Hearth & Health

  • Blog,  Hearth & Health

    Finding My Style

    Lately I’ve been ‘nesting’ and have decided it is time to turn my attention to our home in earnest, our extensions have now progressed sufficiently to start the final decorating stage.  The question is, what is my decorating style, and it isn’t just my tastes that have to be considered but PC’s too.  I have been blessed with friends who are very talented in the home decorating arena, they just seem to know what to do and somehow conceive ideas effortlessly.  Whilst I admire these friends immensely, I continue to be at sea as to my style, what says me. Last weekend I began my search to define me, clicking on decorating…

  • Blog,  Hearth & Health

    Frugual Living: All About Clothes

    As a family with children, living on one income requires creativity, ingenuity and frugality.   There have been periods in our marriage that have required complete frugality and other periods where we have had some ‘wiggle room’.   Choosing to living on a single income with a large family in today’s world can be a challenge but it can be done. Continuing my series on frugal living, today I want to share some suggestions and tips on clothing your family and yourself that have worked for our family. “We soon came to realise that this was the key to our shopping problem.  Instead of doing as other families did, buying…

  • Blog,  Hearth & Health,  In the Home - Organisation

    Our New Toy Shelving

    Sewing fabric bins has been going on apace and I was thrilled to complete four more this week, bringing my total to seven bins. Finally I was ready to set up a new toy area!  The last three years our toy area has been set up in our ‘new bathroom area’, as this room is not plastered it smells of cement sheet dust. Also it wasn’t very large to play in, therefore the children haven’t played much with their toys.   We filled up the new bins, set up the toys on their new shelving, sold unused toys and gave away surplus furniture. The new toy shelving is a pleasure to…

  • Blog,  Hearth & Health,  In the Sewing Room

    Creating Maternity Jeans

    A couple of weeks back I was in desperate need of maternity clothes, googling for ideas I came across a tutorial on converting regular jeans into maternity jeans. Inspired I set out on the hunt to op-shops with our two oldest girls.  I fell in love with these stretch, skinny jeans, I also found a lycra T-shirt that I planned on using in place of ribbing. The tutorial directions were easy to follow, though when instructions say, “pull your band tight” that is what you should do;)  I’m not entirely comfortable with the fit, I cut too wide and deep towards the sides, which means they slip down a little.…

  • Blog,  Hearth & Health,  In the Home - Organisation,  In the Sewing Room

    Fabric Bins

    I’ve been busy making fabric bins.  Due to the nature of our shelving (ex-school cupboards) standard size storage containers don’t fit. The measurement calculations recommended were nearly perfect, although I had to still adjust my height. Making a paper template first is very helpful  (architects’ ‘cast offs’ are perfect) I’m a bit of a ‘cheater’, I cut the outer and the lining together, saving time. After following the sizing directions suggested above I sewed the right sides together of both the outer and inner bins.  These bins used lots of material, I have a big space to fill!  Fortunately I’ve had stored fabric put aside and unwanted sheets.  I’m also scoring…

  • Blog,  Hearth & Health

    Frugal Living: The Guaranteed Expenses

    As a family with children living on one income requires creativity, ingenuity and frugality.   There have been periods in our marriage that have required complete frugality and other periods where we have had some ‘wiggle room’.   Choosing to living on a single income with a large family in today’s world can be a challenge but it can be done. Currently we are in one of our ‘complete frugality’ periods, thus I’ve been taking a fresh and closer look at ways in which to ‘stretch the dollar’.  Even though we have lived on a single income our entire married life and are well versed in living a frugal life,…

  • Blog,  Hearth & Health

    Ingenious Towel Rack

    Unashamedly I’m very proud of my husband, among his many talents are his handyman skills and his ingenuity.  Last week he combined the two and presented me with his solution to our towel rack dilemma. Our plastic rack had long collapsed under the weight of 11 towels, anyway any rack is inadequate for more than 4 towels from a drying perspective. We’ve scoured plumbing shops and catalogues to no avail.  The closest we came to a solution were the heated  racks that would meet the needs of six, but soo pricey.   PC was determined to find something that would spread out each towel so it had a chance to…

  • Blog,  Hearth & Health,  In the Sewing Room

    Dress To Apron

    Princess and I have been rather keen to try out our new  sewing machine, we decided our first project would be to upcycle a $3 sale item into an apron. I had purchased the size 24 dress with the intention of converting to a skirt or two. An apron was rather an easy project. A simple matter of cutting the front from the back. Then as the dress was lined, we flipped the dress inside out and sewed the front panel to the lining, creating instant neatness.   We also re-inserted the dress ties for the back and snipped the straps over the shoulders for the neck tie.  Done! To…