old jeans; new life

Some old Mama jeans turned saggy baggy refashioned into some pants for O.

There is something so very satisfying about refashioned one garment into another. The satisfaction of not wasting materials, breathing new life into something that could so easily be tossed away and the creative process involved. There is a creative freedom in refashioning – perhaps because the materials are embarking on their second or third life – is it possible that the fibres themselves have a wisdom gained only with time?

This morning after dropping E. at school Ms. M, baby O. and I headed off for a morning at the zoo. We were there for less than two hours, just checking in with a couple of animals, taking our time to meander and linger rather than rushing around to see it all. Ms. M. is quite concerned that cheetah’s apparently like living on their own. She does not like it. She thinks the cheetah should live with family. It was troubling her all afternoon and evening – she just doesn’t get that anyone would want to live on their own.

O. seemed quite impressed with the elephant. It was swinging and swaying in a slow soothing motion. O’s face clearly told just how enchanted he was with the grand beast. Not so easy to keep the boy in the pram these days. Finally enjoying some good health he is out and about exploring every opportunity he gets. It is so wonderful, and inspiring, to watch.

So many lovely moments today. Sibling playing together and moreover enjoying each other. Gotta love those days.

sunday snippets

Oh my! Where did that week go? Time seems to be flying past at rapid speed.

Linking up.

cooking by instinct :: vegetarian lasagne

There are a couple of recipes in my repertoire that I just cook by instinct. There is no recipe. They are dependable meals at times when I’m scraping around for ingredients, needing to create a meal using pantry and freezer staples.

One of my favourites is vegetarian lasagne. I’ve been cooking this particular meal since I was a teenager living at my parents’ home, it has been with me as uni student, a professional and now as a mother. It’s a stayer.

	Step 1 Saute the onion and garlic in a large pan. Add two cans of bean mix and two cans of diced tomatoes.
	Step 2 Thaw two packs of frozen spinach.
	Step 3 Tear herbs adding them to a simmering sauce.
	Step 4 Reduce sauce (simmer for ten minutes or so) & then set to the side.
	Step 5 Press out moisture from spinach.
	Step 6 Melt some butter and throw in some flour. (Sorry I just guestimate my quantities). Stir.
	Step 7 SLOWLY add the milk stirring continuously over a low(ish) heat.
	Step 8 Add enough milk that the mix is runny and milk-like. Do NOT stop stirring.
	Step 9 Bring to the boil and remove from the heat. Sauce should have started to thicken. Keep stirring for a bit. Stir in loads of cheese. Sauce complete.
	Step 10 Grease lasagne dish. Then add lasagne noodle, bean sauce, noodle, spinach, noodle, white cheesey sauce, sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake for 30min around 200C.
	Dinner is served.

eleven months

Both my boys were born on the twenty-third day of the month and both born on a Tuesday.

Here is my little boy, eleven months old today, modelling his new chambray pants. I’m not sure that I would sew chambray for a child again. It doesn’t wash and wear well, in the sense that it does need to be ironed. I don’t iron every day children clothes. I don’t really iron every day adult clothes either. Ironing is for special occasions in my book.

No photos of E. who is five and half today. He is still sick. Poor lad has been battling a bug for most of the school holidays and doesn’t look like he’ll make it for his first day back either. We are in possession of a ghastly black cough medicine, and really it is ghastly, so when a child requests to take it you really do get a sense of how ill they are. Although today you just needed to look at E. to know that he was struggling. He skin was so pale and his eyes circled with big shadows. Poor lad.

It is so hard to believe that there is only one more month to relish this sweet little babe as a “zero” year old (as his older siblings describe him). Check out that smile. It is so infectious.

craft when you can

Snippets on Monday this week. I was crashed out and bed ridden yesterday finally succumbing to the kidlets’ bugs. Still tucked up in bed now, but sitting up with eyes open. I’m on the mend. My partner gauges the severity of my illnesses by whether or not I’m up to crafting. Yesterday I couldn’t even hold a crochet hook in hand… so he was quite concerned and even more dotting and caring. I’m one very lucky lady.

You never know when you might be out of action… so I follow the philosophy of craft when you can. Even if that means sitting in the car parked in the driveway while the children sleep. Especially good when you can text the mister to bring out a cup of tea. Loving the new car stereo with the iPod plug in too.

 

Linking up.

what a moron

Every July the prices at the local pool go up. It’s called inflation people. That’s why it doesn’t cost 50c to go to the pool like it did when I was a kid. Some old codger obviously hadn’t noted the phenomenon of inflation before because this week, after rudely pushing in front of me in the queue, he ranted and raved at the reception staffer for putting up the pool entry price by 25cents. Carbon tax and Julia Gillard featured heavily in his rude, ignorant and ill informed rant.

It made me angry.

The way he was raving on it was as if prices had never ever gone up until there was a carbon tax.

What a moron.

dishy cloths

Garter stitch dishcloth with crochet border.

Stocking stitch dishcloth with crochet border.

Increase decrease dishcloth.

I’m really getting into this knitting caper. It has been cold in these parts. Not as cold as other parts in the world but it is all relative right. I suppose the real challenge is that our home and wardrobes really aren’t equipped to deal with the cold. There aren’t enough cold days and nights to really warrant hardcore heating and clothing. Rugging up under a blanket with either a crochet hook or knitting needles is just perfect craft at this time. I’ve been working on squares for the Born To Knit blanket – I’m getting rather addicted to them. I’ll post some pictures of the squares that I’ve been working on over the weekend.

Learning to knit has been really fun. I’ve formulated a little process that I undertake when learning a new stitch. Firstly I just cast on a few stitches, say ten or so, and practice, make mistakes, unravel, unknit, tink, knit… this will become a doll scarf. Next up I cast on more stitches, around twenty or more, using cotton, and go through the process again. This will become a dishcloth. Then I cast on 44 stitches and knit up a square for the Born To Knit blanket.  

In other news I took the kidlets, all of whom are ill (still!) to the zoo today. I just needed to get them out of the house so we popped into the zoo for an hour and a half or so. We checked out the nocturnal animals, the tortoises,  the meerkats, the lions and the penguins. The drive, the fresh air and the sunshine did us all some good.

A rather random thing happened as we hung out with the penguins. A woman, older than I, commented with a really friendly and smiley face “you’re a good mum” and just kept on walking. I was caught a bit off guard. Naturally I was chuffed, I’ve had my fair share of public parenting moments where the evil eyes have been out in force and I wish the earth would open and swallow me up, but frankly now on reflection I wish I could run after her screaming – “what was I doing???” “why did you say that?”. A mystery. Made me feel so good though. Really really good. Thank you dear lady.

sunday snippets

…and my favourite for the week…

another scarf

My learning to knit adventure continues. I have now mastered(ish) how to purl and can create a stocking stitch. YAY! Now I feel like I can really truly knit… folks I’m a knitter!

My first stocking stitch project – a knitted scarf for Ms. M’s doll.

You can see the scarf I made for her brother’s doll here.

Now I’m off to learn how to increase and decrease stitches. This learning how to knit caper is quite fun you know.