'A Gardeners Journal' quilty progress!

 I'm so excited to say I'm about half way through my hand stitched quilt top! Its coming along so nicely, with each block I finish I see my hand stitching getting neater and faster. This is the block I'm currently working on. They are seed packets

 I recently finished this  'Vegetable patch' block

 And also this 'Weeding the garden' patch. If you've seen the pattern before you will notice that I've changed a few of the pictures a bit, including this one. I'm not sure if it looks quite right but the original picture was of an older lady weeding the garden so I changed it to look a bit more like me weeding the garden in a summer dress and bare feet:)

 Ive also been doing some stitching of the fixing-back-together sort. Cameron got up from his nap today alarmed that Bunny's ear had fallen off

 I haven't kept up with sharing my quilt progress so I took photos today of most of the blocks so far. Some I may have shared before but most I don't think I have. Probably because many of them are almost finished but still have some stitching still to go. Because that seems to be my style, a little here, a little there.

This is the center of the quilt, the largest applique. As you can see its got a few more colours to go

 'watering the garden'

 'bird bath'

 'potting shed'

 'weather vane'

 'Potting plants' (which will make more sense when I've stitched the lady who is potting the plants!)

'snail' and 'butterfly' (I'm going to change the butterfly though because I don't like her pink eyes.
 Oh and I didn't add the 'Orchard' block because I showed it not long ago and also you can see it as my blog header.
So there you are, all caught up!

For more Crafting On fun  Frontier Dreams

bread day

Mitch's 'baby chicken bread' (his snack board is the mum chicken)

 I love bread day!
I actually hadn't done it in a good while. Our rhythm somewhat disappeared when I started looking after the baby but I'm now finding that I can get back to some of the things we like to do that got a bit forgotten about.
I was reading Rebecca's recent bread making post in which she mentions making the dough the night before. Genius!
I can kneed bread dough happily in the evenings instead of trying to fit into my busy mornings. This works for me so much better.
So last night I made the dough, let it sit for an hour and a half and went to bed. In the morning I just got it out half hour before the children arrive to warm up a bit and then we had bread making fun.
 Now we can have bread in the morning and left overs in the afternoon! Mitch got up from his nap today and went straight to the kitchen instead of coming to me like usual. "Bread?!!" yep were bread lovers here:)

this is a snake, porcupine (similar to hedgehog but native to Australia) chicken, snail, bee and face. Good luck guessing whats what!

 The recipe (its a new favourite)
Spelt Bread
1cup spelt grains
1.5 cup white spelt flour
1 cup white plain flour
11/2 tsp dry yeast
2 tsp sugar (id usually use honey but id run out)
1tspn salt

2 Tbs olive oil
1 cup lukewarm water (i used a bit extra to make it a softer dough)

*Grind spelt grains to a course flour
*mix dry ingredients in a bowl
*add wet ingredients and combine
* kneed for 10-15 mins
* place in an oiled bowl, cover with a wet tea towel
*let rise for 90mins
(at this point I put it in the fridge over night)
*punch down and shape into a loaf, buns or shapes as like we like to
*Pre- heat oven to 210oC while bread rises for 30 mins
* Bake for 10 mins, lower temp to 100oC for 20-30 mins (are cooked when they sound hollow. A whole loaf may take a bit longer)

Were not big fans of crunchy crust so I cover them with a damp towel for a few mins as they cool. This may sound crazy but it doesn't make them soggy, it just makes the outsides a bit softer sort of like store bought bread.

We then cut them open and enjoy them with peanut butter, honey or Vegemite

 mmm, mines gotta be melty butter and Vegemite!

 The boys have been very into washing lines and cubby lately. I think this one was a cubby house. Then again, it may have started as a washing line!

Ronnie of Homemade happy gave me the idea of using the baby toy bar as a doll swing so we gave it a go today and it was lots of fun!

Slow Living January 2012

Ive been inspired by Evi to join in Christines monthly slow living journal! Next month ill be on time (hopefully)

NOURISH: Lasagna at Salt of the Earth (my favourite cafe)
Home made and delicious with a fantastic side salad- it nourishes  my body.

Slowly eating it outside in the beautiful garden, thinking and dreaming and watching birds fly by- it nourishes my soul.

Thursday is quickly becoming my favourite day, especially when my parent pop in and come along too.

'Salt of the Earth cafe' garden

 PREPARE (stockpile & preserve): I have been bottling some of our delicious summer! I've made tomato sauce, fig jam and frozen some basil pesto

REDUCE waste, repair & re-purpose: I'm bulk buying flour, getting back to baking bread to reduce plastic bags coming into our home and using the soap I made a while ago. I tried washing my hair with it last night and so far so good! It looks just as nice as usual so that should reduce plastic bottles

The soap I made in December is now ready to use

CREATE:I'm slowly working away at my handstitched quilt and knitted blanket

GREEN: I made a wooden baby toy bar instead of buying a plastic one  

GROW: Not much is growing in my veggie patch at the moment.This is my first summer at this house and ive found that while winter and spring saw my garden abundant and full of beautiful veg, the soil is a bit too sandy for the summer heat. I managed to grow enough tomatoes to keep us happy and make sauce but thats about all that did well enough to mention. Potatoes look good but are still a while away. Im working on adding lots of organic matter in the hope that next summer more will thrive. Im starting to remove all the dead tomato vines and begin planting some autumn/winter veg. Im ready to see some more green and growth.

this is how my garden looked in late December, many stinking hot days ago!

DISCOVER: Beautiful yellow crocuses in my front garden. They were hidden by over grown weeds so they were a proper reward for weeding my garden!

(I got this pic from google because I didn't feel like going and taking a picture but you get the idea:)

ENHANCE community: I'm joining the local craft co op and making things to sell there. I resisted for quite some time because I'm shy but a lady that I met doing salt of the earth markets has been encouraging me to take things in so this morning I did. Its always good for me to break out of my cozy little comfort zone:) The craft co op ladies invited me to a once a week craft morning at the local church. I'm still debating if ill go because I have Mitch and Xavier so it may be a bit hectic. They said even if I'd just like to drop in for a cuppa which I might do as its only around the corner.

 

ENJOY life!:
I have been going on lots of walks with the baby I look after and Ive been feeling recently a new love for my town, I'm slowly starting to love it here.
Before he was coming full time I had two week days off each week which I usually spent at home or drove to my home town to see family and friends.
Now I have to be here on those days but I'm enjoying them so much.
Its nice having a little baby around because he motivates me to get out so that he can see nature which as a bonus of course means that I do too. Its nice being able to go to the water with a little person and just sit quietly. When I began looking after children one of my biggest struggles as a quiet thoughtful person was getting used to how much they talk and want me to talk back. Im well and truly used to it now but I do truly treasure moments with just one or two in a quiet peaceful mood or of course this baby who is still quiet so often. I can go where I please and he's just happily along for the rid

our pretty door!

 Soon after we moved to this house I began painting this door to brighten up the daycare playroom. I painted the green vine and white base coats of the animals and bee hive.
Today Cameron asked if I could put some eyes on the bird so while I had the paints out I finished it all off

 Its far from perfect but I'm quite happy with it.
 The littles were all happily occupied when I begun but of course the second I got out paint they were at my side.
I had Cameron pointing,  "what about that one, you didn't do that yet!" and Mitch sitting on me fidgeting like only a three year old can, but somehow I managed it without mistakes and only a few bits of paint got smeared by inquisitive little fingers:) I like to do these kinds of things when the children are about as they love to watch but I'm glad I didn't wait until I had two more children in the afternoon, now that would have been craziness!

 I had planned on doing different coloured flowers but instead just mixed different shades of purple out of pure laziness. As it turns out I wouldn't change it especially the little purple butterfly

I added bees because they are a special favourite around here. When Mitch was a baby the boys (Cameron, Mitch and Josh) all loved a book called 'Time For Bed' by Mem Fox, especially Mitch. It has a beautiful rhyming verse and water colour pictures of baby animals snuggling up and going to sleep with their mamas. On the page with a mama and baby bee I always pretended my finger was a bee that buzzed and landed on their noses and Mitch still likes to do this often


Linking up with oak tree vibrations for

Fig Jam (sugarless)





Yep I've been jammin again:)

 I mentioned quite some time ago that we have a big old fig tree on the empty block behind our house. Benny's mum said that the owners of the block are happy for us to have whatever we can get to before the birds so I went over and picked a bag full a few evenings ago.

It was a wild and windy night, not the kind of night one would expect in the middle of Summer but nice all the same 

 The figs are in abundance, the birds  have yet to find the fruity feast. Benny's mum said she never managed to get many figs when she lived here. What luck I have, I guess these figs just wanted to become jam

 I loosely followed this sugarless fig jam recipe (honey sweetened)

I also made fig muffins using our favourite muffin recipe

soaking up summer

 another weekend at Sarah's shack. Perhaps one of the last as her Dad is having to sell the place :(

I will miss-

late nights, fires

barbecues,

the rubber ducky shower curtain that we picked together when the shack was new,

spotting dolphins,

escaping to the shore at night for DNM's (deep 'n' meaningfulls) chats

having such an awesome place for us to come together

 I'm thankful for all the wonderful times we've had together at the shack

making a babies wooden toy bar

As I've mentioned, I've not looked after babies for 3 years. During those 3 years we've lived in small houses so in the interest of being able to 'breathe' in our little houses, everything that isn't currently being used goes straight to the opp shop.

I no longer have any of the baby things I've used for the bigger kids. I decided id like a toy bar for the baby (and possibly future babies i will look after and have myself)

my options were

 1)Find one at an opp shop

pros- recycled, can take it back when I'm finished with it rather than need to store it
cons- may take some time to find one, would probably be plastic and ugly

2)Buy a pretty wooden one

pros- pretty and natural, can find one handmade in Australia

cons- rather pricey for something that will only get used for a few month at a time here and there. I don't mind spending money on quality toys but they look so simple I could practicaly...

.3) make one myself!!!

Yep of course I went with option 3!

As I knew would be the case it didn't even take long to make. The longest part was screwing it together because the angles make that a challenge but my Dad was able to do that tricky part (while I was munching on apples from their tree:)

Because it screws together it can come apart and store easily when its not needed. Yay for the space it wont need to take up!

 I took a few photos of the process to share. Here the top piece is marked out and i'd started drilling holes for the toys to be tied to. I based my design on this toy bar.

 Next I had fun with my favourite tool the edge trimmer

 I hand sanded all the pieces silky smooth and polished them with home made beeswax toy polish. I went to visit my dad and...

It came back looking like this!
Ive not made any toys for it yet but as you can see our bell Christmas ornaments are doing the job for now. Turns out its not so bad having Christmas decorations still sitting around at the end of January afterall