dining table pretties

small collections

My marble collection made a great substitute for weighing down a custard pie base.

Cubed butter softening in the sun ready to be made into pastry.

Splendidly sour grapefruits and granulated sugar have been eaten by the bucketload. Yum.

I am still here, just finding life is taking me on a journey of spending a fair amount of time in the garden. We are pottering and planning which Summer crops to plant during the school holidays, re-organising our inside spaces, laying concrete for a garden shed for Mark, and *insert drumroll here* the most exciting of the lot - discovering THE most perfect location for a spacious chicken coop in a shady corner of our front yard. Now to drawing up some plans and learning how to construct something from wood that doesn't fall over.

Although I am missing doing something with my hands I haven't had the desire to pick up a needle, hook or set up my beloved Janome. It doesn't bother me though. Also it's been months since I have thought about making a quick detour and popping into an op-shop. Is it possible to be all opped-out?

Ahhhh sunshine!

p s : If you are in Adelaide, do you know of anyone getting wanting to get rid of a chicken coop (saves me making one. Willing to pay) or know a reputable person to buy layers from? Do you have chickens? Which breed likes to be picked up/patted?

royal adelaide show

The show was a lovely place to go for father's day celebrations. Happy Father's day dad and Mark ♥

I wasn't aware of how long you actually spend on the Ferris Wheel ride.

The chair swing is officially my favourite show ride. ever. 

I find that all rides put a spazzy happy smile on my face, but this ride has something special!

Warm sun. Smelly poultry shed. Calving cows. Crispy choros. Hot jammy donuts.  Not a showbag in sight..  yes I would like to elect myself to become the organiser of the Showbag Hate Club hehe. 

xx

nectarine blossoms

In an attempt to teach myself some Photoshop skills and become less afraid of the daunting program I have been watching various online tutorials, particularly teaching how to 'vintagise' photographs.

I found this the best technique by far, and I think I may even be able to remember the order of layers, duplicates, curves and light changes (I am feeling mighty proud of myself hehe).

seeing red

My excessive bulb planting in the beginning of Winter has payed off!!!

The most magnificent of all, these tall bright red tulips, bloomed for almost 3 weeks alongside smaller yellow, pink, peach and purple varieties. Their leaves are slowly browning off now, but I am looking after them with bulb boost in hope of them returning next year.

Love, love, love those shining petals. ♥♥♥

Winter veggie round up

An epic fail with Chinese and Globe cabbages. Both had beautiful lush leaves, but never grew tight and compact in the centers, just spent their time spreading outwards. I attempted to 'train' those adventurous leaves by tying them up... to no avail. In the last weeks they then grew upwards almost 1m high and bolted into yellow flowers. Annoying. 

The broad bean plants are over half a meter tall now. Super quick growers and bazillions of flowers. Can't wait for steamed broad beans with butter, broad bean salad and dip. We're getting worried now - as we may have sowed too many seeds!

From what I can see (first time growing these) - we have baby brussel sprouts growing on those stems up there!!!

Cauliflowers all made it to this 50cent piece size then quickly bolted as well. I guess we planted at the wrong time of the year... might have another try in 2012 but plant earlier in the season.

Any suggestions for my happy-to-bolt veggies?

xx

one sunday

Last weekend I became inspired by these...

• two beautiful videos by Javi Devitt via Vimeo here and here
• by Anders Bäckman here (good song too)
• another by William Wilkinson here

.. and made a short video. iMovie is a really easy program to use. I have so much to learn about eg. how to use a tripod properly and understanding my camera's HD video capabilities.   Taking stills is great... but motion has opened up a whole new world of possibilities! :)

♥♥♥♥

little yellow cardie

At last my second knitted baby cardigan has been blocked and dried.

Now just need to find the perfect baby buttons.

Me and craft these days = slowly but surely.

x

india6

I was browsing through my April India holiday photos and came across these. I remember the exact moment they were taken.

It was towards the end of our 13 day stay in southern India. We came out of the Mysore Palace, having just provided ourselves with our own 40 min guided tour aka reading Lonely Planet guide. We had had enough of the sweltering heat, relentless humidity, sweating it up big time, the constant staring, the begging for money, touts wanting business, the need for a break from curry for three meals daily, increased cost just because your a tourist... don't get me wrong we adored India, but every now and then it just crept under our skin - in the wrong way. This day we felt tired. Not bothered by bartering for prices. So lucky for us on the way back to our hotel a rickshaw driver makes us an offer. We don't bargain him down, but are simply thankful to get out of the sun, we jump in. Before we know it our 10 minute trip home had turned into a 1 hour Sari, Silk and Incense Emporium tour (the idea being that you purchase items and the driver is given either a small commission of what you have purchased or a provided with a free government enforced rickshaw driver shirt for himself) ending up at the city's oldest market. So we went in and came out empty handed each time as there are only so many Krishna or Laxshmi statues one can own. Our last stop had me excited as India's markets always impresS us, and meant lots of happy snaps for me! We wandered around the vibrant fruits and vegetables piled perfectly on top of each other, and then I spotted this brown eyed girl leaning up agains a bag of dried chillies.

I waved at her, she was uninterested in us and just kept looking towards her mother who was close by. Her mother nodded shyly and grinned when I made hand gestures asking to take her daughter's photograph.

The top two were the first two photos I have ever taken with my new fancy shmancy camera where the subjects eyes were actually IN FOCUS! I remember showing the photos to Mark on the lcd screen back at the hotel and squealing with delight when i was my reflection in her eye. Funny the things that make you heart-skippy-happy. The hour long sweats-ville Emporium trip was sure worth it for these moments frozen in time.

gratefulz through the lens

This month I am grateful for...

...flowers (yes again!), particularly these fiery orange, red and pink poppies given to me for my birthday. The way that the tightly scrunched-up petals literally explode out of their bud cases, then within a day seem to magically stretch out with no wrinkles to be seen. Love it!

... ultra thoughtful gifts of the lensy type. She's a Canon f1.8 50mm and took all of the photos on this post. Despite having no zoom ability and a slightly plastic fantastic exterior, it can beautifully throw areas into a delicious blur (yes, blur can be delicious!) and keeps specified area nicely focussed.

...leeks, spinach and the last of our broccoli from our slllooooooow growing Winter patch. Looking forward to sprouts, caulies and broadies in the next month or so.

and lastly I am grateful to feel the warm sun my face today - it's been a while Monsieur Solei!

See more at Maxabella x

b & w

A friend's shack. A river. Long reeds swaying. Tyres hanging in trees waiting for the Summer months. Nice.

pretties ♥

Pretties have found their way inside the house from the front garden. They certainly add a little bit of bright n' happy to our lounge room on these grey Wintery days. Don't get me wrong - I adore all seasons... but I wish we'd put in ducted heating as opposed to just a split system in our lounge room last year. Hindsight is annoying isn't it! Hope your staying warm :)

indoor bulbs part II

Hurrah - the hyacinths are all blooming! 

This weekend our dining room looks like a packet of Skittles and smells like a florist, but we're not complaining at all. This is the second year I have forced these bulbs and both times I have had about 95% success with flowers blooming. Some of the bulbs went mouldy, but most enjoyed their pretend Winter in the vegetable crisper. Blue muscaris and tulips will be the next to bloom... c'mon little things!

knit purl knit

It's cold here in Adelaide. So after considering getting back my crochet-groove then wishing I could get better at knitting, the pointed needles won the battle. Ravelry and I quickly re-aquainted ourselves, as did youtube (thanks to some nice tutorials on how to use dpns and circular needles). I am really enjoying making the Offset Wraplan baby cardie. I even mustered up the courage to include some random patterning. It's lovely to have something to do while watching tv at night.

I have been mucking around with photoshop while trying not to feel too overwhelmed by the craziness of the program. Just zooming in and out and opening files initially did my head in, as my mac took some getting used to. Now that I'm better at that, this morning Refining Edges was my goal. Result above is satisfactory but I need to practise some more. Perhaps a TAFE course in Photoshop...?

golden afternoon

I am grateful for ...

 slowly but surely crossing tasks off my horribly lengthy To Do lists with a red pen and ruler (seeing a red line across makes it so wonderfully final and satisfying)....

weekend drives into the Adelaide hills...

picnics and cups of tea on bitterly cold afternoons...

new growth in our garden ...

 

Hello tulip leaves and tiny yellow surprises!!!

... and lastly - my garden for teaching me to be more patient.  These leeks, which will take 3-5 months to mature, are by no means big enough to cook with yet, but I do love their new hairstyles.

More grateful thoughts over at maxabellaloves :)