Scatterbrained

Yesterday was Australia Day

I am in the habit of doing my blog posts first thing in the morning. I usually write about the day before but I am thinking about changing it and doing it of a night time instead. Yesterday of course was Australia Day. We had planned a day BBQing on our river bank and having some friends over but Scott's fishing partner really wanted to go on a practise fish for a big fishing competition in a couple of weeks, and to tell you the truth, all the summer socialising is wearing me out a bit.

So I happily gave up our Australia Day plans so he could go fishing. Instead, I took the kids fishing for trout on our river bank. We almost caught a big eal but no trout. Luckily Scott caught some fish which we had for dinner along with the traditional BBQ sausages.

After the fishing it was swimming and play time at our favourite spot on the river.

I went to Launceston the other day and bought four more books in the Sookie Stackhouse series. This one of course is number three!

The kids got naked and decided to to some nude construction building. They dismantled the steps I made to the water on New Years to make an underwater bridge.

 

Then they dismantled the bridge and made a bathtub in the middle of the river.

So we had a nice relaxing Australia Day this year and we woke up this morning to find this, AT LAST!

Clover, the last of my cows to give birth finally had.

Sometime early this morning. We didn't think this one was ever going to come out. Poor Clover could hardly walk.

 

Now there is only one more baby left to be born and this one will be the owner of 'The Secret Project' I am still yet to finish.

Some of the other creative things I have been doing lately are making pineapple vinegar.

If you want to try this go here.

I have started crocheting scarves for my market stall. Not that anyone would buy a scarf in this weather but on a cold Sunday morning at the Evandale Markets a scarf would come in handy if you don't have one already so I am stocking up.

 

This is a little Valentines Day present for Scott. For his phone.

I made it out of thrifted recycled wool yarn which I dyed myself.

I finished another vampire. This one is The Vampire Le Feu.

I spun this wool,

into this yarn.

I'm crocheting this into a scarf as well.

I have a lot of unfinished projects I need to get on with so that is what I'll be doing for the rest of this week. We have an overnight birthday camping party this weekend so I might take a bunch of crocheting along for that.

Jump higher so I can get a cool in the sky shot!

Yesterday I made a little outfit for Ruby out of a pair of my old Thai fisherman's pants which I bought when I was pregnant with Dustin but only wore a couple of times because they never stayed right. They had big wide legs and were made out of a light cotton. I thought of Ruby because she likes pink and I whipped up this very simple skirt and top set and we headed out to the trampoline for a photo shoot.

I love rick rack. I have it in many colours :)

This little outfit probably wont fit her next year but at least it will a cool fun little thing to put on after a bath on a hot afternoon or for an evening walk on the beach this summer.

Dustin wanted his own photo shoot even though he didn't get any new clothes yesterday.

Creativeness

Look what I made yesterday!

Yes... I know a cow REALLY made him, but I participated. I called the dairy farmer across the road and had him come and pick up my cows and put them in a truck and take them over to the paddock his bull lives in where they had a nice holiday for a couple of months and lost their virginities.

That cow in the pictures with the little calf is not his mother. That is his Aunty Clover. Her calf is due any day now. In the next picture you can tell which one is his mother. Check out those udders!

I have been very creative lately. Karma and I crocheted a bag while we listened to Stephen King audio books in my chair in my bedroom.

I have felted this already and it is OK but the handle is a little bit wonky. I made it for my market stall but I don't think it is good enough to sell. I'll take a photo today. It is the right size for my wallet and keys, phone and a paper back novel though :)

I bought a bunch of natural wool and silk roving from the US which arrived this week and I plan on spinning some today. I have decided to start making scarves for my market stall. They might sell well on our cold Tasmanian weekends during winter.

I also plan on finishing off my third vampire today.

OH, I almost forgot. I did some work on 'The Secret project' for the other new baby which is due soon.

Vampires and vegies

We had a little vegie harvest.

Big yellow zucchinis, two different kinds of squash, beans and two different kinds of tomatoes. They are all delicious.

I have to find some good zucchini recipes because these yellow ones are growing fast!

This lovely wool came in the mail at the end of last year from an online friend and I pulled it and spun it on Saturday night.

Here it is drying after I washed it. I'm not very good at spinning but fortunately I love the over spun bits as much as I love the underspun bits :)

I have already crocheted it into a little purse. I haven't taken a photo yet but I'll do that today.

I spun this one from wool from my own sheep. Some is dyed red but most of it is natural. The yellow and orange wispy bits are locks from those curly wooled sheep. They are not mine but I think I need some :) I have already crocheted this into a little 'pot'. Photos to come.

So here is the Vampire Isabell (with no E on the end). She didn't take as long as Petunia because there wasn't quite as much stitching but I like her. I still haven't quite gotten her fangs sharp enough. I like how the ink comes out on the cotton fabric. I need to get some more of this.

I am starting another vampire today.

I also have a new kitchen bench :) This is what the old one looked like.

Pretty ugly hey! I got our builder to use plywood for the new bench because I wanted something cheap. Eventually this kitchen will be pulled out and will become a walkway to our extension when we get around to doing that, sometime in the future.

Here the new bench is in its raw state. Looks nice.

And then I rubbed it down with linseed oil.

Happy New Year

Our new years eve party just officially finished at lunch time today, January 2nd! The kids and Scott are laying on the couch eating fresh raspberries from our neighbours raspberry patch and watching cartoons. I just downloaded our pictures from the river party which was a huge success. I think it might become a tradition here at Willowdale.

Here is a photo of Dustin and I especially for Sandra. I had to alter it a bit because my face was really red, a little sunburnt with messy hair and no make up so I put us in sepia! I am afraid that is the best I can do until I am more decent (blow dried and fancied up).

Just after we lit the fire I heard on the radio they were talking a total fire ban. We had a fire pump though and we were on the river bank on our own property and there was no wind so we kept a close eye on the fire and it was all OK.

Scott had the great idea to take the trampoline down. It was a hit!

Ruby was so happy to have some girls to play with.

Men and boys hung around talking shit and drinking beer... and milk.

We had such a great time. Thanks for coming you guys!

 

It was really HOT!

The river came in handy :)

The dogs had a great time as well.

This was the view from my deck chair.

 

The potato have grown a lot since we've been away. We had to drive down through them on the little track and they are almost as tall as my car.

That's my car. Edward Cullen isn't the only one who drives a silver Volvo!

 

We had a bit of flying fox action!

A bit of contemplation.

A lot of great food. Our friends across the river brought over a couple of legs of lamb and our camping friends brought over their woodfired spit roasting thingie.

Mel caught a trout!

 

There was the usual marshmallow toasting.

 

There was a nice cool breeze down by the river.

Someone made a swing.

OK! One more thing! Remember my new years resolution was to do something creative everyday. Well the party went longer than we expected however I did remember a collaborative creative project I did with Nigel yesterday! We made a dampa! I mixed it up and kneaded it into a nice little ball and gave it to Nigel who put it in the camp oven and cooked it to perfection. So dampa is creative and that counts right?

Babies with no mamas

This is a baby wallaby. His mother was hit by a car and died. It happens a lot here in Tasmania because there is so much wildlife and they don't have very good car sense. Also people drive too fast and forget they are sharing the state with the animals.

This one was being cared for by some friends of ours who are wildlife carers. This one is almost big enough now to be released into the wild but when I took this photo he was still being fed baby wallaby formula. When I put my hand in to his little pen he came over and hugged me. Too cute!

They sleep in little specially made bags that hang up to the walls of their little houses. Like their mother's pouches.

It just occurred to me that I should make some of those for them.

That is Ruby's little hand. They are friendly because humans feed them.

They also had a little wombat although he has since been released back into the wild. They live in burrows so that was his baby burrow until he was able to go out and make his own.

I played 'peek aboo' with him for a while.

Check out his long claws!

Ruby loves the animals. At home she is always walking around with a hen tucked under her arm. She's not apposed to dead ones either. Yesterday morning she presented me with a dead bird and yesterday afternoon a dead rat.

On that particular day Lisa and I were inside booking airfares inside when we heard hysterical screaming. I said "Is that good hysterical or bad hysterical". Lisa went to the window and said, "Oh, she's on the swing". I went outside to find my three year old daughter doing this:

Scott was on a business call during all of that.

New Years Resolution

Every year I make a new years resolution which I break around the third week of January. This year, I am doing it again but I am going to make it public so all of you, Jenny, Sandra, Tracey and Wendy :) can hold me to it. My new years resolution for 2010 is TO DO SOMETHING CREATIVE EVERYDAY. I shall take a photo and document my creativeness here for the world (the four of you and the other secret 6.2 of you) to witness.

I am also starting up a market stall at the Evandale markets selling my muffins which I am becoming famous for. I'm going to include a few handmade kitchen items as well. I am currently working on some pot holders.

Those were chocolate and raspberry but they were a flop. Taste OK but didn't look pretty enough. I used canned raspberries which were too sweet and wet. Now I have to try them again with frozen raspberries. fresh ones would be nicer but they are expensive, even in Tasmania where they grow well.

We used to have a raspberry patch out near the chook yard but it was too far away and the birds always ate the raspberries. There was no irrigation out there either so they died. They may come up again now that the potato farmers are irrigating out there but we have decided to make a new one closer to the house.

Dustin caught a trout in the river. He was so proud of it. He ate it for lunch.

Scott caught some and they saved one for me. It tasted like the river. Isn't that little hand cute :)

Today we have to go grocery shopping for our trip. I am not looking forward to it. I don't enjoy grocery shopping. Actually, grocery shopping sucks. I'd like to go grocery shopping once a month and thats it. Maybe I will next year!

The fabric scrap box and a new dress

I was making hot pads out of fabric scraps the other day and Ruby was playing with the box of fabric scraps. She spent ages pulling them all out and lining them up and picking out the ones she likes best. She wanted me to make her a dress so I found some cotton fabric and whipped up this little red and white dress for her.

I had no idea what I was doing and just made it up as I went. This was the second attempt. I changed my mind halfway through the first one and started again. It is kind of daggy and home made looking but she likes it and it is cool and kind of cute.

Too much fabric around the gathering though.

I wanted to use red ribbon but I only had this lacey stuff and it is a bit slippery and the bow slips around to the back too much. The neck line is too wide and it slips off her shoulder a little bit.

I do like the rick rack though and I did make this in half an hour and it was the first dress I have ever made her so I am happy enough with it. I think I will make her some cute nighties this way and I'll find out the pattern I have for cute little dresses sent to me from a friend a little while ago.

Summer holidays are coming soon :)

In Australia we call 'vacation' our holidays. We don't go on vacation, we go on holidays. This year my family is going on holidays to Flinders Island. We are travelling with our friends Jesse and Lisa and their children. We leave in three weeks.

We have to take a boat. A barge which takes a LONG time to get there because we are camping so we need to take our camper trailers and all the camping stuff. The trip takes a long time. Six to eight hours.

When we get there we plan on adventuring and fishing for all our meals and bush walking, four wheel driving, swimming, taking lots of photos, relaxing in deck deck chairs (remind me to buy a deck chair). We are going to bake our own bread and try to live off the land as much as we can.

Scott was up last night doing work on the camper trailer while I was in bed with the kids watching TV and crocheting.

I am crocheting little face scrubbies at the moment

These are just small cotton crocheted cloths for washing your face with to replace the need to use disposable facial cleaning pads which are expensive and a waste of our resources. I am using 'Peaches and Cream' cotton yarn I am getting from online friends in the US. I haven't ever seen any in Australia.

My plan is to have a basket of these in the bathroom and to use them for washing faces, removing make up, cleansing and toning etc and then just throwing them into the dirty linen basket for daily washing. I might need a soaking bucket actually so they don't go mouldy over night.

My crocheting is getting better. I am teaching myself with a book. I still sometimes loose stitches though, or sometimes I gain one. I need to watch some more You Tube videos.

Scott went on a fishing competition thing a couple of weekends ago and caught this trout.

Pretty fish they are. He and Dustin caught a few last weekend down on our river and Dustin has been eating them. He loves them. They taste like the river. The one in the picture was let go because it was a tag and release competition.

The kids are enjoying the warm weather and have been playing outside most of the time.

I don't buy toys for my kids anymore. They like rocks and sticks and shells and leaves better.

They do this to manipulate me into letting them do things I really don't want them to do.