Today is my first day at the Certificate of Spinning course at the Spinners & Weaver’s Guild. Sophie & I came to Melbourne last night to stay with Auntie E, leaving the boys home for a bonding boy weekend. It was very hard to leave them… very hard and it always surprises me that pang of leaving!
Anyway, we are here now, up since 0630 after a midnight bedtime (tennis tennis – I couldn’t make it to the end of the match) and I’m excited about going to a class for hours. A spinning class! 6 uninterupted hours with wool & spinning!
Also, a hair cut to follow at an old favourite salon…
A few nights ago I found this blog entry that never seemed to get published – it was written on the 10 of November 2008 and while the intro is out of date the rest of it still holds true! Sophie is off to see Angelia Ballerina in Melbourne this afternoon (yay) after a podiatrist visit for my bunion – yuck! – and I am excited about her first ballet experience.
“I have finally finished a project and I LOVE it! Picovoli was officially off the needles on Friday night and I was able to wear it teamed with a thin black wool thermal, my jeans, thick socks, boots & jacket to the Violet Town market! I was very happy I made the effort to finish it as I really needed the extra warmth! Who’d have thought I’d need thermals in November!!! At least we got some good rain, now if only it would come once a week for the next 12 months…
Pattern: Picovoli by Grumperina
Yarn: 8ply Cleckheaton Country Naturals in Green with black for bottom 2 inches (no idea how much of either was used)
Needles: 4mm circular needles
Project started: 6 May 2008
Project completed: 7 November 2008
Notes: Loved knitting this pattern – it was pretty quick when I actually worked on it and the waist shapings gave the endless knitting in the round a bit of interest! I used black for the bottom of the top as I ran out of green but I really like the black and am glad it worked out that way! I think I will knit this again but then, there are so many patterns out there I may never get back to it…. 
.”
Happy Birthday Pip!
It’s been a while since I last posted a back to basics update but I have been planning things & thinking about it. Time is scarse at the moment – the sun shines & the kids want to play and there are so many visitors (all VERY welcome).
Sowing seed or Planting -
Planting
- Corn, basil, lettuce, a Nellie Kellie passionfruit (of which I will get very little benefit as I have planted it here at La Bella Casa) & corriander
Sowing
- Waiting for seeds to arrive – I ordered a whole heap last week.
Potting up
Planning for The Future -
- I have started digging up the vegie patch at Beechworth to tie us over the gap between leaving La Bella Casa & living in the house. I also want a vegie patch there for weekends – it probably sounds excessive but I love to wander out & collect things for dinner from the garden so I want that there too… The thing is we are really only there on weekends so I have to rely on hardy plants or rainfall during the periods when we don’t go there. I am concious of fuel usage so dont’ want to go back & forth all the time…
Working for the Future -
Managing Stores
- I sundried lots of our apricots – not nearly enough – and made some jam. I had intended on going back to the block to pick more but the heat & birds beat me and I am quite disappointed about it….
- The potatoes have been dug up and I am chitting the small ones in an attempt to get a March crop too… I got a good harvest but they really could have used more water – I am NOT good at watering the garden as a result of conserving water in Melbourne and a HUGE sense of guilt whenever I put it on the garden! Silly when I am growing food .
Building Community -
- I have enrolled both Pete & I in the Tuesday Night Soical Tennis competition to get us both more involved in the community. I envisige it being a bit of a family thing with the kids coming too… we’ll see how it goes.
- We went bike riding to visit two different lots of firends yesterday – 12kms in all with the kids in the chariot. There’s nothing like leading by example.
- Making gifts for local children’s parties because I enjoy it and I also think it shows that you don’t have to spend lots of money to give a gift.
Learn a new Skill -
- Sundried apricots – not much skill in it – line some trays with silver foil, place the halved, stoned apricots on top and put in the HOT Aussie Sun for about 4 days til shrivelled & leathery & brown (put them in a very slow oven if needed).
- Made the apron for the birthday party tomorrow.
I am trying to make 2009 the year of finishing off things, well, namely WIPs so here is the first of hopefully many:
More socks for Pete. Project specs:
Pattern: 2 x 2 rib based on ball band pattern
Yarn: Lion Brand Magic Stripes – less than 1 ball
Needles: 2.75 mm DPN
Commenced: ? 2008
Completed: 04 January 2009
Notes: The second pair of socks for Pete – knit in a 2 x 2 rib but otherwise knit as per the ball band pattern. Could have been much longer but I was worried about running out of yarn – shouldn’t have as I have loads left over. The first sock was knit quite quickly but my interest & time was taken elsewhere in between – done now though !
Taking photos with Sam around make it even harder for a poor photographer like me :
At least his little feet & legs are so adorabe to me .
Do you know what type of fungi this is? Let me know if you do as I haven’t found it online so far (I am certain it’s not a “special” type, I am just interested in what it is ).
Happy Birthday J.
I am off to a good start with 2009 – one finished knitted project (yet to be blogged) and a sewing project done. I kind of made a deal with myself to try and make or buy all birthday gifts for as little financial outlay as possible (a deal made for 2 reasons, first being that we are saving for our strawbale house on one wage and, second, I want to be more resourceful, learn new skills & prove to myself & my family that giving is the main point!) as with as much thought as possible.
Between our two families & our own little family their are a great number of birthdays. I usually leave Pete’s side up to him – and I’ll probably continue to do so with a few exceptions as he knows them best – and just do my side but I usually consult with him before I go ahead with any gifts. He didn’t really like the Op Shop idea for gifts but when he saw what my Dad bought the kids for $8 (a Greenfield tractor with a trailer & a Baby Born? bath thing) he was pretty impressed but I think his doubt remains over my ability to find the time & motivation to scour Op Shops for bargains and he is probably right… we’ll see.
The other thing is that we seem to be making friends in this little town and we are about to go to our second birthday party in 12 months… wow, we’ve really hit the big time! Seriously, this is the second birthday party from the Playgorup Crowd and we’ve only been to Playgroup 3 times so it’s great. It’s a boys birthday party. We may get invited to more as we become more involved & we may not, either way I think this will be a great gift for all the 1, 2 and 3 year old parties we go to:
and here’s my very willing model (who thinks it’s a dancing dress up!):
Quick & easy to make I used this pattern but only cut three lengths for the ties. The material came from Mum’s stash – I love it & wish I could sew better so I could make myself some 3/4 pants with the reaminder… The whole project from start to finish took me about an hour – not bad for a beginner I thought!
Sophie has already requested a pink one and I want to make one for Sam too but I think I’ll save them for birthday gifts. They both love to cook, especially mixing which they both fight over, and aprons would probably make my life a little easier. Now that Sam is pretty much out of nappies my time spend doing washing has seriously decresed! Yay for kids who like to toilet train early – 19 months!
P.S. For those of you who want to know how I did it…. I didn’t, he did! It’s been hot and he’s been running around in “nunies” aka undies. The first week we had a poo in his undies every day (sometimes twice a day) for 5 days and lots of wee-wees but after that it clicked for him and he’d just do a wee on the grass and now one more week on he goes in the toilet with the occasional accident mostly related to Mum & Dad not listening when he says “wee-wee” (which he uses for both wee & poo). We put him in a cloth nappy at night (which he doesn’t like) and it’s uaually dry in the morning so that may disappear soon too… Cloth makes all the difference in my opinion as they feel the wet so much more and therefore recognise it much earlier. Who knows? But I am happy!
Hi Everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season whatever your religious persuassion! We had a great time filled with wonderful family & friends & spent most of our time out at the Block in Beechworth. So much time that I started a vegetable garden there… it only has 29 asparagus plants at the moment but there are others planned.
There is an amazing Chook Shed & Yard at the block and I started reading up on healthy Chooks the other day. The ABC Gardening site suggested that Tansy, Wormwood & Rue are great plants to have for minimising intestinal worms and fleas. We have great wire “cages” ready to go as the pervious owner had them around all of the exotic trees as rabbit proofing so I am keen to get some plants established inside the run before I buy some new Girls.
I am slowly cleaning out all of the old manure and putting into the vegie patch (which seems to have fairly poor soil at the moment) but without a wheel barrow there I am using the kids little trailer and it’s a SLOW process… I am aiming for 1 row every time we stay there and have artichoke, corn, basil & corriander to go in.
Anyway, my main point of posting about this is to see if anyone out there has some Wormwood, Rue or Tansy to share as I am finding them (well Wormwood anyway) hard to find. Any suggestions?
