Starting a herb garden

One thing I wanted at the new house was a herb garden. I have a couple of metres at the side of the house of garden bed that is just off the kitchen and that is where I'm going to go to work. Well, that's if everything survives. I'm not exactly known for my green thumb!

So MrD and I headed out to Bunnings and picked up a couple of plants to start with. The kids gave me a hand to plant them.

I just need to get a partition of some sort to go between the mint and the basil so that the mint doesn't go completely berserk (although I don't really care if it does - mint should keep the cat/s out of the garden!).

Mint:

 

Sweet Basil:

Parsley:

Chives:

And the 'boss' was hanging around keeping an eye on things :)

I Made It Monday: Purple Doily

I have a whole stack of old crochet pattern books from the 1960's through to the 1980's and I've also wanted to learn how to crochet little doilies/heat pads.

This is one such pattern. Of course I altered the pattern a little, but it basically remains the same as in the book. Can't wait to have a go at another one.

I Made It Monday: Kid's size Double Crochet Cowl

This week I made a special cowl/scarf for a special little dude.
I went shopping last week with a friend and her little boy. We stopped at the yarn aisle in BigW to have a little squiz and he pulls this lovely soft acrylic yarn off the shelf and asked me if I could make him a scarf with it. Of course I said yes! lol

He has good taste in colours :)

 

It's just a simple scarf, DK weight yarn using a 9mm hook and all double crochet (treble crochet in UK/Aussie terminology). Sew the edges together and you have the perfect kid's sized cowl. For an adult size, I'd make it wider and use 2 balls of yarn.

Obligatory birthday post and Mother's Day...

It was my birthday on Friday! No post because I was busy flitting around the place being taken out for coffee and a shopping trip (ok, so getting lost with a friend trying to find our way to, from, and around Westfield Carindale lol). And then out to the city to have drinks with MrD and his work colleagues for his last day at work (*sob* after 15 years his position was made redundant, well, him and several hundred others!)

But, MrD took me shopping on Saturday and we came home with this little appliance...

Nespresso coffee machine! I've only been drinking coffee for a little while, but I've decided I do like nice quality coffee over instant and was interested in the apparent ease of use of the pod machines that are popular now. But I was getting all confused trying to work out which one would be the best for us. Being lactose intolerant, I can't use the milk pods, so a machine that required their use would be no good for us. Thankfully we found a lovely sales assistant who talked us through all the different brands in the store and we settled on Nespresso. With the current store discount and their $60 cash back offer, it wasn't too much more expensive than the other machines I'd been looking at.
I've made one cup of coffee so far and some babycinos for the kids and a hot chocolate tonight. The milk frother is very cool and fun to use! Pour in milk, lid on, press button. Once for hot, hold in for cold. Seriously cool. This machine is a definite keeper.

Fast forward to Mother's Day today and my munchkins surprised me with some lovely little gifts they chose themselves at the stall at school. They'd saved up some pocket money, so I didn't even have to give them money out of my purse this year!

Mr Rabbit got me the lovely mug with some hot choccie and marshmallows along with some choc fudge they made in class. Miss Scooter got me a lovely necklace (that she actually gave me for my birthday) and some bath lotions and scrubs. I've decided perhaps I should start now and organise some things to donate to the Mother's Day stall for next year and spread the love around lol

My little dude also gave me this sweet little card:

It says...
Dear Mum
Thank you for my school uniform and for my clothes and all the yummy food you buy for us. All of my toys and my video games that we have now and all of my birthday presents for me. From S.

Quite detailed actually lol

A Blue & Green kinda day....

Peppermint Blue, Apple Green and some new pretties in the form of a Glitter Blue and the most divine Metallic Sapphire Blue. Currently being prepped and photographed to be spread across my Etsy and Craftumi stores. The only awkward part of the day? I now have blue tinged hands ;)

I Made It Monday: Crochet Lap Rug

I made a lap rug a while ago for The Boy and had promised to make one for Miss Scooter as well. But, well, it got put on the back burner somewhat. So I dragged it out and determined to finish it, which I did!

It's just a basic large granny rug made from some lovely soft chenille yarn that I got from The Reject Shop. Scooter loves it. She cuddled up under it tonight while she and the boy watched tv.

Pretty pink and purple and white. Not a bad start for my I Made It Project :) Now to find my next project for this week!

New boots.

The Boy started under-6s Aussie Rules today. He had a blast playing "a real game".
But he needed proper boots. These were the only ones in his size, but he's still pretty chuffed at having boots with studs on the bottom and he can't wait to try them out next week :)