My new(ish) pants.

  Must hurry, before I run out of power!

  I bought these jeans plain a couple of weeks back because I needed a pair of jeans and they fit me. But they were so boooooring. So I decided to do what I used to do back when I was a teenager and flare them. (Quarter life crisis? Maybe.)

I am in love all over again. Why have I not done this in so long? It took about an hour, and has made a pair of jeans I put on for reasons of temperature only into something i'd wear on a 40 degree day. I must do more of this alteration, starting from scratch never seems to happen.

Today.

  Mother's Day. Last year, it did not happen. We'd just moved here, we were putting in huge days trying to settle in and fix everything and it all seemed too hard. So we just ignored it. The kids are rather confused, because they know there should have been another one, but they haven't yet twigged on to the fact that we just skipped it last year.

 

And for them, every occasion is an excuse to craft. Stuff the cards this year, they decided a banner would be better. Each letter is decorated with something different from the property, from bark to fluffy grass seeds to garlic chives. It's so gorgeous. It's hanging in the lounge room. I also got the requisite brekky in bed, now they're older i've been upgraded from burnt toast with massive wodges of unspread butter to quite passable scrambled eggs-the first one I haven't had to choke down with the husband sniggering at me in sadistic pleasure.

 

 My posy of flowers, grown by them in their very own fairy garden.

It was also an excuse to get some gardening done-well, I pottered around doing not much but the husband was busy. I did totally reorganise the seed collection, which is shamefully huge. We can't stop buying them-the potential! Now just to grow a reasonable number of them..............

 We also broke our record for frogs found in the trees' watering pipes, nine swam to the top in this one next to the lilly pilly

.

 

And while there was a craft day had by all the children (is there any other sort of day to be had?) G outdid herself with her fairy tipi. I love older kids. She spent over an hour on this, working out how to assemble it and putting it all together. I'm going to have to point her in the direction of fairy furniture making materials and ideas tomorrow. Note the fluffy grass seeds on the ground.

The sign she created for it-it's hung on the top using some knotted grass. 

I also altered some boring jeans for myself to make them super-funky, but i'd lost the camera by that stage so they'll have to wait to be shown off. I'm getting my groove back now I know i'm not going to be changing sizes every week!

Hope everyone had a day as fantastic, idyllic and full of love as I did.

And stuff

Hmm, life. Has been difficult lately. But i'll skip that.

12 in 12 March challenge-a stuffed ambulance for Master R, who turned 4 earlier this month, but seems to think he's in the terrible twos instead, if the massive screaming fits are anything to go by.I also made him a bag for his cars, but the pics for that are still in the camera.

I didn't stabilise it because our power set up won't run an iron. And I CBB doing fiddly wheels, so I drew them on with a laundry marker. So shoot me. He loves it. 'Look, I is dwiving the amboolance!'

 

Apart from that I have gone blank. I've done so much but none of it seems like something I feel like blogging about. But I feel some rants coming on in the next few days, should be fun.

Mastered!

Fingerknitting with multiple fingers, by myself and Miss G.

But not quite mastered by Master R.........teehee!

Native Bees and other ramblings.

Native bees were always something we wanted to get, and luckily for us when we bought this place there was already a hive here-I think they're trigonia carbonaria. You don't get any honey from these little guys (well, you can, but it's in very small amounts and quite difficult to get, but apparently the taste is fantastic) but they are absolutely fantastic pollinators. And they don't sting, but do bite, as the husband discovered when he went to have a poke around in their hive, and got a headful of them in his very thick, very black hair.

They spend much of their time on the perennial basil, but as you can see above they're also partial to the kids portaluca. For those who know the plant yes the bees are tiny compared to honeybees, and miniscule compared to bumblebees-about 4mm long.

AussieBee are a great resource and also sell hives.

AND..........i've just stumbled across what looks to be an good homeschooling blog, Camp Creek Blog.  I've been mostly devouring Montessori resources lately so this is refreshing, and still my style.

It also seems i'm not the only one having a busyness hissy fit, it's a common theme-check out here and here. I'm feeling much better already, and think I understand deschooling perfectly now. I'm deworking myself. I've found myself slobbing around reading chicklit and lots of otherwise aimless stuff, but my mojo is beginning to show signs of reappearing. I have strictly shut myself up whenever i've started to berate myself for not jumping straight into all the personal projects I wanted to do, and just done whatever i've felt like. It's working!

But I did make this

A crocheted headband to celebrate getting my old 'do back again.

And I really need to stop rambling now-this was only supposed to be about the bees!

Peasant dress

Terrible pic, but I don't have a camera ATM, so this was quickly snapped pulled straight from the (clean) washing pile. A neat little sundress for Miss H, made using the free Oliver+S Popover Sundress pattern. They're ladybugs on the yoke and straps :)

As usual, the size that fits them in length is too wide, but that's easily fixed. It's a really cute dress, I didn't like it to begin with but it's grown on me, it's very little-girlish and innocent. The husband has christened it the peasant dress. And it only took an hour or so to complete so i'll definitely be making more!

The next 12 in 12 challenge is a softie, which works out beautifully for me-I was going to make Master R an bee-bah ambulance for his birthday early next month. He adores anything with wheels, especially if it makes lots of noise. It just means i'll have to listen to his very piercing deaf voice allllll day!

I'm awesome, go me!

Life is insane at present. This is coming from someone who had twins turn five today, with all the associated effort and cake making and such over the last few days. BUT...........I fulfilled the February challenge, and made something with knit. Better yet, it's something for myself, so surely I now fulfil January too?

I started off by wanting to make that*darn*kat undies, but only had old t-shirts to use-nothing with lycra for the waist/legbands. So I pulled out some fabric from the stash and made myself a half-circle skirt, with attached waistband with cased elastic. I've been trying to be less of a perfectionist so it's not absolutely perfect, but you know what? No-one else would ever notice. Even I don't now it's finished.

 And I know 'the rules' say not to use a directional print on a circle skirt, but you know what? Rules are made to be broken, i think it looks great.

So from now on it's deep breath, relax, doesn't matter if it's somewhat wonky-I need to make more stuff as I have seven in the family who all want clothing/toys/dressups, so speed is more important than first-quality topstitching. Or topstitching at all!

Now to check on the March topic.............