yesterday sarah and kylie came to visit me. we spent lots of time hanging outside. one thing great about smokers, they like being outside as much as i do! (ok so im not sure they necissary like being outside, perhaps the word is tollerate it, but thats good enough for me!)
sarah made herself comfortable in the baby swing. i absolutely cracked up that her bum fits in it (the age range is 0-4yrs)
all afternoon wed be chatting away, some times having a deep and meaningful conversation, and it would occur to me that she was ever so seriously sitting in a baby swing, and i would have a laugh again!

we got the greatest pies in the world for lunch (yes realy they are that good) and then took kylies dog cooper for a walk down to the footy oval to run off some energy. while cooper happily ran all over the place we layed on the grass and lazed in the sun, it was oh so wonderful, i need to do that more often.

straight after lunch we all had a go at chin-ups on the swing bar. sarah won by technicality because at least she was able to bend her arms at least. the morral to that story is that we are all ridiculously weak!

heres cooper wearing a hair net thingy that we strangely found in my back yard

eight things

i was tagged by the wonderful Nadia at My thoughts, ramblings and musings to answer these questions, oh what fun:)

Eight Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. my friends sarah and kylie coming to wisit me tomorrow!!!

2.having grass (did you see that one coming)

3.meeting a new child for care on monday

4.benny coming home from work

5. owning our own home with a big garden, loads of fruit trees, rain water tank

6. my 21st (2nd of june) how fun are birthdays! i want to have a big tea party and anneke is coming to visit and make me an ice cream cake, mmmm!

7. having babies

8.tea time

Eight Things I Did Yesterday:

1. started play group with the kids (im shy so i find these things a bit scary). it was the most pleasant first day of a playgroup so far (i went to a few in kadina), the people were realy friendly and made an effort to make me feel realy welcome. happy to say that im looking forward to next week:)

2. clipped all of the chickens wings and im still having escapees!! darn them:(

3. ate toasties for tea

4. had a cozy evening sewing pinwheels ive done 22 so far

5. watching whatever i wanted because benny had to work late shift

6. scared the bergeebers outa myself watching the crime investigation chanel while being all alone at night, why do i torture myself?:) lol

7. tried out a baby swing that benny hung for me. it was a BIG hit!! (wish i could share a photo i took of the little boy and his humongous smile, its for sure my new fav)

8. my gosh, i cant remember anything else, yesterday was just to long ago!

Eight Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. plant seedlings and have them not get eaten by chooks

2. go on a big fun holiday to somewhere really fun

3.live near a realy great beach

4. a course to learn more about portrait photography

5. learn to play jack johnson songs on guitar

6. mosaic

7.be less shy

8. be outside all the time. but still be warm and dry. and of course have a warm dry spot to put all my makin stuff

Eight Shows I Watch:

1. gilmore girls

2. that 70 show

3. criminal investigation channel (its a love hate thing you see)

4. family guy

5. john and kate plus 8

6.super nanny

7. desperate housewives

8. underbelly

ah, finnaly ive finished my lists, it only took... a few days. in case anyones following me around like a stalker i will confess that the things that happened yesterday were from tuesday. yesterday was even more fun:)

clipped

ive been out in the garden getting good and muddy and planting some plants (looking forward to washing my clay coverd outfit, oh yay!)

ive planted out another row of peas, brussle sprouts, cellery, lettuce, spinich and some pretty flowers to brighten up the veggie patch

its so nice getting lots of rain and knowing that my little seedlings are being well cared for by nature. nothing nicer than planting plants and then coming inside and having rain water them in for you. except watching and drinking warm chamomile tea, which is what i did. mmm, cozy

your probably thinking my chooks have made enough nusance of them selves for the time being. unfortunately not boots! boots has still been getting out and a-nibblin when ever my back has been turned. we had been investigating a gap in the side of their fence and pondering how to make it smaller.

until, that is, i came out to the garden only to be greeted by boots, running, squarking (yes, fine by me, very cute she is running towards me and getting so excited)... and effortly taking off to glide over the fence. so as i whinged to my dad this morning (who me? i wouldnt whinge!) about needing to buy taller fencing, more poles etc to put up a bigger fence he suggested that clipping her wings could be a little easier. erm yes... im liking the sound of that!!

i contemplated finding a box, lugging the gal to kadina, hoping after the half hour drive that mums neighbour (the chook expert that helps my not so expert self) would be home. bravery (oh and laziness) led me to the computer instead and i found this great site to show me how to do it myself. i will admit that i closed my eyes for the first snip but boots was unfazed. im a big fan of clipped wings right about now!

ah at last, the chickens are where they should be

benny made some tent pegs at work and put them at the bottom of the fence. (one day i should do a post on cool things benny makes me at work. hes made me a windchime, sewing tin, other cool stuff and oh yeah, i think he also does some work there sometimes) he was right, it worked and now i am happy again

unfortunately not before they escaped and had a nibble on some freshly planted seedlings. luckily they saved some of each plant and i think they should still grow. on the up side even with the wild chickens attacking them, the seedlings are looking quite healthy. im planning to build windbreaks for the seedlings with pea straw bales. so far so good!

this is my favourite spot today, cozying up in my favourite chair with a good book and my sewing tin

hand sewing pinwheels, ooie i love green and purple. seriously how hard is it to find purple materials!! ive been wanting to make a purple and green quilt for at least a year and finaly thanks to my mum giving me a purple fat quatre pack for easter i can start. im still thinking ill need to add white borders between each pinwheel. fingers crossed that i finish it before running out of materials!

the way i love my home best...

filled with family that is. on monday oma, jo, levin, mum, elly, jullian and louis came to visit and we had pies and pasties at the beach. the boys had a play at the play ground and had races across the jetty with elly.

garden happenings

my favourite idea ive had for this garden is to cover part of the ugly fence with pea plants. as you can see theyre still only little, but still every time i look over at them i feel happy because i know they have a promising future of covering grey fence with lush eadible greens.

i still cant get over how great fresh peas are straight from the vines. last year i planted loads of snow peas because i thought they would be a great snack while working and playing in the garden with the kids, and just a small patch of peas. the peas were always the first to go and not many ended up in the kitchen either!

lookie, my miniture lemon bush has 2 whole lemons on it ready for the winter!! hmm, that will do a whole of... 2 lemon and honey drinks to ward off winter colds. i think this year will deffinately require a sneaky visit to mums lemon tree. shhh, dont tell her! (hi mum:)

i still have celerys to plant which i grew from seed. they probably should be in by now but im still worried that there will be hot weather that kill them off like the last lot.

i have some broccoli seedlings that will soon be ready for the garden. im hoping they do as weal here as my last lot did in kadina. they grew like weeds and we were unindated with big tasty broccolis all winter long!

the chickens are stuck in alcatraz for the day. theyve discovered how to get under the fence so weve got to implement a fix-it plan. while one random escapee chicken here and there is ok to leave out for the day and doesnt do much dammage, ive discovered 6 are a different story.

day 1 was great, they ate all the sour sob weeds! unfortunately when the weeds were gone they were still hungry... on the upside they have done plenty of scratching and pooping where the lawn is to go and that can only be a good thing.

well, happy friday to all and have a great weekend

oh and the new kids im looking after are doing great. they are a realy friendly family, im very happy to have found them. i know i fall in love with all kids but seriously, these are super cuties and lots of fun. the 18mo old is IN LOVE with the chickens. he seriously doesnt need play buddies, hes happy running around with his new chookie friends all morning long:)

john butler trio

Thursday night me dad anneke and kane went to the John Butler Trio gig at the Governor Hindmarsh in Adelaide, a benefit for communities affected by floods in Queensland and fires in Victoria.
absolutely fantastic. made me realise that i really need to charge my ipod and get out of the house. daily! as all the songs reminded me of different places in kadina that i miss and the good times i had at them all while bopping away to john butler trio while out for walks (yes, i used to sing out loud when it came to my favourite songs:)

we had so much fun, and ate really good pizza

the tables looked really pretty with candles in the middle but of course camera flash didn't do them justice

we were really lucky to see them at the gov, the tickets sold out straight away. its a really small venue, very cozy and we were probably only about 5 meters from the stage even though we waited until the supporting band came on before we stood up

discovering old school quilting

i got the two kids to look after 3 days a week which means some reliable income of $180 per week! (they are on contract which means they and the government pays for their absent days) im so so happy, they are beautiful boys aged 6mo and 18mo and start next week.
sadly it means that i cant have the kids ive been having much (well i could but 4 children under 2yrs just isnt my idea of a good time) .but i wont miss getting up at 5am. oh no i sure wont!

now that the binding is on, here is a better picture of the baby quilt

and with the scraps i have started hand stitching on a quilt for the sleep room. both were intended to suit girls and boys but pink has snuck its way into both, i just couldnt help it, i have so many great pink scraps:) i am realy loving the handstitching, these three flowers were all made while i looked after kids, portable enough to easily take to the garden, quiet enough to do while they sleep, fantastic!

last week i did some visiting. first to anneke to hang out with her and the lovely mia dog on my favourite beach

and then to levins (where i forgot to take photos) for some much needed crafting inspiration. while i was there i made these coasters (yes that grass is at my house, its a tiny patch that has slowly come up all by its self next to the shed. i wish there was more of it but i must say im pretty happy now that its bug enough for me to sit on (just) ,who knew such a small patch of grass could bring so much enjoyment to a person)

and also got levins favourite banana cake recipe and had a go at them as soon as i got home. they turned out fantastic! a deffinate favourite here too.

and as usual i came away from levin with an arm full of wonderful reading material. i have started reading An Elm Creek Quilts Sampler and absolutely love it! so today is a reading and quilting day (as apposed to 3 days this week that i am actually working decent hours, yay!) im very keen to have a go at hand piecing soon after hearing about the process in the book. looking forward to seing yours soon levin, and coming over so you can show me how its done.

(family that are wondering how i went with the new kids i was meeting yesterday- meeting postponed until 4pm today, i also had some one book in a 3yr old girl who i meet next week and she is willing to pay from this week to hold the place open. for both families my hours are 10am-3pm, tues-friday so hopefully both work out, it would be perfect. fingers crossed)

lucky for me i happend to be there as levin was sewing binding on a quilt and learnt how to do it propperly. must say this way looks a whole lot neater than my previous attempts!!

oh and the baby quilt? me and benny are trying for a baby.

i started the quilt when we first decided to start trying 2 months ago thinking that with all the hand stitching i wanted to do it would take a long long time. apparently not so much as its almost finished!

oh weal, heres hoping that i can wait long enough to use it, i can definately see it making its way onto one of the beds of the children i look after.

ive always wanted to have beautiful quilts on all the little beds, it was a realy fun little project, im thinking i might have to do more soon. its hard justifying the cost of making them "for the buisiness" but i guess ive just got to think of them as entertainment for me. i will enjoy seing them every time i walk in the room. and besides, to me every child deserves to be wrapped up in home made, hand stitched goodness. what could help you nap better than that?