A happy traveller through life!
Right now living in NW Tasmania with a gorgeous Nurse-Husband, a fool of a Siamese Cat and several chickens.
We love our fairly simple lifestyle of growing a lot of what we eat and enjoying the stunning surrounds of our little patch.
Hi!! Big day today – long hike over the Postmans Track with family. Aching all over… Will just look back to yesterdays outing to Sharons to introduce Rosemary to the lady that is responsible for my soap addiction!
The alpacas posing for a photo!! And apparently they are not far from ‘unpacking’ which is the term given to them giving birth… I LOVE that haha
I was super keen to see Jezabel. Remember the baby calf we went looking for a while back when she was first born?
She is half jersey and half highland …. and sooooo cute
The tuft of hair on top just does me in!!
Seriously!!!
Sharon giving one of the ‘belles’ a good scratching
And Hamish who wandered over to see what all the fuss was about
Curly haired fellow!
While we were out at Sharons I cut a few of the demo soaps that I did at the last workshop… love them!
Sharon only wanted one done until she saw the cut… then I had to do more!
Yesterday Rose and I also squeezed in a little soap making! How pretty are these for a first batch of soap??? (Photo credit to Rosemary below!)
Anyway, dragging my very tired self off to bed! Hope you are all having a splendid weekend
What a lovely day today! Tassie weather being nice! Rosemary and I were up reasonably late with a bottle of wine and a lot of chat to catch up on! Today we wandered through town then walked along the beach at Fossil Bluff and soaked up the late autumn sun!
The tides and wind must have been working overtime because the sand had buried a lot of the boulders and pebbles we normally see here
And since I didn’t have my camera… all these photos are courtesy of Rosemary’s phone!
Always something cool to see down here
Amazing weathered tree
Lucky Rosemary is great with the camera!
We had some fun with selfies… me pointing out good backgrounds to use haha
Then a proper one…
Because the tide was low we got to walk up around the shore a lot further than usual
Lucky me – Rosemary brought me presents for my birthday! Gorgeous hand made ceramic bowls
And upside down…
And this amazing set –
How clever is she? I am rapt with my new bowls!
Speaking of clever… my niece Emma who couldn’t make it down this time sent my birthday presents that she created especially for me! I hadn’t seen her artwork in quite some time and I was a bit blown away by how beautiful these are!
I totally love them!!
Speaking of cats… Pip!! Who normally runs and hides like a woose-puss anytime someone arrives at the door, comes out to greet Rosemary and roll over for a belly rub! (Who is this cat and what did he do with the real Pip??)
And then today>>???
My lap wasn’t good enough so he walked over to my sisters lap and made himself extremely comfortable!! Traitor haha
I’ll start with some Jeff photos!! When my parents visited, we went up to a small town where there was a nice fabric shop and Jeff chose some material… He wanted some scrubs for work – but didn’t want the plain work ones. Luckily my Mother is an amazing dressmaker and sorted out some patterns and make them up for him! They arrived by post today.
Probably should have ironed them before the photos but he was excited to try them on and get some snaps to show Mum.
They sit well, have pockets and are really comfortable as well as being in some fun designs. He is going to be the swishest looking nurse on Bass Ward!
I’ve hardly picked up the camera since I last dashed past my blog. I had another market at one of the local churches and did really well (told ya we win some and lose some!) So good to come home with empty boxes.
I also did a bit of a soap making day with cousins and an actual workshop on Sunday, so I’ve been keeping busy!
‘Dragons Blood!’ Not what I would call understated but definitely a bit of fun!
I popped in to Ruby’s place on Monday to help Margie with a final clean up as settlement on the house is now done. (I also unashamedly raided the lemon tree for the last time!) I’ll get to and draw a name for Ruby’s Knee Rug soon and let you know!
I’ve also been getting ready as I am set to drive to Launceston to collect my sister Rosemary who should be here (Fingers crossed no more travel hiccoughs this time) tomorrow! The weather isn’t supposed to be too tragic so there will be some chances to get out and about… but not least sit by the fire with a wine or two and talk our heads off since its been a couple of years since I’ve seen her!
On that note… I better get off this chair and into bed so I am bright eyed and bushy tailed for tomorrow!!! Hope you are all doing fabulously well Cheers
Pip isn’t waiting for winter… probably looking for rabbits. We’ve also got a young black cat hanging about the back veranda! 🙁 Its very cute. I think chasing moths of which there are heaps at the moment I’ve left some food out… not sure if lost or feral. Pip has spotted her/him and is MOST intrigued. I hope its got a warm safe place – and hopefully hunting mice!
Poor Flossie! What a time to be moulting! She looks pretty dreadful! Makes me want to dress her in a warm jacket, but I suppose let nature do its thing.
Fungi are out at the moment. Haven’t been anywhere to go properly seeking them out though. This is just in the yard
Time to collect some carrot seeds? I’ve not really done this successfully before… Perhaps its time to try again!
It was a bit breezy out there, so here are a couple of dodgy purple flower photos. No idea what the above is but below is the salvia
And I did a double batch of soap with the Japanese Honeysuckle fragrance…one with lacy bottom and one without.
Super dodgy lighting – sorry. These will look a lot prettier in natural light rather than under the tungsten light! Anyway, I just needed to add in some standard bars for my market stall as they were all getting a bit fancy and of course, then the price has to go up a bit. I need to make sure I keep up making some of the $4 bars (Bargain hey? haha)
Hi! Nothing notable happened today. We did sit out in the garage while it poured rain and split a heap of kindling (Lets be honest… Jeff did most of it. I am much slower. Even being careful I still managed to somehow get a bit of wood flipping back either side of my blade to smash into my hand!! (Now sporting two lumpy bruises)) (Not to mention straining a muscle/tendon in my finger/hand opening the fridge door last night, so I am feeling extra klutzy right now haha)
I went down to feed the girls a snack, came back up and they are all in the backyard! Cheeky snots. Didn’t realise the big gate was open. Opportunists! You can see the day is a bit dismal looking (This was about 2pm) We did get out for a short hike around the river – kitted up in our rain gear. Got more sweaty than rained on!!
Also on my list was to pick the remaining tomatoes. Well… I quit after filling the bucket. Too lazy to go find another bucket plus it was cold and raining so… time to enjoy the fire.
The lettuce is starting to flounder. Still got enough for dinners. If I was smart I’d sort some hothouse space and put some more in. (Smart and motivated…. hmmm) Anyways, nothing else monumental to report from today. Hope everyone had/has a good Monday! Cheers
Cat TV!! Pip engrossed in watching little mousie mouses dash across the screen!!
Hi hi! How are you all? Lets catch up on some news… First, the garage sale…
Sad really putting out the last of Ruby’s things for a garage sale. But a year down the track and many things have been passed on to family and put into use elsewhere – so it was time to tidy up the last bits as much as possible. Settlement of the home is later in May. Very happy news there though – the lady who bought it with family is going to LIVE there, not develop the area for units etc or knock anything down! So relieving for Margie!
Of course… the dealers turned up an hour and a half before start time What a bunch of obnoxious individuals! Let me add Rude, arrogant, pushy, belligerent, entitled and just generally gross.
Hindsight being 20:20 I would advise anyone having a garage sale to absolutely stick firm to your prices with no haggling for the first two hours. Those vultures are only there to beat you down in price on good stuff they know is saleable at a profit to them. If they want it – they can pay for it. If its decent stuff and sensibly priced, its highly likely it will sell later on to the usual normal garage sale visitors at asking price or close to as those people will want to be using it themselves.
After the pond scum had left, we had heaps of really nice people coming in to look around and buy and chat. It was so much nicer! Maureen dropped in with her home made Kiss Biscuits for us (Cookies) and Shirley came in with a plate of fresh scones with butter and jam! Sooooo good! Spoiled or what? Lots of stuff has now been moved on – lots of the smaller leftover bits and bobs packed away and stored with a relative who is planning a joint garage sale later on this year There are still some bigger pieces to move along which will have to be dealt with this week.
Before the garage sale Jeff and I bought Ruby’s bookcase I am so happy… finally after TEN years, my beloved Biggles Books were freed from their boxes!
(Blog interspersed with lazy Pip images haha)
On the soaping front… I’ve been wanting to get some silicone impression mats to put at the bottom of my moulds to get some fun designs on the bottoms of the soaps… I have been hesitant of buying online… size, price blah blah
I found some ‘rubber lace’ in one of the local material shops and thought I’d give it a go… I got a metre of it and can cut to size.
I popped the soap out and was like, damn. Did not have high hopes for getting the now slightly embedded lace mat off the soap without making a mess…
However…
How great did that turn out???!! So happy. I think its a great way to tart up the plain unscented/uncoloured bars of soap, so I’ll spend some time cutting the ‘lace’ into sections to fit my moulds.
Even better? A single silicone impression mat runs at about $15. I got a metre of this for about $5 (Frugal hey?)
I had a market at Elliot yesterday… because it was Mothers Day today (Happy Mothers Day to all the awesome Mums out there!!) I put together a few packs in case people needed a ready-to-go present.
I got to use the sticky labels that Jeff made me… very exciting.
I was looking for a different box but spotted these with the see through top…
Perfect for the fancy star soaps! (Sitting on the crocheted facewasher and scrubbies)
And did a different box set
Sadly it was a super quiet sales day. I did sell some soaps, but no packs (sob). Never mind. With markets you definitely win some and lose some Happily there is the local Uniting Church fete next Saturday and I’ve usually done quite well there, so fingers crossed!
Pip sitting on the coffee table to eyeball me about getting his warmed up towel and wrapping him in it!
We are all enjoying the cosiness of our nightly fires!
I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend and you can be as relaxed as Pip Cheers!
Haha – look at this mess! Twas once a potato patch!
I can’t believe I’ve managed to put off for so long digging the remaining potatoes. Not as big of a harvest as other seasons… well… some in part due to me scruffing into the plot for 2 months longer than normal. Also even though the season wasn’t hot… it was windy so I reckon I didn’t water enough up this end.
Some good sized ones in there…
Fast forward and done!
There are still a few rogue patches of them around here and there… like this lot near the bottom of the corn patch
While I was grubby… I decided to pull out a couple of bales of straw and bed this plot down for winter.
Straw complete with some dogs vomit fungi haha (and ew)
Carrot patch is being nibbled on still…
I pulled up a carrot for dinner and then forgot to cook it!
A couple of the beetroot have grown huge!
I also need to run about with a basket SOON to get more of the tomatoes. First I need to finish sorting out the others I’ve cooked and half made into sauce!
Grabbed the ripe chilli’s – time also to make the sweet chilli sauce!
All this stuff is interrupting my soapmaking!!!
Something for the salad at dinner tonight!
Dont forget to comment if you would like a chance to have a Ruby Rug… And its really sweet those concerned about shipping overseas… I am happy to do it… (It might go sea mail if its really exe, but it’ll get there.) Might even have a sneaky bar of soap in it too…
Hope everyone has had a great weekend (Will tell market tales later) Cheers!
Hi! Been keeping pretty busy – popping down to Ruby’s place to help Margie. We are planning on a two day garage sale at Rubys’ home to move on the last of the furniture and bits and pieces. Its a bit hard… seeing all the familiar little items being put on a table for a few dollars.
Margie has been working hard sorting all the really special stuff which has been sent to family or kept etc.
So… there were a bundle of partly completed rugs… this one fully finished… Margie had put the lengths together and edged it. The others we might see about using for ‘yarn bombing’ a local tree – just too much work to fix up the dropped stitches and put together as we are not sure who would really want them. All the family has gotten their Ruby-Rugs already.
Ruby got a real kick out of being a little famous via Mavis’s blog and Ruby Tuesday. She enjoyed hearing your comments – got a real chuckle out of it all being pictured and written about.
Margie said I could take this knee rug and give it to one of my lovely readers as a memento if someone was interested. Keep in mind this was probably one of her last lots of knitting efforts – which she did pretty much blind, so while its not perfect – I think its just amazing she was still doing this almost until the end!
Comment below if you are interested. If more than one person puts up their hand, I’ll do a draw so its all fair and square. Hopefully I won’t have too many problems in getting it posted out to the winner (We’ve had a few postage restrictions due to Covid of course)
Anyway, I am off to bed soon – I posted up on FB about the garage sale and have been swamped with messages of people wanting this and that even before the weekend… which is a bit of a relief as I was worried after all the effort not many would be keen…
Hope you are all doing well and have a wonderful weekend planned! Cheers!
Hi! Got out and did some work outside for a change. My, the weather has changed quickly and its so much colder!
Cousin Jeff dropped off a couple of loads of firewood – even though we’ve got a heap of the macrocarpa, its good to mix it with something else.
Wood Inspector
Today we got it all stacked.
Latest veggies:
Still haven’t dug the plot up properly…
Corn is nearly done…
So glad I planted those extra lettuce seedlings
And here are some bad photos of salads. I am not much for arranging things and getting the right light and settings for the dinner photos… I more like throw it together so I can get into eating!
I separate the pickled beetroot, capsicum and feta because Jeff isn’t a fan The potato salad looks unappealing but it tastes oh so good!
This morning there was a frost warning. I don’t think we got it but it stirred me to get out and get what tomatoes were out in the main garden! And the last of the corn! 🙁
I reckon I’ve got enough in there to do the bbq sauce!
I also picked the butternut pumpkins! Looking forward to some roasted or some soup
The beetroot and carrots here were for Lynn – she lives down in one of the local beach communities and often drops in to buy our eggs.
On the soaping front… How cute are these stickers? Jeff surprised me by organising these. They arrived in the post the other day. Will look all fancy pants on my bags and boxes!
I also got a bit crafty…
The slab mould produced soap too big for the cheese cutter and I am not so skilled at cutting with the knife. So I bought a plastic place mat and cut my own divider set! I forgot to take a photo of the soap IN the mould – basically I make the soap up and do the design then drop in the grid to separate it. The soap came away beautifully today so I am pleased with my efforts
A single batch either makes big chunky soaps (above) or much smaller thin ones (Below) –
Ideally I should make a batch and a half for this mould.
Okey dokey… remember the beetroot soap that… um… went white?? I experimented further… I’ve been dehydrating beetroot and made it into powder.
Because the chemical process of the soap making killed the colour… I made some plain soap and let its cure for about a week (less) Took a bar and tried to rebatch it by melting it back to oil so I could put the colour in
Um… its very, er… rustic isn’t it?
Melting it down was a pain and not very successful – ie it didn’t go back to liquid form. It also killed the lovely purple quickly but so far has retained a lovely oatmeal colour The texture is interesting…
So… there is a LOT of mucking about and work in it to get this. Its been a fun thing to try out but as a saleable product its probably just too involved Although if I wrap a bit of twine about it and do a bit of spruking about the home grown beetroot in it, maybe people will snap them up?? (Its a stretch I know haha)
So… back to normal soap! I wanted to make some unscented soap for the lady that sold me all those fragrance oils and colours etc. She said she really liked black! So… Activated charcoal with blue square surprise! I sent her a photo and she loved them – happily blue is her second favourite colour! I will follow up on this idea with the black with interesting embeds!
OK… my back is now explaining its bedtime and that it moved a lot of wood today so get off this chair and scoot!! Cheers!
Hello!! Gosh the days kinda disappear on me lately!
My parents went home 🙁 It was such a lovely couple of weeks, catching up and trotting out to beaches! So glad the weather was mostly really nice to them! I sent them home with a dozen eggs, various preserves and baked a loaf of fresh bread for Dad who just LOVES it.
So… I set up my gazebo and attached the proper sides that my lovely cousin Marilyn gave me for my birthday. I had a market at the Rhododendron Gardens and I knew the weather was likely to be a little iffy that day. (And yes, Cousin Jeff has been by with wood that I need to stack!)
Inspector Pip. It all fit so I kinda knew what I was doing before trying to nut it out at the market itself.
On the upside… this was one of my views on the day!! On the downside… it was quite the walk from the car to my spot! On the upside, there were volunteers to help carry my gear. On the downside I lugged my gazebo down and didn’t have to use it…
On the super dooper upside??? This is where my market stall was!!
Queen of the Castle or what??
Plenty of space for people to walk in and check things out and a spot for me to wrap the soaps
Nice to have lots of space to put everything out!
It was a gorgeous place to spend the day.
Do you know what was even cooler??? The little lake had a resident platypus or two that popped up and showed off for all the visitors and me for the whole day!
They are so funny!
Fun Fact: In the spirit of dangerous Australian Animals, did you know these creatures (the males) have a poisonous spur behind their hind foot? Apparently its a kind of pain that even morphine cannot dull!! But they are cute…
I really really must go back to the gardens and walk around properly. They looked so pretty from where I was.
Sales were ok… I sold about $280 worth of soap. The stall price was a bit higher though than other markets. I think because the stalls were scattered all over – it didn’t funnel everyone to the stalls, it was like people had to stumble on them by accident. Still… I had a really nice day out. Had my own little picnic with me, met lots of nice people and enjoyed watching the platypus!
