My creative space

Amanda, originally uploaded by quiltingmick / michelle.

I've been a bit meh with sewing for others and for the shop and gallery. It's time to sew for me, I think. The weather has warmed up, and my mind is a-flutter with ideas of what I can make myself.

Enter BurdaStyle. My creative space today is what happens when I glue and sticky-tape 18 pages together to make one gigantic sheet. I'll wait for everything to dry and then I will cut out the pieces. I'm making the Amanda blouse in cotton voile. In red, of course. I hope it turns out OK.

You know where to go for more creativity. Go on.

Adventures in a Canberra Kitchen

Finally my broad beans are doing something, albeit wee little bits of something. It looks like I will have to leave them in a little longer than expected but that's OK. We found room for two tomato plants and we will plant another four plants when the beans have finished.

We have a public holiday here in Canberra today. It's actually called "Family and Community Day" and was a reaction by our local government to the WorkChoices legislation brought in by the last government which banned union picnic days. So the ACT Government, bless their little red socks, gave us a holiday that all, not just blue collar workers, can enjoy. This year I took the Monday off work too, so it's been a fun-filled four days, let me tell you.

It kind of sucks that the holiday happens on Melbourne Cup Day, as we miss out on a champagne and sweeps-filled boozeup at work while watching a horse race that I couldn't give two hoots about, but all that changes next year when the holiday moves to the first Monday of the school holidays, when the timing will just suck for children and their teachers. Plus next year it falls on my birthday, which is so nice. Thanks, government.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, my broad beans.



See, yesterday I got this book in the mail - Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen by Clotilde Dusoulier, a recipe book based on the blog of the same name. In a moment of good luck and fortune the book opened at the page with a recipe for Fava Bean and Mint Frittata, fava beans being the oher name for broad beans. So I made it.



Admittedly my beans were a little on the teeny side, especially by the time I'd double-shelled them, but the feral mint that grows near the back step was just fine. The frittata didn't rise as much as I would have liked, but next time I'll whisk the eggs more and bake it in a smaller dish.

And another photo, because food looks (and tastes) much better in vintage Pyrex.



And now another photo showing you the perfect lunch for the hot scorching days we've been having lately, and also proof that you can have salad without tomatoes, and lunch without bread. I mix together massive amounts of homegrown (feral) lettuce and snowpeas, some capsicum and carrots grown by someone else, and a can of flavoured tuna. Drizzle some balsamic and olive oil on top and lunch is served, ma'am.

Zipper me this

Bunch of zippers, 6 am Tuesday, originally uploaded by quiltingmick / michelle.

This is the photo I took at 6 o'clock this morning, an hour after I got out of bed due to a bad dream that I couldn't shake. Don't you hate those? The bad dreams? Luckily it was nice and cool in the house after a couple of really hot days, so with a cup of coffee and the radio on I was a happy girl in my sewing room, dream almost forgotten.

I've just put my etsy shop on vacation for the next week or so. In case you are wondering what I am up to, don't worry - it's not permanent. I'll be back with new stock and better photos soon. I had to consolidate my stock and work out what I needed to make - with a request for bags for a school fete this Friday night, and also a re-stock of bags for Material Arts in Braidwood.

Speaking of Braidwood, the quilt event is on at the end of November. I haven't been for a couple of years, but I am going this year on Saturday, for the airing of the quilts. One year I might also enter a quilt into the show.

But of course, that would take some kind of organisation on my part.

I don't want to push it.

In the meantime I have 25 bags in various stages on unmade-ness that need my attention. Thank heavens for public holidays, hey?

My creative space

My creative space this week is NOT in the rhubarb patch. I'm just showing off my rhabarber socks. But I have been working on these socks on the sofa when I get the time. I think I've come a-cropper in the instructions somewhere between the leg and the gusset, but I might have just worked out a fudge so it'll be OK.

I hope.

Take a look at other creative spaces, rhubarb-filled or not.

Things I learned on Wednesday

Viburnum Snowball, originally uploaded by quiltingmick / michelle.

* You really can get a fever and chills with hayfever.

* Getting four parcels in one day is a huge thrill. I got my Sew Hip subscription with a Cloth Kit included; an enormous giveaway prize; some inspiring art from Etsy; and a Handyman magazine (the Handyman magazine was not mine).

* It makes me feel happy I see people being kind to each other.

* Curried sausages will burn if you leave them by themselves while you go outside and pick snow peas.

* I quite like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Things I learned today

* Rain does wonders for the garden. In the four Springs that we've lived here, the garden has never looked so good. It's also never look so weed-infested and overgrown, but we take the good with the bad around this place.



* Broad beans, when you give them a good talking to, can really pick themselves up. They get harvested in one week but still have a little way to go.

* People who make incorrect assumptions can often come off looking like a horses' posterior.



* Wollmeise, even when bought on behalf of friends, can be especially difficult to let go of when the colours are all so pretty. I never thought I wanted a pair of fuschia, teal, or even purple socks. Until today.

* Having a job outside the home both rocks and sucks. I love the company and the feeling of doing something good for the country. And the pay is a lot better than the alternative. But I miss my sewing room, my fabric, listening to the local ABC radio during the day, and watching Ellen during my lunch break.

And because it's Monday and because I still have a Brown Owls post to write tonight, here are some more garden photos.

My creative space - something new

My messy sewing table (here and here) has been finally sorted out and so I have given myself permission to start the Adirondack socks.



Last night I babysat for a friend, and once the wee lad was in bed it was time for a cup of tea and some crocheting. I did quite a bit for my first night at it. I'm using Wollmeise, the colour is called Rhabarber (Rhubarb) and I'm in love.

Check out the other creative spaces.