Glog - a - long

I am pretty excited that some of you are going to glog along with me. I have been trialling the production of actually growing things and then eating them for a few months. We started last year with a lot of enthusiasm and have had more failures than success, but I am still keen to make it work.

So focusing on what did work -

Lettuce! Yes, lettuce I was amazed how easy it is to grow and how delicious it is to eat fresh and not from some days old plastic bag. Easy and delicious - it is apparently able to be grown year round including the frosty bits, I must get some more and plant it. (I didn't have much luck with planting seeds but seedlings worked really well)

Basil and coriander in pots. This only worked when I put the seeds in planters and put them on the kitchen window sill. Something about seeing them everyday and so close to the tap, they got regular watering and they grew and grew.

Cherry tomatoes, it is still too early to put them in here in Tassie but they were also good.

The failures included the apparently super easy peasy zucchini, the tres facile pumpkin vine, broccoli (apparently wrong season), bok choi and strawberries plus many more I am too embarrased to list.


But my sister lent me this book and it is easy to follow and a comprehensive section on each type of vegetable. Next, I am planting Asparagus...

Learning Gardening

I started writing a GLOG last year when the kids and I wanted to grow some veggies. It seemed like a good idea to note down what we planted, when we planted and what happened. Looking back it seems we were a little ambitious and most things didn't really grow, survive or thrive. We did manage to get some tomatoes to grow, but almost every thing I planted from seed failed (except some radishes). It has been quite a useful thing to do and I now know I am not very good at watering.

So this is a new year and I thought I might take the GLOG global and post a few things here as we start planting and thinking about growing this year.

These are the Principles of our GLOG ...

"This is our garden's logbook, or glog. We want to keep a record of our garden as it grows (or not) so we can learn from our success's and failures.
The aims of our gardening adventure are to:
- grow nutritious food
- watch the cycles of life
- harvest water
- teach ourselves through action
- eat well and exercise
We would like to grow herbs, fruit and vegetables to eat and flowers to use around the house.
We hope to work organically, reduce our shopping list, reuse materials and equipment and recycle."

Or put simply by a 5 year old - Learning Gardening.

This is... My most treasured childhood possesion

When I was 6, my sisters and I were taken to a toy store in England and told we could choose whatever we wanted. This is it. He is lovely painted porcelain and when you wind him up he turns around to a tinkling tune.

I also have a very gorgeous stuffed Winnie-the-pooh which I love, but, the kids are allowed to play with him, so I guess he is a little less precious.

Which also reminds me of my favourite all time joke... ready ...

Q. What do Winnie-the-Pooh and Jack-the-Ripper have in common?

This is part of Angela's "This is" meme, of which I contribute very badly, but this week on time (nearly)

A. The same middle name! (tee hee)

Winter time

1. Sunday Morning, 2. Snowy Mount Wellington, 3. Miellerie Tasmanian Honey, 4. Winter Shadows

I have been thinking about a post for a few days, and finally after getting a nudge from my far away friend (how was the sunset set ems?), here is something.

Winter in Hobart can be a little unpredictable, usually we have some cold weather, but it never seems to stay consistent for months on end. We are lucky, I guess to not be blanketed under snow for months on end (I am thinking Fargo or similar), but living on an little island surrounded by the southern oceans can result in a lot of conversations about the weather!

It is not that I think talking about the weather is boring, au contraire, in actual fact I think it gives more ability for us to connect with each other as a community.
And so when I read that Harriet and her tribe at Dick and Dora are cold, I can relate. And when Rita recommends a perfect winter pie at the Red Velvet Lounge, I am trying to think of a way to get there.
And when on the other side of the world Amanda from Soulemama starts her Days of Summer posting as a reflection of the passing seasons, I think, yeh I can do that and then I remember that posting a picture a day reflecting on days of winter is unlikely to occur. So instead I will offer a couple of pictures of the snowy mountain from our windows, the winter shadows and some wonderful Miellerie honey* that I finally found at Merediths** (get there immediately and buy some).

* Some of you might have seen this wonderful French Aparist on SBS last week, he lives in Tassie and makes to most delicious organically produced, cold extracted, unheated, unprocessed, pure raw honey (I am copying this from the jar, not reciting it from my heart). I am feeding the kids a teaspoon a day for its medicinal properties. Yum, 1 for them, 2 for me.
ps. this jar of Honey is from the nectar of the Prickly Box, but there was also Leatherwood and Tea Tree. I couldn't decide so I decide to get the jar with the most intriguing name.
** Merediths is on the main road just outside of Margate, heading towards Snug.

This is ... my favourite travel memory

My favourite travel memory (thanks to Hila for trip down memory lane and for the theme for this weeks This is theme), is living in this beautiful valley in Northen India.

It is Parvati Valley and we rented a one room wooden house with no water or power and lived there for about a month. We lived a days walk up the valley from Manikaran amongst the pine forest, the valley was surrounded by the highest snow top peaks, it was summertime but still a little chilly in the mornings. The hut was warmed by two cows that lived underneath us in the stable, we nicknamed them Freedom.

In those days there was only access by foot along a windy track, but our peaceful sabbatical was often interupted by the sound of explosions in the distance. They were building a dam on the other side of the valley.

I learned how to cook on a wood fire and drank chai and make chapatis. The water in the nearby stream was freezing, so washing was a very quick affair. Towards the end of the stay we walked another half day further up the valley to bathe in the hot springs at Khirganga which was the place Shiva was supposed to have meditated for 3,000 years. It was bliss, I think I soaked in the hot hot water for what must have been an hour. The women's bathhouse was empty so I had the spring all to myself.

When we finally left the valley we walked back to the main town and rode on the roof of the bus through the winding roads and green forests back to civilisation. I remember feeling totally free, it was an amazing feeling and a wonderful month in the valley of the gods. I was 22.

The Mosaic Me

Ok, so I am always ready to jump on the bandwagon and these mosaics seem to be the latest meme on the super highway. I used Jillian Beans suggested search terms, where basically you ask yourself a bunch of questions about yourself, put the answers into the Flickr search box and choose a picture from the first page of search results. So here is a pictorial representation of me (at least one version of millions of iterations), but I like it so I thought I'd share. It is fun so you should give it a go, JBeans has all the details on her blog.


1. Edwina Ashley before her marriage to Mountbatten, 1919, 2. Ginza Crossing, 3. Feasts of Our Lady Throughout the Year , 4. Our Christmas tree this year!, 5. Gael Garcia Bernal, 6. Good morning Mountain, 7. In the Neighborhood, 8. one.dress.finished, 9. chasing crows, 10. Caught in the Snow, 11. Little Snoring, 12. street style blogs | London Street Fashion

Market Day

Ok so here are some snaps from the Night Market, which is a Hobart Fringe Festival institution. It was a lot of fun and I got to sell a bunch of stuff, catch up with some old friends and chat to some new ones. The definate highlight was selling one of my bears to a good-looking 30-something guy who had no kids and no reason to buy a bear other than he had to have it. The two girls he was hanging with were kinda surprised, I think the bear was giving him the stare and he fell for it.



To my Tasmanian friends who kindly said they would look at for 'Little Snoring' at Salamanca I just wanted to give you the heads up on the stall. It is actually my friend Michelle's stall and it is always opposite the Vietnemese Kitchen. If you see Michelle please say hi, but it probably won't be me, so she may seem a little confused if you tell her you have been reading her blog. . .

Mi Madre and my toys

So I am late again for the 'This is' entry, but these remind me of my mother, well, becuase it actually is my mother. I just love these old photos, they are such a lost place in time. I think it is the fact they are black and white that really kills me.

I am using them as part of the packaging for my toys. It has taken a very long time for me to get it together and it is still in its infancy, but, ta da.... I have started selling my softies. I have also launched a website. I designed it myself so its a little limited, but please go over and have a look http://hushlittlesnoring.com

This is what I have discovered lately...

SteamPunk!

Just when I thought I was going to post a 'This is...' on time, I realise I am in fact one whole week late... whatever, nevermind.

Here it is .... Steampunk, and as usual I am a little late off the mark, it seems like it has been around for ages, but there is something quite inventive and cool about merging the modern with the mechanical (in a Victorian way)

Here is a Steampunk Tree House at last years Burning Man, from here


Steampunk specs, more here


And of course Steampunk Workshop
and, some very cool steam punk toys

6 degrees of separation

I was thinking the other day about my circle of friends and their friends and the lives of people and the circles of their lives and the circle of my life and how they intersect. Which got me onto 6 degrees of separation which I know was a movie but I think the general gist is that you can connect with people through other people or something.

And I, in my housewife-state, was pondering the meaning of life as I folded laundry or washed the dishes it occurred to me that in our house we are connected directly or through friends with .... the future queen of Denmark and the voice of Optimus Prime





Which at the end of the day makes no difference to the pile of laundry or the state of the kitchen, just thought it might make an interesting dinner party...

Week of Cute - Day 3

Ok, I am finding the week of Cute a little problematic. I mean take this print for example I bought a copy from here. But would you call it 'cute' I don't know. I remember when I was a teenager I was talking to a very cute boy, and he was quite offended at being called cute, I guess he really saw himself as slightly more manly. Now, I see his point. Cute can be a difficult thing to be.

Week of Cute - Day 2 : PRINTS

Brandon Reese

Ed Beals

Jaime Zollers


From Thumbtack Press

Week of Cute - Day 1

I am joining in with Three Buttons week of cute (better late than never).

Swing your cute-antenna this way... A bear made by Lynn at Molly Chicken.

This is ...

...my demon, not so demonic but merely a lustful addiction...

I love interior design magazines and blogs. I can drool and imagine and want and desire everything fabulous in these imaginary houses. The problem is there is so much gorgeousness (read desire) and my means just do not match.
Deep down I think it is really a over blown love of styling, because really, my stuff would look just as lovely, if some amazingly talented stylist popped by and fixed up my things and just well lit them properly and cleaned up a little. Made it shiny. Maybe?

ps. all these images are from Design Sponge..

This is...

My creation, better late than never... for the meme started by Three Buttons. He is a Waldorf inspired needle felted Gnome. You can't really see in the photo his coat is undyed black wool from our Bear.
My Steiner teacher buddy came over with her two girls for a craft morning and we made wee little gnomes. She also let me take a peek in this book for further wool created inspiration.


I especially love the trees....




p.s. You can get the book here.

Autumn Beach Day

Me in a bathing suit it not my ideal outfit. (Fortunately no pictures)



Made especially worse when I ran into 5 people I know. Really, you should be able to wobbly around in a half clothed state with a little more privacy. But, 38 degrees (100F) in Autumn in Hobart is a very unusual and I guess it was on everyone's mind to hit the sand with the kidlets.


I even swam.! (which if you know how cold the water is here even on a hot hot day you would appreciate my efforts)

This is....

My front door... you can see it is still Christmas at our place, nice, a dessicated wreath in March...


This the view from the front door...



All part of the This is meme started by Angela. Strange thing about blogging is that I feel like I am on first name basis with people I have never met and probably walk straight past in the street. But nevertheless, Brooke has some really cool graffiti outside her front door, and Alison has a wonderful verandah in Daylesford, which looks so inviting.

And, lastly Kitty who purchased my Love Bird heart from Meet me at Mikes, also has a very tasty apartment view of someone else's tennis court.

So another nice day in Hobart means we might just head down the hill to the beach, twice in two days, must be some sort of record.

Brodie Neill

Last night I was fortunate to hear a talk by Tasmanian designer, now based in London, Brodie Neill. It was wonderful to see his work and hear him talk about the process and his trajectory to date. He already has some fantastic designs in production with Italian furniture manufacturer Kundalini and more in the pipeline. I have become an overnight fan.

Hit the snooze button

I have tried to blog but I find the minutiae of my life quite frankly tedious and boring. I have mixed feelings about sharing my creativity and I fear endless posts about the kids is more like a photocopied Christmas letter agonisingly broken into incessant updates whenever I can be bothered (which is not very often).

So pointless without direction I am afraid this little digital flotsam is like many of my past efforts at things, unlikely to go the distance.

I am not calling quits yet, because, like space junk it is already in orbit and well you just never know I might find some momentum, direction, commitment, focus, any of the above, sometime soon.

Wall Hearts

I admire craft bloggers that are organised enough to make interesting things, take photos of them and post about them. I sometimes make things, nearly always give them away before photographing them and hardly ever post about much at all (family snaps aside).

Anyway I have been making some wall hearts in time for Valentine's Day, this one is the first one finished. Ta Da. Finished, photographed and posted. End.

* I ended up dropping this heart off to Meet me at Mikes when I was in Melbourne this week for their I heart Mirabel project. They will be selling all the hearts they collect for $10 each with money raised to go to the Mirabel Foundation. More Hearts here.

Let them eat cake

Yep it is a pretty lame-o cake. Tried to make the icing purple (what was I thinking), it came out pink, last minute raid on the dinosaur bucket, whack on a candle, a bit of ribbon, and Happy Birthday Mr One.

Long gone are the days of carrot cake and age appropriate food intake. Hello sugar and food colouring!

Socks or Stuffing?

This is a photo of Big R's Christmas Pressie. When I saw it I thought of him and well I kinda liked it myself a fair bit, so in the end I wasn't sure if it was one of those psuedo-presents that you buy for someone else that you are really buying for yourself. And well he did like it a lot and even though it was for him and not me, it didn't really work in his study, and well, look how great it looks in the Dining Room? Worked out for both of us, no?

Thanks to everyone who has requested some wool. I have been busy packaging up and posting the pillows. There is still some available so let me know if you would like some. It is quite cool to send it all over the place, who knows how it will be used but so fun to imagine Rosie and Bear ending up somewhere in Michigan or Melbourne? Socks or stuffing?

The Cupboard under the stairs

My horoscope this week said that I need accept that things are not going to return to "normal" and that I am in transition to the new "normal", which frankly is a relief.

The tumble of December made me think I was going to get a chance to relax through January and plan my future in a leisurely fashion, but that was not how things have turned out. I have been busier than before and trying to get all the plated spinning, which has strangely included cleaning out the cupboard under the stairs. Perhaps a physical manifestation of the tidying up of my brain including the bit of grey matter that is covered in cobwebs and mostly left in the dark.

And so the new "normal" is starting to look a little more organised and quite comfortable.

Office Crafting

It is a very bad photo, but I made these little drawing books for a couple of last minute kids birthday gifts. Whipped up using old postcards on the Office binding machine. It got me thinking about Office crafts... there has got to be a book in that, no?

Not sure what was going on in this game, dressed and ready for something... perhaps a little water tennis?

The Great Fleece Giveaway

The Shearer came to visit today and have left Rosie and Bear feeling a little lighter. I have always wanted to do something meaningful with their fleece, but I never have and in the spirit of the New Year am trying not to horde too many things.

Rosie has white wool and is a corriedale x polwarth (I think?) and Bear has black/brown wool and is an Australian Merino (very fine wool). The fleece is unwashed and uncarded but could be used for a spinning, needle felting or just stuffing softies.

So if you would like a free bag of wool and are happy to pay the postage* I would love to send you a pillow-like package of their soft fleece, compliments of the season.

If you would like to share a little of Rosie or Bear please send me an email to littlesnoring AT iprimus DOT com DOT au, or leave a comment.

*note: I have weighed some bags and checked out the postage rates, to the USA - small bag $8.50 / large bag $14, and, to the mainland (Australia) - small $5.30 / large $9.30. Let me know which you prefer in your comment or email and I will send an invoice via Paypal.

** I still have some left..

If children were adults would you play with them?

The thought occurred to me the other day that I wouldn't be friends with my kids if they were adults. If an adult displayed the same tendancies most kids have ie; self-obsessed, bossy, demanding, whiney, messy, ungrateful, self-centred etc, then I would not be their friend!!!

But more than just being their friend, we have to make food for them, be nice to their friends (even if we don't really like them), wash their clothes, change their sheets, buy them things, look after them when they are sick (even if it is 1am, 3am or 5am and we are sick as well), drive them places.... all this for the rest of our lives!

They suck us in we they are babies and then we are stuck.... in love with a monster...

Sometimes, I just don't want to be the adult in the relationship. I often catch myself standing with the other adults (the Parents) wistfully watching the kids playing on the swings or jumping in the pool and think to myself... I want to do that. How come I get stuck with these boring grown-ups, how come I am not having as much fun as them!

.
.
.

[ just feeling sorry for myself, and hoping no-one will notice I have already broken my NY resolution ]

Tilleke Schwarz

Ooooh I am in love...

I got two great books in the post today (along with two yucky bills, which get cancelled out because of the greatness of their travelling companions)... The first one is collection of the work of Tilleke Schwarz who the makes the very coolest embroidered art... very cool a little bit grafitti, sketchy, interesting, odd, but it is all hand stitched.

Discovered link from Whip up

Post 101

This is the 101th post in the nearly two years since I staked a claim at this blogspot. Not even close to once a day but in this world of speeding pixels, slow as a snail seems to be ok, in fact, slow is a perfectly legitimate speed, after all there is slow food, slow growing, probably slow parenting.

I propose to join the slow blogging movement. Is there one? If not here is begins.

(until perhaps tomorrow when i may post again just cause I am on a roll)
((and in the spirit of procrastination and pointlessness, herewith, a button for the movement))
(((feel free to proudly paste onto your blog before your next unexpected but prolonged blog break)))
((((Join the revolution... blog sporadically, or stop, or never start))))

Vale Mary

So the urgency of discover the family roots and leaves just seems a little more urgent.
I received a call yesterday from a stranger who is a family cousin in New Zealand. He rang to say his mother Mary had died. Mary was my Grandmothers cousin and had reunited with this side of twigs 3 years ago.
I am sure she was a little touched with Fey blood and it wasn't just because she had a great heart, painted beautiful fairies and was an extra in Lord of the Rings - although they might have all been signs!

She was the last of that generation and it fills my heart with sorrow.

New Year Resolutions

Yeah, yeah, yeah, heard it all before, going to post to this blog every day.... we will see.

But seriously, it is a good day to start thinking about what I would like to get done this year.
- I really want to try and get on top of the family story, update the photo albums, discover more about my mysterious grandfather and his lineage, write the family tree.
- Think about the power of story in our lives and ways of expressing these memories on cloth.
Then of course some of the usual suspects,
- lose some weight and exercise,
- healthy, happy family, and,
- make some of my thoughts less private but updating this blog every day in January and beyond

So 2008 is only a few hours old and already I am making grand statements . . .

The presents are open and there is peace in the house..

Who'd have thunk it, I have a few moments of peace on Christmas morning.
The presents have been opened, that baby is asleep and the boys are trying to work out how to make the PlayStation work. Eartha Kitt was under the tree this morning and now she is breathing her songs into the hallway.
I have had two cups of coffee, two croissants, a handful of chocolate Santas and a Kinder surprise egg.
Feeling a little queasy actually, probably not the best combination, but, heck it is going to be one of those days.

Hoping your days are relaxing and the excitement of these days continue into the New Year.