Gingerbeer!

Part of the simple life is making things, gathering things and not just buying them. Like "Martha" i too have "good things" and this is one of them. Ginger beer.

Now we havent made ginger beer for years and as a rule we dont drink fizzy drinks but Ginger beer is sublime and a gorgeous way to enjoy the last of the summer lemons from Nanas tree.

I asked another simple lifer blog friend from New zealand for her recipe and gorgeous hubby and I (he who is after the perfect Ginger beer) last night set about making the bug. If you want the recipe for the bug you'll find it herehttp://savingadollar.blogspot.com/ on her lovely blog.

There must be something in the air because I have refound my sometime soap making obsession, and last night searched fervently for my resipes on the net. I think Ill give Rhonda athttp://www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ resipe a try. I just have to buy some rice bran oil.

Such a wealth of inspiration on other peoples blogs. I wonder if any one reads mine anymore??

Simple pleasures revisited

I have discovered the art and the simple pleasures of knitting once more !! The last time i knitted was two years ago when i made some ballet cardis for the girls. Now thanks to these two wonderful blogs:http://www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com/andhttp://libertystarfarm.blogspot.com/I have found the art of knitting dishcloths. These are great things. I have knitted five of them so far out of two and a half skeins of cotton. At 1.99 on special at that friendliest of friendly stores, spotlight I think you will agree the overall cost of dishcloths is a bargin. They are meant to last longer than "normal" supermarket clothes and are yet another thing to add to my growing list of essentials that i dont have to shop for. I also made up a little gift for a friend and it consists of a dishcloth(which can also be a flannel) and two home made soaps bound with some left over plaid strips from a quilt and some lavender from the garden. I think its so pretty I hardly want to let it go!

These blogs are worth a visit to see their patterns and liberty star farm has a well written and photographed picture of instructions.

I visit Down to earth every day that I can . Its the most inpsirational blog i know of and always pulls me from any funk I may be in. Presently the end of summer is nigh and the garden is looking just awful. Everything is brown and dry and dead looking and although I know that sson the place will recover and look better with the cool of Autumn and the rains its almost depressing to see the dry around me. I thought the garden was looking ok until my gorgeous hubby pulled out the weeds...

On a bright note. We planted six water melons that have almost come to fruition and have four or five yummy looking melons to enjoy soon. When we lived in the King Country before we had children we had a gorgeous garden and every year would plant water melons. For some reason known only to the mysterious universe we kept getting pumkins only from our melon plants??? So the arrival of these watermelons is joy indeed.

We make our own compost and everything that is from the earth is returned to it. This is an interesting thing as my gorgeous hubby loads the compost on the garden and in amongst our hedges and shrubs and flowers will sprout tomatos, pumkins, and even three walnut trees. I am thrilled with the walnuts as growing up on the family farm we had two gigantic walnut trees. These wee plants of ours will follow us to our land when we get there.

I am desparately trying to finish my scrappy friendship quilt (pictured above) I am desparate to finish as it is perhaps a little too scrappy and I fear the friendship stars will get lost in the genral coloured chaos. Stay posted.

I leave with a wind blowing through the window , the cicadas still chirping and the chill now and then of an approaching Autumn. The humidity comes and goes reminding us not to get too worried about an early winter.

My week started off well on a retail thereapy note. Now note that I do not like shopping ordinarily. I hate it. Spending the money, joining the crowds, the bustle of town and the rampant consumerism abounding it all. But on Monday my two favourite magazines arrived. Grass Roots the self sufficiency magazine that has the best ever issue ever this omonth and Homespun magazine which fill s my most creative spaces in my head. Then my most favourite quilt shop which is called the Quilters cabin and is up in the sticks of the country and is just beautiful has closed down :( BUT the owner rented a shop int town for a week to get rid of her stock. I thought of my unfinished projects and bought some fat quarters at 2.00 each and a huge bag of remnant for 2.00, plus some Clover gold needles for 1.00 a box and gorgeous and hard to find rusty bells for 50cents each. I find myself clutching the fabrics and sorting through them. Spotlight could never complete... So that is my retail therapy, things I buy to service my need to create.

Summer in bottles

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What could be more satisfying than the joys of preserving gorgeous summer fruits? Today I began just that. I was very excited to find early Golden Queens out at a reasonable price and also delicious Black Doris Plums. I spent the afternoon bottling these glorious fruits and they worked out at roughly $1.00 per bottle. A bottle is waaaaay more full and waaaay bigger slices than your average can of peaches that you can buy and absolutely far tastier.

A few people have indicated that they would like to preserve but are unsure how. So here is my beginners guide to this easy pastime:

First gather together your supplies. I use Ajee bottles (i have many from op shops and family but you can buy them from Supermarkets), lids that youcan only use once, and screww tops, again available at Supermarkets or op shops. A lot of Sugar, a large stainless steel pot, wooden spoon, salt, plastic bowl or bucket.

First I make sure the bottles are totally sparkling clean and without chips around the rim or cracks in the sides. Then I sterialise them.

I put them in an oven at 120C for half an hour and take them out only prior to preserving so that the hot liquid does nor crack the glass.

For the syrup I add one cup of sugar per two cups of water, and heat until boiling point. While syrup is cooking I prepare the peaches: peel and halve or quarter and put into a bowl of salted water so that peaches do not turn brown.

When the syrup and peaches are both ready for the off i add them togehter and cook them until JUST soft. Not too much , not too little. its a try as you go thing until you get the hang of it.

Once cooked the jars are, one at a time filled with the peaches and then pour in some syrup until rim is reached. Now I put a long knife down the sides of the jars to let any air out and with a tea towel fill up the tiny gap left with boiling water. The lid is then pushed on and pressure applied and then the screw top is put on to hold it all together. The pressure as the bottle cools will pull in the top and it is them properly sealed. Do not remove screw tops until next day. And Done!!

I am wanting to fill all my jars this season, and there are are a lot!! Its my thing since I have gone past the strawberry season and have no berries to jam!

So far I have bottled six large and two half jars of peaches and two large and one half of plums.

Dont they look pretty cooling in the summer evening on my window sill. Summer in a bottle!

A sale of sorts

I am currently having a bit of a garage/craft sale of some of my crafts listed here. If you are interested plese let me know. The dolls are $40.00 (NZD) each plus Postage and the ducks are 25.00.

Just a bit on each of the crafts. The Annie dolls are aged and based on a pattern I found a while back but I have pretty much adapted them to my designs. The Amish doll is meant to be a true rendition of the Amish doll with a black bonnet, no face and petticoat and dress in drab colouring (bad photo) The hanging chooks are sold as a pair although one is tea stained and heavily aged with sanding and baking and the other is just tea stained. All dolls are painted with arcylic and then sealed with a sealer. They are all completely hand done by me in front of the fire, no machine work at all!!!! I am currently researching the craft market to find some arena for my crafts, i would really love to sell Prim works so Im just clearing some space so to speak.

Any interest just leave a comment.

Sew and Sew

I am in the middle of a creative frenzy this month. I have completed a few projects which may be printed here IF I can get blogger photo to load them.... I am also completing the top to Georgias quilt and have started a quilt for halloween. I love the Prim look and the halloween quilt and Halloween cat that I am sewing are both very prim. People either "get: prim or they dont and most people think they look a bit bizarre.. oh well..

It is sooooo humid here, really nearing unbearable. I so desire a cold climate at this moment! I love looking at all those snowy images from US blogs.

The strawberry season has not been up to much and I am still waiting agood weekend to pick some strawberries in order to make jam. I have run out of strawberry jam (Its everyones favourite) and to my horror have had to (gasp) buy it (dramatic whisper). The apricots suffered this season too and while I managed to procure some samll ones for some apricot j

am I then bought some more expensive ones large and suitable for bottling, over preserved them so instead of cute apricots I have stewed apricots in jars.. I am eagerly awaiting the peach season, over here the peaches to preserve are Golden Queens and not due til late Feb/march..Oh the wait when I am so keen to bottle something - I may have to buy some over priced big plums I saw at the supermarket for 3.00 per kg just to give me something to satisfy the hunting/gathering thing!

Rhonda from this bloghttp://www.down...to...earth.blogspot.com/ tagged me for seven random things. Unfortunately I cant tag seven others yet as my computer is having a major seizure and I cant seem to link press the right click and when I attempt to get it to do something complex it freezes. So I will do it when my computer is fixed . In the meantime three random things about me:

I love the idea of the Prairie life

I realise life back then would completely kill me early

I really want to make some bonnets from the Priairie days and am investigating patterns, these would look grand hanging up on a native rustic coat holder

Part of me thinks I might take to wearing said bonnets around the place

Ive only been quilting seriously for a year

I love the Prim look

and I never knew what the meaning of my life was until I held my first baby and realised it was to be a mother!!

Goodness half way through this post my photos suddenly appeared !!! Yah All are self explanatry except my front door Amercian Annie that designed myself after a pattern I used for something else. I love Annies and she is on the front door in lieu of the usual handmade wreath I seasonally decorate.

There is a sneak peak of Georgias quilt.

I have also made my first ever dog biscuits. Recipe found here:http://www.down...to...earth...blogspot.com/ Our dog loves them and as I had all the ingrediants in my pantry (and thrust me, after Christmas I dont have all that much!) they were very cheap. The frugal life ploughs on. I turn to frugal blogs and Simple savings website to gain ever increasing insite into increasing frugality and gaining lost ground. I have added more blogs to my links. These are either crafty or frugal.

Busy in January

Janurary has been a busy month so far. Right into the School holidays and in the middle of the hottest most humid summer time has been spent a: with the girls in the pool, or B: with a needle and thread.
Fed up with how little I actually made for gifts at Xmas I went and sewed three christmas themed aprons for next Xmas. I also made a reindeer from Homespun magazine and am continuing Georgias quilt, plus a Christmas tree skirt from Bareroots pattern , oh and I did a Halloween cat and pumkin doll - thing- from the November edition of Homespun. I did this because I saw the magazine and I couldnt get this design out of my head so I just had to do it. I will post photos next time.
I have fallen off the frugal wagon over the festive season and now I am desparately trying to get back on! In that vein I have been reading some very inspiring frugal blogs that may inspire you too. Look http://living withoutmoney.blogspot.com/ here and my favourite Rhonda here:http://www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ Rhonda at down to earth is doing a great job and has an inherent love of simple things and housekeeping and self sufficiency so of course I visit here blog all the time. At this minute she is encouraging readers to post threee things they can do to improve ona eco friendly basis. Here are mine:
1. Reuse the butter packets by keeping them in the fridge and using them for greaseproof paper for cooking,
2. Making my own and my childrens clothes or buying from an op shop (no packaging)
and 3: turning off ALL the unecessary power.
I am eagerly awaiting the start of PYO strawberries for some Jam. A year ago we opicked heaps of blackberries from the roadside and aonly just now are we using them in smoothies, blackberry fool etc. YUM! The green skins of fallen walnuts have been falling off the walnut trees in our park and we have been collectin natures free bounty as they arrive and are drying them out the front. Lovely neighbours are presenting us with bags of tangerines. Isnt nature grand?!
We have spent another steaming hot day at Splash planet today. I am SHATTERED. Great day with hubby and kids. I couldnt beleive how brave my two girls were with the water slides. Complete daredevils!! How they grow. Last time I ventured near that theme park, Alex was in my belly and Georgia was one year old and paddling in the teeny pool! I would so love to have caught photos of them careening down the slides but cameras and water just dont go together.
Cheers from the ever cheery Cherry

Oh Christmas tree oh Christmas tree....

Her is my latest creation from the Homespun magazine... My most favourite craft mag. DOnt cha love him???









Always time to look pretty for the camera...
Do we like my eco friendly tote bags..I went tote bag crazy for a while there but now am strickly into Xmas craft. I am trying in a manic but relaxed way to quilt a tree skirt before CHristmas... Also from the homespun mag.

Yes!!! Weve collected possibly the best tree from our Santa Forest this year two days ago. A big job when it is steamy hot but enjoyable. The tree is being decorated now(and redecorated and re decorated) and it smells so pretty and looks glorious at night all the wee lights flashing away.

I love this sign. ABout two years ago this sign went up care of those government beaurocrats who loke to wrap us up in cotton wool...anyway we were laughing at this and I was yakking away at the sillyness of it all when i turned and immediately fell down a pot hole!!!

I LOVE Christmas and would love to hear about others blogs with their Christmas decorations on. So please leve a comment or a blog address for me to glance at. I also love Prim decorations if anyone else does I would love to hear from you. Onto the craft room...