Bowled Over

Em, you just can't help yourself! How's your RCI (repetetive crochet injury)? I was thrilled to see and touch your beautiful printer cover and it is by far the biggest project yet. The little forest children are so precious. I love the little mushroom girl's cap. Thanks for our little journey to the Sassafras Wool Shop on sunday. The Noro has so many gorgeous colour combinations it is very difficult to go past. Can you remember the name of those beautifully crafted scarves and necklaces we saw in the cabinet, I'd love to look them up?
Well for me, it's time to say goodbye to my little crochet bowls that have adorned my shelf for the last month. They have been sent off to the shop to be sold - hopefully. Though I would be quite happy to have them all come home again.  We enjoyed a little play at the park with them in the last of the summer sun before they were fairwelled.



 

Still little..

Even though l enjoyed working on my 'larger' project, the printer cover, l really am still obsessed with small...

Inspired by "The Children of the Forest", meet my little acorn boy and mushroom girl!

Spot the difference....

The best thing is,  l know l dont have to justify it..no reason, no purpose,no right, no wrong...just because!
And, l gave myself free time on a home day to make something for home..just because.  No -have to's, no -but l should, no-l'll just do that first and l liked it!!!!!!!!!!!!
I followed the pattern from The Royal Sisters granny square tissue box tutorial and just kept adding rows til l achieved the desired size.  I couldn't resist using the gorgeous Noro Silk Garden wool from the sassafrass wool store which l didnt deliberately go in to get, but which practically jumped off the shelf into my arms and said buy me, so what else could l do? ( I know, its one decadently decorated printer!).  I'm so pleased with the result,  a splash of color on the computer bench AND for the first time ever l made a crochet piece for the house that is larger than a..pikelet (hmm..thats the first word that came to mind when l was thinking about the largest item l've crocheted, so l'm going with it).  Yeah..now l'm thinking a granny square cushion, bring on the home day!  Oh, and a trip back to the wool shop....

Abundance

'Tis the season for tomatoes tra la la la la, la la la la! Making sauce, enjoy the harvest tra la la la la, la la la la!! Yes christmas is over and sorry Mr Em for singing a christmas tune when it's not december but it's the first thing that came to mind as Mr Le and I were in our garden last night after the kids were in bed. A gorgeous summer evening when the sky was pink and the chooks were enjoying their little jaunt in the vegie patch. We tidied our rampant tomato plants that were a massive tangle of vine and fruit.

Their scent so heady I could smell it on my hands when I finally went to bed. As we were lifting the vines high above our head we found masses of fruit just gasping for some sunshine so we strung up twine for them to hold on to and cleared away dying leaves. This years harvest has been abundant where as last year we had 10 plants and not one tomato, not a single one. So for the last few weeks we have been bottling passata, making tomato chutney, rhubarb chutney, plum and blackberry jam and eating summery fresh tomato and basil salad before autumn comes and takes them away. I love preserving. It's homey and comforting, it's good home economics and it's a wonderful way to pull a little bit of summer out of the cupboard in the depths of winter. Just look at these colours. Heirloom tomatoes, a gift from a friend.

 And rhubarb from Em's garden

And of course it works the other way around too. We make pumpkin chutney, picalilli pickle and preserved lemons in autumn. Quince paste, blood orange marmalade and beetroot pickle in winter. We don't preserve alot in spring as everything is so fresh and green that it goes down the hatch first. Well, at least what the 4 girls leave for us. Which we don't mind what they eat as they leave us little oval treasures each day- it's a perfect trade.
 

40th Retreat Day Three November 25 - Part One

Friday 25th November-Part One


If you've been reading you may remember our struggle to commit to the Early Bird Bathing Special at the Peninsula Hot springs where if you are in and out by 10am you get a $15 refund on the $30 entry fee- that's half price!!!! And you know what, we finally did it on this day. We were in by 8am and it was GLORIOUS!! Totally lush and it felt great to have all that lushness and it wasn't even 10.30am- it was gunna be a good day. SMILE.......

 

Here's Em in the shallow spa where I proceeded to fall into the next evening while everyone was watching. Yes we laughed. And here's me at the entrance of the Turkish Steam House. Defiantely no airbrushing here, just real women!! We're pretty good for 40 and almost 40!! Though 40 is the new 30 I've heard.

Our professionally painted tootsie were having the time of their life! And the plunge pool was INNVIGORATING!!

And we got a cool $15 each back- love it

We return home for breaky

....and some idle hooky happiness

oh and chocolate, yes that's a little dark chocolate truffle sitting beside my cup of tea. yes chocolate before lunch, straight after breakfast.......so?

Em's crochet bunting that she began as she went to bed last night at whatever time it was and had to undo 3 times before realising (after calling to me numerous times only to receive no response as I was sleeping!) the pattern was written in US terms not UK/Aussie terms (maybe doesn't seam that funny now but it was then!) and she has produced beautiful, teeny tiny, neat as a pin granny bunting strung together with red stars using festive red and white twine. You can find the bunting pattern here at Crochet with Raymond. It's really cute x

After taking our time getting ready we head off to Flinders and the Red HIll Studio Market at 12.45pm.

TO BE CONTINUED....................

40th Retreat Day Two November 24 - Part Two

Thursday 24th November-Part Two


To re-cap I think you may need to re-read part one as I am just going to continue on from that. I've discovered I can't get on to post as often as I'd like so I need to waffle less and get to the point more!!! (Em are you laughing knowingly right now!!!).

By the way, I love the colours of your new necklace dollies and how they are snug in their own little felt blankies. Just in time for the weather to change! They are gorgeous. Ok I am NOT waffling, I'm COMPLIMENTING!!

So off we went, more trying on clothes and window shopping.

Here's a little crochet detail of a tunic Em tryed on and bought. Lovely isn't it? This style looks really good and you Em and it shows off your Elk necklace beautifully.

While I just wanted to sit down and rest in the sunshine when it suddenly struck us that it was 4pm. I have 2 words for this moment OP  and SHOP! As an 'op shop a day' slips away we come across the Vinnies, a very big Vinnies and our arms we're laden.

Clothes again. Anyone must think this is all we did. Well it was close but when you have been deprived of trying anything on as clothes shopping with the kids usually ends in disasterous purchases or despair or both, this is all we wanted to do - for now.

So we both squeezed into the same cubcle to avoid the whole show and tell thing. This way we could quickly go through our selections as by the time we had purused the racks it was almost closing time. I tried on a few things, no, yes, no, no and then I tried a pretty, ruffly shirty thing and I LOVED it but Em said it didn't look right for some reason even though I really WANTED it to look right and if Em hadn't have been there I probably would've bought it and risked fashion disaster. See, that is the reason you take your best friend with you when trying on clothes, they keep you honest and tell you how you REALLY look. Plus you can giggle and laugh at each other and give honest opinions and do an awful lot of justifying why one should buy something and I can't imagine what we sounded like from outside the dressing room AND we were told not once but twice that they were closed which meant it was 5pm or past and we had out-stayed our welcome..... but we had FuN. Looking rather apologetic we purchased $27 worth of joy and left promptly with big smiles. I think my best find was a zip lock bag with 6 balls of Rowan Cotton Glace in orange, purple, deep red and forest green for $2. I've since looked up the retail price- at best $7.95 a ball !!! Gotta love it!!

FOOD

A recommendation from Jules led us to DOC. An Italian deli that ended up feeding us veery well a few times on our sojourn. We took great solace in thinking if we couldn't get to Italy, then a little bit of Italy could come to us!!

And OMG it was SOOOOO GOOD!

Bresaola alla Caprese with woodfired focaccia

Just look at those gorgeous sweet tasting roma tomatoes and REAL buffalo mozzarella all milky and fresh with peppery rocket and Umbrian extra virgin olive oil all over. Gosh we were impressed and hungry.

A vegetable and farro salad with a plump dollop of ricotta was so delicious and plentiful. Actually it was all so plentiful that we shared everything and all but licked our plates clean.

With the sun on our backs and sangiovese rose in our glass we were happy, VERY happy. And the young, good-looking, charming Italian waiters had us a little giggly behind our napkins. Well, we're allowed to!!!

All this and it was only 7.30pm. A quick shop stop to purchase supplies and we fell in the door of our apartment at 8. But No it's not over yet. I suggested to Em that we should have a cuppa and some chocolate when we settle in just as she had finished writing in the diary that we should have a cuppa and some chocolate when we settle in- oh we laughed at our syncronised thoughts. As we bustled about the place doing our settling I shouted out that we should put our pj's on just as Em walked out of her room whilst putting her pj's on !!! Doesn't this happen when women are in close quarters they begin to syncronise thoughts and actions? It has happened so often to us that we just roll our eyes. Em and I have lived together with our families at various times in our life and often, to the amazement of our families, we would come out wearing the same clothes after getting dressed quite independantly of each other. And you should see us at charades- look out, it's hilarious!!!

 So now we sit and chat, drink cups of tea, dunk dark lindt chocolate (thanks Rach!!!) and crochet.

Finally at 10.30pm we said 'goodnight' and go off to bed. I take my Better Homes and Gardens mag and Em takes her crochet. It didn't take long for me to drift off and day 2 is over.......

xx Le xx

Little Dolls

"Round and round and round l go,

spinning and turning,

sometimes fast and

sometimes  s-l-o-w,

round and round and round l go"

My crocheted necklace dolls... a little

wooden doll base, dressed in a little wool felt wrap,

adorned with a teensy crochet cap,

placed snugly inside a soft merino basket.

                                  They are on their way to Epoche, a beautiful Steiner inspired gift  store... Ready to be loved ...