Monday, January 26, 2009

Visiting Sydney

This last week has been full. A trip to the aquarium, theatre, and powerhouse museum. Our numbers swelled to 7, as we looked after a niece and nephew. Catching up with some old friends - although never enough, of course! And there was a nice spot of rain, in an otherwise disgustingly hot week in Sydney!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Sunburnt pumpkins

There's a strong, hot breeze coming off the desert today. My poor pumpkins are getting sunburnt. Unfortunately the pumpkins were infected with mildew, which is slowly killing off the leaves.. and so we have sunburnt pumpkins. Something to keep an eye out for next year. So... it was a good thing I planted 4 vines, or we'd have barely any pumpkins! We're putting soaker hoses on the garden beds, so hopefully that will help avoid mildew in future. Not for the faint-hearted, this gardening business!


And now, in this 37degC heat at only half past 3, we're having a little sun shower! Go figure!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Calendar art

Ok, so here I am again the next day. We've been trying out some of the ideas from that artist woman - she has some great ideas, particularly for those who... um.. haven't developed their artistic ability yet! ;)

So we cut up a picture of scenery into strips and filled in the gaps.


Chicken no.1 went for a more ... 'impressionist' angle.


Chicken no.2 simply filled in his page with bright yellow crayon... And chicken no.3 attempted to peel the wrappings off the crayons.

But what they really wanted to do today was create splendid Lego space vehicles, complete with guns and computer games.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Quilting love

I am going places with this little baby! Quilting places, that is. I bought myself this walking foot today, and boy am I pleased! I like it even more than my buttonhole foot and my curve master foot! So you might not hear from me for a while - I'll be too busy quilting!


Mmmmm.... is that apple pie I smell? See ya!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Painting with Matisse and Van Gogh

I wish! We have a handy little Mini Masters set - famous paintings with a simple little storyline, so we used water colour crayons with them today. It's great to have an excuse to mess around with crayons and paints again!

Chicken no.1's version of Matisse's Bowl of Apples on a Table:

And her version of Van Gogh's Sunflowers:

I did help by making some rough pencil lines of where things should be, which is appropriate for her age, I think. They came up pretty well, didn't they!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Hanging out and scrubbing up

The last week has been full of hanging out and scrubbing up. Hanging out with friends and family, hanging out at home (I read Pride & Prejudice again), and, of course, hanging out washing.

The last few days have been also full of scrubbing. Scrubbing things down after vomiting children, bleeding noses, and icy poles (I'm rethinking the berry element in them now). I'm also considering buying the children only brown clothes and sheets from now on. And definitely brown socks!


Today's WIP: a wristlet purse to match Nicki's dress (yes, it's the same material, just different light). Don't ask me why I'm doing this with sick children - I might have to plead insanity! Now to find a matching bracelet to hook in...

the purse

the dress

Friday, January 2, 2009

Veggies!

A sample of pickings from the veggie patch this morning.



Don't you love the colour of the carrots? They are heirloom varieties. Yum! I actually picked quite a few peas, but littlest chicken gave me a great surprise by eating most of them (a few months ago she would hold her hand firmly over her mouth, and refuse to even taste them!).

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!

We did see the new year in last night. Not really on purpose, but the dvd we rented was still going... Then we kicked off the new year today by going to visit the farm (not ours... brother-in-law's parents..) with some friends & family. Chicken no.2 couldn't get enough of the motorbikes!