Time for a catch up?

My brother got married! ( I took all the photos! argh!)

Dirt Girl turned 8!    8!!!

We took some girls camping to celebrate.....

We took an overnighter to the beach for Robs Birthday..

It rained

But it was fun and funny

Planted some a lot of beetroot, someone else is enjoying them too?

Lettuce seeds planted

Tomatos too (with a nice little cover for the nights to save them from frost)

Bird watching. One of Zaras gifts was a HUGE book called 'What bird is that?' we identified this lovely one as a red browed finch, extremely common :)

Important holiday business

The luxury of time on school holidays

I like to call this one 'The Reluctant Walker' thats the boy, not the dog :)


What a whirl wind few weeks! But the future is all relaxing and sewing, well for the most part!
We will be at The Castlemaine Artists Market on the 7th of October for our first market for the spring. How is your spring going along? Do you have a great spurt of birthdays at this time too??

I am linking in with Squiggly Rainbows garden journal this week.


Jacq :)

another weekend comes and goes

I love a good adventure.

Taking three children to a busy big city market is a BIG adventure for this country Mama!

For the first hour or so I felt as though my head was on a swivel....trying to keep track of who was where as they became distracted by something new and interesting. Thankfully after a little while the crowd died down, the kids got tired and I relaxed a little making for a much more relaxed day.

It really was a lovely day, some shopping, plenty of browsing, lots of walking and of course hot jam doughnuts. 

Rob and I look forward to hitting the deli section....cheese and meats high on our agenda (King Island Brie, a huge chunk of parmesan, super hot salami and a load of scotch fillet steaks amoungst our booty) with just a look at some things for sale like the baby octopus that the kids thought was really gross! But we did lash out and get some new things we hadn't tried before..stuffed peppers, salmon rolls, stuffed mushrooms...and so I have discovered that I don't really like salmon that much!

And of course a trip through the organic fruit and veg section for some supplies for the week.

and those doughnuts!! Very sweet and yummy. I did briefly think that I could make them at home before realising that would probably be a very bad idea! Doughnuts anyone?? nom nom nom......!!

I hope there was a little adventure in your weekend too, feel free to tell us all about it!

Avalon has a new hobby. Photobombing!

Jacq :)

Thursday Garden Journal

Vegie Garden Update! 

Well the man with the digger came and dug. He left us with a wonderful clean slate AND we found nice soil underneath all that crappyness!

Avalon and I worked really hard digging post holes together.

 I was so proud of her, she was a great help and it was so very lovely to spend some time with her without the other 2 cherubs ( One nicked off to a friends place and the other moaned about it all so much he went inside to read!)

So the posts are nearly all done, just a couple more to do this weekend. Then we will use wire between them in an effort to keep the dog out ( I am sure he would love to sleep in there!) 

Our rock wall is starting to fall apart which is a shame, I rather like it, so we will have to do something to try and repair it, or rather, Rob will! We did have to replace one whole spot with a board because it wasn't repairable, so we decided to hang our 'used to be a bedhead' gate up there hoping to make it look less patchwork.

So my plan now is to finish the fence and gate this weekend (but I think its meant to rain the whole 2 days!!) then we can bring the new soil in the weekend after that then hopefully some planting sometime after that!! Of course, we need to move in Mr Gnome who is waiting patiently for his garden to be finished!

The kids think we should only plant tomatos, cucumber and lettuce......no beans! ever! 

I say no silverbeet YUCK!!

What do you/would you plant??

I am joining in with Squiggly Rainbow and her Thursday Garden Journal. Thanks Rach!

Jacq :)

I have made a few etsy updates today too, one in particular is the Advent Calendar we have talked about in the past  xo

A weekends worth

Well Saturday was nice,  strolled about our local market chatting to all the people etc, would have taken some spectacular photos except.. yes, no memory card in the camera AGAIN! I was pretty peeved, those cameras are heavy to carry around along with all your vegies and other yummy goodies!!

That leaves us with Sunday

mmm pancakes for breakfast/lunch!

Working on that garden all day!.....
I love my fence posts...
.not so much the digging of the holes! 

How was your weekend??

Jacq :)

Where oh where has Jacq been?

ahhhh........ busy!

The poor blog gets shoved to the back burner when things get crazy, and I guess thats how it should be. My children and husband and JaxFancy really are the priority when it comes down to it. 

Things are travelling along rather well here, even though things are flat out and no one can find any socks, it IS in 'the plan' to build our JaxFancy business and thats what we are achieving! 

The reality is somewhat chaotic though! Since I/we are still working the day jobs! 

Noahs Ark $210

Even amongst the chaos, its so exciting to live a creative life. So fulfilling. So inspiring. 

 So addictive. 

Just one thought about making one little thing, leads to another.......then another. 

For instance a couple of years ao I knitted my young daughters some cats to play with.......now I make a lot of toys for everyone to play with.......and I am wondering if I can build myself a studio....

See? from knitted cats to building a dwelling, and everything inbetween. 

Don't be afraid to create, it doesnt matter if it doesn't end up how you imagine. You can always keep making untill your happy with it, or move on and try something else. 

You Tube is a great place to learn how to do things, its the first place I go when a knitting pattern says something that looks like an alien wrote it....off I trot and I watch someone actually do the stitch I need, its fantastic! A lot like Grandmother on tap. 

So, what do you WANT to create?

xoxoxo Jacq :)

Easter Saturday

Today we braved the crowds and took a little trip into our nearest major town, Bendigo, to see a wood turners exhibition! I am so glad we did, their work was so inspiring! And I must say I do think they were glad to have a good chat with Rob, probably a young man by their standards, and pass on some of their knowledge. 

OMGosh there were so many beautiful pieces.....I am not a collector really, but in the last few years I  have found myself hunting out wooden bowls in op shops and such, so I was in wooden bowl heaven today.......

Such a variety of things to look at...

I rather fancied this little set of drawers

Something like this would make a lovely gift

Even wooden beer bottles...lol!

I *did* buy myself a wooden bowl today, I couldn't resist!

The new bowl was quickly snaffled to decorate the table for the Easter Bunny, please note the elaborate, highly artistic meal of carrot and chocolate created in case said Bunny was hungry AND to the top right you will see a 4 page book filled with questions for the Easter bunny...

Questions like...do you have any children?......what is your favourite instrument?.....What is your real name?.....Do you make the chocolate? .... What do you give children that aren't allowed dairy or sugar??...and so on and so forth..

I sure don't envy the Easter Bunny having to fill out all those questions on what much be a very tight schedule!

I hope you are having a wonderful Easter and theres some chocolate hidden somewhere in the morning just for you ;)

Jacq :)

Easter Holidays Crafting

hello! 

Yes its been a little while since I have written in this space, there has been plenty of writing going on.....just for different reasons :)

We had some lovely visitors today which made it the perfect time for making some easter friends! 

Using this pattern we made the sweetest little bunny finger puppets! 

These girls did a great job with a little help and I am sure any grown up could do a respectable job too :)

I used acrylic felt bought for 70 cents a sheet, and some cotton and embroidery thread that I already had. I think any child all the way down to a small toddler would love to have a bunny to have an easter adventure with! Here are some pictures of our day to inspire you to make your own...

Cutting out the pattern

How do you use pins?? Some new skills were learnt

Our bunnies had spots in their ears :)

Go on, make a bunny :D

Jacq :)

Back from the Wild!

Hello JaxFanciers!!

We are back from our camping trip, feeling tired (damn camping beds) but very creatively refreshed! 

After the very busy end to last year I have really appreciated the past 2 weeks of relative quiet ( I did take my children after all!) and simplicity.

I have cooked up a few ideas which I will be sharing with you soon,

but in the meantime how about some holiday snaps??

ahhh peace!

fun!

quiet

One of our daily visitors

family fun

friends

Rapids

Exploring

I hope you have been having a lovely Summer, or if your up the top end of the world, a lovely winter.

Now I must keep working on the mountain of dirty washing and 

enjoying the miracle of my electric kettle!

Jacq :) 

Yarn Along ~ Progress report......

Yarn Alonging with Ginny from Small Things again...

but I am still knitting this, so it more of a progress report than anything!

I have been obsessed with sewing sunhats this week, so not as much knitting done as could have been and this is why I am starting winter cardigans WAY before winter!!

So here is my knitting progress.....(and Avalons book :)

only another inch maybe ....... 

What are you up to?

Jacq :)

Yarn Along

I am joining in with Ginny from Small Things with her Yarn Along this week, for the first time! 

I love Ginnys Blog, I always look forward to reading about her adventures in life and looking at her stunning photos...

Here is my 'on holidays'  project, a cardigan for Avalon (Zaras comes next in a different colorway) The pattern is from Magpie Patterns and is this pattern. I have knitted this many times in the doll size, its a great top down knit, nothing complicated, would be good for a new knitter :D

Happy Holidays JaxFanciers!

Jacq :)

Up she goes!

Ok, well today was the day they had all been waiting for........ putting up THE tree day!

You know us mums, we just want a nice photo for when the memories are hard to recall. 

Well, this is the best I could get!

 

These aren't to bad lol

 

 

 

Is your tree up yet??

Jacq :)

Peas PAHLESE!!!!!

Really you can't go past home grown veggies can you!  

If you have a fussy eater, perhaps give some thought to growing some veggies somewhere in your yard. There is so much fun to be had, planting seeds or seedlings, watering daily and watching them grow into dinner!

These wonderful peas were grown by my mum in her garden, I am sure that makes them all the more attractive to my girls, who ate quite alot of them while they shelled them ALL! 

There are so many learning opportunities (and memories) to be had in simple everyday tasks, if we choose to take the time to move slowly and take notice!

Happy Days!



Jacq :)

3 girls went fishing

 

 

 

After much patience and waiting, we finally had a sunny day that we could go and try out the new birthday fishing rod! No fish caught of course, but we had a lot of fun learning to cast out lol.

We sure live in a beautiful part of the country, we are lucky!

How are your school holidays going??