Quick and Cute

Whipped up this very cute little vest for a friends bub the other week, it was the first time we'd met Lachlan. His big brother Alex and Boo are the same age. Alex born in January, Boo in March. This time around Goob was born in January, Lachlan in March.

Alex and Lachlan came to visit the last miniature train day, which is just around the corner from us and the boys had so much fun (we all did)....I keep thinking about the Pineapple Coconut Upside Down Cake from Zumbo we were lucky enough to have, YUM!

Anyway, the vest took just over a ball and a half of yarn....

Details are rav'd here.

Boo is such a hot lil monkey, I've never really knit anything for him. Goob on the other hand likes to be snuggly, so I have to pull finger and get something light knit for him, for those cooler spring days....seeing as winter is as good as over.

There's half a sleeve to go on my Tea Leaves too....so that might not be seeing too much wear-action this year, good thing I won't be growing out of it.

So many things

Where to start? There's been an awful lot going on, so I may as well just dump it all into one post because who knows when I'll post again!? I've had every intention of making this a more regular thing, but it never seems to happy.

Goobs hit the 6 month mark last week, he's such a happy little nomlet, giggling non-stop, getting scarily close to looking like crawling. As much as I love watching him grow, it's hard watching my itty bitty bubba disappear.

Boo loves his little brother so much, they were watching Chuggington together in the pic above. I know Boo wishes Goobs was bigger and less squishy, so he could play with him more.

On the knitting front, 2 projects have been finished....one that had been on the needles for 4 years (appalling, I know) and something that was finished in record time for me. Firstly, the Lady Eleanor, an epic entrelac piece, a spectacular looking knit, just not very exciting.

The next project was a super quick knit, the Gaptastic Cowl, 3 balls of Dream in Colour Groovy on 8mm needles, it is sooooooo super warm and toasty. Perfect for this arctic weather we've been having. Who knew the Central Coast hinterlands would be that much colder than Sydney?? I consider this to be the beginning of the Soccer Saturday knitting, I know it's a couple of years off, but I'm already preparing for those freezing mist filled morning watching little people kick a ball about.

I broke my self-imposed fabric/yarn buying ban, buying some fabric to make a super hero cape for Boo, so I don't think it really counts. He loves it to bits and I was pretty damned chuffed with the result. I sort of followed a tutorial from Suzy at Floating World Views. It was the first time I had ever appliquéd anything, which was quite nerve wracking, there was plenty of scrap fabric practices before I was confident enough to move onto the finished product.

I started meal planning and it's working brilliantly! Just popped some black cardboard into a couple of frames and huzzah! We have a To Do list and weekly meal board. Makes things so much easier as mealtime/ bathtime looms, I already know what I have to do for dins, so there's not the old panic of "Oh god, what I am going to cook", it also means that there's a lot more variety happening, I'm not just relying on the same old fall back recipes that were too easy.

There's still been plenty of pottering been happening around the house. Doing so much, seeming to get nowhere. Mum and Dad have been a tremendous help, with runs to the tip, constructing flat-packed furniture and such. The biggest thing we've had done is getting rid of a few ill-planted trees, there was a huge Liquid Amber in the front yard, that was lifting the drive and causes the brickwork in the stairs to crack....not to mention the gutter blocking tonne of leaves and spiky seed pods that it started dropped as soon as the weather turned. It was a magnificent tree, I was a bit sorry to see it go, it was just planted in a bad spot.

Before:

After:

Still have to work out what we're doing in the gardens, I'm even erring toward natives, for easy and fuss free. Then concentrate on the backyard being where all the fruit and veg action happens.

As for things from previous posts....well, I did cook quinoa a few times, failed epically on the amaranth and millet. I haven't bought any yarn, WOO!!! And I haven't lost any weight, although I haven't put any on either, so it's not all bad!

A Challenge....

An old knitting acquaintance of mine, Amanda, just posted about her self imposed 30-Day Pantry Challenge. It's a fantastic idea, but our pantry was gutted in the move and is still recovering. SO instead of joining in the full spirit of the challenge, Amanda has set another challenge for me....

To use amaranth, millet and quinoa in a dish in the next 30 days, photographic evidence required.

I've been wanting to embrace a more "wholefood" philosophy and purchased the aforementioned grains/seeds with this in mind. Thing is I've never cooked with them before, well I've cooked quinoa once. Boo lives on chicken, rice, beans and broccoli, so in an attempt to add some more nutritional value to his stock standard, I was going to try and sneak in some quinoa, hoping he won't notice. Fingers crossed with that one, haven't managed it yet. No idea what I'm going to do with the millet and amaranth, however I do own all of Jude Blereau's cookbooks, so I'll be consulting those ASAP.

Also as part of the challenge, I've also decided to sort out this mess....

I am a total cookbook whore....so in the next 30 days I'll be going through everything on these shelves and only keeping the books I use. And those damned boxes have to go as well....

And just because....I'll be imposing another challenge....no purchasing yarn or fabric for the next 3 months....yep, nothing till the end of August....let's see if I can do that....I added another pattern and 2 projects worth of fabric to my collection today for absolutely no reason except that the fabric was pretty. I seriously have to stop.

a very scary post

for me anyway....

deep breath....

I think I'm finally serious about shedding some kilos, it's a weird thing for me to admit, because I really don't have any "body image" issues. I'm not unhappy the way I am, I've never felt uncomfortable in my own skin, so I've never felt the need or urge to do anything about the size of my bum.

I'm actually lighter than I have been in a long time, when I was pregnant with Big Boo I lost quite a bit of weight and hardly put any of that back on, then I lost more again when I was pregnant with Mini Boo.

I guess what's spurred me on was how good I felt once I'd recovered from giving birth to Mini Boo, I was wearing clothes that I'd never worn (working in apparel for over 10 years meant a lot of sample sales and there was a tendency to buy a lot of shit....and let's face it, a lot of it was just that!). Of course a few months on, the shine has worn off slightly, with all the day to day kid wrangling, etc.

So, as an incentive to myself, I'm putting my self imposed weight loss challenge out there for anyone who happens to read this post (which I know isn't many!) I'm not looking to lose half my body weight and let's face it, with 2 niblets I don't have time for any fancy exercise routines or classes. It'll just be a gradual chipping away of the BMI....and maybe I'll be able to fit into all those size 14's I got when working for Seduce/Katherine/Blue Juice....because I have some seriously gorgeous coats and dresses from them!....AND I also have drawers and drawers full of gorgeous fabric I'd love to sew up into non-sack like pieces....or even if they are sacky tunics, I won't look like a sack in them.

Anyway, here goes....I've made the picture small so it's not so scary! (hmm, this might also be an incentive to keep my toenails painted and pretty too)

Operation Green Bin

More housey stuff....

Our sloping block means that our "backyard" (most of it's really a "sideyard") is broken up into 3 distinct areas.

This bit is at the back of the house, very shaded with a little paved area up top that will eventually have a cubby house on it. The shade will be invaluable in summer, somewhere for the niblets to run amok out of the sun. Have to do something about the lack of lawn though.

Head down the "cranky stairs" as Boo calls them and you come to a paved section with garden beds around the edges....this is also the starting point for OPERATION GREEN BIN.

And down from there again is a large grassed area, where the "pirate ship" resides (come on, you can tell it's a pirate ship, right? - oh and excuse the washing, necessary evil)

Anyway, back to what I'm calling Operation Green Bin....

I'm missing my herb garden. I've been quietly obsessed with herbs since my mid teens, growing as many rare and interesting varieties as possible (very uncool, I know). I can't cope paying $2-3 for a bunch of herbs that aren't straight from the garden, half of which end up getting chucked, a wilted mess in the bottom of the fridge. I love just wandering out to the garden and picking a few fresh leaves of this and sprigs of that to add to dinner. Nothing beats fresh herbs. To me there's nothing more amazing than the smell of stomped on lemon thyme or brushed past basil.

So, in an effort to get the herbs growing again and make cooking more fragrant, I'm determined to send the green bin up the drive each fortnight, full of crap I've cut down from around the paved area of the yard! Nothing particularly exciting, a big job (some of the beds are thick with Nandina, which is really invasive and will need more than my trusty secateurs) but not exciting to most....just something that's going to give me back my place of zen, being in amongst my smelly, yummy leaves.

Some progress and a 3 year old

Looking back at my last post the title doesn't really make any sense, I have no idea where I might have been going with that one...anyway.

I'll start with the cute kids(and daddy) pic....apologies for the fuzziness, I'm a terrible photographer and we have a rubbish little happy snap camera.

There's been lots going on, Boo turned 3 and we had a party (and I didn't take any pics, I was so busy, DAMN IT), we've been unpacking and getting things done around here...there's still soooooo much to do, but we're getting there. Discovered a great farmers market up at The Entrance, I was really surprised to find most things the same price or cheaper than the supermarkets, and it's all organic. Definitely be making the effort to get up there as often as we can.

We've sort of got 2 rooms "finished" there are still pictures to put up on walls and a few little things to do, but over all I'm so happy with how they've turned out.

James' Room before and after

Hugh's room before and after

AND I've even managed a spot of knitting, it's going to be a Tea Leaves, I'm sort of KAL'ing with Mel and Bianca....2 people far more creative than I am!

Mother of the year (not)

We've been in the house about 5 weeks now and things are still all over the place, my days are spent niblet wrangling and there's not a lot of unpacking or re-organising going on. This is driving me a bit mental, because the place is a mess and I never seem to be able to find anything, because I have no idea where things were in the first place.

Boo started his new kindy and seems to be enjoying it, he loves the horse and goat that live in the field beside the outside play area. I'm really pleased with my choice of kindy, it's in a lovely green secluded spot, where you can still hear the bellbirds over the sound of playing children.

Potty training for Boo had gone by the way with the move and new bub, but has resumed with brilliant results, he's doing so well considering all the upheaval. So as a reward for an accident free day I cracked open a packet mix of biscuits I had for some unknown reason, Boo helped make them with me. It was an exercise in finding baking things and also a great chance to see if the oven had any hot spots because I hadn't baked in it yet.

They didn't turn out too badly either.

The mini boo is now 8 weeks old, it's all gone so quickly, he's smiling and giggling at us, half rolling himself over already. Boo is still loves being a big brother and doesn't stop with the kisses and cuddles

It's really lovely.
If only things were tidier and more organised....it'll happen eventually.