grrr

So today I was going to show you some pics of some spiral bound notebooks that I've been making as Christmas gifts. I made them from some floral art vintage books, card I had and blank white paper. They looked great with the binding clips on before I took them to the binding shop. Mr A and I took a walk into town today to pick them up and then stopped in at the park. I was distracted with the school pickup/homework/dinner making/ bath-bedtime routine and just now had a chance to sit down and look at the finished result. Grrrr, they are totally stuffed! and that I feel is quite a polite expression for what that binding shop has done. Holes are not complete and lots of the pages are swinging free. Extra holes that binding stops and just doesn't go through and I'm feeling really sad about it all. Not only because all these vintage pages have been ruined, but because now I have to go back to the shop and have a bit of a rant. If I was my single no kids self, I'd just forget about it, move on, make some more and find a new binding shop. But I'm not so I feel I need to get my money back or some how get them to fix it. Grrrrrrrrr!

The pic has nothing to do with this post, but shows some cute little cups that I picked up at my local Salvation Army store. The kids love them and have little races and present them as prizes. My poppies are in flower (the few plants that survived the snail attacks!) and we've been enjoying picking them to pop in vases around the house.

Back to the binding shop I go - wish me luck - I need it!

blah

I'm suffering from a case of the blahs. I can't quite put a finger on it but I just feel like much like myself lately. I don't know whether it's the earthquakes and tsunami or a school friend's husband passing away much too early of cancer, or miss E starting school but something is different. I really miss our preschool walk, it was lovely past fruit trees, chickens and mangroves all right in the centre of town. Our school walk has nothing much to write about, crossing a very busy main road, and unfortunately no chickens to peek at. But things are looking up, we discovered a feijoa tree that is already dropping fruit today when we went a different way home. Miss E busily filled up her school hat and devoured them as soon as we were home.

I haven't felt the desire to stay up late crafting like I usually do, but then I discovered the "Gift of love appeal" and I've been busy crocheting some cotton dishcloths to send. Nothing like some crafting for a good cause to get me out of the blahs.

the bottle of fruit is Quince from my nana, I was very excited to see it in her hands when she turned up for a visit this afternoon.

afternoon light

This is the little scene on my windowsill this afternoon. The sunflowers have finished flowering and we have bought the heads in to dry out and save the seeds for next year. I received these crochet over glass coasters as a Christmas present. Aren't they so cool? I really love their sunny colour, and I spread them along the windowsill when there is room and stack them when there isn't any.

I think we could plant a forest of sunflowers next year!

cold

It's cold and wet and the rain just hasn't stopped all day so to warm our tummies tomorrow I plan to make soup to fill a set of 5 soup cups with handles (with matching saucers) that I got a few weeks ago at the local Salvation Army. They are Green and beautifully retro and fit my collection perfectly. Today one sits on my windowsill filled with foraged pecans ready to shell. I'm hopeful that the rain will ease in the morning and we will make it out of the house over the weekend.

Happy weekend where ever you are.

guilty

Over the last few weeks I've been collecting guavas on our walk to preschool. There are two large trees on the walk and I pick up a few each day. Today I had finally filled a large container in the freezer and decided to make some jam. It was a mixture of the red guavas and the yellow ones the fall from our neighbour's tree over the fence to below our washing line. Mainly red "guilty" guavas because this year the yellow ones seem to be eaten by the birds and very few are making it onto the ground without big holes in them. I feel ever so guilty about picking up the red guavas on our preschool walk, but if they are out on the footpath and no one is picking them up what a waste, right? I think guavas must have a high pectin content because I never have any problem getting it to set, I think it should be the only type of jam I ever make. Yum.

inspired

I was inspired by this post from Melissa of tiny happy to make a necklace with some wooden beads that I've had for a long time. They were from a bracelet that broke, instead of threading them on fabric like she did, I crocheted them on some green cotton. The photo doesn't really show much detail but I crocheted the necklace long so it can wrap a couple of times around my neck and still hang long.

We have been enjoying some vegetable fritters here for a few weeks, I grate a couple of zucchinis and squeeze out the excess moisture, grate a cup or so of carrot, beat in an egg or two and about a handful of breadcrumbs. Mix it all together and cook in a fry pan with a tiny bit of olive oil. You can add lots of other vegetables in there too especially if carrot isn't your thing. They are quite plain (the kids love them like this) but they can be spiced up with some curry powder or served with a spicy sauce. I'm amazed how fast they disappear from the plates, a great way to get a few more vegetables into our diets. Our favourite thing to serve them with is homemade garlic pizza bread, yum. I must post that recipe soon.

I grate the vegetables on the finest grade on my grater so the cook a little more quickly and have a finer texture that the children find appealing.

some history

We live on a small town section, it's about 400sqm total, including the long drive as we are behind another house. The house in front is a bungalow built in the early 1900's, our house was built around 10 years ago to put things in perspective. I am always digging up little bits and pieces in the garden that belonged to people who lived here many years ago, mostly broken crockery and glass bottles but I have found a little porcelain doll's foot and arm. Many homes in the early 1900's had a bottle pit, or a little rubbish pit in their back gardens and remnants of that is what I dig up I suppose. I always get a bit excited as I see a little bit of something poking out and I'm nearly always disappointed when I find it's broken. Miss E and I are trying to to dig up a stump of a palm tree that we have cut down to make way for a tyre sandpit, Miss E dug up the lovely and perfect little glass bottle stopper and I dug up, you guessed it, the broken one! She was so excited and has shown everyone her "treasure" I've been saving all the little bits of crockery that I've dug up, I'm hoping to return them to the garden in the form of a garden paver.

I found these two great patterned ceramics, the left one is a little English pot with a plastic cork like lid, the other a German jug, missing a lid. They are on display on my windowsill making me feel like spring is really here and summer just around the corner.

from the garden

I love this time of year, everything seems so green and new and alive. I'm loving taking a short walk to the garden each morning to grab some raspberries to add to miss E's preschool lunchbox. They can't get any fresher than that and more delicious than store bought. There have been brief sightings of ripe strawberries, as they disappear into a certain mouth. Rather miss E eating them than the birds.

"mummy I want to wear a skirt today" it's not something I hear often (my little girl is very much at home in pants and the sandpit) so I thought this was a great opportunity to make some little skirts. So far it's just the one above made from some super soft floral cotton from my vintage swap partner Adrie (thanks again Adrie, it's lovely) and a vintage doily sewn on. Apparently pants still need to be worn underneath skirts but it doesn't matter how she wears it. Luckily for me skirts like that are very quick and easy so I'm sure I can fit a bit more skirt making in over the weekend.

Happy weekend to you.

on the windowsill

On my windowsill this week was a big bunch of daffodils, spring is on the way and with the temperature rising it might have arrived a few weeks early.

walnut

I had a lucky find at the salvation army yesterday, this necklace. My mum had one when I was little, the seeds on hers were dyed quite a bright red and green. I was so fascinated as a child by the walnut shells and how they had been cut so thinly to reveal such interesting shape. Now I have my own and as mine is "Au natural" it will probably go with a few more outfits than mum's one.

on the windowsill

On the windowsill sits Tamarillos and a small posy for Miss E from Granny. The Posy is in a new to me cute green mug, printed with Japan on the bottom. I love searching for hidden green ceramics in thrift shops and especially any Japanese ones. The Tamarillos are destined for a crumble for a cold night.