Buying Australian Made

The EOFY (= end of financial year sale) in Australia is a BIG thing. Normally I don't take much notice but this year I wanted to get some new furniture and a new rug for the living room - the room which just didn't feel right yet.

I really wanted to buy some Australian made furniture but this was harder than first thought. Most of the furniture was more or less made to order and was therefore extremely expensive. But finally I found a shop which makes their furniture in Australia. The timber came from NZ which is borderline but closer than anywhere else.

We bought two bookshelves - a smaller one for this corner I really disliked before.

Now this corner keeps my most valuable books - all of my 'antiques'.

The other bookshelf is a bit bigger. I'm still looking for something decorative for on top of the bookshelf but so far haven't found anything suitable. We'll see. 

When I told Steve that I found those Australian-made bookcases, he wanted to add a new entertainment unit. Our old one was bulky for the old style television sets and I know how often we hit our toes on it.  

We also got this rug which isn't made in Australia but it's nice and it's the right size and colour. After searching and searching for an Australian made rug, this one will do.

We both love the new look and soon will add a new coffee table. We have something special and locally made in mind. Stay tunes....

Buying Australian products is becoming more and more important to me, however sometimes they're hard to find. Most textiles come from Asia, are cheap, dyed with chemicals and don't life longer than 4 washes. And most of the time, you don't even find what you're looking for.

One of the things I have been looking for was a rectangular pillow for on top of my rocking chair. For some reason the cushion ended around my neck and my head is always leaning on the timber. Now where I have a sewing machine I can make my own which I did.

When I saw this embroidery file advertised, I knew this would be perfect for my rocking chair pillow. I bought it and started to look for the right coloured fabric which I have now found. So one night I started to embroider my pillow and I LOVE it! The size is perfect, the shape is perfect, the picture is so pretty and so colours turned out to be amazing! I'm so happy and so proud - this is my favourite spot!

If you don't know how an embroidery machine works, you actually load a file into the machine and the machine embroiders but YOU choose the colours. Every single colour in this picture was chosen by me and I think it just looks absolutely amazing. I feel so accomplished - making something so beautiful myself and for me...

To further increase my mood I received a parcel from my Sister with my favourite German magazines. I made myself a nice Cappuccino, sat on my rocking chair and started reading.

Isn't it nice when you can make something yourself, isn't it? I'm thinking of starting to learn woodwork, maybe I can make our next bookshelves? Also they will not look as nice as the ones we just bought, I would e very proud to have something in our home which we made ourselves. As it is so hard to find good quality Australian made items here, I think I will try to make as much as I can in the future. I started with growing our own food, buying local meat, making our own products for cleaning and skincare and have started knitting and sewing to make our own clothes and decoration. I have learnt a lot and I'll keep on learning. But what I've learnt so far makes me proud, feeling accomplished independent and extremely satisfied. Of course making a jumper takes a lot longer than just buying one but you also appreciate it more and it is exactly what you wanted - even with the little mistakes.

What do you do these days? Can you buy local products, do you make them yourself or do you prefer to buy what you need?

What has been happening?

Oh boy, it's already been a month since my last post... I hope everybody had a good start to 2015 and that you're successfully keeping up with the money challenge. Thank you all for the congratulations on our engagement - I'm very excited!

When I returned from work, Steve and I met up in Brisbane and stayed at a friend's place. We wanted to have a look for a location for our wedding as we decided to make it a central location for everyone and after a bit of a look around, we decided to get married at the Montville Country Cabins with its beautiful gardens and lake.

The big day is going to be 7 November 2015 - and I still cannot believe we're engaged! I'm looking forward to the day and know it's going to be relaxt and everybody will enjoy themselves.

 

Another reason, we were staying at my friend's place, is my Christmas present: a Husqvarna Topaz 30!

It's a sewing/embroidery machine - I finally wanted to learn how to mend and make things. Since I never ever used a machine like this before, I needed my friend to show me how to get started.

Embroidery works great - the machine does all the work really.

Look at this! Isn't it beautiful?! I was very proud despite not actually doing anything.

I also made some placemats, ...

... and coasters.

We also made a magnificent Mother's Day present. I will post it here on the day as my Mum reads this blog.

We all went to a Swiss Restaurant North of Brisbane - it was fantastic and we really enjoyed the food and the Swiss surroundings - outside the temperature was in its high thirties.

After 10 relaxing days, we travelled back home with a stopover at Hervey Bay to replenish our stockpile with products from Aldi. We stayed at the Waterfront Apartments which were absolutely fabulous and very reasonably priced - we will certainly stay here again.

H first thing I enjoyed doing when I was home, was cooking, like this Moussaka with a healthy cauliflower bechamel sauce...

... Or this dark grain bread - tastes fantastic! I always miss my bread when I'm at work.

I took to clean up my Study to find a spot for my sewing machine.

And look at my pin cushion jar - isn't it pretty?! I made it all by myself (not the jar obviously).

I bought some beautiful fabrics to make a sewing machine cover and hopefully some other things.

I decided on a patchwork quilt cover for my machine, so I had to cut the fabric into squares.

Then I sewed them all together...

... attached the sides ...

... and my sewing machine cover is finished. I love it!!! And I'm so proud to have done this!

I also embroided a hanky for my Granddad's birthday.



Hera was happy that we were all at home, she loved all the attention and she loved when we let her come inside while we had the aircon on. The first few days after we came back were HOT, so we decided to use the aircon. We have one in every room but the only one we ever used was the one in the bedroom. If temps don't get below 30 deg over night, it's just too hot to sleep. But we mid January, we had around 38 deg C which isn't THAT hot but we also had 89% humidity which makes the felt temperature to be like 49 deg C! So we shut all doors and windows and turned the aircon in the living room on and spent our time in there - Hera sleeping on the cool tiles which she loved.

Not long afterwards, it rained and also we had interruptions, it rained every day for the rest of my R'n'R. I enjoyed many, many baths because our tanks were overflowing. The yard is beautiful green, the temperature went down and everything just looks so nice!

We had this rain on the 26 January - Australia Day. Steve and I enjoyed the day at home and I made Mint Juleps. After the rain we jumped in the Pool and it was so nice and refreshing, it was a fantastic day and I really enjoyed it!

This visitor was seeking shelter after the rain. It's just a tree python, so I left it there to rest.

The rainy weather was perfect to trial my sewing machine. I wanted to trial a design I purchased and want to use for our wedding.



Isn't this beautiful? I will use slightly different colours for the final design but I just wanted to see how it turns out. It's a Jacaranda sprig.

And for everybody who doesn't know how this works, I made a little video. Totally amazing!!!

The wet weather brought snakes, spiders, flies, hornets and wasps. I got bitten by a wasp and my hand swell up so much, it was very painful for nearly a week. I also found a large hornet's nest in our Entertainment area which we luckily removed before they hatched.

Our wedding invitations are done and will be send out soon. I think, they're very pretty for a November wedding in South East QLD - surrounded by Jacaranda trees.

Between making German bread and Australian scones, I also made some German breadrolls - Kaiserbroetchen. Hmmm!!!

And I Made some plate protectors for our picnic basket when we go over to Keppel Island next month.

Clever, isn't it?

Hera watched the Magpies visiting and eating all the birdfood from around the cages. She only barks at them when they're in her spot, she doesn't like to share at all!

The Magpie Baby and Stormy are making friends.

So in summary I had 4 fantastic weeks with friends, great weather (loved the rain!!!), craft and baking. I feel very relaxt and happy and am ready to work for 4 weeks again.