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.

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.

Mother's day candle holders

 We live 15 minutes from a main town, but it really is limited with what shops there are, as well as what they stock. Needless to say I am very quickly learning that I have to be a lot more organised - unless I feel like driving 40 minutes to the bigger shops - which I don't as I hate driving!

Unfortunately I was not organised as usual, so while I planned to paint terracotta pots with Lily for her Grandmother's and Great Grandmother's, we had to settle on these candle holders from Kmart. Which made the zygocactus I bought a bit pointless (yes, I am great at buying plants without even thinking about pots).

Our two year old did a bit of painting once or twice a day until we had enough paint on there (if this pot happens to move into the brush that the toddler is holding,  she is still the one painting right?!). They turned out pretty cute, and we already have our plan for next year, assuming I buy everything in advance!

Hand Balm

It feels like so long ago that I started playing around with beeswax and infused oils to make my own lip balm and hand balm. My latest batch is a lovely green thanks to the oil I put in the back of a cupboard to infuse in 2020!

This one is a mix of coconut, sesame, macadamia and olive oils infused with marshmallow, calendula and comfrey.

If you want to make your own I use the instructions from Grow Forage Cook Ferment.

If you want to see how I used to dry my herbs check out this post. We've got a bay window in our new house so I'll have to figure out a new drying rack!

Too many garden projects

 As per usual I keep starting new projects which means I'm not getting anything finished!

I've got a crazy paver path going in to meet the gravel driveway of the carport. This is replacing the trip hazard of a very large paver sitting high, then a smaller paver sunk down lower which then creates a step up to the concrete slab along the front of the house! This is clay soil and it's all still settling around the septic tank that was put in before we bought the house. I'll let this settle, but no doubt it will need a proper base. What you can't see is the rocks in this area growing so many weeds that I still need to deal with...

We bought a playground for our daughter's birthday that I still haven't finished assembling - or decided where it's going. It also needs a fence around it as the property is not fully fenced. And after the crazy winds blew it over, we have some repairs to add to that list!

I planted my first 'tree', and it's not fun thanks to the dry, hard clay. For this one I added gypsum and a bag of compost that I forked through while I decide what my plan is going to be for planting future trees. This one is the arrowroot pot guild so the tree is just a mulberry cutting that I poked in the pot right before we moved. You can see it desperately needed to be in the ground (or at least given more water and fertiliser)!

Then there is the pit that was put in before we bought the house. So much bare soil, so many weeds to pull, and a round bale of mulch to finish spreading. I was meant to finish mulching before I started planting flowers, but I had to put some sunflowers in. Oh and then I was given some bulbs that were already sprouting, needless to say there is still a lot to do over the pit, but at least there are pretty flowers now.

And I've also got lots of bare dirt/and weeds where the trucks and excavators were driving. Thankfully we have a grey water sprinkler which I moved around regularly so the grass has covered most of the paths. You can even see our completed project in the background - a fence for Archie! This puppy pen area hasn't grown much so I've added grass seed and left the grey water hose there to help it along - the test patch is very thick and almost ready for it's first hair cut.

New house, new keys!

 Well we have officially moved into our new house in January and I ran out of scheduled posts not long after that! We were busy unpacking of course, and keeping a teething toddler occupied while doing that is not very productive.

There is a lot of weeding to do since the previous owners just poisoned everything to get it sold and didn't do any more maintenance. Thankfully they did a really good clean of the house so I didn't need to scrub everything before unpacking!

I have had a little bit of crafting time by painting keys with nail polish so we can easily tell them apart - they stick together but we'll see how they hold up!

With the Autumn starting to bring some cooler days I hope to get out in the garden to get the weeds under control plus put some plants in the ground. There is a lot of grass that I can convert to gardens and I've bought some round Birdies raised garden beds to add to my rectangle ones. There are plenty of trees that I would like to set up as guilds, rather than them just being surrounded by grass. And there is a whole weed section where they put in the new septic pit that I plan to turn into a flower meadow!

As for inside the house, we're going to renovate the kitchen eventually, but we'll live with everything as is for awhile before we make any changes - I can tell you that I miss all my drawers we put in the kitchen at our old house!

Our daughter had her second birthday in March, so we celebrated with a bee themed party - and I managed to finish her birthday dress in time - I'll share a photo of that with you next week!

Busy board in progress

 I decided to make a busy board for my daughter, only I really don't feel like going shopping so I've used the 3D printer to get started!

I'm glad I'm doing it this way because I can choose the colours - I'm printing another part for it at the moment using glow in the dark filament, I'm rather excited to see how well it glows tonight.

Some wonderful people have uploaded things like the gears that are meant for busy boards but there a plenty of hinges and latches (and the percussion frog in the top left) that are great as well.

I've got a Busy Board Collection if you want to 3D print your own busy board.

Baby clothes rack

 When setting up the nursery for our baby we chose cabinets from Ikea - the Platsa range meant we could add a wardrobe and some glass door cabinets to display books, handmade blankets and of course all my old pandas! But I wanted to have all those cute baby clothes out on display so I made a simple clothes rail that uses the existing holes and therefore be removed without any damage!

The hardest part was drilling the holes in the correct place! These cabinets are designed with threaded holes in the base so they can be stacked and attached using a supplied screw. I simply cut pieces of pine then drilled holes to line up with those threaded holes, and used the supplied screws since my timber was the same thickness.

Them simply screw on the brackets and thread the rod through. The clothes rail and brackets were from Bunnings, normally used for shower curtains.

Links if you're having trouble finding them - bracket end, bracket centre and rod - they come in white and chrome as well as 19mm or 25mm!

Now I just need to painte the pine white and align the door hinges!!

Wooden crates

 Back when I did lots of pyrography I made some crates to fit the wooden camphor cutting boards. The idea was to use them as storage, transport and display so I could do a market stall. Some have backing boards for storage and transport and others don't for display. 

They work well and are very easy to diy - if you're making a lot of them, a simple template with cardboard to mark all the holes for drilling makes it so much faster. You can also make them out of pallet wood, but I went with dressed pine so I didn't have to sand it for what feels like forever!

Orange Gourd Birdhouses

I finally played with some gourds to make a birthday present for someone whose favourite colour is orange!

I started off cleaning three just in case something went wrong as they seem rather thin and delicate now that they're all dried out. First one got kicked from the cleaning process as I found a big crack. The one on the left also has a crack in the bottom so I used it as my practice before making the one on the right for the gift. The reason for finishing off the one on the left was that I figured it would be good to stick it in the garden as an experiment to see how long they last outside.

Not a bad project when I feel like doing something different, but scrubbing (or rather scraping) them clean does take quite awhile - even after soaking them first. I used spray paint with primer that was suitable for wood and the wire is just galvanised wire from the fencing section at Bunnings. I doubt any wild birds will move into it once I put it in the garden but I added drainage holes to the bottom just in case.

Jar Labels

Every year I make sweet chilli sauce to give out as gifts. It started because I used to have a slight obsession with growing different chilli varieties even though we don't eat them! Plus now I have a sweet chilli sauce that I actually like and I can make it seedless, plus everyone I've gifted it to seems to like it.

If you're interested in making it yourself, I use this recipe but I use white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar and halve the ginger. Since we don't like our food to burn our mouths I use approximately 2/3 medium heat chillis and the rest is a sweet, mild chilli. Of course this changes depending on what chillis I have grown each year. I make a double batch so I have enough for gifts and our own consumption for the year - although if I run out again I'll have to triple it next year!

Originally I started out just using a sharpie to label the jars each year but then I started using my silhouette to make stickers. They look so much nicer that I did the same for the little gift jars of honey as well. Although after weeding all of those stickers I'm thinking next year I'll just do printable labels to make my life easier!

Desktop Drawers

I always love those cute little decorative drawers that you can buy to clear up all the clutter on your desk. For some reason though I had never bought myself a set, I just have those ugly clear plastic ones that don't actually hide my junk.

Until I saw these and decided it was time for an upgrade that doubles as a craft project.

It was so easy, spread pva glue on scrapbook paper, stick it on the drawer front, smooth out the bubbles then once dry trim the edges with a craft knife. The silver one was actually glitter contact which was the same process since it didn't want to stick to the mdf. So quick to do and it looks so much nicer.

Puppy proofing the garden

I guess I shouldn't just call it puppy proofing when fencing off the gardens started because of the chickens. Luckily a short fence that I can easily step over and move works to keep both Archie and the chickens out!

And even better, flimsy, wobbly fences seem to work best! If it's nice and solid under his paws, Archie will happily jump and lean on it, but if it flexes or moves he won't touch it in case it falls and makes a scary noise (yep typical big dog, big sook)! For the chickens if it looks like it has a nice sturdy top they will happily land on it and jump in the garden. Like this fence we put around the mango tree - they liked to sit up there and watch the world go by!

These chicken wire and fence paling fence panels were my original chicken fences to keep them off the concrete and out of my pot plants. They have seen better days, and I'm surprised how well they've held up to Archie. A couple of panels have a new use as a rather rustic plant trellis for my snow peas. In front of those are puppy play pen panels which work great to keep the chickens out - and Archie. It's nice as they are cheap, easy to install and easy to see the garden (and mess) they're protecting. I do use garden stakes and zip ties for a little extra support.

Similar to the puppy pen panels I have an assortment of old panels off rat cages and compost cage panels which also work well with garden stakes and zip ties. They normally get used to cover Archie's excavation attempts so the grass gets a chance to grow back!

Since I can't trust Archie with the chickens I did want something a bit stronger between them. So I made some simple fence panels using only fence palings. I then either use screws or zip ties to attach to garden stakes, the chicken cage or the verandah posts. They look so much nicer, unfortunately they do block a lot of the view into my gardens - I think I'll save this type of fence for hiding messy areas! They are nice though as I can make sturdy gates for them with proper latches.

Once I've settled on a layout for our backyard we will do a permanent fence for the gardens, until then I'll stick with my current mix of panels. Who knows, by that time Archie might be too lazy to destroy my gardens and I won't need the fences anymore...

Air Conditioner Screen

We got a big air conditioner for the living area a couple of years ago and I've been wanting to make a cover for it as it is just so ugly! The thing that kicked me into gear was that I got sick of seeing the cage I put around all the pipes to stop the puppies chewing them, that and all their toys getting stuck underneath it.

Now I could have easily bought one, but where is the fun in that? I used hardwood garden stakes for the frame and fence palings to cover the sides, and smaller stakes to cover the top. I also made it bigger than I needed as it is a great place to put pot plants and trays of cuttings, safely out of reach of a certain puppy!

The other bonus of the air con screen is that it is just sitting there without needing to be attached to the house as there is a piece of garden stake sitting down behind the air con so it can't tip forward - this piece also had to sit between the air con unit and the pipes attached to the house wall.

Since I'm terrible at taking progress shots (and before shots) here is the model I made in SketchUp so you can see how simple it is. Oh and please ignore those beautiful mitered corners, as you can see when it came to all that wood cutting I took the lazy route!