The Bottom Of The To Do List

When I was a child my father painted our bedrooms. We were allowed to pick the paint colours. And Mum made us new curtains with fabrics of our choosing. I remember my sister picked a baby blue to adorn her walls, while I selected a pale jacaranda hue and floral fabric to match. Not only did he paint our rooms, he painted the rest of the house. My brother's room, the lounge room, kitchen, hall way and bathroom. Everything, except the doors. For years my Mother waited for my father to paint those doors. She had a list of renovations taped to the inside of a cupboard door, and would cross items off as they were completed. For all I know, those doors are still on that list, as he never got around to painting them. And hasn't painted them in the seventeen years since I left home. 

I couldn't understood that as a child. Why didn't he paint the doors? Especially when Mum was so keen to have them done. I didn't understand how easy it was to leave something at the bottom of one's list of priorities. That just because something was important to someone else, it may not be as important to you. Sometimes you run out of steam over something.

I understand better now. I have unpainted trims of my own to remind me how one's priorities change. When we brought our house and were renovating while pregnant with our second child, we did as much as we could before we moved in. We scheduled the removal of asbestos, the replacement of the ceiling and roof, the removal of the carpet, polishing of the floor boards, and of course, painting through out. The last job before we moved in was to have the floor boards sanded and polished. The day we'd booked in the floor sander came around and the trims were not finished. Never mind. We'll paint them when we move in! Then we had our second baby. Then our third. And still those trims wait for paint. 

But you know what? It doesn't bother me enough to over come the obstacles and tackle the task - moving the furniture, keeping the children away, cleaning and taping up the trims, finding the paint, brushes, drop cloths etc. actually painting and then cleaning up and putting it all away again. Time is too precious for such things right now. It makes me think of other items that are lurking at the bottom of the to do list, that I haven't the heart to get started on.

One day I imagine those doors will get painted and so will our trims. Perhaps when we paint the exterior of the house. But in the meantime, I'm leaving them off the to do list...

What's at the bottom of your list?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

My dreams of being reliant on home grown food from our veggie patch are far from being realised. In my most picturesque imaginings, everything we eat has been grown organically several steps from our back door. Chickens gossip in the garden. Bees navigate from flowers to hive. And I have a quaint potting shed stacked just so with rustic looking pots and handmade gardening tools. I know I could make it a reality. I have the space, the knowledge and the physical ability to turn the earth, sow the seeds, pull the weeds, harvest the crops. What I lack though is time. (And I have a husband that would be just as happy living in an apartment.) One can do everything, just not at once. Right now my priorities are my family and my business. The time I can dedicate to the garden tends to happen in spurts. At such times I reduce each garden to just soil, making piles of spent veggie plants and towering weeds, before planting my next crop of seasonal sure fire winners. 

Right now my tomato plants are sprawling lazily, as they weren't tied up as often as they should have been - but they are bursting with fruit. Four blue berry bushes are coming along, with a sprinkling of green berries promising great things for the future. The mulberries are on the wane after buckets full of precious fruit this year. The herbs are going to seed, and so shall I let them. (Self sown herbs are such a handy and hardy plant.) My mandarin tree is in no hurry to reach its full dwarf height. There's not a chicken or a bee hive in sight. Just two black cats, one old and one youthful, who follow pools of sunlight and nap days away.

Perhaps when I've retired you will find me filling my days in the garden with earth covered gum boots and an old straw hat. Grandchildren will pick strawberries from beneath wild mint, collect falling passionfruit and hunt for snails with me after rain. My potting shed will be the envy of a country living magazine shoot and my pantry will be filled with home made jams and pickles. But for now I'm content to do a little here and a little there and harvest my tomatoes with a sense of satisfaction that only gardening can give.

So tell me, how does your garden grow? What are your pottering dreams made of?

Made By Hand

Tropical Holiday Pineapple Studs

I Mustache You earrings in progress

Air dry clay leaves, inspired by Sarah Humphries

(The face she pulled when I asked her to smile.)

'Sun dried' homegrown tomatoes in olive oil

Air dry clay pots

It's been a crafty kind of week this week, with new pieces for the shop, preparation for the French Market on Saturday, air dry clay craft, painting and preserving. This week I am looking forward to indulging in some Christmas baking with Cohen and Emerson, working on some bigger pieces for the shop and a spot of knitting too. 

What have you been making lately? 

What's still on your list?

Pop back later for the winner of the Vantastic Giveaway, and get clicking if you haven't entered yet!

8 Little Things

 

1. Kumquats from a dear neighbour and friend

2. A cheeky little breakfast baby

3. Flowers from my garden

4. New in the shop - 'Tea for Two' studs

5. I believe tomatoes will be gracing my windowsill for some time yet

6. Mama heart melting moment

7. Sigh

8. Sky gazing on bright, beautiful days

-

PS. I made a new header yesterday. It's difficult to sum up your blog with one image, isn't it?! I used Pic Monkey - a free online photo editor - to crop and add text to an image I took in my studio yesterday. (Before posting off the large silver crochet necklace to its new owner.) I'm pleased with how the header turned out. What do you think?

Bored housewife?

As I type this flecks of paint are drying on my arms, a multitude of colours, matching the art work the children are making beside me. The clothes line is full of laundry, the floor is swept, the beds are made, the kitchen clean, calls to suppliers made, and two of the three of us are out of our pajamas (babies look so cute in onesies.) Musing over my cup of tea, the notion of the bored housewife leaves me wondering. I find there are never enough hours in the day. Raising children, keeping house, sustaining friendships, taking time out, reading for book club, gardening, preserving, crafting, budgeting. And then there are the many projects  in my head vying for attention. Knitted socks, crocheted cushions, a gallery wall of favourite photos in the stairway. I often have to remind myself that the time will come. But bored? Hardly! Blessed? Indeed - despite the many frustrations that come with parenting.

Now, you will have to excuse me. We are off to the park, then there are client jewellery repairs to be finished, baths to be had, dinner to be made and rows of knitting to be knit. But first, to clean up all this paint and change the baby.

Colour and life

1.Self seeded cherry tomatoes
2. Chilli - I planted two varieties of seeds, I think this is a rainbow chilli
3. A mass of baby chrysanthemums
4. Self seeded Black Russian Tomatoes
5. The sweet faces of violas
6. Potential
7. There will be another Rosella jam day soon
8. Pumpkin vine loving the compost pile

Autumn in the garden and there is much colour and life. Dahlias bloom in profusion  Sunflowers nod their large heads. Buds appear on the camellia - such a long wait until they blossom. Self seeded tomatoes have been left to their own devices, some undiscovered until their red fruit give them away. Eggplants grow heavy. Rosella continue to fruit. The odd strawberry can still be found. The runners spreading. The watermelon vine is dying back and one small melon waits with uncertainty as to whether it will ripen. The beds have been mulched, nut grass still sneaks through, seeds wait to be planted.

Long shadows stretch across the lawn in the afternoon. Emerson sits with the basket of pegs and upends it as I take the clothes off the line. Cohen finds sticks, kicks his ball, then follows me as I potter. I love this time of year. Not too hot and not too cold. The perfect time to be in the garden.

In these parts

1. New in the garden - rockmelon, rosella, marigold, dahlia and peppermint

2. Necklace orders wrapped and ready to go, complete with new mini cards from Moo

3. Off the needles, In Threes, complete with thrifted wooden buttons

4. Kitty cat feet poking out from under the curtain (sheet) in our bedroom

5. Tomatoes fresh from the garden and waiting to be preserved

6. Another beautiful sunflower

10 lovely things

1. New bangles
2. The first of the Black Russian and Roma tomatoes
3. One of the last baskets full of cherry tomatoes from the garden
4. A home for my seeds (On sale for $10 at Spotlight)
5. 'Afternoon tea' beads wrapped in vintage sewing patterns and off to their new homes
6. Another amazing sunset
7. The first rose from my garden
8. Parsley flowering
9. Ready for the oven
10. My little love

My first tomato season

AKA Tomatoes - heart breakers of the veggie patch

Tomato growers of the world concern yourself not. I shall not be removing tomatoes from my shopping list any time soon. My first season of growing tomatoes seems to have been quite a failure. My faith in my green thumb is shaken. Woe.

Dreams of organic vine ripened tomatoes and bottles of homemade preserve are not yet reality. Instead birds, mice or perhaps possums seem to have been making the most of the tomatoes with any blush of colour. After seeing Tania's post I rescued the remaining green tomatoes to ripen on the window sill. They looked lovely lined up like green soldiers on the ledge. I felt proud indeed. However, half of those tomatoes developed black spots that sunk into the fruit with time, consigning them to the compost bin. Insect, disease, wet weather, neglect in the late stages of my pregnancy? I'm not sure. I'll be doing some more research and some crop rotation for my next attempt.

Should those tomatoes remaining on the window sill ripen then I won't count it as a complete failure. A dozen homegrown tomatoes still counts as a small success, right? I'm hoping the ripening corn and watermelons will restore my green thumb faith. One day I will be sharing photos of my tomato success and beautiful bottles with you, I'm sure of it. In the meantime, I wonder if tomatoes are on sale?

Are you having more success in your garden? 

Any tomato tips?