Just for fun.....

Haven't had a chance to do much crafting lately, so when the opportunity presented itself today I jumped at the chance. I've been dying to give this idea a go. Who would have thunk ya could make a hat from a recycled wool jumper? Well, the idea never entered my head til I borrowed this book from the library and found this pattern! So easy and just what I needed, a quick frivolous project just for me......
I just made the flower from scraps of felted jumper and added a bit of stitching. Whole thing took about an hour and was heaps of fun. I can see myself making a few of these for the chilly days ahead.

Pumpkin harvest time.....

I love pumpkins, pumpkin curry, pumpkin soup, pumpkin scones, pumpkin and silver beet lasagne....... the list goes on, yum, yum, yum......

I think these gorgeous orange ones are a French variety. I bought a mixed pack of heirloom seeds so I'm playing spot-the-pumpkin at the moment lol.......
This greyish green one is the weirdest pumpkin I've seen. It's very hollow inside, not sure if that's due to the type or my gardening ability! The flesh is divine in the above-mentioned lasagne, and mashes well too.
My butternuts are nearly ready so once my computer and flickr are on speaking terms again I'll load some pics.

Here's the link for the Pumpkin Curry recipe, very hot but yummo!

The land of milk and honey.......

Ahhhh.....bliss.... I love this life.

First the exciting news - we are the proud "parents" of a baby girl. Ian found her in the middle of the road with no sheep anywhere in sight, and no houses either! We can only assume that she fell off the back of a truck. Amazingly she is uninjured and feeding well, with proud step-mum Pearl babysitting her between feeds. Her name is Louise as she was found near Louis Ponds.

I have been indulging myself in homemade skincare products. I hit the op-shops, eBay and the library and have amassed a few great books on herbal/natural skincare. I have made Quince cleansing gel, rosewater toner and lavender moisturiser, and lots more. Just waiting on a delivery from this site which has great stuff dirt cheap! I have sourced beeswax from a local apiarist at the unbelievable price of $6 a kilo, it's $56 a kilo at my local health food shop. Great for adding to moisturisers and lip balm and at that price I can see some candles being made. I made rosewater yesterday, I nicked some open blooms from the council gardens lol..... they smell so good but would have been dead the next day so I didn't think anyone would mind. Besides I pay rates! I have also been making soy melts for the oil burner, so easy and much nicer than burning parrafin wax. I got the wax from here. I have experimented with loads of essential oils, I have about 15 different oils that I have collected. Got heaps of books on aromatherapy too. I would love to do a course on all this but they are so expensive to do..... one day.......

Check out my Slide Show!

Here's a post for Ann..... I haven't uploaded pics to flickr for a while, so these are a few weeks old. Boy have I done some preserving since then! Tell you what, I was grateful for the garden when I ventured in to the 'Big Smoke' this week.... can you believe the price of veg? Must deter people from eating healthy... Came back and harvested beans, zucchinis, cherry tomatoes, silver beet, cucumbers, pumpkins, leeks, carrots, oregano and thyme. And of course collected the eggs. The herbs went straight to the dehydrator to stock up for winter, yummo! Still picking figs to freeze and jam later, need to get my second wind lol....

Well preserved.......

What a bad bad blogger I am.....I have finally summed up the energy to put up a post. Why am I so tired? It's fruit time! Thanks to good rains we are drowning in mountains of delicious fruit. We have figs, plums, apricots, and peaches in abundance. So I have had the old Fowlers Vacola unit out and been bottling madly. I have preserved around 40 bottles of peaches and 30 of plums, and I'm starting on the figs. I have made at least 70 jars of jam and 10 litres of spicy plum sauce. That's not to mention time spent blanching and freezing beans, pickling onions and zucchinis and making pickles. All our friends and family are loving all the home made goodies. Thing is that they keep bringing me more fruit! I wish they'd bring more jars, the op-shops are totally out of them. Oh and did I mention the home made yoghurt and cheese? And then there's the ginger beer plant I have started.... Along with all that I have decided that the most economical, healthy and environmentally friendly option for me is to become vegetarian, so I have been trying out loads of great recipes. We just have so many vegies it's crazy not to use them! Yes I'm knackered, no I haven't had time to do much craft (don't worry swap buddies, I'll be done soon...), but I am loving the pleasure and satisfaction of a well stocked preserves cupboard.....

She/he/it has a name - and a friend!

My budgie chick is still going strong.... something we are quite suprised about. Shortly after my original post about it the chick went all "flop-bot". It's neck looked like it was broken, it wouldn't feed and it's toes were curled up. I managed to drip a bit of food down it's throat and put it in it's nest. It lay on it's side..... sadly I went out to the garden and avoided checking it as I was sure it was dying. Ian eventually went for a peek to find it sitting up and chirping for a feed! Since then it hasn't looked back.

It flies out of the cage to be fed and hardly needs feeding by me anymore, much to busy flying around the room. Since it seems to be here for the long-haul I have relented and given it a name. "Squirt". Partly because what goes in comes out the same, and partly because of how tiny it is.

Squirt has been joined inside by Duncan. I am yet to take some pics of him. This little white fella is about 12 months old. Ian found him in the bottom of the cage looking very wobbly. We have diagnosed him as having a Vitamin B deficiency so the poor thing had a vitamin injection yesterday! I held him while Ian did the injection, I had visions of the needle coming out the other side! Oh, and his name comes from the Slim Dusty song "I love to have a beer with Duncan" cause of his weak legs and wobbly stumbling walk.....

Australia Day 2008

Here's what Toddy and I did on Australia Day. The kids were all busy with their own social lives so we decided on a relaxing way to spend the day.......

The send off party.

Off we go

Don't leave us.......

Gorgeous Blossom

Over the bridge and into town

A refreshing ale at the pub
Homeward boundWhere were you?
We missed you....

Thanks Toddy and Bloss, that was beautiful.....