Winter, Awake

Welcome Winter with your chilly mornings, swirls of mist twirling through the mountain tree tops, branches made bare by your gusty gales. 

Safe and warm in our humble home, how blessed we are to be together, this family of mine.

Looking forward to more crocheting curled up on the couch, slow cooked meals, rugging up in our winter woollies and walking alongside the river, toasting marshmallows and early nights. 

Digging out the drain at the front door because it gets blocked so easily, buckets under the cracks in the ceiling when the big rains come, dashing out after dark in the slippery mud when we have forgotten to put the chooks away, a seemingly endless 3 months(or more) of clothes racks drying in the lounge by the fire, gathering more firewood!

Winter, Awake

x Le x

Retracing Family Steps

In all the activity of school holiday gardening, play dates and work we managed a real mini break and ran away to Bendigo for a few days. Just us, the kids and my mother-in-law who is wonderful. It was our longest car trip with Little Miss 2 out of nappies and she was brilliant.

Our goal was to find the photographic studio of B's great great grandfather. He was a well known photographer during the gold rush and had photographed dignitries and daily life on the goldfields. We found three photographs in the Golden Dragon Chinese Museum by W.V Kelly.

The kids loved the (very expensive) ride on the Vintage Talking Tram. It clattered along on the tracks through the main part of town and out to a Joss House used for prayer. We clickety clacked along the track with the kids laughing with joy. It was almost priceless but $52 was a bit steep.

We got over it pretty quickly though wiith a trip to the Bendigo Woollen Mills. My mother in law loves sewing and knitting and is a quilter. We have all been blessed with a gorgeous hand made creation that will be forever treasured. I was too awestruck to take photos so unfortunatelyI cannot show you the wall to ceiling yarn nor the beautiful colours and textures and THE BARGAIN ROOM! Oh my I could've spent that $52 over and over. Instead I was very reserved and only bought home a few balls of merino in denim and some wool stuffing for softie making.

We enjoyed a few good coffees and even found the ocassional spot of yarn bombing.

The kids had a great time in the beautiful park with lovely shady trees, soft grass and a playground. Thanks to a Crafternoons compatriot recommendation, I had a wonderful time wandering around a cute little shop full of pretty one off or limited edition crafty things.

They have a cute as website and blog found at Bob Boutique . Love, love, love.

We had a great time and left many undiscovered craft and fabric shops behind for another visit.

xx Le xx

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Table For One

It's table for one this morning as I am all alone for breakfast today.

Ahhh, the serenity! It's quiet, almost too quiet without the little people running about. But I will take it while it's here and surrender to it. I've enjoyed the above breakky of poached eggs(compliments of our girls) on toast with avocado and our own rhubarb chutney which is delight in a jar thanks to Em's gorgeous rhubarb. As you can see by the jar label it was made almost a year ago and it has faired well in the jar. Now we know what it tastes like, it won't last long!!

I've decided to start on my long awaited bike basket bunting and I've had the idea to make a daisy chain and perhaps to alternate between daisy and a bunting flag. I love Em's bike bunting proportions, its just right. This daisy pattern is for a coaster size and I've tried to downsize it which has made the pattern quite tricky. It's rather tight and and I'm making it in a 4ply bamboo which has no stretch at all.so far there's five petals done and three to go. If I can love it by the end if this first flower I'll continue, otherwise it's back to researching just the right one!

The time had come to start blocking the Communtiy Crochet Blanket that has been slowly taking shape during our Quarterly Crafternoons . It's a free for all make a square in whatever colour and pattern and it will be joined together and displayed as a symbol of bringing together our community through crochet. It's been such fun watching everyone really enjoying the process and those new to crochet showing how far they've come with hook and yarn!

Now I haven't seen Em for ages and I have been busting to show her my ripply rainbow stripes but I guess I'm going to show you first........

Here it is!!! I'm sooooo in love with it. I now have all 11 colours worked in and I really, REALLY, really LOVE IT!! There's now 22 rows and it's getting quite heavy. We've had soaring temperatures of over 40c but I still do a row here and there. I cant resist it as it pokes out of my crochet bag begging to be added to. As Lucy said, this pattern has such a rythym, a hypnotic effect overcomes and it's wonderful getting lost for a while in colourful stitches of treble crochet.
:-) :-). :-). :-)

2012 Our Year In Food

Enjoy
Le
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Bits And Pieces

We survived the christmas rush and now we can slow down a little bit. There's time for leisurely breakfasts with the kids and no school lunches to make for another month!
It's beautiful here in the valley. I find myself alone outside on a breezy summer morning though the fire rating is extreme for today and I am deciding whether we stay home or head out to B's mums'. If the wind springs up and the temperature predicted is 41c, it will be scary. But now is so lovely.

I've been making something for Em.
I'm nearly done.
The pieces are complete but they need to be blocked and then sewn together.
It's only something small.

I'll show you soon. I was hoping to finish it yesterday but we had such fun at home. Our above pictured breakfast was an all pitch in effort. Little R cut the shapes from the bread and popped them in the pan. I flipped them and he cracked the eggs into the holes. And no shell! Toasty, golden man in a hole complete with runny yolks eaten with such enjoyment. Kids love to eat what they have had a hand in cooking. Meanwhile Little S rumaged through the bottom drawer where I keep all the cookie cutters and plastic molds just for her to play with while I'm cooking. I let her stir and measure though she is so eager to help it's sometimes an un-help!!

Speaking of cooking I had a cake pan disaster New Years Eve. I love baking and I'm pretty good at it most of the time but we were invited to a friends for dinner. The first time we'd been for such an occassion. Just a bbq and I bring dessert. I'd imagined a glorious chocolate cake enrobed in glossy chocolate glaze spilling a plethora of big, fat, shiny cherries. Instead it stuck like crazy to the bundt tin and I lost half of it. Tried to stick it back together. Made the ganache for the top and ended up with this................................................................

A big fat gloppy mess of a thing that I was not happy with. No time to change it or amke something else, I piled cherries all over it and we named it The New Years Eve Disaster Cake! It went down a treat, we all loved it and vowed to make it every year! I rarely last midnight either so we decided to pop our party poppers at 10pm and celebrate with the kiwis over in New Zealand and call it a night. I think we'll do that every year too!
















I

Something In The Making

I'm making something for you Em. A surprise. Something I discovered you need when we stayed at your place the other night. Something that may come in handy. Something you may like alot. Something in our new fav colour. Something for you because you're wonderful.

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Last Minute Ho Ho Ho

Nothing like a bit of last minute gifting even when you know this occassion has been coming for a whole year. The occasion is of course christmas. Ive known my whole life that christmas is on the 25th december yet every year it becomes a last minute event.
Having said that i have done fairly well this time. I am actually referring to the addition of 'class teacher' on the christmas gift list. Little R's first year of school has opened up a whole new lost of giving opportunities.
And so it is that I am sewing a teachers gift on the morning of the last day of shool. Actually an hour before school starts whilst packing the car for a weekend trip.
Here it is, I have created FELTSIL. that's felt tinsel.....

Very simple pieces of pure wool felt sewn onto a natural twine with red cotton. Very quick, very easy and I really like it. I got quite excited thinking of all the possiblities for Feltsil. Different shapes and colour combos. Lots of places to hang beautiful, natural feltsil.
Now I do have to tell a funny story, actually, I'll write the conversation between Little R and myself......
Me- 'hey buddy, it's traditional to give your teacher a present at the end of the year to say thank you and merry christmas. What do you think you'd like to give her?'
R- 'Schnitzel'
Me- 'Schnitzel, hmmm, does she like schnitzel?' We had schnitzel three nights prior so thought they'd had a discussion about dinner!
R- 'umm, no, what's that stuff we decorate with? You know, all rainbow colours?'
Me- 'oh TINSEL, you want to give her tinsel?'
R- 'yeah, tinsel'

Oh it was funny and precious. So we have now made our version of tinsel.
Now I just hope Miss P felt tinsel to a schnitzel!!!.

Will Someone Send The House Cleaning Fairies....PLEASE!

I spent 4 and a half hours yesterday cleaning Little R's bedroom. It was an absolute train-wreck but looked pictureperfect when I was done..... FOUR AND A HALF HOURS!!!

And pictured here is the mess in my kitchen which2days ao was looking wonderful. It is constantly treated like a dumping ground at the end of the bench there. There is currently, our local directory, school newsletter, a lego gondola, pirate money, 2 phones, raffle tickets, a small dish with assorted bir-a-brac, sunnies, a bag of crochet flowers, a cupcake cookbook, an old wipe an assortment of things to be returned to their rightful owners and sadly much, much more! On the floor iis today's shopping, Em's ice cream churner, the rice cooker, nappy bag and cloths for the wash.....phew!

THEN.... There's THIS! Folded, clean clothes in the far left a pile of toys that are currently homeless in our space, B's pile of sketch books sitting on the kitchen bench to the right and a myriad of what nots that can't find anywhere to live.
There's 2 loads of washing waiting to be hung and I haven't cleaned the bathroom this week. I'm currently cooking dinner, roast veg and fritatta as it's scouts night tonight with a tight schedule between school pick up and scouts duty.
I love this crazy life, I love being busy, I love this home we have created. I love the spontaneous sing song I'm hearing from my two year old as I write. I just wish the house cleaning fairies would come!
xxxx Le xxxx