Snow Pea Harvest

It's been a little while since I've posted anything. I've been busy knitting dish cloths. They're coming along really well. It's winter here and the garden is always a bit slow in the cold season but I do have some exciting news to share about my first snow pea harvest! I planted my snow peas in a pot from seed and I was beginning to wonder...would I ever harvest these things!

My snow pea pot sits on the steps of my bungalow beside the clothesline so every time I went out to hang my clothes I'd check to see if any snow peas were popping out..and one day there was a teeny tiny one :)

Their taste is far superior to anything I'd ever bought from a supermarket. They are smaller, crisp and not stringy at all. My daughter loves them too. They are yet to make it into the house!

There are still many flowers on the plant and many more snow peas for my daughter and I to enjoy :)

It really was very easy to grow. All it took was an old pot found in the garden, some potting mix, seeds and covered up with some mulch. I tried to create some sort of tee pee for the plant to climb on. This was created by finding some old, long branches or sticks in the back yard...nothing fancy at all. I wasn't even that regular with watering. When I thought about it I gave it some Seasol (maybe once a fortnight). When I plant this again I will mix the potting mix with some compost to see if the results differ..I'm sure they will. How's your snow pea harvest going ?

Knitting Dish Cloths

My dear grandmother is very unwell with lung cancer at the moment. Recently I've been reflecting on my life with her and everything she has taught me. One skill that she taught me as a young girl was knitting, such a valuable skill that has remained with me all my life.

I'm a frugal mum who is always looking for a new way to save money for my family and help the environment. Rhonda Hetzel at Down to Earth is an inspiration and has many many ideas on how we can make our lives simpler and more sustainable. One of her suggestions is to stop buying things that we throw out like sponges, chux wipes, papers towel..all the things i HATE spending money on. All those items can be replaced by knitting your own dish cloths :)They are knitted with 100% cotton and will last about 5 years. So off to Spotlight I went, bought some cotton and knitted away....If you'd read more about knitting dish cloths on Rhonda's blog, click here.

My first dish cloth

Green Smoothie Recipe #2

So it's 3.30pm on a raining Wednesday afternoon in Melbourne and I have intentions of going to a yoga class later on. All you yogis out there know that it is best not eat for a few hours before your class. This often means that I don't eat dinner with my family and will eat dinner after my yoga class, usually at about 9pm. So that means that my last proper meal is usually at about 1pm. It's always best to have something nutritious as your last meal so I decided to whip up a green smoothie...and this one is actually green! :)

Recipe:
1 large celery stalk..leaves and all
2 large cos lettuce leaves
1 small apple...core and all
1 banana
juice of 1 small lemon
half a cup of water

Whizz it all up in a blender and consume straight away! This is enough for 1. If you're going to give this ago, I suggest maybe only adding the juice of half a lemon...it was a bit tangy but still delicious!

Friday's Harvest- 7-6-13

This afternoon there was a tinge of sunshine so it was time to pull out the never ending weeds that take over my garden! As I was pulling out the weeds around my beetroot, I notice a teeny tiny beetroot coming out of the soil so I decided to pull it out!

My 4 year old decided that she suddenly lovvveed beetroot and ate it raw! There's no way she would've eaten that if it came from a store!

Beautiful beetroot stained lips

Sewing the Classic Tote

It had been over 6 months since i had dusted off the sewing machine. I had the urge to sew something for a dear friend of mine for her birthday. As my sewing skills are a bit rusty i decided to go back to a trusted tutorial for a nice classic tote bag. The full tutorial can be found here. http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2008/07/classic-tote-tutorial/. It's a really great tutorial for a basic sewer. Here are some snaps of the process....

a lovely pocket on the for keys, phone and other bits and pieces...

i discovered the triple stitch function on my machine...ill be using that again

all finished for my friend :)