Jackpot!

We are having some major changes around this little cottage as I will soon be moving Miss 17 up to the main house instead of the little building across the driveway. I am very excited to have her back under our roof, although she certainly isn't! I think she likes the feeling of independence having a separate place gives her. I, on the other hand, worry that she spends too much time by herself  especially as she is now in the final year of school and with all the added pressure the HSC brings.

But I am losing the room I call the library to accommodate her. Sob!

Miss 13 will be moving into that room and Miss 17 will be moving into Miss 13's room. The library is a strange L shaped room, but it should be plenty big enough for Miss 13, and it will mean a big clear out of her stuff. This mumma is pretty happy about that!

I am determined to complete the rooms before each move happens, this means painting, new skirting and architraves, and new flooring, blinds, the whole shebang. So I removed all the furniture from the former library and got started.

One of the previous owners had laid down a floating timber floor through most of the house and although I usually don't mind floating timber floors, these ones were very bad. Plus whoever laid them did a horrendous job of it leaving big gaps between the plank ends. These gaps are fantastic dirt traps.

This lovely little dirt catcher is right in the middle of the doorway between the lounge room and the dining room/kitchen.

Ugh!

So I removed all the skirting in the library and in the process of lifting the hideous flooring I hit the jackpot!

Real timber floorboards hiding under that crappy floor. Yippee!

Halfway through the sanding

You may have seen the sneak peek on a previous post where I had started restoring the floorboards instead of putting down the new floating floor I had originally planned. The floorboards aren't perfect with 40 odd years of dirt and paint to be removed but well worth the effort. Because this room is on the smallish side I had to use a belt sander instead of a big floor sander. This was a tough job, done on my hands and knees over a couple of weeks. The other rooms in the house are big enough to use a floor sander so will be a lot quicker.

The floor has come up a treat and I am so happy with it. Miss 13 is currently in the process of moving into her new room so I will soon be onto the next one.

So the big moves are taking a little longer than first anticipated but in the long run will be worth the wait. I hope...

R

April Alliums

Good grief, what a crazy autumn we are having! Just 2 days ago I took the girls to the cinema and when we left at 6.30 it was full dark but still 27 degrees! In the middle of autumn!!! Thankfully a cooler change moved in yesterday also bringing some much needed rain. Hopefully the cool temperatures are a sign that winter will actually get a look in this year.

I hear so many people say they would rather summer than winter but I'm not one of them. The cooler temps mean I might actually get out into the garden for a change. I find by the end of summer the veg patch is definitely looking worse for wear (picture the weeds taller than most of the veg plants) as spending time out there when the temps are high is the last thing I want to do. I swear with each passing year my tolerance for the heat decreases.

So every autumn I have to start the veg patch again, pretty much from scratch. Bummer.

But this self imposed exile also means that by the time autumn arrives I am really hanging to get out there.

Desperate? Possibly.

Extremely motivated? Most definitely.

Last year's garlic patch

So the next couple of weeks will find me weeding, adding compost to the veg beds and planting anything Allium. April = All things Allium. Onions, leeks, garlic and shallots are at the top of my list. I love each and every one of them. Last year's garlic was semi successful. I left it a few days late to harvest and by that time we had a lot of rain over the few days so some of the heads had started to rot. Some of them were also horribly small, edible, but a pest to peel all those tiny cloves to use when I'm cooking. So I have saved some of the larger heads for planting and hopefully I will have a slightly more successful harvest in spring.

Fingers crossed.

xx

A crochet adventure

I am embarking on a bit of a crocheting adventure, attempting a pattern that is far more complex that anything I have tried before. And I'm a bit excited!

Source

This is what I am making, an amazing afghan blanket I spotted on Pinterest a couple of months ago. I have made a good start on the centre mandala and have completed a few of the smaller circle blocks that border the mandala. I am not rushing it, it is too beautiful to mess up and for the amount of time I will have to give it there is no point doing a crappy job.

I am using the same colours used by Emma, because I think it is just perfection as it is.

You can follow my progress on instagram.

Wish me luck.
xx

My new addiction

Please forgive the horrendous quality of this photo, someone has misplaced the cord to upload my camera photos to my computer!!!

This time of the year invariably finds me dragging out the knitting needles and spending far too much time lurking around Ravelry, but this year there is an added source of yarny inspiration for me. It's called YouTube. You may have heard of it...perhaps....unless you live under a rock...like apparently I do...

So yes, obviously we have all heard of YouTube, but did you know about knitting podcasts???????? Oh my wordy Lordy, there are podcasts on knitting!!!!!!! And not only that, there are some amazing podcasts on knitting!!!!!

Which are my favourites I hear you ask? Here are a few I'm binge watching:

Legacy Knitz; yes, I'm a knerdz. Mother and daughter, Sue and Chelsea, who between them rack up an astonishing amount of knitted goodness. Every week.

Knitting Expat; Mina is a machine, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. She has only been knitting for a couple of years but has more finished objects than most knitters could amass in a lifetime. In January she completed an astonishing 35 pairs of socks. 35 pairs. In one month. She has a quick video on YouTube showing her knitting technique and it's no wonder she can fly through them all so quickly.

Cherry Heart: I blame my addiction to these podcasts on Sandra because hers was the first one I watched and she mentioned other podcasts that also led me to other podcasts that led me..... Sandra is not only a knitter though, she is also a crocheter and does a bit of sewing, just like me.

So all my spare time (of which I have very little) is spent with these goddesses of the yarny world, so much so that I have had to administer a new life rule, I must knit whilst watching podcasts. Otherwise I would not get anything done, ever.

Have you watched any good knitting podcast? Care to share your favourites?

Cheers