Quiet days

 

I love the baby blue color of the Plumbago plant that grows around the side of the house. The bush is quite tall and the flowers are covering it in a pale mauvy blue.

 

 

After the big lot of rain the garden bed where I planted beans, cucumbers, and radishes is coming along nicely. Although the other seeds I planted don't seem to be coming up just yet.

Radishes are growing and getting bigger.

 

My vintage photo collection grows and I've been scribbling in my sketch book as well.

 

And my bee painting is moving along very slowly. Maybe soon it will be finished.

blackbird fly

 

I made a lot of these clay blackbirds a while ago and finally decided to make a pair up into earings.

 

Also there has been simple sketching in my smallish sketch book. Just ideas and practice.

 

And some dreams into color in the same sketch book. I have a painting I am working on too, soon it might be finished.

Button Buttons

 On Saturday I attended the last workshop until Easter next year for the  Simple Living workshop for button jewellery. Everything was supplied with the class and once everyone sorted through the buttons they would like to use every one set about making their jewellery.

 

There were lots of assorted buttons to choose from and everyone produce different but stunning results.

 

For a couple of hours everyone worked away on their necklaces and it was a very enjoyable time.

 

The day was well spent and I came home with a few early presents ready for Christmas.

At Home

 

There are a lot of pieces at home that belong to various people from both sides of my parents family. The shoe belongs to dad's mum and the hat pins belongs to the lady in the picture. She's my great great grandma who pass on a long time back at the age of 90. The crochet books belong to mum.

 

We always had a china cabinet in our house. Does anyone have those any more? I'm not sure if anyone would know what they are today. This set belongs to my mum's mother who also passed away. Isn't it very retro fantastic?

For breakfast, I made pancakes which isn't something I've done before. And I was really pleased how these turn out.

 

I also fried up some apple and onions together and supplied some scrambled eggs to round the meal out. Trust me the meal is very filling and you won't look for another meal till later in on the day!

 

The pancake recipe is below:

 

Ingredients:

 

1 1/2 cups milk

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups White self-raising flour

¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/3 cups caster sugar

25g butter, melted

 

Method:

Whisk milk, egg and vanilla together in a jug. Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Stir in sugar and Make a well in centre. Add milk mixture. Whisk until just combined.

 

2. Heat on large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Brush pan with butter. Using ¼ cup mixture per pancake, cook pancakes for 2 to 4 minutes or until bubbles appear on surface. Turn and cook for 3 minutes or until cooked through.

Pretty Maids

I've been working on a small 8x8 canvas using mix media to create a shabby chic vintage piece. I used a lot of thrift store find laces I have in my stash. The images of the little girls was a printed out piece that didn't print too good but I kept it thinking I could use the images rather than waste the ink and paper. After the video finished I added some swirl bling to dress it up a bit more. The video is just me working on the piece. Not a great vid but it shows enough. This project uses stuff I already had in my stash.

 

I have plans for this finished piece so stay tuned for more about that in the future.

Brights

 

The last week we have been having a lot of rain. It is good for the garden and my experimental bed is coming up nicely. All this rain and gloomy weather has me craving bright things. Last weekend I attended the simple living morning tea which is the last for the year. We learn how to make a bright colorful orgami ball. Nana Chel has some good photographs on her blog about that.

 

The lacy jar covers we made seem to be liked very much I didn't bring any home! 

 

The swap went well during morning tea and I picked up some of Nana Chel's homemade Calendula soap. I've been using it and the soap is luxurious on the skin. I have sensitive skin and any soap generally makes my skin itchy and dry this soap lathers up beautifully and leaves the skin soft and fresh. If Nana Chel offers any snap it up! I also went home with a handful of some great seeds and beautiful sage.

 

 With the rest of the week wet and gloomy I caught up on baking and I am working on a painting.
More to come.

 

All this rain really doesn't make it feel like summer is near at all.

Simplicity

 

This is how the end of my day looked after a very warm day and a lot of laundry.

I have always wrote in diaries and sketchbooks. There is something comforting about returning to writing by hand and putting thoughts down on paper. It is very different to blogging where I tidy up my thoughts. My diaries though have all the things you'd expect to see in someone's diary. I have my teenage diaries and they have a lot of things pasted in them like movie tickets, magazine clippings of popstars and moviestars,  art gallery tickets and such. I also have letters and cards and photos too. You know, the film you took to the photo place to be processed! Photos from actual film!

 

 

I decided to start up a journal in the spirit of National novel writing month that happens in November. The aim is to write a novel in a month. I'm hoping to finish writing in a diary and start up a new one for December dailies too. Which is about recording your December activies for the 25 days of Christmas.

 

 

I wrote today about exicting things like doing the laundry. I'm not sure what any one will think of these journals when they go through them but at least someone in our family records things. Which is very important.

 

And here's my clean fresh bed linen ready to be put back on the bed. It's all about simple living and there's nothing more simple than this. I picked some fresh Rosemary to press in my new diary too. It is a good herb for remembrance.

Pie days and the keeper of bees

 

Over the weekend one of my nephews had a birthday and he wanted a proper roast dinner and pie.

So we made him apple pie and a roast dinner.

 

 

The apple pie and dinner was a simple affair that turned out really well. The day wasn't too hot and we all enjoyed a good home baked meal.

 

The nephew enjoyed the meal.

Also there has been painting too. A new painting which will change as I develop it, but the idea will maybe remain the same.

 

Her garden grows over looking the sea and she keeps the bee honey for sailors.

Yesteryears Spring Mini Album

I've been working on this Mini Album for some time. After some issues with the spine which resulted in much ripping and tearing out of pages to redo I think I managed to salavage it pretty good. The theme was a vintage-y sort of Spring easter theme. Odd for this time of year I know, but we are in late Spring so that is what inspired this mini. I call it a mini album but it isn't really it's bigger than 6 inches and chunky! I used a lot of vintage doileys and lace from my stash and I should not admit I never brought anything for this mini as I already had everything. Some of the dressforms in the album were from a swap I joined in a while ago.

Now I have a painting I want to do.

Make do

 

Today was a bit of a experimental day. From the pantry I used a box bread mix in the bread maker to see what it would turn out like. The mix was for a heavy German bread and it did turn out heavy and rather tasty. Different to white bread.

 

Out in the garden I weeded one of the raised beds that has been sitting idle. In this bed I want to try out some companion planting and after some research on the interent and looking through my seed tin of collected seeds I found a few that can be planted together. It will be interesting to see if these grow and how the companion planting works.

 

From the sewing box I am trying out hand sewing patch work. My stitches aren't exactly nice but practise makes perfect. I'm using up some old bed sheets for this as well. Not only today was about experiments but it was a very make do and use what you have kind of day too.