It's good to be home!

Japan Part Two will come, but I'm still sorting through my feelings about being there during the earthquake event and the nuclear crisis that is ongoing......

So I thought I'd pop up a couple of nice to be home shots!

Xi was definitely pleased to be home!

The pumpkin patch did well, we've 24+ butternuts growing, so I'm hoping to get at least 15 ready and set before the vine's finished.

I did a new little succulent garden in an old crucible at the entrance to my studio, and got in a few vegie seedlings and some rhubarb into the patch.

And it was my birthday! I decided to try out a new cake, rather than my standard (and favourite) and I went straight to Nigella's Feast book, with the chocolate cake chapter.

This is the Chocolate Malt(easer) Cake, and I must say, even though I used different sized pans so the cake was not as high as the picture in the book, and was running around outside with a baby in a pram trying to rock him asleep while the cake was in the oven. It worked out pretty well. We decided that it'd be better as just one cake, with half the amount of icing, so maybe next time, or maybe I'll just try a different one! I did get lots of new cookbooks from DC!

Someone also got his first taste of cake, no icing, just a little morsel, and promptly went into a tantrum on the floor for more, so it couldn't have been all bad!

......Now I need to think of my Rosie New Year Resolutions... must make more frocks!

First two days in Japan

All I can say is - wow.

It's been full on!

First of all, it's a lot different from the last time I was in Japan, most notably because that was when I was 15, and didn't to worry about anything more than trying to decide which keroppi plastic fantastic to buy.

Nowadays I get so into thinking about what Xi needs that I forget things for myself - most recent example, today in fact - my jumper and we WENT INTO THE SNOW TODAY!!!!!! First time I've ever seen it falling (more on that later, will try and keep things in order)

So, yesterday we went wander shopping/looking, happened upon a fabric store, had to have a browse (of course). We can get beautiful Japanese cottons now in the quilting stores and speciality shops at home, so I was interested in seeing what was in a store here.

And these lovely ladies were. They thought my baby was 'kawaii desu ne!' They are of the gothic lolita persuasion, and it's a pretty hilarious fashion/life, like little bo peep crossed with .....not porn, but something close to it.

The process of buying the fabric was really interesting. I didn't understand our friend when he tried to explain it to me (I think it's maybe because he'd never bought fabric himself)

but the whole shop is just samples, so I was looking through the designs, thinking, wow, there's not much here, or this one has more, but geez these pieces have got terrible cuts on the edge (thinking where it's been cut to be sold). In actual fact, the person comes to you (like DK's) cuts off a sample, staples it to a card, tells you to wait x minutes then you go to the counter and your order is dropped down a little shute, already bagged up. ..........Tom just told me that the sample card gets sent upstairs by vacuum tube and the order drops down - I missed that bit, I was probably back to fondling fabrics. So there's basically two stores of fabric on top of one another!

Other things that happened:

We went to a toy store,

and a grocery store,

And today we discovered a wall of greenery, (DC these are for you) which was really cool and looked very successful, on our way to Kyoto Tower, which has an observatory up the top.

This is what the individual plants were living in.

This is Xi holding a can of hot coffee from the vending machine as a hand warmer, since I couldn't get mittens on him. I think he's going to be a can-a-day boy.

Then we met up with Aogu and went to find Kurataniwashi, which is a famous paper making village, which was an adventure. First we had to drive about 2 hours out of Kyoto, and we started to pass little bits of snow, and then it got 'real countryside' (Aogu) and very rural, cold and more snow, and actual flakes hitting the windscreen!! (remember, girl from NQLD, this is my 6th meeting with snow)

We went to the old centre first, not the new tourist one, and we found it pretty deserted, and kinda twin peaks weirdy, but had a peek around before going to the new one, look at the snow on the vegie patch - frozen lettuce!

The GPS to us along a very winding road, where we only passed one old man on a kinda motorcycle into some hills, we were surrounded by more and more snow on the road, and it wasn't looking like we'd end up somewhere at all, but then we hit a main (ish) road, and found the place, only to find out that they only are open on Fridays and Saturdays (but don't advertise that fact).

However we were lucky enough to run into a papermaker who stayed on for the afternoon and she gave us a personal tour, so we saw the studios, but were not able to see the process, and were sad to hear that the school (which the new centre is) will probably be closing down soon due to lack of students (and possibly funds).

It was a full on day, and I am hoping not everyday will be like that!

Tomorrow is Costume Museum and temples.......!

Garden (and Garden show)

This is the first flower of my violet alstroemeria, I'm very excited, because I thought I lost it last summer during the heat wave, and it's now happily living in a pot, waiting to move to it's new home.

And these are the yellow flowers that have just bloomed for the first time as well. Luckily the way you pick the flowers encourages more growth of the lily, because I couldn't help myself with these ones! I'm hoping to have a bed of them in lots of different colours for cut flowers. I like having flowers in the house, but most of the ones I grow, especially the bulbs, I don't have enough of, or enjoy them too much out in the garden to dare pick them.

On another note, I am now officially part of an art exhibition about gardening (thanks DC!) that is happening next November. I'm really happy about that and really looking forward to working in a studio that has enough room to store all my materials and equipment. Since the whole moving decision I kind of have paused on my eternal quest to find a better way to store everything in a small space (can't give up anything, so please don't suggest it!), and have just been waiting to figure it all out again in a new space.

Does anyone have any suggestions or favourite websites for cool sewing storage stuff?

I'm thinking a giant pegboard for my tools, and possible thread display.........

House Hunted!!

We went to the bank on Friday to figure out a budget, we started looking at houses ..........

we put in an offer two weeks later on one.......

and got accepted!!!! Check out the beautiful* blue brick veneer!

This is the wallpaper in the kitchen of our new house. I don't have any other interior photos because I didn't want to jinx anything, but the wallpaper was special enough to warrant a picture. The rest of the house is wallpapered as well :)

THis is a partial view of the backyard - it has fruit trees and a yard for Xi to play in, and a vegie patch and a space for chooks and a brick garage that will be converted into a FABULOUS STUDIO TWICE THE SIZE OF WHAT I'VE BEEN WORKING IN!!!!!!!!! (and thus freeing up a room in the house - spare room/office hooray!!!)

This is the work of a day with the help of a friend (and Xi, to a lesser extent) towards getting our garden ready for the move. I've just decided to take cuttings of my bigger succulents because they'll take off fast, and potted up my favourite bits and pieces. There is already several established fruit trees, and grape vines (it's an old Italian suburb, bless their cultivation!) So we'll just see what the space and conditions are like before planning anything major..............or not if I can't wait.

IT'S SO EXCITING!!!!!

we're getting the keys sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon

*it's definitely going.

Baby Days

I originally thought that this blog would just be about things I've been doing and making, but have realised that I can't really remove what I'm doing from what I'm doing with my son Xi, as I'm generally doing things with him (or around him, or carting him off to places with me), so I thought I'd show some of the things we've been getting up to lately.

He's been getting put to work weeding, and is learning to tell the difference between plants we like, and plants to put in the bucket.

We've been doing gardening in the mornings as he likes to look at the sky, listen to the birds, and sample the dirt. I still haven't built my path (think I need more time and helpers) but we've cleared the space in between the paths and have since sown all our old seed in the area.

He's been eating lots, and getting quite a wagayu build happening. I just liked this picture and wanted to put Tom in.

I turned 30 and had a lovely party at DCBS's, but this is the only picture I took... the balloons were a big hit with the bub.

And we all learnt (and remembered) how to play mahjong which is my new favourite game to whip people's patooties in! (well....attempt to)

And I was experimenting with the layout, and it went blah and didn't want to go back! Apologies for the mess (and all the underlining...)

Plan 903...

I have a little weird front garden that looks great for about six/seven months in nasturtium glory.

and the rest of the time looking like this:
It's bringing me down bruce. I've tried quite a few things in there, but the combination of three trees planted in such a small space fighting for water and rooms for their roots, and massive shading at times throughout the year means that nothing has quite worked.

So I'm going to put in a succulent/pot plant garden and rock it up. Then when the rains come and subsequent nasturtiums, they can kinda mix it up (possibly)

I've been striking and separating, and hopefully by the end of next month I'll have a trailer load of sand to work with (and enough plants...)

Also, just a shot of my euphorbias, cause they are currently rocking their respective looks!

New Directions / Mailbox Fashion

It's hard to believe that we first did the letterbox in 2006. Here's DC demonstrating it's function. It had lovely scroll work flocking, and astroturf landscaping complete with animals enjoying the pasture, and then had a dinosaurific re-haul last year but was starting to look shabby.

The astroturf had almost disintegrated, and things were just getting kaka. So a new direction. Paired back, minimal, with a fuscia base and metallic purple spray paint. It's hard to see, but it's pretty sparkly. But it's had mixed reviews.

I put an extra platform on, so as to have more space for my ultra supercool dinosaur skeletons. I just wanted them not to be too crowded. Like an old school museum exhibit. And really, in my head I was making little velvet ropes, but in reality, I'd already used a bucket for a mailbox for two weeks, and I just needed to get it up there.
The glorious shininess is not really captured in the photo..

I am waiting on getting a tiny terracotta pot to put next to the Tyrannosaurus skeleton, and some Tillandsias for the scrolls.

*sigh* It's hard to be the new thing after astroturf....

A harvest of sorts

Darkcloud beat me to it!

I didn't get much from the garden this last two months, mostly because it was very hot and I was away for part of it.

But I did dig up my garlic last week, so I'm pretty happy about that.

I also helped her go shopping for her new back garden. .........I picked up a few things as well....

I just wanted a little bit of colour and life and order amongst all the dried out plants and weeds in the rest of my garden. I've got lettuce in the middle with flowers each side, hopefully they'll survive and lush out... and I'll have something pretty to look at while I begin the rest of my garden again..

cooking shenanigans... and jelly building

I thought I'd best post on Christmas before re-jumping into the new year.

I had visions of our holiday being so relaxing, like we could just stop running around like mad things and breathe a bit. I forgot that after running around like said mad things for so long, it's often likely that you get sick when you stop. Which Tom did. Not fun for him. And teething ramped up a notch for Xi. Not fun for him.

But we were still on holiday, and much hilarity ensured.

I decided I had the time to be in the kitchen properly, and took advantage of the babysitting of nana and poppy to bake. Unfortunately I wasted my cooking zeal on a new type of cake recipe (make a sugar syrup and whip egg whites... never done it that way before) which promised moist, but I found a bit dry or bland or something that doesn't live up to the process of the making, spiral biscuits, you know the ones, chocolate dough, cinnamon dough, layer them on top of one another, roll and cut...... terrible recipe again, waaaaaay too short, thought they were going to melt in the steamy humidity while I was attempting to roll them up, and then melt into black buttery splatter in the oven. Surprisingly they didn't (melt and smoke that is) but after a time in the freezer, they weren't round anymore, instead we got crazy spirals which looked cool, but tasted quite bland, and to add insult to injury, after they were initially eaten, the bottle got forgotten in the cupboard, and the rest of the biscuits went to the scrub turkeys as a holiday treat.

All this disappointing baking happened in one day after weeks of thinking about cooking and what I'd do if I had the time. All I can say is, make a favourite recipe first, or else you'll just despair.

Thank goodness for jelly.

I love making layered jelly, not that excited about eating it, but stripe making is fun. So I volunteered to do the Christmas trifle - individual build your own - style.

Here's a pic of my mum 'supervising' my cousins in the plonking of chocolate cake (beautifully cut out by Kayt with cookie cutters) on top of the jelly.

And here is the 5 star jelly in a plastic cup. Four layers of jelly, one with fruit in it, and a top of chocolate mousse (that was my favourite bit) A bit of cake, and then add your own cream, custard and ice cream. It started out for the kids only, then we figured everyone would like a jelly cup, and I heard that one uncle had the remaining four left over for breakfast the next morning.....

As much as jelly layering is fun, thank goodness for garden produce.

I try and try to grow basil down here to no avail, but at my parents, mum's got bushes of it, and yet there was no pesto in sight.......
We might have got them addicted to it after this harvest got pesto-sised! I started out just picking some for a small bit of pesto, then decided I mose well get rid of all the flowers and then ended up with a pile this big! That's a lot of pesto for someone who is proud of being able to pick five leaves at a time!

Getting into the garden

Since Xi likes to be outside, I've been spending time in the garden, which has been wonderful. I don't think I've ever spent this much time consecutively in it. It's always been a big flurry of gardening, and then work has interfered and I haven't been able to get back to it for ages.

So although I don't spend as long out there in one go, added up I spend more time out there per week, and it shows.

My friend SQ came over for morning tea, about two weeks ago, bought a fine spread of food over and then proceeded to do some weeding and pruning while I had a nap. Can't really get a nicer visit then that - although I didn't want to nap, but well...... I still get pretty knackered easily (and she refused to do anything while I was there). I'm much better now, but two weeks ago, not as good (though I still need plenty of snoozes!)

One thing she did was prune the lavender and then use the cuttings to strike more plants. I don't come from lavender country, so have always been a bit unsure when to prune and how much, consequently it looked like a big sprawling messy thing. It doesn't now, and I'll remember when to prune it again for next year.

I have a cunning plan for the lavender bushes, oh yes.

I shall make a hedge underneath the clothesline. I've got a space between the brick path and the fence, and I've tried quite a few things, iris's and mints, although at the moment, they're fighting for light with the nasturtiums that have taken up residence. But iris's don't really thicken up the space so that a lot of weeds get through, and in summer the heat from the fence burns the mint, and the nasturtiums sprawl everywhere so it's been a pretty unsuccessful patch.

That's where the lavender comes into play. I'm not really into the whole lavender products scene, but I do like the look of the plants, and I like the bees that they attract. And I'll be able to have a dense patch of hedge (that maybe will be shaped in a funny pattern eventually!).

Today I went to the nursery and bought myself a few treats (for being so brave at the surgeon check up appointment) including a pink lavender! Maybe it's the year for pink and purple :) I'd been eyeing off a lovely pink one on the way to the shops, and had taken to carrying a stanley knife in the pram to take some cuttings, but I don't think I did a good job of striking the bit I swiped, so thought I'd get a head start and buy one.

I've also got plans to make another path, like the rock one hitting the brick one above, linking the brick path under the clothesline back to the central cement path.

It might look something like this. Or maybe I just wanted to draw on a photo cause Christine does. On the left is the dying remains of the lovely sugar snap peas we grew. They're so tasty and delicious!

Some set backs and knitting disasters......

Well, not much to show for the past two weeks. I've had things happen, and not happen, and then not finish, and then not work, so I feel like I haven't been that productive. But I have finished something that I'm pretty happy with, I just have to wait until my mother opens her birthday present before she sees it up here :)

I was so close to learning what I wanted to learn on the knitting machines, I'd pulled apart two machines they'd given me, and built one from the best parts. My teacher remembered to bring all the things she'd forgotten last time, and I was so excited, I thought that it was a case of third time lucky...............but I'm going to have to hope for fourth time lucky.

The machine jammed internally, so she spent the next two hours fiddling, and I spent it laughing helplessly and muttering about being cursed. She took the machines away to fiddle with again, and got back to me that she's not happy with them, and is finding me a new machine. This is when I mentioned that I'm more than happy to have someone service it, as I feel like most of what I've done so far is learn to oil parts. I still don't want to give it up, I like the zingy sound of the machine and I'm excited about the possibilities, I'm just not interested in servicing them myself - I want one that works! I just want to do more sample pieces before starting something big, and I want to learn multicolour patterning damnit!

So that fell through, I'll find out on Tuesday what the next step in the saga/drama is at the next guild meeting. One the plus side, I found a whole box full of cotton cones that I'd stashed in the cellar because they'd be handy one day, so I have a supply of yarn for a big project (when it eventually happens!)

I seem to like taking pictures of material on the line at the moment. These are bassinet and cot sheets. The baby so far has inherited a pile of mainly white clothes, and well, that's a bit....plain. And spotlight was having a sale, and the 100% quilting fabric (the nice thick stuff) that was normally $25/m was down to $2/m. So now the baby's going to be lying back on flowers, trains, spots and dots for a bit of variety!
This is another pic in the evolution of the room. Tom's been scraping back layers of paint for about 2 weeks now, I'm finding paint chips everywhere, as you can see the room has also been an orange and a pale green, not to mention about 5 other colours. As I'm typing this, he's doing the last coat of the walls *fingers crossed*

And this is the Almond tree flowering in the front yard, because I had to put up something that was pretty and happy with itself!