Sunday, July 29, 2012

weekend garden.....


Hello, I hope you are having a lovely weekend, it has been a good one around here too.

Today I spent some time in the garden making a pea patch for Spring.


We chopped a couple of old unproductive fruit trees down from this area and I turned the two tree beds into one long bed into which I have planted my little pea and snowpea seedlings. 


I used the lovely twiggy branches from the peach tree as supports for my peas.


So I am hoping that in Spring I'll have a nice patch of peas to pick and enjoy, I always thing they are so much nicer eaten straight from the bush, and my boys like them fresh like this too.


What else is growing now hmm.....broccoli.....


....lots of silverbeet...


....Whilst weeding, I found a nice wild crop of potatoes and some overcrowded carrots, 
might have these for dinner tonight.......


....and a lovely frilly lettuce.....


...early snowpeas are starting.........


......more silverbeet self sown everywhere........


....the tuscan kale is starting to take off with a bit more sun this last week, although something has been having a nibble of this one......


.....the rhubarb is looking healthier after a feed of horse poo........
There is a lot of growing starting to happen at the moment, Spring is on the way!  Other lettuces,
 pak choys, cabbages and broccoli are doing well too.


 ......and there are lots of pretty bulbs coming into flower ......



It is such a pleasurable thing to do, having a wander around the garden and seeing what is growing at the moment, what is slowing down, the changes that happen almost over night.  Such a simple thing, but it does fill me with contentment and happiness, there is so much satisfaction to be had from growing a few plants, it never ceases to interest me and draw me back outside.


My sister came over this afternoon, so my little niece gave me a hand preparing the next garden beds for planting, she was very good on the rake, I have given up asking my boys if they want to help in the garden, it is just not something they are the slightest bit interested in, so it was nice to have a little helper for a change.  She seemed to really enjoy it too!

What have you been up to this weekend?
Did you get into the garden too?

Thursday, July 26, 2012

my creative space....squares


Hello.
So for my creative space today I am sewing rows of squares together for my mini square winter blanket.  This is going to be a large blanket, I am doing 20 squares across and want about 30 rows, so many squares to go yet!  


I've decided to sew the squares together it rows as I go, through the back loop only, I think it should be an almost invisible join if I am careful.


It is fun to see this grow, I hope I can keep up the momentum for this blanket, I thought it would make a good bed spread for one of the boys, but Max told me he doesn't want it as the colours are too boring.!  So I guess I'll see if the older 2 like it (probably will be completely disinterested and I'll get the standard 'meh' response, crochet is not really on their radar :)  )  My darling teenagers.
 Maybe I'll go for 40 rows and put it on my bed!


Have a great day!
Have a look over here if you've got a few spare minutes to see what the creative types have been up to this week.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Yarn Along...


Two posts in one day, a bit of a record for me I think!

Today I am making progress on a beanie using some lovely Noro silk garden, it is a little hat to go with a singlet my mum knitted my niece,  I really like the green flecked section, hopefully I'll get it finished this week, as my niece's birthday was at the start of July and this was supposed to be part of her present!
I am reading Bourke Street Bakery in an effort to demystify sour dough bread making, it is a great baking book, and these guys really know their stuff.  My biggest problem is finding the block of 20 hrs or so that you need to get this bread together, my days seem to be full of interruptions and I'm struggling to find a day when I can have a go.  I probably should start it off in the afternoon and cook it the next morning, but this is easier said than done!

Joining in with Ginny again  for yarn along.

The 'A Year of Projects' project


Hello.  How's your day going?

I've had fun today putting together a list of things I'd like to make this year as part of 
'A 2nd Year of Projects'
This is a group I found on Ravelry and thought I might join in with.  I have been a member of Ravelry for a few years now (I am Juleshar over there), and never really done much with it, I haven't put projects up or used my page much at all.  I'd like to be more involved, but haven't spent the time working it all out yet, maybe this will spur me on!

Anyway, here is my list of things I'd like to make or finish by July next year, it is pretty basic but I like to leave some room for spontaneous makes as well!


1. Finish the Weekend in Stockholm blanket, so far made 33 squares out of 80.


2. Finish the Mini Squares Winter Blanket, so far made 130 out of 600!!! squares.


3. Finish Magic Square knitted blanket, so far made 55 out of 96 squares.


4. Finish the Colourful Lacy tablecloth, so far made 11 out of 100 motifs.


5. Use up my stash of sock weight wool, I can't see myself knitting these all into socks, so I thought I might think of something else to make it in to.

6. Knit up a set of tea towels using the linoleum pattern.

7. Crochet another Star Stitch blanket.

8. Crochet a mixed stripey blanket.

9. Little crochet flowers and embroidered buttons.

umm....I think that will do for now.

I really like to make blankets if this list is anything to go by!

See you later!

Monday, July 23, 2012

Sunday in Melbourne


Hello
Yesterday was a lovely day here, no one had work and we were all home together, so we decided to have a day in the city, not something we do that often.
We had a nice wander around, and I even got to visit Morris and Sons, a great yarn shop in Melbourne, isn't that a lovely retro looking stripey blanket in the window?  I did some shopping, mostly books which I must show you all soon, lots of crafty inspiration there I can tell you!


.......here are the boys as we start our stroll around Melbourne.......


.......everyone was trying to take pictures of the gorgeous cakes and tarts in the Hopetoun Tea Rooms window, and there was a long queue waiting to get a table inside.  I think their high tea is something quite special......


..........there were plenty of ways to experience the city, we saw lots of horse and carriages amongst the trams and cars, I love their brilliant feather head dresses......


.....then it was off to the MCG, we walked along the Yarra river, with lots of other footy fans. I love the atmosphere at the football, some people go a bit nuts with the barracking and it is really pretty funny....


...we were a bit early, so we got good seats, the boys wanted to sit near the goals, here they are before the game started......


....and here are the Richmond boys warming up just in front of us, it was a really exciting match, with the Tigers going down to the Kangaroos by 4 points in the dying minutes.  We were sitting in the middle of lots of fanatical Kangaroo supporters, so of course they went wild when the siren sounded.

We walked back to the city and had a nice meal out before driving home, it was a great day all together, the boys had a lot of fun and loved the footy,and I think it will be a nice family memory for them.  We have decided we should to the footy more often, although Max found the noise and the crowds a bit hard to handle, he is a bit of a country mouse that one!  The older two want to live right in the city in the high rises (a penthouse preferably of course!!), so they are all quite different!

Anyway, it was a lovely family day out, but I was also very happy to get home and snuggle up by the fire with some crochet before bed!

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

(I know this is mostly a crafty blog, but I put a few family things on here too, so when the boys are older they can look back and see we actually did do fun things together sometimes!  Sorry if these posts are boring to you all, I'll be back with crafty stuff later in the week, maybe tomorrow!) 

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Yarn along.....


Today I am joining in with Ginny at Small things for her yarn along linky thing where you show what you are working on at the moment and what you are reading...........

I dragged out my magic square blanket the other day and decided it was time to add a few more squares to it.  It is definitely a slow moving project this one, but it is nice to pick it up every now and again and knit up a few more colours.  I have a couple of nice multicoloured balls of wool that I want to add next, so I hope the enthusiasm lasts long enough to get that done.

I am reading 'A Dance With Dragons' by George R. R. Martin,  it is Book 5 of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series, and I am really enjoying this epic tale.  So much more engrossing than the TV series (which is still a good show),  there is just so much going on in this story, it sucked me right into all the intrigue and power plays, it is hard to put down.  I think he is writing another episode after this one, which would be great, there are still so many story threads to explore.

I've also been looking at 'Gardener Cook' by Christopher Lloyd, that great garden writer (and grower!).
I am feeling very inspired at the moment to get stuck into my garden and just grow everything I can! 
I am hoping this Spring/Summer will be our most productive and beautiful garden since we have been here.  I am feeling like my knowledge and skills are finally at a level where I can actually get the garden growing how I want, and it will hopefully look a little like I imagine! ( A gorgeous abundant oasis of growing things!)

So anyway, have a great day, and happy yarning along1

Thursday, July 12, 2012

My creative space..flowery

sorry about the dark pics, very dull here today!

For my creative space today, I am making some little flowers.  I mean quite tiny flowers.  I'm thinking they would make a pretty necklacey thing.  Or maybe a tiny garland to hang across the window.


The round ones are waiting to have the 'petals' done and to get their flowery shape.
These little flowers are making me very happy and are turning out so cute and dainty, I think they have a bit of a 'Japanese crochet' feel to them. What do you reckon?
The pattern is just a modified version of the flower pincushions I was making a while ago....


I was also playing around with some different stitch patterns to use in my next random stripey blanket.
I came up with a kind of wavy line pattern and a row of circles that could have sc rows in between the circles.
So what have you been up to today?

Joining up with other creative spaces over here.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Colour My Day Monday


Hello.
Just because it is quite dull and dreary here today, and just because it makes me happy, I have a bit of a colour hit for you today.
I was in the 2 dollar shop today looking for something completely different, and happened to come across a heap of crochet cotton, so I had to buy some of course!  I have been slowly adding to my cotton collection, as finding good colours around here can be difficult, so when I see some colours that fill a gap in the rainbow I grab them!


 The six larger balls at the back are the ones I found today, some nice blues and greens and a lovely watermelon red and a tomato red too.  Lovely!


Added to the smaller balls that I already had, I now have some gorgeous colour combos happening, and if I can't make something great from all that colour, I'm a complete idiot!


As it happens, I do have some macro crochet ideas to have a go at, so I am going to get cracking on them very soon.  I am pulling out the tiny hooks so it could be a bit tedious, but I think it will be worth it.


Also, check out the gorgeous colours of these sewing threads!  They were a lucky find at the oppy the other day, brand new and just waiting for me to take them home.

Anyway, I hope that gives you a little colour burst for your day every you are, and I hope it makes you feel good like it does me!

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Slow Living, June 2012


Hello.
Well I am running very late with my Slow Living Report for June, real life has been taking up my time recently, and my blogging has taken a bit of a back seat, but I am back on the wagon now, so here goes!

Nourish - It has been a pretty typical month of eating here.  I have been doing a lot of baking, biscuits, muffins, cakes, that sort of thing, I have been taking morning tea to my new job on a Saturday morning, so it is a good chance to try new recipes out.

Prepare - I haver been making stock from the chicken carcass after a roast, and can't believe how much more flavour the roasted bones give the stock, so I will try and continue with this.  I also had a go at making lime marmalade with my lime surplus, but it started to burn in the fast boil stage so I freaked and ditched the whole batch, after it had cooled all the brown bits had disappeared but I thought it might still taste a bit burnt so the compost got a boost.  I'll try again this month as I still have a mountain of limes.

Reduce - Um.... Have to work on this one ....nothing really comes to mind for June. Oh, I have kicked my Diet Coke habit, so I guess that's a reduction of a type!

Green - We have been buying our vegies from the place where I am working a couple of days a week, it's a kind of farm stall where they sell local produce from the Peninsula, so it is fitting in nicely with my 100 mile diet, and lessening our food miles, there is a a surprisingly large diversity of food grown in our region! 

Grow - I have planted pea and snowpea seeds in punnets in the hot house to give them a head start and they are all up, as is pak choy, lettuce and broad beans.  I cleared a very weedy bed and planted out onion seedlings that I grew from seed, I'll have to find somewhere else to plant them, as I have heaps left over!  Also planted out sweetpeas onto my teepees, so hoping for some nice Spring colour.
I have also saved the seed from my Windsor Long Pod beans, so hope to use them in summer.

Create - In June I made a hat, some fingerless gloves, a bird softie and started a new blanket.

Enhance/Connect - Our tennis team lost the grand final (again!), so we will be staying in B grade for another season, something we are not that unhappy about, the B graders are all lovely.
We got the chickens for our community garden in June and they have settled in nicely.

Discover - I have been reading some great books recently, it has been so cold and wet that snuggling up with a book has been quite a common occurrence.

Enjoy - This month we celebrated birthdays, gathering with friends and I had a nice weekend away with my mum and one of my sisters.





Linking up over at Christine's place.

See ya!