Accessorise in red

Ahh, the perils of technology - something is going wrong with either my laptop or with Blogger as I can't seem to post comments anywhere, not even on my own blog...  But it looks like I'm ok to put up new posts, so here is a post about a couple of home sewn items that I made as a present for a friend.

I love the bag and am really pleased with how well it turned out.  It has a large outside pocket and a small inside pocket (just the right size for a mobile phone).  And a book pouch with super cute mushroom fabric!

Another garden update

Sorry to those of you who are more crafty inclined than garden inclined, but it is spring here and our garden is so thrilling at the moment!  This morning I also noticed a couple of stray potato plants have come up in the garden bed where potatoes were planted last year (I guess digging through that soil twice wasn't enough to get all the potatoes out of the ground!!).

Cherry blossoms

Nashi pear blossoms

Newly planted seeds

The mix of seeds!

It's been a while since there was a gratuitous puppy photo - so here is one!  It is nearly time for Tansy's spring hair cut so she is a bit shaggy at the moment.  (She isn't technically a 'puppy' anymore but we just can't stop calling her one).

Our own mini-Floriade

I know some of my lovely readers enjoyed my Floriade photos, so here are some of the bulb flowers from our garden...

The warm weekend weather wasn't welcomed by the tulips, some of which started to shrivel in the sun.

I love the delicate orange border on the red tulips.

Flower parade

Sunday was Canberra's hottest September day in 25 years, it was a rather lovely 26oC (79oF) so we had a picnic at Floriade.  Tagged as "Australia's celebration of spring" Floriade is apparently Australia's largest flower festival - and it is pretty impressive.  The flowers are mostly a mix of spring bulb type flowers - tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, etc.  It would be nice if there was more Australian flowers, but the spring bulbs are beautiful and very striking in large amounts.

There are far too many people for me to feel comfortable spending ages getting in other people's way to line up 'the perfect flower photo', but here are some happy snaps for those of you who can't make it to Floriade or if you just need a splash of colour in your day!

Flowers, marquees and people

Tulips

Tulips, hyacinths and pansies

More tulips!

Impressive double tulip

Jonquils by the pond

Happy, cheery daffodils

She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah

For the past few weeks in the clothing course I am studying we have been looking at how everybody needs different adjustments to their clothes to get a better fit.  It has been really fascinating to realise how different everyone's body is.  It has made me much more aware of people's bodies and I now really notice different body characteristics - long torsos, broad shoulders, short legs, the list goes on. 

It makes me wonder how we ever ended up with 'standard' clothing sizes.  No-one in my class had the same body shape as any one else, yet if we went into a clothing shop we would all have the same choices in clothing shapes and styles.  It's no wonder that "I can never find anything to fit!".

We spent the first weeks of the course concentrating on our own bodies, and then we had to utilise our new skills by tailoring an item for someone else.  I chose my husband - here is his completely adjusted and finished shirt toile.  He said that because of the high mandarin collar he feels like a Beatle in this (hence the title of the blog!).  The calico I used is quite stiff and a bit pointy but in a softer fabric this would sit quite nicely.

Cake catchup

A friend came to visit from interstate a couple of weeks ago so I made my favourite 'special' cake for afternoon tea. 

Chocolate, strawberry and meringue gateau.

Today we hosted some friends of my husband.  One of them had a birthday so I made a cake and brightened it up with some candles.

Chocolate cake covered in chocolate ganache.  Strawberries and cream on the side.

Hooray for spring!

The first day of spring on Thursday saw the first spear of asparagus and the first tulip flower in our garden.

We've also been busy preparing the vegetable beds for the coming summer growing season (with Tansy's help of course!).  You can see the bed at the back left is still giving us lots of winter vegetables.

We have set up a dripper hose throughout the beds - with the pink and green buckets collecting the drips between the beds.