Mayhem

Today's the start of 2 1/2 weeks of craziness in our household - three birthdays and Christmas in the space of 19 days.  Here's a quick rundown of what I've been up to in the lead-up to birthday season...

I made two lengths of this felt bunting (no-fray => less stitching required) to decorate the church hall for the kids' party.  I printed the letters onto paper, then cut the paper and felt together and stitched them on with a straight stitch.  Reasonably quick, and we'll use it for years to come.

Made to measure felt crown (double layer of felt for more body), with lace and ric-rac that used to belong to my Grandma.

The Kinderboy and I picked just under 11kg of [tiny but sweet] apricots from our tree, then enlisted the Ipswich nieces to help us sort and cut them.  We gave away some, ate some, and swapped some for lemons with the lady across the road, and now I have 15 jars of apricot jam cooling downstairs (not the best job on a 35 degree day, but the apricots don't give you a choice!)

Last of all, I had a morning off and finally finished some stretch linen pants for myself from the Spring/Summer 2012 Ottobre Woman magazine.   Strangely, I had to shorten them by 20cm to get to the length shown in the magazine.  I'm short, but not that short, so I'm not sure what the story is - its the first time I've used any of their women's patterns, so I guess I'll keep an eye out on sizing in the future as well.  Sorry about the lack of modeled shots - I'm lousy at taking them myself, and too self-conscious to ask the family to do it!

Next on the agenda are some class Christmas cards (as shown here), and finishing off some Christmas presents.  I have a hankering for new clothes for myself though, and Darn Cheap Fabrics has a sale on, so a diversion may be on the cards.  In the meantime, I'm going to settle for heading over to Village Voices for more crafty ideas (it's where I first saw the cards too).

(nearly) wordless wednesday

This week at our place we have:

A new buttonhole for our 'plant pot man' 

A stash-busting beanie to go with the new Kinder boy cardi.

Emmeline with a pocket on one side 

and not on the other.

Tomorrow there'll be work to do on boy birthday presents...

and I guess I should restart work on the curtains.

What's on in your creative space?

Inspired by...

I didn't get to see much of the series 'Around the World in 80 Gardens' on the ABC when it was on, but one idea from an episode I did see stuck in my head, and I've just completed my version of it!  I call it my 'secret deck' (although the Schoolboy had decided that it would be a perfect hide-and-seek hiding place for him before I'd even screwed down the deck top).  The original was a horse-shoe shaped hedge just over waist height, with quite a  narrow opening.  Inside was a crushed rock area just large enough for a sun-lounge.  When you were on the sun-lounge no one could see that you were inside, and all that you were aware of was the greenery.  Fantastic!

We live in a double storey house, and so do the neighbours on either side, so when you're in our back yard you can see other people's bedroom and hallway windows from just about everywhere.  I'm growing hedges to help break that down a bit, but relative seclusion is still a few years away.  The secret deck is behind one of the established hedges (its at its final (chest) height on one end, and around waist height at the other), and between my citrus trees which I've planted in a U shape with this in mind.  In time they'll form a 3-sided hedge around the deck.  The idea is that in the end there will be a 1/2 metre or so wide walkway which'll lead to the deck, and once you're inside you won't be able to be seen.  Already the side fence and the hedge offer privacy from the neighbour with the most windows.

I used timber the builders left behind when they replaced our front pergola a few years ago for the deck itself, supported on the old veggie patch garden beds and some treated pine (all up the cost was less than $50, as I also used paint we already had).  It's small, measuring 1.9m x 1.2m, but big enough to sit/lie on with a book / have a picnic with one of the boys.  Very satisfied with myself because I did the whole lot myself (with some help from the Man to speed up screwing down the top after dinner last night) and it took less than a week.

Sorry, I think I'm waffling, I'm so happy to have seen this project through to completion - it's been on my mind for quite a while.

Of grapes and green striped dragonflies

What a beautiful day! I can't believe how lush and green the garden's looking with all of this rain - I'm not a waterer so my plants can't believe their luck with the weather we're having. The weeds also think they're in heaven, but that's another story.

I gave up on the husband actually getting around to planting grape vines in the designated 'vineyard' (along the back fence) over winter and succumbed to the kids' pleas for a sultana grape. I planted it at the time, but today at last got around to puting up wires to train it onto. Found a great publication by the University of Missouri showing the stages of pruning, how far apart to put the wires etc., but am now a bit demoralised by how many years it will be before we see fruit as the vine only comes half way up to the first wire.

The boy and I were amazed by this dragonfly which stayed on the fence the whole time I was working (with an electric drill and screwdriver right next to it) and well beyond. Not sure if you've ever had the opportunity to see one up close, but they have amazing green markings on their body and tail which this photo doesn't do justice.

Hope you've had fun outside today too!