good thing by Jillee blog to the oils I want to include. They are amazingly simple to make but very good.
      Love the strawberries with the chocolate! They are luxurious! I hope you are having a very good new week! With love Annabel.xxx

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  19. The dinner at the winery sounds so lovely and was only made nicer by the gorgeous sunset. Those apples are a blessing. We are finishing up a wonderful relaxing week at the lake house. We found lots of bargain clearance items and have begun pur Christmas shopping for next year. We had some thrift store finds that were on our list. Tonight we went to see our favorite Bluegrass band. One more day and we will head for home . We are beyond blessed to have this place. Have a great weekend!

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    1. Dear Lana, Not far from here it is all grape vines for miles and miles. This place is a stone house with vines one one side and an olive grove on the other. Its lovely!
      How good you found the bargains! Good idea to put them away. Also I am happy you had a nice time at the lake house. It sounds so lovely. I expanded my essential oils collection this week and very pleased. For us we are now coming into flu season not too far off. I hope you are having a good new week! With love Annabel.xxx

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  20. Hi Annabel, I am in the process of reading through your blog right from the beginning and it is quite interesting to read comments you made and what is currently happening. For instance, in November 2014 you are commenting about the cold and snow in the USA and here we are 5 years later and again lots of snow and cold. Oh and you filled up with petrol for $1.29 on special with the regular price being $1.50 which is quite similar to what it is at the moment. Thank you so much for these 5 years of blogging. I enjoy reading your blog each day and just reading back gives me even more information of how to be a wise provider in the home.

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    1. Dear Magda, You will really have your work cut out reading all those posts. I really loved the pantries and preparedness series. But the blog has become like a diary and record for me too! And from it I can see the journey... up to this point! Thank you so much for your kind words! With love, Annabel.xxx

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  21. Hi Annabel & Bluebirds

    How gorgeous it would be to see those black Cockatoo's. When we were away last year I found a lovely painting of a black Cockatoo by a local artist and I just had to purchase it. So amazing.

    The place that your Dad and you went apple picking looks spectacular over that old ruins of the cottage.

    The material that you used for the pot holders is really lovely

    It is so wonderful how quickly you have settled into your home and so amazing at how you have made it from a house to a home. So glad that you seem to be so happy and peaceful in your new surrounds.

    Take Care
    Aly xxx

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    1. Dear Aly, I have seen amazing big prints of black cockatoos, now one of these would really suit our house!
      Thanks for your comments, I totally feel like this home was where we were meant to be all along. Andy feels the same. It has improved my life so much... amazing. I hope you are having a good new week! With much love Annabel.xxx

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I really appreciate your comments thank you! The aim of my blog is the be a place of encouragement and happiness. Very rarely is anyone rude. Actually only twice so far! If you post a rude or aggressive comment I will read it but not publish it, thanks for understanding.xxx

Spam is never published... if you are advertising a product or selling website your comment wont be published. I am inundated with stuff about drugs, horses and weird things! I am not going to publish this stuff! Thank you.