you so square!

once again, i've managed to get my bamcal squares done at the very start of the month.
i think my quick hooking is to do with the excitement of the patterns being released at the very start of the month, it's a bit like christmas morning, logging onto ravelry to see if they've been released and what they are. might be just me though...

i was pretty pleased with myself for getting these ones done. they all presented a bit of a challenge as they all had something a little bit different to them. i learned some new things!



they still all need to be blocked out, they're all looking a bit wonky...

and i think i might start putting them together soon too! if i wait until they're all done in december, it'll probably seem like way to big a job and they'll just sit in piles forever!
just have to work out how i'm going to join them...

do you have any joining recommendations?

outside.

this morning, i headed outside. i had some spare time before i started work because i'd gotten up nice and early (morning person routine, getting established :D), so i thought i'd make a start on a gardening project i've been putting off for a looooooong time!

there's a narrow garden bed that runs between the fence and the driveway that has been in a state of utter neglect for a little while. my neighbour that sold up and moved out at the end of april last year was the sole caretaker of this little garden strip and i don't think it's really been touched since! poor little garden bed!

so today was the day, i had a spare half hour, and i made a good start! i've gotten a good two metres clear of weeds.
i left a few bits and pieces where they were, namely a cute little daisy and some baby sprigs of ivy. hopefully they'll grow and grow and provide some nice ground cover :D




and hopefully i'll get a bit more time this week to tackle the other 15 or so metres of garden bed there is left to weed...




there's a LOT more plants in this section but there is also some almightily large weeds.
this one might take me a while...

playing along with my place and yours again. you can join in too!

what i'm reading... february.

one of my 2012 goals is to read a book a month. last month, i successfully (finally!) got through this book, which took me almost a year! it wasn't a bad read, i'm just a bit of a spontaneous reader. i'll be in the mood for a read, read a third of a book and then not touch it again for a month or two!
this one took me even longer to read because i managed to lose my copy in june, only to find it in a second hand book store again in august!

this month however, i'm making a flying start!
i've chosen to read...



after a fair few people had said some good things on 'the twitter'

it was actually the first purchase we made on bb's christmas present...




a kindle! thanks to the delightful wes, for tweeting about the super bargain price!
i'd never used one before and was a whole lotta skeptic, but i do kind of love it :D
it takes all the awkwardness out of reading because of the buttons on either side.

i'm over half way through this book and although there's been a couple of moments where my inner prude has recoiled somewhat, the large majority of the text is quite easy to read. there have actually been a couple of instances where i've laughed out loud, scaring the crap out of bb, or whoever is on the train/bus next to me.

definitely a page turner, er, button clicker, so far. i don't think i'll have much trouble getting through it by the end of the month ;)

what are you reading at the moment?

this week...

i'm going to try being a morning person on for size.
i am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a morning person. generally i roll out of bed at most an hour before i start work/have planned commitments that day and then spend that hour or less frantically getting myself ready to get out the door.

this week though, i'm going to try and change that.
my plan is to wake up that little bit earlier, actually get out of bed a bit earlier, and seize the day a bit!
maybe i'll get some housework done, or go for a walk, or, heck, maybe i'll have time to write some blog posts!
this early morning lark should help with my goal from a few weeks ago of eating breakfast daily too... after that one week of breakfasting, i fell off the wagon miserably. but these two goals should go hand in hand :D




i'll also be finishing off a beanie (hopefully) when i head to SAY tonight and NCB on wednesday (again, hopefully. last time i said this on my blog, i failed to make it to either!).
and i'll be finishing up my BAMCAL squares for february. i've finished two, just one to go now :D

what are you up to this week?

green love.

thought i'd break this little bloggy drought i've got happening by playing along with vic and her meme, my place and yours. the theme this week is green. i thought i'd share some of my green growth as the other day, when i was searching my blog archives for a suitable before picture, i stumbled on a few pictures of my fledgling garden. oh how it's changed :D

i shared these 'before' pictures in dec 2010.


when i first planted the jasmine vine in the ground after i saved it from a building site (which funnily enough is still a building site, 14 months on and they're still building...)


and when i first started training the ivy to grow along the fence to cover it up! boring fences are boring!

but look at them now!


the jasmine has gone crazy! i think the regular 'trimmings' that it gets from the local possums is contributing to it's mammoth growth :D and i'm in the process of training it to grow along the fence too! soon there'll be no fences to be seen! and because it's not my fence, i don't have to worry about what the weight of the plants is doing to the structural integrity of the fence, huzzah!


and check out this ivy! there isn't much fence to be seen on this side any more! now to start training it to grow up the garage wall and around the corner to the next fence :D

thank goodness for plants that grow like weeds!

do you have anything green to share? you can join in too!

sunday snippets.

a week of breakfasts. instagrammed.




i managed breakfast everyday last week! if you could consider thursday's breakfast to actually be breakfast that is...

joining in with tinniegirl

happy australia day!

happy australia day folks!
hope you've all had a fabulous day, celebrating however you do!
i do generally like to get my party on on australia day but considering how much partying i did on the weekend just gone, i thought i'd have a quiet australia day this year.
after a bit of a lie in, i jumped in the car and got a few supplies from bunnings and then spent my afternoon in the garden.
i got all the garden beds weeded and re-mulched and re-trained some of my vines, more about that tomorrow though...

when i was all gardened out, i got my revamp on!

take one beat-up set of outdoor furniture, rusty and pathetic looking.



add several cans of black spray paint...

and voila! brand new outdoor setting!




now i just need to get rid of some of that vine that is taking up almost the entire footpath and then maybe i can actually use it!

now i'm watching the tennis and trying to nut out how to crochet onto this lampshade. it'll definitely take some thinking about... not only on the how-to front but also how i want it to look and how i want the light to shine through it. hmmmm decisions, decisions.

what have you been up to today?