Spring is springing!

While I'm not a BIG fan of Summer, I do love Spring and a quick look around my garden this morning showed me that Spring has sprung. On almost every tree there are green leaves popping up! Bulbs are starting to show their little heads.

And of course my Potato Vine is in full bloom already and my purple climber thingy ( I know, I know! I don't like using the plants technical names, but I don't know what else to call it! LOL)

I love my purply daisy too!

And Oh My!! what is that wet stuff om the plants??

Let me dazzle you with my knowledge again: it's called RAIN!!

We don't see a lot of that stuff here in this Sunny Dry part of Vic!!

Silhouette! And make it quick!!

Today at work I was asked by a Lady (Hi Nicky!! just in case she reads my blog!!)

could you do me a favour?? I've got a American friend married to an Aussie and it is her birthday next week, and as she decorates her house in Prim Americana I would like to give her something hand made. Could you make one of these( showing me a picture of an Abe Lincoln silhouette)?

Of course I said Sure!! I wasn't really sure how to, so I just had a good think and came up with this!

So Nicky will pick this one up tomorrow at work!

I've been bitten!

Since some time in January I've been reading about the Klosjes craze sweeping the world and now that most of the girls who's blogs I've been reading have finished theirs, I've jumped on the Klosjes (Klosjes is dutch for spools) bandwagon!

I went to Melbourne this weekend for my Mother in Law's Surprise 75th birthday party and decided a girl needs something to do on the 3 hour trip! So what better thing to do then start a new quilt project!!

I've drawn the pattern and am now happily making klosjes!

My blocks are 2 3/4" unfinished and I have 8 done.

I'm using any old scrap I can get my hands on for both the back ground and klosje.

I don't think I'll make 510 blocks like SuperGoof did to make a quilt, but then again who know??

what is that noise coming from the Garage?

It is me!!!!

I've been eying off this cute little Piggy cutting board for a while now and today I decided to grab that piece of scrap wood and fire up the scroll saw and make me one! (pattern found on the Pickled Pepper Patch blog) Isn't it darling??

I also made myself a Toaster cover as my old fabric one was looking a little shabby (and not in a good way!)

Would you like to see a picture of that as well?? (if not, I suggest you close your eyes now!)

No more ugly toaster!! And more display space for me!! YAY!!

Going Greener!

For a long time I've been wanting to make my own washing powder and dishwashing liquid.

First I made the washing powder a week or so ago

Homemade Laundry Detergent (for front and top loaders)

1 1/4 cup bi-carb soda (baking soda)

3/4 cup borax

1 cup lectric soda (washing soda)

2 grated castille soap bars (I use this variety, which I buy at the local health food shop)

You should be able to buy all of the ingredients except the castille soap from your local grocery store.

Mix all ingredients. 

As I have a front loader I only use about 2 tablespoons per load.

( I found the recipe here )

Then I was talking to a friend of mine who makes all her cleaning stuff from scratch and she kindly shared her Dishwashing liquid with me and gave me permission to share it with you all, (she doesn't remember where she got the recipe from, so I am not able to give credit where credit is due!)

Anna's Dishwashing Liquid:

ingredients:

• 1/4 cup soap flakes
• 2 cups HOT water
• 1/4 cup glycerin
• 1/2 teaspoon of essential oil (which ever smell takes your fancy! vanilla, lemon, tea tree the list is endless!)

1. Combine hot water and soap flakes in a mixing bowl ( I keep utensils and bowls used to make my cleaning supplies separate from what I use for cooking!). Make sure the water is HOT!! or the soap flakes won't melt!
2. Mix well until all soap flakes have disolved. Then allow to cool to lukewarm before commencing the next step!
3. Mix in both the glycerin and essential oil and allow to cool completely
4. As it cools you will notice it will become a gel like substance. You will want to break this up by stirring it with a fork and placing it in a bottle (old shampoo or conditioner bottle will do!)
5. DONE!! use as any other dishwashing liquid!

NOTE: this Dishwashing Liquid isn't very bubbly, but then again it isn't the bubbles that clean the dishes!

I have a couple of other recipes I will try out after this one and will let you  know how they went!

I did it!! I can knit in English!!

As English is my second language, I had to re-route my brain (yes I know, some of you doubt I have a brain!!)  to be able to follow patterns in English. Now I worked it out in all kinds of crafts except knitting! I could not get it right, no matter how hard I tried!!

Until this weekend!! I found this Blog and while reading found the entry about the Crazy Cable Knitting Myth! 

And I went off in search for a cable knitting needle (House to Home in town sells them) some wool (local oppy helped there!) and sat down to work it out!

And work it out I did! I haven't even been able to follow a cable pattern in my native language (dutch) but there I was sitting under my blanky knitting away!

I actually was still knitting at 12:08 am as my hubby pointed out! So I rang in my birthday with a pair of needles in hand! What better way to do that!

And another one gone!!

I was a bad girl this weekend! Instead of finishing off some of my U.F.Os 

I started a new one on Saturday.

On Saturday morning I started off cleaning my craft room and came across a bag full of little scraps and got side tracked from the cleaning.

A few days earlier I was having a look through my old Miniature Quilts mags and found the pattern for "Brick Wall" and decided to make that one. I went for the Big 'n Easy version of the quilt (bricks were cut 1 1/4" x 2")

The quilt top was finished at about dinner time Saturday (darn kids and hubby kept interrupting because they wanted to be fed, can you believe it?) 

Hand quilted it on sunday and finished adding the binding at work on Monday. 

And I ended up with a sweet little 9"x12" quilt

Now what to do next?? Finish cleaning the craft room or maybe a U.F.O?