Crocheted Headband

I decided I would crochet myself a headband last night to keep my mind off the cyclone heading towards the boys..it was very quick and easy, just all triple crochet, Kasey would like me to make her one as well, I am happy with how it has come up...might make a few more in different colours...hair's a bit messy though...

I plan to spend today doing some baking, lots of things in mind to cook up for lunches etc. We have had so much rain here, there was ankle deep water through the car turnaround bay and carport last night..the yard up the back is so wet, it's gonna be a jungle when it finally dries out enough to be mowed. Hopefully I can get through to the boys today on the phone to see how they fared...it's supposed to be hitting them early morning...I'm hoping it's just heavy rain by the time it gets to them..my hour in the garden wasn't spent quite how I envisaged yesterday, I spent most of it trying to find the missing guinea fowl, with no success...and then I did a bit of weeding, but got rained out. It's too wet to plant anything up there at the moment anyway...this rain is really playing havoc with the vegie garden..oh well, the trials and tribulations of growing food...

Severe Tropical Cyclone Lua

Damian and Michael are both working in Newman WA in the Pilbera region at the moment. At the moment they are under cyclone warning, waiting for TC Lua to reach them. It it crossing the coast as a category 4 at the moment, and will reach them some time tonight as a category 2 -3. I am worried........

I hope the cyclone loses a lot of its punch as it moves over the coast...and that their accomodation has been well built to withstand cyclones.
I have also lost 2 guinea fowl this morning, Kasey thought she would help me and went and let the chooks out, and came back up to the house to tell me, and I said that the gate on the chook pen has to be shut as the guinea fowl can't be let out yet, but it was too late, Reggie had gone up in to the nesting area and killed one and was after all the others...2 others got out, 1 has come back and we have got it back in with the other one, but the 3rd one appears to have flown away at this stage, so now we only have 2, as reggie got the other 2 as well a few weeks back,  I am hoping that the other one comes back during the day, I have tied reggie up and locked Diesel in the pool area for the day, so I hope it comes back...the guinea fowl venture is turning in to a bit of a failure at the moment...I think next time I will just get full grown ones..

My 1 Hour a day Garden challenge

I am setting myself a challenge to spend 1 hour a day outside in the garden, as I want to really get the vegetable garden pumping along for autumn and winter, and there is a lot of work I want to do in the general gardens to get them looking nice. I made a start yesterday by putting a new layer of dry bedding mulch in the chooks house, as we have had so much rain lately, everything is so wet, and the girls will appreciate having dry feet. I also pulled some weeds in the vegie garden, so that is a start. The challenge will be weather dependent, if it is raining or too hot, I will leave it for the next day. I suppose, even if I can only meet the challenge half of the time, then that's a pretty good start, and more than I am managing now anyway. If I can manage each day, then that's 7 hours a week in the gardens, that should improve my harvests and keep everything looking maintained and nice, without too much effort.

Today I am planning on doing more weeding in the vegie garden and getting it re-mulched and ready for planting, and later on I will work out what needs to be planted so I can get the seeds and seedlings organised for planting. I have been working on a PDF document, collecting planting information for each month and plant profiles etc, but that came to an abrupt halt with the renovations, so hopefully I can get back to that soon, as it will be an easy on hand reference guide for me, and save me keeping heaps of magazines as clutter in storage. What's your plans for your gardens today?

Would anybody like to join in with my hour a day challenge, maybe we can motivate each other?
Let me know if you join up in the comments below, and I will keep a list of everyone participating below.


You are welcome to save the hour a day garden challenge picture above and use it on your blog to show you are participating if you wish.

IPad carry bag

I made this carry bag/stand for my iPad at the sewing retreat...it is. Much more convenient way to carry my iPad, and with some built in storage I can keep a cleaning cloth and some notes etc in the pockets both inside the case and on the outside...and it has ended up looking quite rustic and pretty....

It stands up tall on the back flap, or lower down on the bottom flap, however, I do find it a little flimsy, so I want to put a thicker sheet of perspex or cardboard in, so that it stands up better. Overall though, I am very happy with it. I managed a small harvest today, 5 eggs (only 2 in this pic) a small bunch of ceylon spinach to make a cheesy spinach quiche for dinner, and a capsicum (quite small) and a bit of a mangey looking cucumber. I planted the cucumber, zuccini and rockmelon quite late, and with all of the rain we have had, and my non motivation out in the garden, all I have managed to get is 1 single solitary mangey looking cucumber..it's just been soooo wet, so many things in the vegie garden are suffering.

I am really hoping to get my gardening motivation happening very soon, as there is lots to plant out. I am exhausted after the inside renovations, and I am finding it hard to get some energy back, other than in little spurts at the moment.  I have a little challenge in mind for myself which I am working on to help in this area.

Hand made wall hangings

I made 3 wall hangings for the dining room yesterday, cost was under $15 each to make. I am quite happy with them. I used lightweight ply sheets, and covered them in wallpaper, it was very quick and easy. I am going to finish them off with a few splashes of textured paint in black or silver to hide a few imperfections here and there, but I love the look of them. The colours go really well with the colour scheme I am ending up with through the house.

I am currently out in the office, I have set the sewing machine up out here, and I am working on the bed runner I started last weekend. It is coming up beautifully, just got to work out whether I am going to use wadding and back it, or just hem it...hmmm...decisions...

Renovations so far pics...

Some before shots of the house during renos. Pretty much all of our posessions have been packed away, and the stuff we still needed out to function on a daily basis was moved out to the pergola area. The worst part by far was the floors being done, the slate being removed, it was soooo dusty, we had to wash down every wall in the house as we could write our names in the dust on the walls.

The company that removed the slate were really good, a crew of 5 showed up on time, and just got straight in to it, less than 6 hours later, all the slate was off the floor, the floors were sanded back for the tiler to start the next day, and the slate was being taken away in their trucks.

The next day the tilers got to work.

Then Damian started on building the new entry wall, where the brick planter (plant killer) was...it took him 3 days to build this, as it is self supporting and he wanted it all braced off properly so it could hold the tv etc, with no problems.

 I was going to paint the house in the Illawarra colour, which is the same as what is in the bedrooms and the office, but the common consensus was that it was going to end up too dark, even though I absolutely love the colour. So I ended up going completely white, and I will use the Illawarra as features here and there, that way I can put any colour that I wish to in a room for decoration.

This is the dining room, I still need to finish the window coverings and I am currently doing some home made wall art for the wall.

 The kitchen has had new handles and a new gloss white splashback so far. The appliances are being replaced with stainless steel ones, and a new stainless steel kick will go around the bases, and the timber blind is to go back up, after that I will assess how it looks, as to whether I need to do the doors or not.

 The main lounge area is just about done, I am just waiting for a replacement lounge, I currently have my eye on one on ebay which I hope I can get.

 The main bathroom was also completely gutted, and all new fixtures put in. The only thing we re-used was the shower screen, as it was less that 12 months old. The blind also needs to be put back up, and other than that it is finished.

 The bedroom is still being decorated. The new blockout blind has gone up, but I am in the process of sewing new cushion covers and a bed runner to compliment the new doona cover, and I also have some ideas that I am working on for the wall art and the pelmets above the blinds. I also need to put the timber blind back up on the smaller window.

 The new front door and entrance where the brick planter used to be. The painter is coming back tomorrow to finish off the door, so it will all be the Illawarra colour then.

 We replaced the hallway cupboard swinging doors with nice streamline sliding doors

 All the cupboards have been re-shelved, including our walk in robe which has had a lovely makeover.

Still a few bits and pieces to finish off on the reno side, and on the decorating side, and then we will start on the garden edging and finishing off the gardens outside, and then we should be able to sit back and enjoy things for a little while.

Slowly getting back to normality....

The last month has been full on here with renovating our house inside, and with Damian mostly away in WA working, I have been pretty busy with organising trades and doing the bits and pieces that needed to be done before some trades came in to do their work. We have pulled up the slate floors and replaced them with tiles, pulled out the brick planter at the main entrance and replaced it with a freestanding wall which houses the tv and all of the entertainment system wiring etc., gutted the main bathroom as there was a leak in the shower due to a cracked tile, and completely revamped it, tiled and painted the outdoor bathroom and pool pump house, had the new carpet installed in the main bedroom, replaced the kitchen splashback and cupboard door handles, had all the hallway cupboards and our walk in robe pulled out and replaced with new shelving and lovely new sliding doors, and the house has been painted from 1 end to the other...not bad for under 4 weeks! I am still moving furniture and belongings back in at the moment, so will take some photos once this has been done to post on here. Mum and I also went to a sewing retreat on the weekend, and I have started on a bedroom set to set off the quilt cover I purchased last week, I made a lovely cushion for the centre of the bed, 2 pillowcases, and started on a bed runner to place at the bottom of the bed, and I also made an ipad portfolio case with carry strap, which I can carry like a small shoulder bag. We also had a bit of a challenge during the retreat, and made up a quilt cover out of a jelly roll of fabric,  to see who could do it the fastest...I came in a close second...28 minutes...so it just needs to be given a border, wadding and backing fabric and that's a completed quilt.... I am thinking I may make a table topper and some other items with it instead as I am only wanting to be sewing up practical items that will get used, not things that will just sit in the cupboard...anyway, we'll see on that one. It is raining quite constant, soaking rain here today, it was very hard to get out of bed this morning, as I love sleeping while the rain is falling on the roof and it is dark and cosy...so after all the busyness of the last few weeks and the weekend, I am just going to try and have a plod along day today, and just do a few little things here and there as I feel like them, but otherwise lots of cups of tea, and reading catch ups will be on the cards...