Week 5 of the Make a Bag sew along project

I finished the mini makeup roll tonight. It was very quick and easy, probably half an hour from start to finish....just the way I like it....this is the set so far...

Coffee, permaculture and an eventual animal commitment....

Caught up with Tammy for coffee yesterday. We were there for 3 hours! It was a long chat. Tammy has done welfare and counselling, so she had quite an in depth talk with Toni while we were there about Sat night, to try and clear things in her head for her. We finally heard from the girls family today, who have said that she is being discharged from hospital today, and that they don't hold anyone responsible, and that it was just a terrible accident. All well and good, but I am afraid that I do hold this girl responsible, it was her decision to totally wipe herself out with alcohol and jump on my daughters bonnet and seriously injure herself, and cause Toni such distress in the process, I am really happy that she is ok, and no serious damage has been done, but seeing how upset Toni has been over the last few days has been really hard to deal with, I just hope that everyone that was at this party has learnt something, I would hate to see no lessons learnt out of all of this, at least this girl's parents are now aware that there teenage daughter is wiping herself out with alcohol and can maybe monitor this a bit, I am not naive enough to think that Toni does not ever have a drink, but I know that having her licence and her driving to these things means that she won't be drinking, I know that she would never drink drive, she does take after me in this respect, I have never ever driven after drinking, and I know she feels exactly the same as me about this, thank goodness.....anyway....hopefully everyone can move on now....On a happier note, I recently reserved a permaculture book from the library, and picked it up today, so this will be my before bed reading for the next few weeks.

I am really interested in learning about the permaculture way of doing things. There is a course I could go and do , but it is nearly $1200, and I may still go and do it yet, but if I can learn everything out of a book, I would like to, even though I do love doing the practical side of learning, and find that I usually learn better that way these days...my brain definitely does not take to learning theory as well as it used to in my teens and twenties and even early thirties. I am also waiting on a permaculture design book to come in to the library that I have reserved, and will read that as well, much cheaper than spending $200 to buy it online.  I would really love to totally immerse myself in this way of doing things, and get more animals and spend most of my time outdoors.....but I haven't been game to commit to more animals, having horses was a really big commitment, and I think it has taken me a couple of years of not having them to get over the amount of time and effort that took, not to mention money! Damian called them the 4 legged money pits, the whole time I had them, which was true to a degree, and I found that I no longer had the really relaxed disposition around them that I had when I was much younger, and you really need that to be able to deal with the skittishness that they have. I also found that I no longer really enjoyed riding them due to the same reasons. I would really love alpacas, a donkey and miniature goats, even a miniature horse would be lovely, gorgeous animals, a bit quieter, and lovely manure for the gardens, and lawnmowers in the process....Damian would like sheep or a small cow as he would like to have them for the meat side of things, but if I had a cow I would want a milking one, and I definitely don't want to commit to milking a cow twice a day right now....maybe down the track I may get my head around that!

Noodle Box Christmas Crackers

I like this idea, it was in the Homelife Newsletter sent to me today, which is part of the Notebook magazine. Something a little different to the Xmas Cracker/BonBon......

Watching the chickens and vege garden spreadsheet

I took Kasey to gymnastics this morning, they had a 2 hour session, and she really enjoyed it. She started to learn about tumbling and doing handstands etc, and they did a little bit on the low balance beam etc. The afternoon class was cancelled as they didn't have enough people, which really surprises me being school holidays, so instead of a refund I said she could go to the 3 x 1 hour blocks Wed, Thu and Friday instead. It means no sleep ins for me this week, but oh well, I do prefer to be up a bit earlier...though it doesn't feel that way when I'm still snuggled under the doona! Toni is feeling a bit better today, she has been trying not to dwell on things, and she had a huge sleep in and seems to be over the initial shock of everything... I spent a little time just pottering around the vege garden in the afternoon, not doing much, just enjoying being up there, and sat for a little while watching the chooks while they were scratching about...Sam is doing the rooster thing with the girls....he is a bit unco though, because he's a fat little ball of fluff, he falls off half the time..hehehehe....and he took one look at big Bertha and she just went "No way"...and took off a million miles an hour..it was very funny. Big Bertha is the matriach of the chook pen...she is absolutely huge and no-one pushes her around...  it seems like I have had her for years and years...she would have to be at least 10, and she shows no signs of not being around for another 10....
I started on my vege garden spreadsheet today. I have 1 page for the planting side of things..how much I planted on what dates, harvest times, replanting schedules for continued supply etc, 1 page for the harvest records, and 1 page keeping track of the costs..it's a work in progress but getting there.

3 eggs today, 6 passionfruit and 1 x 2.5kg pumpkin.

Vege garden, Sunday and a near tragedy....

I took Kasey to a Gymnastics open day today, she seemed to really enjoy it. I have booked her in to a school holiday program for a couple of hours tomorrow, and will see what she thinks. If she really likes it, I may book her in to the actual program during school terms. Today I sowed some carrot seeds in the vege garden, cleaned out the chook pen, and placed new straw, pulled out the last of the carrots from the last crop, along with some sweet potato and corn. This is today's harvest:

Kasey enjoying a freshly picked carrot from the vege garden..

I am going to keep the small cob of corn for seeds, as the corn has been delicious, very sweet and juicy, so I would definitely like to grow some more of this variety, as I think it is the nicest corn we have ever had. I think there will be about 150 seeds on the small cob, so I have it in the pantry in a mesh bag to dry for a few weeks. I will probably buy some more in the meantime and plant another crop very shortly. While getting the straw out of the storage shed this afternoon, I discovered a batch of rats in there, Max has turned out to have very good ratting abilities, and made short work of 1, but the rest scattered and took off, but I will let him in there each afternoon to try and get rid of the rest. While I don't like the idea of killing anything, a plague of rats is definitely not needed, and I think Max taking care of 1 in a couple of seconds is much more preferable to baiting them, which to me is inhumane. I also spread some more straw around the vege garden where needed. Last night, I made my first attempt at a crocheted dishcloth. It has turned out ok, a few missed stiches here and there, but practice should improve things. I think I may knit them in future though, as crocheting seems to use way more wool, even though it's quicker.

Toni had a bad night last night, and equally bad day today. As she was leaving a party last night, a very drunk girl jumped in front of her and laid on her bonnet, and fell off and hit her head on the bitumen, and is in hospital with a hairline fracture to her skull, bruising on her brain etc. Luckily, Toni was in first gear and only going about 5 klms an hour, but an ambulance was called and the police turned up, and breath tested Toni who returned a 0.00 result, and the police have told her she was not at fault and have cleared her of any charges or traffic infringements, but Toni feels awful as this girl is a friend of hers.  She has been crying all day, and is worried that her friends are going to blame her, and she has been feeling sick all day about it. It just really irks me that people do such irresponsible things, which causes distress to others. The girl is going to be ok apparently, but will be in hospital for a few days, and she can't remember what happened. It is a very hard lesson for her to learn though. I can only imagine how bad it could have been it Toni had been going faster, or had had a drink at the party....

Friday Wrapup

I picked most of the chillies today. I wanted to leave them until they had started to turn red, but something has started invading them, and has started to chew on a couple, so thought it best to pick them all and leave them on the bench to redden. With what's already in the freezer, plus these, I will have enought to fill Christmas requests for Chilli Jam....it is very popular with family members!

I was quite out of sorts this morning, I have lots of things I could have been doing, but just couldn't seem to get myself started. Finally, I decided to bake an orange cake and that seemed to be enough to get me moving. I put on some pizza dough in the breadmaker to mix, I made a double batch so I could put half in the freezer. I did a few other banking errands, wrapped a bouquet preservation being picked up next week, started the hardening process on one in process at the minute, put on a batch of yoghurt, vacuumed and did a bit of dusting, did a few loads of washing and a quick tidy around. We had pizza for dinner tonight, there is heaps left over, so can probably have that again tomorrow night, we have heaps of quiche left over from last night also, so that's another option also, but I may end up freezing that for a quick easy meal for another night yet.Ann came over tonight as she wanted a bit of help with some internet advertising, and stayed for a couple of hours with cuppas and chats, so that was a nice catch up. I was going to try and start on my vegetable garden planning, but didn't get around to it today, so will put that on the list for the next few days/weeks....I am going to go and get some yarn from the American Yarn shop tomorrow, for some of the sugar n cream yarn, to knit up some more dishcloths, and look for some other lovely yarn for my crocheting plans, and then we are going to go and pickup Toni's formal dress, and may have a nice lunch while we are out, so hopefully a lovely day coming up tomorrow :)

Completed Sewing Projects

I have finished a few sewing projects in the last couple of days...

The sleepover bag:

I really like how the sleepover bag has come up. I will definitely be using this alot.

MAKE a bag and cosmetic purse

Clutch bag for Toni's formal

I don't think Toni likes it...I have said she doesn't have to use it if she would rather have something else...

Today I have sowed in seed raising mix the following:

9 mixed lettuce

9 mini cabbage

9 Pak Choi

9 Broccoli

9 Leeks

9 Silverbeet

Hopefully I will have more luck with these than I did the last time I sowed some seeds.