Cucumber Update

Don't they look happy!

Softie bunny

Not much to say today, so thought I'd just introduce this softie bunny I'm working on. S/he is a little wonky, but nice and soft.

Cucumbers coming to life

Cucumbers are my favourite vegetable to grow from seeds. They are so quick to grow - you can normally see them sprouting in 2 - 3 days and by 4 days they look the above picture. Some are still struggling to break through the soil, some are already up and waving in the air. It's amazing watching them come to life so quickly. This lot are inside, by a sunny window and I'll plant them in the vegie patch when they're bigger and stronger.

A Sepia Day

Sydney woke up to a bizarre red haze this morning after a night of unpredictable weather. These are the views out my back yard - normally at this time of morning, it would be bright and sunny. Instead, everything was coloured sepia. A dust storm apparently dumped about 75 tonnes of red dust an hour over Sydney today. Everything was covered in fine ochre silt.

My poor white car, which I washed on Sunday, was covered in red dirt - I had to hose off the windscreen to be able to see on my way to work this morning. And driving was like driving through a red fog.

But we were pretty lucky here - apart from getting filthy and having itchy throats and noses all day - my area didn't suffer any real damage. Unlike south of Sydney which suffered some devastating hail storms last night, while most of metropolitan Sydney just got a mild electrical storm; west of Sydney where it was raining mud this morning; and other regions coping with the gale force winds.

Helpful Pups in the Weedy Garden

The pups have been helping me weed one of our vegie patches.



Unfortunately their technique of lying on the weeds in a brave attempt to smother them, isn't really that effective.



Nor was nibbling at some errant grass. The idea had merit, it was just a little slow in the execution.



In the end, we decided weeding in the hot sun wasn't it all it was cracked up to be, and to retire until later when it's cooler.

Spring's Sprung

Spring has sprung in Sydney and today is a really warm, sunny day. All of the flowers are in full bloom and look and smell lovely. My vegie patch is sadly neglected and over-run with weeds though, so I think I'll be spending today getting it ready for some spring planting.

Yesterday, I made another bag from the pattern my birthday fairy sent me. This one is plainer, but has a cute little pocket at the front.

And from now on in, I guess a lot of my crafts will be devoted to some of the Christmas swaps coming up so I'll have to restrain myself from posting photos so I don't ruin the surprise. Or get a little creative and take some teaser shots, like the one below.

Some crochet goodies

I've been enjoying some more crocheting recently including some washcloths and some Christmassy things.

Pinwheel Bag

I've put together the gorgeous bag kit my patchwork group birthday fairy sent me. These fabrics are just beautiful - they are Moda's Fabulous Fall.



The tote is just the perfect size. I think it will fast become one of my favourite, most-used bags.

I put a magnetic snap closure on it, to secure all my goodies. I bought these recently from Vintage Inspirations which I can thoroughly recommend. I placed an order on a Thursday night and had my goodies in my mailbox on Monday morning! And the snap closures were something like 25% of the price I have seen in some other places. They had lots of other bag goodies too.

Lots of pressies

My friend Michael came back from a trip to Vietnam and bought me lots of lovely goodies, including these beautiful silky fabrics:



And I was really thrilled to receive some gorgeous gifts from someone in my patchwork group this week. Including these scrumptious embroidery threads and needle case:



And this gorgeous bag kit: