Weekend before Santas visit ~

Karl & Ricki couldn't make it home for Christmas, so we visited with them the weekend before.  On the Saturday we travelled down it was Liams 19th birthday:

Pizza and pressies at the Motel . . .

 

The next day was Rickis 21st birthday ~ a quick pressie opening before he had to go to work:

 

He had been out with his mates the night before - didn't get home until 5am then we got him up early to go and see Avatar.  He was a bit under the weather!!

Then we went out for lunch:

Dallas & Josh

Karl & Ricki

Ricki & Me

Liam afterwards

We came back from Christchurch with some goodies, too . . . a couple of Trade Me wins - 5 Wasgijs for Linda and a hutch for me . . .

I have plans to strip it and French Country it this coming year.

Preparing for Christmas

Got lazy this year.  Couldn't be bothered putting the tree up, so just put some Santas around the place.

The Kitchen display:

The Entry Display (the light doesn't do it justice):

 

 

 

My new (to me)pride and joy

Isn't she lovely!!

The girls!

Being as I am surrounded by testosterone laden males, I thought I would get some more female company, females that I could while away the day with, talk about all sorts of things with, and just sit and enjoy each others company.

My new 'girls':

 

Pudding just loves them:

 

I'm ginger, so of course they'll think I"m a carrot!

 

First time I've done this . . .

Corrie over at retromummy is having a giveaway - some beautiful fabric - grandmothers flower garden - which she will generously give away 12 fat quarters of.

 Check it out here:  The Giveaway Blog

Patchwork

Now as you look at these . . . please bear in mind that I DON'T sew!!  Don't even have a sewing machine - I'm using my sisters one!

I enrolled in a class for one Saturday . . . I was thinking I wouldn't even get the machine threaded in the time I had LOL

First:  I picked my fabrics, and with purple being my favourite colour, it wasn't too hard.

Next came the cutting of the pieces (I absolutely LOVE that top fabric):

Then came the sewing . . . have to quietly admit it got a bit frustrating at times.

Then putting the patches together:

 

 

I will admit here that I made a bit of a mistake in the sewing of the patches together - I think I got one patch around the wrong way and consequently some of the fabrics are a bit too close to each other.   But the final patchwork looks like this:

It's not perfect, but it's my very first attempt and I just LOVE it.  Since this photo it has a dark purple border around the edge and is waiting to be quilted.  I will get someone who knows what they are doing to do that bit - maybe I'll attempt it on my next one  :-)

Oh, and I've now bought a used sewing machine - quite old and very heavy - but it sews beautifully.

My next project is a bag - pics to come eventually!

Where to start -

The vege gardens

 

What we are harvesting:
Strawberries
peas - a handful to eat raw each day  :-)
lettuce
broccoli
silverbeet
wong bok


Thoughts for next years garden:
Plant more strawberries and peas!!!

My last couple of weeks in pictures ~

 

 

 

 

Can I just say -

I don't know how people who work full time can get everything else done!!!

Weekend gardening

My computer has been giving me grief yet again. I would probably give up on it if I didn't have such interesting places on the internet to spend my time.

I spent last Sunday in the garden, planting some new vegetables and a few other bits and pieces to keep the bugs away. You will notice that I'm only planting a few things at a time - don't want to overdo it and have a lot go to waste. This is the year of learning . . .


Planted in garden 1:

Wong Bok Cabbage

Beetroot

 

Planted in garden 2:

Capsicum

Lettuce

Silverbeet

Blue Borage to help with pest control

Then there is the new blueberry plant.  After doing alot of reading I've discovered that you need TWO blueberry plants for fruit . . . and I've also picked all the flowers off, so there is no fruit this year   :-(   but I know that it's good for the plant.

Well it's taken me two days to write this and get the photos up . . .

I'm at the end of my first week of full time work - tired as - and looking forward to the weekend.  Don't know how restful it will be, but it's the weekend and that's enough for me LOL.

Another full time week next week then hopefully a day or two off.

I'm longing to be an 'at home' wife and mum again.  And, to be honest, I'm quietly working on it.  Just need to get a few things out of the way first . . and really get my budget sorted.  Wish me luck.