Jan 28, 2010

cross stitch progress

OK so can anyone guess what it is now?
And here are a few new stashy bits. My mum and aunty and I whenever we go somewhere we buy fabric for each other.


These two came from my Mum & Dad's recent trip down to Mudgee and surrounds.

And this gorgeous one is from Cooroy. I love tea cups, not sure what I'll use it for, but it's just nice to look at. I collect loads of tea cup and tea pot related things.


Jan 21, 2010

garden progress

Husband Guy and I really enjoy gardening - specifically growing fruit, veges and herbs. One of the attractions of this new house was the huge yard, good for large dogs and growing boys, but also good for large scale gardeining. At our old house we had managed to create a very compact little garden, which had to have a very sturdy fence around it to keep out the said large dogs. And unfortunately everything was just hitting its straps when we decided to move.


One of the nice things about post war houses in Brisbane is that so many of them have fantastic mango and macadamia nut trees. Often though the mango trees are a very rustic variety with smaller fruit with very stringy flesh. So it has been with anticipation that we've been watching our mango tree develop huge fruit, wondering what sort of mangos we will get, and indeed if we will get any before the possums/ fruit fly/ dogs do. But as we've discovered dogs are quite good at scaring away possums and we were fortunate to lose none/ one to bugs. Instead of leaving them on the tree to ripen and risk losing them all to the abovementioned pests, we waited until they just started to turn golden pink before we harvested them. And for a small tree we got HEAPS of mangos.

Some as big as rockmelons! And I am so excited to report that they are not stringy at all but really rich with firm flesh - absolutely delicious!



We've also been busy constructing gardens both for decoration and veges. We had these 4 tanks made for our veges by tankosaurus, a local water tank manufacturer. We've finally got around to filling them with dirt (5 tons to be exact) and planting out a few seeds, seedlings and herbs. We have 3 sorts of tomato seedlings plus rosemary, basil, parsley, sage and tarragon. As well as seeds of parsnip, carrots, kale, radish and butter beans. All things we have sucessfully grown in the past.



These beautiful wooden beds will double as extra seating but will also hold 6 lovely 2 year old olive trees (from Australis plants near Toowoomba) as well as a forest of rosemary and lavender (from another wholesale nursery in Maclean). I love to shop on the internet - can you tell? :) I want the garden to be in silver and grey/green tones and have lost of lovely scented foliage.


And planted against our fence, my Husband Guy's absolute favourite fruit, raspberry. We've managed to have a couple of little raspberries off one plant, even though they've only been in the ground a couple of months. And you should hear the fighting when it comes time to eat them!

So in between all this gardening, not much crafting has been happening. I decided to go back to a little bit of cross stich so here is my progress so far - any guesses what it may be??

Jan 6, 2010

busy bee

I have snuck in a bit of sewing over the last week, despite us all being home together.

First off I purchased a Bob the Builder cot panel on sale from Spotlight and backed that for Little Guy. He was quite jealous of the Thomas one I made for a friend and he loves his blankets.

Then I finally made the large cushion for him that I've had the rocket ship material for ages for. I purchased 2 of the largest cushion inserts I could find and just put them together and made the cover. Backed in the same material as the Bob blanket.

And I finally made a new bag for myself. My old one, which was made out of calico as a test piece, was getting very tatty. So I broke out some of my Amy Butler Love stash and tried out one of the April Bags as featured in Sew Mama Sew. Elizabeth has a few great tutorials and I'm also keen to try out her Simple Party Clutch.



an unexpected surprise


A few weeks ago I showed you the first of my Pay it Forward gifts which went over to Anya of Hills Creek Quilter. Well yesterday a most unexpected surprise arrived in my mail box - one of Anya's signature selvage post cards.



Thank you so much Anya - making your gift was pleasure enough - and now I have one of your excellent post cards to put up in my sewing room too!
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