Nappies

As I've previously mentioned, I use cloth nappies for J.  Now J doesn't actually need any more nappies, but I do need to re elasticate a whole heap of my small nappies, and since I will have the sewing machine I may have to make another couple while I'm at it (it would be a bit wasteful otherwise).  

I love cloth nappies, they look lovely, they are very cost effective and they're good for the environment.  If you're interested in cloth nappies, you should definitely check out The Nappy Network.  The DIY page has some great, user friendly patterns, and the forum is a fantastic community of cloth nappying Mums.

Work

My project this week is to organise my own wardrobe.  Not just because its spring, but also because I have a job and need some work clothes.  DH suggested that I needed to buy a whole lot of clothes, and while it is nice to have a husband who wants me to spend money, I do actually have a reasonable number of work clothes sitting in the wardrobe since I last worked outside the home.

I have to admit that I'm feeling more than a little conflicted by the whole situation.  The extra money will be nice, and P and J are being looked a nanny for one and a half days, so they don't have to go anywhere, but still they are my babies and I don't like to leave them at all if I can help it.

And while ironing my work skirts, it occurred to me that I could sew some new clothes for myself, which was a very exciting (if slightly masochistic thought).

I'm celebrating a milestone birthday next month, so my project this week is to get organised and let people know.  Most of my family live on the other side of the island, so it pays to give them plenty of notice.  I thought I would feel a bit down about celebrating such a significant birthday but actually I'm quite excited about it.

Spring has sprung

Well sort of, there is a cold snap coming, but the garden looks fabulous at the moment.

The daphne has just about finished, but the scent is just extraordinary.

I also managed to get a photo of the freesias before DH did some creative mowing, although the photo is sideways.

And the raspberry canes my mother gave me are growing like mad.  Hopefully a bumper season of fruit this year.

The garden

Our vege garden was looking a little neglected after winter, although we did grow oats and sow them into it, so hopefully the soil condition will be pretty good.

Once we got stuck in and turned the ground over, and added some compost, it looked significantly better.  It helps to have some muscle to give you a hand.  I've set up 6 rows running across the garden, and they go in a specific pattern: 

• A
• C
• B
• C
• A
• C

Where A = long term crops (ones that take the whole growing season)

B = crops that take half a season

C= crops that can be grown in succession

the rows are 50cm apart, and next year we'll move them 25cm.  I'm hoping that the rotation of the rows, plus a bit of companion planting will solve our disease issues, specifically the club root problems.  So far we've got some spring onions in, and some beetroot planted.  It feels great to look out my kitchen window and see my newly dug garden.

Smockets

I've been thinking about a top pattern for P for a while.  Although the pullover top is fantastic, its only a size two, and even if I upsized the pattern, I think the neckline is a little babyish as P gets older.  Then I saw these smockets and thought they looked like a great idea.  I also had the pleasure of seeing a couple of Sam's smockets in real life, and they are just lovely, and the versatility of them really appeals to me, I can do some with wool for winter wear and lighter weight cottons for summer, and everything in between.  Now, to find the time to make some.

Gardening

My project for this week is gardening.  More specifically the vege garden.  We sowed some oats over winter and have dug them into the garden, so it is mostly empty and its a really good opportunity to reorganise before I start my spring planting.  We have a terrible problem with club root on our brassicas, and for the last couple of years we've planted on an ad hoc basis, and it isn't really working out all that well.  The idea is to divide the garden up into rows 50cm apart, with a mixture of long term and succession planting.  Unfortunately the weather is awful at the moment, so I'm hoping it will clear enough for me to really get stuck in and sort it out.

The problem with sorting out my fabric stash is knowing how to reorganise everything, and what to keep.  So I thought I would make some size rules.  In order to go into the big organiser, the fabric had to be bigger than the lid.  But then I didn't know what to do with some of my smaller scraps.  Because I am a bit of a hoarder, I'm sure that I'll be able to use them somehow, so I didn't want to throw them away.  So I ended up with several little piles of fabric.

Then I realised I could group my scraps together in terms of what I wanted to use them for and store them in plastic bags.  As a bonus, they all fitted inside the large box.

First a fabric destash, and then organising P and J's clothes, it must be spring.

P received some lovely clothes from my Aunt while she was with my parents, which was really nice.  But her clothes were bursting out of her drawers so it seemed a good time to go through all P and J's clothes and take out all their winter stuff.  I love doing this, you get to find all the clothes that you've forgotten about, and get a glimpse of the good weather to come.  Its all the fun of shopping without having to actually buy anything (and I'm obviously all for that).  The nice thing about having two daughters is that there are clothes for J to grow into as well.  So now they're all sorted out for summer.  Now how to make the weather fine up as well.