Christmas 2014

That time of year again. Twas a wonderful day enjoying kids, presents, games, food, family and friends. Thanks to everyone who came and made it so very special.

Spring 2014

Some recent photos of the front garden.  Overall I am happy with how everything is going. Our grass has greened up again and is back to looking lush.  This year has really just been about experimenting with different perennials. My favourites will be propagated and used more en masse next year. I have ordered more seeds of easy to propagate yet interesting plants, so there is lots to look forward to.

 A few weeks back I went on a road trip to Lambley Nursery with a neighbour where I was able to purchase a few grasses and perennials I've not been able to find in local nurseries. It was a lovely day and well worth the drive. The thing I love about their perennials is they are so easy to propagate by either striking cuttings or by division. It may take a couple of years but you can fill your garden quite cheaply with minimum skill and hard work. When you tire of a certain look it's fun and easy to start the process all over again.

Mobile Free - better than you would think.

What a busy month it's been. Tax, work deadlines, birthdays, school inductions and halloween have all managed to eat into blogging time. 

Something wonderful did occur during this time. My mobile stopped recharging rendering it unusable. Now, you might think how is that a wonderful thing? I too was initially annoyed at the prospect of being without a phone. My brother who had upgraded to an iPhone 6 offered up his old iPhone 5 but I had to wait three weeks. This gave me a few weeks of living mobile free and I have to say I loved it.

No longer was I a slave to technology. No daily recharging, searching in the bottom of my too large handbag or intermittently checking for messages through out the day. My time spent at the park with the kids meant I was 100% focussed on the kids not responding to texts and answering phone calls.  At home, I felt like there was one less thing to have to do and it felt great! 

I am no longer mobile free, David's argument of 'what happens in an emergency' won over my 'one less thing' argument. But it has planted a seed and got me thinking of a simpler time. A quick search online confirmed there are a lot of us out there who are maybe/perhaps rethinking the path we have been heading down and dream of a less complicated life. How much time do we spend attending to our gadgets and at what cost are we really paying in doing so?  

Ok, rant over :)

Now, Bill's progress. After planting the entire 10 seeds I have been left with 3 seedlings (well 2 definites and one possible maybe). The below pot on the right is the first seed to germinate, note how stunted it's growth is (Not promising). The Pot on the left was planted a month later and is doing a lot better. There also seems to be a mystery geranium popping up too which is kind of cool. The two larger seedlings I have planted out into the garden now so hopefully they will do a lot better than in a pot..

Speaking of pots, I did purchase several rather large ones for our back deck which is really just an excuse to buy new plants to fill them of course.  

Project no.2 growing sunflowers (the ones above in the terra cotter pot are fake and gifted to me from a neighbour) the photo below are real and appear to be growing like the clappers, whoever the hell the clappers are I imagine they are exceedingly fast and tall :).  So, on that note I will finish up and not even mention the mere 7 weeks to Christmas (gasp in horror.) TTFN.

Little Bill

Bill (Geranium pyrenaicum 'Bill Wallis') is still with us. His first primary leaves have started to form now so hopefully we are well on our way to being a plant (provided I keep him moist and out of direct sunlight). I've planted the rest of the seeds too now I know they are viable. So, so far 'The Project' is off to a good(ish) start.

I am a bit in love with perennial geraniums at the moment. They are quite rare in Australia unlike the the ubiquitous Pelagonium (called a geranium) which isn't a true geranium at all.  

One I have my eye on in particular is 'Geranium phaeum samobor' she has the deliciously ominous common name of 'Mourning widow'. I love her maroon marked foliage and dark mysterious flower, an added bonus is she apparently likes dry shade. I think she would look fantastic in a pot near my front door. She might need to be project no. 2.

Spring so far has had gorgeous weather. What, with the scent of Jasmine in the air and the sun shining, who wants to be inside? I am eager to get to work on our 'Side bit'. It has been completely neglected since our build and that needs to change. 

I'm thinking of a raised veggie bed under the large window (we have a tap there conveniently) which hopefully will get full sun for most of the year. In front of the veggie bed just needs to be a low maintenance path (zero mowing needs) with good access to a clothesline further down. Along the fence I was thinking of putting up a trellis and growing something (i.e. star jasmine perhaps). But for now my focus is on the veggie bed which I reckon I could possibly make myself - stand back everyone I have power tools :) Watch this space X

Wattlebird Toddlers

One advantage of living with a train line behind your house is the wildlife it brings into your backyard. In particular native birds. All the native plantings have made our backyard a nice place to raise their young.

I am especially fond of a couple of Wattlebirds I've nicknamed Fred and Ginger. Recently I noticed their nest in a tree just behind our back fence. Like all new babies Fred and Ginger's offspring are a noisy pair, keeping Mum and Dad working night and day to feed and protect them.  It has been an impressive display of parenthood from Fred and Ginger.

This morning to my delight I noticed the two babies had left the nest (over the back fence) and were now in our Gum tree (next to our deck) learning to feed from the flowers while Fred (or Ginger, its hard to tell) kept a watchful eye on them. 

While I like to keep our distance when they are around (don't want to spook them) they have become quite fearless around us and you can actually get quite close. I will be sad when they finally leave the coop for good.

We also have a very cheeky Magpie who visits us regularly and is bolder than brass (another story another time perhaps). 

Bebe's learning to feed while awkwardly moving about the branches. Mum is only a meter away.

Dad keeps a watchful eye on the wider landscape and will not hesitate to attack an intruder.

Little Garden Project - Part 3 (Bill, is that you?)

Could it be?  It's been around 3 weeks now since I planted about 5 Geranium Pyrenaicum 'Bill Wallis' seeds which I purchased online from the UK. 

Initially I had my doubts about them even arriving, then even greater doubts of them germinating after being X-rayed (upon entering the country). But today my hopes have risen sky high with this solo little baby plant born overnight.

Of course it could be some kind of weed seed that has found its way into the pot and my newly found optimisim will all be in vain. 

But what the hell, lets be hopeful, and welcome Bill to our happy home and hope he stays awhile.

What Bill will look like all grown up below (fingers crossed he lives that long).

Little garden project - Part 2

Well it's been a whole week now and nothing. I didn't plant all the seeds only a few, maybe I should have planted them all.  I don't know what is a reasonable time to wait for these seeds to germinate? They are suppose to germinate quickly according to the instructions I am following. Think I will give them another week or two before I give up, I still have hope at this stage. (Note: I have since learnt to expect them to germinate in between 4 - 6 weeks)

On a positive note my chocolate mint geranium cutting is still looking good (the other pot).

Over the weekend I purchased a heap of filler plants to hopefully soften the edges on my garden until the rest of the plantings take off.

Still a lot of work to do but slowly getting there. 

Splashback Tiles - Part 3

The finished Splashback. It was a gloomy day when these photos were taken so you don't get to see the lustre created by the mix of matt and gloss when natural light hits the tiles. My kitchen now feels complete though. 

Well blow me down with a feather.

Well, what do you know, they arrived. Now will they germinate? Unlikely, but you never know.

Splashback Tiles - Part 2

I picked the tiles up on Tuesday and tiling began on Wednesday. It's looking fantastic! It's been a looong wait for this tile to arrive, and today I'm glad I did not cave and get something else.  The grouting will be done today. More photos to come soon.

Almost finished tiling.

Looking good already!

More pot projects.

Ok, these may be a little more ambitious than the first pot project, but they do look wonderful.

The box below uses:    1. Orlaya grandiflora, 2. Papaver commutatum 3. Dianthus Carthusianorum.

This one below is a stunner. It uses hardy drought tolerant perennials, and plants I would like in my garden some day.

1. Achillea 'Landsdorferglut'  2. Eryngium Planun  3. Achillea 'Terracotta'  4. Scabiosa columbaria 

5. Agastache 'Painted Lady'

Ahhh, can you tell I'm ready for Spring.  Our garden is slowly transforming from an overgrown mess into something resembling a type of order. I keep wanting to jump into the fun part of buying new plants and planting them, but alas there is still more weeding and mulching to do first.  

A little garden project.

I love this planter box. It's a simple combination of Seaside Daisy and Geranium Pyrenaicum sown from seed to create a lush, wild,  meadow in a container. It should flower for around 6 months of the year and be reasonably fuss free.

Seaside Daisy is a no brainer, grows just about anywhere, but loves coastal areas. Geranium Pyrenaicum is a little harder to source. Grows wild in Turkey and eastern Europe.  I have not been able to find it here anywhere so I have purchased a small amount of seeds from the UK. 

I've never bought seeds from overseas before, am not even sure if your allowed to bring in seeds from overseas hence they may never arrive. I only parted with $5.00 so I'm not too concerned. However wouldn't it be lovely if they did arrive, and germinated even. 

I'm keen to make some beautiful pots for xmas presents this year.  If the seeds arrive this will be experiment No. 1. Fingers crossed.

Splashback Tiles - Part 1

Finally, my tiles dock in Australia tomorrow. I should be able to pick them up on the 25th. I've rung my tiler and he is ready to go. Not long now.

Cushions complete....

I've had these large cushion inserts  (70cm x 70cm) for a while. When I purchased this sofa I got a couple of extra metres of fabric so I could whip up some cushions and have never got around to doing it, until now. Being a cushion fiend I quickly tire of the ones I have already, fortunately it is quick and easy to make replacements. I now just need something colourful and contemporary to team with them. 

Spot of sewing.

Such a cold weekend, thought I would pull the old sewing machine out and blow off the cobwebs. After a few hours of mending clothes and patching up ripped knees I thought I would make Mack some warm flannelette duvet sets. A fun little project to test my very rusty sewing skills on.

Don't think I saved money making them (probably cheaper to buy). But it was quite satisfying to follow  through on a project and say "I did that. " 

Anyway, I've been rather absent on this blog recently. Not a whole lot to report on. The boys are keeping me busy and off the computer mostly. Hopefully I will have more to blog about soon. Possibly cushions (next sewing project). 

 Side A

Side B

Second set

New Sofa arrived today!

Finally our new sofa arrived from Urban Rhythm. It looks so much better than the old crappy futon sofa/bed. Now I just need to dispose of the old one on ebay, although I am tempted to just put it on the nature strip and be done with it.

Anyway, the arrival of the new sofa has got me thinking of everything on my wish list for the lounge room. And while I do need to keep in mind life with a soon to be toddler and new furnishings don't mix. I'm still longing to get this part of the house looking better.

Much has happened since my last post. The blinds in the family room have been installed. We have picked a tile for our splashback FINALLY (arrives in Australia in July) and of course the sofa has arrived. We are getting there slowly.

I have also had the urge to purge lately, although I haven't done anything about it yet. Clutter and stuff is creeping its way back into our house and I need to be ruthless and delete, delete, delete.

I will be back soon with some styling ideas I have for the lounge room. X

Pantone colour of the year 2014

As a long time fan of magenta I was surprised to learn that the 'Pantone colour of the year 2014' is 'Radiant Orchid'.  Interior designers everywhere are now showing us how to use this colour in all its splendid glory. 

According to Leatrice Elseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, Radiant Orchid is...

“An invitation to innovation, Radiant Orchid encourages expanded creativity and originality, which is increasingly valued in today’s society.”

"An enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm."

Accompanying colours