a sunny day in my winter garden

well, my sewing room is renovated and starting to look gorgeous but for the moment my interests have been diverted by a large pile of books and my garden!

it is a lovely sunny day here (despite being only 14degC !) so i thought i take advantage of the weather and spend some time updating things...

a cute stack of pots, planted with dutch irises and violas (i got the idea from here)

and a new garden arch to grow some sweet peas on - i am looking forward to having a scented arch to walk under in a couple of months time...

my dad built me a planter box to replace the tatty pots on my verandah - i planted it with an ornamental grape vine, dutch irises, species gladioli, white crocus and silver dichondra

the other pot on my verandah got a freshen up too

there are a couple of other areas in the garden that need a freshen up too, so i am hoping my motivation sticks around for a bit longer!!

 

it's all in the details

a couple of days ago i found the most exquisite little bird's nest on my front lawn, i am guessing that it was blown out of a nearby tree, thankfully i couldn't see any eggs or baby birds nearby.  whoever made this nest was very dedicated, it has been lined with cat fur (from my cat!!) and decorated with seed heads...

from my garden

some winter color in my garden, a Hardenbergia (aka. Happy Wanderer) that is growing on my disused chimney....

 

I've been sewing

this weekend is a long weekend here in Australia, so i have 3 days off in a row, yippee!  Saturday was spent doing a few errands (including replacing my house phone that was broken), Sunday was gardening day (finally bought and planted a couple more fruit trees and did some weed control!) and i have decided that i need a sewing day today.

my mojo is still missing but i am making the effort to sew in the hope that i may reignite my passion for patchwork.

i scrounged around in the cupboard and found some swap blocks from a couple of years ago, and after a little bit of sewing those stray blocks have now become a couple of cute little wall-hangings all ready for quilting - i cant decide if i want to add a border to the Halloween quilt, so i will let it "mature" for a while ...

 on the agenda for  this afternoon/evening is some hand-quilting so that i can finish off a cute owl wall hanging.

 

flowers...

my beautiful zygo is flowering again.  it is a special plant because it was my Granny's plant before she passed away, every time it flowers i think of her fondly and smile

Photos and the weekend that was

a sneak peek at one of my recent projects...

i wonder who this parcel is for...

got a heap of jobs done out in the garden today (with a little help from my dear dad):
- fertilised and mulched the fruit trees
- tidied up the garden edges in my front garden
- cleaned up the shed (it was looking like a bomb had gone off in there!!)
- tightened the shade sail
- planted 3 pot plants into the garden
- set up some big pots ready for the kids to plant some strawberries, carrots, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas and mixed lettuces (dad drilled some holes in the bottom of some cheap flexible plastic tubs)

and had a lovely Sunday afternoon nap!!

Gardens (the joy of weeds)

weeding,
weeding,
there's always so much weeding to be done,
by everyone...

(darn kids song is stuck in my head so i thought i would put it to good use!!)

i spent 1.5hrs out in the front garden weeding yesterday, and I'm still not finished - the joys of spring!! i think maybe another 30mins and i should be done, then i need to get the mulch on before the garden is covered in weeds again


also planned for this weekend is:
- photographing my F.R.I.E.N.D.S. swap parcel and packing it up to send to M over at Farmyard Crafts
- some sewing, i really need to finish a bag that i started a few weeks ago
- mending (not my favorite job)
- avoiding the Football grand final on the TV
- post some photos on my blog, things are looking a little plain around here!

Weekend progress, on several fronts

I have been working on getting this quilted (I am about 3/4 done) and it is looking nice

My zygo is now in full flower, it is so bright and cheery in my sewing room (my photography skills just don't do it any justice)

And Dad has started work on a built in wardrobe in my third bedroom... finally some much needed storage for all of the kids toys etc!  It is going in  an unusable corner of the room behind the door.  Much more has been accomplished since I took this photo - the cupboard now has an end and 3 shelves up the top.

A bit of cheer

My zygo flower is finally open and it is beautiful! 

And look, there are heaps more flowers on the way...

The bag workshop at Ballarat Patchwork was heaps of fun and my little bag is looking pretty cute (even if I do say so myself!).  There were some lovely ladies doing the class and we had a fun day - ripping fabric (such a satisfying sound!), plaiting fabric and stitching it back together again!

Bits and Bobs

A little bit of everything in this post!

The zygo cactus that I inherited when my Granny died early last year is thriving.  I re-potted it, gave it a light trim and fertilized it, it has been growing nicely but I was starting to worry that it was never going to flower.  But look at this photo, my little zygo is covered in flower buds.  Thanks Granny!

I stepped out of the car the other day and was greeted with these cute little guys on my fence....

And lastly, proof that I have been working on making that multi-tasker tote that I wrote about not long ago...