Shivery Grass.

 I don't know what you called this grass when you were a child, but we often called it Shivery Grass because of the shivery little seed heads. I recently came across a lot of very large heads and decided to press them for future reference. Today I took them out of the press and I was struck by how like trees the heads were, rather like Eucalypt trees with their sparse foliage.

I photographed and scanned all the different heads of grass and made them into Photoshop brushes which I played around with and came up with a couple of fun ways of using them.

                                    I'm going to have fun playing around with these images!

Success!

Well, I think that we can say that the heavy duty pruning of the tree fern was a success! It's looking so pretty now with it's almost unfurled fronds all a lovely bright light green. Before we know it, it will be up across the window again. I wonder if it would take a second cutting of the trunk......

Almost Finished!

The Kitchen is almost finished, with just a few finishing touches left to do. It is now usable, although the fridge will be not be re-installed for another week or so.

Here is what the kitchen looked like a mere 3 weeks and 1 day ago.

 

The Early Bird gets the Bargain?

 I have no idea what this beautiful King Parrot was doing perched on the Op-
 Shop sign, but he was in no hurry to fly away.

 Isn't he beautiful? The females are almost all a deep green, so when seen together they make a wonderful sight.

We were lucky enough to have a small group of them fly into our garden a couple of years ago, so of course I took lots of photos.

Don't Walk on the Floor!

Another step in the kitchen renovation story, but please don't make that an actual step! The lovely old floor boards have been sanded and sealed, but the sealant has to dry and cure, so after this week of drying we have another week of curing before we can move the fridge and dishwasher back in. The under cupboards kickboards will go back when the floor is ready and we are still waiting on the flue covering for the range hood which had to be specially made as it's much longer than is usual and also has a right angle bend in it, but we're nearly there! The surfaces look rather pink in this photo, they aren't, much more of a mushroomish colour.

A Little Bit of Sewing.

 Having collected up little bits and pieces throughout the year for the small Grandchildren, I found I had quite a lot of things to wrap and take over to their place on Christmas morning. Just little things like a dinosaur shaped money box, some 'little girl' jewellery, puzzles and books.

 I decided to make a couple of 'Santa sacks' from some of the Christmas fabric that I had stashed away. What better use of it anyway?

I used some old multi-coloured braid for the drawstrings and here we have 2 slightly different bags all full of goodies for Christmas morning.

Looking Good!

I'm finding this opening of the tree fern fronds over a few days quite fascinating. Back to creative pursuits in the New Year I hope when things are not so busy.

Shade for the new Tree Fern.

As was pointed out in the previous post, ferns need shade, especially brand new fern fronds. We've rigged up some shade for the whole area, so although they still get some morning sun they are protected from the hot afternoon sun.

Growing Progress.

Another photo of the tree fern after a few days and it's beginning to look like some weird sea creature with tentacles.

What a Sight!

 

 Some months ago we decided that the Tree Fern we had planted many years ago had grown so big that we had to do something about it, partly because it had grown taller than the house and in the hot summers all the fronds were getting burnt and dying off, and partly because we couldn't see the fronds any more to enjoy them. This was the base after we cut the top off.

We replanted the top (it had no roots of course) into a good bed of compost and waited.

 

  

The top has grown beautifully with lots of new fronds emerging.

 
Each new frond is just so beautifull!

Spider-Kids!

                                              A couple of dare devil climbers aged 3 and 6.

Getting Closer!

                Here we are at day 5 of the renovation, with a working sink, cook top and oven.

Day 4 of Kitchen Renovation.

After only 4 days the new kitchen is really starting to take shape. It's amazing how quickly it's all being put together. The last kitchen renovation 30 years ago took 3 months, so this is super fast.

Not the Best Timing!

 The first week of December isn't the best time to start a kitchen renovation, but that's the way it has worked out. Above is the old kitchen which was about 30 years old and I always hated the hanging cupboard above the counter to the right. Standing at the counter I couldn't see anyone on the other side, so I had to either bend down or walk around to the other side.

                    The stripped out kitchen, looking very forlorn, but the hanging cupboard has gone!

Some Christmas Fun.

 At a meeting yesterday we were introduced to 3 fun little projects for Christmas.  I love the little mouse above!

                                            The other side of the little candy cane mouse.

                                This is a little box of Smarties cunningly disguised as a 'house'.

                                                Below is a side view of the Smartie House.

 Take 2 pieces of felt, place a pencil between the pieces and  adhere them together with something sticky.  The pencil should have been wrapped in ribbon but I ran out of time.

 Sew or glue 'ornaments' onto the tree and then sew tiny bells to the ends of each branch.

I ended up with glue in a lot of places where I shouldn't have, and didn't get time to sew on the bells.

Hunting for Potatoes.

 Little Miss 3 loves to help in the garden, and today was the day that we emptied out a huge plastic pot in which a few potatoes had been planted. What fun to hunt for potatoes in the emptied out soil!

                                               Then of course we had to scrub them clean.

Gorgeous Native Fringed Lily.

                  I have never seen so many Fringed Lilies out at once, they are everywhere.

                           They are so pretty with each of the petals beautifully fringed.

Cactus Flower.

            This gorgeous flower is huge, and with it's pink and deep green throat it's really beautiful.

Blackbird Eggs.

Although they are very pretty, these Blackbird eggs are not a welcome sight. Blackbirds are not native to Australia and definitely should not be seen in the bush.

Soaking the Fruit.

What better thing to do on a wet Sunday morning than make the Christmas Cake. Having soaked the fruit all night in brandy, I was all set to go today when it was predicted to be nice and cool for having the oven on for 3 hours. I didn't expect 40mm of rain, but how welcome it was!

That's All Folks!

                      All finished, and that means that I have made a start on Christmas for 2014!

Done but Not Quite Right.

I decided to add a beaded 'tail' to the bookmarks, but how I wish that I had made the lower end come to a point rather than squared off. Anyway, they're done, but if I should make more I would definitely reshape them.

Matching Cards.

 While I'm thinking about the tassels, I decided to make some matching cards to go with the bookmarks.

I have a duplicate card of the Hippeastrum, as the colours are so Christmassy that I might even use that design for more cards, minus the bookmarks.

Not Sure About These.

 The photos that I printed onto fabric have been backed with Vilene then stitched randomly over the front with toning plain or variegated thread.

I added a backing of hand dyed toning fabric and satin stitched the edges. Although the edges look uneven and wavy in the photos, they are actually straight edges. Now, do I add a beaded tassel, a plain tassel or not tassel at all?

For a 4 year Old.

As I'm often a passenger on long country drives I always like to have some knitting on the go to do in the car. This is for next winter, a fun jumper for a 4 year old girl. I love knitting with variegated wool as the effects are so easy to achieve! Unfortunately I bought the plain purple wool first, otherwise I would have knitted the whole jumper in the variegated one. Still the combined effect is rather nice I think. As I have already complete the back, front and almost the first sleeve, it won't be long before it's finished.

Christmas Gifts?

 Looking for something simple that I could make as Christmas gifts I thought about bookmarks. I went through all my flower photographs and chose a few that I thought might work, resizing them to fit the format that I had chosen for the bookmarks.

I transferred them to fabric, one didn't transfer properly, so I have 2 nasturtiums which is good as I will need one to experiment on as I'm not quite sure what I'll do next.  A bit of machine embroidery before adding a backing and finishing the edges I think.

Great Sighting!

Spotted a Sacred Kingfisher while out walking this morning. It was quite a distance away but I managed to get a telephoto shot reasonably well in focus.