Some kind of wrap up catch-up...

We spent a couple of days of the Easter long weekend at our 'own but can't live in' old/new house. The bunny with the eggs found the girls even tho we were not at "we're other home" and they delighted in the early morning hunt through the dew and native violets.

We did lots of tidying up. First we un-bogged the tractor which has been patiently waiting for some dry, not quite so slippery ground since our rain sodden last visit. The big girl got in plenty more practice on the ride-on mower; first actually mowing the couple of flat acres around the house and then later driving about doing pick ups with the trailor on the back.

We hunted about and made lots of new discoveries, especially in the very overgrown vegie patch. The wee girl filled her easter basket with loads of bright red cherry tomatos which we added to our inside dinner of 'campside' beans (I'd give you a recipe but it is different everytime!).

The girls and I found a tiny nest with four abandoned teeny tiny eggs and the prettiest little feather. I am not sure what kind of bird built and later left the nest, I will have to do some more investigating.

We have found a tenant, so there will be no more trips south to our little hinterland hidehole until we can call it home. So we left a new letterbox with gnome type personality to stand guard til we get back.

* Rabbit pattern is one from the talented Linda of Mamma-4-Earth Molly Bunny

Oh Possum!

Let me introduce Apple Blossom, she is such a frequent squatter in our roof space that the girls have named her. Apple Blossom is a Brushtail Possum, Kate gives a good tongue in cheek description of them in her post here, so I won't bother, she is far more amusing than I could be (tho she does go on a bit it is worth reading to the bottom cause she gets quite interesting).

She is a bit cute and autumn is babies time for possums so we can't just fling her out on her ear but I really don't want her in my roof. There is some small print legal stuff here too - they are a protected species and you need a permit to trap and remove them.. and they must be released with 25 metres of where you caught them - This makes it very difficult to get rid of them because of course they just come back! 

 And we know it is Apple Blossom because see that sore on her nose? she got that the first time she spent the wee hours in the cage (after she had finished the banana) by rubbing her nose against the wire (I do feel bad..) this picture was about the third time she was lured in by a banana.

Every few days I hear the familar thump, thump, thump on my ceiling, sigh and go find a banana.

After each trap and release we race about the place trying to find and fix her entry point. Anything a possum can fit its head through is big enough to squeeze the rest of it through.

Yep, that is a sump box (and yes, it is a very long way up! we work into the early evening round here)
These were the last possible entry points we could think of... now we wait and see.

Today my beloved took the day off and built a new home for her (plans here and here)

It involved climbing trees and tying fancy knots

(Just so you know I did a bit of sawing, holding things still, smeared the whole thing with homemade beeswax polish and ran up and down stairs a bit being a very handy apprentice)

We left her a few bits of apple as a house warming gift...I do hope she likes it and moves in!

day dreaming...

We spent the last couple of days in the Northern Rivers of NSW. We do it to ourselves quite regularly and as we gaze into the hinterland and later wiggle our toes in the sand we make plans, dream little dreams and imagine another life, a less busy one... one with a few acres of space and a river meandering through our own bit of rainforest.

This time tho we had found a fabulous home to be had in a little place called Dorroughby - in the pictures it looked perfect, the price exceptional and so we spoke to the agent, decided to make a weekend of it, packed the car and took off.

It sold before we could get a look! So disappointed but well, what can you do? It was obviously just like the pictures promised it would be and the current owner didn't want to wait for us to look and perhaps offer a better price "a bird in the hand..."

So we went anyway and gazed into the Hinterland, wiggled our toes in the sand, built a few sancastles and knocked them down again, splashed in the cool waters of Brunswick Heads, marveled at the luminous blue glow worms under the night sky at Natural Bridge in Springbrook National Park and then we came home again...a little sad but hopeful that something will turn up for us soon.

A lovely side-step to our trip was that I met Jo from Indigo Inspirations, she blogged that she had some beautiful little Belle and Boo Easter tins for sale and while at first I resisted, when I looked again I caved in and got the girls one each. Jo lives in Mullumbimby which is right in the middle of our Hinterland beach dream so I picked the tins up in person and we chatted a bit - was so nice to meet her. The girls were both asleep in the car even tho it was the middle of the day - late night glow worming! and so while I would have loved to have stayed and talked and had a really good look around the little co-op crafty shop of goodness it was not to be (this time).

Back home this morning for the Easter rabbit to do his thing, and a stunning morning it was.

And because my children are spoilt by a mother who can't resist a pretty thing, they got these too

from Purple Petunia here.

Tadpoles

I would have thought, well I did think, that raising a few tadpoles would be a relatively simple, fun task. Well I am here to tell you it is a bit stressful.

They are quite fragile, they can turn canabalistic and they grow legs and jump (right out of the box.. to who knows where...maybe the cat knows. I prefer not to think about it).

Add in that I really, really don't have any desire to raise cane toads. This means hours of googling and peering at computer images and then into murky creek water contained in tall glass jars trying to work out colouring and if that tadpole has eyes on the side of it's head or more toward the middle.

They are quite cute tho right? and Autumn means tadpoles - loads and loads of them in seemingly every water pocket nearby. I love frogs... this adds to the stress of pinching frothy foam (frogs lay in clusters of foam, toads lay eggs in gelatinous strings) for childhood curiosity (science) the guilt when one invariably dies is weighing heavily on my mind.

They eat wilted spinach - how about that? They will also eat each other we discovered to our horror if they run out of spinach... this has lead to solitary confinement for one; who my big girl declared instantly as a cane toad, nothing else could be so wicked! (I think, well I'm pretty sure, it is a frog tadpole).

His eyes are on the side of his head right?... Paranoia is settling in.

Autumn Gratitude

"Come, little leaves" said the wind one day,
"Come over the meadows with me, and play;
Put on your dresses of red and gold;
Summer is gone, and the days grow cold."

Soon as the leaves heard the wind's loud call,
Down they came fluttering, one and all;
Over the brown fields they danced and flew,
Singing the soft little songs they knew....

from COME LITTLE LEAVES by George Cooper

At the end of last week a beautifully wrapped package arrived in the mail for my little family from The little gnomes home. Inside was a gnome, an autumn gnome and a stunning crystal; citrine I think... Gnomes don't like to wander far from their crystals and this one brings with her happiness, joy and optimism.

We feel so lucky to have won the random beanie draw and subsequently been gifted this perfect autumn treasure ~ She has made herself comfortable on our season table watching the mobile of leaves (recieved in the autumn southern season exchange) cast shadows as they dance in the wind.

Thank you.

Wednesday Craft Group - Knitted Moss Gnomes; aTutorial

The garden at our place has an abundance of this fabulous green furry stuff and since the door has been installed we've got visitors; wee Moss Gnomes.

These little fellows are made with some very simple knitting, stuffing and a simple formed head like the root babies I showed you how to make the other week.

You will need: (not much) wool/yarn 8plyish - green shades are nice, a pair of 3mm knitting needles, stuffing wool, size one tube/bandage, linen thread, cotton tricot/face fabric, mohair for hair and beard, some embroidery floss for facial features, scrap bit of co-ordinating felt, wool and sharp needles and a small weight about the size of a 10c piece (in fact a 10c piece is a fine weight itself).

Ok, for the body cast on 20 stitches and knit 12 rows.
Cast off 4 stitches at the beginning of the next two rows (12 stitches)
Stocking stitch the next 10 rows (knit one row, purl the next etc..)
From the 11th row begin decreasing 1 stitch at each end of each knit row, purl one row*
* repeat until only one stitch remains; cast off.

Next make a small formed head with about a 3cm circumference. Create an eye line with your linen thread and then cover your face with a small square of skin fabric. If you like, eyes and mouth can be embroidered now.

With your wool needle and scrap yarn begin sewing the hat together from the top (the pointy end) and stop where the decreasing began. Then stitch the front of the gnome together and insert the head into the open space. Stuff under and around the head with wool fleece. Cut and sew into place a circle of felt on the bottom to create a base - slip your weight in before you close it up completely.

Using small blind stitches attach the head into the suit opening, then create his hair and beard out of mohair. To to this sew loops right around the face fastening each with a small backstitch. Cut open the loops and trim his hair and beard to the length you fancy.

Don't stress too much if your knitting turns out bigger - just make a bigger head - he is a very forgiving little fellow.

OH and this is my 200th post! well I never but there you go I do tend to talk a bit. So because I don't have a squillion other things to do (ha!) Who wants to win a Moss Gnome of their very own? Leave me a message (with some way to find you) and I'll do one of those random hat draws next Wednesday May 10.  The wee moss gnome is going to live with Rachel at the Butterfly Ball.
Oh and double OH! Dear Bloom of we bloom here is hosting another swap On the Wings of Spring  

"With birds nesting in my garden and choruses of goldfinches warbling in the trees, spring is an especially good time to love birds... And so I've decided to host a little birdie swap. What a perfect time of year to create some new feathered friends to join spring and summer nature tables! If you are in the southern hemisphere, please don't feel left out... birds need food and shelter all through the winter; and even in the dark of winter, you might look to the return of birds as harbingers of spring."

Won't you flutter over there and join in?

Camping, swapping and reflecting.

I am feeling quite flat; I said to a friend the other day it just seems crazy for life to carry on ~ my friend's baby just died. It feels disrespectful to just keep going...but really that is all there is left to do isn't there? curl up in a ball or keep going.

So I will keep going tho my energy is lacking.

Over the Easter weekend we went camping; with my brother and his family and three other families too.

My brother has 5 acres of land just north of Gympie, loads of gum trees and a bit of creek - nothing else on it for now. So we all set up camp (I am not really a fan of camping. It generally rains, it is uncomfortable, there are insects, no bathrooms, blow up beds, bla bla bla).

I had fun. We met some really lovely people, the children had a ball just being free to be. Of course there was a campfire (read marshmallow on sticks, camp oven stews and fresh baked hot cross buns), chocolate, wine, music and laughter ...and NO RAIN!

A little post parcel arrived just before we headed off camping. I joined in the Southern Hemiphere Season Exchange again for autumn. Autum is my favourite season; I got married in autumn, my first child was born in autumn and it is full of comfort food and chilly winds blowing beautiful leaves everywhere ~ well it is like that in my memory because Brisbane is yet to show me an autumn leaf fluttering to the ground this year...

So I sent my partner a few of her favourite things ~ she doesn't have a blog so I couldn't stalk her and find out secretly, I asked. She likes knitting and crochet and felts, fibres, fly agaric mushrooms and loves autumn, it is her favourite season too. Think I covered it.

In return she sent and autumn fairy and a mobile of dancing leaves - just perfect.

Autumn faries wake today

Spread your colours as you play

Red and yellow, orange too

Purple, brown and golden hue.

Once each leaf is coloured so

from the tree it can let go.

Crochet Root Babies ~ a tutorial and a giveaway

But summer also came to an end. The sharp autumn wind whirled the brightly coloured leaves through the air and tugged at the root-children's clothes.

"Hoo," called the wind, "hurry home, it's getting cold here. It's time to go to bed."...... And all the little root-children went down under the ground again to start their long winter's sleep.

Sibylle von Olfers. The Story of the Root-Children.

My friend Sonia made up this pattern in the year 2000 while sitting (sometimes lying) on her bed breastfeeding her son. He was a bit of  a snuggler and didn't like her to leave when he fell asleep so she sat and hooked this pattern, pulling it ot a few times and trying something else. It is actually a very forgiving pattern and was one of the very first things I crocheted (back before I had even read a pattern or knew what the stitches were called). Sonia has graciously allowed me to share this pattern with you on the www - may it go forth and produce many babies.

You will need: brown yarn (8ply), cream mohair yarn, skin coloured knit material (tricot, old tshirt..), 3inches of size 1 bandage, embroidery threads for eyes and mouth, stuffing wool, thin linen thread, sewing threads, wool needle, crochet hook (2.5mm or 3mm).

Body~ Crochet the body using the brown yarn ~ (NB these are Australian crochet terms our double crochet is an American single crochet)

chain 3 (loosely) and form into a ring.
next row 5dc (double crochet)
next row 7dc (increase in the 2nd and 4th stitches)
then inc every third stitch three times until 9dc
then inc every 5th stitch x3 (15dc)
then inc every 7th stitch x3 (21dc)
then inc every 9th stitch x3 (27dc)
then 42 dc with increase
next row decrease every 6th stitch x5 (30dc)
then dec. every 3rd stitch x4 (12dc)
(this brings you to the neck of the root baby which should be approx index finger width)
make 2 dc then reverse direction and 8 dc
reverse direction and inc. every 3rd stitch (1 2 3 45 6 7 8)
reverse direction in inc. in 3rd and 7th stitches until 12 stitches wide
reverse then dec. every 3rd stitch (9 stitches)
reverse then dec in bold 1  23 4 56 7 89 (6 stitches)
reverse, decrease 3 times (3 stitches)
reverse then decrese the three remaining stitches together
double stitch around the face edge, finish off.

Head and Hair ~
I am going to make a wild assumption that you already know how to make a simple formed head (it is ok if you don't, they are simple and I will put a bunch of pictures at the end of this post to step you through: failing that there are loads of great tutorials on making heads - do some googling you will be fine).

Ok so make a 2.5 -3inch simple formed head (eyeline only) with the size 1 bandage, linen thread and stuffing wool.
Using you choice of skin material cover the head and embroider small eyes and a mouth.

Bringing it together ~
Stuff the bodysuit with fluffed out wool til it is firm but not hard; remember to leave room for your baby's head.

Pop the head in and sew it securely into the body suit; gather suit around the neck and hide your ends.

With the cream mohair yarn sew loops around the face, then cut the loops open. All done, sing a little lullaby and put that baby to bed.

The giveaway bit ~ Ok hands up who can't crochet or just dosen't even want to try; 'tis ok I used to throw little crochet tantrums and fling my hook on the floor. Lucky for you I made a couple of extra babies. If you would like to put your name in the hat, leave a comment to that effect and I will make sure your name goes in. I'll get my big girl to pull one out next Wednesday...sometime... probably early evening my time. We don't mind where you live but you need to make sure I can contact you.

Ok basic how to make a head pictures now follow ~ (don't ever let a child watch you make a head, it is brutal)