THE TIN HOUSE

Ruby

2008-07-06T10:24:00.005+10:00

I think the word is "serendipity" - when things work out just as they should?

I have a new tiny lady to welcome to the world. She's a sister for a friend of my son. Her name is Ruby.

Last night while reading some blogs, I found a link to the amazingly talented fabric designer and dollmaker (among other things) Jhoanna, at One Red Robin. One of the dolls Jhoanna makes, is called Ruby. The pattern for Ruby is available for free use.

So that's just what I did. With two quite sick babes, there I was rustling in the cupboard last night for fabrics, and what I was able to reach without making too much noise, is what I used. A scrap of stripey stuff for the legs. An old tablecloth for the body and arms. Green linen and felt for the head. An old pair of jeans for the bottom. Here she is.Her legs are attached back to front....oops. Consider her my prototype. When I'm in town next, I'm going to buy some beautiful fabrics to make her properly. Ruby by Lisa. xx

Pincushion'a'rama - Lindsay DON'T LOOK!!!

2008-07-03T20:13:00.007+10:00

I have had such a wonderful time these past few days working on various projects around my home. It's terribly satisfying, and I want to share with you a couple of tiny wee treasures I have handmade especially for Rhonda's Down to Earth pincushion swap. I know many of you are participating as well. Hope you're having as much fun as I am with it.

Lindsey....you know you shouldn't be reading don't you! No peeking. Lindsey lives in Leeds and she is my swap partner by way of explanation.

Before I show my pincushion for Lindsay who by now will be resisting the temptation to look, let me show you a photo of the finished scarf from a post or two ago...or in fact scarves as I made a small one for my friend's daughter with the leftover wool. I am uncommonly proud of these as they are the FIRST garment I have ever knitted. Ever.
Now to my pincushion'a'rama.....

I started out looking for some ideas on creating little pincushions, something I've never made before. I found so many cute ideas, I was having trouble processing them. Until I stumbled across Very Big Jen's bottlecap pincushion tutorial. What a talented artist.

The idea of recycling something as universal as a bottle cap from a milk bottle really spoke to me.

To make each of these, one of which is for Lindsey (no peeking!), I bought a 69c piece of felt & a bottle of tiny glass beads for $1.49. The rest of the ingredients were already in my cupboard. Actually, that's not quite right, I did buy some glass headed pins because they just look so much nicer than the crummy old plastic ones I had already. They were $2.59 for a wheel of 50 pins.

"L" is for Lindsey.
The monogram & swirl on top are crafted with bits of the wool from Michelle's purple scarf, and then overstitched with silver thread. I've never sewn beads onto anything before and these little buggers are tiny - 1mm x 1mm at their largest. And what about an Australian bush pose?Hang on...this is just a pincushion right?

The second one I've finished is all black with silver embellishments. I went slightly mad with the intoxication of glass beadwork on this....either that or the ghastly 4am wake up this morning (I know which one I'm backing)

Unadorned, these take about 25 minutes to knock out. With decorations, slightly longer, but I had a total blast. Lindsay's pincushion goes in tomorrow's post. The black one is for my gift box. I've made another identical black one I've yet to decorate. Watch out beads, I'm coming......Lisa x

cow butt & other interesting titbits

2008-07-02T10:27:00.008+10:00

Have you ever got carried away with the idea of a project and forgot some of the more important "minor" details?

Witness these cow over-nappy pants I sewed up yesterday. Gorgeous soft minky fleece. Each piece lovingly handcut and sewed together entirely ignoring the stretch of the fabric. So much so I could barely jam these on poor baby's behind...just to take the photo lol xx They're so cute, but utterly useless.

I was distraught for about 2 seconds. I think I have enough to make them up again if I ever feel like it. The fabric is awful to sew with.

I pulled them off the babe, and left the room for a few minutes and came back to find what I thought was a fun sight - a 20 month old who had dressed himself up on his own - a stormtrooper spiderman wearing a nappy, spencer and just one sock with sandals.

Enough on babies and sewing. I did mention some details of a knitting project I have in hand. Just a few more rows to go on a scarf I'm making for my friend Michelle in Hobart. Michelle is an excellent knitter and over the years has made many beautiful things for my boys - blankets, dressing gowns, cardigans, jumpers, toys, socks, hats - it's quite a long list. So, when I saw this interesting wool in her favourite colour - purple - I decided to buy 4 balls (wasn't sure how many I'd need) and the right size needles, and began work on it. To my great surprise, it really hasn't taken very long. I'm knitting on size 8 needles. The yarn is called Tiramisu.
I thought the uneven nature of the wool (40% wool/60% acrylic) would hide any imperfections in my knitting, and hope it's good enough for an expert knitter to wear. I'm at home today with a sick child and a cranky baby. It's cold, wet & miserable outside and a perfect day to catch up on the housework, and just maybe a bit more knitting! Lisa x

Mum can you teach me how to sew?

2008-07-01T13:03:00.008+10:00

Oh dear God...Nooooooooooooooooooooo!

It's 5.30pm. There's no dinner ready yet. DH is at work. We're just home from the swimming pool. Boy #2 has a burning fever and looks likely to throw up at any moment. #1 son says to me, "Mum, can you teach me how to sew?"...and the conversation that followed:

me: Of course. Let's do some sewing together in the school holidays. (they begin here on Friday)

him: But I need to know by tomorrow

me: why tomorrow?

him: Because we're sewing clothes for peg dolls tomorrow and I don't know how to do it.

me: quick, someone get me a gin and tonic.

So, a quick scan of the evening's timetable gave me a half hour window from 7pm where I could supervise the sewing while watching the ABC news. (Humpty never knows when to stop with the alcopops)
The needle only had to be rethreaded 4 times. I was feeling terribly virtuous when I took this photo of the finished product. But the best part was the puffed out chest of my 8 year old boy who was so proud of his sewing.

I had a few comments yesterday about the little pair of woollen jersey pants I made to go over baby's cloth nappies. Yes, they are just like pilchers. The theory is that moisture is drawn into the wool, which in turn evaporates from the surface leaving a healthy, breathable atmosphere inside the nappy. There's a really excellent explanation about wool as a nappy cover fabric HERE.

It goes like this(I've cut and pasted a quick summary)

Wool is the only natural fibre that is both absorbent and water resistant, making it perfect for use as covers for cloth nappies.

While it still remains breathable, allowing for circulation which will help to prevent nappy rash and also helps prevent any health problems associated with increased temperatures inside nappies (as with synthetic disposable nappies).

Wool has been traditionally associated with jumpers hats and cold weather but did you know wool can also be used in summer? It is naturally regulating (keeps the natural temperature of the body) so will stay warm in winter and cool in summer!

Wool can absorb 35% of it’s weight in moisture so making it ideal for nappy usage!

Wool is super elastic, each fibre can stretch up to 1/3 of it’s length making it an ideal fabric for babies/toddler constantly on the move!

Wool is flame retardant making it a safe choice for baby's clothing

Coming up, possibly tonight, I have some exciting knitting news. Yes, I've decided to tackle a project. More to come. Lisa x

Sew Quick Wool Soaker

2008-06-30T08:30:00.004+10:00

My big plan last night was to list a heap of no longer needed baby things on ebay while they had a free listing promotion. However, I guess I was one of thousands who thought the same thing and I couldn't even log in. Once the kids were in bed, I had 2 hours of my own time to do something with before DH got home from work.

I'd bookmarked some instructions for making a woollen nappy soaker some time ago. I knew I had some pure wool jersey fabric in the stash, so I thought I'd give it a go.
It was amazingly simple, and once I had everything together, it took about half an hour to make.

Here is the finished product as it was last night.And here is my young man modelling them at 5am this morning in front of the fire....wish my legs were so athletic!

I'll lanolise this little pair of pants after I wash them. The next pair I make, I'll use double thickness fabric for the body of the pants. I might try a pair made from polar fleece too. Anyway, thought I'd share my sewing with you today.

Funny thing about blogging - sharing these snippets of work done in the quiet of the evening (or the full blast of daylight for that matter) gives a sense of value to the work I do around my home, that might otherwise go unnoticed, and I thank you for being there to read and share. Lisa x

hidden things

2008-06-28T14:36:00.007+10:00

Cupboards can hide many things...metaphorically, and as in todays' example, quite literally.

I'd completely forgotten about this.It must be 6 years ago that I began this rug, in the hope I think, of both wishing myself pregnant, and with a girl. No pink rugs have ever been required at the Tin House, but the bag containing this incomplete masterpiece fell out onto my head this morning as I dislodged a blanket from the linen closet. The reason I never finished it, is I could never find anyone who could crochet, to show me how to bind the edges.

Well, these days of course, I'm feeling a bit more self-reliant, and I attacked it again. (that and my acquisition of a "how to knit and crochet" pamphlet from the op shop)

Forty minutes later, it was done.Our eldest son's very best friend in the whole wide world has just acquired a baby sister. I'm wondering if this little lady whose name is Ruby, would need such a rug? I only hesitate because it was my first ever crochet project and it's not perfect. It's a bit uneven and I know I could do better now.

With no false modesty intended, do you think it's ok to give a handmade gift if it's not perfect? I'm not sure. Do you have any ideas about how to make it better. (unravelling and beginning again NOT being on the agenda). I'm wondering if I should create a lining for one side of pink polar fleece or something like that.

Ideas?

Lisa x

p.s. tonight is "movie night" at our place. "Movie Night" involves two little boys snuggling under blankets in front of the tv after dinner, and scoffing buttered popcorn while watching something they haven't seen before. Tonight's feature premiere is "Big" starring Tom Hanks (circa...late 80's?). I picked it up for peanuts at Big W last week and given the premise of the film is the complicated nature of being a grown man, versus being a little boy with a loving family, I think it will really hit the spot. Fingers crossed our Tin House baby will be fast asleep before the action begins.

Pastry tutorial: swiss onion tart

2008-06-27T08:35:00.015+10:00

I found this recipe the other day, when I was looking for ways to use up the last of our onions, some of which are starting to go yuk. I have only made one modification, and that is to remove the readymade sheets of pastry, and make my own.

Making shortcrust pastry is ludicrously cheap and fairly easy once you get the hang of it. The recipe for my pastry comes from Mum's old Sydney Flour Cookbook c.1963. As I was making the pastry, I took a few snaps so that if you're one of the many cooks who choose the bought sheets over making your own, I might be able to tempt you to have a go with a few tips.

For the accomplished cooks, sorry about the lengthy instructions.

Swiss Onion Tart

for the pastry:
1 cup SRF
1 cup P Flour
pinch salt
125gm cold cubed butter
cold water

for the filling:
2 tablespoons oil
3 medium onions sliced
1/2 cup (4oz) sour cream
2 eggs
1/2 cup finely grated gruyere/Swiss style cheese
cayenne pepper

Before you begin your pastry, get the onions cooking. Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions cooking over a low heat for about 15 minutes. When you begin they'll look like this. Cook until lightly browned and very tender. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to hot 210c/415F. I use a 20cm/8inch fluted edge flan tin with a removable base. Common kitchen wisdom says shortcrust pastry is buttery enough not to require us to grease the pan. This is bad advice. Grease your flan tin.

I use a food processor for pastry, but you can use elbow grease if you like. Put your flours, salt & butter together and pulse until the butter is incorporated and looks like fine crumbs. (manually, rub it in with your fingertips) Then add cold water until the mixture forms a ball. If you accidentally add too much water, I don't think the world will end if you add a bit more flour to even it out. Pastry cooks will no doubt shrink at the thought but we've all done it!

Now cut about 2/3 of your ball to roll out. Wrap the rest in plastic wrap and put in the freezer for next time you need pastry in a flash. I use a marble rolling pin given to me by a next door neighbour years ago. I have been known to roll pastry with an empty bottle. Anything suitable heavy and round will do. Use a well floured bench rather than rolling between baking paper. This just complicates the procedure.

Because you floured your bench so well, you'll have no trouble carefully manouvering the rolled pastry onto your flan tin. Beware....the fluted edges of metal tins are sharp enough to cut your pastry off when you least expect. Leave the edges roughly done, and pop your masterpiece into the fridge for at least 20 minutes. The reason they're always banging on about keeping pastry cold, is because when it's warm, it shrinks. When it's cold like this one will be, you'll pop it into the oven and the sides won't shrink down and your filling won't drip out.

Make a cup of tea and drink it.

Blind baking requires you to weigh the pastry down a little. For the gifted kitchen artisan, there are pastry weights. For the rest of us, a few cups of rice or dried beans will do. This rice has been my pastry rice for at least 4 years. Just keep reusing it. Now is the time to snip the rough edges off your pastry with a knife, or ifyou're using a pan like mine, just press down along the flutes. Prick a few random holes in the base of your pastry with a fork. Line your tart case with baking paper and fill it with rice/beans. Cook for about 12 minutes. This is not fully cooked so don't expect it to look cooked. Reduce the oven to moderate heat - 180/350

Now, lightly spread your onions over the pastry base. To complete the filling, whisk you reggs and sour cream until smooth. Add the cheese and stir. Gently ladle this mix over the onions. Sprinkle lightly with cayenne pepper.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until the filling is set.

Bon apetit. A cheap and delicious recipe to make from scratch.

Lisa xxx

menu plan.....Tuesday

2008-06-24T12:41:00.004+10:00

Yep, without the alliteration for Monday, it doesn't work. However....what's more important is that I finally feel able to take the simple step back to being more organised in my approach to feeding my family. I've done a stocktake of the freezer, fridge and cupboard and tomorrow I will do most of the shopping.

But, based on what we have in the house....this is my menu plan for the week.

Monday: as in last night - spiral pasta with cheese sauce and steamed vegies mixed through followed by jelly and cream for dessert - just the kids!

Tuesday: apricot chicken with vegies and rice. I have enough to make a serve to go into the freezer. I'll also make an apple pie later today using more of our apple harvest. Wednesday: Clare's casserole - a beautiful slow cooked beef casserole. Served with buttery mashed potatoes. This is in the freezer already cooked so I'll put it on to reheat before going to soccer training

Thursday: roast vegetable lasagne & fresh garden salad with lemon curd tart and cream for dessert (home lemons)

Friday: spaghetti bolognaise. Homemade pasta with an already frozen homemade sauce
with vegies

Saturday: something easy - maybe baked beans on thick homemade bread/toast. I might make pumpkin soup for the adults.

Sunday: lamb roast with potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin and greens. Yum.

So that's that. Collette - if you're reading this and wondering where your prize is...I finally posted it yesterday. I'm sorry but I wasn't able to fulfil your request for a trashy Aussie gossip rag - I had a copy of Womans Day to put in the parcel, but having it in there hiked the cost of postage from $19, to over $26!!! It was already stretching my budget at $19, so I payed it forward and when an older lady stopped me outside the post office asking for directions, I asked her if she would enjoy having it and she said she'd be delighted, and that being on a pension made magazines too expensive for her to buy. In the end, I felt pretty good about that. Should be at your place in a week or so.

Lisa x

pins and needles

2008-06-22T11:45:00.008+10:00

One of my many faults is a tendency to untidyness.....some might call that an exercise in reverse hyperbole....and this is true especially when it comes to my pins and needles.

For my birthday many moons ago, Mum made me a little sewing basket, and a pincushion. I've used them a lot. This is my pincushion. It's missing a few pins because I have an unfinished pair of boys pants in the cupboard full of pins...but you get the general idea. It was sitting there this morning next to the sewing machine as I stopped procrastinating and put a false hem on the bottom of yet another pair of too short school trousers. The next time I do a false hem, I'll do a tutorial for you. I am 6ft tall, and have been doing false hems for many years to extend the length of pants by using all the fabric that is turned under for a normal hem. Anyway...I digress.

Back to pins and needles. I've been scouting around for ideas for Lindsey's pincushion for the Down to Earth swap and found a really lovely idea for a needle book....which I know isn't a pincushion, but I'll get around to that later. All I needed was felt (got it) and sewing thread (got it). I cannot add the html code to link you to Melissa Goodsell's tutorial on this...but if you want to google "Day to Day" you'll find her excellent craft blog.

First - cut out your fabric. Decided to make two at once using felt, and the last scrap of Australian wildflower fabric that has graced my last two swapper projects.

embellish the top piece with dodgy embroidery stitches half remembered from high school sewing class..shhh no one will ever know!
Sew together. The felt is simply rough sewn together. The fabric version requires sewing with the right sides together and then you turn it out. Add a leaf of felt for the needles to be stored in.
Voila...a needle book, or two.
The felt one is for Mum's birthday coming up in August.

walking in the bush

2008-06-20T16:23:00.019+10:00

Our home sits amidst 15 acres of scrub and bushland, with adjoining farmland. It's a peaceful landscape, and sometimes you just need to take a walk in it to remember the beauty that surrounds you. So, armed with nothing more than gumboots and a cardboard tube and a hairclip (aka "laser gun")...we went walking.

You can't smell the sublime fragrance of peppermint gum (that's a tree people) after rain, but I hope you enjoy this little landscape.
lichen on stringybark
winter flowering acacia
On the Wallaby track
What a tiny, perfect forest! I thought I saw a pointy pixie hat moments after this was taken....
But perhaps the fairies are asleep in here...
This is the winter bark of the candlebark tree - not sure what the official eucalypt title is. A little like a ghost gum.
This is my driveway. Escaping from the world is just a left hand turn away.

Winter brings flowers to the Australian bush; sometimes so small you need to look hard to discover them. an imperfect shot of a tiny treasureThis one here is a grevillea of some variety...can't remember it's name.
The bush regenerating itself. This is an interesting brown lichen.We lost this tree in a storm a few weeks ago. It's sad when an old friend dies, but it's time had come and it won't be wasted. Already split and ready for next winter, or the one after that. In our drought declared area, it's been a wonderfully damp day. Lisa x

Garden Challenge X

2008-06-19T20:20:00.005+10:00

G'day. I thought it was about time I produced an update for the Garden Challenge at Elements in Time. This challenge is all about choosing to grow something to eat, all the way from seed.

I now have three Chinese cabbages hitting their straps, in spite of slug attack.The excellent advice I received recently about slugs has given me a perverse sense of delight in watching the seemingly unstoppable trail of slug carnage in my garden beds. I have a batch of home brewed beer (the first one I made around Christmas time last year) sitting in the shed "maturing"...it's either maturing or it's not going to get drunk by humans because...erm...it tastes like rubbish. HOWEVER....the slugs think it's great! Witness the final moments of this slug's perilous journey to certain death in the strawberry patch under the front verandah. I had created a maths challenge for Master 8, to count the number of slugs we've caught using the "beer in a tipped over glass jar" method. But we got sick of counting last weekend. There have been literally dozens of the little blighters drowning their sorrows in my horrid home brew. Yeuch!
How is the rest of the garden going? Slowly is the answer. But I think that's the right one for this time of year in our cold climate here along the tablelands. A quick count------
growing in the ground: wombok, english spinach, carrots, lettuce, rocket, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, leeks, garlic, raspberries, asparagus, onions.
That's my update for now. Lisa x

A bit of this and a bit more of that

2008-06-18T11:42:00.007+10:00

There's a reasonably simple explanation for my slackness of late in making regular posts: my study is a nightmare.

I present for your amusement, exhibit A. It is my firmest intention to clean it up today. You can see two plastic boxes sitting on the chair - these are my new filing boxes. I bought them this morning at Aldi for $14.99 each. They both come with 10 bonus suspension files. I have a small filing cabinet under the desk on rollers, but it's bursting at the seams and the paperwork cluttering the desk will be able to find a new home in the filing boxes. I'd intended to buy a 3 draw filing cabinet, but I couldn't find a second hand one that wasn't way outside my budget.

So - that's my task for today. Today feels a little surreal. I drove to Town A, and dropped Master 8 at school, and Master 4 at pre-school. I then drove to Town B and dropped Master 1.5 at childcare. Because I'm not working anymore, I don't really need to have my baby in daycare, but I haven't decided yet if I want to relinquish my spot with the wonderful lady who looks after him, as in all likelihood, I'll need the place next year. Normally, when everyone is settled in their spots, I go swimming. Today though, I'm on the good end of a 3 day migraine and didn't want to go doing anything my neck would regret later, so I decided utterly selfishly, to come home and be by myself. So I have 3 hours to be on my own before I have to pick up the two older boys and head off to soccer training.

You might imagine that after such a long time without any solo flying experience, I might be at a loss for things to do. Blow that! It's true I'm having trouble deciding what to do first. So here I am updating my blog. Next cab off the rank is to clean this dump of a room. Then I think I might make a spot of lunch from last night's baked dinner......and only then am I going to have the intestinal fortitude to tackle...THE CLOSET.

Before I go into a cleaning frenzy, some updates for you on other things.

Isn't this the prettiest cotton? This is my latest dishcloth. All I have to do is tie off the end and it's done. I used my daggy old "How to knit and crochet" pamphlet from the op shop (10c) to teach myself to treble crochet last night while watching some crap on tv. If you've read a few of my more recent posts, you'll know I've decided to move across from the dark side and trial reusable menstrual pads. I made a few of my own, but I've also just received some I bought from Michelle at Sustainable Hemp Products, and Ambrosia Designs. I was able to trial my home made pads last week, and am pleased to report they are both comfortable and practical. But they're certainly not in the league of the professionally made ones which are just so soft and slimline. Can't wait to try them out!

I've had a few comments about the pads, particularly in regard to how they will hold up to a heavy flow. I'm sorry I can't advise you on this, as I have (I think...not the sort of thing I tend to discuss among friends) a very light flow. During a normal period, I would use about 6 regular tampons and three pads. Kirsten commented that particularly on day one, she uses one super tampon per hour. Kirsten darling - I'm pretty sure these pads would not work on your heavy days. I'm also still breastfeeding, and my flow may well change when that scrumptious cherub decides to wean. The other thing I might do before turning the computer off today, (because let's face it, who needs an excuse to procrastinate cleaning up this mess???), is research some pincushion designs for the swap at Down to Earth.My swap buddy is Lindsey from Leeds in the UK, and I'd like to have a go at making something fun and interesting. Hi Lindsey!

Oh oh oh - I nearly forgot to mention that I've participated in my first blog carnival. Go and have a look at Kate's post yesterday for the Make it from Scratch carnival. A blog carnival is where you can list one of your own posts on a certain topic or theme, and then someone puts all the submissions together. It's good fun to participate, and leads you to all manner of like minded souls.

Enjoy your day. Lisa x

A Burqa & A Hard Place

2008-06-11T20:40:00.005+10:00

About ten years ago, I was presenting a nationally broadcast radio programme from the Sydney HQ of the ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corporation. During much of the time I did this particular programme, I was working with a producer named Sally Cooper. Sally was a gifted programme maker, and we got along MOST of the time! The things I remember best about her were her intense love of swimming laps at the Boy Charlton Pool, and her hilarious recounting of the reenactment of the Royal Wedding that took place at her all girls Catholic school in Melbourne. One year, she also gave me 7 pairs of identical socks for my birthday. I still have one pair left.

Anyway....I'm telling you all of this useful information because Sally has recently published her first book, which I think you'll agree is quite exciting. Of course, where I married, moved to the country and had kids, Sally went to Afghanistan....as you do.

Her book is called A Burqa & A Hard Place. It's a memoir of three years spent in Kabul as a media trainer - post Taliban. To my shame, I don't have my copy yet as our little bookshop hasn't got it in yet. BUT....I have read it.

You see, during Sally's time in Afghanistan, she sent a group of us a bunch of emails titled, "The Illustrated Afghan Diary"...which later became the book. So, it's been really thrilling to hear Sally on Late Night Live with Phillip Adams, (you can download the podcast using the link) and to read all about her adventures in The Australian newspaper, among many other media appearances during her whirlwind pr tour last week.

The news feature published in The Australian last week, is also featured on The Afghanistan Times website....along with the headline, "Taliban hangs women spies".

I was so proud of Sally for doing the work she's done, but also of the massive undertaking of writing about it. I told her so when we spoke on Monday.

This isn't an ad to go buy the book either. Just a quiet skeit!

Lisa x

It's yellow and furry but it's not a duck

2008-06-06T20:07:00.007+10:00

Well, it's a more interesting blog post title than, "I've made a new sanitary pad and it's yellow".

Once again, I used the instructions from she who runs in the forest, otherwise known as Adahy, but this time I followed the instructions for the 11 inch pad. I can't tell you the precise metric equivalent, but it looks to be about 30cm long.

In baby's cupboard, I discovered a forgotten little drawstring bag made from PUL. This is the fabric many manufacturers use to waterproof things like pads and nappies. Polyurethane Laminate breathes, and I'm happy enough to give it a try in my pads. I was that thrilled to see I had it there without realising. I took Lenny's tip to heart, about recycling unneeded flannel pillowcases. About two weeks ago, MIL gifted me THREE sets of barely used double bed flannel linen. This is in addition to the TWO sets she gave me about 6 months ago....we only have one double bed...but I accepted them gratefully. So I had that available to use. So I sacrificed a yellow pillowcase for my project.

A few cuts here
a few old bits of cloth terry nappy there and voila
I mucked up the first snap on this, but some gifted pliar usage got me out of a spot of bother.
So, to recap tonight's headlines, one washable leakproof sanitary pad featuring 4 layers of cotton flannel, two layers of terry towelling, one layer of PUL & one small metal snap for zero cost. Size wise, in both length, width & depth it is just like a bought one! Only time will tell on the comfort front, but it sits really neatly in my pants so I'm pretty happy with the effort. This pad took about 50 minutes to make. It would take a lot less time without the constant intervention of two little men with inquisitive, grabby, sticky fingers! Love Lisa x

Productivity bonus

2008-06-05T14:27:00.011+10:00

I've given myself a productivity bonus. In kind of course....

Last night after putting the children to bed, I read the comments you'd so kindly left on my previous post about cars, and my decision to move towards washable menstrual products.

There were quite a few suggestions about product sites and so forth...but I admit I was astounded by how expensive these products can be. Sure, they're handmade using natural fibres and so forth....but I got the urge to give it a go myself. DH was at work and I don't have a tv to watch.....so I got out the Janome.

At this point, I think it's only honest to say I made a cup of tea and drank it. Made another one straight away and decided to ignore the washing up...lol....a woman on a mission must not be stopped.

I followed the links to this site suggested by Tracie at Our Simple Green House. Adahy who runs the page has supplied patterns and full sewing instructions for a number of different styles and sizes of pad. I printed them off.I rifled through the linen cupboard and found some likely fabrics.Here you can see a green linen dress leftover from Ingeborg's apron, a remnant of 70's floral, blue striped seersucker (all op shop) & an unused and unloved fringed blue table napkin - all 100%cotton. I ditched the seersucker in the end because it stretches too much while you're sewing, and replaced it with a groovy old blue floral tablecloth (op shop)

This pattern is for the small panty liner style pad. I made two. It took one hour.

You might be able to see on the blue liner, I've added a single layer of terry towelling - a piece of an old cloth nappy. I meant to insert it inside the pad before sewing it all in place, but forgot. So I've sewn it so that it sits at the bottom of the pad as the layer between your undies and the liner. I thought that as well as giving more absorbency, the texture of the fabric will stop it slipping around.

Making these two pads cost nothing more than electricity. I had the fabrics. I had the press stud kit from an earlier craft attack. I can make quite a few more without having to spend a cent.

So, my next sewing task will be to make a fully fledged pad. I am going to see if I can find a remnant of flannelette at Spotlight this week and see how it goes. I'd like to use my old square cloth nappies as the absorbency layer on my trial pad, to judge if I need to buy some PUL. Unlike the US, you can't seem to be able to buy PUL (polyurethane laminate) in everyday fabric shops. It's readily available on the net though. You really need a very small amount, so it won't cost the earth. Also, because it's a hidden layer in most pad patterns, you can get whatever colour is going cheap.

So there you are. I've tested these two panty liners in so far as I put them in to see how they felt, and they really feel very good. I'd like to construct my pad before Monday/Tuesday...that's my biological deadline for a full test run.

OK, I've bored you enough with all this twitter.

Did I mention the fridge is now on the blink too? It never rains but it pours.

Lisa xx

Car, is not a dirty word.

2008-06-03T21:28:00.004+10:00

The lazy blogger returns with a drab photo-less post.

I have had/am having a somewhat tumultuous week, and that along with the obvious fact that the dog ate my homework, is why I have been away.

I've been debating whether to post about today's subject, because I feel it paints a less frugal picture of me than perhaps I want you to see. I'm all about cooking, growing food, setting up gardens etc, but like all people living in somewhat isolated circumstances, I own a car and I drive it. A lot. And yes, I do feel guilty about it. I try to drive as little as possible, because it saves money and carbon emissions. But there is shopping to be done and brought home. There are children to take to soccer. There is work to attend. There is NO public transport here. It is too far to cycle. Enough justification already. I just want you to know that I take my car priveleges seriously.

Last Thursday, we bought a new car. Not brand new, but new for us. We traded in our Mitsubishi Verada, for a Peugeot 307 2.0L Turbo Diesel. This exciting, nervewracking and exhilarating venture cost us $5000 of our savings. Why?

* The Peugeot TDi recently set it's third consecutive world record for around Australia fuel economy with 3.7l/100km. The model we've bought has a rating of 5 litres per 100km for mixed driving (ie..city and highway). Almost all our driving is highway so we therefore expect a better economy. Even though diesel is now 25c per litre more expensive than unleaded petrol, we are well and truly ahead. Fuel cost is one side of the package; the other side being the halving of our fuel consumption. The Verada was getting roughly 10 litres per 100km's. The last time I filled it up, it cost me $96. Diesel is a less refined product and the Peugeot has amazing carbon emmission ratings. On today's petrol prices, we'll recover the changeover cost within 2 years.

* The Verada was a family sedan we've had for just under 2 years but it was an uncomfortable car for 3 children across the back seat. The rear seat was highly shaped with the expectation that two bottoms would be sitting on it. This meant the safen'sound baby chair didn't sit flat on the seat and impinged directly on the comfort of the lad sitting next to it. The new car, even though it looks smaller on the outside, has more cabin space.

* Having suffered through a serious head on car accident 2 years ago, I demanded a car with a higher than average safety rating, including airbags. The new car has front, side & curtain bags. I know it's not much, but that little balloon saved my life last time.

The cons?

* Apart from the indicators and windscreen wipers being on the wrong side of the steering column....we've sacrificed boot space. The Verada had enough boot space for the GDP of a small island nation. The 307 Hatch will fit the shopping in, as long as you hold your tongue just so. The current plan, is to buy one of those roof top pods to make up for the bootspace issue when we head up to QLD in July for our family reunion. We both think, that given the bulk of the car's driving life is spent with one adult and two small children shuttling here and there, the storage sacrifice is workable.

* the engine oil this car needs costs nearly $70 per oil change. Ouch.

I suppose I'd be interested to read about how everyone else in this community of readers and writers manages their car usage. For me, as you can see, it's an issue fraught with guilt laced with necessity. DH's parents (particularly MIL) cannot comprehend why we'd buy this car because they are somewhat tied to the idea that families need BIG cars. Big cars use too much fuel.

What else?

I suffered through yet another medico-legal ordeal today for a psychological assessment that began at 2.30pm, and finished at 5.20pm. This relates to a legal case I'm stuck inside of, and can't escape from!

hmmm...a segue from psych testing to money....

It feels a bit as if I've been looking for ways to spend money! Our tv blew up (literally) last week, and we want to replace it. We're in the midst of the el cheapo model v's lcd/plasma screen debate. I had a look on the Gumtree site for Sydney (classified selling site) and there are some good deals on second hand tvs that might be worth chasing up.

As well, I've been scouring the net for reusable cloth pads. That's right. I'm ready to take the leap away from disposable sanitary products. I see it like this: I'm totally fine washing poo out of cloth nappies, so a bit of blood is hardly going to turn my stomach. I suspect it's the reaction of others that might be the trickier thing. Anyway, there are just so many to choose from. I've bought one off ebay sewn by an Australian SAHM. (blogger won't let me post the picture.) I think I'll order a few different ones to find what I like. I'm a bit concerned about how well they stay in place. It's been easy finding them because most MCN manufacturers also make pads.

In Garden news: DH is nearly finished his THIRD new no-dig garden bed for the back yard, with plans for one more. It's looking fantastic, and I am about to head off to a seed site to linger over what I might want for the coming season.

assignment count: 40
teaching tutorials left to go: 4 hours tomorrow

Tomorrow afternoon when I get home, I've decided to crack open my Christmas Moet to celebrate my return to home. I'll toast you. Promise.

Lisa x

Garden Challenge IX

2008-05-27T08:51:00.007+10:00

Hi one and all,

Melinda probably thinks I've fallen off the garden challenge wagon, but I have been quietly watching my Wombok seedlings stretching their legs and growing.

In spite of cabbage moth and slug attack.

They're doing ok. This photo is 10 days old I've been going out every night about an hour after dusk to wollop the slugs. Lisa 150....slugs nil. I was given some excellent advice last year that I promptly forgot, about the kind of soil type and acidity levels etc that mollusks love. I have to revisit it because whatever we have in our beds, they thrive in. If it's just a matter of adding a mineral or something to even out the soil, then I'd be keen to watch the little critters die.

The womboks are situated in a raised bed along with rocket, early nantes carrots, and now some English spinach (sown just over a week ago).

I decided to grow these Wombok from seed per the Garden Challenge requirement to grow a food from seed that you've never grown before. A Wombok, by the way, is a type of cabbage. I love them in salads - thinly sliced - an excellent sweet but totally crunchy addition.

Elsewhere in the garden, the garlics planted in October are swelling and looking quite good. I planted them in a poor position in a pile of compost, leaf matter and left over potting mix near the liquidamber in the backyard. This photo is two months old. They're certainly not thriving, but I'm thinking by Spring they might just fall over the finish line.

There's also a few leeks hanging on I'd totally forgotten about. They ended up being overtaken by my zucchini plant, and it was only after we pulled it out we remembered they were there....now they don't have to share the light with those greedy cucurbits, they're doing quite nicely. Hmmm...Leek tart for dinner....

The carrots are doing alright. The only success I've had with carrots were the ones we had over Summer just gone - which grew beautifully in an old black plastic recycling tub. Those I've put into our beds grow really wonderfully but taste like a combination of cherry flavoured Benadryl and green olives.....blurgh. So, I'm not expecting much from them. If they're even edible, I'll be happy.

The "all year" lettuce has been terrific. I keep picking the leaves and they keep growing. We've had a dozen severe frosts here already, as well as a blizzard, and they are true to the description on the seed packet - "very frost hardy". The entire pack of seeds cost 69c from Go Lo - a discount store.
Down the bottom of the yard, we've got peas that are still flowering. The first of the pods should be ready next week.

I've got a wonderful day at home today...slightly spoiled by the prospect of more marking this evening when the kids are in bed. But I'm getting there! I think today we're going to do some craft in the kitchen - maybe icing some biscuits or somthing the boys will love to help with. That decided...best go and make the biscuits! Happy Days! Lisa x

drumroll please

2008-05-25T10:55:00.006+10:00

I had a lovely week anticipating doing the draw for my inaugural competition. Sadly I don't have any ducks to do the real drumroll. There were nearly 20 entrants whose names went into the hat to win my old Levi's cunningly refashioned into a shopping tote.And the winner is.......
COLLETTE

Congratulations! Collette is an Aussie married to a Pom living in the US with their baby girl. Her blog is called 10 Minute Coffee Break - something I aim for...but never seem to achieve. Could you please email me with your address details to:
lhampshire at csu dot edu dot au

Until next time.....Lisa x

p.s. I'm going to take some photos today of my garden so I can update you on the progress of my Garden Challenge set by Melinda at Elements in Time. This blog is really astounding as she and her partner make some amazing adjustments to their lives as citizens of LA, to rural Californians doing their utmost to neutralise their carbon footprint and grow ALL their own food. I never cease to be amazed at what they produce on what is essentially a tiny plot of land at their rented house. Go and have a look if this description piques your interest.

assignment count: 120 to mark before I'm free

Yoo hoo hoo, lookin' out my backdoor....

2008-05-20T20:45:00.011+10:00

Just as Creedence Clearwater Revival sang the song...so I have taken the photos.

Why?

I've been tagged by Kate at Our Red House, for the Front Door/Back Door Meme. The Meme simply asks for photos taken of the view out your front and back doors. Our house has three.

The one we use most often is the exit via the laundry. This glass paned wooden door takes you out to the back verandah that sweeps along the length of the house, shielding us from the worst of the weather. It looks out on what I call the "business" area of our home - the clothesline, the dog kennels, the vegie beds, the firepump and tanks, the swingset and trampoline, the woodshed etc.

This is the view in reverse....on the left hand side you can just see the new vegie beds. You also get a clear view of the solar hot water booster on the roof, as well as the custom built stainless steel rooftop sprinkler system...that DH is a clever bugger. It runs off the petrol firefighting pump, but we've also tested it on gravity alone and it is brilliant. Even though we want to grow as much of our own food as we think we can, we are limited to tank water, and the generosity of DH's dad who allows us to pump water out of the dam adjacent to our land. This means we've planted lots of smallish evergreen perennials (and large deciduous trees) within our yard to try and create a future cooler microclimate. None of these are watered. We use the dam water to fill a water tank that sits along our driveway. It is always kept filled for firefighting, but we also gravity feed the hose points in our yard with this water and we handwater our growing food. This means we don't have to use our rainwater. I've written previously about our greywater system off the shower and bath that irrigates our fruit trees.

Next, we move on to the kitchen doorway, which is a double glass door with sidelights - which provides a lovely view of our growing orchard and the bushland beyond. The pile of clippings you can see is a combination of lucerne trees that just had a haircut, and the pears who had their annual prune today. The birdnetting is (fingers crossed) still keeping the parrots out of the pink lady crop which is still not quite ready. If you look sideways from the kitchen doorway, you see our summer house...although I've never called it that. We just call it "the bbq area"...which I know is especially creative. I've just noticed the dinner triangle has fallen off again. It was a housewarming gift from one of my brothers. We always had a dinner bell at home when we were growing up - it was an honour we competed for to be the one to ring it. We've recently excavated the slope and had it levelled to create the only flat piece of ground on our land. You cannot play cricket on a 40 degree slope...not without tantrums anyway (and that's only me!!). The western side (you're looking at it) of the open sided area is generously shaded in Summer by an ornamental grapevine. (don't ask me why we didn't plant a real one...?#$!@

Then, we have another set of double doors from our loungeroom out onto a large elevated deck (15foot in the air I suppose) where you see this. Because I know they are there, I can see the sticklike visage of an almond and a peach in the very foreground of the photo, but you have to squint and hold your tongue just so.

So that's about it. I always enjoy sharing these little snippets of this life with you. I would like to tag the following to share the views from their front and back doors.

Belinda's Place
Kez's blog
Molly's Cross Roads
Bec's Sticks & Stones
Kate's 3anklebiters

And (tut tut...beginning a sentence with a preposition....)I'd like to add here today a special photo to direct you to Kate's Our Red House Gooey Chocolate Blancmange recipe....don't let the photos lull you into believing this is a childish recipe! You'll be scraping the bottom of your dish too! ...I'm sure there must be more in here somewhere?

While Kate posted this in the middle of the heatwave, we ate it warm on a cold, cold night...with a dollop of freshly whipped cream on top. Superb.

A special prize

2008-05-17T20:03:00.015+10:00

Some time ago, I passed the milestone of writing my 100th post...and I'd thought at the time it would be nice to run some kind of competition to celebrate the many wonderful things joining the community of bloggers has brought me.

As is my habit, I slept on it.

...quite a few times as it happens.

Anyway, there I was today wondering if I could mend my favourite jeans.

This might look like a simple tear, but in truth, the fabric is dissolving with fatigue in front of your very eyes.

I'd seen an American lady somewhere in blogland who I never thought to bookmark, who makes aprons out of old jeans....so I thought that might be something I could do. But then I decided to make a bag.

So off came the legs.

Then I used some of the leg fabric to create a base...all the while juggling the position of the pin cushion and scissors to keep naughty fingers at bay!

Some of you might remember a hilarious pastel stripe dress I wore to an 80's party a few months ago....well out she came, to be reborn as the lining of my bag.

This was handsewn into place.

More of the legs were salvaged to make some handles, and voila.

Look, this bag will not be winning any sewing awards, but it is a real, honest to goodness, 'saved from the scrapheap', useful thing, and I have created it as the exclusive one of a kind prize for my Tin House Inaugural competition.

If you'd like to acquire a free and virtual raffle ticket, please leave a comment here and I will put you in the draw. I'll happily post this off to wherever you might be. I'll keep entries open until next weekend and do the draw on Sunday the 25th (?) of May.

I'm so grateful to the wonderful little community of readers who visit me - thankyou so much..

Oh, and just because I have the photo here, this is the second of the new garden beds finished on Thursday. Can you see the brown gadalan onions? The other half will be planted with garlic bulbs.

I've purchases snow pea, spinach & spring onion seeds but we haven't decided on our crop rotations for this year so haven't put them in the ground yet. Life's good. xx

Biccies & a new veggie bed

2008-05-13T22:57:00.009+10:00

You know you're reading the work of an Australian when you have both "biccies" and "veggies" in the one title!

One of the constants of simple living, for me, is finding homemade alternatives to expensive, store bought foods. Last week, I bought a bag of smaller bags of tiny wee biscuits. The bag of smaller bags (go plastics go) was a little over $3. Of course, the children thought it was great to have these tiny bags of biscuits in their lunchboxes, but I never intended buying them more than once.

So today, I donned my long forgotten ambition of being a test kitchen cook, and created a recipe for teeny, tiny choc chip biscuits...minus the transfats and other assorted rubbish. It's probably not particularly original - perhaps an amalgam of recipes in my head, but it worked and here it is:

Lisa's teeny choc chip biscuits

1 cup Self Raising Flour
1 cup Plain Flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup choc bits
1 crushed weetbix
1/2 cup rolled oats
125gm (1/4 lb) butter
1 cup milk
Destructions: melt butter and mix everything up being careful to add the milk a bit at a time. Roll into tiny balls and cook in a moderate oven (180C) for 13 minutes....(slightly longer or shorter cooking time depending on the size of your biccies)

I made about 60 of these fine little munchies. Because they are so small, not every biscuit has a choc bit in it either, but no one seems to have minded. Everyone is taking a few to school/work/childcare tomorrow.

After a survey of our food growing options here on-site (we have a larger plot up the road) DH decided to mark out two more no-dig vegetable beds.

The difficult part of the equation for us is not the land...we have 15 acres, but it is 15 wooded acres. Bushfire regulations required a certain amount of land clearing when we built our house here, including a perimeter around the home, but we kept to as little as possible for the sake of the land. Growing anything in an acid slatey soil is difficult, but doubly difficult when the cleared areas are still in the influence and sometimes the shade of a dry, schlerophyll Eucalypt ecosystem. Anyway, to cut a long story short, there is a spot inside our fenced yard where we've been wholly unsuccessful in encouraging grass to grow, so that's where the new beds are going.

The little corrugated iron shed you can see in the photo above houses our dedicated petrol water pump for bushfire. It also connects to our rooftop sprinkler system. God help us if we ever need it, but it's there and we are as ready as we can be for the worst.

DH got these hardwood planks from a building site he was working on a few years ago. They were building a Bunnings hardware shop, and these pieces of wood were part of the packing material that held the new shelves together in each container. He salvaged about a thousand from the dumpster before it went. What a waste! Lucky for us though.

Each corner of the patch is made of a long piece of angle iron flogged mercilessly into the ground with a sledgehammer by a slightly nervous but athletic gentleman, worried just a teeny bit that he might hit one of the irrigation pipes he laid in the general area two or three years ago....

Then the hardwood is slotted in between the iron, and screwed into place.

Our other garden beds are made this way. They are all into their 4th growing season and of course we don't expect them to last forever, but they're still looking strong and robust. Here are some as viewed by me this afternoon from the back verandah.

But what about the new one I hear you ask. Well, here it is. Filled with a mixture of local topsoil, commercial compost purchased by the uteload, & some very well rotted sheep manure and straw from last year's lambing.

The second no dig bed will be done by lunchtime tomorrow. It will run perpendicular to this new one, and parallel to the strawberry & iris bed that runs up the garden path...about where the wheelbarrow sits in the photo. Also, to keep the weeds/grass at bay, he's laying a path of crushed rock in between the beds.

So that's life here. I am up late tonight when I know I should be in bed. Only problem is I caught a quickfire nanna nap this afternoon and I'm not really tired enough to go to sleep. Mind you, I could just watch the Federal Budget coverage - the ultimate cure for insomnia. Sweet dreams. Lisa x