Day 2 - Expenditure.

What was your most significant expenditure in 2012?
It doesn't have to be necessarily the biggest expenditure, just the one with the most impact.
What difference has it made to your life?

The budget this year has been beyond tight. Just getting the rent paid has been cause for celebration. That is ok, it makes you realise that you don't need a lot of stuff to be happy.

But this little gadget has made a huge difference to my life.

Much as I hate to admit it, I'm a bit addicted to my iPhone.
 

#reverb12

Last week I received an email from the lovely Kat @ I Saw You Dancing inviting me to take part in a fabulous blogging festival for December.You can see the button on the right, designed by the wonderfully talented Cam @ Curlypops.

The idea is that we are given something to reflect on, and write a blog about, every day for the month of December. You can click on the button at the side and read all the other amazing posts as well.I've got two posts today, as I was technologically challenged yesterday.

So, without further ado, the first prompt for #reverb12 is:

How are you starting this last month of 2012?

Take a moment, close your eyes, take a deep breath and ask yourself the question: how do you feel...

... in your body? in your mind? in your day job? in your creative life? in your heart?

Crossroads is the word that springs to mind. It seems to fit every category.

Body - New challenges, health issues have arisen which mean that a change of diet and a new exercise routine are necessary. Onward and upward to a healthier me. Its kinda fun really.

Mind  - Lately I've made some difficult decisions that have meant saying goodbye to some old patterns and dishing out some tough love certain people who are very important to me. (Not something that I'm naturally adept at). It is good to have cleared the air, and has left me thinking about future possibilities.

Day Job - Life in the nursery is constantly changing, with every season. Seeing our spring babies blossom into all manner of flora before they go out into the world is something that I never tire of.

Creative Life - This year I have been head down, bum up, working away on arty and crafty projects, and having a wonderful time of it altogether. Now I am starting to take stock and question what is working and what isn't. Which direction to take for 2013.

Heart - Cutting ties can be painful, and takes time to adjust to. But when you have done the right thing, you know it in your heart. Smarting from the pain right now, but I know that there are better things to come.

And also Family - Raising a lively bunch of kids alone has been a long hard slog. They have brought me more joy, laughter and pride than I ever thought possible. They have also brought tears, frustration and doubts about what the hell I was doing.

Just lately I have seen all three of them grow and blossom into the most wonderful young adults. I'm sure there are still many challenges ahead, but I feel confident that they all have the strength of character, wisdom and goodness of heart to deal with whatever life throws at them.

The fabulous young woman who I am proud to call my daughter.

My beautiful boys

Where to now for this little girl from the bush?

Halosarcia pergranulata

The new seedling

From the Nursery.

If you haven't heard of Halosarcia pergranulata, you may know it by its common name. Black-seeded Glasswort It is a small, succulent woody shrub. It grows dense and erect. It can reach up to 1 metre tall, but is usually much smaller. One of our many local indigenous gems. It is an amazing plant. It actually likes dry salty ground. Both coastal and inland.

As you can see from the photos, branchlets grow in a beaded formation. As it matures, it grows little reddish glass-like beads on the ends, with succulent spikes. These plants are edible. I have eaten Sarconia, pictured below. It was pickled in a jar. Very salty, delicious in salads.

Here's one I've prepared earlier.

Detail of the Plant

Not exactly its natural habitat, but the best that I could do.

Sarconia, a close relative, grows prostrate but is very similar.

My favourite machines.

Behold! My baby.

In response to this blog post by A life of charming moments by Miss Prudence knits, I thought I would show off my sewing machines.

As I do a lot of sewing, I need reliable machines. In 1989, at the starry eyed age of 25 I had saved up $800 to buy me a new one.

There used to be a sewing machine shop on Chapel St. in Windsor, run by two Jewish gentlemen. Sadly it is gone now, it was a brilliant shop. Naturally I went there.

To this day I am grateful to the man who served me. He talked me out of a new machine, and recommended a second hand Bernina.  Oh my we have sewn some seams together over the years, this machine and I.

Leonie age 25, for your amusement.

 And for the big jobs, I have these beauties. Old industrial Singers from sometime around the '50s. Straight sewer and overlocker. They weigh about a tonne each and are deadly weapons. They will break your toe if you trip on them, or sew right through your finger if you are not concentrating. On the up side, they both go like rockets.

 

It is a good year for strawberries.

 Two weeks ago I went into a wild, crazy gardening frenzy. The weeds were waist high, as I have been busy with the new business. But suddenly, I could resist the urge to play in the dirt no longer.

When the weeds are thick and tall, it is really satisfying to pull them out. Instant gratification, and the soil is all dug up and ready for the next crop.

And look what was hiding under the weeds. 

From a few spindly little leftovers from work that I put in last year. Mainly because I felt sorry for them. Look at them now.

And plenty of fruit on them too. Can't wait for this lot to ripen.

The Little Mermaid.

We had a new model for our Life Drawing Class in Laverton last week. Her description of herself on the Life Model Society list read 'warrior mermaid', I was intrigued.

When she arrived for the gig, in her wrap around dress, with her wild mane of curls piled high on her head, we knew exactly what she meant.

She was wonderfully inspirational. You can see some of our drawings here. I was admiring this one by the lovely Anne, when Warren came along beside me and said it looks like the Little Mermaid of Copenhagen.

As I have never been to Copenhagen, I had to consult my good friend Google.

Isn't she lovely?

According to Wikipedia it is based on the Little Mermaid in the fairy tale that we all know and love by Hans Christian Andersen, a native of Denmark, and Copenhagen-ite from the age of 14.

The statue itself is only 1.25 metres tall, (4ft).

"The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairytale in Copenhagen's Royal Theatre and asked the prima ballerina, Ellen Price, to model for the statue. The sculptor Edvard Eriksen created the bronze statue, which was unveiled on 23 August 1913. The statue's head was modelled after Price, but as the ballerina did not agree to model in the nude, the sculptor's wife, Eline Eriksen, was used for the body.

The Copenhagen City Council decided to move the statue to Shanghai at the Danish Pavilion for the duration of the Expo 2010 (from May to October), the first time it had been moved from its perch since it was installed almost a century earlier.^[3]"

^{She hasn't had it easy this last century, perched on that there rock. She has been vandalised on many occasions. Decapitated twice, once in 1964 and again in 1998. The first time the head was never recovered, so a new one had to be made. In 1984 her right arm was sawn off, then returned two days later.}

^{In 2003 she was blown off her perch with explosives. They recovered and restored her body from the water. She has been painted flouro pink, dressed up in various garbs and she is still sitting proud.}  

^{An interesting story, that has had me reading articles from the Ice News-(News from the Nordics) and the like. So thanks for sharing Warren, and thanks for your beautiful drawing Anne.}

Welcome to the jungle.

It has been a while since I pruned the garden. I'm always planting things, without putting too much thought into how big they will grow. And as with most things that I do, I'm great at the creative, inventive stuff, but when it comes to maintenance........... pfffft.

The up side of that is that I don't need to draw the blinds very often.

A nice surprise on my doorstep.

A bit over a week ago it was my birthday. It was a little sad not seeing my daughter on the day, but received a lovely phone call from her. She did mention that she was still knitting my present.

So imagine my delight when a parcel arrived on the doorstep this morning.

Hand Made Wrapping Paper

Hand Made Card

Hand Written Message

And a fabulous hand made beanie! In comfy non-scratchy cotton, and in my favourite colour. I'm wearing it now.

Thats my girl.

Sharing the Beans.

Sharing the Love, Spilling the Beans. No I am not mixing my metaphors.

I am in fact, mixing the beans. A few of us at work shared an order for Diggers Seeds. It was like Christmas when they arrived. We were so excited that we couldn't resist getting them out and doing swapsies.

So now look at all the lovely beans that I have to grow.

My new shop.

That's right, I'm setting up a shop.

Well I have been trying to for quite some time. The problem is that I keep hitting walls, getting confused, being distracted by shiny things, stuff like that.

But at last, after a few tears and hissy fits, with a little help from my friends, it is starting to take shape.

Now I have made a button, but can't work out how to link it.

Ah well, maybe tomorrow. Hope you like the button.