Author Archives: mlwilkie

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About mlwilkie

Software Developer, Mother, Wife with keen interest in art, design and crafts of all kinds.

New stock available

After all the effort for the craft fair, I am happy to share some of those pieces in my Etsy store – Squeek Crafts. I hope you like the pieces.

The new stock includes:

Cork boards
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Coffee Cup Sleeves
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and of course the Chair Bags/Chair Pockets

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My first Christmas stocking made

I was inspired by all these people posting the Christmas stockings they had made, so with my new-found sewing skills I made a stocking for my 5-year-old. He chose the colors blue and green; even though his favorite color is orange.

I showed him the fabrics for sign off – which included orange. I loved what LC did in her blog with the squares, so I used that idea and the pattern (just the shape) she mentioned in the blog (“Amy at Diary of a Quilter did for Art Gallery’s Fat Quarter Gang Series“). I did included binding around the top.

Here is how it turned out – we really like it. The front:BlueGreenOrangeChristmasStocking

The Back:BackBlueGreenOrangeStocking

The inside:StockingInside

Now, it looks much better than our other $5 felt ones we have from Target, that I am making two more so they whole family will have one. As I finish those up I will post them.

Husband’s color combination will be Orange, Yellow and Brown (earthy tones). My color choses are teal and red.

Meals on a Budget: Roast Chicken into 10 meals

We try to live of $70 (USD) a week on food for two adults and one child (5 years old). We do this by pre-planning the meals to make sure things get used in multiple ways through the week. Below, is how we got 1 full main course, 3 light dinners, 6 lunches and a core pantry ingredient from one meal – Roast Chicken.

Starting with a main course

Last week, I made a roast chicken (whole chicken) with roast potatoes, sweet potatoes and green beans for dinner.

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From the left overs

I boxed up two lunch-size portions of the meal above
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From the left over potatoes/sweet potatoes we made a light dinner of Bratkartoffeln (Recipe in previous blog).

There was significant amount of chicken meat left over which went towards 3 x Chicken Sandwiches and a Chicken Vegetable Pie.
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Finally, I used the chicken carcass to make chicken stock (broth) which I separated into two batches – 1 batch I froze into large Chicken Stock Cubes and the other I placed in a jar and put in the fridge to use during the week in things like casseroles, stews or chicken noodle soup.

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I will continue to share “now” and “later” meals and weekly menu’s throughout December. Feel free to add suggestions or let me know if you have any questions.