Upcycled christening dress

When I saw a European sized pillow case in an op shop, I thought it would be perfect for a little girl's christening/baptism/naming day/flower girl dress.  It has lovely white on white embroidery, and is simple, not too frou frou.  I only just squeezed the pieces out of the pillow slip, lucky, I didn't want to have to find white fabric for the sleeves to match.  I don't have any white fabric in the house, and I'm sure it would be hard to match whites perfectly.  Anyway, it's size 1, and in the shop now.

Upcycled vests

I've been playing around with a few souvenir tea towels, and made some little vests.  I've made a few tea towel pinafores in the past, but I think these work quite well.  In the shop now.

Almost Spring

 Potatoes, back after frost damage

 Broccoli sprouts after the main crop has been harvested

 Buds are bursting (nectarine and grape vine)

 Raspberry canes- I lifted them this year and replanted them in two half wine barrels to contain them.

 Betty is laying her beautiful blue eggs again, we only had one from her about a week or two after she arrived at the start of May.  There was a traffic jam in the nesting box (lawn mower catcher) this morning.  For some reason they only lay in one of the two lawn mower catchers in the chook run, but after one of the plymouth rock's went broody, I thought it was time to persuade them to use the other one too.  Some fresh straw and a couple of wooden eggs from the kids toys, and voila, suddenly more enticing to lay eggs in.

 One cheeky chicken who always escapes

 One of two kiwi fruit vines from Ceres environment park's nursery.  We got two for the price of one as all bare rooted trees were 50% off.  You need a male and a female kiwi to get fruit.

The beginnings of Andrew's spring time project, a wood oven.  The concrete slab will be poured tomorrow, all going to plan.  Stay tuned...

New dresses in the shop

Spring is on my mind, and with that, a few new dress offerings for my shop.

Blue Wren

He was back yesterday!  We had a visit a few weeks ago (assuming it's the same one!)  He flitted around the front yard veggie patch again, under the potato plant leaves, the kale, then up into the bare birch tree.  We briefly saw his mate before she flew away.  I wonder if there's a nest being built nearby.  We don't usually see these birds in suburbia, I wonder what's going on in their natural habitat?

Good reading

Linda from the Witches Kitchen wrote a great blog post about supermarket catalogues (and the terrible processed food that they discount rather than food that is actually good for you), read it here.

Winter garden tour

We're trying strawberries in hanging bags this year, after not much success with them in the garden thus far.  Just have to remember to keep the water up to them!  They're the Alinta variety from Diggers.

 One of our 2 new hazelnut trees- we have a Cosford, and a Wanliss Pride next to each other, both from Diggers.

 Cherry Stella, a self fertile variety, looks like a stick at the moment.

 One of our 2 Avocado Rincon, that tolerate the cold well, and only grow to 3 metres tall.  So our driveway that used to be full of pittosporums, now has 2 avocado, an almond, 2 hazelnut, a cherry, a cox's orange pippin apple, and an apricot tree.  And there's room for one more up the end, when we get some more tree stumps out.

 Andrew's wheat crop

 Our bumper crop of yummy carrots

 Potatoes coming back after the frost knocked them back.

 Some very healthy broccoli heads- no grubs on them this year.  We had a visit from a blue wren and his little brown mate yesterday, in the broccoli patch.

And our 7 chooks having a feast on some broccoli leaves, thinned to let more light in.  One of our chooks (Louisa the little araucana) died on one of the frosty mornings about 3 weeks ago.  I don't think she was a healthy bird.  On a lighter note, I think today will be a five egg day, with both Plymouth rock's laying an egg (both chooks jammed into one lawn mower catcher!).  If so, it will be the first time we've had five eggs in one day.  Can't wait for the araucanas to start laying again.