My vegies - first harvest

We had some lovely sweet corn tonight with dinner, harvested 5 minutes before being cooked and eaten! It was lovely and sweet although I think it probably could have done with another week or so to get a bit bigger.

Here are some pics of my lovely garden.

My Yellow Zucchini and my Green Zucchini

My lovely cucumber vine and my new tomato bush - it is Beef Eater Variety. I've only ever grown cherry tomatoes before so if you have any tips for me that would be great!

My lovely tall corn stalks and some succulent lettuces.

Another pic of my other green zucchini and a lovely picture of me holding my dinnertime harvest.

Now you can't really see in the photos but the lower leaves of all my zucchini plants die off and go a bit yellow/brown and then what looks to me like mouldy. I just cut them off and put them in the bin - I'm just not sure if the mould is bad or not or just normal part of growing zucchini. I remember when I have grown broccoli that it would do a similar thing. Any ideas or experiences you can share?

I got an award!!

It's my first Blog Award :) I'm pretty excited! Thank you very much to Jetta's Nest for including me in her recipients. I'm so honoured that I got an award, let alone that someone obviously reads my blog :-) Hee hee!

Here are the details of what I won:



Proximidade is described as:'This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!'

This blog award should be sent to your favorite eight bloggers and they, in turn should forward to eight of their favorites. You should include the text for Proximidade (above) in your announcement blog.

So I am passing this award onto Can't be too hard , Kate's Ramble , Kamalicious, Head in the Sand, SugarFish, Mel Brennan, Cherub's Craft and A Family Life.

I regularly read these blogs and love the ideas, crafts, tutorials and points of view on them. Some of these people I have become friends with in real life as well as online. This thing called the internet has brought me so many new ideas and new friends that I could never imagine.

So to all you beautiful bloggers, pass on your awards and keep the ball rolling.

And thanks again Sam :-) You made my day!

Busy Busy morning!

While DH and DS were out shopping for fridges for various family members I stayed at home with DD and sewed while she slept :) Here's what was created.

First of all here are sheets for O's new "big boy Kindy" which he starts next Thursday. Beautiful quilting cotton that was only $4/metre reduced at Spotlight. I think it's a Michael Miller print? Not sure - but it is beautiful quality and lovely to sew.
I made fitted sheet, sheet, pillow case and drawstring bag. Quite impressed with myself to be honest. Wasn't planning the pillowcase or the bag but there you go! Bonus!



And this lovely lady is for a Softie swap on Crafty Mamas forum. I hope my recipient likes it! She is based on a chicken softie I had (and still have!!) as a child.

Christmas Raggy Quilts

I finally have found a bit of time to update this blog! It's been a month!! Eeek!

Here are some pics of the raggy quilts I made for my nieces and nephews for Christmas. Each one has a panel cut from a dress that used to belong to my mother (their grandmother) who died in 1992.

This one is for Miss 8 - front (Mum panel on front at bottom) and back


For Miss 6 1/2 - front and back (Mum panel on front in middle)

For Master 4 and Master 2 weeks. Here are the fronts (Mum panel front bottom for Master 4)

And here are the backs - left is Master 2 weeks (Mum panel on the back) and Master 4 is on the right.

I really enjoyed making these - much easier than I thought they would be although my squares don't always line up! It was really meaningful to me as well to include some of Mum's old dress that I have been keeping for 16 years! Now I just have to make a quilt for each of the other nephews/nieces and for my own kids and I'm done! So that's 4 down and 7 to go!!

Christmas Gifts!

Here are some of the gifts I've been working on.

For my sister - a reading pillow from this pattern



.


Assorted I-spy bags for adult friends. Hopefully they won't go completely nuts from trying to find tiny things.






An apron for one of my friends.




Yet another sock monkey - this time for my nephew and it is made from really long football socks. So he is reeeeeeeaaallly tall and gangly. With cauliflower ears, black eye and the other eye swollen shut :) I enjoyed making him.






But the thing that I'm most excited about is the Doll cradle/carrier I made for Miss E. My friend, Donna, made a beautiful, beautiful doll for E - isn't she gorgeous?







And here is the carrier with matching pillow and sheet. I'm hoping she will love it to bits! It was really easy to make and you can find the tutorial here.





So I think I'm just about finished making all the Christmas presents. I also made four raggy quilts but haven't photographed them yet. I'm really happy with how they turned out too.

All in all I'm very excited to have made the majority of our Christmas presents this year. It's been really fun and I'm hoping to do it again next year.

Sock Monster

I made a Sock Monster for my nephew's 8th birthday a couple of weeks ago. I thought a sock monkey might be a bit tame so I decided on a monster and thought I'd tailor it to suit my nephew's predilection for bodily noises.

I called him Stinky McSniffer and, as you can see, some flatulence is escaping from his cute little bottom. I really enjoyed making this one. I made another sock monster last week for another niece's birthday but alas, I did not take photos. I will have to get some when I see her next.

Here's Stinky from the front.




And from behind :-)

Trying to take some nice Christmas photos!!

Last year I took some lovely photos of O and E for our yearly Christmas email/card. Here are a few of the rejects - they make me laugh.



This angle wasn't working so I got closer . . .




Hmmm . . . still not really working . . .


Eliza has clearly had enough. I'd forgotten she doesn't get out of bed for less than 3 weetbix!




And my lovely boy with all his teddies - I wonder if it was his intention to annoy his sister away??

I'm very tempted to put one of the dud ones on the card - :-)