I just found this post from The Vivienne Files. It is from a series of posts in early 2013 but is still relevant. When I read it I thought I would try to achieve the same thing from existing items in my wardrobe.
Here is the result (and there is not one single bit of red!):
Whatever you want to call them, there are things we can do in the garden that will save money and resources.
Here are a couple of projects we have been working on this weekend.
When we came here there were numerous shrubs/small trees planted close to the front verandah. They provided some screening and privacy from the road. Over time we planted a screening hedge of native shrubs along the boundary so the ones closer to the house became less important from a privacy point of view. We extended the area in front of the verandah and slightly reduced the amount of lawn. The shrubs have been pruned several times to try to keep the blow the level of the gutter.
Last year I decided on the final format for this area. We will have a selection of flowering hibiscus in front of the verandah. We bought 5 hibiscus at the Garden Expo in July last year and they have been progressing well. However, one of them was beginning to struggle and we realised that it was being shaded by one of the grevilleas. We cut down the three remaining shrubs, mulched everything that was small enough to go through the mulcher and cut the bigger branches into manageable lengths.
While Gman was mulching Istarted laying out newspapers (usually about 6 sheets at a time) and hosing them down to stop them blowing away. The we piled the mulch we had made at one end.
This shows a close-up of the small logs that we used to create the back edge of the area to be mulched.
Here is the mulch spread out. It was convenient that we ran out of mulch and newspapers at about the same time. We are going to bring home whatever newspapers we can collect from work in order to continue our project. There is still quite a bit to do as you can see from the next photo.
You can also see some of the hibiscus. They seem to really be enjoying the full sun now that the overhanging shrubs have been cut down. We have been offered a huge pile of mulch from the neighbours so that will go towards completing the mulching of this area. The next job will be to buy some more hibiscus.
Finally, I wanted to show you the garden bed that I started last weekend. It is now dug over, edged with rocks and seeds planted. We have no shortage of rocks as they are everywhere on the block in all shapes and sizes. I have planted sweet pea, snapdragon and heartsease seeds in the hope of having a border of colourful spring flowers. The sweet peas are in a furrow close to the fence which will do double duty of keeping unwanted animals out of the vegie garden and being a trellis for the sweet peas.
I am pleased to report that I have actually finished something. Remember this trial from a couple of weeks ago?
Well, I went and bought the silver/grey lawn to line the front yoke. It cost me the princely sum of $1.80. I then made the top with one slight alteration from the original pattern. I made the front 8cm narrower as I felt there was too much fullness in it for my liking.
It was simple and easy to make and has no fastenings of any kind. I am really pleased with the look of the finished garment and am looking forward to wearing it. It is easy to forget that this was only ever a prototype so it is an added bonus that I get a pretty top to wear as well.
Buoyed by the success of my trial I was ready to cut out the next top. Here are the pieces cut out and ready to sew.
As with the first top, I need to buy some lawn for the lining of the yoke and the back neck facing so that is on my ‘to do’ list for this week. I would normally use the same fabric for the lining and facing, however, in both of these instances the fabric is so fine that the pattern from the lining pieces could show through and disrupt the look of the finished garment.
As with all new projects, ‘Flashback Friday’ is being fine-tuned. As well as linking back to the original post I am going to copy and paste it into a new post. So, here goes…..this is from August 2012 just before Izz turned 3.
I have been making a gift for Izz for her birthday. She has a doll’s bed which has been passed down to her but no bedding.
I bought 2 u-shaped pillowcases recently from the op shop. Here is one that I have unpicked ready to use. Note the roll of fabric which is the dismantled and pressed frill.
The Duke bought a piece of foam cut to size for the mattress and I have covered that using some of the pillowcase fabric.
The next step was to make a patchwork quilt. I worked out the size and number of pieces I would need. The plain pink is more of the pillowcase, plain mauve from a piece in my stash of fabric, Dora pattern is a few leftover scraps from the doona cover and curtains that I made for Miss O last year and the pink patterned fabric is from a blouse I picked up at the op shop. The frill is the one I unpicked from the pillowcase. The hemmed edge remained intact so I simply regathered it and reapplied to the quilt edge.
I bought a large piece of cotton/bamboo batting for a bed quilt I am working on for Izz’s bed so I used a small piece for this quilt. (I think this is a rather spoiled doll!) The backing is more leftovers from some op shop fabric. I quilted it by simply machine stitching along the seam lines which is nothing fancy but seems effective.
The finishing touch was to make a matching pillow. A couple more fabric scraps and some salvaged filling from an old cushion and I had a complete set of bedding for the doll. Here is the mattress with the pillow.
The total cost of things I bought specifically for this project was $6.60. This is a gift which I know will be loved regardless of the cost. I am looking forward to seeing Izz’s face when she opens the gift.
Now I need to work on the the bed quilt I am making as well since her birthday is in 2 weeks and I want to be able to give her the present before we go on holidays.
In the interests of presenting a complete picture here are a couple of photos I took when she received her parcel.
It is a few days into April and you could be forgiven for thinking that I had forgotten this series. But no, I am just running a little late.
Here are the monthly totals so far:
January – $2,628.73
February – $1,783.49
March – $4,320.56
Well March really blew the averages! What did we spend our money on?
The blowout in our March spending has highlighted the precise reason why I wanted to track our spending for a whole year. I knew that our variable spending was very patchy.
One example is the category “Pets/Vet/Registration”. Our combined total for January and February for this category was $43 yet in March it was $673. The dog had his annual check-up and annual heartworm medication, we bought 2 large bags of dog food, chicken feed and a fancy chicken feeder which will hopefully save us money in the long run by not allowing other wildlife to access the feed.
Food was also higher due due some bulk buying of nuts and dried fruit.
We both bought clothes this month – 2 dresses, a bag and shoes for me and Gman bought 2 new business shirts.
One of the cars was serviced and we continue to spend on things to do with house maintenance and developing the garden.
The spending was carefully considered but I certainly would not want to be spending like that every month.
The regular Friday Flashback post will be up this evening.
I have safely negotiated the very wet weather here and am home from work.
There are 4 days of no work stretching out in front of me and we have no particular plans. We would like to spend time in the garden but the inclement weather may well put a dampener (so to speak) on that idea. There are, however, plenty of other things that we can work on so I am sure we will not be bored.
I hope you have a relaxing break and don’t eat too much chocolate!
Welcome to Wordless Wednesday. This is the beginning of a weekly series in which I will post a random photograph. I would encourage you to comment, guess, give your thoughts, likes or dislikes in the comments section. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Apologies for the lack of post yesterday but I was otherwise engaged so no opportunity for blogging.
I was in the office for most of the day today but late this afternoon I spent a couple of fun-filled hours creating these millinery masterpieces for Miss O and Izz to wear to the Easter concert and hat parade at school. I had picked up a couple of packets of Easter decorations at Spotlight yesterday and we combined these with various things that Belle had in her box of craft bits and pieces plus a couple of sheets of coloured card. Some glue and staples to assemble the hats and these are the results.
I apologise for the poor quality of the photos as I quickly snapped them this evening and I clearly have not mastered the camera function on my phone!
The recurring theme of these posts lately seems to be how little I have done. This week has been no exception to that pattern.
This photo of my ironing board covered in fabric tells this week’s story. I decided to take a break from dressmaking and make a start on a cover for my KitchenAid mixer which lives on the bench in the corner of my kitchen. I bought this fabric a few months ago. It is off-white with black silhouettes of kitchen utensils which seemed perfect to use for this project. I washed and ironed the fabric this morning and found various pieces of calico for the lining. I intend to use some bamboo batting to pad it and machine quilt the pieces before assembling the cover. I have cut out the calico pieces.
The mauve and blue floral top which I started last week has come to a grinding halt as I need to buy some fabric to line the front yoke and cut a facing for the back neckline. It is not feasible to use the same fabric because the pattern will show through. I thought I could use some plain white lawn but it shows through a too bright, if that makes sense. I tested for a suitable colour by placing a pale grey t-shirt behind the fabric and that colour works perfectly so I will buy some silver/grey lawn fabric this week and hopefully will get back to that top before next Sunday comes around.
Our vegetable garden area has been a work in progress for several years and continues to be so. However, I feel as though we have taken a giant leap forward today.
We had a load of soil delivered yesterday.
This was the view of the area yesterday.
The three beds in the foreground have been established for some time and the top one currently has lettuce and bok choy and the bottom one has beans and bok choy while the middle one is empty after having cleared out the remnants of tomato and cucumber plants. This bed needs topping up with additional soil. In the background towards the chicken coop is a clump of sweet potato growing in a small cut-down rainwater tank. Of course, it has overflowed and is growing across the ground towards the fence.
The lower two beds in the background have a small amount of leaf litter and mulch but are yet to be used. At the top of the second row is the sixth raised bed partially built. We still need to finish cutting the iron to size and attach the sides.
We started early today and moved the soil to fill the completed beds. This is all that was left this afternoon when we had finished.
Then it was time to add the sides to the final bed. Remember the sweet potato I pointed out in the earlier photo? We dug it all up and harvested a bucketful of decent sized sweet potatoes. There were lots of small ones but we have sacrificed them for the long-term plan. I planted several pieces of vine that had significant root growth as well as numerous potatoes that were shooting. These all went into the bottom bed. The remainder of the soil from where the sweet potatoes were growing went into the base of the last bed. We then salvaged several wheelbarrow loads of leaf mulch from behind the rainwater tank and finally added the garden soil.
Here are the 6 raised beds filled with soil and I have planted some cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and kale seedlings that we bought last weekend. There is still plenty of space so I am planning to plant some seeds as well.
The other thing I did today was to trim and tidy up the basil which has gone completely rampant. I even found some new plants so I potted some and planted others in the garden bed. I have tied the clumps of basil up to the fence to stop them spreading all over the ground. The basil are in the foreground of the photo below.
Tomorrow, I am hoping to dig another garden bed along the fenceline as it heads towards the front of our property. The plan is to plant flowers in that bed. I have bought sweet pea seeds and intend to grow them using the fence as a trellis. but more about that another day.
organised castle 