My fruit tree row

 I've had the hardest time committing to where I should plant trees. Really, it's not a huge deal because I can easily move them while they're still small.

But I've settled on this little hill in front of the house being my fruit tree garden. It's great because I can see it from the kitchen window, it's close enough to the tap and most importantly will give us some much needed privacy!

What I didn't plan on was needing a fence around it, so I now need some defined borders so I can add a fence (that looks and stands up better than my quick fix).

Originally the fence was to stop the hares...

But now the birds have found my garden! The currawongs and magpies have been stealing tomatoes and strawberries, they're not too bad, but the cockatoos are so destructive and will destroy plants and trees.

So instead of getting trees in the ground, now I'm painstakingly measuring, marking and planning the perfect garden bed in order to install a proper fence. And according to my new plans, the sublime tree is in the wrong spot, just when it's starting to look happy and start flowering!

Between the wildlife, pets and a three year old I'm lucky if I get to eat anything grown in our garden!

Guinea fowl's first night in the trees

 Our guinea fowl are about 6 months old now and have recently started venturing out of the chicken yard. They also decided that it was time to roost in a tree for the whole night!

We screwed that branch into the tree when we were building the big coop (still unfinished in the background) thinking they might like hanging out up high. But they never showed much interest, then they refused to come down on Friday night. And on Saturday with the crazy wind the branch has somehow been snapped in half so they're back in their coop at night.

I was wondering if they'd ever start patrolling around the house after I was told that you really need a group of twelve plus. But they are getting brave and curious - they even went next door. And after landing in Archie's yard twice they've luckily survived with no injuries and seem to have learnt that it's a no go zone. So here's hoping they continue being brave and that they happily accept new guineas in spring!

Toddler trackpants

 What feels like forever ago, but was in reality only last year, Mum dropped off some polar fleece remnants from my Grandma. They are about 30cm wide so I decided to sew them together so I could make Lily some more trackpants since she never has any clean ones - apparently her clothes are too dirty multiple times a day!

Now this was supposed to be a quick, no fuss project... But of course I decided to practice matching seams. Which went well sewing the two pieces of fabric together. Then I messed up and didn't mirror the pattern pieces. So I had to sew together two more pieces of fabric, pattern matching went fine, but I sewed the wrong sides together. Decided that just matter since they're just for around the house and promptly cut out a third of the same piece... 

I got there in the end, one leg is fuzzy on the outside and the other is fuzzy on the inside. Somehow I've managed to get the back pattern matched (you can just see the orange on the elastic casing) and the fuzzy leg is matched quite nicely, but the rest is all over the place! Lessons have been learnt - I don't have the patience (or the mental capacity) for pattern matching.

Once I got past the hurdles of cutting out the pieces it was a quick no fuss project. Even better this is a free sweatpants pattern from Life Sew Savory. Now I've got two more pairs to make since I've aready cut out two right legs!

Tawny Frogmouths

 I have been trying to get a good photo of these tawny frogmouths to share with you, and finally I have one that is alright, only because you can easily see they are birds and not branches!

Most days I can find them both in this tree, occasionally there might be just the one or neither of them. There were four for awhile last year, so I assume they are a breeding pair. I'm hoping they'll build a nest (which they're not great at) in this tree so we can watch the babies grow. They're in a good spot with a view of the chicken yard so I'm sure they're helping with the inevitable mouse population.

Ditch planting started

 There is probably a better name for it but I call it the ditch which runs between our property and the road. It's a big slop that has a lot of grass and weeds, along with bare patches where the soil is getting washed away in heavy rain.

A couple of months ago I started with this little section and it has held up well so far, to be fair we haven't had any heavy rain (or light rain really) so the true test will come in summer. I don't water it often because I don't want to cart watering cans out here or waste our precious water in a spot that just runs straight into the ditch. Survival of the fittest for this "garden". Ultimately we want the grass gone as it is not easy for Ray to whipper snip along here.

I'm also trying to not spend too much money out here so random rocks and sticks are creating little terraced sections to hold and soil and plants so they don't slide down the hill.

The dead tree is supporting a dragonfruit I planted a year ago, it could really do with more consistent watering, it's surviving - definitely not thriving! Otherwise I've randomly planted things quite close together so they can outcompete the grass, and spread lots of roots to hold the soil in place.

So far I've got coreopsis, a ponytail palm, dogbane, geranium, gazania, petunias, cineraria, some aloe from the neighbours and some plants mum gave me. All in all they're still alive, not doing a whole lot, but that's the same for the grass and most of my plants. 

Winter will be over soon, the rain will start and everything will grow faster than I can keep up. Hopefully it looks amazing soon so I can share an update - you'll be able to tell the difference between the mulch and the grass once it's all green!

And these little pardalotes are making a nest in the culvert right next to this garden, they're insect eaters so I'm sure they will appreciate the new garden.

A little orange tree

 I've been making progress with my garden planning, as well as changing my mind and moving a couple of trees! But so far my method of planting them in this horrible ground is doing well, I suppose the true test will be after a full year with all the seasons.

My process is as follows:

• Dig a big hole (width is 4 times the size of the pot and the depth is the same as the pot)
• Add a whole lot of mushroom compost and mix in and break up the clay soil
• Plant the tree about 20cm above ground level, mounding with mushroom compost/soil mix
• Create a ring around the edge of the hole (I mainly use the clay soil for this part) 
• Cover with mulch

The little ditch around the tree is necessary as it is so dry here that the water never gets a chance to soak in. I tried a mini swale with the elderberry I put in the chicken yard but it couldn't compete with the possum traffic and the gum tree. Next was a panama berry using a little ditch all the way around and it's doing great, although to be fair it was a small healthy plant that I grew from a cutting. I then planted a sublime tree that was on clearance and desperately needed to be planted which seems to have settled in so hopefully this little orange will do well, if not I'll blame this horrible cold wind we keep getting.

Next project is to figure out a fence for this section, the hares have found this garden and even chewed the top of a mango and avocado seedlings! Currently a very floppy and hastily set up chicken wire fence is keeping everything safe, although the magpies have been eating the strawberries so maybe I need to consider bird netting as well...

Lily's new crochet blanket

 As Lily grows I'm finding all her crochet blankets are too small for her when she's in bed so I started a continuous granny square blanket for her.

This is mainly the yarn from Kmart in mint, lilac and grey marle. The blue one was just a random one from a cheap shop but I preferred the Kmart yarn. For now this blanket is a good size, but ultimately I plant to keep working on it until it is king size and hopefully she'll still use it as an adult.

I'm also working on a continuous one for our bed which is going to be lots of different blues so each time I finish a colour I can just go buy the next colour. For both blankets, I was planning to make each colour with the same amount of rows, but that got harder to work out as the blanket got bigger. Now I get one or two extra balls than I used in the last round and hope it looks good in the end! 

Drying statice

 I haven't really had the motivation to look after that garden lately, thanks to a certain dog deciding that he now likes to use my flower garden as a toilet and sandpit! Because of that I plan to do a really simple fence around it, the wobblier the better since he is afraid of that type of fence. 

Regardless, I have flowers to collect and dry for the flower girls at my sister in laws wedding and the statice are doing great (and thankfully not bushy enough to be Archie's choice of toilet). Ordinarily I hang them to dry from from the kitchen blinds using these hooks and curtain rings. It works great for small things like paper daisies, but I picked way too many so these sock hangers now have a new job! 

Statice seem to grow well here, plus they are a lovely perennial plant so I think I'll be planting lots more, and looking into some different varieties.

Mermaid skirt

 Our daughter has decided she wants a mermaid party next year and that she really likes mermaids. I've been asking her daily and it's been something we've just talked about or seen, but for the last week she's been saying she wants a mermaid party. Let's see if she sticks with it, she's not turning four until next year!

I did tell her that I have some mermaid fabric - one little fat quarter. 

Luckily she loved the skirt idea, and I had a lace curtain from the op shop to add underneath for some extra length. For some reason I refused to just look up a tutorial on how to make a simple elastic waist skirt. Needless to say this tiny skirt took forever as I plodded along overthinking every step! But I did it in the end without googling anything, so I guess I just proved to myself that this sewing stuff is finally starting to sink in.

Maybe now is the time to make myself a dress...

A Sunny hat for my niece

 I made my niece a Sunny hat using the free pattern from Twig and Tale.

It is super cute, especially in the rainbow ink blot fabric from Frankie Bear. I quite enjoyed making this hat - I didn't do too well on the lining up on the outer layer, but the lining is perfect of course! It's a good thing it was a nice sew as I've got two nephews and a niece that will need hats for their birthdays too. Lily very cutely got so excited when I showed her the finished hat for her cousin, and promptly asked which cousin I'm making a hat for next...

Jam

 I bought a tiny little cumquat tree from Bunnings last year, and it kept insisting on setting fruit so I finally gave up pulling them off. And it gave me enough for 4 small jars of jam! 

The rosella is finally fruiting, and doesn't seem to be stopping! The guineas have really been enjoying rosella leaves so I've started cutting off the lower branches for them. 

The cumquat jam was no problem to make, and is the perfect texture, I'm not really sure I like it though so I might not make it again. This is the recipe I used.

The rosella jam however, I burnt the first two batches. First thing I noted for next time was to let it settle longer before putting it in the jar as it turns out it was very frothy and needed to be skimmed. Second is to add the extra water to the seeds next time as it has ended up very thick. Last time I made it I did not have this much trouble, I'm blaming the stove in this house! If you'd like to make some, I used this recipe - that site is also a great place to buy seeds.

Duck romper to dress

 Last year I made Lily a rubber ducky romper that still wasn't long enough with the extra inch added. Since she loves it so much, I chopped off the legs and added a ruffle at the bottom to turn into a dress. Added bonus was turning the legs into boot covers!

It turned out pretty cute, now to see if I get anymore rompers converted before she outgrows them width wise!

Tidy pump area

 Once of the first things we changed about our house was getting the downpipes for our house tank converted to the underground sort - we were very sick of hitting our heads. I also asked for another tap (there was only one outside tap on this house?!) which meant another pump and outdoor powerpoint.

It has been great saving our heads, but it was a mess from all the earthworks - and bare clay is the worst especially near a tap. So I finally fixed it...

Added bonus that I used random free bricks and the rocks I'm trying to clear from the weed garden around the other tank (which are covering old carpet... worst idea ever!)

Eventually I'll add a hose reel, and decide on a better solution for the power box. Long term I'm hoping to get dichondra covering the whole area rather than sugar cane mulch. It has started creeping through some of my first mulched areas and is already throughout the whole property. 

And right where I'm standing to take this photo are two offcuts from a small rainwater tank that our neighbour gave me! I'm really happy with how my garden is starting to look - I should really take some photos of the whole area to share with you.

Rock tumbler

 We have a lot of petrified wood on our property (and with a toddler I'm sure you can imagine our rock collection was getting rather large) so Ray got me a rock tumbler for Christmas.

It has been fun, we started with the rocks that came in the kit, but more exciting was seeing how the petrified wood turned out, especially the pieces that have quartz through them.

You'll have to excuse the terrible before photos, I wasn't planning to post them on here, but it interests many people more than I realised so I thought I would share here as well.

It is definitely a hobby that requires patience, there are five steps and it takes around one month to complete. A separate garage is also a positive so you don't have to listen to rocks tumbling constantly!

Lily's dance bag

 We've started Lily in dance lessons where she needs jazz and tap shoes, plus a jumper since it's cold in the mornings now. So I spent the past few days trying to sew a bag with Miss Bossy Boots asking me if I've finished yet!

I followed a video tutorial from Echidna sewing to make this mini duffle bag, which is a great size bag for a 3 year old. I used webbing for the handles, added extra pockets inside and put d-rings on the ends in case Lily wants a long strap.

The corners of the side pieces look wrong but I didn't have the brainpower to work out how to fix it, especially not with a deadline of the next dance class. It was an easy sew other than the bulky seam I made by adding the d-ring, so that part go sewn by hand - I must remember not to put on moisturiser right before hand sewing again! 

Something that would have made the whole process easier was to use a black lining so I could stick with one thread colour. And I should have added elastic to the long side pockets to stop them gaping open so much. Maybe I'll stretch some elastic along the pocket and stitch it in place and see if that improves the pockets.

The fabric is from my stash and my mum's stash, and the rainbow zip was from Temu.

Added a pocket

 I posted those cute rainbow hearts dresses I made - with the terrible mistake of not adding pockets. So I've fixed that...

Although the response was "only got one pocket, not two pockets", she is a very happy little girl now.

This is the gathered pocket pattern in the Pocket Pack from Twig and Tale. I used the small size, but it was still rather big for the dress so I just increased the seam allowance to make it a bit smaller, then had Lily try on her dress and pretend her hand was in a pocket to mark placement. 

Rainbow hearts Chloe dresses

 Well I don't know what I've been doing, but I completely forgot to write a blog post last week. I mean can I blame that we have a "threenager" and we are exhausted... and so is she since she will not sleep!

I have been crocheting again, but that's all work in progress blankets which will probably never be finished. And when I asked Ray what on earth I've been doing he said a lot of gardening - which is thanks to the Autumn weather finally cooling this place down. There has also been a lot of chasing a toddler who recently decided she needs to run down the hill whenever you're not looking!

Over a month ago we had a first birthday to go to so I sewed a dress for the birthday girl, along with a matching one for Lily. Although she thinks I'm terrible because I didn't add pockets!

This is the free Chloe dress baby and Chloe dress from Vintage Little Lady. The fabric is Rainbow Hearts for the skirt, with a purple homespun for the top. I thought about doing all rainbow hearts but I really liked the solid top I did on the first Chloe dress I made.

So that's this week sorted, and I'd best get to work on something to share with you next week!

Chicken cake

 I nearly forgot to share Lily's birthday cake, which is odd, since I am ridiculously proud of it!

The plum pudding tin really comes in handy, I made her a giant cupcake for her first birthday using that as the base covered in way too much piped buttercream. This one has a standard cake at the bottom with a plum pudding cake upside down on top - then carved with a bread knife. I used coloured fondant for the eyes, etc. then covered with buttercream using different piping tips and shades of yellow.

Of course I also made cupcakes for the gluten and dairy free guests. I ended up rushing these, but did remember to 3D print some cute chick cupcake toppers, which I also turned into stamps for the party favours - one day I might remember to take a photo and share that with you too.

Chicks and keets

 We've got baby birds! With the chicken themed party for Lily, I decided it would be perfect to get her some chicks... and then I got some guinea fowl keets instead.

Originally I was looking at silkie or belgian d'uccle chicks, but we've had quite a few eastern brown snakes around the house, so we picked up the keets in the hopes they'll help deter snakes when they're older. 

Turns out Lily doesn't really like them as they are very flighty even though they were hatched in an incubator. So a week later we got some silkies, because they're supposed to make great pets for kids...

And they're almost as crazy as the guineas since they were raised by their mums for the first week. 

They're about 2 months old now (I should get updated photos) and altogether in a chicken tractor next to the house, although I think the silkies have had enough of the guineas who run and fly around all day. Luckily we're building their big coop so the guineas will move into that once it's finished, and get them used to the older girls who they'll be living with eventually.

The plan is to build garden beds for the tractor to sit on, that way the silkies can fill them up using the deep litter method, and clean up any garden beds that need a refresh in the future. These little fluff balls will have an important job as well as being pets. Now we just have to wait and find out the gender ratio to decide who we're keeping - it currently looks like I've got three boys and three girls with no favourites to tip the scale.

Birthday bunting

 I quite enjoyed making this Christmas bunting and mentioned that I would like to make birthday bunting and I finally did, with the help of my mum.

Originally my thought was that I could just cut some stencils and paint the letters on, but mum said she could do the letters on her fancy embroidery machine.

The fabric is all from Spotlight with the triangles being poplin with a white cotton drill for the backing, and the trim is another poplin. The font I chose for the embroidery letters is Jared.

It was quite the process in the end and would have been far easier to buy a printed panel like the Christmas one was, but this is special and one of a kind. And just like the tablecloth I shared last week, I hope that it will be used for many birthdays to come!

Rainbow tablecloth

 I decided for Lily's party this year that I would make a bright rainbow tablecloth instead of buying yet another one of those plastic "reusable" ones, that haven't actually survived their first use.

I nearly didn't finish it, turns out I don't like slippery satin. It's impossible to cut straight and equally impossible to press the hems. While I did roll the whole lot up and throw it in a box, I ended up getting it out and finishing it. The worst part of it all was that I was hoping I would enjoy sewing satin because it was supposed to be my practice run for sewing a dress with it... obviously not happening anytime soon!

The rainbow satin is from Spotlight and the trim is from Temu. Here's hoping it will suit many birthday party themes over the years, and save us from needing anymore of those "reusable tablecloths".

Watermelons

 Whenever I go to Bunnings I obviously look at the plants, and I found a multipack of melons - honeydew, rockmelon and watermelon. We ended up growing them on a trellis made of fencing wire and conduit. Which was fine until the watermelons started getting big and heavy!

We successfully harvested these two once the caterpillars destroyed the leaves and started to munch on the watermelon skins - at least they didn't make it inside like they did with the honeydews and the only rockmelon. Luckily the chickens like bug infested fruit so they didn't go to waste.

I'll definitely grow watermelons again since Lily loves them (as do the chickens) but it won't be up the trellis again. And these were too big for our little family so something like Sugarbaby might be a better size.

I always find it funny how excited I get when I harvest something from our garden, but it's nothing compared to watching the excitement of a three year old when it comes to harvesting and eating the produce from our garden - or produce that my mum or our neighbours have shared from their gardens!

Bottle tree planted

 Exciting news, Ray got the post hole digger out so I could plant this bottle tree! Well exciting for me, especially after planting my blueberry in what is the hardest ground I've found so far.

This lucky tree even got a rock edge from the fire pit I've been disassembling. The mulberry tree that you can see in the background, just behind the trampoline hasn't been too happy so it will need to be moved, but I'll wait for it to go dormant in winter. Things just do not grow very fast here, the weather and the soil aren't ideal.

Fingers crossed it will be happy in this spot and will give some shade when it's bigger, I feel like everything I plant here is an experiment!

Leilani dresses

 For Lily's birthday this year we are doing a chicken theme, so I got some gorgeous fabric and the Leilani pattern from Vintage Little Lady.

The first one I made in the simpler version as a trial run in this cute bunny fabric from Audrey's.

I did find sewing the elastic back awkward so when I did the chicken dress, I left the elastic out until after attaching the skirt at the back. I just sewed the back panel in place between the channels for the elastic. After I had gathered and attached the skirt at the back only, then I added the elastic and topstitched the sides down. Then continued gathering and attaching the front and sides of the skirt.

This was the first time I have used pom pom trim and it ended up being a pain trying to use the zipper foot. But I found using this clear foot along with poking the pom poms under the foot using my seam ripper worked best at getting it to stay put!

Now that the dress is finished I better get started on everything else for her party!

Potted grape and trellis

 So I made a decision recently to only buy more plants if I had a place ready to put them. Then we went to Bunnings where they had a grape vine on clearance...

Now to be fair, I put it back, then changed my mind and went back to get it again before actually buying it. So then I spent the drive home trying to figure out where on earth I was going to build a sturdy trellis for these grapes. By the next day I settled on where I want them, and the trellis I'm planning... but that is really low on the priority list.

After some more research, I made a quick, rustic stick trellis in a large pot for now. Future plans are to build a trellis along the side of our house that gets full afternoon sun, and where we store a whole lot of untidy junk for everyone to see as they drive past! I'm thinking I'll have shade cloth between the house roof and the grape trellis so I can use that space for my orchids and ferns. When the grapes are dormant I'll grow peas on the trellis to keep the privacy and shade.

Until then, I'm learning how to care for the grape vine, and will be able to propagate using cuttings when we have their future trellis built.

Toddler wrapping paper

 Toddlers, well mine at least, love painting! I've been getting her to paint useful things as Ray is getting quite the stack of Lily paintings on his desk.

This one was just from a roll of brown kraft paper that I normally use as wrapping paper with some pretty ribbon. But this time I put blobs and swirls of paint on the paper (cut to size for the intended present) and let Lily do whatever she wanted with the brush or her fingers, then repeated with the next colour.

For the cards and envelopes we do the same thing, but let it dry in between.

The kids presents for Christmas were painted and stamped the paper grocery bags, and we have done the blob and swirl technique on them as well, but they weren't big enough for this gift.

A sun hat for myself

 I made myself a hat!

I used the free Set Sail Hat from Patterns for Pirates. I made the biggest brim size but ended up trimming a few centimeters off and finishing with bias binding. The interfacing was some old stuff I had at home sand ended up being rather floppy so I added extra interfacing and lots of top stitching. It's still a little floppy so I might trim another couple of centimeters off and see if that helps. Probably would have been smart to just buy what was recommended...

Anyway I'm really happy with it, and even happier that I don't need to keep replacing my straw hats that never last long and can't be washed!

An english mulberry tree

 When I went to visit a plant nursery, I was looking for maybe a mandarin or a few natives, I definitely didn't plan to bring home another mulberry tree!

Terrible photo I know, but this is an English Mulberry which has very different leaves to all my others... obviously I had to buy it! So I've got the cuttings from my black mulberry we had at our old house, the native mulberry and this new english mulberry.

And then Ray went to "Coles" and bought me a weeping mulberry for Valentine's Day! And yes he did go to Coles on his way home, I was wondering what was taking him so long!

Beetroot harvest

 Most of my garden has not been enjoying the heat, but thankfully the beetroots have done well!

The varieties I planted were cylindra and golden globe. Both grew well and tasted nice, but I got the cylindra variety thinking it would be easier and more consistent to slice.

Beetroots are actually pretty versatile, the leaves are edible so we used them fresh on sandwiches, and have used them like spinach in stir fries as well. Some beets were grated raw into our salads, and added to the pan for roasting, while the rest were boiled and pickled following a recipe by Emma on Kitchen Mason. I did the first batch with white vinegar because I didn't want to drive to the shop just for vinegar, and the second batch using brown vinegar. Now we're trying to wait two weeks before we do a taste test!

I did pull all the beetroot out of my garden bed because it was in need of a refresh, but I regret it now that we don't have any beetroot leaves for salads or beets to add to roasts! I have sown more seeds, and will be doing succession plantings to have a continual supply of beets ready for whatever we need.

Garden apron

 I made myself a garden apron! Because half my clothes don't have pockets which is really annoying when you're on acreage.

Of course I'm happy to finally finish my new apron, but nowhere near as excited as Lily is! I tried it on to show her and she was stuffing all her pens in the pocket - I assume it'll be full of 'pretty' rocks whenever we go outside.

This is the tutorial I followed, with a couple of changes. First, I cut the pocket front and lining the same size so I could keep as much of the print visible so I don't have the decorative trim at the top. Second I didn't have any D rings so I cut the tie piece 9" longer - I can just tie it in a bow, so definitely needed to add a few more inches.

And then I went and made an apron for Lily using the same fabric...

I used this tutorial, but when it came to sewing I found it easier to follow their video. I didn't add a pocket into the bib as I turned the skirt into one huge pocket! It is simply a second skirt layer with some hand holes cut out of each side, I finished the pocket edge with bias binding since it was a curve.

Versailles sunflowers & bees

 Well I've made yet another Versailles dress for Lily, so that's three of them in the same size - and there's still plenty of room for her to grow.

For the first two I used the full single ruffle collar so I tried the double ruffle collar this time. It looks so cute, but the lace I used was too thick which made it a little difficult to sew. My plan for extending this one in the future is to add a white band at the bottom and add a band of the same lace on top.

The fabric (which I could not remember buying) is a cute poplin from Spotlight, I found it in my box next to the sunflower fabric I was planning to use!

Flower pit

 My "flower pit" is the new trench for the septic that the previous owners put in before we bought. You can see in this post how it was just bare dirt with lots of weeds. It took me awhile to weed it and then cover it using a round bale of hay. Silly me forgot to take a photo of it in winter when my flowers were looking beautiful, so you get to see it now in summer after the winter flowers have all died off.

All the winter bulbs have died down, but there were freesia, anemone and sparaxis planted. The best performing were the petunias which are still going strong, the snapdragons were beautiful and a couple are trying to hang on. The paper daisies are still flowering well but the wind from all the storms is knocking them around and now the zinnias are starting to flower.

Not the best idea, but I cleared a row and scattered a mix of seeds, they're sprouting, but so are lots of weeds and I'm not familiar enough with my seeds (or the weeds here) to tell them apart.

From now on I will only be sowing one type of seed at a time, and will also sprout some in one of my self watering juice bottle planters on the windowsill. This way I can learn what the plant looks like vs weeds. Handy now, but also in the future when they self sow everywhere.

And as an added bonus, we have extended Archie's yard so he now has access to the pit which has helped with the wildlife eating my seedlings (and even the flowers)!

Planting chicken shade

 The chickens have a lovely spot under the gum trees, but unfortunately now that summer is here they don't get enough shade in the afternoon. I have hung shade cloth and covered their coop with a tarp, but it's not good enough. My next idea was using sticks and fresh murraya branches to create a lean to against their coop - and they're really enjoying that spot, especially when I put blocks of ice in there on really hot days.

My first attempt at planting in the chicken yard was this elderberry, but between the gum tree with a possum climbing it every night and the mice making tunnels underneath, it struggled along and eventually gave up. 

My second attempt is further away from the gum tree where I've started rosella seeds in one of these garden rings. Once they reach the mesh I plan to add a cage around it until it's a decent size, then replace the ring and cage with logs or rocks. 

At our old house I planted rosellas in a spot that had really dry sandy soil and they did great. Hopefully they'll grow just as quick here to give the chickens a cool, shady spot. I'm also planting them out the front of our house for some quick privacy. And if all goes well, there'll be lots of rosella jam in our future!

Eventually the chickens will have a permanent coop and run under this mulberry tree. Until then they get their very own little shanty town under the gum trees!

A-line with shoulder ties Moana dress

 Our little lady loves Moana so I searched and found some cute Moana fabric. The dress is from Jellyfish Kidz and was quick and easy to sew. All the pieces are rectangles so you can just use the cut chart - no printing or taping together the pattern! I did have to make the elastic channel a bit bigger to fit my elastic, so check that before you sew. 

It looks so cute on, but Lily doesn't want to wear it. I'm not sure if she doesn't like the fabric or maybe the bows on her shoulders are bothering her. If I make it again I think I'll use a lighter fabric, maybe poplin as it's a little stiff in this cotton.

Tulum shorts in gingham & flowers

 I finally made some of the LLK Tulum shorts for Lily, and she was rather excited for me to finish them after I showed her the pockets!

I didn't have the right size elastic so I just used 1 inch, and also did a 1/2 inch hem instead of 1 inch just because they looked a little too short when she tried them on. I did the size 3 so they're a little big around the waist, but they're staying up! 

Now to make a pair of the Styla Tulum shorts for me, or maybe I'll make them 3/4 length. The question is whether the pockets will be big enough to fit my phone!