The best Christmas ever starts now!

This week I released my first ever ebook, How to make ALL your Christmas Presents. (It is available on the blog and on the face book page).
Thank you for all the lovely comments and letters!

Over the next few weeks I am posting all kinds of ways to continue to save money at Christmas and have the best Christmas ever.

Yes, we are starting now! Because to make your own gifts, cards and treats it will happen if we get started with a realistic amount of time to do everything!

The ebook covered a series of ways to make your presents suitable for those you are giving to, that will be fabulous and inexpensive. Also how to present things to give them that wow factor. It also covered how to choose things that suit you and your own skills. You do not have to be crafty to make all your own presents!

The savings can be incredible. Of course it all depends on what you have been spending. Taking the pressure off financially and having money instead for the emergency fund, a family holiday or pay off debt is wonderful. And Christmas need not be "less".  In fact I feel I can make lots of spare gifts and give to more people than I might otherwise be able to afford to. It makes Christmas better!

My worst scenario used to be the last minute rush. You know, when you are desperate and have no time left, and you buy something way too expensive as you simply have to get something!  It's a terrible feeling! I've avoided this in the last few years just by starting early. This one change alone is a big saving if you have tended to do that.

So lets take the pressure off financially and work wise and do a little bit each week from now on in. I take the same approach to birthdays. In our family most of the birthdays are in December and January so everything happens at once!

A few weeks ago I posted the wash cloths and cleaning cloths I was making in a bobble stitch I had found on You Tube.  Since then I have used up the smaller amounts of cotton that were left over to make dish cloths. I have always seen them in pictures on other blogs and on Pinterest and thought how sweet they looked.  For these I have used Shell Stitch which I learned also on You Tube.

The thing is for anyone who can crochet if you can do chain and double crochet you can do these stitches. Both the bobble stitch and the shell stitch are made up purely of chain and double crochets, its just the order you do them in!

If you cannot crochet but would like to learn it is really easy. You can learn and be crocheting in a day. Ask someone to show you or use You Tube and set aside half an hour to get started. Learn how to chain and then how to so single and double stitches. It just takes a little practice and is really good fun!

I have found quite a bit of cotton in op shops and if I see it I get it! Otherwise my cotton comes from Bendigo Woollen Mills. They will send you out a colour chart and they also have big sales so that is when Mum and I get our cotton. It is beautiful quality.

In the e book I talked about choosing things to make that your recipient will love. I find men the hardest.
My uncle likes natural products, things without chemicals, natural cleaning products... stuff like that. He is also big on cleaning. So I made him wash cloths and dish cloths and added natural bamboo cleaning cloths and natural soap. I know he will really like that and yay I have a male present completed!

Knowing the colour schemes of friends and family is how I work out suitable colours for gifts. My daughter Chloe has pale blues in her kitchen...

And then I have the colour schemes of my sister in laws and my Mum and various friends. So I try and make something suitable for each of them. 

Mostly I make stacks of three and tie them up with a ribbon. Some will go with other items like tea towels with crochet edges and some will go into hampers I am making up with all kinds of kitchen things in them. It all adds up and these are really quick to do. And they are great for using up left over cottons as each one is only small and contrast edges use up another left over colour!

These are some of the things I am doing but the things you might work on can be entirely different, things suited to your skills and talents, and that was what the  ebook covered.

If you would like to join in on some of the projects as we lead up to Christmas and treat it as a challenge, watch out in op shops etc for an old Christmas tree. a couple of projects are going to use old Christmas trees. I bought a new tree in a box for $4 as the box was damaged. I found this in the January sales... and I have big plans for this $4 tree. Also in the lead up to last Christmas I saw several trees in boxes thrown out on the side of the road as well as in op shops. So grab one if you see one!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Today is lovely, sunny and I have a lovely day to look forward to! xxx

Planning for Christmas and my new E book!

I love Christmas and I love gift giving and all the celebrations that go with it. For many years I planned to make all my own Christmas presents and often made some, but I never really managed to make that many! Until the last two years when I finally did it! I made almost all my presents for Christmas and for Birthdays as well. I even has spares!

My friend Helen adores Christmas as much as any person I ever knew! She is probably planning her decorations as we speak. She makes it gorgeous and so special. But she has it right, she would not go into debt doing all this.

There is a lot of pressure on everyone financially and socially. Gifts can be part of that and people feel they need to participate in a level of gift giving that they know is going to leave them in debt come the New Year.

You know there really are ways around it. And ways to still give beautiful and thoughtful gifts for very little actual money.

One fo the keys is to start now. We all do the same thing... if it is the last minute we will buy and pay anything as there just is no time to do better! I have felt that sick feeling before.

I have written my first e book! I am really passionate that anyone can make all their gifts. And that if you have children they can be involved and they will love it. You do not have to be crafty. You do not have to be a good cook. There are ways for all of us whatever our talents might be.

Starting now (or earlier) there is time to make so many beautiful things. Part of that is snooping and knowing what the people you are going to give to like, need and love. 

The e book takes you through a process that has you making things that are easy for you and matching them to gifts suited to those you are giving to. They will be things you never even thought of but you will be so proud of!

My book is available on my blog front page or via my store on Facebook. I really hope it saves people so much money. That is the aim. We do not need to spend a fortune to have a beautiful Christmas. Think of the other things we could be doing with that money. Paying of debt, a family holiday, an emergency fund that could be a saviour in the future. Security is so much easier to live with than debt!

Over winter I've been working on projects to give and now coming up is some cooking I do. In October I always do fruit cakes. I do them then as by December they taste divine, as they "mature".  The week before Christmas I usually make coconut ice, shortbread and a few extra things. They are all I do near Christmas.

One trick is to make big quantities of these things for extra gifts. So I do a little production line.

Pretty packaging/presentation is part of things being "gift worthy" My coconut ice every year is something I would get complaints about if I didn't make it!

Last year we needed gifts for young girls. I made lolly kebabs which cost about $1 each. They were a great success...

I think lots about wrapping and packaging. I use lace from curtains (buy op shop lace curtains and wash them up and dye them) or tulle... as both are much much cheaper than ribbons and bows purchased from the store. Tulle cut into strips makes fabulous bows very cheaply.

If you want to save money this year make a little plan. Really you can save so much money and have the loveliest Christmas ever. Just a little planning is a saviour.

Christmas is also a hard time for many. It is a better time for us if we do something beautiful for someone that we don't even know or know from a distance enough to know this is a difficult time for them. Make a few extra things or a hamper and be ready. This will add joy to your Christmas in volumes.

This Christmas can be your best Christmas ever. The things that we loved as children are clues about what kids love and remember. I asked my girls last year what were the things they loved the most. Chloe said eating supper under the Christmas tree with the twinkly lights and her pillow was one of her favourite things. You see what I mean? Creating memories is really what it is about. She doesn't remember the gift that year but she remembers how much she loved that!

Today I am off to Spotlight for a few little things that allow me to keep working on gifts tonight. Ohhh I am so excited!
xxx

Using what you have.

I am really in luck that rustic and salvaged things are everywhere in home ware stores and magazines. The prices for some old things are just amazing. Like my old ladders I use for my tea towels and things would be so much in a store but I just wait until I find things and consider it the thrill of the hunt!

If you love the look of romantic old things use what you have first of all! If say, you have old watering cans, google or use Pinterest and search "decorating with watering cans" or just "old watering cans" and you will have a list of ideas. Old rakes are another that I keep seeing, oars, crates, baskets, gates... (ooh gates as a headboard for a bed are gorgeous!) and so on. Giving old things new life is just wonderful.

After Lucy's wedding I took a while to choose the photos I would like enlarged. So many to choose from! In the end I have chosen the ones that really mean the most to me, for various reasons, like the one of my Dad holding Lucy's head in his hands and kissing her...

In my wardrobe I had 5 large sturdy frames in a dark wood. I just painted these with ceiling white and this gave me a matching series. They are in a row in the hallway and look lovely!

They look great and so the cost of framing was $0!

I have admired photos framed in old window frames. And during the year I found window frames on the side of the road in front of a house being renovated (on our street!) They were filthy but just what I wanted and with that old fashioned think glass with little bubbles through it...

Well, I did need some help and Andy made backing boards to do this but I love them!

I added the old keys which I had saved somewhere along the line...

This all really fits in our home and I'm really happy. And the best bit is every time I walk along the hallway my heart is lifted seeing all these images of the most happy day.

This was a project I was dying to do and finding the windows was perfect timing. 

The very best up cycling projects though are using things that have been in the family. Our coffee table is so rustic... when I was little I remember Mum cutting the legs off an old table (turned legs too) to make a low table for us to play at. That today is our coffee table. I just love it! My dining room table was my Nana's dining room table and I love having that. They are interesting and have a story...

A beautiful blog with so many ideas like these that inspires me so much is Miss Gracie's House. Her family portraits are just divine as well. She uses old birdcages, gates, all kinds of "junk" and her home is so gorgeous!

Inspiration like this keeps me really from ever wanting to buy things from the shops. Collecting instead is so much fun.

I hope you might be inspired to use something you have lurking in the shed for a decorating project! 

xxx

Happiness and pets.

One of the antidotes to stress and worries of life is nature and animals. The beauty of nature just amazes me. I always think flowers and beautiful gardens are a glimpse of what heaven might be like. The stars, moon, rainbows... it is all incredible to me. And seeing these things and being somewhere where I can see the sea or watch the birds always has a wonderful effect on me. It is good therapy, it's calming and peaceful. We just need to be in the real world.

Pets kind of bring nature right up close! What sweetness they bring into our lives. Sweetness and trust.

Well, this is the story of our new pet! I had no intention of getting a new animal... but here we are with a new addition! 

My Mum has a house one street away from our house. She is on the farm and has this little place in the city which she uses quite a lot. Anyway I am often running over there to water the garden and one thing or another. Every time I walk over or back I pass a tiny house on the corner and a little bell rings. Like a dinner bell... and I always wonder WHO rings that bell and what does it mean?

Finally a couple of months ago I was talking to another lady who lives just next to this house. And I said "who rings that bell!?" She told me it is Ricky, he can hear peoples footsteps and he rings his bell. My mind exploded thinking what the heck who is this person!? 

Well, Ricky is a parrot. lol And it turns out the lady I am speaking to feeds him everyday and she takes me in to see who is ringing this mystery bell! 

Oh my goodness! You know I like birds and here is a beautiful friendly parrot saying hello to me.

And what a sad story. The lady feeds him as the old man who owned him died several years ago.  The mans wife then fed Ricky but she is now ill and elderly and has gone into a nursing home. No one lives there. Just Ricky.  The neighbour Pauline has kindly gone in and fed and watered him and talked to him, every day ever since. And before actually as the old lady no longer could even get outside to do these things. But in between Ricky is all on his own with no one to talk to and so he rings his bell whenever he hears footsteps....

I could cry.

Well, you know what happened next... I said I will take him, I love birds and he can come live with me. 

For the next three weeks I went over and fed and talked to him as he has been there for years... and he soon was friendly with me and eating from my hand. I took him different foods and soon found apples were his favourite and so far they still win! I note he eats up and down avoiding the peel and then when it's only peel left he throws it away. Like a kid.

Last weekend we finally moved him to our place. He didn't skip a beat. He seems so happy! He is just interested in everything we do. He can hear Andy's van coming up the back lane and the garage door open and he starts singing and ringing that bell!

He eats out of my hand and is just as good as gold.

He was just so lonely and this had gone one for several years. If I had known ... but I had no idea he was there.

The thing is the day I moved him I just decided to do it. It was time. It was daunting as I had to catch him... but it was easy in the end.

Once I got him home and he settled in and was eating etc I got a message that the old lady had just died. How strange is that? 

He is truly a wonderful addition and he is funny and sweet. I just love him!

He gets so much company now and I note I can hear Andy talking to him when I'm in the kitchen and he thinks I can't hear :)

But it is mutual he keeps me company and is so lovely to have around.

And he is a good dancer. Any music or rhythm and off he goes which the first time was just so funny I could hardly believe it. 

So this is one of those things that I think is just meant to be and you couldn't plan for it in a thousand years!

Have a wonderful weekend. xxx

Wonderful news for fans of Laine's Letters.

As most of you will know I have followed Laine'e Letters since my daughters were little and they are both in their later twenties now. 

When I had my first computer I found Laine's Letters and just like that I had stumbled onto the most perfect blog for a Christian woman to read. Well, for any woman to read as the words were pure encouragement.

Laine became my friend, my Bible study, my encourager and she gave me a lot of conviction that what I was doing at home, bringing up my children was the most important and valuable work. The world does not tell you this. In fact the world tells you to give your children to anyone that will take them (including strangers amazingly) and go do something worthwhile! While I never believed that, Laine gave me the teaching to never waver under any of those kind of pressures. You know, the girls now say to me their childhoods were like a fairytale. So happy and wonderful. It was all worth it!

A few years ago on a savings forum I "met" my friend Helen. She just seemed so similar to me and we loved the same things. As we got to know each other Helen said how when her boys were little she read a blog called Laine's Letters! Well, from that moment I knew Helen and I were in the same "club" and we both felt the same way. We knew what we were talking about, we had travelled the same path!

This happened again when I met Kaye through my blog. She was instantly a wonderful friend full of encouragement and had brought her three girls up loving Laine's Letters.

It is so easy to talk to these two friends as we all had Laine's influence on our lives.

Now I have spoken many times about the thingsI learned from Laine. But it was more than learning it was friendship and encouragement. You felt as if you were getting  a personal letter every time you read a Laine's Letter. Of course Laine had no idea how much we loved her.

Earlier this year my daughter got married. This got me thinking a lot about the things Laine used to say about older women needing to teach and help the younger women. I was really lucky when I had small children I had fantastic women to teach me and help me. I have posted about them too as they influenced me so much.

So I went to Laine's Letters to study up from a new perspective. And the website was not there anymore!  I really felt upset! I posted on face book did anyone know where were Laine's Letters? I got an answer that lead me to the Wayback Machine which is an internet archive and ended up finding archived copies of Laine's Letters and recipes. What a relief.

In March I posted two blog posts about finding the letters and provided links to them. After that I had so many letters and emails from ladies who had been looking for Laine! 

But then the unthinkable happened. This link stopped working at all. And I could find no solution. Sad day that was.

All along, when I first posted about Laine and when I started my blog (which is less than a year ago) I thought "I wonder if Laine is out there somewhere and she will ever see or hear how much I talk about her and how much I loved everything she wrote?" I mean the internet is like that, you don't know where your words will end up. As Laine didn't know how far her words had reached either.

Well, last week the unthinkable happened. I got an email from Laine.
It was so unthinkable I didn't believe it. I rang Helen and told her to pray and I forwarded the email to her. And she messaged me back "It IS Laine" lol 

The excitement between Helen, Kaye and me has been ridiculous. And what to say to Laine? I had to really think about it! I have always wanted to write to her and say thank you, thank you for all your words, help, guidance, friendship, advice...  but Laine would not have ever known here we were in Australia waiting for her next letter to be posted and running our family lives fuelled by the inspiration she gave us. My girls had a better upbringing because of her.

Well, I eventually got my act together to take advantage of being able to tell Laine this myself.

The exciting news is Laine is working on getting all her letters back online! By the end of the year she hopes to have a new website up and running. AND she hopes to be writing again! I am so excited I can hardly wait! 

I know many people reading this will be excited. Like me you are probably dying to hear "what happened next?" and because we have all grown up with Laine our children are grown, we have probably mostly moved to the next stage, Grand children even...  I said to Laine I brought up my children with her. I want to go through the next stage with her. Be a Grand Mother and be prepared to be a Titus 2 woman with her. To have her alongside me again as somehow along side her I did better!

Another aspect is that Laine helped my budget. Laine never wasted anything. She fed and looked after her family and stretched her budget. I remember her saying she had $3 left to buy a gift for someone. And finding a suitable gift for $3 she did as staying within her budget was more important than anything. I always remembered teachings like these. Always.

The way Laine treated her husband, made their bedroom private and romantic.... these things influenced me so much. I have never forgotten.

Now, if you are a young Mum and don't know about Laine when the website is up you can see all this for yourself. Her words have not dated they will help you as they did me.

Or if you are my age and never knew of Laine hopefully her words will help you with where you are at now. You will see....

There are so many amazing things here. It is amazing to me that Laine has read my blog!
It is such a big thing and so wonderful to hear from Laine and brings me so much happiness to know the letters will be available again and to look forward to more. I feel very grateful as really it's an answer to prayer to have the chance to thank Laine.

To top it off Laine is writing a guest post for Bluebirds! I can't even say that without a tear in my eye.

If you have a message for Laine please leave a comment as I will make sure she sees them. I don't think Laine realises how many of us she helped and inspired! In fact I'm sure she doesn't.

As soon as the new website is up and running I will post links. I can hardly wait!

And as if to celebrate Spring has arrived and flowers are coming out in my garden! What a beautiful start to Spring I have had! xxx

She works with her hands with delight.

Lately I've posted a lot about handiwork, crochet, little acts of charity that can mean so much to someone and how busy hands make happy hearts!

My happy memories of beautiful things my Nan and Mum made for my babies and the hand made gifts of knitting and sewing from my Nan's friends.  All these years later I still appreciate them so much. 

A week ago I was at the farm and as always every time Mum sits down she picks up her knitting. My parents are farmers and have not slowed down. They both work harder than most people in their twenties!

When Mum sits down she is still going! Mum makes knitted rugs, hats, jumpers, all kinds of things for everyone she ever hears of having a baby, for the Nuns to give to anyone in need, for the premie babies in hospitals, for cancer patients... for anyone.

Recently she gave knitting to a mens shelter in the city. Well, a funny thing happened. She was watching TV and it had a story on this mens shelter. A man was being interviewed and he was saying how the shelter had given him help and he had turned his life around. He was wearing one of mum's hats! She recognised it straight away! That was lovely, there it was!

Hospitals often need hats so tiny for really premature babies. There are so many needs. 

Mum has a simple philosophy and Nan was the same. If you are sitting down you might as well be doing something useful. It calms you. It helps people. It makes you happy. 

And it works! 

Mum says "some people do nothing you know" as if shocked by this. Mum and both my Nans' come from a belief that everyone can do something to be helping someone else. it doesn't have to be huge, it might be making a pie or minding a baby or sharing spare eggs but they were always helping someone.

(baby rugs)

When Nan's neighbours arrived in Australia traumatised from escaping war Nan took it upon herself to teach them English and show them the ropes! And best friends were established!

                                        (these are cotton hand towels)

For Mum one of the main things is knitting for others. Our own gifts of helping could be anything but I think we all have certain gifts that we can use to help. Nana B, hers was cooking. She always said "an ounce of help is better than a pound of sympathy".

The day I took these photos Mum was sorry her supplies were "depleted" as she has just send away heaps of stuff and was starting again. So this is "all" there was. Yet it was mountains!

What is your gift of helping? Just listening to someone who needs someone to talk to is an act of charity, especially when maybe you really don't have time but you do it anyway. Or you check back later to see how they are. The ways are endless and most of us do many things a day without even counting them as kindnesses, it's just how we are.
But we don't know what it might mean to someone.

And like in the movie Pollyanna there is nothing that cheers us up like helping someone else. It's a miracle worker. 

"She works with her hands with delight" turns out to be as good for ourselves as it is for others. 

In Mum's cupboard she has baby layettes that her Great Gran made and Chloe and Lucy both wore them. And my Great Gran made a set of lemon hens and chickens. I played with these and adored them and Mum still has those. I feel their love and presence in these beautiful things they left being for us. What treasures! 

There is just something that says love about handmade things. 

Lamb Shank recipe and the helpfulness of crock pot cooking.

I have always used my crock pot (slow cooker) a lot especially when I know it is going to be a really busy day or I will be out for the day. It is just so easy to know when dinner time comes dinner is ready and I only have to serve it. As Laine always said it is like having a helper (a hand maiden) and I think of this every time I use my "helper".

This recipe is so easy and adaptable to what you have. It is rich and delicious! The meat is fall off the bone tender.

Rich Tomato Lamb Shanks.

One lamb shank per person. I did 6 so we had three meals ready.
One jar of Dolmio tomato base. Or I can tomato soup. Or three tablespoons tomato paste... so similar.
One small onion per person. Or half larger onion per person.
Loads of vegies. I used carrots, sweet potato, parsnips. Use lots of what you have. Add greens later in cooking.
For added luxury, richness I add some sun dried tomatoes. It is not something you have to do.
Pepper.
Make sure the lamb shanks are coated in the sauce.

I cook on high for about 8 hours. There are no rules here. Usually I cook on high and sometimes turn it to low later if I am home. For more hours cook on low and when you get home see how it is and turn it up if needed. Another thing you can do is start it on high and turn to low as you leave the house, then assess when you get home. Everyones slow cooker is slightly different too.

Turn lamb shanks at least once so they are even and coated in sauce. Add peas or greens in last hour or so. You can remove a cup of the sauce and let it cool then add gravy or cornflour to that and stir it back in if you want thicker gravy. Or you could serve with mashed potatoes as the gravy is amazing! Or even crusty bread to mop it up!

Remove lamb shanks carefully as the meat is literally falling off the bone.

I served up two meals that I then froze. I love having meals in the freezer they are great in emergencies. I always do this. I would just never cook one meal.

This is so delicious.

When the girls were little I would just remove some lamb and lots of vegies and blend that and have several days worth of baby food. Later they would hang onto the whole bone and chew!

This is comfort food. I am hungry now thinking about it!

Lamb shanks used to be really cheap. Now they are trendy as restaurants are making this and featuring it as a specialty. So the price is up. We got ours on special from a whole sale butcher. If they are expensive where you are use any lamb for this recipe. A marked down leg of lamb done this way is amazing! It will feed so many people! Add masses of vegies so you have a complete meal.

With only a little bit of winter left I am making my last few truly winter meals. I love how what we eat changes around the year. It adds so much variety and the seasons add so much to our lives. And we can feel spring in the air. It was so cold last night but today the sun is shining and it is just beautiful!

Have a wonderful week.xxx