Nana’s little helper

Mum has been busy making up small fitted nappies for my sister, and E wanted to help.  Mum was cutting out hemp, so E very helpfully pinned it for her:

 

Robots!

Yesterday E and her cousion Kaspar (Ash’s big brother) were playing with E’s alphabet floor puzzle, and transformed E into a robot   Kaspar did his best robot pose for the photo too:

We have another chick!

Well our first chick is now 3 months old, fully grown and crowing, but Rosetta obviously likes being a mummy because she’s been sitting on 2 eggs for the last 2 weeks. This morning one hatched  

I’m hopeful that the other egg will hatch soon and isn’t just a dud, I don’t know how far apart chicks usually hatch.

More Ash

 

WIP

While  I don’t have a photo of my current wip to show you, I do want to mention it because it is my first ever cardigan!  Yep, I’ve done plenty of longies and hats and soakers and booties and wristwarmers but I’ve always been a bit scared about cardies – all that seaming puts me off!  (yes I know I can magic loop sleeves and stuff to avoid seams, but that requires thought and I do like knitting that doesn’t actually require any thought).  But I have decided to stop being a sook, and its about time I did one.  So I am starting with a nb cardy for Sally’s baby, nice and small and quick hopefully!  Only it is in 4ply so it won’t be that quick since I am a Very Slow Knitter.

Anyway, I am making a simple cardy from Panda Adorable Baby Knits - this one

 

I’m using Utiku Merino Baby 4 ply in mint, which is quite a sweet colour for a newborn I think.  I’ll take a pic when there is enough of it to actually look like something.

Nursery pics!

My sister Sally has been having fun transforming her spare room into a nursery   I thought I’d show some pics cos, well I like looking at cutesy baby stuff and I’m guessing I’m not the only one.  Plus there is a bit of craftiness in this post too.

She chose a jungle theme (actually that is obvious in the pics, I didn’t really need to tell you that).  She got a fancy schmancy cot set:

 

And she’s put stickers all over the walls.  And yes that is a droolworthy brand spanking new Touchwood cot.  Soooooo nice.  E on the other hand, is still in her Bought By Nana On TM and Repainted By Daddy cheapie that mum gave me.  Not that I’m ungrateful, cos hers is still cute (and free!), but its not as cool as a Touchwood.  Which Mum acknowledges cos she bought a Touchwood one on TM for her house for E.  I digress…

The folded up thing next to the cot is a bassinet, and above it on the wall is a wallhanging made by Mum from some jungle fabric (see, I promised this post would have craft stuff too!)

Oh lookie, she has a jungle mobile… I only just saw that in this pic!  Please note that the evil evil sangenic nappy bin is NOT going to be used for long.  We have a gazillion wee nappies cut out ready for Mum to have the pleasure of sewing, and Sally will only be using revolting disposable nappies for the first couple of weeks.  Less, if I get off my chuff and finish my nb stash to lend her.  I don’t think wolves live in the jungle!

Sally does have a bunch of flat nappies, not to use as nappies but cos they are handy for other stuff.  Particularly puke.  So of course she had to get a jungle nappy stacker:

Oh and this is a close up of the other wall hanging.  Mum has also made 2 cushions from the same fabric as the wallhangings:

Right.  Looks like everything is ready.  Now all we have to do is wait…

Introducing… my newest nephew!

Well actually he hasn’t arrived yet, but my sister is 33 weeks preggie so not long to go now!  She got a 4D scan before christmas, aren’t 4D scans just awesome?  Here are a couple of scan pics

ok this one’s 2D but its still pretty cool!

Gardeny Goodness

In the last couple of years vege gardens seem to have grown in popularity.  I remember when it was just my grandparents who were weird enough to grow veges in their backyard, but these days every man and his dog is getting out in the garden and growing edible stuff, so I thought it was about time that I had a go too.

As I know pretty much nothing about gardening (I’ve managed to kill all the plants I’ve ever owned) I figured the easiest thing for me would be to stick a few plants in Dad’s garden, that way I could benefit from his guidance.  Actually, to be honest I haven’t done all that much – I bought some plants in spring and shoved them in Dad’s glasshouse to wait for the wind to stop before planting them out.  Only then I forgot about them and Dad helpfully planted them out for me.  And then I didn’t realise that I was supposed to stake the tomatoes so Dad kindly did that too.  And I haven’t actually watered the garden or weeded it.  Oh oh!  But I did put some horse poo on it, thats gardening right?  

Anyway, despite doing little other than buying some seedlings and shovelling poop, I still got a buzz when my plants started growing veges!  I took some snaps last night.  I give you…

cherry tomatoes:

Banana capsicums – I have no idea what these taste like but they look cute!  Apparently they are supposed to go yellow, but I don’t really know when I should pick them.  Should I take them now do you think or should they ripen on the plant?

I have several different varieties of tomatoes, but I’m not sure which these are!  They might be beefsteak:

I have a massive pumpkin plant with two tiny potential pumpkins.  I hope some more start growing!

Up until last night all I’d harvested was a cherry tomato, a roma tomato and a few little scallopini.  But last night I got a big haul!  Five, yes FIVE ripe tomatoes!  Wheeeeeeee!  Yeah ok I know its not a patch on the photos of big baskets overflowing with produce that you see on other blogs, but it was enough to make me happy

Ash

He’s getting big now!

Yum yum!

Zoe seems to be enjoying her felt burger…