Simple pleasures revisited

I have discovered the art and the simple pleasures of knitting once more !! The last time i knitted was two years ago when i made some ballet cardis for the girls. Now thanks to these two wonderful blogs:http://www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com/andhttp://libertystarfarm.blogspot.com/I have found the art of knitting dishcloths. These are great things. I have knitted five of them so far out of two and a half skeins of cotton. At 1.99 on special at that friendliest of friendly stores, spotlight I think you will agree the overall cost of dishcloths is a bargin. They are meant to last longer than "normal" supermarket clothes and are yet another thing to add to my growing list of essentials that i dont have to shop for. I also made up a little gift for a friend and it consists of a dishcloth(which can also be a flannel) and two home made soaps bound with some left over plaid strips from a quilt and some lavender from the garden. I think its so pretty I hardly want to let it go!

These blogs are worth a visit to see their patterns and liberty star farm has a well written and photographed picture of instructions.

I visit Down to earth every day that I can . Its the most inpsirational blog i know of and always pulls me from any funk I may be in. Presently the end of summer is nigh and the garden is looking just awful. Everything is brown and dry and dead looking and although I know that sson the place will recover and look better with the cool of Autumn and the rains its almost depressing to see the dry around me. I thought the garden was looking ok until my gorgeous hubby pulled out the weeds...

On a bright note. We planted six water melons that have almost come to fruition and have four or five yummy looking melons to enjoy soon. When we lived in the King Country before we had children we had a gorgeous garden and every year would plant water melons. For some reason known only to the mysterious universe we kept getting pumkins only from our melon plants??? So the arrival of these watermelons is joy indeed.

We make our own compost and everything that is from the earth is returned to it. This is an interesting thing as my gorgeous hubby loads the compost on the garden and in amongst our hedges and shrubs and flowers will sprout tomatos, pumkins, and even three walnut trees. I am thrilled with the walnuts as growing up on the family farm we had two gigantic walnut trees. These wee plants of ours will follow us to our land when we get there.

I am desparately trying to finish my scrappy friendship quilt (pictured above) I am desparate to finish as it is perhaps a little too scrappy and I fear the friendship stars will get lost in the genral coloured chaos. Stay posted.

I leave with a wind blowing through the window , the cicadas still chirping and the chill now and then of an approaching Autumn. The humidity comes and goes reminding us not to get too worried about an early winter.

My week started off well on a retail thereapy note. Now note that I do not like shopping ordinarily. I hate it. Spending the money, joining the crowds, the bustle of town and the rampant consumerism abounding it all. But on Monday my two favourite magazines arrived. Grass Roots the self sufficiency magazine that has the best ever issue ever this omonth and Homespun magazine which fill s my most creative spaces in my head. Then my most favourite quilt shop which is called the Quilters cabin and is up in the sticks of the country and is just beautiful has closed down :( BUT the owner rented a shop int town for a week to get rid of her stock. I thought of my unfinished projects and bought some fat quarters at 2.00 each and a huge bag of remnant for 2.00, plus some Clover gold needles for 1.00 a box and gorgeous and hard to find rusty bells for 50cents each. I find myself clutching the fabrics and sorting through them. Spotlight could never complete... So that is my retail therapy, things I buy to service my need to create.