New Hobby

It has been a while since I last posted. I keep meaning to but I have been really busy with heaps of projects on the go, plus I am taking some annual leave from work so I needed to finish a few things up there. But the good news is I am now on annual leave!


Yay! I have so much leave accrued because we are always so busy, there is always so much work on my plate, we never have enough staff, so it has just been too hard to take leave over the last couple of years. Something just snapped inside me a couple of weeks ago, and I realised that there are always going to be projects that need finishing, deadlines looming etc and I just needed to cut off from work, stop caring so much about it and take a much needed break before I just went crazy.



So, lately I have been trying to use up some of the citrus fruit on my trees. I have mandarin, orange, lemon and grapefruit trees and I can usually use up or give away everything except the grapefruits which no one (including me) seems to like. So first I made a grapefruit and orange marmalade. I don't like marmalade either, so I have been giving it away to everyone I know.

Then I made this grapefruit cordial. It actually isn't too bad. I think I'll try it in summer with some soda water. It is kind of freshing, like lemonade, and not too bitter.

I've also been crocheting. I made this little slipper for myself. Unfortunately, I have two feet so I have to make another one but I started making a crochet cardigan instead, so I want to finish that first. The slipper looks a bit funny here, but with a foot in it, it looks pretty cute.

And lastly, Jeremy bought me a new toy! He decided to give me some early birthday presents to keep me occupied on my annual leave so I now have a stack of new DVDs to watch while I do some hand sewing and even better, my very own electric jigsaw! So that is my new hobby, woodworking!

I've been hoarding some scraps of old plywood for ages, meaning to make a little stand for the TV in the bedroom. Because the TV was really heavy, we couldn't put it on top of the DVD player so everything took up heaps of room. Plus, to make the TV easy to see over the bed, it had been living on top of old phone books. So my first project was this little TV stand.

And this is my second project - a little padded footstool/storage box. So now I can put all my crafty things in the box and rest my feet on it while I do some handsewing or crocheting.

Ok, it isn't going to win any design awards but I am still just practicing. When I get better, I will buy some decent timber for my projects instead of using scrap and will buy some other stuff I need like a nail punch, a router, some files and chisels.

I've spent all this morning painting some lattice around my vegie garden and pulling out some old rocket I'd left to self-seed. My legs are aching now from all the bending and stretching, so I think I will go and test my new stool out.