Bless you

My Blessings for this festive season.

May all your wishes come true.

Check 'em out

Check out these zucchini!!

The pale ones weigh a fair bit.  The small bulby bits on the far end are where the seeds are.  They measure around 40cm long!! Apparently they are good to eat up to 1m long.

Zucchini, etc

Just picked 2 more home grown zucchini - the one I picked last week was quite nice without the seeds.  Lightly steamed, yummmmm

1 of those just picked is nearly a complete circle!  Looks like there will be 3 more in a few days, they just need to colour up.

On and I counted the pumpkins too - 12 in all that I can see.  So far they are 4-6" long and getting their ribbed skin. 

Of my wartermelon and rockmelons I have 3 of 1 variety and 1 of the other - not sure which is which so it will be surprising when they get big enough to flower and then fruit.  Lost 2 along the sideway fence - darn birds digging for worms dug these ones out. Hopefully our Son will keep them watered well whilst we are away.

Zucchini

I picked 1 zucchini on Friday - slugs/snails were eating the bulbish area where the seeds would be - the zucchinis are TROMBONCINI variety.  We ate it with dinner on Saturday night - quite nice lightly steamed, no seeds to worry about.

We've had a bit of rain over the past couple of days, so I have not had to water.  The poppies are doing well and flowering lots.

Veges

Hubby whipper snipped around the garden beds Sunday - I lost part of a zucchini plant.  He asked our son who was helping him "can I glue this back on?" . 

In having a good look at the veges I have around 5 pumpkins, but they are long not round; lots of zucchini - most are curling around themselves; my capsicums look like tomatoes; the broccoli is a failure (or maybe that's just me not having a green thumb).  I have planted yet more peas - this is what I picked from what I had in to start with.

That's 3 plants worth of peas - they tasted nice and sweet, pod and all.  Maybe they don't like being in pots.

We have decided to get rid of our front lawn totally and turn it into a car park.  Our youngest daughter has her own car now and the driveway is not big enough for 3 cars - we need to put 1 on the lawn.  Putting down a stone/concrete mix will mean a lot of work, but be worth it in the end when the other 2 kids get cars (assuming they do that before leaving home).  We will have to redo some of the front garden bed to get the car onto the lawn easier.

Vege Garden

I have 2  more broccoli seedlings that I have put into the big beds.  I had to rip one of the original ones out - looked really sick.  The other orginal one is slowly getting eaten by something - I put down snail pellets.

I also planted watermelons and rockmelon seeds - some down the sideway and some out the front.  The bed down the sideway got weeded and sugar cane mulched.  Also put in another pea seed and more snail pellets around these.  Maybe I should invest in a snail trap - but then I would have to buy beer and no one here drinks the stuff.

Also put in MORE tomato seeds - if these don't germinate I am going to give up and buy 2 plants.  This goes against the grain as I don't really want to put profit into the hands of the large seed companies, but what do I do if I want to grow my own tomatoes?  Also put in some more capsicum and cucumber seeds.

All of the self germinated peas have been pulled out - they looked sick anyway.  A lot of the grass that was coming up in the big beds has also stopped doing that.  I think I have managed to pull the rest all out.

Found an old hose on a reel too.  Now I need some tap connectors for it - much better than a watering can.  I can give the whole bed a good soaking.  Which I think I need to do daily.  The potting mixes where there were seeds are bone dry - even though we had a lot of rain yesterday.

Now I just need to get hubby to whipper snip the grass around the beds down low so I can put a thick layer of mulch.  Oh and I need a vege garden / grass barrier too.  Bunnings here I come.

Vege update - yep another one

So it looks like I've lost all my cucumbers to something - probably slugs/snails though how they can crawl across pea straw is beyond me.

The extra pea seeds I put in are starting to grow.  As are some of the extra carrots.  The first lot of carrots are really slow in doing anything - maybe they need more vigilant watering and fertiliser.

The 2 zucchini are looking good - see---

As are the pumpkins...

The Everlasting Daisies are doing well too.  So are the self sown pea seeds.

This strawberry plant is now 3 years old - it has the tiniest of fruit on it already and could do with a good feed.

Now for some other flowers in my front yard.

And the Expert says......

That it is a common problem with pea straw and that they should be fine to let grow if I wish.  She said they are usually not as nice to eat as any others I would plant, but that she usually leaves them.

So I have decided to let those not coming up next to the seed I have planted be - for the time being.  Some I have pulled out if there were lots together.  Maybe they will have some nice flowers......

The peas I have planted are doing quite well - most anyway.  One got attacked by slugs - so it's out with the snail/slug trap for me.  I have planted 2 more seeds in the same pots to cover those that didn't germinate and the 1 lost to the slug.

The seeds I put into the peat pellets have all germinated except for the tomato ones.  In a few weeks when they get their true leaves they will go in the vege beds.  If the tomatoes don't come up, I may try direct sowing them in their pot.

Another Vege Garden Update

Just come inside from checking the vege garden beds.  Boy are those peas that I didn't plant doing well!  There must be 20 of them.  I will have to think hard on if I wish to keep them all and if I am going to put in some sort of climbing frame for them.  There are a couple that are quite near my cucumber and pumpkins.  I wonder if they will help each other grow or just create a mess.  Must ask the experts.

vege garden update

We've had a fair bit of rain lately - those seedlings I planted out have survived it all.  The seeds keep sprouting.

So far I have 3 pumpkins, 3 zucchini, 2 cucumbers and it looks like 2 tomatoes as well.  I think that's what they are - will have to wait a bit to see if I'm correct.

Today I put in extra pumpkin, zucchini and cucumbers - hopefully they will do well also.  I also put more tomato, capsicum and broccoli seed into jiffy pellets and some more carrot seed into the same pot as before and 3 other pots.

I have noticed that there is a lot of grass coming up in the new beds - did not even think about that!  I think it is from the straw - could be the lucerne on the bottom.  It even looks like I have quite a few peas coming up too - from the straw - it is pea straw after all.  I have left these to grow - hopefully they won't do the other plants any damage or be much competition.  The grass I am pulling out each time I check up on the beds.

I noticed the small strawberry plant has had 2 more leaves - yay.  And my poor dutch iris that is pot bound has a flower on it.  It must like the fact it has water!!

Some more of out gardens flowers - the white ones are convulvulus, the yellow are fressia's.

Vege Garden Update

Well I am feeling a bit happy this morning - my pumpkins, zucchini, cucumber, daisies and poppies have mostly germinated.  I expect within another week the rest of the seeds will have also germinated.  My carrot seeds look like they are finally doing something also.  And I have 1 healthy capsicum plant that I have moved out of the seed tray and into the garden bed.  The broccoli seedlings look a bit sick, but I have put them in the big bed too.  Shame the tomato seeds don't look like doing anything.  Maybe they take longer to start.

Now I just have to remember to get out each day and give them all a drink!

The rain we have had over the past 2 weeks has  moved the straw over the potting mix to create a nice bit of mulch - I like that.

gardening

Had another storm last night - lightening, thunder, the works.  Largest dog was running around the house like a luantic - he hates loud noises!  Lying in bed listening to the rain pelt down I wondered how my freshly planted seeds were going - would they get washed away; would the potting mix be pushed around and leave the seeds to air; would nothing happen?

Checked them this morning - it seems the rain has pushed the potting mix into the straw.  I haven't gone digging through it yet to see what has actually happened - a bit wet still - but that is on the agenda when the rain stops.

I think I have decided what to use as an edge around the new beds.  Hubby wanted me to use treated pine sleepers - cheap and will not rot away.  After some investigation that will NOT be happening - they are still treated with copper arsenate - no way am I having that stuff near my vege gardens.  So I have decided on a plastic bordering product that comes in 5m and 10m rolls.  I'll get the green one, I think, that is 20cm high, maybe 10m of it.  Not sure how it stays upright - I presume some sort of spike goes into it at the back.  If that's the case I will have to watch where I put the spikes - we have under ground sprinklers in the front grass.  I'm sure hubby will not like me puncturing those lines.  What I don't use out the front I can use to make a taller garden bed out the back for the Sunflowers.  May even get a 5m roll for the garden bed down the side.......

Vege Garden Update

This morning, I was up relatively early, so I finished filling up the new vege garden beds out the front.  By midday they were all full, had to go get more manure and straw though.  I  now have handfuls of potting mix in little spots in each bed with Pumpkin, Zucchini, Cucumber, Everlasting Daisies and Poppies in the mix.

I even labelled 2 of the beds with nice ceramic plant labels - hopefully no will steal these.

Here's the beds:

And here are some of the flowers in other parts of our front yard:

I think we may need to weed under those ones....

vege garden update

Saturday night was really windy.  Things were blowing around all over the yard.  I thought I would lose my pea seeds that I had left outside, it was that windy.

Pea seeds were just where I left them when I checked the side way in the morning - phew!  The only 'damage' was my mini glasshouse was tipped over and on the ground and the plastic cover over the cat grass seeds had blown off.  So no realy damage to speak off.  A few sheets of paper from the one new bed that did not get the lucerne/manure/straw treatment had blown out too.

So I put the paper back in and covered them with the lucerne.  It was rather wet lucerne and had started to decay in parts - is this a good thing? - who knows.  I also fixed up the mini glasshouse (it's plastic btw), put the cat grass into it and put some seeds into the peat pellets that had fallen out of it; then watered the whole lot.  So now I have tomato seeds in 4 peat pellets, capsicum in another 4 and broccoli in the last 4.  And I put the glasshouse on the ground...

Yesterday Hubby was mowing the front lawn.  He commented to me that I had made it very hard for him to do that.  Like duhhh.  I told him, yes I know that and the plan is to put a barrier of some sort - wood, bricks,etc - across in front of the new beds for him to mow up to and then I was going to mulch around the beds.  He obviously thinks I did not think of the grass getting mowed!!  But I noticed, apart from  the smell of the wet lucerne, a lot of flies buzzing around the new beds.  I think I may have to set up a fly trap.

Vege Garden

Just spent the last 2 1/2 hours putting together 4 metal garden beds, and starting to set up a no-dig garden in each of them.  The beds went together quite easily - all I needed was a screwdriver; easy to find in this house.

I ran out of lucerne hay, manure and straw for the beds.  Will have to get 1 more lucerne bail, another 2 bags of manure and 2 more straw pallets.  Then I need to figure out what I am going to put around the beds to cover up the grass that is there - I have put these on my front lawn!  I may get a large pallet of straw and scatter that around thickly, though that may cause problems with other things growing from the straw seeds.

So when they are full with hay, etc. I am going to plant broccoli, capsicum, pumpkin, cucumber, zucchini, maybe some poppies or native everlasting daisies just to make the beds 'look nice'.

Sunday's plan go pushed to Monday - sorted out 4 pots and planted some carrot seeds in one of them.  Pulled out most of the weeds down the sideway - I just left them on the garden bed to break down.  I still want to raise that bed up a bit for some more veges.

This morning before starting on the new garden beds, I put potting mix into 3 more pots.  These pots have rods and wheely things to make towers.  In 2 of these I put some sugar snap peas, 8 seeds in all.  So hopefull;y we will have some peas to eat over summer.  If they germinate well I will seriously think about putting in some more.  I also watered some jiffy peat pellets so I can start some toamato seeds for the other tower pot.

I'm off to have a shower - I smell like manure!

Garden

I just had a look down our north sideway - ugh, what a mess.  It has not been looked at over winter and boy does it show.

The weeds are HUGE, the plants cover the path nearly and there's lots of leaf litter under the olive tree (I think that's what it is).  Time to get my butt into gear.

Moved and weeded the poor strawberry plants.  I still have 3 of them, though 1 looks a bit sick.  Gave them all a good drink and moved them to the front of the house where they will get some sunshine.  It looks like I may have another one growing in an abandoned pot; the one I was going to use for carrots.  I found some more pots too up near the front gate that still have mix in them.

So the plan for Sunday is this......

• Get those pots and dig around in them to find any left over roots.  Remove said roots, add some manure, extra mix and water well then let sit for a week.  Then I will plant some carrot seeds.
• Put a few tomato seeds into the jiffy pots.  I might do 2 or 3 pots and see how they geminate.  I think if they go well I should probably do 2 or 3 every month - that should keep us in tomatoes.
• Pot up the Cat Grass for the moggies.

This is after I've done the ironing and come home from the competiton in the morning.

I should also rip out as much of the weeds in the pavers as possible.  One weed is a rather large thistly prickly thing - need gloves or a spade (or both) for that.  The leaf litter I want to keep - it will go in the vege garden bed I intend setting up.

Vegetable Garden

So the other day I went online to a gardening website and joined up.  This will give me 2 years of magazines - 12 in total - full of gardening advice and seeds/plants to purchase.  I also bought a collection of 9 different varieties of seeds to plant out.  There is broccoli, pumpkin, melons (don't know what sort) tomatoes, peas, lettuce, capsicum and onions.  Apparently using these 9 packets I can produce over 100kg of produce.

Now the next part is to figure out just where I am going to plant them.  I have been thinking about this for a couple of years now and I believe the best place is in the front yard!!  I know hubby will NOT like this at all, but if I do a small bed out there that should not look too messy.

I think I have a plan - 1 raised bed in the top end of the front lawn that is 1.2m x 1.2m,
                                            only 30cm high
                               - 1 raised bed out the back against the back fence that is 2m
                                             x 1m, needs to be 40cm high to keep dogs off it
                               - and a final one down the side against the house that is .5m
                                            x 3m, 40cm high

This last one could possibly be put on the existing garden bed, then it only needs to be 30cm high, but it won't be 3m long.

Each bed I want to do as a no-dig-garden - I think I will be raiding the supermarket for carboard boxes, and maybe the newsagent for old newspapers.

Hope my seeds turn up soon.........

Men

I read a quote the other day that was attributed to William Morris.  It was "Do not have anything in your house that is not either useful or you deem to be beautiful." 

My immediate thought was - "Does this mean I can rid of the hubby??"

Hubby's Car

He has finally finished making up and installing drawers in the back of our Landcruiser.  I will admit they look quite good, all covered in grey felty carpety stuff.  He wants to add some dividers in the drawers to help with the rolling around of items within them.  They are quite large and take up the whole of the width/depth of the rear of the car and are about 30cm high.  Not much room for the dogs anymore.

His next projet will be to make a tipping up slider for out engel car fridge.  He also recently put a snorkel on the car too. 

The kids think he is crazy and can't believe I let him 'ruin' the car.  But next year we will be travelling up to Cape York and possibly over to Uluru also, so I can see the need for these modifications.

Comps

Last night started the competition season for my girls.  Youngest had her first ever Champ Reserve comp.  The team came away winning the overall aggregate - yay!!.  She is in the second team for 3 items and they got a third for clubs and were 2 points off a place for the other 2 items.  Go second team.

Looks like I'm up for another trophy this year.

Kitchen - Final

Well the door arrived and is on and it is all painted - looks really good.  Everyone that sees it is impressed. 

The only thing left to do is replace the front blinds.  I would like to paint them - cheapest option - but hubby is not so keen on that.  Granted the thingy in the track to slide them along is broken in one spot so you have to pull them back by hand, but how often do we do that.  Not very - maybe once or twice a year.  I think I may overule him on this one.

JOYday #4

Not sure what happened on #3... I know I did some ironing (no real JOY there) and some knitting in the evening. 

So, on to #4.

Today I painted some props - well the back of them really.  It is for calisthenics, so I know it goes against the principles of JOYday - but, hey, it involved paint and varnish - so that covers it I think.

9 flowers - really large ones - all now have the backs of them painted and varnished.  It has taken me nearly all day to do.  Oh and I also played on my DS.

This evening, I may do some more knitting..

JOYday #2

Yesterday was JOYday #2 - and it was another success.  I finished the pink towelling teddy that I cut out last week - dress and all.  I also put the frames on the dragon appliques.  All in all, a very successful day!


Here's the teddy.....

And here's the dragon appliques....

Naughty Knitting - part 2

As promised, here are the pics for the bra and knickers I made the other week.  First the g-string.

Now the bra - adult content only.....

Joyday

Ok, so today was my first designated 'Joyday', and I think it was a success.  Even though I did think about study momentarily and calisthenics costumes for a bit whilst ironing, and I had do a basket of ironing for a client, I did manage to do other things purely for myself.

The first 'joyday' project was to complete a wall doll I have had in parts wanting to be a whole.  Now she is - all she needs is a book or a besom and my little lying/flying witch is complete.  This is her below.

You can find the pattern, as well as others, at http://www.lilliemaescraft.com/.  There are lots of free patterns here for all sorts of prim things.

The only comment I have about this doll, is that the pattern for the dress is about 3" too long, either that or her legs are too short....

I also cut out a pink towelling bear, ready for next week.  This bear is another of Lillie Mae's patterns...

Knitting Finished

A list of knitting items i have recently finished, and some crochet ones too, in no particular order.

Pink/White/Grey shawl
Purple spider web bra and matching g-string
Fluffy Pasties and g-string (these were sent to a friend - hope they got there and she liked them)
Jumper for me (needs fixing)
Red cowl
Tan cowl
2 Caliometry headbands

A list of things to finish:

Blue blanket
Daughters jumper
My jumper - see above
Blue sock - got 1, need the other
Pink sock - got 1, need to finish the other
Blue jumper
Kangaroo - needs unpicked and the back redone

Kitchen

Kitchen is now waiting to be painted and for the final door to arrive from the manufacturer, and for new blinds.  We had to send a few emails back and forth to the manufacturer as he sent 1 door not enough and tried to blame us.  It looks really good.  So far the dogs have not put any scratches in the door fronts.

husbands

found out yesterday that hubby has been talking to other women online....grrrr  sob sob
i sent him a text saying we need to talk, he never said anything about it when he got home from work.  so that night when we went to bed i asked him about it and he said he was going to ignore it.  when asked why, he replied that he has nothing to say.  i told him i think something is going on, so he told me to think what i want.
th other week when we bought a new mattress for the caravan, i jokingly told him to leave it in the car and tell the guys at work that i had chucked him out.  he said, in a serious tone, that they would believe it.  i got no response to my question of what has he been doing for me to chuck him out!

so, this is what i think (i think)..... he doesn't love or care about me anymore....

whether that is true or not, i have no idea as he won't talk to me about it.....

Naughty Knitting...

I have made, finished, ready to wear, a purple spider web bra and matching knickers.  The bra is from someone else's pattern (will post link if I can find it again), but the knickers are my own creation.  Will post a pic when I find my camera.

I have also completed the red scarf/cowl PLUS 2 others.

Knitting

Found some more yarn in 2 boxes the other day when cleaning up my craft room.  I know where the pattern and needles for the single sock are.

I will admit to being very naughty - bought some more yarn.  Some is for a pair of thigh high red lacey socks, some is for normal socks.

I have printed out all my 'naughty' patterns and put them in a folder.  Am currently making a spider web bra in purple; intend on making matching g-string too.

I have crocheted a pair of pasties and a matching g-string for a friend (she doesn't know she will be getting these), now I have to sew in some yarn ends and attach a tassel to 1 pastie.  I think I should send them with some hollywood tape too.  Hope she likes them (and her hubby does too)....

Car

Picked up the 'new' car yesterday.  A 2004 toyota corolla ascent sports model.  Must admit i feel a bit silly driving a car with a rear spoiler and low profile tyres on mag wheels.......

Previous owner must have been a smoker - car reeks a bit.  I wonder how long it will be before that smell goes away - if ever.

But she drives well and it's better than walking...

Cars

Who needs 'em???

Well, apparently I do.  Eldest child managed to damage my/our car last month.  Took it to the repairers to get fixed.  After lots of phone calls to them (darn insurance company) it seems my car is a repairable write off.  They won't fix it, but they will give me some money for it.

So now I have to buy another one.

Went car shopping yesterday.  Found one.  Only $2500 MORE than I wanted to spend.  Actually it's $12500 more than I wanted to spend - I just want my little white car back.....

Finished Shawl

Well I did it!  I finally finished the knitted pink triangle shawl.  It only took 12 months.  I used a lot of pink, grey and white yarns in different weights and textures - rather funky looking.  Some bits are really chunky and others are nice and smooth.  May put it on Etsy and see if it sells....

Today I started a red chunky cowl.  The yarn is a mohair blend with silver and gold metallic threads running through it.  Knits up really quickly (already used 1 ball and I have only worked on it for an hour). That may go on etsy too.....

Kangaroo

Last night I sewed together that knitted kangaroo I have been making.  I think I have found a rather large fault with the pattern.  The body back seems to be around 15 rows too short!!  So Mrs Roo is rather fat and dumpy and has a thick neck, nothing at all like the photo on the box.  I was so disgusted I put her back in the box, head first.  Not sure if I can be bothered with unpicking the seams and then froggng the yarn to remake her......

Knitting

Well, I have just spent the last 2 hours sorting and then properly storing some of my knitting yarns.  I now have a very large, very heavy bag full of assorted knitting yarn.  The bag used to hold a single bed sized doona/pillow combo.  I also catalogued them.

Found some projects I am in the middle of, including a pair of socks - well actually 1 complete sock and the rest of the yarn.  Don't know where the needles or pattern have gotten to.

I know I have another bag of unsorted/catalogued yarn stuffed into the wardrobe as well as another bag of similar size to what I used today full of yarn.  Somehow I think I like buying knitting yarn.

Goodness knows what I am going to do with all of it.  It's mostly single balls.  Various colours/weights/textures too.

Any suggestions?  Maybe I will use some of it on the naughty things.

Agapanthus

Taken today - a pic of my 27yo agapanthus.  Did try to dig it up once so I could split it up and replant the bits futher along the driveway.  It would not budge!  So it remains a lonely plant.

Knitting Socks etc....

Knitting has taken over.  I feel the need to knit things.  Last time I was like this I knitted socks for eldest child (she loved them), middle child (he didn't) and me (well they didn't get finished).

I have now found patterns for 'naughty' things - g string undies, pasties, corsets.  This could very interesting indeed.

And to top it all off, my LYS has been practically throwing out balls of yarn for 50 cents.  How am I supposed to resist such a temptation!  I have already filled a bag a doona came in with yarn - and I just relised I have another of these bags hanging around to put the newest purchases in.  Will have to dispose of the brand new doona though.

What have I been doing?

Today I have been browsing the web - starting off looking for free prim patterns (luv luv prim stuff), ended up finding a blog that showed how to cut up fabric and crochet bags.  The blogger even used old flanelette pj's to make a bath mat - now that could be a go.  Has me inspired to give it a go.

But since coming home from our annual summer vacation I have cleaned up my craft room a bit and found 4 kits to knit aussie animals.  So far I have made a wombat and a possum and am in the middle of a kangaroo - they are quite cute actually.  I may have enough of the yarns left over to make another one of them.

Set up my Esty store too - sold 1 owl to someone in Melbourne.  They offered, if that's the right word, to purchase more of the owls for their own online store once it gets up and running.  How exciting is that!