Highs and Lows

This week has been a rather eventful one. One of the highs has been this lovely torch ginger finally deciding to flower after about 4 years of living here. There are 3 torches on it at the moment and hopefully we'll get a few more. It has moved spots a couple of times before we found the best place for it and more seems to be happy and thriving.

One of the more lowish sort of things to happen was that we got this new teddy. Well the teddy itself isn't bad (thank you Red Cross) it's the reason we needed one in the first place.

Littlest fish had a bit of an accident on Wednesday and ended up in the hospital emergency dept. for half the day. It seems that diving on your sister who is perched on the side of the lounge and knocking yourself and her over the edge is not a good idea.

Especially when you both fall over the side and one of you lands on the corner of a step - with your face. After a trip to the local doctor who told us to go to the hospital as they could fix the gaping hole in the side of her temple in a kinder and less painful way than the GP could do, we set out for the emergency dept.

Some numbing drops and 2 local anesthetic needles later and the stitches were in.

Littlest fish was very good and managed to keep still mostly and I managed to not faint as I held her head steady and had to watch everything the doctor was doing. She had to have a couple of stitches to put her back together and some steristrips and a big band aid type patch to cover it all up but is now on the mend. In fact the next day she was up and playing and I had to explain to 21 mums at Kindy why she had a huge patch on her head when we dropped her sister off.

The stitches come out on Tuesday and she should only have a tiny scar that should fade to nothing so that is good.

Her face is a bit bruised down that side which looks a bit yucky but it's getting better each day.

The steps have now got plastic corner things on them and the furniture has been moved a bit so there is a side table between the step and the lounge. All lounge diving has also been banned, lounges are for sitting on only.

Her sister was not hurt at all and was very helpful when I was shouting at her to get me a washer and the phone.

To leave you on a more pleasant topic, here is a little sneak peek at something in the works at the moment - I finally undid my Neptune jelly roll! (I was a bit nervous as it looked so pretty)

(In case you aren't familiar with them the teddy is called a trauma teddy. The hospital gives them to kids that are in need of something to cuddle while they are being fixed up. The nice volunteers at the Red Cross make them and donate them to the hospital, yet another wonderful service they provide).

The sewing room is tidy!

Not much actual sewing has been done lately, though I have a couple of birthday pressies to make for the end of January. We've been having a bit of a cleaning blitz around here and have painted the kitchen cupboard doors, finished tiling the bath and changed the shower curtain rail, cleaned out the linen cupboard and tidied up the sewing/computer/toy room! We are planning to build a rumpus room out the back sometime this year (hopefully soon!) and I am taking my impatience out on the house. I still don't like doing housework but I like doing other jobs around the house (rearranging, painting etc) so that will have to do 'til building begins. Since most things I ramble on about are craft related I thought I'd post some pics of my crafting space while it is clean and tidy and you can actually see the surface. I have one wall in the mutipurpose room which is all mine to fit as much as I can in. If the toys or other books creep over they get put back on their side pretty quickly. I have an old wooden wardrobe that is now home to my stash, but it is rather tricky keeping it all in there and not having it spill out everywhere! The softies have to fight the books for some shelf space but mostly they get along pretty well. The corkboard above the machines is my ideas and inspiration board and the stuff changes fairly often depending on what my latest interest is. (Claire, if you look really closely next to the thread stand you will see the little owl that you so nicely parted with, he's the quick un pick holder! Much better than toothpicks I say!)

This little frog has taken over the big pottery mushroom in the garden out the front and uses the trap door to go in and out, how cute is that! Biggest fish goes 'exploring' every night with her torch (and Mr fish) in the front yard and looks for frogs and geckos and whatever else is vaguely interesting. They came across this little guy last week and so far he seems to be staying put. The frog is normally sitting on the top of the mushroom but they were lucky enough to see him creeping out one night.

What we've been doing lately

There has been a bit of action around here lately despite the yucky, humid heat we are experiencing. Mr fish was doing not much in particular the other day so we convinced him to build a bird feeder to hang out the front! He did a rather good job of it considering all he was told was 'it has to have a roof and be able to hold a tray for easy cleaning'. He even put a little twig perch on the side for the birds to sit on. And oldest one had a great time 'helping' to build it.

The fishes got a new trampoline for xmas and it has been getting a fairly good workout though Mr fish is not that impressed with having another thing to move around when he is trying to mow the grass (which is quite often at the moment as we have had a bit of rain so it just keeps growing)

Here's a better pic of the treehouse with the elves in residence, we have made them some bedding and a rug and they have some little kitchen type thingies that are called re-ment (it's something japanese that is basically miniature bits and pieces that dolls would like to play with)

And finally we bought some fish. It has been the most exciting thing that has ever happened in the history of the world (according to the chief fish feeder) and they get kissed and cooed over every day. I think they are the most spoilt fish in the history of the world but what would i know! Good thing we kept out old tank in the shed all this time, knew it would come in handy one day!

So that's a bit of a round up of what's been going on here lately, how about you?

A big shroom and some new fabric!

I had to put this pic in of Stacey with her big mushroom. We have been growing mushies in the pantry (deliberately!) and she was so excited when this whopper came up she demanded a photo be taken. It is suprisingly easy to grow your own mushrooms and they are much fresher than the ones at the supermarket.

On a more craft related note, we got a lovely parcel in the mail this morning that had some fabric in it mum and I ordered off Etsy.

I got these lovely Michael Miller prints which are fat 1/4's and mum got some funky xmas prints and a fat 1/4 set of Erin McMorris prints. I have an idea of what I'd like to make with mine and I am itching to get started but have some other things I have to get finished first.

We have picked the first snow peas off our plant and they were quite delicious!

Some kitty cats and a gardener

I think we are turning biggest fish into a green thumb. We have to go out everyday and water the new plants and check if the vegies are growing. She is on to watering can number 2 as the first one was left out the back and Oscar (the dog) decided to have a go at using it. It is now in about 50 pieces and strewn over the yard. She was just devastated when she found it chewed up and was very cross with Oscar for a few days.

I have managed to make some Kitty cats and am now onto some little babushka dolls. The pants sewing has been going well and i am slowing building up a little stockpile, now fingers crossed that i can sell them all!

Also have to say congratulations to some lovely friends Martine and Aaron who just had a baby girl called Michaela Jade. She is a gorgeous little thing and they are doing well (if a little sleep deprived). Of course she got some chenille pants and also a little doll softie and some other bits of clothing. Well done Mart!

We've got the gardening bug

We seem to have caught the gardening bug of late.

Stacey has always liked helping in the garden but since we put in the vegie patch she has become obsessed. We have now got two patches as the first one was so popular. So now she has even more space to grow things ( well strawberries really as they are her most very favourite thing.)

The vegies in the first one are all growing well and get checked everyday. And the second one will hopefully grow things very soon. (we have to finish filling it first, the compost has never had such a good workout).

Not much crafting has been done lately. I have made up some more chenille pants for the stockpile and cut out a few kitty cat softies that need to be put together, but apart from that it has all been outside work. The dolls for my friends birthday were a hit and her little girl wanted to have them for herself so they may have to share.

well not much crafting was done on the weekend, we spent much of it trying to clean up the garden which has been a bit neglected since the rain started. It seems to have settled down again now so we thought we better make a start as everything has been growing at a ridiculously fast rate. Stacey enjoyed playing outside again and seemed to like pretending to be a dog. The small bit we did get cleaned up looks great, now we just have to get stuck in and do the rest. hmmm.