My Handmade Adventure

Hello!  How is January treating you so far?  I love the start of a new year, full of plans and promise.

I'm not a New Years Resolution maker..........mainly because I can never keep them.  I do like the idea of "Goal Setting" though.  I've been making a list of things I want to achieve for the year - of which I will share soon, but the one that is at the very top of my list is to SEW.

I completed Sew School Online last year and also had sewing lessons locally and learnt to quilt.  But I didn't complete any sewing projects last year.  I baked, cooked and gardened my heart out, but no time was made for sitting at my machine.  That is why I find blog swaps great, especially if a handmade item needs to be included.  Sometimes a gal needs a deadline.

I have fat quarters and off cuts of retro sheets that I want to turn into my very first quilt.  There are a few online projects that I have bookmarked, and a Cath Kidston book full of sewing ideas to try.

So when Karen from My Handmade Adventure blogged about her Handmade Challenge I decided that this would be perfect for me.  I need a bit of motivation.  And it is not difficult - 12 items by the 31st of December 2015.  You can bake, knit, sew, photograph, draw or build - as long as it's handmade.  I have decided to make mine a Sewing Challenge and will share my progress with you as I go.  My main project will be my quilt with smaller sewing goals along the way.  It will be great to put my new found skills to the test.

So join in if you wish - and we can cheer each other along as we go.  I may even get the courage up to make an item of clothing!  Baby steps first I think?!  ( And I will NOT make one item in January and then rush to finish the final eleven in December...note to self).

 

Are you a resolution maker / goal setter?

 

Will you join in with the Handmade Challenge?

From Julie

 

This amazing retro tablecloth arrived in the post today along with a beautiful handmade card.  Sent to me by Julie from the blog JulieLou.

 

It feels like a heavy brushed cotton and the colours are still bright and vibrant.  Blue has always been my favourite colour - and I can never say no to a retro flower.

 

It is very me.  I love it and it fits perfectly over the round table in the (wine time) corner of our garden - perfect for an afternoon tea set up I think.

 

So thank you Julie for thinking of me when you found this and sending it my way.

 

 

 

 

The garden share collective....a Summer garden

  

 

 

There has been a huge amount of growth in the garden in the last few months - you can see the difference from my last Garden Share Collective post here.

I ended up moving all of my plantings from the raised garden bed under the Apricot tree to the one above.  The soil just wasn't holding the water and was just so dry.  Since moving them they have flourished here.  There is a bit of shade from the hedge and because the garden bed is low it holds water really well.  At the end of winter I also put down a lot of manure which I'm sure makes a huge difference too.

I now want to extend this garden - I have compost on the other side so the plan is to dig the compost, and lawn clippings up, turn the soil and put down more manure and get this planted up for winter.

My tomatoes have gone crazy and are taking over.  They are stretching themselves over my celery, zucchini and cucumbers - this seems ok at the moment as they provide good shading and protection from the birds and bugs.  Is it okay to trim the tomato plantings back???  Or should I let them go wild???

We have been eating spinach from the garden.  And as it's summer and BBQ season I have been using the lettuce that is growing for our salads.  The tomatoes are now ready to be added to our meals too.

Our fruit trees have been pants this year.  After two years of bumper plum and apricot crops, this season the trees are almost bare.  I was told that with apricot trees it's year on year off so I guess we are due for an "off" season.

With the raised garden bed under the apricot tree now bare I was thinking of putting in more strawberries.   Any other suggestions would be appreciated - it needs to be a crop that can tolerate dry conditions, and a lot of sun.  This spot isn't sheltered well from winds either.

In the last year I have really taken to gardening - vegetables and flowers.  I had no idea how rewarding and relaxing I would find it.


Growing in the garden I have:

Tomatoes
Capsicum - red/orange/yellow
Chillies
Broccoli
Spinach
Zucchini
Cucumber
Lettuce
Spring onions
Strawberries

Jobs to do:

Weeding and soil turning
Netting over crops
Extend the vegetable garden (remove some of the compost and clippings, turn soil and lay down manure).

 

Happy gardening!

Joining in with Lizzie from Strayed from the table.

"The Garden Share Collective is a group of bloggers who share their vegetable patches, container gardens and the herbs they grow on their window sills. Creating a monthly community to navigate through any garden troubles and to rival in the success of a good harvest we will nurture any beginner gardener to flourish. Each month we set ourselves a few tasks to complete by the next month, this gives us a little push to getting closer to picking and harvesting. The long-term goal of the Garden Share Collective is to get more and more people gardening and growing clean food organically and sustainably."




 

A vineyard lunch

Oh dear, my New Year "detox" isn't going to well.  We found ourselves at a local winery this afternoon for lunch.  My sister and her family head back to Brisbane tomorrow so we decided to head out for a farewell lunch.

We drank chilled wines and ate platters of cheeses, meats and smoked salmon, served with piles of delicious bread and crackers.  All the tables were set up under a huge fig tree and there was live music playing too.  Cricket and Petanque was on site too if you fancied it.

The sun was warm, the wine flowed as did the laughter too.  It was a really good way to spend a Summers afternoon.

I'm really going to miss my sister and hopefully it won't be long before we see each other again.

 

How have you spent your Sunday?

From garden to plate...........spinach, bacon and feta brunch slice

 

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling the need for a bit of a detox.  My sister is visiting and I blame her.  There has been a lot of "wine time" and large amounts of food.  I need to eat more fruit and add a bit more green to my diet that doesn't start off in a grape form.

My summer vegetable garden is full of spinach at the moment, so the other morning I made an easy spinach, bacon and feta brunch slice.  I was going to call it a frittata then I was told that it would have to have been made in a skillet.......so "brunch slice" it is.

I was out of onions so diced up some garlic and bacon then fried them off.  I added a couple of large handfuls of roughly chopped spinach.  I then cracked 8 eggs into a jug (I used our bantam eggs which are smaller than chook eggs), whisked with a splash of milk and added some chilli flakes, pinch of salt, lots of cracked pepper and chopped up feta.

I lined a slice tray with baking paper, then spread the fried garlic, bacon and spinach out then poured the egg and feta mix over the top.

Bake in a hot oven (180 degrees C) until the egg is cooked -should be slightly springy to the touch.

Let it cool and serve with a fresh garden salad.

I enjoyed this the next morning for breakfast to so it is delicious also when eaten cold.  This would be a great slice to take on a picnic as well.

Delicious, healthy and it always feels good to use ingredients from your own back yard.

A cracker of a Christmas swap

I joined in with two swaps for the festive season.  I love these bloggy swaps - and it's always good to get some Happy Mail.

Tracy from the blog Mad About Bags hosted a Christmas Cracker Swap.  I was partnered up with Kimberley from Creative Chaos.  We had a good laugh about this as we have been partnered up for so many swaps.

Below is what I put together for Kimberley.

I filled the inside of the cracker with Chocolates and some Christmas craft pegs and wrapped it up with a Jamie Oliver tea towel (I know from her blog posts that she loves Jamie Oliver and tea towels).

Using the other tea towel I made up a parcel of treats that included a felted stocking decoration that I made, ginger biscuits, tissues, a wooden bird decoration, Christmas peg bunting and a recipe for fudge that I love to make.  I decorated the cracker and parcel with a artificial pohutukawa stem (native New Zealand flower) and mesh flower.  I hope she loved it, as I much as I enjoyed putting her Christmas Cracker and treats together.

Below is what Kimberley sent to me.  She knows me well and put together a really lovely cracker.

I love the reindeer decoration and heart magnets.  I'm thinking a girlie tea party with friends may be in order so I can put to good use the cup cake cases, mini flags and straws.  The stationery and stamps are sweet.....I will be hiding those as Bell has been eyeing them up!

 

 

Thank you Kimberley for being such a great swap partner (again!).  Even with the busy festive season it is always really nice to make time to do a couple of swaps.

 

Did you join in with any over December?

 

Do you know of any good ones out there in blog land at the moment that would be fun to join in with?

 

 

 

 

Hello 2015!

Image from Flora Waycott Design

Happy New Year lovely readers!  Here's to a wonderful 2015 ahead. 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and for leaving your always kind and encouraging comments.

 

May your year be full of love, health and happiness.

 

Elaina xo