Front View!

You probably don't realise it, but all the pictures I take of our house are actually from the backyard, so the back of the house. We don't usually see the front much ourselves, except as we drive past, so I tend to forget it. I was walking around today though, and since I was down near the front, I thought I'd take a pic. So here it is! I couldn't get far enough back to take it in one shot, so I had to stitch it together in photoshop. Didn't do the greatest job either, as I can see now, but oh well, you get the general idea.

They came around today and did the first clean up. Took most of the rubbish (luckily we'd salvaged much before this point), and leveled the area around the house so that it slopes away from the brickwork. I suspect we'll have to work on drainage after it's all finished though, as the block slopes from the back to the front, and we'll end up with a lot of water around the house if we're not careful.

Adolescent Chickens

Well, they aren't cute little furry babies anymore! Only a month old, and already they have more feathers than down, and are cheerfully getting around out in the wild. They love being out in their chicken tractor during the day, although we still bring them in at night. Don't quite trust the neighbours dogs, who this morning caught one of THEIR chickens and was mauling it outside our shed. Luckily it was OK. Not pleasant to wake up to a chicken squawking though.

I spent a little while today outside taking pictures of them in the tractor, and it was amazing to watch how they really are turning into little chickens. They have so much personality, with the way they sit and look at you with their head on one side, and make their little cheeping noises.

They were quite fascinated by the noises the camera was making, and kept coming over to try to work out what it was. I'm a bad chicken mummy though, I just can't tell them apart reliably enough to give them names. I think I'm going to have to get different coloured leg bands or something!

April Challenge - Grow Your Own

ALS has a new monthly challenge forum, and this month's challenge is to 'grow your own' food, which seemed doable to me.

In the interests of not getting too carried away, I picked this garden bed, which is the first one I built here, to do over. As you can see, it's pretty overgrown, but those tomatoes, while still producing fruit sporadically, really aren't producing enough to justify the space they're taking up. So out they came, along with the watermelon vines that were way past their time, and most of the dead corn stalks. I left a couple for the climbing peas to grow up.

I edged the whole garden using some of the bricks that were leftover from the house brickwork (we have STACKS, that's a whole other post)/ Then I put down a lot of dolomite, and re-newspapered the whole thing. The original attempt hadn't been too successful, and a lot of weeds had made their way through, so rather than weeding, I figured I would just start again. DD helped by 'watering' the newspaper, which is actually a really good thing as it will help it break down, and we've started mulching it with compost and grass. I'll post some more pics when it is ready to plant.

The plans for this bed are lots of peas and beans, maybe some carrots, and possibly a few more lettuces. Perhaps I will let a cucumber wander through it. I like to mix things up.

Continuing progress on the house

Sorry, no photos. We've hit lockup stage now, so we can't get inside to take pics. We've been looking through the windows lots though!

The doors and door jams are on now, and the skirting boards. The bathroom sink/vanity is in place, and they've been doing something with the shower. The eves were done on Monday, and all the bits above the windows/doors as well.

We're starting again to say "It should be done in a month or two," and getting hopeful. It will be SO nice to be in a house again. It's getting colder here, we're sleeping with a blanket and a doona (I don't remember doing that for YEARS), and it's only 9pm, but I'm about to go to bed because there is no other way to get warm. I never understood my mum doing that all these years, but now I do! I'm also dearly looking forward to having a dishwasher again! Dishwashing seems like such wasted time, and it's such a neverending chore.

Even once it is all finished though, we'll have to organise for the floor to be done (we're doing that separately, didn't want carpet, which was their only option, and instead are having a wood look laminate). Then we will want to leave it for a week or two to let the paint/floor/everything out gas before we move in.

A Holiday Quilt

One thing I love about visiting my mother (aside from the fact that I get to chat to her till all hours and spend time with her), is going through her material stash. She was into recycled crafting before I even knew about it. She has an entire caravan full of cut up second hand clothes, unwound jumpers, and bits and pieces she has spent years collecting. At one point, she was very into making crazy patchwork quilts. Some time I will have to take some pics of her quilts to put up here, they really are amazing.

This time though, I had a specific project in mind. Several years ago, when I moved into my first apartment on my own, we made a blue and green velvet patchwork lap rug. DD loves it, and carries it around the house to play with. I would rather it was left on her bed, covering up the board between hers and mine, so she didn't hit her head on it! The only solution was to make another rug! This time, of course, pink!

The material used is velvet, mostly from old velvet dressing gowns, which were all the fashion there at one stage. Mum has quite a collection, with lots of great colours for this project. We added in some purple and orange as well, just so it wasn't quite so pink. All red tones though.

DD had a lot of fun playing with the pieces, and some old dolly pegs that she found in a box of toys/craft stuff my mum had there.

Eventually we rescued the pieces to lay them out in a good order. It took lots of re-arranging so that we didn't have too similar a squares right together, although really, it probably didn't matter.

Then sewing them up. It's really handy to have two people for this job, as one can sew, while the other keeps the pieces in the right order. In a random design like this though, it really doesn't matter that much.

And here it is, the finished product! We found a piece of polar fleece left over from some tracksuit sewing we did for DD several visits ago for the backing. It was thick enough that we didn't need wadding, which was an added bonus. Then we gave it a quick wash, and here it is hanging in the sun. A good day's work I think.

A relaxing holiday

DD and I just arrived back from a wonderful couple of days staying with my parents in the Wide Bay. This is the view you see when you get up in the morning! This is one of their two dams. There are some barramundi in there somewhere, but they've never been caught, though a few have tried.

The waterlilies are really taking over this year. Usually they're just around the edges, but now they're covering the whole dam.

DD had a ball, running around after Grandma, and going for a ride on their ride on mower.

Panda the dog was also good for following, but she spent much of her time sitting at Grandpa's feet, his ever faithful companion.

On Friday, we went down to the beach. It's lovely at this time of the year, almost totally deserted.

I'm sure it won't look the same now, school holidays started yesterday.

Too cold really for swimming, but there are plenty of other fun things to do.

I tried to convince DD to help collect some of the shells that were everywhere, but apparently it was more fun to fill the bucket with wet sand!

The second hand shops failed us, and we had to buy this bucket/spade set at a discount store. Not bad for $2 though.

This bit of coral was large enough to hold her interest for a few moments though.

When playing with the sand lost it's appeal, this bag of beads and jewelery was good for a few minutes entertainment.

While we were there I had a really good chance to scour all the second hand shops. Their prices are MUCH better than here, and they seem to have a much better variety. I have 20 or 30 new sewing patterns, a lot of them children's ones, which will be put to good use. I also found a lot of older craft books with interesting things like how to make different kinds of rugs, simple clothes from simple shapes, and lots of other decorating ideas. I'm really looking forward to the house being finished so that I can start decorating!

A Kitchen!

Here is is, the beginnings of our kitchen! It actually looks really nice I think. I wasn't sure how I'd like the wood look (but it was the only option with the colour tiles I wanted!), but it actually looks really nice. I just hope it doesn't clash with our floor colours, which are slightly lighter I think.

The fridge will go in the space to the left, and the space/construction to the right is our pantry I'm assuming. I'm SO looking forward to it, and most especially, to having a dishwasher again!

The cornices are also in, and they are putting in the doors and door jams today! It's going to be done before we know it (says she hopefully).

I won't be updating for a couple of days, but expect lots more updates and pictures on the weekend. Take care everyone.