gardener...its still questionable lol

im trying...or its very trying...or maybe its got something to do with my keen as mustard helpers lol
our of our lovely trays of toilet paper rolls we now have two beans and a snow pea.
but the others oh the poor others...some got tipped out of their lovely homes and r all in a tray together...and im hoping for the best to see what we get out of that mess.

much more reading happened and we decided that with the weather here atm that we needed a green house. we r having some very lovely spring days and then days like today and you would swear we were back in august again. not good for plants and seeds at all!!

enter a trip to the nursery today where we both lusted after top of the mill green houses for our new house in a few short weeks, but what to do until we could afford that.?? next a trip to bunnings...oh bunnings, u can never find what your after and come out with a million other things dont u!!!

Not today woohoo. i came home with this. a portable green house that is already doing its job...:) i popped in the hopeful seeds plus the ones we have up, and egg carton we moved to next as an option but we get our eggs from people and we reuse the cartons so i didnt have a heap of them available. so i ended up splashing out on real seedling trays to try as well. i have reseeded all the ones im not sure we r going to get plus some other things including pop corn! and hopefully this time we have more success.

the top shelf has my snow pea and two beans, plus the hopeful ones that were helped alot and some other bits
the second shelf has my reseeded everything for the garden
and finally on the bottom i have carrots, but they were also helped alot and im now not sure where the carrots will come up in the tub...oh well lol

It was market weekend the weekend just gone. its right at the back of the house we currently live in, nice and easy for a stroll. the nursery came this month and i came home with our first citrus tree. an orange. it will be planted at the end of the month, when we move! i also came home with our first every homemade tomato sauce...YUMMO do yourself a favour try it...i tried just a little as tomatos and me r not best friends at all...but the kids love it so i will be making some with our tomato crop!
today we finally made it into ballarat to a nursery. we came home with a lemon tree, granny smith apple and a pink lady apple to put in our new house. i cant wait to see them grow! and then fruit! we also came home with a mushroom box...i have no idea how or even if its organic but we liked the idea so r giving it a go...its currently a box of dirt but in a few weeks i will share some pics of mushrooms i hope!

scrapping and sewing

round 4!
this week we had to use rubons, tape, write on a photo and use bright colours. very collagey look this week. gauze up the side that i inked pink before i stuck it on. i had little to no plan when i started this, it just sort of happened as i scrapped.

are these not the cutest little baskets. i made two...super easy and quick heres the tutorial i found here http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-fabric-basket.html

i plan to mess with the measurements and make bigger ones for storage in the girls room.

i made this dress for emily. its my first attempt at following a pattern on my own. its just a basic spotlight get creative pattern. it was very easy to follow.
http://www.oliverands.com/blog/2008/08/lazy-days-skirt-free-pattern.html

this is the easiest skirt in the world i think there r only three lines of sewing! and one cut. doesnt take much material either. both my girls got one. i did pretty well out of $10 material. 2 skirts and a dress! cant beat that.

the funny thing with all the sewing ive been doing, when we left brisbane i gave away my fabric stores. it was all very country looking. im not a country decorator and i really thought i would leave sewing behind....so not! the materials that are around at the moment r fantastic. i love the colours...i could just go silly!

mermaid tales!

shocking pic...the sun is so sunny here this morning! and i love it its very nice after winter! well here it is a finished mermaid outfit. forgive the serious pic, i was interrupting her fav morning show lol. im quite happy with the final product. it took forever this week, every spare moment i had was sewing scales and then stitching them to the tail, but lilly loves it, is currently giving it a cuddle!!??!! the material has a shimmery shine that changes the colour as u move too. it has an elastic waste and the back seam is completely unstitched so that she can walk around. hopefully it will grow with her for a while!!!.
some of the details...yes stuipd i know but i did hand stitch seed beads on as well, u can just make them out! the things u do for your children!....:) the top i made like an apron, it just ties over her clothes to complete the look! lol i wanted more than a bra type top. emilys tale is next on the list. i want to make hers quite a bit shorter so the flipper doesnt touch the floor, she trips over enough now! the girls r both getting some dress ups for christmas. im going to make them. which means i can throw out more of the old old dress ups lilly has had since she was emilys age. sadly mine are way better quality (but cost the same?) i hope that means they will outlast my little dress up girl.

does anyone watch heuys cooking adventures....on tuesday or wednesday this last week (cant remember which)my dh was cooking with heuy. pretty cool for dan....:)

some information for those interested
lemon cordial
i first found a cordial recipe here
http://crazy-mumma.blogspot.com/2008/07/homemade-fruit-cordials-nablopomo-10.html
its all to easy and is made in a few minutes (not worth buying really)
for my lemon we
used 500g sugar
500ml water
pop both ingredients in a pot, heat until sugar has melted + plus a minute or two after that - thickens the sugar syrup just a little.
u should have about a litre of sugar syrup
generally cordial is then equal parts fresh squeezed fruit juice and the sugar syrup.
we didnt use equal parts lemon juice. i used about 800mls ish maybe less in the sugar syrup i didnt want it to be too tart for the kids. its perfect for us. its lemony for me and sweet enough for the kids.
homemade cordial tastes different to store bought. the taste is refreshing and reminds me of expensive flavoured waters u can buy. but i know only the best fruit was used to make it.
we do add citric acid about a teaspoon a litre i think helps it to last a little longer.

the lavash bread biscuits i found here
http://simple-living-simple-cooking.blogspot.com/2007/03/lavash-bread.html
i use alot of things from this simple little record blog. lots of base cooking ideas that r helping us to cut out even more preservatives and fake food

how dare you

did i even tell u all i joined the team over there...link in the side bar.

this months theme was everyday...we werent required to add to the theme but it had so many opportunities so i just had too!!!

this is what i did. printed lilly onto some printable fabric photo paper

followed sort of a tutorial here http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=1098 and went with some fabric scrapbooking ideas from doona downeys book (i love that book)

i added some quilt wadding for insulation and then some lining, including a plastic layer so that condensation doesnt leak everywhere.

thats a 600ml bottle and its alot bigger than the bottle. i bought lilly and emily new thermos water bottles this morning and it should fit those i hope nicely. it will also protect these bottles from some damage...they were not cheap!

LEMONS

not even three months ago this view of lemons would of filled me with what the?? i wouldnt of known how to use this many lemons. so yesterday when dan arrived home with a bag full of home grown lemons i knew just what to do with them!
lemon cordial!!! YUM! yes i used all those lemons, with some sugar sryup i made up and got a bottle and a half of cordial. im waiting for it to cool right now and then lemon cordial drinks here i come!

cooking and sewing

recently i was left with a what will i do about crackers, savory biscuits and the like. full of preservatives and children that eat packets of them a week. i had no idea when i came across a few ideas. we turn our day old homemade bread into crackers by drying them out in the oven to eat with cheese or philly spread or homemade dips, then i found a recipe for lavash bread biscuits. totally yum!!! easy to do esp when u can roll out the dough with the pasta machine we bought dan for fathers day! we have made them twice, they last a few days and r so hard to STOP eating just ask dan! hehe
yesterday i made them with my little helper. she was putting the cooled ones in the box before the new tray came out of the oven. im sure my little helper ate half of every tray that came out of the oven..she didnt eat much dinner last night lol.

her fav job everyday is to help me out in the kitchen. she pulls up the chair to the bench and says help help until i give her something to do lol.

my newest sewing project!! its for lilly's dress up box. she loves playing dress up and is finally steping away from dressing up as a fairy! I am however upset by the quality of bought dress up clothes, they r not sewn well and cost a bomb...so this time i decided i would do the sewing and from my own design too lol can u guess what it will be??

ive managed another two rows this afternoon. the base is calico. and ive cut out another two rows but they r still being prepared

i will show some more of the project tomorrow.

So you think you can scrap 3 plus a rak winner!!

this week i almost gave up. ive been busy. but i took this killer photo of lilly today while i was taking photos of suzannes little man today and i knew i had my official im five photo and well its the first thing i wanted to print off and scrap.

this week we had to use a pattern paper background, plus another 3 pattern papers on the page. so my background is mm, i then used pink pasilee, around the block, ki lace and fancy pants.

we could only use one 4 x 6 photo and the embellishments had to be clustered together. we had to INK everything including the photo and use staples.

a close up of the clustering. i like the page, but its still missing something, but its done and if i done make the next round i dont...im not all that concerned. its been fun to get scrapping again above anything.

I had a great week showing suzanne around our country town, we had trips to ballarat and out to the vineyard and lots of lunching! it was so nice and laid back. got to show suzanne inside our new house which was nice, i also enjoyed seeing it again and i still cant wait to live there. soon!

a rak winner

Kerry - Ann

email me and i will send you out your things.. :)

i will be back tomorrow...wait til u see my new sewing project...think childrens dress up clothes and it couldnt be as easy as a fairy dress either!!!!...5 year olds need i say more

veg garden

im going to have one at the new house, its in the planing stage for dan....ive said what i want and he is addingwhat he wants

but i started out today getting some seeds organised.

we have always had one but nothing on the scale we want to move towards. i was reading one of my fav sustainable living blogs last night and use had this great idea for seedlings! (seeds way cheaper to get than plants...they just need some effort) i cut in half the toilet paper rolls of which i had heaps waiting for lilly and a crafty day. filled with seedling mix and seeds. we will hopefully have corn (just), lettuce including cos, cucumbers, beans, snowpeas (just), pumpkin, some new herbs and tomatos for dan and for me to make tomato sauce out of..im alergic to them myself! We are waiting on some popcorn corn too. i liked this idea because when we move in a month or so i can pick them up just as they r and plant them as the cardboard will break down into the soil and i can get the planting thing started right now. they look all pretty here but are currently all covered in soft drink and water bottles as their own little green house due to the weather down here atm, its all over the place!

yes thats rain they are sitting in!!! AND dans bay leaf tree that really needs a garden spot! or a new pot, it was a little thing when we got it a few months back but its really coming on right now.

we have more plans for carrots broccoli, potatos, onions, strawberries and citrus trees either when its the right time for the plant or when we move. and are going to look into having an apple tree too.

i somehow dont think heidi swapp every expected her paper piercer to be used for quite this idea lol...but there u go hehe. this is a 3 ltr milk container, i put holes in the top so the water dribles out so the girls can water the seedlings when they come without killing them with kindness!!! hehe

ok i wont be around this week

i have my good friend and emilys god mother visiting from qld with her son and i havent seen them in the longest time!

have a great week everyone.

some stitching

I decided last month that i would take on a quilting project..the first one in a number of years. I picked a block of the month quilt...called little blue birds by Janelle wind .
so far i have worked throught two months of it. Im LOVING IT...didnt she just pick beautiful fabrics!

some close ups, i wouldnt say im perfect at patchwork, actually a long way from perfect, but im happy with it so far.

This was last months block, all hand stitching. it took me ages to do, and again its not perfect but its looking good from a distance.
This weekend ive been making frilly aprons for the market store (see the link in side bar)
I was playing with my new machine, and working on the finishings of something that is for sale. i wanted to hide the messy seams and stuff and the overlocker type stitch was great lessing the problem too. This is about a size 2 so probably good for a 12 months to 3 year old i would guess. or thats what im hoping as emily has one too. i listed the smaller apron for $18..:)

anyway im loving stitching atm, there are some inspiring people out there in sewing land thats for sure! i have so many ideas that i want to try now! and i would love to go to tafe and actually learn about sewing and making your own patterns and stuff. one day!

so you think you can scrap 2

i made it to round 2 with last weeks entry

this week the instructions were as follows

1 large photo

3 pattern papers (not from the same coordinating line)

all weighted to one side

ink (lots of it)

dimension

strip journalling

i think that was it

heres what i came up with

i went the close up photos for this round

and ps to anyone worried - im ok today.. :)

dont forget my rak lilly will draw a winner on sunday night

hospital day

today was a hospital day, maybe our last regular weekly one!
it was a hard visit today
finally emily was reviewed by one of her surgeons (yes she has a large team of doctors that start with fellows, professors and end with heads of micro surgery) lots of talk about where she has come from (more of my own realisations about how lucky i am to still have her with all her limbs in tack), and lots of talk and trying to work out what she has in terms of function (basically what they thought she would have) and then finally the very long list of what she doesnt have, which i listened to while trying to stop myself from crying. they are however happy with her progress and with the work they have done so far, i guess it was just hard for me to listen to the whats missing thing. they r still hopeful of more improvement.

still thinking more surgery in jan, thumb reassignment to try and give it more use, maybe muscle then and a fat flap. i always knew we had more surgery to go...but to hear that she faces a life of surgery is pretty scary. they expect that she has several surgeries that are corrective then every few years to help with growth and assess where everything is at, probably until she is 18 years old! we were thinking that maybe by the time she was 12 or 13 we might be able to put the hospital behind us, but it appears not! Its sort of thrown me a bit.

anyway...ot and physio is being transfered to ballarat so that it can be intensive we hope for next week, but we will find out tomorrow for sure. otherwise another week of melbourne
she did get her pressure garment today but which is good, which has this gel silcone sheet that goes over the graft itself first. its funny stuff. so goodbye to crape bandages and tube grip stuff...thankgod, i was stick of seeing that stuff. she will be in the other for 23 hours of everyday! wont that be nice during summer! She gets an hour break after her bath every night from it all.

anyway, i dont really know how to record how i feel about it all, just that today was a little to much for me, but everything is as ok as its going to be for a while
another review in 2 to 3 months..ya!

FINALLY

well yesterday was a sewing day...a few clothes for the kids and this, my gratitude wrap for the swap im in organised by mel goodsell. BUT, after many months of know my sewing machine was dieing...it kicked the bucket! ive been putting money away for a while generally from my card publications to put towards my machine and i was still a little short. My loving dh told me to get a new one anyway. woohoo!

im in love right now with the stitching work of janelle winds journal covers with belts and mardi's pattern test ones. so i decorated my wrap with something similiar. (i know i will be buyiing that pattern when its released! THAT bag is just beautiful)
the inside, and i beg of my swap partner to not look closely a the stitching, this is what i was in the middle of stitching when the said machine started the kick the bucket!, im still thinking of stitching it again, but will have to think about time frame before that. the belt i stitched today on my brand new wonderful machine!
And this is it my beautiful new machine. i went the breast cancer release machine, it was good value for money and a good next step for me after 11 years of a very very basic machine. and it came with all the quilting foots i need and generally meets my needs. its just so lovely to stitch with, it doesnt thump along, or move the table when i really get it going. and just because i didnt want to stitch paper as a first project here is a felt food tutorial that was promised before said machine started to really die on me..: )

Biscuit felt Tutorial - jam drops.

(machine stitched version)

brown felt

red felt

hobby fill

machine.

Roughly cut two large brown circles and a small red one to act as the jam.
Stitch the jam circle to one of the brown circles.
Stitch the brown circles together. I used my new overlocker type stitch, more because i wanted to see what it was like ... :)
leave a small section not stitched

and add hobby fill. stitch closed.
to add a bit of feature, stitch around the red circle once more through all the layers of the biscuit. (like quilting really)
And there u go finished biscuits.
My first lot of biscuits i made i used blanket stitch on the edges and to attach the red circle. it was also easy to do it this way.

FINALLY A RAK
i promised this weeks ago and then got sick.
so here it is, if you would like to start your felt food collection i have some strawberries and todays biscuits to give away, but also added to the rak is one of my knited dishcloths. if you want to try one leave me a comment on this post and i will get lilly to draw a comment in a few days.

masters layouts

well i dont think these will get picked up now
i love the double that i did, im going to pop it into frames for our new bedroom wall for when we move.. :) i put old book pages down and tore them back and then white washed the background for blending. cant remember what the papers r, i know they were nice quality
my single layout is not outstanding, it was the one part of my eNtry (that i didnt get to finish) that wasnt up to scratch! no matter what i did i couldnt make a shaped layout what i wanted. the flowers i crocheted myself

i think the thing that im disappointed about is the money spent on my entry. im not concerned with missing out and not getting the entry in lets face it i was in the middle ofsomething way more important than a scrapbooking contest at the time, but still i look and think of the money! at least i will use the calendar when i get it finished

scrapping share

this is my so you think u can scrap entry...its my second take...im working on some hospital photos and while i want to scrap them, they r quite memory provoking and therefore hard to scrap....im happy with the above one but. emily loved music therapy, she used to have it every few days, it was a lovely way to fill in the long days of trying to entertain her inside the hospital, esp when alot of that time she was stuck in that little cot day and night!
this was my first effort for so you think u can scrap, but something about just isnt right, its ok as a layout, but wasnt what i had in my head for the comp. something about the title not sitting right, i wont fix it, its scrapped now and on to the next thing..: ) this was about emilys visit with tlc in hospital. top organisation.

i know the tutorial is coming!

photos to go and its good to go...:) tomorrow

we r all still a little slow around here

sick

we're all ok
just been sick... :)
on the mend now we all hope
ill be back tomorrow with a felt biscuit (jam drops) tutorial and my RAK