A very wet week

It's the school holidays here at the moment and we are having the most blah weather. The poor kids are bursting to get outside and run around but it is pouring with rain. So to try and distract them for a while we started some crafty projects.

I am so in love with these tiny bottles and have lots of them around the house as vases. We also have some in the kitchen which the small folk like drinking milk from with a fun straw. So with some of the empties, we decided to paint them and make a colourful wee selection of them to sit on my little kitchen shelf. So out came all the test pots I've collected over the years. I did have to pop down to the paint store to get two of the colours as I really needed a yellow and an orange. Such a simple job - pour in the paint, turn the bottle over and over to make sure it is well covered, then pour the excess paint back in the pot. Wipe the top of the bottle with a paper towel to leave it nice and neat, then leave to dry. Too easy!

They are just the right height for my wee shelf and they add a lovely burst of colour during these rainy, gloomy days. I love them!!

Ah ha - could it be? Why yes - these are all the trimmed ends from my blanket!! I finished nearly all of it last night while half watching the the All Blacks playing Australia. The last two little grannies were tidied and trimmed today. And wouldn't you know it, within five minutes of finishing my blanket and getting all excited about taking some pics and showing you - the weather took a turn for the worse. It was wet, dark and miserable - definitely not great photo taking weather. So I promise that by the end of the week, when the sun is meant to reappear, I will post pics!

I am thrilled with how it looks and can't wait to share it with you. Thank you for all your lovely comments as I've progressed with this project! Miss 4 asked if she could have it on her bed tonight so I think she may have claimed it as her own already. I am very flattered!

Here's just a quick pic of it folded up awaiting its photo session. I haven't pressed it yet (and don't normally do it) but will give it a go to see how it looks. I ended up changing my mind about the picot edging. I did one side with the picot and my crochet appreciation committee (Miss 4 and Mr 7) told me that it didn't look so great. I had to agree! It's fussy enough with all the grannies so a nice simple SC edge works well.

So fingers crossed the weather improves and is more Spring-y than Winter-y. The Spring flowers at the market yesterday were amazing. I am so in love with these beauties. Bright orange rununculas have cheered up my dining table. I can't stop staring at them - they are so intricate and perfect.

Now this is one thing that I do like about colder weather - comfort food!! I was so proud of myself for making this as it was my very first attempt at making pastry. I like to think I'm a fairly ok baker but I had never ever tried making pastry - I thought it would be too difficult. I was so wrong - it was easy peasy. My family loved this rustic pie so much, it will now have to be a regular addition to our dinner menu.

But I am really counting on better weather and more salads instead! I spent Saturday afternoon making a whole lot of these little newspaper seedling pots with the children. Lots of capsicums, lots of salad mix and a few other surprise seeds that I found in the cupboard - so goodness knows what they will turn out to be!! These wee pots were great to make and they can pop straight into the garden, newspaper and all, once the seedlings are ready to plant.

Well that's enough from me - I've crammed quite a bit in! I will hopefully be back fairly soon with some lovely blanket pics. It's all a bit of a downer, getting it finished and not being able to share it with you!

Have a fab week all - see you again soon.

Leah
xx