Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Bag Blog

This week has been full of bags.
A friend taught us a trick the other week, one which I thought should be shared. When I use a tea-bag on a string I usually use a teaspoon to pick the tea-bag out of the cup and then wrap the string around to squeeze the water out. But even after doing so it always drips on its way to the bin. So a trick is to lift the tea-bag up by the string so it's out of the tea, then lean it against one side of the cup. Do this three times moving the tea bag from the left to the right. All this is done in a few seconds and will stop the tea-bag from dripping while on the way to the bin or compost bucket. It really does work you'll be surprised.

Our family are big on using wheat bags to keep us warm in winter. Little Ma's bag wore thin and spilled its innards the other week so we got some organic wheat from the health food store to make another. I had some old fabric from a previous project so used that. I made a calico bag first then used the patterned fabric as a pillow cover for the bag. It took me about 45 minutes to start and finish. We're both very pleased with the result.
This is one side and
This is the other.
I had my 17th birthday get-together this week and I was given this wonderful handmade bag from fellow home-schooling friends. They have done some very smart sewing and designing on it. The piccy on the front is one of Tim Tam my dog of nine years. I absolutely love this bag and have been admiring it for days.

Till next time MnM : )

I love my wheat bag. It's so pretty. Thanks MnM.
MnM's bag is so cute. Love all the puppies. It was like opening a Russian Babushka Doll. There's a pocket inside and another bag and choccy Gold Coins! What more can she ask for! We have such wonderfully creative friends. I feel a little bit more inspired to get crafty this week.
Huggs Little Ma

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Holiday stuff : )

Hay everyone!!
School holidays.
The plan for the holidays is to get stuff done. So last Saturday I decided it was time to personalies a pin-board.
I have been meaning to do this for some time and have had the fabric to cover the board for about 4 months.
I bought a cheap pin board and removed the edging. Then I painted the edges in a glossy white paint. That did not go so well, the paint was not water washable ( I had it all over my arms with no turps to wash it off with) and when the edge was half dry it fell on to the newspaper and was very messy. After that I glued a piece of 1 cm thick cardboard on to the back, so pins won't scratch the cupboard it will be hanging on. After every thing had dried I used the staple-gun to put the fabric over. Last but not least the edging was nailed back in place and was then hung in my room.
This is the finished product. I'm always so happy when I see it.

For us late September and early october are full of birthdays. This week Little Pa and myself had a birthday. To celebrate we have a birthday breakfast, where we have pancakes or waffles or something which we don't usually have for brekky. We also have the present opening which is always fun.



You may remember we posted a pic of a friend's new puppy a few months ago. Well that puppy is growing fast. He came for a play date with Tim Tam the other week. Little Dude and Miles had a moment together picking the weeds. Such helpful young men. LOL

Till next time MnM : )

Hey
Haven't done much crafty stuff lately. I'm still playing catch-up with paperwork. Geez it drives me cuckoo! I'm not too far behind but I'm still just out of reach - you know what I mean. Crazy. I've even moved my spinning wheel to the attic. Hopefully it won't stay there too long. Even my knitting is uninspiring atm.

I did do heaps of weeding and in those areas chucked random seeds. I wonder what's going to come up.I think it was a mixture of flowers and veg. I don't do organised gardens very well. In fact I'm a pretty crap gardener, I'm always surprised when we get stuff to eat. I love the suspense of not knowing what's coming up though. Watching the little shoots poking out of the ground. If they grow enough to feed us well that's a bonus. Also MnM and I have almost finished the side fence. Have to buy 4 more sheets of galv and then we can start on a bigger veggie patch. Atm it's sprouting lots of wheat from the chook food. Wheat is actually really pretty. So I'll wait till it's ripe.

The before and after shots of part of the front garden.



My favourite garden stuff atm is anything that doesn't require me to harvest heaps of surplus and do something with it. eg parsely, leeks, chives, oregano, rosemary. I've got pea, beans, onions and some self seeded tomatoes coming up too. When I've cleared some more weeds I think I'll get cucumber seeds.


I spent one whole day weeding that area and snipping out dead branches from all our citrus trees and the jasmine vine. It was lovely until the blisters started. That's a good time to stop, isn't it.

Huggs Little Ma