my place and yours: green

Vic at Punky&Me is starting her meme up again, and I have been thinking about potential blog posts. I loved joining memes a few years ago.  Any excuse to use my camer... so might just start up again. 

Lime green tea cup from T2

Officially the cutest cloth nappy from our growing stash - turquoise. The front one is on the smallest snap. It's tiny.... we can't wait for a little bum to fill these! I must admit I can not help but begin to get organised only 4 months into my pregnancy. A little early huh? I am seriously enjoying the hunt, and odd purchase, of baby items.

Thrifted bottles.

♥♥♥

number ones and twos

Disposables Vs Cloth is where my head was at a week ago. I decided better sooner than later to begin looking into things. Like most things that take my interest I become quickly addicted to putting ALL of my spare time and energy into researching the 'best' option/s before I make a purchase. These days I rarely buy anything without Googling it's pros and cons. Other than helpful chats with friends who are mums or pregnant I just have no clue about nappies.

So which path did we decide to keeping bub's nether-regions as dry as possible? .... CLOTH! Yep. We are hopefully going to full time Modern Cloth Nappy our babe (or MCNs as they are termed). Until last week I was certain that disposables were for us/particularly me. But the more I read into the argument, my opinion began to sway towards cloth. There are many reasons we chose cloth but to name a few that are important to us..

• not being responsible for horrid amounts of plastic and chemicals in landfill ,
• cloth is friendlier and softer on bubs delicate skin, 
• financially cheaper ~$500 for cloth versus ~ $4000 to nappy a newborn through to 2 year old, and
• MCNs are Oh SO cute, squishy, soft and plain adorable!

The cost shocked me initially (between $20-40 per nappy) but the more I dug around in the online shopping world of diapers I discovered a few lovely sales. We have ordered 24 nappies all up, which should last us 2-3 days before washing. We chose 3 different All-In-One MCNs based on product reviews and friends who had trialled and tested.

I can't wait to get fluffy mail in the coming weeks in the form of...

Pikapu... adoring the turquoise! pic source pikapu

Bumgenius 4.0 pic source nurturenappies

 and the rainbowy goodness of Itti Bitti Tuttos!!! pic via mammalovesbubba

A few more things I am on the lookout for to make the process run smoothly - a bin beside the change table, two PUL bin liners and a roll of flushable bamboo liners - no one likes to go near poo right?!  Oh, we don't expect cloth to be right for us 24/7, nor do I see myself being stressed out by washing etc if we get sick or life gets a bit tricky... so we will surely use disposables from time to time (perhaps travelling, visiting and at night if these don't hold up). 

Now.... just to look into MCN storage options and organisation - Woo!  

♥♥♥♥

finish quilt - tick

As I hand stitched the fourth and final corner of aqua binding to a vintage sheet quilt my mind raced with up and coming projects which have been filed, waiting to be let loose :)

 I am not a fan of having multiple works in progress when it comes to craft. When it comes to craft I work best to complete something under pressure. Pressure this January arrived in the desire to knit, quilt, stitch or crochet some sweet things for our first little bub.

You see I'm getting quite nesty these days. I have been content with cleaning the house for the past 4 weeks. Oh school holidays you are the best! There has been an uncommon urge of constant cleaning of our floors and carpets, organising and labelling (DYMO labeller - a household and classroom teacher must!) of kitchen spice shelves, hanging of lovely organised compartments in the laundry cupboard, putting up a new bathroom medicine cabinet .... to name a few.. I won't even go into the gorgeous things that are happening with the nursery and our old feral blue (now sand coloured) carpets!

So now that this huge sweet vintage sheet quilt is finished the creative bones in my body, which have not been exercised for quite some months I may add, can get to planning.

Previous posts about this quilt:

• flea market finds The hunting and gathering of the sheets.
• mail happiness The epic vintage sheet quilt swap.
• my creative space Just sweet Lucy snoozing beside the washed sheets.
• vintage sheet quilt The planning and cutting.
• where is my flippin seam ripper?!!?! Experiencing frustration.
• my creative space The joys of a free motion quilting foot!

An an even more exciting note - bubs has made my tummy pop over the past 2 weeks. It's really happening now! We're quite amazed by the whole rounded tummy deal ... it's been written on by the boy and is sung to daily. I am just LOVING being pregnant these days - finally :) 

♥♥♥♥

today's rain was

refreshing

extreme

and most definitely welcome.

grateful is spelt funny

Don't you agree? It should be greatful, no? Grate makes me think of grating or a grater. Okay I'm over that.

I enjoy reading Maxabella's thought inspiring posts, and plan to contribute more to select few sweet little memes (as I have done in the past) more often throughout 2012. Here is my first for the new year. This week I am grateful for -

 ... the effort we put into our garden at the beginning of each season. 

Removing dead plants, tilling soil and adding nutrients plus trying not to sulk over unsuccessful crops can be quite a chore that we honestly never look forward to. But the day the seedlings are lovingly placed into the soil and our irrigation system drips away we are both proud of our efforts and full of optimism!

During December and Janurary we have been consuming (and giving away to friends and family) silly amounts of sweet cherry tomatoes, red onions, small but juicy apricots, bazillions of corn cobs, cucumbers and mini capsicums. We will most probably repeat planting all of these next year as we had next to no failed crops. Yay!

So that's it. Effort and the rewards it brings :)

Head here to see more grAtefuls.

bubbles

Mark's mum gave all kids (yes, grown up kids included. Hurrah!) bubble wands for Christmas. What a great gift! Hanna and I went nuts.

 Love love love bubbles.

pickling cucumbers

It became clear that our 6 cucumber plants were producing at a rather wild rate where we could no longer eat 3 per day in salad. Yesterday we decided that our collected jars would not be for home-made tomato sauce but for pickled cucumbers! I have vivid memories of mum and dad always, and still to this day, having a jar of pickles in the fridge. Tasty. Sweet but sour and a little bit zingy. Love them!

We modified this recipe slightly and took a few photos along the way: Summertime Sweet Pickles. So just in case you find yourself with an abundance of cucumbers or glass jars here is how we made our pickles :)

1. Wash cucumbers and allow them to dry.

2. Sterilize all jars and lids in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Let them cool before handling.

3. Slice cucumbers into desired widths. As we have never pickled anything in our lives before we trialled thin and thick rounds as well as length way longer slices.

 5. Jam as many slices of cucumber into each jar as possible, leaving a little space for a pickled onion and about 1cm of empty space from the top of the jar.

6. The recipe below is perfect for 1 kg of sliced cucumbers, so we just X4 each ingredient in one big pot, as we had 4 kg.

Boil the following together for 5 minutes.

• 1 cup Barossa Fermented Spiced Vinegar
• 1/8 cup sea salt (iodised or table salt will turn your pickling liquid cloudy)
• 3/4 cup white sugar 
• 1/4 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp dried mustard seeds
• 1 tsp dried dill
• 2 sweet onions
• sprig of fennel greenery

Pour the hot liquid in each jar leaving a 1 cm air gap.

7. Screw on all lids and rinse each jar with tap water.

8. Place the jars in a boiling water bath (aka, lasagne dish) for 25 minutes until most lids have popped down. You will hear the POPs and sizzling air sounds as the pressure builds up. Remove, cool and store in a cupboard and wait! :)

It's suggested to eat them after one week. Fingers crossed they taste as yummy as the picking liquid smelt. Friends and family we hope you like pickles! ;)

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year xx

♥

christmas tree 2011

2009 and 2010: We had a branch. Each year I LOVED the branch. I loved that it was totally bare to begin with. An empty canvas. It allowed me be creative with it's decorations, most of which were handmade. This year there were a few requests for a tree. So this is her. I like it... but part of me misses the branch.

Decorations:

• Small and large vintage apples (thanks Ma), 
• Clear glass baubles,
• Thrifted embroidered coasters, 
• Wooden laser cut keys and reindeer (Typo sale 4 for $1) and 
• Sewn maths grid paper garland (made by me).

Can't wait for Christmas 2012 ... with our little button! 

Merry Christmas 

 xxx

♥♥♥

a little baby

Mark and I are having a baby! :)

I do love spreading those happy words about. It's been sooo long that I've wanted the words to come freely to everyone and anyone who will listen... plus I am possibly the most terrible person at keeping my own secrets.

We are almost 12 weeks.

Battling nausea, up to 5 toilet trips per night, creeping out of work at 3:05pm just after the school bell has rung as I can't keep my eyes open, falling on the couch in an exhausted heap and feeling guilty as Mark cooks away (OK that part has been lovely hehe I am so grateful for his help), and the tiredness = not enjoyable. Lately I have had every limb crossed hoping things would begin to improve and I feel little inklings that they are beginning to. Two whole nights without ANY nausea. Hurrah! Just the thought of those feelings disappearing for a while makes me want to celebrate. 

I have been lucky by having super healthy yummy cravings - mostly all I desire are huge fresh salads riddled with crispy iceberg lettuce and tomatoes, dark rye toast with cheese slices, veggie delight footlong Subways, fresh fruit of any variety... oh and the odd H.J veggie burger just for good measure.

I'm amazed at how much there is to think about, as this is my first baby. Initially I found everything quite overwhelming, especially after reading 'those baby magazines' *insert raised lip here* I was left with a heavy head- cloth Vs disposable, bassinet Vs cot, $50 brand label onsies ummmmm, sleepsacks, swaddles and cot sets... OH MY!  A few weeks after this magazine and online onslaught I feel completely optimistic about the decisions Mark and I have made to reuse and recycle as much as we can as we begin to prepare the nursery in the next few months.

Until then I will just continue to swoon over all of my favourite nursery room design ideas over here on my Pinterest board. Pretty pastels, prints, fabrics, mobiles, quilts... happy days of planning ahead! 

ohdeedoh

designsponge

nicety.typepad

blog.effortless.style

ohdeedoh

ohdeedoh

naaaaaw :)

♥♥♥♥♥

printers tray

Many moons ago (Feb *cough*) I blogged about stumbling upon the perfect printers tray to use as a wall display - read the discovery story here... so I finally decided where to put it.

It lives in the lounge room above our couch and I couldn't be happier!

It makes me so so happy to see my vintage sewing spools freed from their collection jars.

I adore the green & blue hues ♥♥♥♥

It just feels like the lounge room is complete now. Funny how a little something something on a wall can do that. Happy me!

fennel and cukes

Fennel foliage is a very dark grey green colour, and yet next to nothing is happening with the fennel bulb down below. Maybe its one of those vegetables which aims to improve the grower's patience. We seem to select lots of those types of veggies ;)

The 6 cucumber vines needed a little bit of encouragement but are now winding their way skywards up their trellis. All have teeny cukes tipped with small yellow flowers. 

This guy grew from 5 to 15 cm in just 48 hours. I'm not lying! Is this common? Crazy, right? 

Climbing. Climbing. Climbing.

zucchini and sweetcorn

With the mix of sunny warm days and overcast rain which November has brought us Adeladians, veggies in our garden are growing longer and fattening up right before our eyes! 

A new flower and tiny veggie appears daily on our two zucchini plants. We compare zucchini growth to the act of blowing up a long skinny party balloon!

The corn is h.u.g.e (almost 6 foot) and keeping us entertained - as we sweetcorn growing newbies assumed ears of corn would magically appear then grow with all the little kernels tucked safely inside. But no! Here's my version of the process...

First the beginnings of the tiny ears (female part) form along the side of the main stalk just above one long flaggy leaf. Each ear is soon riddled with long spindly white silks spilling from the tip. Every individual silk thread is internally attached to a single immature kernel....

At the top of the plant grows the tassels (male part). These tassels produce pollen, which in the wind must drop down onto the silks for the silk to drag the goodness down inside the ear and produce a kernel. If a silk isn't pollinated that kernel won't develop, leaving you with a gappy/kernel-less ear, and we just won't settle for such happenings. So as soon as the pollen forms we're going to play with mother nature and hand pollenate to ensure as much kernelly goodness as possible. Woo!

See?  It's all quite complicated but fabulous don't you think?!