A Return to Simplicity.

 The weeks are certainly moving very fast with the New Year just around the corner and Christmas even closer. While I have not worked at the hospital as much as I usually do it is still busy on the home front.  I have been trying to get some sort of routine into my days but with casual work still ongoing it is difficult to stick to allocated days for doing the necessary home stuff. This should change in the new year when I no longer work at all! Yay!!   I can say that I am super organized this year.    Christmas shopping  done ✔  I have added a few bits and pieces to the usual shopping for the last few months so I don't have to get it all at once, looking for specials that I can freeze and store until needed. We will only have the food that has to be brought fresh a few days before needed to buy.     Presents mostly done ✔  With just a few handmade things on the go but plenty of time to have them completed and wrapped.   I am making...

 I originally planned to only stitch for a small amount of time last night as I was too tired to stay up too late stitching and you know what happens when you're tired.......that's right......mistakes are made!       But as luck would have it I did stay up and made this new door stop in my favourite colours of blue and white with a touch of green. They were just wide enough to cut out a couple of sides. This is a line of fabric from years ago by Debbie Beaves for RJR. I used some of my stash and not only made the door stop but some smaller cute pears for my coffee table.   Once you start they are so easy to stitch up and stuff and Voilà...they are finished.     The pattern is by Heather Bailey and I have made them before in a different color-way.  The larger door stop pattern was found on Pinterest. I'm heading over to Wendy's page to check out what everyone else was up to.  Thanks for dropping by,   

The garden is providing a bounty of produce this year and as I don't like to waste, in between working and renovations,  I have been very productive in the kitchen. Large green tomatoes just make me think of Green Tomato Pickles. Although I haven't made it for a number of years I thought it a good time to drag out the old Women's Weekly recipe book and gather the ingredients. The only item I had to buy was half a cauliflower, but everything else was on hand, onions, green tomatoes, cucumber, and spices.     I have loved this cook book for ever and I keep coming back to it time and again. We also have a Tangor Tree (it's a citrus fruit hybrid of the mandarin orange and the sweet orange) in the hen house and each year it's full of fruit and the marvelous thing is the cockatoos don't touch the fruit!  I have never used the fruit for jam making but have often wondered about it, so I thought I would give it a go as it would answer the question once and for all! WOW!...