Wonderful Wednesday - The Garden

I love it when the weather warms up a little. It makes it so much nicer to be outside. It also helps all types of lovely flowers to bloom. We have a number of roses in the front garden and they are starting to grow buds and flower - it provides a tinge of colour to the greeness of the garden.

I also had the opportunity to spend some time over the weekend and today to be in the garden. Our poor garden had become a little over grown during the Winter season whilst the enthusiasm to be outside was diminished due to cold, wet weather. While I had some time off of work, I thought it would be great to get some fresh air and exercise by tidying up parts of the garden. We have some free range chickens and they love hanging around while weeds are being pulled up so that can peck the bugs that are revealed. Hence, my inspiration for the week is... the garden...

Spoon plant markers by 'EAT Creations'

As a fellow up-cycler, I had to choose this one! I love the uniqueness of up-cycled items. I also love the practicality of this item - a water proof sign that labels plants in the garden. A great gift for a gardener.

House and garden embroidery by 'Squeeze Cuddles'

I love the simplicity of this design. I love the red and white flowers, adding a dash of colour,  next to the house, stitched in blue. Gorgeous!

Miniature gardens by 'Fairies in my garden'

These miniature gardens are adorable! They also look so realistic! I love the small grouping of colourful, clay toadstools on the mossy grass. These would make great table centre pieces for an outdoor party!

I hope you get a chance to wander around some beautiful gardens during the week.

Thanks for viewing!

Weekend Wonders

Anything that I'm passionate about can be all consuming...

I love creating, designing and crafting, however, it can quickly take over aspects of my life. I was reminded by this in a Facebook post by Mr T. He was out in the garden and did quite a bit of weeding and he posted on his page, along the lines of "Mrs T gave up playing winter sport to give herself more time, then along came her craft. I better do more work in the garden". I felt a bit sad reading that post and thought about it. Yes, craft can take up a lot of my time.

Therefore, I am making Sunday a 'craft free' day in order to get out in the garden and do some reading that I need to. Plus, give myself a chance to relax and not always work, work, work. Now, I did say 'craft free' day... once I have completed the work that I need to do in the evening and I have a bit of time, I will do some craft. Hence, this afternoon I was out in the garden for a couple of hours, trying to tidy it up a little.

However, yesterday I did make a few beaded bracelets and I have completed the pants for my girl in my newest doll set. Just making sure that they fit ok. I hope to complete a hat and some boots for her soon so that I can begin making the clothes for my boy doll. I will show some photos of some of these items tomorrow...

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

Weekend Wonders - Relaxing, Chatting and Munching

It is nice to sit down and relax for a bit...

After a few weeks that were very busy with work, I decided to have a weekend where I could relax and catch up on a few things...one of them being my craft! I managed to finish of my latest little doll. He is such a cutie. I plan to show him off with some photos posted of him tomorrow. He is also one half of my design. I started cutting out the pieces for his crime fighting partner and hope to get some more stitching done tonight.

It was also lovely to catch up with friends that are part of my Bible study group. We had an 'Indonesian Night' - cooking up some Indonesian inspired food and sharing a meal together. It was delicious and it was great to chat the night away! My contribution was some 'Mie Goreng' (Fried Noodles). Mr T and I spent a few weeks over in Indonesia a couple of years ago and this is one of the dishes that I lived off of, as I am vegetarian. My version was quite tasty, but not exactly like how they make it in Indonesia. I also have a problem that when I cook a noodle dish and try and mix the noodles with the vegetables, my noodles end up in one big clump. I tried very hard to disperse the noodles and the vegetables evenly.

Even though it has been rather cold and wet this weekend, I managed to get outside for a little bit to plant some crysthanimum plants that were given to me. I also tried to tidy the veggie patch a little by pulling a few weeds. The weeds seem to love the cooler weather and grow like mad. It is an effort to keep up with the weeding.

I hope that you all had a lovely weekend!

Weekend Wonders - Sewing and sowing

Weekends seem to go very quickly...

 This one was much more quieter than last weekend. I have completed another doll (her body at least) and I will introduce 'Leah' to you tomorrow. Doll making is quickly becoming a favourite craft of mine and I have a special little dress and hair do in mind for Leah. I love how I can make each doll different.

A couple of our garden helpers

I also enjoyed spending time out in the garden. It was cloudy and cool, which made it perfect weather to get into the garden beds and dig! Cooler weather also means the end of Summer vegetables and the beginning of cool weather vegies. Today I sowed broccoli, spinach, kale, pak choy and carrot seeds. I love eating vegetables seasonally. It ensures that the vegies are fresh and full of flavour and vitamins. We have just gone through the tomato,corn and zucchini season and I am now looking forward to these green vegies (besides the carrots). We will also leave some space for peas in the garden.

 The last of our carrots out of the garden bed

Whatever you did this weekend, I hope that you had a lovely one!