Small Candle Cosies

Here are four different candle cosies I've made up for the citronella candles I bought for my party table. I thought they might look nice with some crochet cosies! Each one is different and I'll make two the same for the eight that are going on my table. Two are called mesh cosies, and two are called cluster cosies, I've named them for the type of pattern they have. I will post the free patterns very soon. They stretch quite tightly over the candles, so they stay up. These are the little candles which will fit the little tea-light candles inside when the wax runs out.

four different candle cosies, patterns coming soon

I did do another one, a diamond patterned cosy, but it kept slipping down. It didn't stretch tightly enough up the candle to stay up. To get the diamond pattern (ch 4, sk 2, sc into next sc, next round, ch 4, sc into next ch sp etc) then a round of dc at the top. Well, this one didn't quite work out but I don't mind. You've got to have a few failures to go with all the successes.

this one didn't work out so well

Geisha Girl Golden Dewdrop

Here is a photo of the Geisha Girl Golden Dewdrops that we are allowing to flower. I first shared about this golden dewdrop plant in May 2013, we were considering removing it despite it being a very handsome plant. But we have kept this one pruned so it doesn't fruit and now Tom is older the chances of him eating the poisonous orange fruits is pretty slim, so we are keeping this one.


we've decided to keep the Geisha Girl golden dewdrop in our backyard

But twice now we've had to get a plumber out to clear our pipes for tree roots, although we haven't yet been here 2 years. The closest possible culprits are some similar looking plants, they might be golden dewdrops but a different variety to the Geisha Girl. These ones have thorns, and we had a lot of fun (not) pulling the two trees out.  Hopefully they will stop sending roots down into our plumbing, but we might have to poison them to kill them off properly.

Yellow Toy Sack

Inspired by my old machine coming out of the cupboard, I made this yellow toy sack for my son. Its just a sack with a drawstring. I made it up quickly, trimming the inside seam with my pinking shears which I thought were blunt but were pleased to find they still work on light material like this. For the drawstring, I used a recycled tie from my collection of ties and laces. When I gave it to him, Tom immediately filled it up with toys from his kitchen collection. He loves it!

this toy sack was quick and easy to make

A Small Icepack for Tom

During the holidays, my husband and I finally tackled the spare room and cleared it out, making a car load of donations to the local Salvation store of mostly Tom's baby clothes and some toys. I could finally get into my sewing materials again and took the opportunity to make up a small ice-pack for Tom. Its just a small pillow filled with rice. As a little kid, he is always bumping himself and complains quite a lot when it hurts! He prefers to have an ice pack on his sore, rather than a band-aid, so it will be handy to have another smaller one on hand for him to use. I was pleasantly surprised to find my old sewing machine still works, and I still remember how to get it to run! Its such a great machine! I still love it, I will have to think up some new projects to make with it now its out of the cupboard!

a small rice-filled pillow to use as an ice pack

New Year's Candle

It's come to that time of year again to reflect on the past year's goals and make new ones! Last year my goals were to simply get healthy and do some reading. Well I had an operation on my compressed ulnar nerve and it went ok although half of my left hand is still numb, but there is a slight increase in the strength of the hand so I can crochet. In 2014 I also joined a gym! But I didn't do any reading!

New Year's Candle

This year my goals are to keep going to the gym and get fit. I also need to keep busy, by doing crochet, gardening, baking and blogging about it. Keeping busy and active is good for my mind, sitting around doing nothing is very depressing. Getting out and about by the going to the gym and going to the weekly local craft group can only be a good thing.

Also, I thought I might make crochet cosies for these citronella candles I bought for a family dinner we have coming up. I'll post the free pattern soon. I'm also making some more drink coasters for the dinner table setting which can be for up to 14 people, I will post about that soon as well!

My First Attempt at Trifle

Apologies for being absent for a couple of months, I've been playing World of Warcraft! But yesterday I took some time out to have a go at making trifle. I was inspired by my father-in-law who made a trifle for Christmas! But our trifle has to be dairy free due to my husband's lactose intolerance. We also practiced making gluten free sponge cake, as we are hoping to make a trifle next time the family come to visit so it will need to be gluten free because my brother is coeliac. 

this was my first attempt at making trifle

The sponge cake worked out well I think, it was a bit like meringue, we found the recipe on food.com. We only did half a batch as we only wanted to make a small trifle, but next time we will put it in a bigger bowl we bought, I think the half batch will fit better in that. We made the jelly separately, with raspberries in it which worked really well. Canned peaches were also very nice, they looked good on top of the squares of jelly facing outwards. Then a layer of custard on top of the peaches, it was a bit thick, maybe 4 cups will be enough for the big bowl. I think we should use lactose free milk instead of soy milk for the custard. Then I decorated the top of the trifle with fresh strawberries and kiwi fruit, the strawberries were especially yummy! I'm wondering if I can make a healthy trifle, we usually serve fruit salad, but I'm thinking trifle would be good instead of that.

Flowering Waratah

I blogged about this Queensland Waratah last year around the same time, and true to form it has flowered again! Its nice to know we'll have this pretty display to enjoy each year in our front yard. We haven't done anything to this tree to look after it, we haven't even mulched or fertilised it! It seems to be doing quite ok on its own.

looking up through the Waratah with beautiful blue spring skies

a beautiful red spring bloom

the small tree is covered in red flowers

A Perfect Spring Bloom

To celebrate spring, the rose has come out in bloom! What a perfect specimen! We haven't been doing much to look after this rose, we pruned it June or July and now in October it is flowering!

a perfect spring bloom, a beautiful red rose

Flowering Sage

Another plant in our herb garden is flowering this spring, the sage we put in a several months ago has taken to bloom. We don't use sage so much in our cooking, we just put the herb in our garden on impulse. The sage isn't the only thing that's flowering, the aloe vera and basil are also in bloom!

flowering sage in the morning light

Flowering Chives

With the onset of Spring, there's some flowering going on in our garden! Here are some flowering chives, the delicate flowers are hard to capture in a photo, but I took this shot in the morning light so hopefully it does it justice! These chives were looking a bit sad until my husband fertilised them with dynamic lifter and seaweed solution, then they really perked up! They are perfect to add some flavour to these low FODMAP meals we are currently eating, you can't have garlic or onion so chives are a great substitute.

these chives have delicate flowers