Posts filed under ‘making stuff’
Sunday
Finished crocheted cowl
just in time for cold wild windy Sundays
nibbling on soft sweet
Vanilla Champagne Coconut Cupcakes
thinking about the next jazzed up caesar salad
and marvelling at how quickly
a baby girl can grow
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What are you up to this Sunday?
and
(to all the mama’s, Happy Mothers Day. You do an awesome job.)
the photo shoot
when life seems to be spinning way too fast, and things are beginning to feel a little overwhelming…
take your nearest oddly shaped funny little crocheted monster you made, and do a photo shoot
it helps
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monster inspiration from here
Slow Living April
slowing it down…
(a wonderful concept created by the lovely Christine over at Slow Living Essentials)
it's not pretty but it fills happy bellies
Nourish- I’m loving a simple rustic family sized quiche once a week at the moment. A couple of sheets of puff pastry, (seems I got over that packet guilt rather quickly) beaten eggs and what ever looks appealing on the day. The Monkeys quiche of choice? Fetta and some free range bacon. Mr and Chocolate and I? Whatever seasonal vegetables that look particularly quiche like from our local CSA delivered box, (but lets be honest…he’d rather the fetta and bacon one too.)
Prepare- School lunches are particularly easy when all I have to do is whack one out of the freezer. Pesto parmesan scrolls and apple cinnamon ones are the taste of choice at the moment. They are also easy for a hungry mama to grab on the run.
Reduce- I’ve been putting aside some old worn out clothing. Rips, tears, thinning fabric, too big, too small. I’m sure I can turn them into something else. Just waiting for the inspiration as to what. I’ve also been incredibly lucky with receiving a whole bunch of wonderful little girl clothing. She will clearly have a whole heap of Monkey clothing to grow into but a small amount of pink as been infused into the mixture as well.
Green- Being economical with the oven use, and utilising all the racks when cooking. Also cooking bigger batches of things, and cluster cooking. (cluster cooking…. now there’s something to pop into you days vocabulary.) The worm farm is still going strong. The little fellas seem to have worked out their own little wormy balance and it requires very little maintenance.
Grow- I’m growing mould on my bathroom ceiling… does that count? No, no I guess not. I’m also growing my children, and they are growing like weeds!
Create- Making a little hat for a three year old girls birthday. Teddy wanted to model it, as my own residing three year old refused, (at least teddy keeps still.) I’ve also been playing with using vegetables as stamps and creating cards. It’s been fun playing with what works and what doesn’t.
Enhance- There is hooking action going on lately. I still suck, but I’m willing to learn as I want to get better. Hooking plans in the park or cafe with other hook yielding friends. A recent visit to this shop, just inspired the pants off me. (Thankfully they stayed on while I was in there as I didn’t want to scare anyone away.) Crochet and knitting classes I can see being a part of down the track, unless I really nut out the whole crochet thing by myself, (which seems unlikely to happen at this stage…sigh.) I’m still getting my Foodconnect box delivered too, it makes life just a tad easier.
Discover- I plan to become one with the above crochet book… that’s the plan anyway.
every man needs a penguin sinking into his cake
Enjoy- Mr Chocolate’s birthday, being with my little people, BLT’s in the back courtyard with family and enjoying the beautiful time of year that Autumn is.
Slow Living February 2012
First up, a huge thank you to all the lovely, lovely well wishes from my last post. We are still taking things nice and slow, and really enjoying this precious babymoon time. I’m still around, quietly reading your blogs and really appreciate any comments thrown my way as well.
I will be posting here and there with a few posts I have up my sleeve until I get used to our new family rhythm. For now though, here’s what was happening round these parts slow living style in Feb.
Slow Living February 2012
(an awesome concept created by the lovely Christine over at Slow Living Essentials)
NOURISH: Mr Chocolate has taken over the kitchen in the last two weeks, which I have to say has been fantastic. There has been a steady supply of chocolate chip biscuits, (now perfected) lots of tasty healthy meals for a hungry mama and a few well timed containers of deliciousness from awesome friends. Perfect.
PREPARE: I had been stocking up my freezer with ready to go meals, or little things that can be easily cooked up quickly. A few rolls of biscuit dough can make things a whole lot easier when there are school lunch boxes that still need to be filled and hungry little hands being held out. Now if only that freezer was twice as big, THEN I would be sorted.
REDUCE: Making use of my mum’s rather hefty sized stash of retro terry towelling. A new change table cover, and some little wipes sewn up. So much more interesting than standard bought ones.
GREEN: I’m still using the bicarb to wash my hair. So easy, and I really love not having to rely on shampoo to get my hair clean.
GROW: My little pots still continue to struggle on. Too wet, too dry, not enough sun… the usual cityhippyfarmgirl garden goings on. I still like having some sort of greenery to look out to though. A little rosemary to rub between my fingers, a chilli or two to pluck… a caterpillar or three to squash under my shoe. I’m also still thinking about an olive tree in a pot, or perhaps a gardenia… or a bay. It’s for our placental planting, so if anyone has any tips or has done this before with good results in a pot I would love to hear from you.
CREATE: I’ve been hooking a cowl. After putting it over Mr Chocolate’s head 53 times, (to get an idea of what on earth I’m doing) I’m still not sure about the over all look. But I am loving the colours, and the rhythm of crocheting has been really relaxing…hook, hook, hook.
ENHANCE: I was the lucky recipient of this bag full of garden goodness from my lovely midwife. Home grown… just tastes so much better.
ENJOY: New life… yep, I’m completely smitten.
dyeing with turmeric
Looking at the shelves, I see a sea of whites, and pastels before me. Now how did that happen? How have I gone through two newborn stages before and still have a cupboard so lacking in colour? It looks like colour was a bit slim on the ground before 3-6 months. Hmmm, need to change that.
How about some playing with natural dyes and see what I can come up with? With yellow on my mind lately, I remembered this post from this lovely lady. It seemed turmeric was looking like a good choice and having come home with some fresh turmeric from my favourite market stall a few days before, an even more logical choice.
Some fresh turmeric dyeing action it was going to be.
First up, some turmeric sliced into pieces and put into enough water to just cover the items I want coloured.
looking lemony yellowy looking after 24 hours of soaking… now to cook it.
After an hour of gently boiling. The colour looks good, but will it stay? (Turmeric seems to be one of the few natural dyes that don’t need a mordant.)
After one wash in the machine and line dried… looking rather lemony again, not the brighter yellow I was after. The wash wasn’t what did it, it seems the sun fades it, and rather quickly.
Try again…
This time with one teaspoon dried turmeric and enough water to just colour the material, cold water soak for an hour. Rinsed until the water runs clear, and how’s it looking? Looking like a wonderful bright yellow.
On the line to dry again, and once more it seems to fade a bit with the sun. This time I’m ok with that though. The colour is more vivid, and if it fades well so be it, it’s a natural dye. A natural dye that has its own rhythm and opinion it seems and if I really want to vamp the colour up again, well I just need a teaspoon of turmeric and little cold water.
Have you had great natural dyeing action? What are your favourite colours or items to use?
12 eco friendly Christmas gift ideas
We seem to be heading towards the pointy end of the year and with that usually comes a little gift giving. I love making or giving something that I know can either be consumed, passed on, recycled, is environmentally friendly or upcycled in some way. In giving gifts like this though, you usually have to think a little bit before hand. So no shopping on Christmas Eve for me. (Anyway, I would rather be eating my 10th rum ball and reading Christmas bed time stories to The Monkeys.)
So a few rehashed ideas, in a listy form.
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Preserves for everyone. Jams, marmalades, sweet chilli sauce and chutneys. You can make them well ahead of time and easy thing to pop in a little food hamper or given singularly.
Idea: attach an antique teaspoon with some string to the side.
Gnome fairies as a gift or even Christmas decoration. How to make them and where to buy their little wooden bodies here.
A plate of various biscuits for Grandma Esme and Uncle Pollywaffle?
Chocolate Honey Biscuits, Lemon Vanilla Stars, Anzac Biscuits, Chewy Coconut Biscuits, Custard Biscuits the list is endless. Make them crisper and they will keep longer.
Idea: A plate of biscotti and some beautiful fairtrade tea.
Buy a plate or dish second hand from your local op-shop/thrift shop/charity shop. Beautiful one off antique ones can bought for usually just a couple of dollars.
An afternoon outing, exploring your local botanical gardens or national park with a picnic? Make an IOU card. Can be used for any ages.
A visit to the local zoo for your nephew Buster? A present doesn’t have to be a ‘thing’ it can be an experience.
maybe a Keep Cup for the coffee fiend from work? No more annoying mounting up disposable coffee cups in the bin.
Where to buy some Soap Nuts for Aunt Green Pants and what on earth they are?
Some bubbles for the triplet girls- Aoli, Bellini, and Chia and how to make your own.
Lots of scraps of fabric? Get quilting. There is probably a beautiful new baby that could use a little quilted change mat. Or maybe some new oven mits for the kind lady down the road who keeps baking fabulous brownies and leaving them on your door step.
Some different ideas for wrapping some of those gifts. Gift wrapping doesn’t have to be the conventional rip it up kind.
…and perhaps a card to go with it?
Chocolate wrapping cards. There’s a damn good reason to go buy some of that fairtrade chocolate you saw on special.
or maybe just a simple gift tag?…
Gift tags can made from old cards, cereal boxes, biscuit boxes or just a beautiful old photo.
Lots of possibilities… now go have fun creating and giving.
patching it up
I still haven’t quilted properly. Not a full size one anyway. But I am loving this whole patchwork business. What’s not to like about cutting little scrappy pieces of fabric up, stitching them together and making something useful or enjoyable (or both!) Doona covers still don’t sound as exciting as a quilt, but for these three purposes they suited me better. So covers it was.
The hippy one (top- just in case you weren’t sure) screams flared pants, orange flowered coffee cups and …excuse me a minute while I part my hair down the middle, plait it and then go afro Mr Chocolate’s hair up. I can very much deal with that, as well… it says it all in the blog title doesn’t it?
These two scream practical. Two Monkey doona covers that were either old and very unexciting or unexciting and looked old. Either way, a doona cover suited their The Monkey’s sticky fingers over a quilt and a little upcycling was in order. Chop, chop, chop… and we are in Monkey business.
Now, what else can I cut up and turn into something else?….
the little people
too much
keeper of the tomatoes
tea for one
little gardener
hot stepping with the marmalade
onion farmer
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Oodles of inspiration from here
Winding, glueing, primping, sewing
Tummy’s and hair from these guys
Making these little people was ridiculously fun
chocolate and strawberries
Chocolate and strawberries…
Strawberries and chocolate…
There is a lot to like with those combinations.
Lots of ideas, lots of variations to play with…. whatever you do though…don’t do anything like the very average cake I made. Good quality dark chocolate, check. Lovely tasty strawberries whizzed up to make a beautiful red mush, check. Combined together to make a cake that Little Monkey and I refused to eat, Monkey Boy ate very slowly and Mr Chocolate asked whether he had to finish it? Not a success…nope not at all.
Never mind, we still have strawberries and chocolate.
I also finally finished a crocheted hat in strawberry and chocolate colours. Still learning, still trialing, but now I can wear my funny lumpy warm efforts. Chocolate alpaca wool from my mums alpacas, spun by my mum, crocheted by me, and keeping my ears warm. Along with my fingerless gloves, (in strawberry and chocolate.) Lessons learnt…. alpaca wool is lovely and warm, it’s good to make stuff, and taking a picture of your hand and head is hard…quite hard.
Never mind, we still have strawberries and chocolate.
making stuff…it really does feel good
Making stuff.
Bless my Birkenstocks it feels good. This last long weekend saw a flurry of sewing machine action, as I wasn’t home and distracted by the usual distractions. Instead distracted by these.
Lap top cover. New lap top, needs new lap top cover. Thanks to this lovely lady, I wanted to make my own. Thanks to my mum’s 40 years of sewing expertise I didn’t throw it all in, after a hissy fit when the needle got stuck, the foot got stuck, and the foam got stuck. (Foam sandwiched between the fabric). A bit of granny geek going on here… I think it needs some crochet action on it though. Crocheted triangle or flower?
Grey cowl for my bandito Monkey Boy who stood still long enough for a slightly fuzzy photo.
Green cowl for my bandito Little Monkey who wouldn’t stand still and thought it was hilarious I could only take a really fuzzy photo.
Quilting. I get it, I so get it. I understand why people get hooked on stitching little scrappy pieces of fabric to other little scrappy pieces of fabric. I only managed a doona cover last time, but this time it’s quilted. It’s tiny. Possibly the tiniest new baby quilt you will ever see, but I did it, and I’m itching to do more. (Sarah, if by chance you are reading this, close your eyes and forget you ever saw it.)
Making stuff…. it really does feel good.
