Quietly Content at Home

I have been crocheting for many years and have been joyfully working on Irish lace lately. I wanted to focus on making special heirloom things like crucifix bookmarks and baptism bonnets. I am learning more about Catholicism which led me to mantilla veils and chapel veils. I am currently making my first small veil using: - 4ply crochet cotton in cream - 4mm hook - Dublin bay crochet's free bandana pattern It's working up beautifully. I've really enjoyed sitting down to work on it between household tasks. It should be done soon. This would look lovely in a thin mohair yarn. Maybe I should try that next.

Mother wore an ample apron to cover her clean dress. She'd tell you that's what it was for if you asked her, I would guess. But that apron had more uses than I could even count. It brought in eggs and vegetables and could hold a large amount. I've seen her use that apron to wipe her dripping brow as she labored over the big range that's just an antique now. Her apron could bring giggles in a game of peek-a-boo with her newest, sweet grandbaby as she hid her face from view. When we kids were hurt or crying we'd run to find her lap. She'd wipe the falling tears away with a bit of apron flap. That apron dusted tables and shooed away the flies. It did just fine as oven mitts to take out bubbling pies. But the greatest of the treasures that old apron could hold, was the endless love from Mother abiding in each fold. by Joyce Johnson, 2010 This is my favourite poem at the moment. It captures the warmth of motherhood and homemaking so well.  This poet has written...

 I first made a mild healing salve in 2020 for our Boo Boo Bag which lives in the car. I remember it had olive oil, beeswax and a few other things in it and it worked a treat for minor scratches, cuts, mozzie bites and even a mild burn or two. But the blog I got the recipe from is gone. After some research and reading through my amazing books from Love Thy Oils  I came up with this recipe which is working well so far. Homemade healing salve 1 tb beeswax pellets 3 tb extra virgin olive oil 10 drops each of lavender, lemon, peppermint and frankincense Tins or small jar Method Melt together oil and beeswax using a double boiler or bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Add your essential oils. Decant into the tin using a dropper or your preferred method for transferring hot liquids without burning yourself.  This is a very small batch, less than 100 mls.  The dilution is very mild but please decrease the amount of oils even further if using for children under 5 years ol...

 Every year I try and make a batch of Farmhouse on Boone's Organic Peppermint Cocoa lip balm. I didn't get around to it in 2023 so I am very excited to get a new batch going. My last batch filled about 20 tubes and lasted 18 months. This is my husband's favourite and the peppermint cocoa flavour is such a winner. I cut the recipe in half this time and filled nine tubes to the brim. These make great Christmas presents and stocking stuffers or even teacher gifts bundled with a gift card or handwritten letter. Using organic ingredients not only improves the quality of the lip balm but gives you peace of mind that your lip balm is one less thing adding up exposure to questionable ingredients that can irritate skin. Small easy swaps add up over time. I am not that concerned over the plastic tube as beeswax is inert, I opt for BPA free/non toxic and the lip balm has never really melted even in school bags on warm days but paper tubes are a great way to make it even safer. My eld...

 My grandmother was studying embroidery, crochet lace and Irish lace with her church craft group when she passed away in 2011. I started decoding and working through her notes, unfinished pieces and vintage pattern books during the pandemic.  My December makes. 3mm perle cotton, 3mm hook. I've been making heirloom clothing, accessories and toys for a while now. I made a few lace pouches as Christmas gifts and am trying to decide on my favourite bookmark pattern. 2025 is the year I hope to expand into bridal.  Bookmarks will always be my favourite but there is something so special about seeing a piece of lace from an Edwardian pattern book come to life before your eyes. Wrapping something so special around your bridal bouquet then later around your baby's feet for their newborn photoshoot then her bridal bouquet and a grandchild... Memory, family and legacy all captured in those stitches. 

 I successfully taught my now 6 year old daughter how to read at 4 years old using the book  Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons  [Affiliate link] by Engleman et al after educating myself on the science behind reading instruction through La Trobe University, Australia, and scouring resources like SPELD NSW for advice.  Initial instruction only took 3 months or so but it is now 18 months later and she not only reads well but seeks out books and tries to read them to herself. To support and reinforce her phonics based explicit reading instruction, I took the Dolch sight words list from the MyHomeschool curriculum and created my own flashcards. Most flashcards were far too big for my (and my home printer's) liking so I opened the trusty Canva and created my own ten to a page format.  I have provided the PrePrimer level below for free. They are jpg files so just Right click and select Save As to save them to your computer to print later. I use a corner ...

I make bookmarks constantly for my own children, at work and for friends and family. Here is exactly how to make a bookmark in Canva AND have it print at the size you actually want a bookmark to be without needing to mess around with settings on multiple devices. Part one is how to make the bookmark. If you already have your bookmark image and just need to print it the right size, scroll down to part 2. Part 1: How to make the bookmark in free Canva You are welcome to use the free bookmark images I have on the "Printables" page. Just click the link above to see them. Log in to Canva with a free account. Type "bookmark" into the search box and choose a template you like. Click Create this template. You will need to edit it significantly if you wish to do anything commercial with it but the free templates are ok for personal use. In the project screen, make changes to the template you chose and/or add a new blank bookmark that is already the correct s...

Afterschooling means to supplement a school based education with explicit home learning in the afternoons and weekends.  My five year old daughter and I started a new unit of Charlotte Mason inspired work a few weeks ago. It has been a lovely experience. She can already read and write, and she adores math, so I've been using MyHomeschool' s Kindy Lite as a base to extend her while spending quality time together. So far she has fallen in love with Blinky Bill stories, we have finished The House on Pooh Corner as a read aloud, she is two chapters in to a Billie B Brown chapter books as her 'own choice' and we've brought out the Waldorf Math Gnomes her big sister made during lockdown homeschooling to make mental math more fun. The best of all is the formal introduction of the nature journal. MyHomeschool and Simply Charlotte Mason podcasts have been a great source of information with setting these up and its made us more aware of the plants in our own yard. Since she...

Originally published 19 September 2022 under my crochet business, Liz & Lottie. These crochet King's Guards are made in one piece with almost no sewing! Suitable for beginners with just a 4mm hook and some 8ply/DK yarn, make a set of these soldiers for a castle play set. I started drafting this pattern back in 2015, hoping to make a set of little soldiers for a toddler's Grand Old Duke of York play set. My amigurumi skills were not quite up to it and I made a set of peg dolls instead. With the sad news of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, I thought it might be time to finish it off. We have not been to visit our girls' grandmother's home in England since 2016. The youngest has never seen the Grenadier guards in person before but was very interested in the soldiers when watching the tv coverage of the proclamation of King Charles III. I had barely cut the threads on my draft prototype of this pattern before she toddled off with it to play with her castle...

 It seems it was another lifetime, but my husband and I met in another city at university. Of the things I studied during that short time before we decided that our new family was more important, creative writing and archaeology were my best subjects. Feeding all my old drafts, manuscripts and notes (including a novella and a poetry collection) through the shredder a few years back while decluttering old tax papers was the most freeing and cathartic act. What I was writing wasn't bad but those papers had served their purpose back then in my pointless, lonely university days and have no place in my happy, full adult life of family and meaningful work so I joyfully shredded them. And you know what happened next? After thirteen years of writing nothing beyond thank you notes and grocery lists, the words began to flow again. I started with a story about my daughter finding a fairy blown in her window from a storm, then another about my other daughter trying to name her pe...

 Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands. 1 Thessalonians 4:11 I have really been leaning into this verse lately. I have very few memories of my grandmother speaking her opinion out loud yet she was the centre and head of the family through living by example. I cannot find the artist, if you know them please tell me When I say "It's been one of those weeks" I am not complaining about my wonderful life. My home, children, marriage and work are wonderful. What I am referring to is the small, seemingly endless one thing after another worldly problems that pop up and suck away energy and contentment. Things in your own home like one of the children figuring out how to get netflix or something on an old device they were using as a calculator and binging an entire season of some useless show. This child then wandered into the kitchen at 9.30pm asking for help with an assignment due the next day when they "resu...

 Ironing is one of my favourite cosy chores. It's like a window into your family seasons. One day you are ironing tiny baby clothes, then netball uniforms and piles of skirts. My husband's dress shirts don't get out much these days as we are blessed with semi-permanent Work From Home conditions for him. But I remember well what it was like ironing his work shirts with our eldest in a bouncer at my feet in our first apartment. I'll be ironing her high school uniforms soon. Woman Ironing, Study for the Washerwomen (1888) Albert Edelfelt I remember being the age she is now and ironing my own school clothes. I could not wait until I was ironing for my own children. Every time I cooked a meal for my sisters, baked muffins or read a bedtime story - I was looking forward to my future as a mother. And now I'm living it. Even when I'm tired or rushed, standing at that ironing board will never lose its charm for me. Whether I am 12 years old ironing for my sist...

 I love cross stitch magazines, my Addi knitting machine, making personalised icy pole holders with my Cricut and pumping out dozens of bookmarks. But picking up a crochet hook and some yarn is like arriving home after a long drive. I browsed through a crochet magazine on my library app and reading the patterns was like hearing my first language after working so hard on cross stitch for so long. Attributed to Tasha Tudor I have been using my girl's crochet play purse pattern to make little presents for a special little girl's second birthday. I am so happy with how the rainbow variegated one came out. Making it brought me so much joy after a long and tiring term. Left, centre are my crochet pattern linked above. Right is a daisy square by Melanie Ham I made into a bag.

There are thousands of wholesome book lists online and just as many parents and educators ready to share theirs. This is my list of enjoyable, clean and heart felt books for children aged 3 - 12 years. This list is a good place to look for a comfort read and a good story. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt The Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Graeme Heidi by Johanna Spyri The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett Pollyanna by Elaenor H. Porter Ruby Red Shoes by Kate Knapp Little Pilgrim's Progress by Helen Taylor Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Di Camillo Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing ...

 My dear Nan has been gone 13 years this August and it still doesn't seem real. My husband and children came after she went to Heaven and I had to become the wife and mother I always wanted to be with just her memories rather than her direct guidance. I was given a bag of her embroidered linens by my Aunt on a recent visit. I spent this past weekend treating, soaking and washing them. It's no secret that I adore ironing and pressing. Pressing these lovely handkerchiefs, runners, placemats and doilies has brought me so much joy. Just a small sample of the treasures I have made a few embroidered pieces for my girls such as hoops with their names and flowers in them for their doors. I also embroider their names or initials on some of their things like bags. I made a Christmas embroidery hoop a few years ago from a kit and it's my favourite thing to put up each December. Seeing just how many of these beautiful pieces my grandmother produced inspires me to keep going. Every litt...

 Learning to ride and care for horses is a wonderful experience for so many children. A love for horses can be explored and enjoyed through stories when getting to the stable is not possible. Here are some suggestions for books about horses and their humans. First we will go through some classics then all the series I have come across as a librarian. The classics are read and enjoyed by both boys and girls but the series on this list were written mostly by women, for a female audience aged 8 - 16. Horse Diaries however would appeal to boys who enjoy historical fiction for children such as My Story, My Australian Story and Royal Diaries. This is a simple list of cherished classics, for further details please check Common Sense Media, Booktopia, Amazon and any of the other wonderful lists of horse books that give summaries of the stories. Goodreads is not particularly good for reviews of classics or anything with religious characters. Classics The Black Stallion series ...