Ouch

Had great plans of getting out into the garden to dig over the future vegie patch, should have been done sooner but illness had pushed that aside. My son wanted to help me so I had to wait til he got home from school. We started, with me forking while he used the spade turning over the soil. Then a couple of his mates turned up so he went off to play with them, I took over the digging and lasted a couple of minutes before standing up straight and pulling something in my lower back. Hobbled inside like an old lady and onto the lounge. So much for that.

It was still a little sore this morning so took a couple of Neurofen, which helped immensely. I've only needed one dose but won't be venturing out into the garden until after the weekend.

Am spending the weekend in the city with the ladies from GB, we are doing tours around the city - historic houses, ghost tours and lots of shopping. Monday I'll be back in the city for a job interview. The job is only a temporary one but with Christmas coming it will come in handy.

Newspaper Bags

I was just reading rest is not idleness (yes I finally looked up how to make a clickable link)and came across a link to make newspaper bags. Such a great idea!

I'd like to make one at least for the sake of making one, I really don't need any. I try my best to use reusable bags when shopping but do have to break David of the plastic bag habit. It's hard when he does most of the shopping - he took over when I was finding it hard to get out when pregnant with Thomas and found he really liked doing it. I also have about 300 giftbags - no really I do. There were cartons of them left at David's work, they often get things donated, he managed to get me one and a half cartons. They had already tossed the rest out, such a waste. Usually he does the tip run but these were put into the skip along with the other waste. Hundreds of perfectly good bags gone to waste. I am going to use them for our stall at the fete in November as well as for Christmas gift bags.

Speaking of waste, this is how wasteful David's work is. Last week his boss decided to have a clean out, so went around marking things to be tossed out. There were 34 framed pictures (limited edition prints) that had originally been donated by a hotel undergoing renovation, square foam blocks - these David brought home instead of taking to the tip. My father is a painter and is always on the lookout for frames so he happily took the frames, Mum took the blocks, she is making giant dice for the kids to play with. Dad is thinking of just cleaning up some of the frames and glass, they are pretty grubby and selling them as is, it would be great way to boost his income without any outlay and not a lot of work.

There were also a couple of cartons of unused talc, new regulations state that they can no longer be used in aged care, ceramic bowls (unused, they can only use plastic now - 6 dozen of those), a brand new commercial sized Chef Inox frypan and the biggest ladle I've ever seen, again brand new. The talc and bowls are going on the fete stall, the frypan I'm thinking of selling online and I may keep the ladle just for the novelty of it. She also threw out 2 digital cameras! Told David they didn't work and to throw them out. Of course he brought them home to check them. The only thing wrong with one was that the battery was flat. The other one had obviously been dropped, there was a crack in the battery cover and the screen didn't work. But you can still take photos - the old fashioned way - by looking through the viewfinder - after the photo is taken it then shows up on the screen. One of them came with the printer dock.

Just a bit of whimsy

Take the Quiz here!

This weekend has pretty much been a write-off, I've had the flu so haven't been able to do much. Missed out on a monthly breakfast date with the Girls' Brigade leaders and parents, then last night hubby took Thomas to see The Mummy 3 and Mama Mia at the drive in, they wanted me to come. Asked them if they'd like to be locked in the car with me coughing and spluttering. Stayed home knitting and sewing instead. Finished a cushion, it just needs to be stuffed.



I couldn't sleep Friday night/Saturday morning - I have no idea why that was afterall I had no problem sleeping most of Friday, so knitted this dishcloth. Used the remainder of the ball to make a small stocking stitch cloth last night.

Study and swap

Have been making sure that I sit down to study right after breakfast. Monday was spent getting paperwork out of the way, yesterday I read the first course installment and today I started on the assessment booklet. I've had to skip assessments 1 to 4 as they relate to workplace training, I haven't been placed anywhere yet. I answered most of the next assessment, there were a few questions I needed to question my trainer about so sent her an email. I also did another couple of assessments, skipped no 6, did 7,8 and 9, they were pretty basic but no. 6 needs a lot of thought and will take a while to do. I just got an email back telling me that they are having trouble with the website we are to refer to when answering the questions and to base my answers on general knowledge - they are flexible with marking just as long as the answer relates to the question. Things such as a question that refers to a image of a bathroom as to what safety measures have been taken. There's no image to refer to.

Hopefully I'll find out which of the local Childcare centres I'll be doing the practical part of my study at by next week. I had a call while I was out, might have been about that, they are going to ring back tomorrow.
I'm not going to let myself get burned out with this, I can take it at my own speed and plan to put in at least 3 hours study in a day. Today it was longer than that, but the time just flew.

I got my swap package today from Tracie at Our Simple Green House (link is to the left), it was a wonderful way to end a day of study with a lovely gift. The swap was for water bottle holders, Tracie made me one in what has to be my favourity colour range. She also sent a covered notebook and a set of handmade Christmas cards - we are also Pay it forward gift mates. They are all gorgeous.



The cards are all gorgeous, they will come in handy at Christmas.



The notebook is Christmas themed as well, I only thought about getting a Christmas journal started the other day- Tracie must be a mind reader.

Spring fever has manifested as an urge to craft.

I've really had the urge to sew and craft this week.

First I made new friends for the camel, blind, naked ones but I haven't heard him complain. I need to pull out the felt for their blankets.



Then another bird pincushion, I am pleased more with this one than my first.


Then onto this lunch sack - free pattern from here http://sewing.about.com/library/weekly/aa072100a.htm. Sorry I haven't been able to do clickable links for ages, don't know why. Thinking this will be great as a gift sack filled with scrummy homebaked goodies.



I issued myself a challenge to only use what I have on hand, want to clear out my stash. May have to cheat on the last item though, I don't think I have the velcro for the closure.

Another piece of news is that I am now studying, it's a correspondance course for Children's Service cerificate, the great thing is that it is free. It's a government initiative to get the unemployed trained and back to the workforce. Last year I tried getting into the course through TAFE, would have cost around $400 or to do it at a private college is close to $2000. Part of the training has to be done at a Child Care Centre - unpaid training, just have to wait to find out which one.

Planting and crafting.

This afternoon I planted up some vegie seeds I bought today, was out buying Father's day gifts for hubby and my father. Hubby can get something for his father later. I also had to get some chocolates for the girls to put into their father's gifts for tonight as well as something for supper. I knew I wouldn't have time to cook so bought some frozen spring rolls and a cake.

Planted corn, 2 types of tomatoes, beans, cucumber and watermelon. They will go in a bed I had cleared out, was planning to make a patio there but that's on the back burner for a while. I figured to put the plot to work. This week I will get out there to weed, feed and dig over the area, ready for the seedlings to go in.


I've been having the urge to create so today pulled out a couple of magazines to see if I could find something to make up, I found 3 things I really liked, a Christmas ball, a shoe pincushion and the cutest little camels you ever saw. I printed up the patterns and glued them to cardboard (reused of course) and found everything I needed in my stash. Used some failed wool to stuff it, my first try at washing fleece felted a little and I was loathe to just throw it out. Had thought he'd be good as a pin cushion but now couldn't bare to stab pins into him. Think he looks really Christmassy.

Isn't he cute?
Still in a crafty mood I started painting dolly pegs to be used as Christmas decorations.

Spring has sprung

It's the first day of Spring, which is also my Sister's birthday, I must remember to ring her.
The weather is glorious, I sat outside for both breakfast and lunch, the breeze has that perfect amount of cool to it. I dread it getting hotter, cooler weather is much more my style. I love winter, but we don't really get much of a winter compared to most. Yes we do have coat, hat and scarf weather but also have tshirt weather in winter. We do have frosts but no snow, I'd like snow but without the mud and slush.
I made a list of Spring resolutions this morning, it's pretty long and I keep adding to it.

Eat more raw food, eat less processed, eat less takeaway, cook from scratch more often, earlier diiner time, have family sit down dinners, teach kids to cook. Clean as I go, tidy kitchen right after meals.

Have household/work schedule, start a family calender, everyone to take more responsiblities. Less tv,computer time, procrastinating, spending, more reading, crafting, activity, exercise. To have more faith, count my blessings and to open myself to God's messages. Use the car less. There is a lot more to the list but I won't bore you with more details. Can't forget get up earlier, coupled with go to bed earlier.

I did some sewing last night, last week we had father's day crafts with the girls, we made fabric cases, the girls ironed on letters and sewed buttons. I stitched up the sides last night. I also made a quick little bird from http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/2008/05/16/bird-mobile/ . It's not exactly what I was after, but it was very quick to make.