my creative space.

since finishing this beanie earlier in the week, i've been working on a little scarf project.



similar to this one, but a little different!

and last night, i cast on another little something...



a cotton washcloth, to pop in the post to cath for her community's days for girls project.

what are you creating at the moment? are you making a dishcloth for cath too? have you checked out the other stuff in cam's fundraising shop?
share what you're making too with kirsty!

green love.

oops, another late post! but i couldn't resist sharing the posts that i snapped while watering my gardens this evening after work.
it's been so long since i shared what's happening in my little space growth-wise!



my tomatoes in the front garden are really only just coming on...
the plants look a little worse for wear, but those little tomatoes that are growing, are looking fabulous!



and look at those beautiful black russians!
i can't wait to devour these guys!

i had great hopes of growing enough tomatoes to make a big stash of passata and tomato sauce this year, but it is not to be... not in my little yard in the least. my mum's garden on the other hand...
way back here, i wrote about re-potting my wee tomato seedlings at my parent's place. i left half of them there and mum popped them into her vegie patch where they grew along, slowly, slowly, and then BAM! in the last month or so, they have gone mental and there is SO much fruit on them!
it is AWESOME!
i'm hoping next time i head down there, i come home with buckets of tomatoes! fingers crossed!

anywho, enough about tomatoes...



my little pineapple is growing along happily.

and the passionfruit vine i was happy had grown,



well now it's grown HEAPS!
it's very close to being back to where it was before my fence was removed!
i'm hoping to get it trimmed and tidied and trained to grow along the fence over the weekend (as well as planting out some onions seeds in my fancy greenhouse)

speaking of trimmed and tidied...



i noticed that there was new growth at the bottom of my oregano plant, so i happily trimmed off all of the long gangly growth (and hung it up to dry in the kitchen).
it's now looking much littler, but should come back big and strong if i remember to keep the water up to it!

what's growing in your patch of green at the moment? what are you harvesting at the moment? do you grow tomatoes?

done, and done.

last wednesday night, at ncb, a little request was made of me...
to have a little look through my wee stash of beanies, to see if there was anything nice and slouchy that would work for a teenage grand-daughter.

unfortunately, nothing in my pre-made beanie hoard fit the bill, so what more was there to do but cast something on!



thankfully, i had this lovely wool in my stash.
oh, and i found this pattern to knit it up in.



the pattern consists of daisy stitch, which i had never knitted before!
it was slow-going, and a little tight, tension wise (my hands were a little sore after finishing up) but i love the way it has come together.



oh, and of course, i had to put one of my labels on there too!

ravelled.

what are you making at the moment? do you have a little stock-pile of things you have made?

meal planning monday

it's monday again and almost dinner time to boot! i've been meaning to write this post all day but have spent the entire day knitting! oops!



tonight, i'm making up some bread rolls to go with the roo burgers i pulled out of the freezer. i put the dough together this morning so hopefully it rises ok and make some delicious rolls!

tomorrow, i'll pull some chicken skewers out of the freezer for dinner. we had them last week, and i fancied them up a little by pulling them off the skewers and serving them on some garlic couscous with some fresh rocket. ok, it doesn't sound so fancy, but it looked good enough to fool bb ha ha!

wednesday, jamie's 'frenchie salad' will be on the menu to use up some of the leftover roast chicken that bb whipped up for us last night. it was super delicious so i'm hoping it will make a super delicious salad!

thursday night, i'll throw together this dish. i'm on a bit of a mission to clear out the freezer again (in case you hadn't picked up on the freezer trend ha ha!) and this will use up the last of the lamb chops in there!

friday night, i'll be working late, so the slow cooker will be getting a work-out. i've got some beef ribs in the freezer that i'll throw in there to make a beef stew. served with some mashed potatoes and a few steamed vegies, it should be the perfect thing to come home to after a night of work!

saturday, i'm hoping to head out for dinner! it's been a while since bb and i had a date night, so i think i must insist ha ha!

sunday, i've got the day off from work! i've got a few things on the agenda, but i'm hoping to spend a bit of time in the kitchen, cooking up something delicious. maybe some home-made pasta like above! it went perfectly with the osso bucco i cooked up last week.

what are you eating this week? do you make your own pasta?

a baby finish.

as i mentioned last week, the baby blankie i'd been working on is all DONE!
i've just been a bit slack in getting around to sharing it!



i gifted it over the weekend, at the mum-to-be's baby shower.
thankfully, it was well received, and hopefully the new little babe likes it too! can't wait to meet the little poppet in the next couple of weeks!



i followed a super simple pattern for this blankie... well not really a pattern at all. i altered the dishcloth pattern i have knit previously, but without the yarn overs and subsequent gappy edge...



the yarn i used was a bamboo from the magical backroom at bendigo woollen mills and it was an absolute dream to knit with. i LOVE the texture of the knitted fabric!

i'm also really happy as this was another 198g from the stash. well actually a little more as i was NOT putting the leftovers back into my stash, and knit up TWO dishcloths with the scraps. one for myself, and one for the mum-to-be, gifted with some lovely hand-made soap picked up from the market i visited on the weekend. 250g in total! the stash is slowly dwindling. very. slowly.



oh, also, i got to test out the labels i was making last week too.
i really like the way they have turned out!

have you finished up anything lately? do you have a favorite gift for new babes?

green (house) love.

over the last week or so, i've been thinking about creating a little space.
a space that has a flat surface, for housing lots of wee growing things. a flat surface for seeds and seedlings and cuttings and propagations.
and a special lid, to keep everything safe and warm.

i took my ideas to my parent's house over the weekend, and dad helped me to make my thoughts a reality!



the surface is a trestle table that was collecting cobwebs at my parent's house.

and the protective top, to (hopefully) keep the possums at bay and to keep some warmth in, is made of scrap wood from my dad's wood pile.



it was most certainly a labour of love for the two of us... we picked the only pieces of wood that dad didn't have a power saw blade big enough to cut, so most of the cuts were made by hand. and THEN, the power screw-driver that dad loaned me to screw it all together, had a flat battery! so all the pieces are screwed together by hand with a screwdriver!

oh the blisters that i have!



it was totally worth it though! now to pop online to buy some seeds... i'm itching to get some onion seeds in, i've got plans to grow HEAPS this year!
in the mean time though, i'm hoping to take some cuttings of my rosemary and my neighbours lavender plants. and then, maybe some roses!
propagation is AWESOME!

what are you growing at the moment? do you grow your own onions? do you grow from cuttings?

flea market finds.

over the weekend, i dragged mum down the road to the kongwak market. it had been an age since i'd been!

we had a quick look around, and i spotted a stall with some vintage suitcases...



and i may have found a one to add to my collection!

but the one that caught my eye...



caught my eye because of what was INSIDE!

this wasn't an empty vintage suitcase...



but was filled with lovely vintage-y picnic gear!

isn't it fabulous?



i'll admit, it all does need a good clean. but it was far too awesome to leave behind!
and i LOVE those little food storers above!

have you ever been to the kongwak market? do vintage suitcases catch your eye? where is your favourite picnic spot?

meal planning monday.

oh dear, monday again. i've had a bit of a whirlwind of a weekend... working late on friday night and heading straight down to mum and dad's, getting my farm time on on saturday and then visiting and baby-showering yesterday. i need another weekend to recover ha ha!
thankfully, i have tomorrow and wednesday off from work, just have to get through today...

any who, it's meal plan time!



tonight, i'm going to grab some chicken skewers out of the freezer and serve them up with some salad. there is a pretty massive stock pile of skewers in the freezer so i think we'll be having them quite a bit in the weeks to come ha ha!

tomorrow, i'm hoping to go for a quick trip to visit my ma, as well as getting some shopping done for a little project i started working on over the weekend. i'm thinking i might throw some osso buco in the slow cooker before i head off... and then whip up some pasta when i get home. or maybe just cook some packet pasta... we'll see how i go ha ha!

wednesday night is ncb night. i've missed ncb the last couple of times it was on so i'm missing it terribly! i'll grab something while i'm there, and bb can fend for himself!

thursday, i'm back to work, but i'll grab some pork chops out of the freezer, and cook them up with some vegies. we had the same last thursday (in the picture above) and it was pretty delicious!

on friday, i am going to cook this pasta dish, i've said the same thing the last 4 weeks, this is becoming a bit of a joke...

saturday and sunday, bb is in charge of the cooking as i'm working all weekend. hopefully he cooks up something delicious!

what are you eating this week? how was your weekend?

my creative space.

oops, it's a bit of a late one today... but i've been busy working on a couple of projects!

after finishing up this project earlier in the week, i've picked up the heart scarf again!



though i got tired of hearts, so i'm working on a big swathe of grey in between the two heart-y sections!

oh, and i've also been working on another little project...



inspired by clare, i'm following this tutorial to whip up some labels for my finished objects... if you hear someone swearing and carry-ing on in victoria tomorrow morning, it's me trying to wrangle my printer into working! we don't always get along ha ha!

what are you creating this week? are you joining in with koo too?

meal planning monday.

monday again? means only one thing around these parts, it's meal planning time!



today is a public holiday here, meaning bb is home from work, and i am off to work! thankfully i get ridiculous penalty rates due to a recent pay-rise, so while i'm sad that i miss out on an extra weekend day at home with my love, i am being duly compensated!!!
anywho, because bb is at home all day, i'm leaving him in charge of dinner, and he's got salmon planned! yum!

tomorrow night, i'll whip up some meatballs. i originally didn't want to eat pasta this month as part of my healthy eating plan... but i'm a pasta fiend! got to eat what makes you happy! i'll whack heaps of spinach in the sauce and a mound of rocket salad on top to up the green factor though!

wednesday night, i'm thinking i'll grab some nice steaks from the butchers and serve them with some salad.

thursday night, i'll grab some pork chops out of the freezer and steam up some vegies. old school meat and three veg, perfect!

friday night, i AM going to put this in the damned slow-cooker! i've wanted to do it the last two weeks running but ran into stumbling blocks finding turkey mince. this week, i have ALL of the ingredients and it will be cooking on friday FOR SURE!

saturday, i'm off to visit mum and dad and get in some farm time. no idea what we'll be eating, but i'm sure it will be yummy!

i'll be back home on sunday night, but not sure what i'll cook... maybe i'll whip up some more pasta with pangrattato (see above picture) like i did last night! it was the perfect light dinner after bb cooked us a ridiculously decadent lunch of roast duck. seriously.

What are you eating this week? does your partner cook at all?

little lovelies.

every week, i try and share a little list of lovely things that have happened throughout the week in my neck of the woods, to try and keep myself looking on the bright side of things.

today marks the first day of the second week of my new exercise plan...



and so far, i'm quite enjoying getting them done and ticked off the calendar. there's been a couple of stiff, sore days... but nothing too intense thankfully!

i threw some clothes on to go to work in on friday (i'd left my dry cleaning at work!)



it wasn't until i was jumping off the bus that i realised that the cardigan AND the skirt i was wearing were both made by ME! and then i was pretty chuffed!

speaking of buses... i've taken the bus to work almost everyday this week!



and there's been lots of working on this blankie! i really don't mind taking the bus, as it gives me a chance to just sit and be (and knit) before or after a busy day of working.

this morning, i suggested to bb we head out and check out our local 'craft' market. and i'm super thankful we did! as well as some really nice looking fruit, vegies and eggs, we also found some nice succulents!



i took the opportunity to replant this little terrarium i was gifted for my birthday last year. i managed to kill the succulent that was planted in there with a little bit too much water and not enough sunlight!
hopefully these new plants will fair a little better!

and speaking of plants...



these guys were absolutely singing the other morning when i was leaving for work and i couldn't help but snap a photo of them!

what's been putting a smile on your face this week? can you keep succulents alive? do you make clothes that you wear?

my creative space.

i've been a bit quieter around these parts than usual so far this month...
this is partly due to working hard on my new routine, a few extra hours at work to get things done AND i've been working on this little beauty...



this is destined to be a little blankie for my soon to be niece or nephew and i am LOVING how it's coming together!



i'm knitting it up out of the leftovers from this blankie, but wanted to make this one all together different...



so i decided to knit it on the diagonal! and am choosing my stripe colours using a random number generator!
i assigned each of the five colours a number, and then before i start every row, i hit "generate" to choose my colour. it's led to colour stripes that i definitely would never have chosen... four stripes of the same colour in a row? not with me in charge! i so love the effect it's given though!

what are you creating at the moment? are you joining in with koo this week too?

meal planning monday.

oops! running a bit late today!
i'm not going to lie, i'm more than a little bit pooped after day 3 of my exercise plan... but i've got a week of healthy meals ahead to keep me going!



tonight, i cooked up some steaks! i had mine with salad and some pan-fried mushrooms. it was deeeeeeelicious!

tomorrow night, i'm whipping up this salad. i was getting a bit sick of it, but it's SUPER healthy and really yummy too so i'm back on the bandwagon!

wednesday night is ncb again... well not again because we didn't go ahead last week. this week though, we're on! i'll grab something there, and i bought bb another steak today, so he can have that wednesday night (he requested we have steak every night this week, so i'm compromising and he's having it twice!)

thursday night, i'm working late. last week i'd planned to make this, but i never ended up looking for the turkey mince that i needed, so i threw together some osso bucco. but, guess what we're having this week?

friday night, i'm hoping to whip up some roo burgers. hopefully they taste ok!

i've got the entire weekend off from work this weekend and i'm hoping to get a few (hundred) things done around the house... i'm not sure what we'll be eating at this stage, but it might involve me bumming around the kitchen for the afternoon.
i'm in the mood to get my cook on!

what are you eating this week? do you like to whip up things you normally wouldn't when you find yourself with a little bit more time?

march.

phew! last night was a bit of a late one...



but my february goal, to cut up and baste all of the fabric i'd bought for my hexie quilt, is done!
my other goal of getting back to running regularly, not so much! i went for a couple of runs, but not nearly as many as i wanted to! oh well!

my main goals for this month are to eat super healthily, and to establish a really prolific exercise routine...



i've set up this magnetic whiteboard on the side of our fridge using this workout calendar as a guide. i'm hoping to mainly use the workouts linked, as well as running for cardio!

on the crafty side of things... i want to get this finished! as well as knitting up a little bebe blanket for my very first niece or nephew, and maybe making a start on some beanies for the festival! i received an envelope filled with information on it yesterday and it made me realise i need to get my butt into gear!

what are you goals for the month? did you set goals for february? how did you go?