How Far Will/ Do You Go........

I have to say I got a complete surprise to find that my good old frozen peas came from New Zealand - not that I have anything at all against anything grown there..... but seriously, does my food have to travel that far to get onto our dinner plates?  It got me to wondering about other items in my pantry and fridge.  Food is expensive enough as it is and here I'm paying not only for packaging, but to have some of it fly in from other countries......... Why??? 
Here is a quick selection - Cottees Cordial, Jelly , Sundried Tomato Strips and the margarine: use both Australian and imported goods.  McCain Peas and the Heinz tomato soup from New Zealand, Bertolli Olive Oil from Italy, and the wonderful Miracle Whip I like to use in my potato salad come from the Phillipines!

Thankfully I was pleased to discover some Australian Produce in my pantry and fridge and I would encourage everyone, no matter where you live to try and support the produce grown and produced within your own country, or as close as possible. 

Of course LOCAL is even better........ but the best of all has to be the stuff you grow yourself or swap/ barter with neighbours, friends and work colleagues.  Yes, it does require a bit of hard work, planning and having a go - but you know what has been put in the ground and onto the food you are piling onto the plates of your loved ones! 

Happy Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day Everyone!  Hope you all have a fab day doing whatever it may bring.  Here it's already heating up and it's only 9 o'clock!  I'm thinking sewing is on the menu for today.  This week has been a little different in that I've had probs with my leg resulting in a CT scan of my back on Tuesday.  Hopefully the report should be back by tomorrow and we might know what is going on.  Stacey decided this was the week to clean out her room (furniture, clothing, clothing & yes, clothing etc etc etc) which managed to take over the majority of the house for a day or 2 while she sorted, cleaned and rearranged....... with great results!  Since I couldn't get to the table or the sewing area (or many other places - LOL), I retreated to our bedroom and did a bit of clean out of our "wardrobe hole" (in between sitting on the bed resting my leg on Doctors orders - cause just sitting still for hours is soooo not me - it has been a challenge), since we got our "tall boy" chest back from Stace (she bought herself some new furniture).   Sewwwww today is dedicated to sewing (at least that's the plan!) ...... yes, with the leg elevated!

Friday Night Sew In

Last night was the Friday Night Sew In and last I looked there were 160 of us taking part!!  I worked on some hand sewing getting a few things underway for swaps at the same time:
My cup and saucer pincushion that is very slowly taking shape (this is for me :) )

A sneak peak on a slightly blurry scale of the heart I'm making for the Valentine Initial Heart Swap  which is now well on track thanks to the FNSI

  Even managed to make a start on the Autumn Season Swap coming up before long........

But I should tell you, that I might have got alot more done if I'd finished all of this a bit earlier.......

Yep, but it's that time of year, so the apricots and Plums needed to go into pots, and jars had to be sterilized in order to stock our pantry with some yummy jam for the upcoming year ahead.

This lot will go into the stock pantry along with the other batches I have stored in there.  I try to get enough together to last a year and have a bit for gifting here and there or to elderly neighbours and such or the odd bartering also works well.  We could use a bit more Strawberry Jam though!  Now in our pantry I have  15 Plum, 20 Apricot and 3 Strawberry.  Lemon Butter gets made as we go since it doesn't keep so well.  There's nothing like home made produce........ both food and our handiworks.
Hugs Sharm

Tuesdays Treasures and a bit more

Thanks Melody for reminding me it's time to start back with our Tuesday Treaures..... This week that award would have to go to "my girls" who have been very busy in every garden bed they could get into while I've been at work!  The strawberry patch has lovely divets and I'm sure some of the plants will make it........  mulch apparently looks much nicer spread over the green lawn, rather than piled up on garden beds like I had it, and my seaside daisies that had finally managed to grow larger  - have been wonderfully pruned into small round tuffs with wonderful holes between the plants to give a nice effect !!!   So it was with much gusto that I took the roll of wire, garden stakes in hand on Sunday and created their very own little yard around their pen!  They are a little unsure what to make of this change and poor Henrietta was quite confused when she was unable to come knocking on the doggie door asking for hand outs for herself and friends...... she did manage to call out to us from the little yard and seemed quite happy when an assortment of scraps was scattered in their for them.  They do have some nice little garden areas within their yard, so we shall see.

On another note - I've picked the last of the corn from our garden .

With my soap business now coming to a mind blowing halt thanks to ridiculous costs for product liability and new govt regulations coming onto the scene for soap makers this year, It just is not viable to keep going.  The prices I would have to charge per soap to break even, let alone make a profit is just too much to ask people to pay........... no matter the quality!  I'm afraid that was always part of my plan - have good quality soaps with natural, local products at an affordable price.  So soap sales are now for family and friends (including any blogger friends wanting to get any).  With all of that, I now have more "free" time (yes, I'm still working 3days a week at the hospital), but more time now for sewing, gardening and such!  My sewing table is VERY happy, because for the first time in 7 months you can actually see it, AND I'm working on a few little projects with my sewing machine!  First off - some mug rugs!

Gardening has also been attacked and I managed to move quite a good deal of mulch on Monday.  Unfortunately there are still weeds waiting (growing wildly) that need my attention.  Mostly it's those pesky garden edges where the grass just wants to grow INTO the garden bed instead of keeping a nice border!!  Is that "round up" I here you say????  till next time

Happy Stitching and gardening everyone!

Move it Mondays

Today it's Monday and I started the day with an early morning walk!  Its going to get veeerrrrry hot here today, so it seemed like a good plan!  The walk was great and I did take lots of photos (I've put a few on my Move it Monday blog which I'm sharing with those taking part in this challenge, so leave me a comment or drop an email if you want to take part and get a bit healthier and loose a few pounds this year).  Blogger, or maybe my computer has taken 3 hrs to post a handful of photos there, so I'm only popping on one here for now......... during my walk I took the river track leading back to the boat ramp close to our home........... it just looks really nice and thought I'd share it with you! 
Thought I might also share some of my shopping specials from during the christmas/New Year Period............ these should keep me going for a while and give lots of inspirations!! (hmmm, nope, can't get the photo to go on........ maybe later then)