This week was spent pottering around our home and garden, tidying up here and there. My craft room is slowly coming together and it's lovely to go in there and be able to find things. My goal is to find homes for 10 things each time I enter.
Our lockdown restrictions have eased ever so slightly but they really haven't changed much for us. Darren and I can now go to the supermarket together if we choose or gather with 3 other people in a park within 5 km of home. Most of our friends and family live further than 5km and we still can't visit our daughter Jessica who lives 40 minutes away. The nightly curfew has been dropped but we don't usually go out after dark.
So we soldier on trying to keep our minds and bodies active each day. We count our blessings that we have a lovely home and garden with extra free time to enjoy. We praise God every day for the good weather that allows us to go outside to enjoy our little haven.
Here's what else we've been up to
* Picked silverbeet, snow peas and bok choy from the garden as our green vegetable to eat this week.
* Saved and cleaned a candle jar that was well worth keeping. It has a very tight lid so I'm thinking I'll use it for gifting biscuits, mini bath bombs, bath salts, laundry powder or maybe to use as storage in my craft room.
* Made a batch of butter using the free cream from the freezer.
* Made chicken stock in the slow cooker then a big batch of soup using a cooked chicken a family member gave us.
* Darren gave me a much needed haircut. This was Darren's first time cutting anyone's hair but I was desperate after not being able to get to a hairdresser for almost 8 months.
* Darren made a big pot of vegetable soup using lots of bok choy from the garden. He was quite pleased with the end result and has enjoyed it for his lunches this week.
* Made a big pot of spag bol sauce and stretched it even further by adding lots of silverbeet from our garden and 4 finely grated carrots. We had the spag bol for dinner that night and froze another 6 portions for the 2 of us.
* Saved the shower warm up water and washing machine rinse water. We also saved water in the kitchen from drink bottles etc and Darren used this to water our pot plants out on the deck.
* Finished off another 7 hanging tea towels. I used supplies I already had on hand. These will be either given as presents or sold in my blog shop or on Facebook.
* Sorted out all the presents from occasions we have missed this year due to lockdown. I had the presents put away in the wardrobe but it felt good to get them out, wrap, write cards or place them in recycled gift bags. Now we are waiting for our lockdown restrictions to ease so we can give them out.
* Darren made up 2 buckets of worm tea from our worm farm. This was enough liquid to feed the rose bushes and all our fruit trees.
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| Part of my craft room storage |
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| Birthday flowers form Darren |
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| Birthday flowers grandson Luka (and family) gave me |
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| Candle pots I'm saving |
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| Birthday cake. Vegan was all the supermarket had left. |
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| Using my grandma's cup and saucer on my birthday |
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| Some of the goodies I received |
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| What Darren cut off my hair. |
My husband had to cut my hair twice whilst we were in lockdown. He was so nervous but did fine.
ReplyDeleteHappy belated birthday to you, Wendy. Your roses are beautiful! We have stayed close to home for the remainder of the school holidays and so haven't really spent much apart from a grocery shop. This week:
ReplyDelete* bought 6xfrozen pizzas at $3.50ea (half-price at Coles). I have these in freezer for dinner on occasional day when I get home late and have forgotten to put something out for dinner. I add extra topping (mushrooms, pineapple, capsicum) to make them a bit nicer and we eat them with salad so it's healthier. This is a tip I picked up from another frugal-living website. It's much cheaper than takeaway!
* made a large tray of lasagne and froze several portions
* invited friends to come for lunch instead of meeting at a cafe. Made different salads with produce I had already and a mulberry and apple pie from scratch using mulberries I'd picked and frozen from our little tree.
* used lemon juice I'd frozen in ice-cube trays in dressings for salads I made
* received a dozen juicy oranges and a bag of macadamia nuts from my friend Xx
* mended a pair of my son's shorts
* had a movie night where we paid small amount (less than $10) to download a film on Google Play. I can't remember the last time we went to movies!
* donated some books to op-shop and found a pair of shorts for my son for $2. They are next size up so will be put away for when he reaches that size.
* bought three little handmade items at a craft collective - total cost was $15 - to give as upcoming birthdays in November.
I hope you have a lovely week in your home, Wendy. I hope restrictions continue to ease as the coming weeks go by. MegXx
At the beginning of the week I made a batch of pasta sauce using carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, onion and celery along with mince. The kilo of mince was divided into three. One third made the sauce, another made about 20 tiny meatballs and the last third made four patties or rissoles. Since my week has been busy there is only one serve left. I have some lamb pieces and I am going to make a curry out of those for the busy week ahead.
ReplyDeleteI have taken mum to the quilt shops four days this week. At one shop I found bags of fabric that weighed 200g for $5. Some of the fabrics are very useful for me.
Earlier this week I found some very good reductions in Coles. I am hoping to sue some for Christmas gifts but mum wants to have them at home. We shall see. I have some yarn for gifts as well.
My granddaughter helped us garden this week. Her peas have gone but we potted some strawberry plants. To her delight and my surprise there are two tiny berries growing.
We went to the cheap cinema on Thursday. It was surprisingly empty for school holiday times. We saw the new Secret Garden. Little Mia was so pleased to see the big TV.
God bless your week and stay safe and well. I am sure you are becoming quite anxious to spread your life out a little bit more. Hopefully it will come soon.
Wendy, what is bread improver? It is an ingredient in your bread.
ReplyDeleteBelated Happy Birthday wishes to you - edible presents are always good!
ReplyDeleteI went out shopping on Friday looking for summer dresses. When they are on special they are cheaper to purchase than to get the fabric and make them. I was lucky and found three lovely dresses for $15 each. The dresses I wore last summer are a couple of years old and are close to being placed in the rag bag.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a lot of hair came off from your haircut! That was a nice thing for Darren to do, and probably felt good too. I love the idea of using your grandma's cup and saucer for your birthday. A great way to keep her close on your special day. Happy Birthday!!! Cheryl in WA state
ReplyDeleteI’m just posting this Wendy to see if it gets to you. I wrote to comment the other day and it didn’t go! So frustrating. I know it to do with the name in the comment. Fingers crossed 🤞
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you have a picture of your hanging t towels I couldn't find it but maybe I was looking in the wrong area.
ReplyDeleteI'll be putting photos on my Fb page in the next day or so.
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