Crochet Blanket

Over the past couple of years I have been admiring knitting and crochet that are appearing on people's creative blogs.  It's funny because many many years ago I did cross stitch and quilting and I would do some every night and then having babies I didn't have the time and I got into scrapbooking because of my love for photography.  I've been coming back to the idea of doing something creative with my hands and a year ago I won a Book on Crochet and was going to start a blanket.

I went and did a refresher lesson to do my first square and ordered all the wool and then once the little square was done using three different colours I thought that is was not going to be very relaxing as the square was about 6 cms and I would be forever changing colours and starting a new square.  I wanted my first project something that I could just sit and crochet.  I thought about doing the Granny Square however I didn't want to end up with a square blanket and then I saw a post from A Gluttonous Wife and thought that's it, the Granny Square stitch only in a straight row.  Thanks for the inspiration and this one got me started.

I went back to the Yarn Shop for a quick refresher on the stitch after the chain ie the next row and the turning and starting a new row properly and I was determined to start this blanket which I did last Saturday.  I actually used these instructions from Maybe Matilda which I found great.  I did crochet as a teenager so I wasn't completely new to it but it has been many years since I was a teenager and just need a little help on starting.  I haven't got a pattern in mind except for using about 6-8 different colours I bought.  I'm working with 7 rows of one colour followed by 3 rows of another and then 7 rows of another colour and then 3 of another and repeat.  It's going to be a TV blanket but I'm so excited after a nearly a year to get this going and it's quite relaxing sitting in front of the TV watching River Cottage doing some crochet.  Here's where I'm up to at the moment.

Chickens

We are really enjoying having chickens again after a 10 month break and I wish I had done it sooner because I love the kids going out in the morning to check on the chickens and to see if we have any eggs.  The chickens remained in the coop for the first 7 days so they could get used to their new home and now they have come out to have a wander around the grass.  The other afternoon Sienna was trying to catch them which was hilarious to watch.  The Isa Brown which is James chicken named Diamond is pretty docile and easy to catch while Sienna's chicken Snowflake and my chicken Daisy are another story.  Here's some photos of Sienna trying to catch the chickens which was most amusing and entertaining.  She loves playing with them and she's the real animal lover.

The Veggie Garden Update

Well actually it's the "lack of veggies" gardening update.  Let me refresh your memory with this post where Sienna planted out the veggie box and I was hoping to harvest some delicious veggies.  I have always had the little fences up around the box to protect them from the chickens jumping in however we haven't had chickens since January this year when we lost them in those scorching 40 degree days.  Something was eating the lettuce so I then put two forms of plastic wire around the sides and over the top and around the sides it overlapped so I figured possums or something wouldn't get in however I was wrong. Bit by bit our veggies disappeared night after night.  We will be going back to the drawing board.

Sienna watering in the veggies back in August.

This is the state of the garden with the two layers of plastic netting

which wasn't good enough to keep the veggies safe.

Overnight something ate about 10 spring onions, celery anything that was left.

The possums were keen to get through this.

One Hour Declutter

My utensils draw was driving me crazy as there was so much in there and I couldn't find anything I was looking for.  I set myself the task of 30 minutes to do this draw and I feel like I can breath now.  I've moved some of the large "serving forks and spoons" that you use for salads when we have BBQ's to the china cabinet where the salad bowls are.  Here's a look at my 30 minute task that made me feel so much better.

This is the before, an organized mess with everything on top of one another.

I took everything out and sorted things on the kitchen bench and put similar things together.

The drawer then got a good wipe out and now it's clean.

Ahhh, that's so much better and now I can lay my hands on anything I need.

What didn't make it back into the drawer.

After I had organized and cleaned the utensils draw which only took me 30 minutes I was up to another 30 minute task that had been annoying me as well.  The cupboard with the water bottles and jars.  Here's the before.

Here's what was in the cupboard including a water bottle of James from Grade 3 and he is finishing Grade 5 now.  I always keep a couple spare because sometimes the kids leave their water bottles at school and of course there's the footy water bottles etc.  I got rid of the dried up paints, not even sure why they were in that cupboard in the first place.

I put them in these two baskets that I had on hand and now everything is organized and I can just pull the basket out rather than reaching to the back of the cupboard for stuff.

The final result of my organized cupboard.  I felt so much better and in one hour I had sorted these two cupboards that were driving me crazy.  It doesn't take long which means we sometimes don't make the time to do it.  So happy now.

The call of Nature

We had two sweltering days in Brisbane on the weekend and with my air conditioner broken there wasn't much point in bunkering down with a few DVD's and keeping cool so I decided to take the kids to Sandgate for the morning.  It was nice a breezy although after about an hour it was just as hot as anywhere else but a lovely morning.  I had checked the tide times on Saturday night and it was perfect for walking along the beach about 10.30 in the morning so off we went with the scooters, some morning tea, water bottles and a couple of buckets for shells.  Sienna could have been there all day and after about 15 mins James asked me "when are we going home" which can be a little frustrating when you've just driven 40 mins to get there.  I tried to ignore that and enjoyed walking on the corrugated sand and went to Sienna every time she had something new for her bucket when she called me over.

We had put sun cream on however I didn't put any on the back of my neck and it was red raw after 1.5 hours in the sun and I can't remember the last time I was sun burnt like that.  I think kids need to be around nature and even though James thought he had had enough after 15 minutes I'm sure it did him the world of good.  We were home in a couple of hours but it's nice to get out of the house for some fresh air.  Here's a few pics and Sienna was thrilled when she found a crab towards the end of our adventures.