Kainga, where Roses bloom, life is lived at a gentler pace.Living Simply, doing all those good things like stitching, gardening, cooking and reading.

Monday, August 22, 2011

"Makes Me Happy Monday"

Hello and a "Happy Monday" to you.

Over the past week I have been busy doing some hand quilting on the "Catnip" quilt. I have got nearly half way through the blocks. This is the quilt I had nearly finished machine quilting and decided to unpick.


Doing a bit each night has been making me very happy. If all goes to plan it should be finished in about two weeks. Fingers crossed.


I have spent many hours out in the garden at Kainga over the past week. Taking cuttings of Salvia's Lavenders etc and planting seeds ready for Spring and doing hours and hours of weeding. I was even given a promotion to "Head Gardener". I bought myself a jacket on Saturday morning while out shopping and machine embroidered the logo on it this morning.


For the most part of this year I have been looking for instructions for my Yoghurt Maker. I do have the instructions but unfortunately the pages got wet and stuck together. Of course the page with what was required was damaged the most. I have asked family and some bloggers if they had this machine. I have looked on the net every now and again and I know I wasn't the only one looking. I got the instruction book out again Thursday night and decided I would try and work out through the rest of the instructions if it was possible to decipher what I needed. I thought when I got up Friday I would have one last look on the net. I googled and found a kind lady in New Zealand who had the instructions in a PDF. The moons and starts must have been aligned for me. So on Saturday we purchased the yoghurt,milk and I needed a new thermometer and found a cooking one after looking through 5 shops in town. I now have my yoghurt being made at the moment. It will be ready later on today and will continue setting in the fridge overnight. I won't have to buy any more yoghurt for at least 20 weeks. I just need to take half a cup out each time to use as a starter. The only other thing I needed to the yoghurt is a litre of milk half a cup of yoghurt as a starter and 5 spoons of skim milk powder if wanted. You can add fruit or flavouring as desired after the process is finished. So happy to finally being able to make our own yoghurt. I pay $5.74 for the tub of yoghurt I like so making 20 tubs will save me $114.80 over the next 20 weeks. Which adds up to $298.48 for the year. Now I wonder how many fat quarters I could buy with my saving!!!!

Lots of diverse things "Making Me Happy this Monday." I hope you have a great day.

Happy days.
Bev C

11 comments:

Fiona said...

Love the handquilting.... and as for the logo.. so fun... congrats on your promotion!! Years ago I used to make my own yoghurt... I should try it again... so nice with your own fresh fruit...
Hugz

marina said...

glad you are converting those savings into fabric!
Your quilting looks great.

Vickie said...

way to go with your hand quilting it loks great ...oh my the Head now eh.. well righfully so I say and what a gorgeous rose...OH so happy you found someone who was able to help you with your yogurt maker-homemade is the bestest and very thrifty on the pocket,cheers Vickie

Michelle Ridgway said...

Congratulations on your self promotion...love your jacket. Your quilting is looking great on your quilt. Well done. Yum to the home made yoghurt!

Anonymous said...

What a great idea Bev with the yoghurt maker and boy what a saving,well done

Valspierssews said...

The catnip quilt looks lovely with your hand quilting. Your gardener's logo looks great. Pink on black is stunning. I used to make yoghurt and I still like it but unfortunately I cannot tolerate dairy very well so anything dairy based is a sometimes food for me. I used to eat a lot of cheese so I guess that means I make savings on cheese that can go into sewing :)

Terriaw said...

That jacket is so cool! How fun to get promoted like that! Love to see your progress on that fabulous quilt. That would be quite an accomplishment to finish it so quickly. Never even considered making yogurt - sounds like a fun project.

Maria said...

Great quilting on the Catnip quilt. You reminded me that my is still in the bag from Avalon Retreat. LOL
Love your Jacket!
Yum home made yogart. Have not had that in years.

rosie said...

Congratulations Head Gardner! Does that mean you get a pay rise to match like we do on the farm!! I used to make yogurt, but like Val, have an intolerance for it.. miss it and cheese too..
Beautiful quilt Bev..xx

Simone de Klerk said...

Lovely happy Monday pictures and stories to it. The colors of the quilt make me very happy. And saving money for FQs is a real saver, as my DH would say LOL.

Eggs In My Pocket said...

Yay for you Head Gardnener! Love the vibrant and cheerful quilt! Good luck on your yogurt making! blessings,Kathleen