A whole lot of house making going on

There has been a lot of mini projects around the house, peppered with mini jobs for the retaining wall as a preparation for the actual building of the wall. I find mini projects to be more satisfying but distracting to the task at hand! However, it makes the house more of a home.

Projects these past two weeks:

Simply, hanging up a hoya.

 Simply, going to Ikea (which Aaron detests) and buying two shoe cabinets and installing them on either side to create symmetry. Alas, no more saw dust in my shoes! 

 The dots do great hanging out in the hallway.

 I have to remember to stop taking so many photos with my Samsung galaxy. It is epic shit.

 THESE hexagon wall planters arrived.... now to put something into them AND hang them up.

An ongoing home project is sofa cushion making! It's a bit boring to have four cushions that are the same, so I thought I would make four that were different but still tie together. The last time I checked, cushions at Spotlight were at a ridiculous price of $56 dollars each! I got some discounted yarn and plain strong fabric and called it good.
Sewing yarn to fabric is a bit tricky!

Right now, I have two finished pillows: A plain pillow with yellow bobble trim and another one with a chunky knit face.

The third one is going to be a cheery yellow with a different knitting pattern.

Meanwhile, in the garden... Winter has finally set in with the arrival of Camellia blooms. They are so delicious that I never cease to be amazed as the bud engorges with intense pink petals. This Camellia tree has given me so many buds this year due to the fact that we added our own compost to it during its rest period. I can't wait to see it grow more.

 
Due to Aaron's work, he see illegal dumping on work sites all the time. The only good illegal dumping are poor neglected succulents so that they can come to the Padams nursery. He saved these cuttings that were the only thing left after construction people smashed the huge succulent tree with boulders to make way for work.

This is their home temporarily. They are very shabby looking so I'm going to let them take root and rest a bit. It will be a LONG time before the front is done anyways.

The front yard got a MASSIVE weeding session the past two weekends. I was determined to pull out all the stupid weed grass and winter weeds that has thrived in the wet conditions. I finally finished weeding on Sunday and raked the front the best I could and sowed Lupin and Sweet pea seeds all over, so that they may out compete the weeds AND make the front look prettier. Also, I was told that lupins put Nitrogen back into the soil (clay) which we need to break down the clay. Another great nitrogen provider is Nettle. We could go scavenge for nettle.

The succulent wall is slowly filling in. Yay to less pots of succulents!!

This cactus surprised us with a lovely winter bloom. These drought plants sure have a way of attracting pollinators!

All weeded except the bottom patch.

This pot gets all the gorgeous morning light so the succulents living here do very well and grow very fast. I've had to transplant a few succulents that has overgrown in this pot into the ground. We keep upgrading the next small plant so it will grow bigger faster.

All house work and no fun?

Aaron and I had a lovely brunch at one of our favourite cafes on Sunday.

Mushrooms and poached eggs with herb salad.

Someone had food envy... again.

Meanwhile, on the wedding front...I got the majority of our favours done this past weekend. It has taken over two months of frustrating experimentations but I've finally got it down... and I'm hooked to block printing.

I've been making stamps and it is ADDICTIVE. If you are one for detailed technicalities, this is the hobby for you.

The first stamp I ever made.. the cloud stamp.

Waste not, want not. Even left over pieces of rubber can be glued to left over blocks to make stamps.

The most frustrating part of all this was the application of paint. In every block printing tutorial, I see beautiful tacky paint but all the fabric ink, paint etc I find here are very watery and could not be worked with a normal rubber bayer. I bought different paints, different bayers, retarders and to no avail. I made stamp pads. Nope. Finally.. A combination of certain paints and a foam bayer and rubber stamps seems to be the perfect combination. I'm not getting the results that I see on tutorials either. It is more of an organic result which I like as well but I'd like to know the secret to actual paint success.

It's been a factory here.....

 

6 months and counting....