knitting and planting (and twirling and tea partying)

M- Karen I need to do some knitting too
Me- Ok shall I start it for you?
M- No thanks, I know how

 M-See, heres my knitting! (so proud of herself :)

Twirling (them)
Knitting (me

 Here's some of the fairy costumes we got on Wednesday. They are loved! Now we need to make some wings

  and the snail pot too

 The girls absolutely love planting seeds. Georgia is about 18 months and in general is such an easy going baby but she is also the youngest of five in her family and is completely determined that she will do what the older kids get to do. Usually I would plant tiny seeds with the older kids and give the little ones a spade or  the marker pop sticks to play with and they are happy with that for a bit or toddle off and find their own fun but for Georgia that just wont do! So she is my little garden helper, she plants seeds, dropping most of them while she is focused on the one she is putting in the hole and waters them while stepping on the others that have already sprouted. She tries so hard and is so determined and focused. I just adore her helping even if it a bit of a case of one step forward two steps back sometimes. Planting in a pot with her was a good idea and she was so excited to be able to sprinkle all the seeds at once rather than one or two per hole.

mmm, pepermint tea and muffins! (can you tell what we had for snack that day?)

the cool days begin

 When we left for our holiday it still felt like late summer but a week later when we returned there was a brand new crispness to the air. It rained a lot while we were away so we got back to green grass, new weeds, ample nettles for some nettle soup and..... peas!
Most years I check the pea plants daily and watch the tiny peas appear and slowly grow but this year I was startled to leave small plants with a few flowers begining to bloom and then come back to so much growth and about 10 fully grown peas, just a week later. Maybe its always this fast but it seems to take longer when I'm checking on them so often. The day care children are keen to be the first to see and gobble up the peas which camouflage amongst the leaves. I wish i'd planted many more like last year. Ill plant a few big rows in the coming days and hopefully it wont be long before theirs plenty to go around

 I found this lovely pot at a garage sale recently. It says 'onions' on the metal plaque but that didn't stop me planting it with spinach and alyssums

Today was a great day. I went to Kadina with the little girls and we had a great time with my mum.
 We did lots of walking, went to the community veggie garden and visited some opp shops.

The community garden is great and because its still new every time I go there's something new. Today they were working on a wood fire pizza oven that has slowly been growing from visit to visit. Its looking very nearly done. They have all the winter veg planted and there is a hop scotch, all sorts of kid friendly things to look at, ponds in the process of being built and there were people working to clear a spot for a chicken coop. We also were invited into the church hall which is sort of an opp shop. They actually have it full of donated items for a monthly garage sale but you can go in between times and buy things if its open. I got an adorable snail shaped plant pot which i'm sure ill include a photo of when its got a plant in it.

I love taking the girls opp shopping and they love it just as much. Its fun for them because unlike regular shops the opp shop lady's are always happy for them to touch and play with the toys while their waiting so they have a ball playing with different things. Today there was a little girl that they played with in about three different opp shops, she must like opp shopping as much as we do! Between borrowing from the toy library and taking them to opp shops i'm relaxing on the 'natural toys only' side of things quite a lot. Half the fun is they get to choose a few toys to bring to my house (I wont overwhelm their poor mother with a house full of toys:) so the opp shop is like a toy library for us too. They choose a few toys, play with them for a bit and than said toys dissapear again back to the opp shop. I'm sure eventually they will re-buy a toy they already had! today we came out with fairy costumes. They are quite probably 100% polyester but oh they are sweet! There are four of them ready for the four little girls tomorrow

With the cold weather comes the need to sit cozy under a quilt with a warm cup of tea (chai is my go to at the moment) and knit. Finality i've been motivated to get back to my flora hat after the earlier mishap and the un-pulling it required. I don't want to speak too soon but i'm thinking this time it looks a little more like leaves then army print. Or maybe i'm just hoping. Oh weal, even if it doesn't turn out well I will know for sure and otherwise have the wool for something else

Always on my mind is the next project. At the moment i'm dreaming of thick cable socks knit with chunky wool, perhaps light grey to be cozy over leggings. You know, for when im sitting under a cozy quilt, drinking chai tea and knitting the project after that. Knittings quite the vicious cycle!

 I got seedling last time I went to Kadina with the little girls and they look sweet potted up. The children love these little flowery pots, so much so that I have re-planted a few plants that have been plucked straight out of their dirt when a stubborn flower didn't want to come free:)
We are beginning to get right into our wedding planning with it being only 5 and a bit months away. I had an idea when I was potting these that it would be nice to paint some terracotta pots pearly white and fill them tight with white and purple flower seedlings white and purple is our colour theme) as part of the guest tables centerpieces. As much as I love cut flowers I love that these would last longer, we could enjoy them in our garden and give some away too for others to enjoy

 our cake topper arrived in the mail while we were away. I wasn't sure if I wanted a cake topper but when I saw this one I all of a sudden did. I love it and look forward to keeping it forever as a reminder of our special day. Well I hope it lasts forever, i'm not always good with breakables but anyway. Now im thinking maybe I should have left it in bubble wrap a little longer but I realy couldn't resist having it out to look at

This is the cake design we are having minus the pink flowers. I wanted something a bit vintage and classic and I think this will be just right

The fertility specialist has me on clomid for the next 5 months (or hopefully less if it works) 6 days until I can start testing to see if the first round was successful. Not that i'm counting or anything:) If it happened to work we would have a little 'made in Queensland' baby. I've used it before my surgery with no luck so i'm not holding my breath but our fingers are crossed all the same

where am I

Ive hardly blogged for a long time. lifes been reasonably busy and I haven't been taking many photos. The lack of photos should change soon though. I bought a doll for $10 at a garage sale and had an idea it was valuable (I was thinking maybe $50) I got the shock of my life when she sold on eBay for $798!! So Ill be getting a new camera I've been wanting for the past year or two.

Works been really full on compared to what I was used to. Last year I had a few 4 and 5 year olds who came in, said hi and went straight to play with the toys while I finished up what I was doing. This year I have not only more work but the kids keep me a lot busier. I care for 3 little 1 year old girls who are quite a lot of work (and even more fun:) and two 3 year olds who would preferably like my attention every second of the day and no nap thank-you-very-much. There thankfully getting less needy and more able to amuse themselves the more they settle in. And I completely adore them all, I truly do but it was an adjustment. I also have more work than I ideally like to at the moment but at least its good savings for our wedding.

It was also a busy and exciting time being in two weddings. This was a lot of fun and I think my favorite part of it was spending time with people I hadn't spent much time with for a long while. It was nice having lots of day trips and sleep overs together:)

Perhaps I'm a bit just trying to waste time away and zone out until I move away too. I really have had enough of where were living and now that we are definitely moving I'm feeling impatient and just wanting to go. I get so bored here, with Benny away evenings for work (except this week when he thankfully has day shift) I feel like I just waste my time away. I haven't felt like crafting in a while which is a bit unlike me. I'm not even miserable at all, just unmotivated. Oh weal, we've been doing pretty fun things on weekend which has made up for it and next week we go on holiday to Queensland! I'm really excited, its going to be a lot of fun and nice to be away for a whole week with Benny's family.

My soon to be town has a new little community garden which I love. I'm looking forward to going there tomorrow with Mum and our little buddies Maddison and Georgia. Ill try my best to remember some
photos and share them here. I love our Wednesdays away, just one more day to go!!

My sisters wedding!

My sister AJ (or should I now say AGB:)  got married on the weekend, I couldn't be more proud of her. Shes been excitedly saving and planning for the past year or so, and the the day certainly did exceed my wildest dreams and expectations, it was all so perfect! She asked me to be her Maid of Honor. I was chocked up with tears standing up the front with her as she married her best friend Kane

**thank you to the Forster family for all these great photos that I got from Jacobs face book!**

In the car on the way there we were so full of excitement and the drive seemed to take forever. There was quite a lot of rain along the way and we were nervously hoping that the rain wouldn't follow us

Thankfully when we arrived not a drop of rain!

AJs friend since grade 2, Cathy walked down with her adorable son Charlie. AJ asked me to make the 'Here comes the bride' sign that he carried.

Our dad walked her looking rather handsome

 Love this photo even if its of the awkward moment of the celebrant calling AJ (Anna) Amanda!

 Bridesmaids

 Kane kissing his beautiful bride

 Walking through bubbles

 A nice photo of Dad, Mum, Kane, AJ, Opa and Oma

 They went down to the marina to have some photos with the boats. I enjoyed watching the photographer work and set up photos, It was a great experience, she does a great job and her photos are stunning. I've seen a few of the preview photos and cant wait to see the rest!

 Inside the reception looked stunning. They had a black and white theme with all white flowers.

It was fun getting to sit up front at the bridal table. I did a speech which I've been told went well. I was pretty nervous but I felt like I sounded confident. In reality it felt like my heart was about to beat out of my chest but I got lots of complements afterwards which made me feel better. I will type it up as a blog post when I get it from back from my mum.

I also made these chair labels for them

 There first dance was beautiful and then the rest of us all got dancing and had a great time

All night it was adorable seeing Charlie and Amiella disappear under tables and have a great time

 You may remember that AJ loves macrons! Her is their wedding mac tower, with a little cake to cut at the top

 cutting the cake

A little preview of next year

 I usually only work three days a week. The main reason is because that way i'm only stuck in our tiny town three days. A mom that I get on really well with asked if there was any chance I could have her girlies an extra day. I told her I go to Kadina to do my shopping but there more then welcome to join me. I've taken them twice now and its a lot of fun. It doesn't feel like a work day because we get to go do fun stuff. We visit my family and friends, eat at cafes (ahem spill milkshakes down their front:), play at the big library, take home borrowed books and toys, opp shop, play at the playground and generally have a fun girls day out

Its so nice to be in Kadina with them, thinking ahead to next year where this will be our normal. You will find us here in this park eating picnics like I remember from my childhood. Today we crunched through autumn leaves, watched the birds, visited Kylie and Jayden

yarn along

 woo hoo, three posts in one day, that,s got to be a record for me right?!  Lately I haven't been getting on here much so when I finally do I have lots of photos to share. Things are busy at the moment. I went to a hens night on the weekend and have another this weekend and then two weddings, both of which I'm a brides maid in, within a month. A few weeks later were going on holiday to Queensland oh and in between all the excitement I'll go to the fertility specialist and naturopath. Its all going to be lots of fun and I have a feeling I'm going to blink and a whole crazy busy month or two will be gone. Which will make me a month or two closer to moving house:)

In the meantime, maybe ill get some knitting done. My work in progress is a flora hat. I started it a few weeks ago. Its one of my first tries at intarsia and I was almost finished when I tried it on. I'd pulled the stitches too tight and it sort of looked slightly bunched up. I thought it might be OK  but when I showed it to Benny he said "oh that looks cool, is it army print?" hmm, not quite the look I was going for. So now I kind of want to re do it but I'm worried it will look like army print again.
Maybe it can sit a little longer and I can knit this instead?

 A while back I knitted a few vanilla soakers for the one day baby.

 The white one is finished and the pink stripe one needs leg cuffs still.

Tonight I've been looking back on my blog. For quite a while now I've been unmotivated with it thinking that I'm just posting same old with not much new to share. As I looked back I enjoyed it so much and realized that my 'same old' really is nice to look back on. It might seem like same old when I've just done it but to look back on my favorite everyday moments really is a picture of my life. Even if I forget to take photos when out doing fun things like I usually do. I look back on my every day normal and I see the happiness I make for myself in simple ways. It inspires me to plant more seeds, knit more, sew more. I love my every day normal.
Its been so nice to look back on our holidays, anniversary's  fun day care moments, old houses. The every day things I have forgotten about.
I think my very favorite thing looking back on my blog is re reading my honest posts on the now 4 year journey of trying to get pregnant. It brings a calmness to my soul to re read them. Validating all the thoughts and feelings I've felt and written down, It some how heals the hurt a little more each time and makes me feel strength. It reminds me that were still trying, even though after all this time it sort of feels like I've moved on and just gotten used to pregnancy and parenthood being something that other people get to experience and I don't.
That sounds so miserable but honestly its not in a sad way, just in a protecting myself from hurt way. My naturopath speaks so positively about me getting pregnant and I try to still talk like I feel its possible but after all this time it sounds kind of silly to me to. I guess I think of myself as infertile until proven otherwise. It's not that I don't believe it can happen, it really is just wanting to be at peace with what is until it does.
I was re reading all the comments on those posts too. Each of you that wrote kind and reassuring comments, every time time I re look at those posts, I re read them and they feel like little angels of hope dancing into the sky. It really does make me feel so much better to have all those kind words wishing my baby would come

day care room tour

I mentioned in one of my recent posts that now that we are going to be moving in the next 10 months everything in our little home seems to be just getting to the stage that I've tried all sorts of ways of re arranging things just so and gotten them just right. The day care room is no exception. I've recently shifted things around and also come across this great kitchen dresser that works much better then the desk that id used as a temporary solution to needing some where to put children's bags. It takes up less floor space yet stores much more, perfect.

I always try to have just a few toys out as its less at cleanup time and play seems to be more productive. Its nice to have some where in the room that I can store things, I think it probably makes out play things look a bit less sparse to the parents:) There is always plenty to do out but I know it doesn't look like much so this is a nice solution.

Another thing that avoids clean up and frustration on my part is having the books in a basket rather than the shelf. I rather them on the shelf but they kept getting dumped on the floor buy the 1 year olds. 

 And there is always wool to be stored too. When I saw the led light glass doors my initial thought was how pretty my wool would look in them but I managed to restrain myself to just fill one section.

 It would also look pretty and be really handy with the doors taken off, open shelves for books and easy access

In the one of the draws I found these plans and an original recipt. It was hand made a few years before I was born from recycled materials. I have to say this opportunity to learn a little bit of its history made me pretty happy!

Its nice to have to cupboards to put things up high. I often put a silk on the craft cupboard handle and it always gets noticed and inspires play

 here's the other side of the room, a play kitchen, pictures displayed on the sleep room door and a basket of silks

 the table is now in front of the sliding doors (the fixed side) instead of in the middle of the room. It frees up so much more play space and makes me wonder why I didn't do this before! the pot on the table has peppermint sprouted seeds about 1.5" tall and a few bulbs that were already in the pot. It will be a suprise what they come up as or I might scroll back on the blog to see if I shared it last year, hmmm..
I cant wait for fresh peppermint tea!

 Here's the hanging pot that hangs outside the doors that Angus planted the other week. He stays late on Tuesdays so this was a nice thing for him to do in the late afternoon after the others went home. His nasturtium seeds have sprouted as have two of the bulbs. Its great that it is in front of the table now, we look at it and chat about its progress as we eat or craft

 out in the garden there are quite a few tomatoes. the pumpkin vine is at least 6 meters in each direction but still no pumpkins. Autumn peas have sprouted as have comfrey, borrage, some bulbs and some spinach. I'm excited about gardening these cooler months to come, lots to look forward to