Getting in the spirit of things....

Hello!

Wow, it has been a busy week here!

I don't know why I am surprised, this time of year always seems to have so much going on!

I haven't had time to take many photos  or do any crochet :( , or even catch up with blog reading!

We are going on a family road trip holiday up North next week and won't be back till just before Christmas. We have got a house sitter coming to look after the chickens and the kitten, so I have been doing A LOT of home loving this week( with the excellent help of my mum!).

It's funny how I am ok with us living in a messy, slightly chaotic home, but the idea of someone else living here for a couple of weeks has made me quite house proud, (I don't want her to think we are slobs!) and I am seeing things through much more critical eyes!  So lots of decluttering and dusting and tidying and scrubbing and sweeping and washing and mowing and weeding and on and on, you get the picture!

But I am loving the results!  Our bedroom is looking shiny and new, we treated ourselves to a new bed as a 20th wedding anniversary present, (our old one had passed it's use by date some time ago) and it is looking lovely!

I am really going to try and maintain a tidier home when we get back, I think we all deserve it!

This weekend, before we go away, we have a family Christmas get together with Gary's family which is 2.5 hours away, Jesse is going to a Muse concert, I am working on Saturday and then cooking a couple of things for my side of the family's extended Christmas party ( over 60 people all up) which is on Sunday, in between I will be packing for the trip and doing last minute cleaning so the house doesn't get too messy again!  Then we are packing the car and seeking warmer climes!  Maybe summer will have arrived here in Melbourne by the time we get back! :)

So I have been doing some Christmas shopping for the rellies we will be seeing this weekend and not on Christmas day, it has been fun!  I like shopping for presents.  I was going to try and do hand made this year, but things have got away from me again and I ran out of time to make things.....must start earlier next year.  I have made some handmade decorations though, so at least that is something.

There are plenty of cute things out there to buy, ever shop seems to be bursting at the seams with stuff, I don't know how they sell it all.......

I bought books, and a couple of cute toys, some kitcheny things and some vouchers as well.

Jesse is tie dying a couple of t-shirts for presents, so there is a hand made element in there!

......and here is a little sneaky shot of our little tree this year, not very traditional but it is going to look  cute when I finish all my flower decorations and hang them.

Speaking of which, a few people asked for a pattern for the flowers, so I will do my best to get  it down on paper soon! 

Anyway, that's about it for the minute, see you on the other side of the weekend!  

Have a good one! :)

Spring Colour....

Hello.  How are you all going?

I feel like I haven't been round here much recently, life has really become busy over the last few weeks, and I don't feel like I am giving anything the proper attention it deserves, including this sad, neglected blog!  Really looking forward to the school holidays at the end of next week, hanging out for them actually.

In the mean time, Spring has sprung around these parts and my long awaited poppies are flowering beautifully.  These have to be one of my favourite flowers, I never get sick of them, especially the pastel shades.  I seem to be in luck this year with a fair percentage of pastels in the mix, not just yellows and orange.  They do perk me up no end, happy days!

And much excitement, my cutting garden of tall freesias are also in bloom! Yay!

Last year I dug up a lot of my fressias that were scattered around all over the garden and planted them in a special bed so I could cut them for the house and try and give them a bit of special TLC.  They were supposed to be a tall florist variety, but in the borders they didn't grow as tall as I liked, but in their cutting bed, Wow!  I am getting some very tall stems 30 - 40cm, and really sturdy flowers spikes, I just love the scent of freesias, they are making the house smell so Spring like, just brilliant!

(And there are still lots coming up in the other parts of the garden, gotta love a multiplying bulb/corm?)

So cheerful and super delicious smelly!

I have also been doing a lot of baking, in fact I feel like I am rarely out of the kitchen these days!

My boys might be a bit fussy on the food front, but they seem to inhale the baked stuff that I make, I could easily bake every day and they would still be looking in the tins for biscuits and cakes, 1 or 2 batches don't seem to cut it any more!

Really easy banana muffins, a current favourite of Max.

Something exciting came for me in the mail this week, and I have to say I was waiting with great anticipation for this parcel, my first online yarny buy!  And I wasn't disappointed!  Look at all these lovely cottons I bought and such gorgeous colours!  It was the colours that drew me to this yarn, it is really hard to find nice colours in 100% cotton locally, so I was very pleased with these.

I bought them from the lovely Yvonne at The Yvestown Shop.  I am sure all you crafty ladies would know of Yvonne and her gorgeous blog, so much inspiration there! It was a great online shopping experience, I highly recommend it!

 So these yarns have travelled half way round the world to end up here, and I am so happy with them!  I have lots of ideas brewing for this lot, if I ever get time to settle at some crafty action, hopefully on the holidays.

So here are a few more pictures of the yarn, cause you can never have too much colour to brighten your day!

I really love some of the blues and this brilliant orange, and the bubblegum pink, and the grassy green, and .......well I love them all actually!!

Anyhoo, I'll be back with the next bit of the crochet along over the weekend, if i don't get too distracted by my new stash!

What have you been up to lately?http://www.yvestown.com/shop/

Catching up.........

oops! Over a week since my last post, that time just flew! It has been quite busy round here recently and I don't feel like I was home that much last week, and when I was I had lots of things on my to do list, and blogging got put on the do-it-later list! I think there would be lots of you like me at this time of year, there seems to be so many get togethers and end of year things to do, that normal routines go out the window!

Surprisingly then, around all the Christmas parties and end of school things, I have managed to do a fair bit of creating.....


.....these are the start of some more knitted bunting, this time just in cool colours (maybe for a little boy)....


.......I have made another Pippi scarf that is nearly finished, this time with a blue edging. I'm trying to finish it for a Christmas present so I have been clickety-clacking with the needles like a mad woman!



......also had a go at a couple of the super cute decorations that Lucy from Attic 24 showed us how to make. So just got to finish them off too, and then they might go to teachers for chrissy pressies. ( only got a couple of days left for that one, so it could also just be a box of choccies!)


.....and I made a couple of Christmassy washcloths for the Christmas swap I signed up for over at Jellywares, I hope my swap partner Likes them! Got to get them in the post by tomorrow, so have to get cracking on the finishing off there too! Yikes!

Hope you are all having a fun time at this stage of the year, I find it is very hectic and busy, but also very exciting and joyous and there are the summer holidays just around the corner! Yay!!
Ok, got to run! Have a great day!

Computer says no.....

Our computer seems to be playing up and won't let me access any photos, so I can't show you what I've been making over the last few days. Bummer. Hopefully it will be behaving itself soon.
This week has just flown, I have so many things I want to do and each day just seems to trickle away before I've achieved much. I'm sure you all know the feeling! Anyway I hope to be back giving my blog the love and attention it needs very soon! (with pictures I hope!)

Have a great day!