All Hallow's Eve

Not really a Kiwi traditionBut I quite like scaring them. I was going to do skeletal gingerbread men but ran out of time.
Spider biscuits provoked a good reaction anyway.

Walk in the garden

If you came for a walk round my garden this afternoon I'd be pretty excited to show you everything that's happening. Down the back path past the chooks the raspberries are about to open their flowers and sunflowers and nasturtiums line the back fence, I hope the frost doesn't get them I heard on the radio there might be one tonight. The old ironing board recycled to become a table holds lettuce and beans waiting to be planted. Further down the fence a boysenberry is tied to the fence. I love all the flowers in the garden at present, most of them are white and hold promise of beautiful fruit and berries to come.
Cherries, their sight a real delight. Hopefully these promise fruit just after Christmas, a wee bit of time for me to prepare to stop the birds stealing them all. This will be their third season in the ground and the first that I'll be allowing fruit. The first two years I pick flowers off all my fruit trees so they can put all their energy into putting down good strong roots.
Elderflower opening, a beautiful scent. Some of these will be for tea and herbal cream some left to grow into berries.
A splash of orange, Calendula in the flower garden. Many people are asking me to repeat a herbal cream making workshop I did last year. I thought I'd go through the steps here on my blog as well for future reference. So if you want to join in, initially you'll need to find a patch of Calendula, Comfrey, Lavender, Elderflower, Yarrow, Kawa Kawa, Manuka,Chammomile or any other herbs you have growing which are soothing for skin or have antiseptic qualities, there are heaps. Have on hand ready for a dry day some olive or almond oil a clean glass jar with lid and some wooden kebab sticks. I think a good time for collecting herbs for storage is when the moon is rising or full but since it's been so wet we'll just go for a good dry fine day. I'll keep you posted.

Worrywort

Some pretty big weather events in Tasman in the last couple of weeks. I have to go over this bridge to get to work and town, it's pretty skinny and scary on a good day but it really freaked me out seeing the water up this high. I am a worrier, often asking myself, OK what am I worrying about? It may be a kind of comfort or habit to be worrying. The bridge collapsing while I'm on it is a fairly common worry as is our old shed blowing down onto the road and causing an accident, being too decrepit to insure makes the worry worse. So after the rain subsided the wind started and a couple of earthquakes shook me up for for good measure. It would be fair to say I've been in a state. It runs in my family, my dear Aunt doesn't go into "the Warehouse" in case there is an earthquake and every thing falls off the shelves and won't drive around rocks road in Nelson when it's raining in case the hillside comes down.
While I sewed for the festival the weeds grew thick and fast in the front garden so it looks more like a wild lawn with flowers in it at the moment than a cottage garden. Never mind I'm more into vege gardens anyway but it will need some attention I guess before all the weeds set seed. My sewing was worth it though, I got lots of nice comments at the festival and made some good sales. Lots of organically grown seedlings went to new homes too so I have alot more room to plant in the glasshouse now and a bit more time on my hands to get the garden set for summer. I had anticipated being alot less busy this week but it's not working out as planned either, I may need a holiday it's all becoming a bit of a slog. Roll on summer!
Fabric hunting is getting to be a huge challenge too I found 2 pieces in a small antique shop round the corner from where my Mum lives but I wouldn't want to buy at antique shop prices very often! The mushroom bit is from Spotlight the day after the festival, 20% off was too good to resist. I have a theory that the red cross ladies are getting all the yummy fabric before it goes out into the shop. I have been contemplating my career options in the last 6 months there are about half a dozen paths I'd bee keen to explore but nothing that I just know is right. Perhaps volunteering in the op shop would be a good way to contemplate?

Button stuff

Awhile ago I made myself this fabric brooch, it always annoyed me cos it didn't seem to have any character. It's been tossed around the living room and in and out of the toy box since then. Yesterday my "skatey boy" sat quietly and created his own version of the brooch without any input from me except to ask "can I use this material?' I think the boy has more creative talent in his little finger than I'll ever have. He was also inspired to make some button jewelery after spying a vintage jewelery book I got from the library. I made the cushion for him to display his work at the festival next weekend. We might have to whiz over to Nelson to buy some clasps for his necklace unless anyone has other ideas of a nice way to join the copper wire on the necklace?

Weekend waffle

There are not enough hours in a day for me at present. My time is being sucked up by meetings, community networking (sometimes known as coffee with visitors) and little extra things like Drs visits and dropping PJ at school. Ususlly she walks and I'm often still in my jarmies saying "whew" to my self "thank goodness they're all out the door". Often I go round and round in circles too as any Mum with kids can probably relate to, just when I finish the chores kids sweep in and create a new pile of something else to be done. They're excellent with helping out it's just that four busy kids + wet weather + small house = Clutter!!!!!!!! The garden hasn't had much attention, we've had very heavy rain and then when the weather comes out fine for a day I have to tackle the mountains of washing. It is great to have the rain though as I always have water issues in summer so hopefully the more we have from mother nature now, the less I'll have to worry about the well running dry in summer. If you're gardening in the top of the south watch out for those frosts this week if the rain clears quickly because it feels like we've had some late snow today.

I'm trying to create some stock to sell at the upcoming Ngatimoti school festival, the progress in the evening when the children are finally in bed is slow. Some leather booties were this weeks effort: I'm making a few quick presents for friends,a zip up purse which I saw on Melissa's blog by Jessicah of Spinning a yarn is a quick way to use up little left over scraps of fabric. I was going to add a handle too but got visitors again and forgot. Thanks for the neat idea guys.

Short and sweet

Mum always said if you havn't got anything nice to say don't say anything at all. That's why I havn't posted for a bit. I have been reading though. Check out The Daisy Patch , a new blog where I'm looking foward to watching the progress in the garden and the needle felted creations. Some cool links there to cruise through too, Pea soup has super cleaver knitted fruit. I smiled at Sally Anne's pile of library books because that's exactly what I did when the weather was all wet and nasty. This is my pile:

A new baby whose brother and sister died in the yuckky weather is keeping PJ company.

Quick applique

Thanks to everyone for the warm wishes after PJ broke her leg. She is coping very well considering she cannot seem to get the hang of walking with crutches. We bought home a little wheelchair so that I don't wreck my back again moving her around. She has had parcels in the post and lovely visitors bring her little things to play with and colour in but seems to need me every half hour or so to help do something for her. I'm not a particularly patient person so it is testing me quite a bit. I have new found respect for parents of special needs kids. My Mum is a godsend. She's taken a day off work today to give me a little bit of relief. PJ adores being with her and she's much more patient and understanding than I am!
A friend requested a skull and x bones t shirt for a new born. I'm so pleased with the result. Instead of sewing the t myself I found a few white singlets at the op shop in fantastic condition and attached the applique to them. I prefer the little brown kiwi at the top, that image has been in my head for a couple of months when I was given the scraps of brown cotton. I hope they wash and wear well, I think I might even make one of those for myself. I do hope everyone else who is on school holiday break at the moment is getting a few moments to sew, craft, garden or steal a few moments peace.

Perfect Plans...

Spolied perfectly. Three sons and a daughter, the only one to ever visit the emergency room is my girl. First day of the school holidays, broken leg, cast to her thigh, too small for crutches and now Granny can't have her for the week as planned. That will teach me not to make plans for the most kid free constructive break yet and it might teach her not to play on the shed roof like her brothers when she's told she's too little.

Asparagus

I love early spring when the asparagus pops up. We've all had enough of our winter veges and the summer ones are nowhere near ready. My last few weeks have been quite unsettled I've been a real grump to everyone and I'm not really sure why. My theory is that I'm trying to do too much and not doing a very good job at anything which really frustrates the perfectionist in me. I'm exhausted at times so have tried adding a bit more red meat back into our diet thinking I might be low in iron, but also I've become more aware of how many convenience foods have crept back into our diet lately and wonder if it's preservatives and colourings effecting me. I'm in denial about coffee still that will be they last thing I try to get rid of. So this week as I went round the supermarket I realised there were not many things that I could purchase which were preservative and/or colour free. Some things surprised me too like yogurt and Vegemite. It will have to be a gradual change and we don't need to be really radical about it. One thing I can do better is utilise the garden and store the produce for winter. Currently I bottle quite a bit of fruit and freeze berries and tomatoes but I'm going to make alot more effort this year including drying a lot more fruit as I've even noticed dried fruit is not just simple dried fruit, some have preservative added. Where before these activities were just a hobby I'm going to make more of a commitment to them. I have a good lot of seedlings started, tomatoes for bottling, drying and freezing, sunflowers to feed the chooks and pet rats. Wouldn't it be nice to have a machine to take the shells off them? I've also decided to grow more pumpkins this year, last years ones were beautiful but I ran out a wee bit early. Every day now I bring the seedlings outside the glasshouse to harden off, this time of year a Woofer would be very helpful.


Spring has inspired me to make some different coloured bags I still haven't developed another pattern that I like as much as this one. I have quite a few ready to sell now but am putting off approaching outlets. It's mostly nerves but I don't know if I want to turn a hobby into a business.

Steiner Spring Fair

This week was pretty busy potting up heaps of seedlings in the glasshouse, working and sewing. I'd been looking foward to the Steiner Spring Fair for two weeks, and it wasn't dissappointing despite fairly heavy showers of rain while we were there.My favorite stall was the felted dolls and creatures......
White unicorns! I want one. All exquisitely made. My red head came home with a wee gnome with a felted hat, but as his favorite pass time at the moment is to throw things until they disappear out of sight I couldn't find it to photograph. Hopefully it'll show up sometime this week if I get round to doing housework. Ha! The Fair is a beautiful event for children, like a medieval fair. The candle dipping and felting tents were very popular. I foolishly took L with me and he was bored in under and hour. Baby G and I at least had a chance to enjoy some music, food, lucky dips, buy some plants and watch the fairies weave through the crowds. Next time I'm leaving L at home!