Feather your Nest Friday. 15th January, 2021.

 Thank you for all the kind messages last week.   Andy is much better!   So it was a more normal week except for a fire!  Fortunately we were safe but a little town near us was threatened.  In the end the town was saved.  That was a stressful day as it had the makings of being similar to the fire last year.   I thought oh no here we go again!   But by bed time we knew we were safe.  We felt dreadfully sorry for those that suffered losses.  

I was very happy with simple things this week.  Simple is good! 

I continued with my Make the Most of it Challenge.   Some of my odd balls of cotton became more wash cloths.   

This stitch is from You Tube "Crochet for Baby" channel is called Fluffy Cotton Candy stitch.  Very easy! I like it! 

I had a week of gifts.   Chloe gave me a wonderful Homesteading book and THIRTY vanilla beans!!  Mum gave me good sewing scissors!  

I was thrilled.  I got busy and started some Vanilla Essence.

This was day one.  Already the Vodka is brown.  I am keeping it going to be ready for Christmas.  Then I will decant it into little bottles and label it.  By then it will be so beautiful!!

Mum made me a pavlova and we had a little afternoon tea.

Yum!  It was so nice.  We all shared giant chunks of it to take home for deserts.  

Each day I picked tomatoes and zucchini.  I worked zucchini into many meals. 

I was given a heap of beautiful bottles. All shapes and sizes.   Some would be lovely for bubble baths and bath salts.  They would look just spectacular.  So these will give me some gift giving possibilities.

This week I have to include Eddy.  He looks like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

He is so sweet and so affectionate but he cannot go a day without getting into some kind of trouble.   I read that to hold a goat a fence also needs to be able to hold water.  This is pretty much true.  But I love him.  Scout loves him.   If Eddie is siting down then he will have a stick and a ball and possibly a frisbee sitting right next to him.  This is because Scout likes to give Eddie stuff just incase he wants to play.  

When the world is crazy the absolute adoration from your animals,  the garden, nature...  the chickens and ducks... the beautiful birds...  they remain consistent.   TV is a hazard to me and me to it.   We had some news on recently and I wanted to throw a shoe at it!  I said to Andy I can't listen to this!   What lies!   So now I do some sewing,  do some crochet, watch a you tube tutorial... something lovely.   Watering the garden in the evening is very so peaceful.

Overall I am fairly caught up after the week of sickness.  That feels good.  I often think in terms of I am on top of the mountain or the mountain is on top of me!  Also I always remember Elizabeth Elliot's  "Do the next thing."  I seriously often don't know what to do next.   So I just do the next thing.  It all adds up.  I had a couple of free hours so I wrapped the birthday presents for January.   Now they are lined up ready to go.  In our family there are a heap of January Birthdays.   Then I did a little bit of sewing.   I loved that.  Sewing does me good.  As crochet does!  Somehow we have to work these things that we love into our day. 

I did not really add to my pantry this week but I did do some jar filling and organising.   It needed a bit of a clean up.   I also found a completely empty high cupboard!  I am determined to store something there! 

How did you build up your home, save, get ahead or add to your pantry this week?   I hope it was a good week for you.xxx