Monday again

Well I wasnt realy quite ready for the buisiness of Monday just yet but it came all the same. Im thinking of re-arranging my days when Hansi starts school (I wont have her anymore) so that I will have Monday mornings off instead of accepting another child. Sounds like a good plan! 

We had a realy nice weekend. I found some great new clothes at opp shops, we had a pizza picnic with Mum and Dad at the park and layed in the grass until it was almost too dark to see eachother. My iphone had a sleep over at the park (oops!) We went to see Bennys' sisters new house yesterday and I picked up a cupboard for the day care play area. Yay, storage! Photos to come. 

Today we have been making a tree on the sliding door and tomorrow we will be adding 'falling leaves' to celebrate autum beginning. Weve also made some birds nests, birds and apples for on it. It occured to me this morning that I could have gotten fresh apples off mums apple tree to make an apple crumble tomorrow but ill have Josh until 10pm so we'll have to get some from the fruit and veg shop instead. It'l still be good!

Ive made another garden bed (the one on the right) so weve been enjoying planting. You can see what this spot looked like in november, quite different! I havent actually bought anything for it yet, all the plants have been found in different parts of the garden, mostly plants that have self seeded from things ive planted.
 

 Every day ive been getting ripe tomatoes from the garden (if josh doesnt eat them all first!) I should have taken a pic before we ate all the red ones this morning!

A little this, a little that

This has been keeping the day care children oh so happy. Half a cup of water, a dash of eco dish washing liquid and a drop of colour and they have a bubbly tea party!

This is our current mealtime candle. It is a cool soy wax one that Cam and Mitch (day care kids) gifted me for Christmas, in my favourite leaf candle holder. We have been talking about the happiest part of our day and what we are thankful for.
Today I am thankful for our fruit and veg shop being re-opened a few weeks ago. Charlie is our new fruit and veg guy (a very cool and chatty old dude)
 Josh and I wonder over every few days for goodies and grapes to eat on the way home:) fun

Mmmm, crayons... Bees waxy good!

Over the weekend I've been busy felting some organic merino wool that I dyed a little while ago.

 I worked on two flower garlands for my shop 

(remember my shop? My gosh my Christmas break lasted quite a while!)

This on can be found here

I made this one too but its already been snapped up and is on its way to its new home.

Easter preperations

My friend Alison asked me to read through a pattern that she was writing. Of course when I saw it was for this adorable little easter basket I had to make one!
I cant wait for easter, im planning on making a few more of these and felting some eggs so that my day care children can have lots of egg hunts on the lead up to easter:)

Her pattern is now available in her shop and she has some made up ones for sale too (hers are sooo cute, go check them out!)
Oh and in the background of some of the photos you can see a felt flower garland that I made her a while ago, how fun to see it again:)

(ps, please ignore my horrible blurry night time photo)

The last few evenings ive been...

 spinning,

 knitting, and taking care of my little buddy Josh.
Each weeknight ill be having him until 10pm for Bennys work friend (thats what time they both finish work) and quite honestly I was dreading it but it turns out that its deffinately changing my evenings for the better.
Rather than finishing work and zoning out in front of the tv and not getting around to tea until late (at which time cereal sounds like a desirable dinner) ive been taking my knitting outdoors to watch him and cooking healthy meals to enjoy together. Weve both been enjoying lighting a candle for tea time and im going to find a nice waldorf mealtime blessing to make the meal extra special:) As much as structure and routine is good for children, I think its good for adults too

 so the knitting- my blanket's coming along nicely, im loving how its turning out! I did end up un-raveling it to make it less wide and im so glad I did (you know, now that its re-knitted I can admit that:)
Its made of a super soft organic merino, I cant wait to snuggle under it this winter!

You can probably notice that as I go along the orange lines are getting thinner and thinner:) meanwhile im loving it more and more

 Im thinking these two colours would make a beautiful stripey scarf together. hmm... (the only reason I was able to resist the earge to cast on for another project right away was because the knitting needles I want to use for it are already in use)

 (oh so soft and cudly:)

thrifted woolen cardies

 Here's the two cardies that I opp shopped the other week. This one is black Merino, super soft and a perfect fit! Ive been wearing it every chance I get (although it doesn't stay on long in this weather)

 This is the lambs wool one. When I said it fitted I meant a saw potential.
I contemplated felting it a little to make it a better fit but I loved the sleves the size they were so instead I took in the seams a few cm on the trusty sewing machine.

Its probably hard to see the difference propperly in my mirror self-portrait but im so much happier with it now!

Oh, and this pics just for the cute rabbit factor:)

opp shop adventures and my knitted blanket so far

 I mentioned that I dyed some different coloured wool to spin, here is the fluffy pretty stuff. I love how all the colours turned out except the orange. Orange happens to be my least favourite colour and turned out the brightest (on purpose to spite me I'm sure!:)
Of course my willow rabbit had to be in on the photo because he likes to be sniffing anything new about the place.

 here is my little bit of knitting so far. Its quite a bit wider then I intended for it to be so knitting has paused while I decide if I want to continue with the larger size or save time and wool by unraveling it and starting again. (of course even though I know it will save time in the long run it still seems sad to pull out those pretty stripes)

 The basket it's all in was a great opp shop find on the weekend.
Some days I go in opp shops and find nothing at all but this day luckily wasn't one of those! Its so much fun when every corner you turn takes you to  another wonderful find. Even better when you get to the counter and discover that all of your wonderful finds come to a grand total of under $20!
On this day I found cute doilies and a treasure trove of cheap feltable woolens. When I got home I realised that a black cardigan made of the softest merino and a long lambswool cardie in chocolate brown happened to fit me perfectly! I'm all set for cool weather now!

I also found this mug which is my absolute favourite and came home with a big pile of children's books, as I always do. For 20c each, opp shops are my children's books library. I take them back when we are finished with them and am able to keep the favourites.

Other fun things on the weekend that I haven't gotten around to blogging about
* We fished and had a great time at my friend Sarah's shack. Ah the memories of high school flooded back as they always do:) We spent so many weekend there while growing up and it has so many fun memories.

* Dad made me some more wooden blocks for my daycare children, which are being thoroughly loved and inspiring much creative play. We are slowly sanding and polishing them up to show the beautiful colours of the fancy woods (scraps from the wonderful things dad has made over the years)

My new friend the spinning wheel

 Spinning is a lot more difficult than I imagined but now that I've got the hang of it, the spinning wheel and I are slowly becoming rather good friends. The more I spin, the less frustrating and more relaxing it becomes. It rather addictive really!
I have dyed some wool so that I can spin with pretty colours. Even more fun:)
Yesterday I had a quiet day care day so I was able to do some spinning while the two children played together. It was cute to see them look up from their play now and then and be completely mesmerised by the spinning wheels movement:) I made this small skein of blue yarn and washed it, let it dry stretched around a chair and now it is ready to knit into something.
Ive had some wonderful spinning wheel luck too. You know how I mentioned last post that I wanted a few more bobbins? Well my Oma found a bobbin  from when she used to spin and gave it to me (Yay, thanks so much Oma, its going to come in so handy!)

 I have also begun spinning some pink (oh how i love the shade this pink turned out)

 

Here is a seed stitch scarf that I have begun to knit with my first ever spun yarn! Ill be looking forward to cool weather now that's for sure.

Now that I know how to spin I have come up with a rather grand plan. Ive wanted to knit a small blanket for on my lap for a while but it was going to be incredibly expensive. Now I will be able to make a blanket for much cheaper! Although don't expect to see the finished blanket anytime soon, who knows how far my enthusiasm will take me. I cant wait to get it started.

This week has been rather a relaxed pace work-wise with children going back to kindy and a few absent on various days. I'm enjoying the slower pace and feeling more relaxed within myself. Things just seem to be flowing well in our days.
Today we have a new 17month old girl, Rhylee. She has gone so well for her first day and I expected her to need some extra help getting to sleep for her first nap here but as soon as I put her down she rolled over and closed her eyes, it was as easy as that. I guess we wore her out well this morning!
I can relax even more now. I always get a little nervous having new children on their first day as it can be difficult meeting every ones needs and keeping everyone happy.

Only a few more hours until the weekend and we will be going to the beach!
 Have a happy Friday xo