Fun but practical

Firstly, apologies for not replying to your lovely comments on my post of Theo´s one month birthday,  I am certainly counting down the days, can´t wait for some Grandma hugs and daughter cuddles too. Today is the first day for a week I have felt human again. Chris went down with a nasty cold and bless him, he kindly shared it, I did say he didn´t have to share everything!

Today I received a message sent about 5am from Rebecca, not that I saw it that early, she was obviously up with Theo, anyway she sent a link and said Mum I know you are clever, (flattery gets her everywhere) could you make some of these for Theo please.

Well Theo is brilliant at doing what all little boys do when you take their nappy off, usually resulting in a complete outfit change etc and a face full if you are not careful

I checked out the link, thought what a good idea, yep can do some of those

I also checked out the usual one stop, very large company that supplies all and found that they wanted 9.99 for 3 with different variations, no way! with a little time, patience and a good rummage through the stash, we could do this

So I set too, 

I was pleased as it took me out of feeling sorry for myself and gave me something to focus on that was useful and removed some of the cotton wool that had somehow replaced my brain

What on earth is she talking about, you may ask.....

Well they are called pee pee teepees or wee wee wigwams, take your pick

Little production line

They are basically one piece of cotton and one of toweling and they do pass the water test (pardon the pun) I used a syringe to test them

So with a certain piece of anatomy encased, hopefully it will help

I also finished off the little blanket that she asked for, ran out of yarn, but hope its ok, so I am going to send a little parcel off tomorrow, I know I can take them over with me but it´s always nice to get a little something in the post and then she doesn´t have to wait so long

this is folded in 4

I shall await the results of the wigwams!

I do hope that all of you in the Uk are ok after the devastating storm Dennis

take care

xcx

One month old

I know we all say how time flies

but it really has

can´t quite believe little Theo is one month old

Wide awake after his bath

He has changed already, counting the days.....

take care

xcx

Logging in

We´ve just had our second delivery of logs for the season

We have used the same supplier for years and he always gives us a little discount which is nice, we also recommend him to others, so I suppose it´s a little bit of scratch my back etc!

We always order 5 cu m and get a nice mix of almond, olive and other woods and he keeps it all under cover so it´s nicely seasoned and dry

Now we just have to barrow it all down to the wood shed and stack it, bit back breaking, but as it´s our main source of heating, it must be done... slowly....

Thomas investigating the pile but he refused to turn round

I have had a little tidy up in the courtyard and amazingly found these

Would you believe, over wintered without any protection

I was pleased to see the geraniums are nice and healthy to, must take some cuttings

Our only casualty seems to have been a large lavender bush, which is such a shame as it was tumbling over the wall into the lounge patio and a rosemary.

Definitely need to replace those, I use quite a lot of rosemary for culinary purposes, I like to sprinkle it over roast potatoes with garlic granules and add sprigs to roasted veggies amongst other things. Just crushing the leaves to release the oil just gives everything a fresh lift too. 

I must admit the sage has been a little neglected but it doesn´t seem to suffer, the other evening, wanting to make sage and onion stuffing, I harvested a bunch then put the leaves in the processor, along with onion, garlic and slices of bread, it was very aromatic, peering into the oven dish, Chris commented "What´s this" however it soon disappeared! 

Lavender brings back memories of sitting in Grandma´s garden, aged about 7 or 8, collecting and drying the sprigs and making little bags for the house. 

It´s nice to replenish little bags each year, and of course wonderful to see the bees enjoying the flowers. 

take care
xcx

Play time

 Whilst in Reading I treated ourselves to a new little gadget

I thought it would be right up Chris´s street with regard to making our miniatures

So I bought this

It´s a 3D pen, a bit like a cross between a glue gun and soldering iron, so you introduce the filament and draw with it, whether free hand or using a pre printed/hand drawn template.

I had a little play myself , it takes a bit of getting used to, like every new technique, but I´m left handed and of course all the buttons were on the right, I´ll get used to it, but then events took over and it was left to explore at home.

Antoni is a whizz in the computing department, writing all sorts of code for different applications, have to admit, a lot of it goes straight over my head, but when I purchased my new tablet, he just transferred all the relevant data within minutes for which I was very grateful

He also has a 3D printer, yes I know I went off on a tangent, but I´m there now!

He writes the code to produce all manner of items, some decorative but mostly useful, 

For example, one bracket of the wardrobe hanging pole broke off so he printed out a replacement, storing batteries can be a pain, so he produced a bespoke holder for them, special hooks to clip over a shelf to hold a lamp, napkin holders in the shape of a cat, he even made a beautiful specimen vase to hold a rose for Rose´s special shelf.

The uses are endless.

So, he showed me various You tube clips, amazing, you are only limited by your imagination  

The main thing that persuaded me to go for it was that although it only came with a small selection of filament in 4 colours, and by the time you had introduced it into the pen it was used up, but Antoni buys the filament by the reel.

So he produced reel after reel of every colour you could think of, then he gave me wood effect

ding!! brilliant for sculpting trees 

So there I sat winding all these colours onto the spool, bearing in mind the weight for my hand luggage

So, silver, gold, fluorescent, blue, red, purple, wood.......etc......

As I hadn´t bought anything else, except Earl grey tea bags I thought it would be ok.

With a little jiggery pokery it all went in, under weight!

These are the result of Chris´s first attempt at using it, not bad for a start

 I always have assistance at the airport and my case duly disappeared for checking, my assistant came back very apologetic saying my case had been taken for extra screening. With my mind blank apart from please dont take my knitting needles, even though they were bamboo, we went over to the security desk.

A very jolly man lent over and said we seem to have something that resembles a large sewing machine  part, Ah ha, I explained that it was a reel of filament for the new 3D pen I had purchased

Thinking, please don´t take everything out as it was like a jigsaw puzzle getting it all in.

He smiled and told me to have fun with it and handed over my case without even unzipping it

Phew!!

So now it´s play time

take care
xcx

Oranges and lemons

My goodness, February already!

It seems it was only yesterday I was heading off to the UK to welcome little Theo into the world and now he is 3 weeks old!

We went into town on Friday, but the co op didn´t really have much choice on the pluglets

perhaps it is a little too soon, even for here, so we will keep popping in to see what they have.

Each year I find it quite enchanting to see the trees in town are laden with bright colourful oranges.

Our next door neighbour has a very large bougainvillea growing up his front wall.

The colours are beautiful, although dare I say it does need a little prune, it was from this bush that I dried loads of the flowers ready to use for confetti for Rebecca´s and Antoni´s wedding. My gosh and that was nearly three and a half years ago!

(the photo really doesn´t do it justice though)

He also has a large lemon tree which he very kindly shares and they taste totally different.

I tackled another part of the garden yesterday, this is an area where all the fallen fig leaves seem to accumulate and although we have weed suppressing membrane down it doesnt stop the seeds germinating on top of the gravel.

I totally filled this huge container, squishing everything to get it all in, it was formally used on Antoni´s late fathers´ fishing boat for the catch, I´m just glad I don´t have to move it!

So I think a bit of an easier day is called for today

A few chores then perhaps a spell of knitting

Thought I would leave you with a photo taken just before I left having given Theo his little rabbit.

(Just to say it was taken out straight after the photo and is being kept for when he is older)

take care

xcx