Feather your Nest Friday, 23 December 2016.

Here we are! The day before Christmas Eve!  I have a range of emotions as it is exciting,  I am celebrating a really good year and our family coming together for Christmas. At the same time we will apparently be the hottest city on earth on Christmas Day, we have an unreliable power system and terrorist attacks have been foiled that were planned for Melbourne on Christmas Day. I hope they have all been foiled anyway.  So that is a mixed bag right there.

I have really felt that this week the work I started in January was really paying off. Christmas has not cost a fortune. I learned heaps of new skills that are really useful. We got ahead in quite a few ways. We are more prepared and have a more extensive pantry. And the whole house looks lovely and freshly painted! It has made a big difference!
On that note this week I threw some of my painting clothes in the bin! I poured left over paint into jars and labelled for touch ups. I have very little left and emptied every tin.

Some of the ways I saved this week include:
I used the sourdough a few times. The first time I made bacon and cheese scrolls. I just used my regular dough, rolled it out, sprinkled it with grated cheese and bacon and rolled them up.
I melted a bit of butter and drizzled this over, let them rise again and baked them.

So easy and they were so nice! This became and instant hit and I made these to go on the weekend fishing picnic.

That paid off as the boys returned with eight good sized crabs...

Another night I used dough to make pizzas and use up some left overs. Left over pizza always seems to work out so well and you never get the same thing twice!

I mended a jumper for Andy.

I made another lot of Gingerbread biscuits as they were requested.

I make the spices quite mild so I think I should call them Honey Biscuits. I made two sizes and some became a gift as well.

We had a BBQ dinner outside on  Wednesday for Chloe and Allie. Again I used the sour dough to make a loaf of bread which came out of the oven just as everyone sat down. They loved it. I have to say this is a great way to slow everyone down at dinner time. Or any time!

It looks beautiful on a cutting board on the table, smells wonderful and we had a lot of meat left over which became work lunches. Win!

I also made a big potato salad and a rice salad. The girls both took home a tub each and we lived on left overs for a couple of days and had cold meat and salads. Bliss!

In the garden I have beautiful Lilies and lots more about to flower....

Today I have presents to deliver and we are planning a quiet evening to celebrate the end of the week. 

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! Enjoy everything, soak in all you have to be grateful for and bless everyone around you.

How did you save or get ahead this week? I hope your nest was festive!  xxx

The Christmas Challenge. Anything and everything!

This is it! The last post before Christmas!
I really hope that this challenge helped you to make more of your Christmas presents.  Bridge told me that she made covered diaries and fruit cakes as gifts and that preciously she really didn't have the confidence to give things she had made herself. Well, this is music to my ears!

I hope we have all gathered ideas for next year. I am formulating a list. Also planning on learning new things which just makes it twice as much fun!

Due to the week I am behind on replies and writing but I am still planning Fridays post then we will see! BUT I have big plans for 2017!

Firstly I want to show you a diary from Bridge which I can do as she sent me one!

I love it! I know I will be using it every day next year! Thank you Bridge!

Then something lovely from Mel C. She made me Bluebirds for my tree!

Thank you Mel! I love them!

Janine has been making Gingerbread houses with her eleven year old daughter...

Plus baking up a storm...

And sewing aprons which she has made for kitchen towels. 

Thank you Janine for sending me photos and telling me what you have been doing.

It reminded me of when the girls were home and the giant baking sessions we would have and the gingerbread we decorated. Some years we made gingerbread and make them look like certain people. It was hilarious as people recognised themselves which they then ate!

My presents are wrapped, my cupboard depleted and my year of making things really paid off. I combined things I made with bargains I found along the way, using up things I had and it has turned out really well. 

We are not stressing about the cost of presents and Christmas certainly isn't giving us debts or burdens, instead it is all joy.  I have had enough for charity, neighbours and a few gifts just because.

Thank you to everyone who participated in Show and Tell and sent in photos, stories, recipes and to everyone who encouraged them.  I hope you have all enjoyed wrapping and giving your gifts! 

I hope too that all of this made Christmas more wonderful for you.

There is still time for last minute making... I had a baking day yesterday and some more cooking today. But other than that I am done!  We are having a mini Christmas dinner here tonight and I am making a pavlova and my sourdough into a focaccia for the bread. 

I will see you on Friday for a wrap up of the week! xxxx

The Vicky Challenge. Starting to wrap up the year.

We are really wrapping up our year.  Each week I have counted the monetary value of my savings, DIY, cooking and gift making and added them up.
And each week we have had some kind of savings subject in order to try and find new ways to save as well as realise just how much the work we do contributes in dollar terms to the budget. And that is over and beyond the making the home a lovely place to be and all the other ways that building up your home and benefit the family.

Now I am thinking about what format the blog will take next year. This year was entirely different to last year. So I am working on what 2017 will hold!

My Vicky Challenge last week included saving money on decorating my tins by using paper napkins for images rather then buying decals. As it was a lot if images I think I saved around $50!
Making all the lunches for work $100.
Focaccia and pizza bases $30.
Free ebooks $10.
I got a big bucket with a lid for bread flour for free rather than buy  giant container... $20
Transplanting spider plants instead of buying pots $50.
Painting. $100.
I wrote $360 into my savings book.

From all my mail and comments I can see lots of us have saved a fortune making gifts and cooking for Christmas. Jen in NZ described beautiful platters she bought on a huge special and then she filled them with all different kinds of cookies she made. How beautiful. We have seen so many beautiful gifts made all through the year.
I hope we have grown in confidence to give what we have made and also realised the crazy prices charged in the stores for many of the things we routinely make!
Lastly we looked at recipes for gift giving using ingredients that are not too expensive.

The Butterfly and Galah photos are from Rachel's Dad! 

Rachel sent me an additional recipe.  This is an Australian tradition! It is so good!  And she used her cloche and it made them look beautiful!

A LESS SWEET, RICHER VERSION ....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                     ---- ANZAC Biscuits ----
                                         (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps)

1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup dark brown sugar

Combine above ingredients!
-------------------------------
125g butter
2 Tablespoons treacle

Melt butter and treacle!
-------------------------------
2 Tablespoons boiling water
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Combine boiling water and bicarbonate., stirring, and add to melted butter and treacle. This should effervesce!
--------------------------------
Add wet ingredients to dry, mixing well.
Place Tablespoon-sized balls of mixture onto trays. Press down with fork.
Bake at 160 degrees (C) for about 15 minutes.

I use Golden Syrup in this recipe usually. That is something you can find in the English or Australia part of supermarkets. If you have this then you an also make Golden Syrup Pudding!

Serving things on a cake stand or under a cloche make them seem so special! I am a fan. I have a collection and lost all of them are from op shops! Thank you so much Rachel, beautiful as always!

Please thank your Dad too as he has sent me a lot of beautiful photos this year.

Something I have found that consistently gives me ideas and saves me money is having a supply of great websites and blogs to read. It seems to be a balance of actual useful information, motivation and encouragement and keeping my mind on lovely things.  Many of my favourite blogs are on my side bar or have been mentioned during the year. 

Others I really enjoy include:

The Prudent Homemaker. For savings and see her great pantry and stock pile section.

Shabby Art Boutique. See the tutorials section! And free magazines. Go to the blog and link parties.

Dada's Place. For crochet inspiration.
Coco Rose Diaries. Crochet. Not posting anymore but stacks there to read.
ByRosehip. Crochet.
Rosie Gets Cozy. Crochet and craft. 

Flamingo Toes. Sewing, crochet, embroidery heaven.

The Cottage Mama. For sewing and crafts.

A Bowl full of Lemons. Organising.

Just Plain Marie. Pantry, savings...

Little House Living. See her stockpiling section!

Cheryl's Frugal Corner. See her Pantry, Prep and planning.

Vickie's Kitchen and Garden. She will keep you in free ebooks.

One Good Thing by Jillee. Cleaning, tips, ideas.

Free Pretty things for You. Images, crafts.

The Graphics Fairy. Images. Crafts.
And if you only check out one make it Laine's Letters here.
When you find a blog you love check out their own blog list and then you just keep finding more!

I will think of a million more but this will get the ball rolling. If you will share your most inspiring and helpful blogs and websites this will give us all holiday reading for when we finally have some quiet times!  I love finding something new to read.

How did you save last week?  And what blogs are a help to you?
I hope the next days are not too busy. I am stating to feel quite excited!
My last shop is today and cooking tomorrow.

Monday afternoon US time Vicky is having surgery. Could you pray for her?
And Mel S is recovering from surgery if you would pray for her.
Being Monday here before it is Monday in the US I can wish Vicky good luck and I hope to see her back to her usual gorgeous self asap! xxx

Feather your Nest Friday, 16 December, 2016.

I hope you have had a good week!  I tried to simplify and reduce outings but it was still a busy week! We have had beautiful mild sunny weather which I have loved!

Some of the ways I feathered my nest were:

I painted the storage tins that I got a week ago. This made them look like a set and I love them! The largest ones all take the biggest cakes so they will be so handy for me.

The painting was easy. The images are from paper napkins Mum gave me.  That took a bit longer!  I had thought of buying water slide decals... but I had these so I cut them out and varnished them on. Vicky said to make sure I count that as savings in the challenge!
They sit in a big stack and I put felt pads under each one so they do not scratch.

Lucy gave me this little nest she found. The little bird has used dryer lint and cotton and it's blue!
Can you believe that!? The Bluebirds are now building blue nests!  It matched my tins...

This is how the tins looked before. I got them all for under ten dollars....

I love them now. Plus they were fun to do. I will do more next year to use to give cakes and biscuits.

This is how the house looks basically constantly living with sour dough starter! 

This week I tried it with focaccia and it was beautiful. We had a BBQ and ate outside. I brought out a pan of hot bread from the oven.  So easy and so nice! 

Later in the week I made one like this for Lucy. Then I made six lots of dough for pizza bases. I squished them out and froze them to be thawed and rolled when needed.

I want to try Sticky Buns and also cheese and bacon scrolls...  I think this weekend I will make the scrolls. 

In the garden I planted out a heap of spider plants and filled a shady spot for free. 

I downloaded some good free ebooks. Vickie's Kitchen and Garden is a good blog to follow as she lists free ebooks every day. I get so many it is wonderful.

In the lane there are grape vines. I went out and covered a heap of bunches with old stockings... hopefully we will get some bunches this yer instead of just the birds! I am watching peaches out there as well!

I made two lots of shortbread. This gave me some gifts, I shared it around, was desert, went in Andy's lunch box for the week.

This is a super fast way to make biscuits. Really it could apply to any recipe. Just press out and slice while hot.

A whole round wrapped up is a beautiful gift.

If we ever bought pizza I thought a pizza box recovered would be perfect!

We increased our preparedness with more items that can be battery operated plus batteries.

At the shops I took notice of a lot of prices. We have really changed our shopping this year. I noticed yesterday our wholesale butcher and Aldi were well under half the price of the other two main supermarkets.  I was shocked at some of the prices of meat especially. Steak at $57 a kilo. Lamb at $44 a kilo. Seriously. 

But I got ideas!  These little Gingerbread houses were being sold at a cafe. They are individual sized about five inches tall?  Really cute. $14.50 each. I took a quick photo so I could share the idea...

Today is a beautiful day and I am going to play with Harper later!  I have Hydrangeas flowering.  

I have about two hours of painting to go! Maybe this weekend I will finally finish! 

How did you build up your home this week?  

Enjoy this lovely time and think of little ways to make it beautiful for everyone!

Have a wonderful weekend!  xxx

The Christmas Challenge. This and that.

As we are almost at the end of the year I am posting a bit of this and that as my Christmas Challenge post! Photos and stories have been coming in of home made gift success, money saving overall and pledges to do this again next year. I agree! Starting early was a good idea.

So this is some of this weeks photos and news!

Rachel pledged to learn to crochet. She is already an excellent knitter.  Photos arrived and I saw beautiful yarn in a basket in one of Rachel's lovely photos. Then I realised she had made the basket! It is her crochet!

I am amazed and love this! Now I want to make baskets...

I would say your crochet is successful Rachel!

She also sent me photos of some produce. She has been making Lemon Butter...

Also Lemon  Jam, Lemon Juice, Lemon Cordial...

To take a photo Rachel sat the jars around the big tree and thought they ended up looking like yellow flowers under a tree. Lovely.  When life gives you lemons there are wonderful things to make! 

Cookie made Lotion Bars.  She has been on a roll! I think these look just lovely. They are sometimes called massage bars also.

Jane tried a new knitting stitch and made a wash cloth. She cleverly combined knitting and crochet. The main part is knitted and the edging is crochet. Brilliant I think.
PLUS she made the soap! Just beautiful!

She also made coasters and gift tags. She will be surprised to see this as I took the photo!

These came in the mail to me! So lovely and I thought well I will just the a photo of this! 

Vicky has been decorating and making over paper carry bags. I remember last year I had a box delivered in the mail arrive at my front door.  I looked out and this box had Father Christmas on top and lots of stamps! All the way from Ohio a box had arrived from Vicky and she had decorated it. It was just lovely!  Vicky saves cards and images, just them out and adds to the top of boxes/parcels.  It was so nice that now I decorate boxes and envelopes to try and get the same effect!

Plus there are decorated pegs to hold them shut! 

Obviously I love these! 

I just admire what everyone has made. All year we have seen clever things that are inexpensive to make and just gorgeous. I have had many "why didn't I think of that?" moments!?

I have been wrapping, posting and fluffing around. I made Shortbread. This way of making it is super fast. No cutting out shapes and lots of trays in and out to cook them, just big slabs sliced into wedges.  I made two batches and it gave me lots to give away.

The main thing is to cut it right through while it is very hot still. It slices like butter. Then let it go cold and you have perfect  edges.

Cookie also made her three ingredient fudge.  This sounds like an excellent recipe! This is what she says:

This recipe ships well as it needs no refrigeration after it's made, unless you want to
speed up the setting process.  You can use any kind of chips.  I used
semisweet chocolate chips for one batch and a combination of semisweet
chocolate and butterscotch chips for the other batch, which gives it a
rum-like flavor.  The recipe, 2 cups chocolate chips or chips of
choice, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and 1 tsp vanilla.  Combine
the milk and chips and melt in a double boiler or in the microwave at
30 second intervals (I used the microwave) and stir every 30 seconds
or so until melted.  Remove from heat or microwave and add the vanilla
or any other flavoring you may like.  Pour into parchment or waxed
paper lined 8 inch square pan and let cool to set.  Remove from pan
(lining it with the paper makes it easier) and cut.  I topped one
batch of mine with crushed peppermint and one batch with walnuts while
it was still warm.  Store in an airtight container.  At home I keep it
in the refrigerator and just take out a piece when we want some.
Love
Cookie

Thank you so much for the fabulous photos and recipes! It is lovely to see the last couple of weeks of Christmas preparations. 

I have called things off and slowed things down to stay home more and enjoy this time. By now the shops are irritating, just getting a park is the beginning of an ordeal! haha I am so glad I can now mostly do the things that I love about Christmas. I want to enjoy it.

How are your Christmas plans going?   I hope your gift cupboard is filling your parcels and your kitchen smells lovely! xxx

The Vicky Challenge. Saving on food gifts continued.

My Vicky Challenge was pretty good last week. I think as soon as you do any baking that adds to it. The same with making any gifts, mending, repairs or DIY... the savings soon add up!
I need to find out the current prices locally of sour dough loaves of bread. This has been a good part of the challenge... checking to see what things actually cost compared to what they cost to make. That has been such an eye opener!

This week my savings included making six pizzas using the sour dough as my bases. They were great so I will do this from now on!
Plus I made three Spinach Quiches, pastries and a tray Apricot and Walnut buns.

I altered two tops, did some painting, froze lemon juice, made all the lunches...

Plus my great op shop day got me a big set of large storage tins plus a giant storage jar all at great savings! That also helped my total! 

I wrote $455 into my savings book.

All year I have had a special note book just for my savings and had one page per week. This has made it easy to keep track of and add up each month. And soon the whole year! 

The last two weeks we have been talking about saving money with our choices of foods to make as gifts and take to shared lunches and parties etc.  Ingredients cost money. This can vary enormously! With some thought there are ways around spending too much. Substitutions help too. I am just about to make some Pesto and the recipe calls for pine nuts which are very expensive. I will just be using almonds. They work fine for about a quarter the price!  Other times it is sometimes best to just decide to use another recipe altogether! 

Thank you for all the tried and tested recipes and ideas!  Today we have some more to add. 

Firstly from Jane... this is her faithful cake she makes very often.

Banana Cake 

From  the Sydney Morning Herald c1963

125g melted butter

I tsp grated lemon rind

1 cup castor sugar

2 eggs

3 ripe bananas

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

2 1/2 cups SR Flour

Combine all ingredients until smooth. 

Place batter in two  greased 20cm cake tins or one deep tin. It really needs to be deep.

Bake in a moderate oven for 40min or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Today I made a dozen muffins and a small slab cake from this one mix.

The slab will  be served with strawberries and cream for dessert.

You never waste a banana with a recipe like this. Plus I have found they freeze so well and you can stash cakes or muffins for when you are pushed for time. Thanks so much Jane!

Next a recipe from Teri. To me this looks like Meringue but the ingredients are not the same.... although similar. It is a sweet and I have not heard of it before. I love the name and the colour! 

Over to Teri...

I wanted to share my favorite Divinity recipe.  so, when you have time, you can post it:

2 egg whites, room temperature 

3 cups sugar (this is granulated cane sugar)

3/4 cup corn syrup  (the light colored kind)

3/4 cup water

1 small package flavored gelatin  (3 Oz. or 85g)  I use strawberry but I've used lime and orange, so any flavor you like

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Chopped pecans and/or coconut may be added.  These are optional.

Mix the sugar, corn syrup and water in a medium saucepan, Bring to a boil and cook to form a medium hard ball (this takes about 15 minutes depending on your elevation.  could take longer). (For my elevation, this is 240 degrees F. on my candy thermometer).

Meanwhile,  beat the egg whites until they fluff up, then sprinkle in dry gelatin, beating until this holds a definite peak.  Pour syrup mixture into the egg white mixture in a fine stream, beating constantly until candy losses it's shine and holds its shape. Drop by teaspoonful onto parchment paper. work fast! this makes about 40 pieces of candy depending on size.

How pretty are they! So I will be trying this out!! Thank you so much Teri!

How did your Vicky Challenge go or how did you save and get ahead last week?

Have a great new week! Most of us are busy as it is getting so close to Christmas!  I am really reviewing what I do and what I don't want to be doing this week and next.  I want to wrap up the year and my projects. I want to cook lots of treats for the family.  I do not want to be running around very much and have cut out a lot of it.
The busiest time of year can also come when you are tired!
Already I am feeling very reflective about the year that is almost over and cooking up plans for the new one ahead!
Mainly I want to really celebrate Christmas and be grateful for all our blessings which have been many!
So enjoy the season. Make it wonderful. Soon it will have flown past. xxxx

Feather your Nest Friday, 9th December, 2016.

It was a good week! I am feeling like I am getting somewhere and Christmas is under control.
We had quite a lot of rain too which has watered the garden.

Some of the ways I feathered the nest are:

I did a heap of cooking. On the weekend I had a baking day. I made several Spinach, bacon and sun dried tomato Quiches,  Pizzas and with some left over pastry I made simple pastries.

Chloe was here and I sent her home with a Pizza and a Quiche. 

The pizzas were made from the sourdough. That worked really well! In fact we loved it!  This dough is amazing! 

This is dough rising in the warm window! Now a regular sight here!

I did some painting.

I juiced a heap of lemons and froze the juice in ice cube trays for in the heat.

Two of my tops needed minor alterations and I did those.

I shopped at Aldi and it was great. The meat was out at wonderful prices.

On the way to the nursing home there is a great op shop so I went in there....  one thing I have been wishing for is some really big tins to store giant fruit cakes in.  I got seven! Three of them are really large! It was under $10 for all of them.  I am making them over so will post a pic next week.
And I got a huge storage jar for $2...

It was fantastic!

I have two lots of sour dough starter in the fridge. One lot is due to be fed mid week and one lot on the weekend. The mid week one I made into buns.

This was an experiment. I filled them with apricot and walnuts. They looked good but I didn't think the dough was sweet enough. Andy however loved them. Now I have read up and will use the recipe I used to use years ago for sticky buns next. They were amazing! If I can convert this I will have a real crowd pleaser!

We added to our preparedness... we got a new and better BBQ and it is wonderful! It has a burner for boiling a kettle etc. I can do anything .... roasts etc.

I learned to make electrolytes from scratch and bought the right salts and froze lemon juice.  Each week I am doing something towards the coming heat and feeling we may not have electricity the whole time.

When I was at the shops I looked in a trendy gift store. It is a great place for ideas. Two things I noted...  one is that hand crocheted dish cloths are in fashion. At $12 each and quite small... The other was hand made soap. They had Goats Milk and Honey. They were both $12.50 EACH, unwrapped too.  So for everyone making soap or thinking about it this is a wonderful gift and worth much more than you think!

Today I am having an at home cleaning and odd job day.  Needed!

I hope you had a great week! How did you save money, get ahead, build up your pantry or any other good things?

Have a wonderful weekend! xxx