the tiny wood workshop

Remember last week when I wrote that I couldn't wait for the day when I looked out of the lounge-room window and saw smoke billowing from the little chimney in the side of the little wood workshop? Well on Wednesday it happened.

At first I squealed with delight. And then I couldn't just stand there watching now could I? Nope, I pulled on my boots, grabbed my basket and blanket and made my way out there to join him.

And with the fire burning golden in the pot-belly, sunlight streaming in through windows that framed the Wombat State Forest, his tools hanging from hooks and perched on ledges, it felt like the most magical little workshop on earth.

After he spent some time moving in we got to work. Him with his axes and knives carving and me with some yarn and a hook crocheting his blanket. 

99% of the time crochet and knitting is such clean and portable work. When it's warm I love nothing more than to perch on a log or laze on a blanket outside and do a couple of rows, and when the cold comes I quickly take it inside. But wood work is different. It's a fair weather friend. It's messy and it's for outside only. And that doesn't seem quite fair. 

This solution, the little workshop, keeps him warm, creating and happy.

It doesn't hurt that he's shifted in a comfy chair just for me. 

In any case plans are afoot for my very own cubby-studio. A four by four room made from old windows and wood. Fully insulated, and heated complete with day-bed. Watch out I may just forget to go home.

So this past week has been a much happier one than the last. I felt like I'd been driving through the forest on a cold foggy morning when finally I came out into a clearing and the fog disappeared, the view was far and clear, and the light felt just right.

In reality nothing's changed, it's still winter, it's still ridiculously cold if not colder, the girls are limping towards their last day of school for the term, and sometimes my face aches just from walking outside. But I guess my dark cloud time was up. I'd done the days.

It always interests me how much more attention my sadder posts get. I wonder if it's because happy posts just skim the surface? If the online world is so full of people''s beautiful moments that the ugly one's stand out? If reading about other people's real and imperfect lives feels more relateable than the pretty ones and makes us feel less alone? Or if there's nothing much to say to someone who's traveling along well, while someone who is struggling can use advice, empathy and kindness.

Whatever the reason, just know that I always love your feedback on the good and the bad, and as always am grateful that you visit and read and comment. Thank you. xx

Which brings me to today and to now and to a quick rundown of all the other stuff that's happening.

I'm still crocheting that blanket. It's thick and it's soft and it's going to be so warm when I'm done. 

I'm listening to my fabulous friend Lainie Chait AKA Electro Girl speaking about living with epilepsy on Life Matters. What a cool human you are Lainie xx

I'm feeling excited about the winter school holidays. A break from the driving and crazy long school hours. Some sleep in's, some bonfires, some bush walks and of course some basketball.

I'm thinking a lot about what a difference positivity makes. 

I'm hearing the birds having a party in the garden and worrying about them eating all of the green manure seed.

I'm watching Miss Pepper make her theatrical debut in Hollow, a story of the events that surrounded the disappearance of three young boys in the forest of Daylesford 150 years ago.

After reading so many of your comments urging me to read some lighthearted books for my state of mind, I'm reading 'Anything Is Possible'. It's completely lovely even though at times it's sad and raw and honest. Each chapter tells the story of a person in a small town in America coping with life and love and loss. It's such a sweet book. At first it feels like the chapters are separate stories, but as you read more it becomes apparent that the places and stories and characters mentioned are often intertwined, which makes them feel familiar, and ties them all together, in effect making it one big story made up of lots of little bits - just like a small town I guess.

I'm loving sitting in farmer Bren's new workshop next to the fire, sipping tea, writing my blog while he works on his lathe turning a bowl right next to me.

I'm worried about the cat's new hobby playing in the toilet. Yuk!

Now that I think of it, I'm busting to go to the toilet but I can't be bothered going back inside.

I'm wishing that my onion seedlings will come up even though I think it's been far too long since I planted them to expect anything.

I'm thrilled by the fact that in the time it's taken me to write this blog, farmer Bren has fixed his pole lathe into place and carved a bowl from a chunk of wood. That's the bowl in the first photo on this blog. So cool right! In the photo above he's cleaning up the nib where the mandrel was attached. This afternoon he'll give it to his Mum as a present.

Until two days ago that wood was part of a Blackwood tree growing in one of the rows of one of our apple orchards. I've been asking Bren to cut it down for the past five years. Only now can I see that maybe he was just waiting for it to thicken up and become useful.


And finally I'm wishing you my sweet friends a peaceful weekend. May you be warm enough, feel strong enough and have something to look forward to.


Lots of love,

Kate  xx

in the darkness

I probably shouldn't be writing my blog this week. I woke up first thing this morning and declared that I wouldn't. It was icy cold, just past dark, and we were all huddled around the fire nursing hot drinks, and everyone agreed. Even though the world about me seems to be spinning around merrily, even though I can't seem to pin point a single action or happening that's made me feel like this, I feel like I've been living inside a dark cloud for the past few days. I feel grumpy and irritable and sensitive and sad. And I feel cold and tired and uninspired. And before you ask, it's not that time in my cycle, but I am suspicious of the solstice and the moon.

But regular writing becomes a habit and now here I am even though I decided not to be.

Although it just occurred to me that maybe I am here writing my blog because the alternative is house-work, and I just can't.

It's funny this feeling bad thing while everything around me is so good. Bren is building and creating, the big girls have had some great results at school and are happily social and Miss Pepper is officially on school holidays and the play she's in starts next week. We've been taking advantage of the mild winter and checking off so many more jobs than we thought we ever would, and we have a little mini break coming up to look forward to. But still I feel blue. I ache with it.

It makes me constantly question and doubt myself, it makes me feel incapable and uncreative, it makes me feel dull and boring, and it feels unending.

So I'll keep it very short and try to be sweet. I'll fill you in on the goings on here and if by chance I feel sunnier during the next week I'll write an extra post on some of the things I've been thinking about: Things like the danger of expectations, like keeping honest relationships, and the power of positivity. Nothing ground breaking, just stuff that I've observed lately and am learning about.

I said short and sweet so I'd better get on with it eh?

Back in May of 2013 I wrote a story on this blog about the building of our patch-work cubby. Many years in the dreaming, an afternoon in the planning, a few Thursdays in the building. And that was, I declared at the end of that post, The End of our cubby house story and hopefully the beginning of years of make believe, tea parties, games and secret kid stuff.

But as it happened, none of that was meant to be. Not long after it was built, the girls found a poisonous red back spider inside the cubby and forever after they needed more than a little encouragement to play inside. Which meant that fake cakes went mouldy in the fake fridge, spiders spun thick webs across the ceiling, autumn leaves collected and began to rot in the corners and it felt scary and dark in there, rather than the secret and exciting we had hoped for.

While the cubby has been so very loved for its patch-work look and so often used as a backdrop for my photos, including the cover of Slow Living magazine May 2015, it has been sadly neglected as a play space.

So the other day when my farmer boy suggested that he renovate it a bit and use it as a woodworking studio over winter, we all thought it was a great idea.

First Jobbo and Bren pulled the tin off the back wall and replaced it with old school windows.

Then I came out just in time to see farmer Bren making a big design decision regarding the door and stopped him  just in time for a discussion.

 

He thought the slats should go horizontally like the tin, I thought the opposite.

In the end we compromised.

I'm hoping it will age nicely and blend in with the rest of it.

Next is filling in all the gaps, putting glass in the windows and then plumbing in the pot-belly stove.

I can hardly wait for that dark, foggy, winter's day in the near future when I look out at the garden from the lounge room windows and see smoke coming from the cubby chimney and know that something beautiful is being crafted inside.

I wonder if this now, second time around, is actually The End of the cubby house story.

Other than that, I'm reading my sister Abby's advance copy of Once In Lourdes which is exquisitely written and haunting me day and night. A suicide pact between four teenagers and then their stories as they live out the two weeks between when the pact was taken and when they plan to enact it.

During the week Bren reminded me to step back from an issue with one of our girls and not to get too attached and involved in it. Instead of moving away somehow that made me travel back into the intensity of my own life and mind as a teenager. The angst, the anguish, the love and the dreams. I was flooded with memories and feelings of 30 years ago. I was overcome by thoughts of times I hadn't visited in years. And I felt overwhelmed with the fact that now I am parenting my own girls through that. What a responsibility.

Reading this book at this time is only serving to heighten these feelings. I am desperate to read more and I'm frightened to at the same time.

I'm listening to the Invisibilia podcast, which I LOVE!

I'm crocheting a ripple blanket with 12 stitches in-between zigs and zags and a chunky 6.5mm hook. After all this time crochet feels like home.

I'm spending time in the green-house planting and watering and admiring.

I'm loving my little spotty pot that my friend Tania made me and gave me (first photo) as a green-house warming present.

I'm looking forward to next Friday when the big girls finish school for the term - sososososososo tired and Miss Pepper has her opening night.

And I'm hoping and wishing that you sweet friend, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, are feeling as calm and as happy and as inspired and driven as I hope to be when I open my eyes tomorrow.

Thank you for sticking with me through the dark as well as the light.

Big love,

Kate  xx

thirty first

So that was January hey.

We picked and ate cucumbers, lettuce, beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, rhubarb, apricots, plums, apples and zucchini from the garden.

I read Relativity by Antonia Hayes, Hope Farm by Peggy Frew, The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood, The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman and part of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I really liked them all but I loved Charlotte's and ML's the most.

Thanks for all of your awesome suggestions back on the 18th, I'm going to be working my way through them for ages.

I listened to A LOT of podcasts while I ran, weeded, picked and pickled cucumbers and watered the garden. My farmer boy had many conversations with himself before he realised I wasn't listening and in return he gave me many frights when I was deeply immersed in a story and turned around to find him standing right there.

My favourites at the moment are - Modern Love (thanks Mum), Serial, Better Off Dead, Israel Story, Women Of The Hour, Dear Sugar Radio, StoryCorps, TED Radio Hour, Chat 10 Looks 3 and All in The Mind.

I think we only went to the movies once to see The Nowhere Boys.

I listened to this podcast and became obsessed with fermenting.

We watched and LOVED Transparent and felt awful about Making A Murderer and now have no idea what we should watch next.

We did so much farm work, we hung out with the girls, we got new sheep, we pickled a million cucumbers, we did some jigsaw puzzles, we had friends over, we had our organic inspection, we hung out in Melbourne, we ran on the cross trainer, we celebrated some birthdays and we hung out with family.

We didn't really slow down as much as I'd hoped to but I guess that's just summer on a farm.

I knitted Indi a Peter Pan collar, a shawl, bits of my memory blanket, a beanie and a doll's cardigan that I haven't taken photos of yet.

And of course I blogged on 28 of the 31 days. Mostly very late at night, mostly just snippets of things going on that day, and mostly I loved it and remembered how fabulous blogging is for me.

I ended last year feeling a bit uncomfortable and negative about myself. I can't pinpoint the time when it began but I wasn't feeling very confident and I didn't really like the conversations that were going on inside my head a lot of the time. I feel like the blogging changed that. Something about the writing and photographing and expressing myself and getting your feedback shifted my mental state and I noticed after only a few days that I was feeling so much more positive and sure and kinder to myself.

It is possible of course that it was something else that caused the shift but I am a long time believer in the creativity cure so I'll stick to that.

And this is where I thank you guys. I always like to think that I'd write this blog no matter what, but I'm not so certain that that's true. You read my words and that's brilliant but you also inspire me, and teach me, and help me, and challenge me, and guide me, and that means the world to me. We really are a community. You guys really are the best and my life is so much richer with you in it.

And lastly, I read every single comment on my last post and as much as I'd love to give each of you the prize, and as much as I was looking forward to writing all of your names on little bits of paper and then randomly selecting one - I just realised that I have to send it to Sarah of Say Little Hen who has left me an insightful comment on every single post I have written this month. Thank you so much Sarah please email me your postal details and I'll get your package in the mail this week.

So here we go into February, the month I've been excited for and dreading for ages. Pepper starts school tomorrow and the big girls start their new school on Tuesday. Fingers crossed for a smooth transition.

And as far as blogging goes, I hope to post once but hopefully twice a week from here on in.


Wishing you guys a fabulous and creative and love filled Feb.

With love,

Kate
xoxo


PS the photos were randomly snapped this afternoon.

it's all about the craft

Hello honey bunches!!!

My how time flies at this super busy time of the year. There's so much going on, so many stories to tell, too many stories to tell. I've been wandering around for a few days wondering where to start. So this is my answer - one short blog story at a time.

So this one, as you have most probably worked out by now, is all about the craft.

And let me tell you straight up, there's not an enormous amount of crafty opportunities on our farm over the harvest months, but still one snatches a moment whenever one can.

I knitted the socks at the top for Bren's Mum Rene.

I want to tell you about the yarn though. A few years ago, on our annual pilgrimage to The Sheep and Wool show in Bendigo, my farmer boy and I met a gorgeous girl called Jess who sold wool under the name sofTrope. I was completely smitten with all of Jess's wares but particularly a chunky hand-spun wool that we bought several skeins of and I came home and knitted them up into farmer boy beanies. A few months later I got an email from Jess letting me know that her friend had showed her my blog and that she in fact knew us, or rather her boyfriend knew us and had worked with us here at Daylesford Organics for a few years. Small world hey!

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, I bought the most beautiful golden wheat coloured socks yarn, sofTrope sock, in a Facebook destash. It's even more gorgeous in real life.

Golden wheat - Bavarian Cable socks ravelled here.



These socks are for my farmer boy.

The other day I found myself with half an hour to kill in the city and wandered up to Morris and Sons for some cable needles. I was feeling a bit funny after a rather unpleasant exchange with a camera shop guy who didn't really want to talk to me when I couldn't remember what sort of camera I used but showed him with my fingers the size of the card that I needed the card reader for instead. No, it can't be a CF (compact flash) card because it doesn't have a flash on it I told him (oops). Yes, it's for me not for a friend I tried to assure him. No, I don't want to buy a crappy cheap one. Yes, I've taken the photos off my camera before......

After that, when I got to the wool shop I exhaled. I strolled around, resisted grabbing armfuls, found what I needed, went to the counter and the gorgeous girl talked me through plastic versus wooden and helped me make a decision.

Then she told me how gorgeous I looked!!!! My dress, my basket, my hair up with a paint-brush, my clogs and green tights. I fell in love and asked her if I could have a job and stay there forever and ever.

And as I was about to pay and unfortunately leave, I saw a pair of socks on the counter just like the ones above. When she told me they were knitted from a single ball of wool with no joins I knew I had to buy a skein for myself.

So I did. And I positively skipped out of there and forgot all about that camera shop man.

The farmer boy socks are ravelled here.



The cupcakes are for my long overdue giveaway winners Reannon and Nell. Sorry lovelies, they're coming soon. x



And then this arrived!!!!!



Remember that New Year's resolution I had to knit a cabled cardigan this year? Watch this space.


So that's me all craft caught up.

How about you? What've you been making?


Wishing for you a kind and random compliment, they're the best!!

xx

Hooked - a blog hop

This is pretty cute!!

It's a new book celebrating the crochet motif in the most gorgeous way. Hooked! by Michelle, Cecile and Sylvie Delprat is filled to the brim with all kinds of sweet motifs, there are hearts and flowers and cupcakes and mushrooms and apples and birds and skulls and so many more. Seriously, I want to make them all. And my girls want me to make them all for them too. They've already started designing brooches, decorations for their school books and patches to sew on their jeans.

I think it's a really great book; the styling, the patterns, the photos and the ideas are all beautiful.

But where to start??

Miss Indi has been begging me to make her some love heart bunting for her bedroom for ages, so I pulled out the cottons and started hooking.

And then just because they were too cute not to, I made an apple, a mushroom and a strawberry. I really want to make the cupcake next too.

If you are into cute and quirky and crochet, then this book is for you.

If you want to follow along on the blog hop - then this link is for you.

If you'd like to win a copy of Hooked!, six balls of yarn, and a crochet hook - then this link is for you.

And if you feel like it, just for fun, tell me which motif you like the best, or what you'd like to do with them, and I'll choose one or two from the comments and make them up and send them to you.

See ya later crochet potata!

xx

Twenty first

On the twenty first day of the new year I picked my sewing machine up from being serviced and made a hat.

I don't know if that sounds like such a big deal to you, but I'm a bit pleased.

You see I used to sew a lot: clothes, flags, accessories, you name it. There was a time back there that I could design, cut and sew a girl's dress in a few hours. I had sewing confidence, I had little girls who were happy to wear homemade, I had time to sew and I had a sewing machine that behaved beautifully.

But somewhere along the line all that changed. My girls started growing bigger and raising their eyebrows at my mixy-matchy creation, my baby started school and all of a sudden I found myself with less time (?!!), and then my machine started acting up. But instead of getting her serviced, I pushed her all the way to the back of my desk and forgot about her. And every now and then when I pulled her out with the idea that I'd sew something cool, the thread would keep breaking, the stitches would gather in a lump at the back and she'd make sounds like a lawn mower. So I'd give up, push her back and feel like maybe I just couldn't sew anymore. I lost the sewing way.

But these holidays the number one thing on Miss Jazzy's holiday must-do list, was learn to sew. So we chose some fabrics and a tote bag pattern and pulled out the machine, only to find she was still misbehaving. We managed to get half the bag done here and finished the rest at our friend Merrilyn's shop. The machine went to the fixer-uperer.

Which brings me to today. Today I picked up my machine, downloaded a pattern, chose the fabrics, carefully cut-out the the pieces, even more carefully followed the directions and ta-daaaaaa!!!



Of course with apple season almost upon us I had to quickly crochet a cute little apple too.

Now to make a few more to keep in a basket by the front door to try and eliminate the school morning hat scramble.

For those interested - I bought the hat pattern here and found the apple pattern here.

Wishing you great success with whatever you're making.

Lots-a-love

xx