Stay Put Towels

During our recent holiday at the beach I had the pleasure of meeting up with some ladies from the former Down to Earth forum (which has now closed down) and The Homemakers Forum which some of the members started so that we all didn't lose touch.

One of the ladies who I have known for a few years, Judy, is the most talented craftsperson and can sew, crochet, knit and so on and so forth and for my recent birthday she surprised me by sending me this lovely mug rug that she made. Isn't it just great?

The old and the new

As many of my readers would know I have been involved in Rhonda's Down to Earth forum for a number of years. During that time I have come to know other members from around the world and at the touch of a computer mouse there was always someone on the forum to share with about daily living, how to make sourdough, soap, stockpiling and so on.

However, the time came last week for Rhonda to chose the forum down as she is busy with her growing family and as most people would be aware it does take a lot of time administer such a busy forum. Many thanks to Rhonda for her years of hard work there.

Of course, many of the members were quite disheartened at the thought of losing contact with such close forum buddies so a few brave souls set out to start up a new forum called The Homemaker's Forum and the Grand Opening was on Monday 20th March so it is brand new.

Finished at last!

Remember I mentioned a while back in this post that we were having a Sew Along on the Down to Earth Forums. I decided to use up some of the seersucker I bought on a roll from one of the Op Shops and make some shortie PJs. Now I haven't sewn any clothing for myself for absolutely years but I was so impressed by the lovely lady who was running the Sew Along that I thought I would give it a go and buy the pattern which is New Look Pattern 6871.

A Dishcloth Challenge

Over on the Down to Earth Forums one of the members started up a Dishcloth Challenge this month and some of the keen knitters are going to knit a dishcloth a week. Well, I am a slow knitter so decided to just knit one a month which is enough for me. I said I was slow :-) Anyway one of our experienced knitters showed us a photo of twelve dishcloths she has made recently and said she got the patterns from a book called Garden Dishcloths to Knit by Melissa Bergland Burnham. The dishcloths looked really nice so I took the plunge and ordered the book which was approximately $10 and was pleasantly surprised when it arrived to find that all the patterns are just plain and purl. Just up my alley and good patterns for beginners.

My new book has arrived

As some of my readers would be aware, Rhonda Hetzel from the Down to Earth blog and the Down to Earth Simple Living Forums, spent much of last year writing her new book The Simple Home. Well, Rhonda's book has now been published and my copy arrived in the mail this week and I was very excited to flip through the pages to see what the finished product looked like.

Would you like to learn how to sew?

Being the start of a brand new year many of us decide to learn a new skill or resurrect one that we haven't used for a number of years. Personally I want to learn more about knitting than just how to knit plain and purl so have enrolled in a Craftsy course starting with the basics. Mind you, I didn't realise that the young girl running the course knitted a different way from how I had been taught and does Continental knitting not English knitting like I do. So that was the first shock I got. Then when teaching how to cast on she used the Long Tail Cast-on method so that absolutely threw me as I knew nothing about it. Then I was worried as I had taught my granddaughter how to cast on using a completely different method and had taught her English knitting. However, I don't think it matters and we all have to start somewhere and as she learned how to knit garter stitch at the age of 6 I think she will easily pick up all the methods eventually. Perhaps quicker than her Nanna though:-)

A visit to Simply Natural Soap Making Supplies at Caboolture

While I was on the Sunshine Coast recently a friend drove me to Caboolture as we were keen to have a look at the Simply Natural Soap Making Supplies outlet there which is nestled in the Industrial Estate.

A Special Visitor

We have a special visitor at our Simple Living Toowoomba monthly meeting tomorrow ~ Rhonda from Down to Earth! She and Hanno are going to brave the Toowoomba weather but I am sure we won't turn on any snow like our neighbours in the region have overnight.

...and a good chinwag was had by all!

This morning I had the pleasure of catching up with a group of lovely ladies I have met online through the Down to Earth Simple Living Forums and also our Simple Living Toowoomba group.

A parcel from France

Over on the Down to Earth Simple Living Forums we are currently having a bookmark swap and today my parcel arrived from my swap partner in France. It is exciting to receive mail from overseas as it usually only happens to me when the penfriends I made when I was a teenager send a calendar from Canada and England at Christmas.

Another great workshop!

Well our Simple Living Toowoomba Homemade Health and Beauty Products Workshop was really interesting this morning and I am sure that everyone who attended learned a lot.

Aah...that's better!

Now I know that when you see the mismatched slippers in the photo you will think that I have lost the plot after reading my last post :-) Mind you, it is very difficult to keep calm normally when you are trying to sort out problems with technology which you have no idea about when you are talking face to face to a person who understands your own language. However to try and communicate over the phone with a call centre representative in another country who, in some cases, is having trouble trying to understand the language never mind the problem, does result in some tearing out of the hair and gnashing of the teeth! They did try to be helpful I must admit but I found it to be a frustrating experience and ended up paying $80 to get a technician to fix the problem which he found and sorted in no time.

Is THIS the year you make your first batch of soap?

Now I know there are a few readers of my blog who have been wanting to make soap for some time but just haven't been brave enough after being put off by the warnings about using Caustic Soda. Well, procrastinate no longer as this is YOUR soapmaking year!!!

A Down to Earth Meet-up

Yesterday we had a great day when eight of us from the Down to Earth Forums met together for lunch here in Caloundra. Unfortunately Rhonda from the Down to Earth blog who started the DTE Forums several years ago, was unable to come due to other commitments.

 

What do you do to survive a heatwave? Drink coffee of course!

What a strange week we have had so far! On Monday the temperature reached 36C here in Toowoomba but I wasn't here to endure enjoy the heat as a friend and I travelled to Warwick to say goodbye to an old friend who was heading overseas so I escaped Toowoomba only to spend the day in 38C heat!!! Well, what was one to do to survive such extreme weather conditions...find an airconditioned cafe and just sit and drink coffee!

Quick and Easy Fabric Folded Christmas Decorations

Over on the Down to Earth Simple Living Forums we are currently preparing for our annual Christmas swap and I have been having a look-see online to try and find some quick and easy Christmas related tutorials and came across a YouTube video by Crouton Crackerjacks for Fabric Folded Ornaments which are based on a tutorial from Katrina's Tutorials.

Curried Quinoa Burgers with Coriander Red Pepper Sauce

I had my first experience of cooking with quinoa recently and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to work with. I was given the recipe for Curried Quinoa Burgers with Coriander Red Pepper Sauce as part of our current Down to Earth Forums Kitchen Towel and Recipe Swap.

Sew Retro Victorian Pincushion

A while back I came across a really cute pincushion pattern on the internet so I downloaded it but never got around to making it up. However, recently on the Down to Earth Forums some of the members challenged themselves to use up their fabric stash before buying any more so I decided the time had come to unearth the pattern and make the 'Sew Retro Victorian Pincushion'.

What a fun swap!

At the moment we are winding up our most recent swap on the Down to Earth Simple Living Forums. This swap was all about learning a new skill or challenging ourselves to improve a skill we may already have or even resurrecting a craft we may have tried many moons ago but had given up on. Well, the swap partners were matched up and we all got busy with our swap items and then waited patiently for the postman to deliver our surprise and my swap item was well worth waiting for.

Do YOU have the Budget Blues?

Well, here in Australia we have recently had both our Federal and State Budgets announced and the general consensus of opinion is that we will all have to tighten our belts whether we like it or not. Of course, many of us already live frugally but we are never too old to learn new ways to save money and I have come across some amazing stories of families surviving really hard financial times which are quite inspirational.